DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 403

 This hazard has been recognized for more than 350 years. In 1565 Philip II
of Spain wrote to Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Governor of Florida, asking
him to try to find a sea route from the Gulf to the Atlantic north of the
"island of Florida." Frankie Drake and his buccaneers were patrolling the
straits between Hispaniola and Florida and looting the Spanish plate ships
bringing gold and silver out of Mexico.
 Gen. Andrew Jackson, who took Florida from Spain in 1818 and became its
military governor after its annexation in 1821, saw the military need of a
short cut across the peninsula, and never ceased to urge it, even after he became
President
 By 1850 a canal across Florida had become a part of the War Department's
survey program, and the first surveys by the Army Engineer Corps were begun.
It is probable that but for the interruption of the Civil War such a canal would
have become a reality contemporary with the transcontinental railroad and the
Atlantic cable.
 The War Department's interest has been continuous. It has grown since the
World War. Applying not only the lessons of submarine possibilities in re-
stricted channels but our own experience in moving munitions, a third of which,
during the war, passed through the Florida Straits, the military importance of
a safer route became more impressive, while the rapid development of ocean
shipping in and out of the Gulf of Mexico (two-thirds in oil tankers) stimu-
lated interest in the commercial advantages of a route which would save 360
miles of ship travel and 30 to 50 hours of steaming time between Gulf ports
and those of the Atlantic seaboard and of Europe. One shipping concern alone
operates 50 ships, the largest sea-going fleet under the Shipping Board, plying
between the Gulf and European, African, and trans-Suez Canal
 UBGED BY MEN OF VISION FOR MOBE THAN A CENTURY

 See how closely commerce and national defense are tied together. Germany
 all but won the World War with her U-boats, sinking merchant ships carrying
 food and munitions to Britain and France. Even though America might, in
 case of another war, protect the entrances to the Gulf through the Florida
 Straits and the Straits of Yucatan by laying mine fields and massing destroyers
 and cruisers at these strategic points, what would such precautions boot us if
 the commerce of the Mississippi Valley were bottled up in the Gulf? All the
 logic of the situation calls for another safer and more easily defended entrance
 and exit passage.
 Small wonder that men of vision have been for nearly a century urging the
 digging of this waterway. Small wonder that the Army has been eager to
 begin the Job for half a century past.
 The Florida canal is no new scheme, hatched on the spur of the moment,
 undertaken without the utmost consideration of its importance and its value.
 Nor is it a new and unheard-of enterprise for the consideration of Congress.
 Quite the contrary is the case, for Congress has been making appropriations for
 the Florida canal for nearly 10 years.
 Before 1925 at least two complete surveys had been made for a barge canal
 across Florida. In that year the project began to grow into a ship canal, with
 locks. Give credit to the Cedar Key Chamber of Commerce for the first map
 showing a ship canaL
 In the rivers and harbors bill of 1927 was included an appropriation for a
 survey by the Corps of Engineers for a ship canal; this was sponsored by Repre-
 sentative Robert A. Green. The Congress of 1930 made a further appropria-
 tion to complete the survey, also at Congressman Green's instigation. December
 30, 1933, the Army reported that the survey had been completed; 28 possible
 routes had been explored and $400,000 spent in 6 years of work.
 Before this report was made, early in 1932, a meeting was held in New
 Orleans of some twenty-odd representatives of business interests in all five of
 the Gulf States, and the National Gulf-Atlantic Ship Canal Association was
 formed. There were no politicians in the organization, no interested corpora-
 tions or individuals, and no money was contributed or solicited from any
 individual or business concern. A small working fund was subscribed, mainly
 by chambers of commerce and other civic organizations in the five Gulf States.
 To keep all appearance of local or political interest out of the picture, Gen.
 Charles P. Summerall, retired, former Chief of Staff of the Army, was elected
 president of the association. General Summerall is the head of a military
 school at Charleston, S. C. While a native of Florida, he never, so far as 1
 know, had any part in the Army surveys for the canal.