Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-12-23
THE FLORIDA SHIP CANAL.
Meinphis and Other Tennessee
Capitalists Interested.


Nnahvlle World, n.
Our reporter yesterday met Nj.
Rolfe s. Saunders, OF the Southern
Industries, who recently returned
IRON a meeting Of the Board Of Diree.
tors of the Florida ship canal in New
York, from whom sOme interesting
facts we're gathered concerning this
gigantic enterprise, in which Mr..
Saunders has been an active and
efficient laborer, contributing largely
TO its present success. From him
we learn hat the Florida Ship Canal
Company, recently organized in New
York, is composed Of some of the
strongest capitalists of thus country,
numbering among them Mr.. Town
send Cox and j. NJ. Lawson two New
York bankeTs), Hon. SimoH Game
ron, General Is. +. Butler, Senator
Malone, ex Governor John Q. Brown.
Judge VIM. Fullerton, Hon. Milton
Sayler, s. L. Meyer, Michael Jacobs,
General V. d Grouer, Major Thomas
Peters, of Alabama; Colonel r. +.
Looney and j. Z Nicely, OF Memphis,
and many others. Mr.. Townsend was
elected President; J.. M. Lawson,
Treasurer; and Michael Jacobs, Sec
Rotary. 1t is the object of this com
pany, organic d under authority OF
he State Of Florida, to begin this
great work at an early'day. 1t is one
u the grandest enterprises Of the age.
1t is a work which should have been
done fifty years ago, For more than
a century it has been agitated
oy the leading minds of this coun
try and Europe. Commodore Mat
thew L. Maury urged its construction
long before the war; Jefferson Davis
advocated it when Secretary of War
under President Pierce, and General
Grant sent a special message 10 Con
gress advising the general government
to undertake and construct it. II
saves.over 800 miles of"the most dan
gerous navigation in the known
Sorld'-to use IL language of Com
modore Maury-fOr vessels going from
the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic
Ocean II foreign counties. 1t WI
lessen insurance l per cent. 1t will
reduce the freight ON grain from 10 to
20 cents per bushel, seeking the for.
eign markets or the Atlantic ports,
and save from 81 TO ~ on every bale
OF cotton shipped from the Mississippi
valley. The New York Board Of
Trade estimates the commerce that
now annually passes around the Flor.
ida pass as near three times the amount
OF that which goes through the
Snez canal. The cost OF this canal
will not exceed $50, coo, 900, while the
Suez canal cost 500, 000, $50. The
annual losses by wrecks along the
Florida coast has net been less than
$5,OOO,000 a year within the past
twenty years. All of this will BE-
saved by the construction OF this
canal.
1t is designed to be built from 4
point near the mouth Of the Suwanee
to a point near Jacksonville, on the
s.. Johns, a distance of a little more
than sixty miles. 1t will connect the
tide water Of one river with the other
requiring neither lock nor dam. II
will be the means Of draining and
retaining a very largo section Of the
best lands of Florida now rendered
yalueless. 1t a~ntagonizes no great
interest Of the country, North, South.
East or West, but tends to promote
them all alike. We hail the inaugu
ration of this great work as one of The
graudest events that mark the progress
of the nineteenth century.