General BEACH. The city has provided and is providing adequaet terminals and it is providing a turning basin at the inner end of the ship channel which the Government proposes to make.

The CHAIRMAN. They have at the present time, General, two piers there, have they not?

General BEACH. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Receiving and discharging piers?
General BEACH. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I do not know whether you learned the facts when you were there or not, but they now propose, as I understand it, to utilize all of this causeway up to the point where the turn is made there for additional terminal facilities as they are needed, construct slips all along the entire distance, and that was taken up while I was there by the chamber of commerce.

Mr. HULL. Do you mean on the causeway?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. HULL. They could not put railroads on there, could they? The CHAIRMAN. They are going to use it entirely for this purpose and provide in another way for this causeway-you see they have another bridge there.

Mr. HULL. Yes, sir.

General BEACH. Miami would utilize automobile trucks, I imagine, a great deal more than they would use railroads for the loading and unloading of freight, because, as I say, a vessel going in there does not expect a full load. It merely takes on additional cargo or discharges a portion of the cargo which it has brought. The result is that with the limited quantity of the freight and also the distances (probably not over forty or fifty miles at least, for several years to come), it would be cheaper and more economical to handle that by automobile than it would by rail.

The CHAIRMAN. General Beach, I would say, in that connection, that the Florida East Coast extends to the left of your map, and you will recollect that the railroad runs a switch right through the center of Miami, over a private right of way, down to the dock. Now, they also took up this question of how to dispose of grade crossings, and the railroad proposed in the immediate future, on account of the extent of its traffic through the street that way, to lower all of the streets over which they run so that pedestrians and automobiles could all pass under the railroad and there will be no more danger from the grade crossings. That was done while I was there also. That shows there must be a very considerable tonnage, and a very considerable use made of the connection of the railroad with the water.

Mr. HULL. I would like to ask the general a question. Do you remember the canal that comes in from the Everglades into the city? General BEACH. Yes.

Mr. HULL. Is it ever the intention to try to utilize that as a boat right of way?

General BEACH. They do, for pleasure craft mainly.

Mr. HULL. How far up do they utilize that?

General BEACH. They go up to Lake Okeechobee.

The CHAIRMAN. There was one week they were using it all of the time I was there, constant use. In excavating that canal they throw out a substance that is practically the same as cement, and they use

that for building roads. They build roads down there at-I think— I may get the figures too low, but it is less than $2,000 a mile as against our figure of $20,000 to $30,000 a mile.

Mr. MANSFIELD. Is that a sort of shell, that material you are talking about?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes; and they use this material both in the construction of buildings and for building and repairing streets. Boats were constantly employed all the time I was there in bringing that dirt that had been dug up out of the canal and piled up on the outside, down to the city.

Mr. LINEBERGER. What is the nearest project-the nearest harbor to the north? Is it Jacksonville?

General BEACH. Jacksonville is the next port on the north.

Mr. LINEBERGER. So this really has an immense trade territory back of it, has it?

General BEACH. It is over 300 miles from the nearest harbor with which ocean vessels connect.

Mr. LINEBERGER. I suppose Tampa would probably be closer in a direct line.

General BEACH. It is absolutely on another trade route.

The CHAIRMAN. General, I notice that there is a condition for local cooperation in their plan of a turning basin. What is the local appropriation?

Mr. LINEBERGER. Six hundred thousand dollars and odd for the terminals, depeer channel, and they have already spent $804,000 on the channel.

Mr. McDUFFIE. Congressman Sears is here, and he can give us the most direct and accurate statement about the local conditions there and the spirit of cooperation on the part of the people. I suggest that he make a statement, covering the situation in the shortest possible time.

The CHAIRMAN. We would be glad to hear from him. Mr. Sears, may I say in that connection that the Miami beach interests have asked for aid only in dredging of the channel from Miami Beach in, there being no construction from the beach out, and while you are telling us about local cooperation, would you tell us your views on that, please sir?

Mr. LINEBEEGER. Before he proceeds, may I ask are the city of Miami and Miami Beach all a part of the same municipality? The CHAIRMAN. No.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH W. SEARS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA

Mr. SEARS. Mr. Chairman, I will try to be just as brief as I can, because I think the committee has indicated they are at least partially in sympathy with me.

First, I want to congratulate General Beach for the admirable, full, and complete statement he has made in regard to Miami. I am glad to note that while it was some years ago when he was located in Florida, that evidently he has made a recent trip down there and has not lost sight of Florida, his firends, and that wonderful country, and what they need. His services then were as those who first start up the ladder usually are, very hard; but by diligent work he has attained

and merited the position which he now holds. And I do not mean that in any sense of flattery, because General Beach made his statement without even knowing I would be present. But I have always found him ready to cooperate with me.

I do not want the committee to become alarmed because of the

papers I have before me. I simply brought these down because one of my colleagues came to my office the other day, and said he had just returned from Miami and would like to know if I was interested in Miami Harbor, and that he would like to give me some data if I did not have any. This is part of my nine years' work for Miami. Mr. MANSFIELD. Is it favorable or unfavorable to the project? Mr. SEARS. When I get through I think the gentleman from Texas will agree that it is more than favorable.

Those of you who were in the Sixty-fifth Congress will remember that we had a fight to convince the Board of Engineers and the Chief of Engineers that the city of Miami would grow and that we were entitled to 18 feet of water. At that time the Government had spent nothing. The channel had stopped up and the one large boat there, The City of Miami, as I recall, had to be called off the run from Miami to Nassau. I made that fight and my colleagues in Congress gave an appropriation making it possible for the 18-foot channel to be constructed.

May I just modestly say, while I gave all of the credit, as I did in my speeches that I made at Miami, to my colleagues in Congressmay I say I hope in some small way I was of assistance in securing the appropriation. At least, I did not let my good friend, the chairman of the committee, and the other older members, as Mr. Freeman will recall, lose sight of the proposition or sleep very much if they would sit down and talk to me about Miami. At that time I was called a dreamer. Some of my colleagues said I had been "hitting the pipe," because of the pictures I made or that I drew of Miami. When I tell you that within the last 10 years Miami grew 440 per cent, the most rapid growth of any city in the United States, I say with considerable pride the members of this committee who helped me in getting that 18-foot channel through have no cause to regret same. By saying it was the most rapid growth I was not reflecting on the State of California, but figures do not lie and besides we did not juggle these figures when they were made, but on the contrary I am satisfied an accurate census would have shown a larger percentage. Mr. NEWTON. To what do you attribute that growth?

Mr. SEARS. To southern brains and northern brains and southern capital and northern capital all working together to one end. If you will permit me to say, as I said before, the valley of the Nile was the nucleus to build upon. Back of Miami is the richest country in the world if we can get transportation. I did not intend to go into it, but let me state the Pennsylvania Cane Co. (owned by Pennsylvania people, all of whom will reside there within the next few years) have 10,000 acres of sugar cane planted there now, and within the next two or three years they expect to have 100,000 acres of sugar cane planted. They have one of the largest sugar mills in the country on their plantation and they want to ship this sugar north to Philadelphia to their refining station in their own vessels, but to do so they must have a 25-foot depth. Of course, you gentlemen realize if they put on their own boats with 100,000 acres of sugar

cane, the transportation will be practically nothing. At least, the minimum cost. Those people are deeply interested in it, and I am interested in the proposition because I realize the wonderful good that they have done our section and also the further good they will do our section.

I could go on and name company after company. Just here I want to repeat or enlarge upon what General Beach said about the sale of the Government lots at or near Miami Beach. This was Government land. The Department of the Interior sent an appraiser down there, and he appraised the land. It is about 3 miles from Miami Beach proper and approximately 6 miles from Miami. The CHAIRMAN. North?

Mr. SEARS. North of Miami Beach but east of Miami. He appraised the lots at $1,000 a lot for the outside lots and $500 a lot for the inside lots. I have been hoping for years that I might be able to fool some banker into lending me enough money to buy a lot down there, because I saw the possibilities of Miami. I thought if they only sold for that much, and I thought that was really a rather good price, I could buy one. The department hoped to get, so Secretary Work informed me-it was a life-saving station under the Department of the Interior-$100,000 out of the sale. It was a public sale, at public auction, and the highest bidder got the lot. The last I heard of the sale $309,000 worth of lots had been sold, and, as I recall, less than 20 acres, and they still have about 20 acres left. Now, $309,000 had been collected for lots sold, and they still had some lots left. The outside lots sold for $11,000 and the inside lots for an average of $5,000, so my little dream of a lot there faded away, but I am still working for Miami.

That simply shows you something of the wonderful growth of that section of the country. I am hoping later to have the remaining 10 or 15 acres set aside for a Harding memorial park in order that the people farther east and north and the people of Miami Beach may have a nice large park there as a memorial to the President, who visited Miami quite often and who was very, very fond of Miami; and having gotten three times as much as they expected to get for the land, I believe the Government could well afford to donate the balance for such a purpose.

Mr. HULL. Is the beach on this land that you speak of?

Mr. SEARS. Yes.

Mr. HULL. It is on the beach. Mr. SEARS. That is on the beach. And may I just say here-General Beach covered that also, or the chairman, one or the other at one time was nothing but a marsh. Carl Fisher, the carbide man, of Indianapolis, Ind., and others, went down there and pumped the sand out of the bay to make this beach.

Mr. LINEBERGER. How much did it cost to make that?
Mr. SEARS. I do not know. It was not very much.

Mr. LINEBERGER. I suppose they could create the channel by the removal of this material.

Mr. SEARS. Just little islands and places as you go around-the Star Island and other artificial islands and the little yacht houses are there. Miami Beach is on the island. As I told General Beach, if they kept on building islands down there the whole bay would be filled up with islands.

Mr. McDUFFIE. Where does the title to that made land rest? Does it belong to the Government or to the State?

General BEACH. It belongs to the owner of the underwater land on which it is built up. Some of it was several feet under water at one time. Practically all of Miami Beach was just a swamp. I do not suppose you could stand dry shod on one-fifth of it when they started to pumping it in.

Mr. LINEBERGER. A man could buy land covered with water? General BEACH. Yes.

Mr. MCDUFFIE. And he could build that up and it became his property?

General BEACH. Yes, sir.

Mr. MANSFIELD. How do you get foundations for large buildings on that kind of soil?

Mr. SEARS. You only have to go down about 10 feet to hit the bedrock, and then you have a perfect foundation. The Halcyon Hotel, if the chairman will recall, was built of the same kind of material the roads are built of. It is taken out and then it is soft, but when the air hits it it hardens, and finally is as hard as the finest cement you can get. This hotel has been there 10 or 15 years and it is in just as good condition now as the day it was put up.

Mr. McDUFFIE. What is the population of Miami Beach?

Mr. SEARS. I would say about six or eight thousand, perhaps ten thousand.

Mr. McDUFFIE. Is all of that built up?

Mr. SEARS. Oh, no. You see Miami Beach-I have driven over it in a car and you know you can only guess at distances when riding in a car I should imagine is about 10 miles long and perhaps, on an average, of 2 or 3 miles wide, but it is not all built up.

The CHAIRMAN. I think you have your length a little too long. I think the width is all right, but I do not think it is that long.

Mr. SEARS. I drove down to Carl Fisher's Hotel, where you get off, and it may be only 6 miles long and 2 or 3 miles wide.

Mr. McDUFFIE. The reason I asked that was it may be of interest to the House to know how much property there is there that will be used, or that may be utilized or developed as a result of the improvement by the Federal Government.

Mr. HULL. This island he is talking about is only owned by rich people. No poor people can get over on that island.

Mr. SEARS. Well, we have poor people all right.

Mr. McDUFFIE. Well, sometimes we have to have the rich with us. Somebody has got to take care of the rich, whose friends seem so few at times in legislative bodies.

Mr. LINEBERGER. You made a statement there something about the alienation of your tide lands. We can not do that under the California law. We received those tide lands from the Federal Government, and the Federal Government in turn received them under the old Spanish grants, and, as General Beach knows, we can not alienate our tide lands.

The CHAIRMAN. They remain the property of the State?

Mr. LINEBERGER. They remain the property of the State, the State holding them in trust for the Federal Government, and incidentally for the people. You came in as a Spanish possession too, did you not, into the United States?