Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-05-24
/, FIGHT Over the Florida Canal.

a Fight Over the Florida Canal
The Charleston NeiCS and Courier says:
III now turns out that the recent reor-
ganization of this company in Washing
ton was the result Of a design on the part
of GOrham, Malone and kindred spirits
to sfreeze-Out' the original promoters OF
the company. among them Judge Fry,
who spent so much time in Tallahassee,
Mobile and New Orleaus, soliciting IN
dOrsements. etc: but the Judge and his
friends do not propose TO be frozen out.
In a letter from New Orleans, he says
They were the speculative element in
nv company and l always regretted their
connection with it, and now am glad they
are out. The first act they do is TO create
$50. 600. 600 Of stock, then to vote $40, OOO,-
600 of this TO themselves as profits, as the
dispatches from Washington state. They
have not an acre of land nor money to buy
enough to aid in building the canal. They
have nothing but brass and wind, and |
warn all persons from taking any stock
or interest in this barefaced, illegal COM
pany. My company retains all the best
men and capitalists in it, and will go on
with the work and wipe out this farce.
ON the other hand. remarks the NelcS and
Courier. it is claimed that there can be no
doubt as to the legality of the new or
ganizatiOn, as every step was taken with
the advice and concurrence of Governor
BlOxham, who ought to know all about
the laws of Florida. 1t is understood that
the new company will renew the effort
to obtain land grant at the
next session of the Florida
Legislature. and will also, if the auspi-
cious moment shall ever arrive, make APP
plication to Congress for a liberal slice of
the lands belonging to the United States
in Florida. Whatever may be the merits
of the case, concludes thesNeles and Cou-
rier, it is abundantly evident that shreWd
spectators see millions in it, and that
it behooves both Congress and the Florida
Legislature to be on the lookout.
On the same subject the Mobile Register
says:
unfortunately George c. Gorham, for
whom no one has any respect, is Secre-
tary. Perhaps he has money. Among
the directors are such men as Butler and
Malone, Governor Cameron, of Virginia,
and Senator Jones, of Nevada. General
Chas. Z. Stone, who recently returned
from Egypt, where he has been in the SER
vice of the Khedive for ten or fifteen years,
is the engineer of the company, and, it is
said. will soon place a corps Of engineers
in the field. We fail to be impressed very
deeply with the makeup of this corpora
ton. There are too many Virginia re-
pudiatOrs and political Adventures in
it. How men like Malone, Cameron and
nj
/ or anywhere else to seek their hands,
passes our comprehension. After all,
however, the scheme may simply be an
experiment by men who expect to put
nothing in the work, but to construct
balloon with land grants, bonds and de-
bentures.
1--WE have been impressed with the fact
that nowhere in this arrangement appears
the name of Judge Fry, who lately enter
tanned the Cotton Exchange and Board of
Trade of Mobile upon this interesting sub
ject.
I'VE understood the Judge to say when
here that he was Vice President of the
Florida Canal Company. He assures the
PjcdyUae reporter that there was an or
ganiZatiOn prior to this which elected him
Vice President.
1--WE wish to see a Florida ship canal
built. but we warn the Florida Legisla-
ture against aiding and abetting men who
have proved recreant to their duty to the
Southern people. Men who have robbed
Virginia of credit and respect are not the
men to receive favors from a Southern
State"
The foregoing fully accords with the
views heretofore expressed by the MORN
ING NEWS on the subject of the new
canal company, and goes to show that the
combination of politicians, organized for
canal speculation, has failed to gain
public confidence, either in their honesty of
purpose or ability to construct the Flori-
da ship canal. Their action indicates, as
we have before stated, that they have
simply organized for a raid upon the
Florida lands and the public treasury,
not one of them expecting to invest
dollar in Florida improvements. But
the organization has effected one thing
unlocked for, and for which no provision
had been made. The new organization
uncovered the fact that there
previously existed no well defined legal
organized Florida Ship Canal Company,
as claimed by Judge Fry, with himself
as Vice President The list of names
given in the new company is too formida-
bic to suppose they have gone blindly into
such a speculation. Either Judge Fry,
in their opinion, had no exclusive chartered
rights in the canal, or else the new COM
pany have by hook or by crook got possess
sion of them, and then kicked him out.
At all events there is trouble in the camp,
and both parties will probably be before
the next Florida Legislature abusing each
other roundly. "a house divided against
ITSELF" etc.
Let the Florida Legislature and the
people turn their attention to the barge
canal, which proposes, without any great
raid upon their lands or the public treasu-
~, and at a cost of only One-tiCentieth of
the ship canal ($6O,OOO,OOO), not only to
cross the peninsula and drain million
acres of their now worthless lands, but to
connect them with the great Mississippi
Valley, through land-locked waters, safe
from storms and tempests, and heavy in
surance, developing hundreds of miles of
almost vacant territory. and feeding and
building up numerous towns and cities
along the route the ship canal under no
oirc,1p,ctoncoc 90 N ax-ar hanaf+