28 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL

this ship canal will benefit industry and agriculture and the people of 37 States.
 It is estimated that more tonnage will pass through the canal than through
 any other ship canal in the world. It will handle each year one and a third
 times the tonnage which passes through the Panama Canal. The canal not
 only will benefit the Gulf States, Mississippi Valley, and the Atlantic seaboard
 but the Great Lakes States as well.
 The fact that the United States Government is now making a physical survey,
 which is costing $150,000, indicates that its benefits are large and widespread,
 and that the Government considers it a meritorious project.


 DOCUMENT NO. 11 (FILES OF THE N. G. A. S. C. A.), APRIL 15, 1932

 STATEMENT BY SENATOR HUEY P. LONG, AT NEW ORLEANS, APRIL
 15, 1932
 In a statement made public at New Orleans on April 15, 1932,
 Senator Long said:
 The project for a ship canal across the peninsula of Florida is as old as the
 recorded history of the State. The early Spaniards searched for a water route
 that would save them the long and hazardous trip around the point through the
 Florida Straits. * *
 Louisiana always has stood to gain by such a short and direct deepwater
 route to the Atlantic Ocean, but never more so than today when her great port
 of New Orleans affords a gateway to the growing commerce of the entire Missis-
 sippi Valley. * *
 The Gulf-Atlantic ship canal will place the port of New Orleans at least 3
days closer to the foreign markets, and lessen the cost of shipping operations.
 There are, of course, other advantageous factors "visible" and "invisible."
 Some that we can touch on quickly are: That because of the shorter route and
 quicker turn-round fewer ships can handle the same certain volume of tonnage;
 the quicker release of the capital tied up in the cargo, necessarily unproductive
 while in transit from the supplying to the marketing ports; lower insurance
 rates, as evidenced from results on the Suez and Panama Canals, and the elim-
 ination of unavoidable hazards of the Florida Straits.
 The benefits to be derived by the State of Louisiana and the port of New
Orleans through the construction of this proposed channel from the Gulf of
Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean are plainly apparent even to the layman's eye.
Through it will move in steadily increasing volume cotton in full cargoes at the
height of the season, but at all times combined cargoes of every needed staple
of a civilized world.

 DOCUMENT NO. 12 (FILES OF THE N. G. A. S. C. A.), APRIL 20, 1932

 STATEMENT BY ARTHUR BRISBANE, APRIL 20, 1932

 In an editorial under date of April 20, 1932, Mr. Arthur Brisbane
made the following statement:
 What the American shipping interests need is a canal across Florida, connecting
the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico, making it unnecessary for ships
from eastern ports bound for the Gulf States to travel all around the end of
Florida, more than a thousand miles of sailing wasted on each trip. * *
 It is a disgrace to this country, proof of sluggishness, that the canal from the
Atlantic to the Gulf has been so long delayed.
 The project interests and would benefit the Nation.
 Such a canal would be used almost entirely by American coastwise shipping.
* *