The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1914-08-14
THE NAVY WELCOMES
FLORIDA COMMISSION
To The Panama-Pacific EX-
position.

JoClIloll.
Floridians will be interested in the
fact that the Florida Commission to
the Penama-Pacitic Exposition, at San
Francisco, California, were welcomed
with appropriate ceremony last month
and that among the addresses made
was that of Captain John NJ. Elliott
U. 5. Navy, retired. Capt. Elliott is
well known to hundreds of Floridians;
he was graduated from the u. S. Ma
val Academy and graduated star in
his class; in his long career in the
Navy he has had many high assign
ments in the office of naval intelli-
gence and naval war college and as
Inspector of Ordinances at the Naval
Academy, and Superintendent of Com
passes In April, 1909, he was COM
mended for bravery and skill by Ad-
miral George Dewey, and also COM
mended by the Admiral for conspicu-
GUS service in the engagement in Ma
nilla Bay, May LIST, 1898. He served
with highest credit in the Spanish
American war, the battle of Manila
Bay and the PHILIPPINES Instruction.
AS Commander of the U. S. S. Mary
land he won for his ship the gunnerv
eMciency trophy and battle efficiency
pennant in the year 1908. Rear Adj
miral Chauncey Thomas, in March
1912, spoke of Captain Elliott as "an
exceptionally brilliant officer" The
navy department, in August 1912,
commended Captain Elliott in
his work in which the trophy
was awarded to the Maryland. In
April 1912 the Secretary of State
compimented Captain Elliott with
the successful outcome of his trip to
the Caribbean Republics. During
two years of Captain Elliott's COM
mand of the Maryland she made the
wonderful record of official cruisers
of $500 miles. In 1912 and 10
Captain Ellott's Maryland stood third
in battle efficiency, fourth in gunnery
competition and third in engineering
competition. In June Both, 1913,
Captain Elliott was retired because
it was thought that his hearing had
become slightly impaired but, as a
matter of fact, later examination has
showed perfect hearing in both ears.
The captain has had twenty years sea
service and has made a magnificent
record in the Navy, both as an officer
and as a gentleman. Thousands of
Captain Elliott's friends are hoping
and working to have his name roster
ed to active list of the navy. His
mature intellect and wide experience
make him even more proficient and
necessary than ever before in the his
tory of this country.
At the exercises, in San Francisco,
Captain Elliott delivered the follow
inc address of welcome on the behalf
of the navy:
Mr.. President, Gentlemen Of the
Florida Commission and others
present:
although l am not a native of
the beautiful State Of Florida, there
is at least one link which connects
me with that State in manner which
makes it appropriate for me to well
come its commissioners to San Fran
cisco today in the name of the Navy.
zone hundred and fifty years ago,
when Florida and California were
next door neighbors as Spanish pos
sessions, with only the Mississippi
River separating them, there was
much friction between Spain and the
United States over the northern bot /
darv of the Florida colony, which had
been agreed upon as the 31st paral-
lei of north latitude but had never
been determined by survey. and our
government sent as the boundary COM
sioner to survey this line an ancestor
of mine, Major Andrew Elliott OF the
United States Army.
"a few years later the transfer OF
the Louisiana territory, first to France
and then to the United States, broke
the neighborly contact between Florl-
da and the territory embracing Cal
fornia. but even after that the for
tunes of these two territories were 20
linked together that the treaty by
which Florida was coded to the Unit
ed States also established the north
ern boundary of California as 1t is
TODAY. Then Texas came into eXis-
tence causing a wider separation, and
finally, when both California and
Florida had become states IN or
union, these one-time neighbors found
themselves separated by four inter
vening states and territories.
But the Panama Canal, the open
ing of which your State, Mr.. Com
missioners, is going to assist Califor-
MIA in celebrating, has again made
Florida and California the nearest
neighbors on the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts, for you have only to take
measurements on a map to see that
your railroad terminal port of Key
West is four hundred miles nearer
California by sea than any other port
in the United States on the Atlantic
side of the canal AS a student of
commercial as well as naval strategy,
invite your closest attention to the
commercial possibilities involved IN
that nearness.
"Welcome, then, Commissioners
from CALIFORNIA; nearest Atlantic ma
rhine neighbor. Your State vies
with California as the land of fruits
and flowers and traditional romance.
It has the proud distinction of hav-
ing the oldest settlement within the
borders of our union, and its name
is borne by the Dreadnought of our
Navy which was foremost at Vera
Cruz in our effort to preserve the in
tegrity of Mexico, that parent stem
of both Florida and California. The