The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-06-06
THAT FLORIDA
SHIP CANAL
GOOD ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF
ITS CoNSTRUCTIoN-THE GOV
EMINENT FOR THE FIRST TIME
is TAKING SERIOUS INTEREST
IN THE MATTER.

The New York Commercial of We'd
lesday. editoriaIIy said
II anybody who hasn't already
done SO at some time or other will
take q map o. Florida. note the eaOr-
/ nous coast line of the state. bOIl
ON the Atlantic and Gulf sides, and
tnGn imagine a ship canal cut across
he ncIthern portion Of the PENN
Sdid. ii Will at once be seen what
great saving in time and expense
snd the risks of the sea would come
to snpping if only such an artifi-
CiaI waterway were to be construct
| I'd. The project has been launched
EJaBy times in the past generally as
IS private enterprise WiJh perhaps
( YTC spective government aid. but never
successfully. Now, for the first time,
| Row ever, the government is taking
| q eliOuS interest in the subject, and
lie board of officers OF the corps or
United States army engineers ap-
| pointed by the war department to re-
j pore on the ACCESSIBILITY OF making
! trial surveys for a proposed cOntln,
uGUs inland waterway from Beaufort
! to Key West and also Cor a ship canal
across Florida has just been recon-
meTGed TO the department that pre-
| linnnaTy surveys for the canal be
made.
Five different routes across the
renir ,UIa- will be considered aS pos
SiDliues in this connection, if the
Wal department adopts the board ;
reG ommendatiOn, none Of them con-
templates d canal cut all the way
t-Cm ocean to gulf, the idea being in
each ms ance to utilize in part exist
inE natural waterways such as pOr-
tiOns of the ST johns and other
/ 1.I-~ forth 0t
which the number available is very
large. and to cut connecting canals
81 a. to follow the lines of least
resistance and thus save expense.
Although Florida Is only one hun
/ GlCG and ten miles across at the mar
rOWest part Of the upper peninsula,
each trial survey will probably have
! t. cover something like two hun
dreG miles, as auxiliary streams and
/ branches would have 10 be consid-
cred; perhaps fully one thousand
! mines of surface would have TO be
! gone over by the engineers.
In many respects. according to d
! reuOrI of the proceedings at the re-
! cent meeting o the board of engi-
/ ueer officers at Savannah. the surveys
! contemplated are of greater maSnI-
+ tude than were those incident to the
couStI uction of the Panama canal,
! Which route Is only forty miles long.
( While the amount of excavation nee
eSSary can be materially reduced by
VI ,JizinS streams some deep cuts will
! be required. and the -cTpTise is a
Euse Undertaking. Its promoters
, however. maintain that the vast bene-
fits to be accrued by gulf ports and
Central American coast points
. through the construction of canal
I ~ which d much shorter route to
! tire north can be secured would am
. ny repay the government apDTOpria-
ton that would be required. Not even
an approximate estimate Of the cost
of the canal can be gwen until the
surveys are completed, of course
The scheme is unquestiOna bly,
thoroughly feasible and practicable,
and its value TO commerce would be
Almost incalculabIe. But before pri-
IvalC capitalists and the United States
government embark in it an adequate
! American merchant marine ought 10
be provided for utilizing this Florida
shin canal as its chief patron. Let II
vt be said Iacer of this prOject-as
il row is truthfully o. the Panama
! c.,usI-that We Americans are spend
in our American money for prOmOt-
ing the interests of our foreign ocean
: carving trade competitors,