102 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL

 The canal can be completed in 4 years and will be of direct financial benefit
to a large portion of our people. All preliminary investigation has been com-
pleted. Army engineers have finished 2 years of intensive study and work on
the physical survey. The route has been definitely determined by them (by
way of St. Johns River, Oklawaha River, Withlacoochee River, to the Gulf
of Mexico) ; the type of canal and number of locks have been decided, and all
engineering data have been compiled. The canal is ready to be started when
our Government gives the word.
 This Florida canal presents no major engineering difficulties such as were
present at Panama. There are no deep cuts to be dug, no hard rock to be
removed, no slides to contend with, no problem of mosquitoes and disease to
overcome. Just a mass movement of earth, easily done yet requiring the em-
ployment of a large number of men. The Florida canal will be built wholly
within the United States. Compare this with the problem of building the
Panama Canal in a foreign country 1,500 miles away from its source of supplies.
Also every dollar spent in the building of this canal will remain in the United
States and be put in circulation over and over again for the benefit of our own
people.
 When this canal is complete it will end 100 years of effort to effect a passage
 from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico without taking the long and
 hazardous trip around the peninsula and through the Florida Straits. Time
 for the round trip from New Orleans to New York will be cut 2% days and
 the distance cut by 783 nautical miles. Galveston shows a saving of 2 days
 In time and 731 nautical miles; Mobile 2% days and 807 nautical miles;
 Gulfport 2%4 days and 791 nautical miles.
 Few people realize the vast importance of the Gulf-Atlantic canal to the
 Nation at large. It actually will tend to shift population from the cold regions
 of the North to the warm climate of the South, by opening up the iron and
 coal regions of Alabama and Tennessee and by building up our cities along the
 Gulf and lower Atlantic seaboard. Cheap water rates will do this.
 The producer of cotton and other commodities in the Gulf and Mississippi
 States would get his products to the eastern and European markets quicker
 and cheaper, and with more profit to himself. The vast oil fields of Texas
 and Louisiana would move their products to the markets at big savings over
 the long haul around the Straits of Florida. The manufacturers of the eastern
 and northern seaboard would effect large savings to themselves and sell their
 goods cheaper to the people of the Mississippi Valley by using the short-cut from
 the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. The living expenses of every man
 east of the Rocky Mountains would be lowered by the opening of this short cut
 from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.
 The canal would be about 125 miles long. It would be dug to a depth of
 88 feet and a minimum bottom width of 250 feet, large enough to accept more
 than 95 percent of the traffic now entering the Gulf of Mexico. Engineers
 appointed by the Public Works Authority to investigate this project estimated
 that the canal could be built for about $115,000,000.
 Railroads serving the Gulf, Mississippi, and South Atlantic States would
 be directly benefited by the increased haul of commodities to Savannah, Pensa-
 sola, Mobile, Houston, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Galveston, and other cities.
 They would go forward and prosper in direct proportion to the growth and
 prosperity of the territory that they serve.
 There are thousands of pleasure yachts and inland water craft on both sides
 of the Florida peninsula. These vessels cannot risk the hazardous trip through
 the Straits of Florida, but with the building of this canal a final link in a
 continuous inland waterway from Boston to Chicago, by the southern route,
 would be completed. It would also open up a new paradise for inland water
 craft by making it possible for them to sail into the thousands of small lakes
 which dot the Interior of Florida.
 The Importance of this canal to the Navy and to national defense alone would
 justify its building by our Government In the event of war the Gulf of Mexico
 would be made secure for our own commerce and closed to the ships of our
 enemies with little effort on our part. The narrow Straits of Florida and the
 Yucatan Channel are the only means of entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. A mine
 field and submarine patrol at those two strategic points would close the Gulf to
 enemy ships, while the Florida Canal would give a safe and quick passage for
 our own ships. War supplies of oil, cotton, and minerals from the Gulf and
 Mississippi States could be transported by water to the manufacturing area of
 the North Atlantic with speed and safety through the Florida Canal. The canal
 would be of sufficient depth and breadth to permit the passage of all except a