wfrM^ University of California Berkeley OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTEENTH SESSION OF THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS HELD AT PORTLAND, OREGON AUGUST 16, If, 18 < 19 1905 OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTEENTH SESSION OF THE Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress fr\*Jl GL V- OxV, > ' HELD AT PORTLAND, OREGON August 16, 17, 18 and 19 1905 ARTHUR F. FRANCIS, Secretary CRIPPLE CREEK, COLO. CHARLES H. SHOLES, Official Reporter PORTLAND, OREGON Additional Copies of Report will be Supplied on Application to Fred W. Fleming, Chairman Executive Committee, Kansas City, Mo.; Tom Richardson, Vice-Chairman Executive Committee, Portland, Or.; E. R. Moses, Chairman Advisory Committee, Great Bend, Kansas, or Arthur F. Francis, Secretary, Cripple Creek, Colo. 1905 GLASS & PRUDHOMME COMPANY PORTLAND, OREGON SESSIONS OF THE CONGRESS HAVE BEEN HELD AS FOLLOWS: Date City President First June, 1890 May. 1891 Oct., 1891 Feb.. 1892 April, 1893 Feb., 1894 Nov., 1894 Nov.. 1895 July, 1897 May. 1899 April, 1900 July, 1901 Aug.. 1902 Aug., 1903 Oct., 1904 Aug.. 1905 Galveston, Texas W. M. Fishback Arkansas Second Denver Colorado E. P. Ferry Utah Third Omaha, Neb. C. S. Thomas. _ Colorado Fourth Fifth New Orleans La L. Bradford Prince New Mexico I S McConnell THnhn Ogden Utah Sixth Seventh Eighth Ninth San Francisco, Cal. H. R. Whitmore Missouri St. Louis, Mo. Geo. Q. Cannon_ Utah Omaha, Neb Wm. Jennings Bryan.. Nebraska Salt Lake City, Utah Wichita Kansas Hugh Craig California Tenth E O Stanard . Missouri Eleventh Twelfth Houston, Texas J. R. G. Pitkin Louisiana Cripple Creek, Colo St Paul Minn Walter Gresham Texas Thirteenth .. Fourteenth .. Fifteenth Sixteenth John Henry Smith Utah Seattle, Wash. John H. Kirby Texas St Louis Mo Richard C Kerens Missouri Portland, Or. Theo. B. Wilcox Oregon 1 |','r hAK'OKOI 1 I II1UAUY T7 Official Roster of tne Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress , Seventeenth Annual Session Meets in n, Kansas City, Missouri, 1906 President David R. Francis, St. Louis, Mo. First Vice-President H. D. Loveland, San Francisco, California. Second Vice-President L. Bradford Prince, Santa Fe, N. M. Third Vice-President N. G. Larimore, Larimore, N. D. Fourth Vice-President C. A. Fellows, Topeka, Kan. Secretary Arthur F. Francis, Cripple Creek, Colo. Treasurer F. B. Topping, Kansas City, Mo. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Fred W. Fleming, Kansas City, Mo., Chairman; Tom Richardson, Portland, Ore., Vice-Chairman. ADVISORY COMMITTEE. E. R. Moses, Great Bend, Kan., Chairman; John Henry Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah, Vice-Chairman; H. R. Whitmore, St. Louis, Mo.; Ben- jamin F. Beardsley, St. Paul, Minn.; H. M. Mayo, New Orleans, La. CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. Theo. B. Wilcox, Portland, Ore., Chairman; J. H. Richards, Boise, Idaho; Herbert Strain, Great Falls, Mont.; Ed. F. Harris, Galveston, Tex.; H. P. Wood, San Diego, Cal.; Fred W. Fleming, Kansas City, Mo.; Edward H. Hunter, Des Moines, la. VICE-PRESIDENTS. Alaska William A. Kelly, Sitka. Arkansas C. C. Reid, Morrillton. Arizona Walter Talbot, Phoenix. California E. H. Benjamin, San Francisco. * Colorado Mitchell Benedict, Denver. Iowa J. L. Kamrar, Webster City. Idaho John B. Morris, Lewiston. Indian Territory Henry J. Keller, South McAlester. Kansas John E. Frost, Topeka. Louisiana J. S. Dixon, Natchitoches. Minnesota H. E. Hutchings, St. Paul. Montana David G. Browne, Fort Benton. Missouri Hon. John W. Noble, St. Louis. Nebraska Henry T. Clarke, Omaha. Nevada E. L. Williams, Reno. New Mexico G. R. Engledow, Raton. North Dakota N. G. Larimore, Larimore. Oklahoma C. G. Jones, Oklahoma City. Oregon E. L. Smith, Hood River. South Dakota Wesley A. Stuart, Sturgis. Texas D. D. Peden, Houston. Utah Wm. N. Williams, Salt Lake City. Washington Hon. Albert H. Mead, Olympia. Wyoming Fennimore Chatterton, Cheyenne. MEMBERS OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Alaska Edward DeGroff, Sitka, one-year term; R. H. Kemp, Skag- way, two-year term. Arkansas J. L. Carraway, Little Rock, one-year term; George R. Brown, Little Rock, two-year term. Arizona John Mets, one-year term; J. W. Benham, Phoenix, two- year term. California H. D. Loveland, San Francisco, one-year term; Rufus P. Jennings, San Francisco, two-year term. Colorado Charles A. Stokes, Denver, one-year term; Arthur F. Francis, Cripple Creek, two-year term. Iowa A. E. Johnston, Keokuk, one-year term; E. H. Hunter, Des Moines, two-year term. Idaho James H. Hawley, Boise, one-year term; J. R. Good, Boise, two-year term. Indian Territory W. F. Whittington, Ardmore, one-year term; J. G. Rucker, Claremore, two-year term. Kansas E. R. Moses, Great Bend, one-year term; E. E. Hoffman, Leavenworth, two-year term. Louisiana Charles K. Fuqua, Baton Rouge, one-year term; H. M. Mayo, New Orleans, two-year term. Minnesota John Stees, St. Paul, one-year term; John Kingsley, St. Paul, two-year term. Montana! Alexander Burrell, Marysville, one-year term; Herbert Strain, Great Falls, two-year term. Missouri H. R. Whitmore, St. Louis, one-year term; Fred W. Fleming, Kansas City, two-year term. Nebraska Joseph Hayden, Omaha, one-year term; C. B. Anderson, Crete, two-year term. Nevada H. E. Freudenthal, Pioche, one-year term; A. H, Manning, Reno, two-year term. New Mexico L. Bradford Prince, Santa Fe, one-year term; G. R. Engledow, Raton, two-year term. North Dakota H. C. Plumley, Fargo, one-year term; W. N. Steele, Rolla, two-year term. Oklahoma Geo. Sohlberg, Oklahoma, one-year term; J. H. John- ston, Oklahoma City, two-year term. Oregon Herman Wittenberg, Portland, one-year term; Tom Rich- ardson, Portland, two-year term. South Dakota Thos. W. LaFleiche, Belle Fourche, one-year term; Homer Johnson, Armour, two-year term. Texas D. Woodhead, Houston, one-year term; T. S. Reed, Beau- mont, two-year term. Utah L. W. Shurtliff, Ogden, one-year term; Geo. Romney, Salt Lake City, two-year term. Washington A. L. Black, Bellingham, one-year term; J. R. Steven- son, Pomerpy, two-year term. Wyoming E. L. Emery, Rock Springs, one-year term; W. J. Thorn, Buffalo, two-year term. National Travelers' Protective Association John S. Beall, Portland, Ore., one-year term; C. W. Ransom, Portland, Ore., two-year term. United Commercial Travelers Watt R. Sheldon, Denver, Colo., two- year term. BY-LAWS AND RULES. (Revised at Portland, Ore., 1905.) The Trans-Mississippi Commercial! Congress, organized for the pur- pose of promoting the commercial interests of the states and territories, in whole or in part, west of the Mississippi river, has adopted the fol- lowing rules and regulations for its government: ARTICLE I MEMBERS. 1. Any resident of the territory named may become a member of the Congress, on application to and approval of the Executive Committee, by the payment to the Chairman of said committee of the sum of five dollars ($5.00) annually, and such members shall be accredited to their respective states or territories. 2. Representation shall be confined to the states and territories situated wholly or in part west of the Mississippi river. Every business organization shall be entitled to appoint one dele- gate, and an additional delegate for every fifty members. The mayor of each city or town and the executive officers of each county may appoint one delegate for every 5,000 inhabitants; but no business organization, city or town, shall have more than ten (10) delegates. The governor of each state and territory may appoint ten (10) delegates. The governors of states and territories, members of the United States congress, and ex-Presidents of this Congress are ex-officio members, with all the priv- ileges of members, except those of voting and election to office. 3. The Executive Committee is authorized to extend invitations to any person to attend any session of the Congress, and to take part in its discussions; such persons shall have all the privileges of delegates, except those of voting and election to office. The names and addresses of all persons thus invited must be reported to the Congress at its open- ing session. 4. The United Commercial Travelers and the Travelers' Protective Association shall each have all the rights and representation of a state or territory. ARTICLE II MEETINGS. 1. The annual meetings of the Congress shall be held at such place and time as are fixed at the previous session, or the time may be left by the Congress to be fixed by the Executive Committee. 2. The Secretary shall keep a register of the names and addresses of all members and of all delegates of whose appointment he is officially advised, showing by whom such appointment has been made, and such register shall be accepted by the Congress as the official list of members and duly accredited delegates. 6- REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS 3. Each member of the Congress shall be entitled to one vote, pro- vided that no state or territory shall cast more than thirty votes; if more than thirty members are present, each shall be entitled to his fractional part of said thirty votes; when a state or territory shall be represented by less than ten members, it shall be entitled to ten votes. ARTICLE III OFFICERS. 1. The officers of this Congress shall be a President, four Vice- Presidents at large, a Secretary and a Treasurer, to be elected by the Congress at each session, and to hold office until their successors are elected; and a Vice-President from each state and territory, to be elected as hereinafter provided. 2. The annual election of officers shall take place at the opening of the session on the last day of the Congress, and the officers shall be in- augurated during said day, and shall hold office until the inaguration of their successors on the last day of the succeeding Congress. 3. The duties of the officers shall be those usually pertaining to their positions. The President shall preside at all meetings, and in his absence the Vice-Presidents shall preside in the order of their prece- dence. The Treasurer may be called upon to furnish a bond, by require- ment of the Congress or its Executive Committee. ARTICLE IV COMMITTEES. 1. The committees of the Congress shall be as follows: Committee on Permanent Organization. Committee on Resolutions. Executive Committee. Advisory Board. Congressional Committee. 2. The Committee on Permanent Organization shall consist of one member from each state and territory. The Committee on Resolutions shall consist of two members from each state and territory. The Executive Committee shall consist of the seven general officers and two members from each state and territory, one of whom shall be elected each year. The Advisory Board shall consist of five members, to be appointed by the President or Congress during its session, or by the Executive Committee thereafter. The Congressional Committee shall consist of five members, to be appointed by the President or Congress during its session, or by the Executive Committee thereafter. This committee shall be appointed at the Congress held in each odd numbered year, and shall hold office for two years. 3. At the afternoon session of the first day of each annual meeting the members present from each state and territory shall present names for the following positions. 1. A State Vice-President of the Congress. 2. One member of the Committee on Permanent Organization. 3. Two members of the Committee on Resolutions. At any time before the last day of the session they shall present the name of one member of the Executive Committee to serve for two years. 4. The Executive Committee shall have general charge of the work and interests of the Congress, during its recess, and unless otherwise ordered by the Congress, shall act as a Committee on Order of Business unng its sessions. It shall have control of the funds of the Congress, but no obligation shall be incurred beyond the amount of unappropri- TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 7 ated funds in the treasury. It shall elect its own chairman, and the Secretary of the Congress shall be its Secretary. It shall have power to fill all vacancies among officers or committees occurring while the Congress is not in session. 5. The duties of the Committee on Permanent Organization shall be to nominate the seven general officers, before the end of the third day of the annual session. 6. The Committee on Resolutions shall receive all resolutions that are introduced, and report all such as in its opinion should receive the favorable consideration of the Congress as promptly as practicable. 7. The Advisory Board may be consulted at all times by the of- ficers or the Executive Committee of the Congress. 8. The Congressional Committee shall bring to the attention of the Congress of the United States or officials of the Government, per- sonally, if possible, all of the proceedings of the Congress which require action from the United States congress or such officials. ' ARTICLE V RULES. 1. The sessions of the Congress shall open at 10 a. m., 2 p. m. and 7:30 p. m., unless otherwise determined by the Congress. 2. Cushing's Manual shall govern the deliberations of the Congress. 3. All resolutions shall be submitted in writing in duplicate, with name of mover and of state to which he belongs, and shall be referred to the Committee on Resolutions without debate, but the mover shall be allowed three minutes for explanation, if desired. The duplicate copy shall be retained by the Secretary. 4. No subject, which has been made a party issue in politics, shall be placed on the program, nor shall any resolution referring to any such subject be considered. 5. On the report of each resolution it shall be open to debate, the introducer being allowed to open the discussion, and no member to speak more than twice. The opening speech shall be limited to ten minutes, and all others to five minutes each. 6. Papers and addresses made shall be limited to twenty minutes. ARTICLE VI ORDER OF BUSINESS. The order of business at each daily session shall be as follows, unless otherwise ordered: 1. Introduction of resolutions. 2. Reports of committees. 3. Discussion and vote on committee reports. 4. Reading of papers or addresses on subjects named in program. 5. Miscellaneous. Selection of place for holding next convention, special for 4 o'clock next to last day of session. ARTICLE VII AMENDMENTS. These rules and regulations may be amended by a majority vote of the Congress, after one day's notice of the proposed amendment. REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS OFFICIAL CALL. To the Governors of States and Territories, Mayors of Cities, Boards of County Commissioners, Chambers of Commerce, Boards of Trades, Industrial, Mercantile, Maritime, and Kindred Organi- zations: The Sixteenth Session of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Con- gress is hereby called, to meet at the Auditorium, Lewis and Clark Ex- position Grounds, Portland, Oregon, August 16, 17, 18 and 19, 1905. THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPOSITION. In making this announcement the Executive Committee directs at- tention to the fact that the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress will convene in Portland during the Exposition which is held to commem- orate the Lewis and Clark occupation, an event which saved to the nation the great "Oregon Country," from which are carved the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming, forming the northwest jurisdiction of the Congress. The inspiration out of which has grown this splendid Exposition met the hearty in- dorsement of previous sessions of the Trans-Mississippi Commerical Congress, and the Executive Committee requests that the commercial, industrial and maritime bodies west of the Mississippi river take this opportunity of displaying effectively to the people of the Pacific North- west and the whole country their deep interest and appreciation by co- operating with the Executive Committee in making the sixteenth ses- sion of the Congress a great success. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI STATES AND THE PACIFIC TRADE. The great importance of the Far East as a field for commercial expansion, and the contiguity of the states of the Trans-Mississippi re- gion to the new markets, into which the nations of the world are now entering with activity, forces itself with renewed demand upon the at- tention of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress. As this organi- zation, comprised of delegates from the commercial, industrial and maritime associations, is vitally interested in everything that enhances the commercial possibilities of the states and territories west of the Mississippi river, and as the trade relations between the United States and the Oriental countries require most vigorous exploitation, to the end that the question may be exhaustively considered and right con- clusions formed as to the best methods to be adopted that the states of the Trans-Mississippi region may enjoy the commercial advantages to which they are entitled by reason of their contiguity and their ability to supply the demands of that trade, the Executive Committee earnestly urges this question upon the serious consideration of the Congress: DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND MINING. The Executive Committee would also direct attention to the in- creasing demand for a Department of Mines and Mining, with its head a member of the cabinet of the United States. Special efforts are re- quested in behalf of this measure, which has from time to time been brought to the attention of the national congress by the executive of- ficers of this organization with partial success. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 9 SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION. Among other matters upon which discussions and recommendations will be required are: (1) The improvement of rivers, harbors and waterways. (2) The union of interests between Pacific Coast ports and ports of the Gulf of Mexico. (3) The isthmian canal and its effect upon commerce. (4) The merchant marine. (5) The consular service. (6) 'Statehood of the ter- ritories. (7) Interstate Commerce Commission and the betterment of rail and water transportation. (8) Preservation of the forests. (9) Co- operation in laws governing waterways, irrigation and mining between the United States, Mexico and Canada. (10) Encouragement of home manufacturers. (11) Expositions and their influence upon the develop- ment of the country. (12) Technical schools and experimental stations for the west. (13) American scenery and its effect upon travel. (14) Alaska. (15) Livestock interests of the Trans-Mississippi region. (16) The necessity of differentials favoring Pacific Coast ports in the building of naval vessels. (17) Parcels post. (18) Good roads. (19) Ir- rigation and the reclamation of arid lands. Any question germane to the objects of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress may be introduced by any delegate, but it is the desire of the members of the Executive Committee to confine discussion to subjects of general interest, and to exclude those which are of a po- litical nature. REPRESENTATION. The governor of each state and territory may appoint ten delegates, and not more than twenty delegates. The mayor of each city, one delegate and one additional delegate for each 5,000 inhabitants; provided, however, that no city shall have more than ten delegates. Each county may appoint one delegate through its executive of- ficer. Each business organization, one delegate and one additional dele- gate for every fifty members; provided, however, that no such organiza- tion shall have more than ten delegates. Governors of states and territories, members of the congress of the United States, a,nd ex-Presidents of this Congress are ex officio mem- bers, with all the privileges of delegates except voting. Permanent members have all the privileges of delegates. RUFUS P. JENNINGS, Chairman. San Francisco, Cal. TOM RICHARDSON, Vice-Chairman, Portland, Or. ARTHUR F. FRANCIS, Secretary, Cripple Creek, Colo. Approved: THEO. B. WILCOX, President, Portland, Or. 10 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS RESOLUTION. Recommendations to the national congress adopted by the Trans- Mississippi Commercial Congress in sixteenth annual session at Portland, Oregon, August 19-24, 1905. Be it Resolved, by the Trans-Mississippi Commerical Congress, composed of representatives from the several states and territories be- tween the Mississippi river and the Pacific coast, at its sixteenth annual session, assembled in the City of Portland, Or., as follows: RIVERS AND HARBORS. We earnestly recommend liberal appropriations under continuing contracts by the federal government for the improvement of the harbors on the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific coast. The largely increasing trade with Central and South America and the Orient renders a more liberal policy towards these ports on the part of the national govern ment, imperatively necessary. The deep draft of the vessels in which the commerce of the world is now most economically carried makes it important that the Galveston harbor should have a uniform depth of not less than 35 feet of water at mean low tide, with a width and extension commensurate with its growing importance. The same recommendation is made with refer- ence to the improvement of the harbors on the Pacific coast. The jetty at the mouth of the Columbia river ought to be completed according to the plans of the government engineers, in order that the products of the Northwestern country may find a convenient highway to the markets of the world. In harmony with past declarations of this body, we declare that it is the plain duty of the national government to take hold of the im- portant question of river improvement and flood control in a,n earnest and broad-gauge manner. The cost of necessary improvements to pre- vent the continued interruption of interstate commerce and an appall- ing loss of life and property, should be met by the national government and the localities affected upon an equitable basis. The permanent im- provement of the great Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their navi- gable tributaries ought to be an object of national concern. The con- ditions at and in the vicinity of Kansas City and East St. Louis, where commercial and transportation interests of the greatest magnitude are frequently menaced by devastating river floods, emphasizes the na- tional importance of this question. We earnestly favor a liberal policy on the part of congress in ap- propriating money for the permanent improvement of the navigable waterways of the country, thereby decreasing the cost of transportation on the products of the farm, ranch and factory, and increasing the gen- eral prosperity of the nation. COAST FORTIFICATIONS. We recommend that an additional naval station be immediately constructed on the Pacific coast at some point near the Mexican border to be selected by the Navy Department. We desire to direct attention of the national government to the defenseless condition of the Pacific coast, and urge that congress make the necessary appropriation to carry out the plans of the War Depart- ment for adequate coast fortifications. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 11 We favor the protection of the sea wall built by the national gov- ernment for the protection of its property at the port of Galveston, in accordance with the plans of the United States engineers. DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND MINING. The mining industry of the United States having grown to such proportions and importance, and being capable of such vast develop- ment if properly fostered by the government, we heartily favor the es- tablishment by an act of congress of a national department of mines and mining. STATEHOOD FOR THE TERRITORIES. The fundamental principle of the American Republic is that of self-government, and no body of American citizens should be deprived of that right. We therefore recommend the early admission of all of the remaining territories as states, and the establishment of a territorial form of government for Alaska. MERCHANT MARINE. We unqualifiedly favor the progressive national policy on the part of the United States of fostering and building up an American merchant marine by every available means, and respectfully urge upon the con- sideration of congress the national importance of this question in the development of our foreign trade. FOREST RESERVES. We indorse and approve the maintenance of forest reserves under just and reasonable conditions. We, however, urge that the utmost caution be exercised in the extension of the present reserves, and that no further extensions be made without due regard to the conditions and rights of the communities affected or to the location of homesteads on any tracts, large or small, which are capable of cultivation; and we further urge the repeal of all laws, and orders of the Interior depart- ment, limiting the use or sale of the timber products to the state or territory in which the same may be cut. IRRIGATION. This Congress desires to express its high appreciation of the na- tional irrigation law, and hails with pleasure the opportunities afforded under its beneficent provisions for the American citizen to own his own home, and we express the hope that the several governmental enter- prises now under contemplation, as well as under construction, be pushed to a speedy and successful completion. We declare that the use of the river waters of the trans-Mississippi states is of vastly greater importance when applied to irrigation th?n to navigation, and hence when the demands of irrigation require such a volume of water of any navigable stream as to render it less navigable, such conditions should not be permitted to interfere in any manner with the prosecution and operation of any irrigation works. In the construction of river improvements to aid navigation or for the control of flood waters, we recommend that special investigation be given to the practicability of the construction of large storage reser- voirs so as to store the waters during the flood season, and thus mini- mize the danger of flood ravages in the lower portions of such river val- leys. 12 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS INTERSTATE COMMERCE. We insist upon the rigid enforcement of existing laws as the proper remedy for the unmixed evil of rebates, discrimination in freight and express rates, and special privileges to private car lines, by railway companies. GOOD ROADS. We recommend to the several states and territories the adoption of such legislation as will place the subject of permanent public road improvement under an intelligent and uniform state and county super- vision. CONSULAR SERVICE. We again earnestly urge such a thorough organization of our con- sular service as to secure the most efficient service to our business in- terests; and we believe that this can be best accomplished by basing ap- pointments upon experience, ability and character, unbiased by any political consideration, thus insuring that efficiency which is only at- tained by extended experience. PAN-AMERICAN TRADE. We indorse the proposed Pan-American Trade College or College of Commerce upon the Gulf Coast of Texas, in which the trade usages, customs and language of the Central and South American republics shall be exemplified and taught, as a project worthy of the favorable con- sideration of the congress of the United States. We approve of the calling of a national waterways convention to meet in Washington in the early part of 1906, and recommend to the members of this body that they take the necessary steps to secure a representation therein from their respective states and territories. We wish to record our indorsement of the Western Immigration Congress, as proposed by the State Commercial Association of Colorado. In view of their rapidly increasing export trade, we strongly urge that San Diego and San Pedro, Cal., be made ports of entry. We earnestly recommend the re-enactment by congress of the law which formerly allowed to Pacific coast builders of naval vessels a differential sufficient to enable them to compete upon equal terma with builders located upon the Atlantic coast. IMMIGRATION LAWS. Our foreign trade with China is at present suspended, and Ameri- can vessels are unable to discharge their cargoes at Chinese ports and Hong Kong because of the refusal of the Chinese to handle American products. This unsatisfactory state of affairs is understood to have been produced by the improper treatment to which the privileged classes of China have been subjected in the administration of our laws prohibiting the admission of Chinese laborers to the United States. There are now seeking admission to our country large numbers of persons from Europe, Asia and Africa, many of whom are undesirable and cannot be admitted without endangering the high standards of American citizenship; therefore we respectfully petition the President of the United States to, if deemed expedient, reiterate his instructions for proper treatment of the privileged classes of China, to ascertain through the proper channels the reasons for the present boycott and to appoint a commission to investigate and report to congress, with recom- mendations for a comprehensive immigration law, framed to remove all unreasonable restrictions, but to exclude from the United States and our insular possessions, all undesirable persons from every country. Sixteenth Session Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress Held in the Auditorium, Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition Grounds, Portland, Oregon August 16-19, 190$ FIRST DAY'S SESSION Music by the Lewis and Clark Exposition band. The Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress was called to or- der by Rufus P. Jennings, San Francisco, Cal., chairman of the ex- ecutive committee, in the Auditorium at the Lewis and Clark Ex- position grounds, August 16, 1905, at 10 o'clock a. m. REV. DR. BROUGHER was introduced, who invoked Divine bless- ing upon the proceedings of the Congress in the following words : INVOCATION. Almighty God, Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the oc- casion that brings together this company of men to consider the com- mercial interests of the great west. We thank Thee that, as Thou hast created us, that it is in Thee we move and live and have our being, that as Thou has given us opportunities to accomplish that for which Thou has placed us in the world, give unto those who shall speak in this Congress a Divine wisdom that shall lead them to adopt measures and policies that shall be in harmony with Thy will. We pray for the hastening of that day when Thy kingdom shall come and Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give and direct all these conferences being held during this Fair, that the outcome of them all may be the preservation of the righteousness in the business world, in the com- mercial world, in politics and in all the affairs and activities of life, we ask for Christ's sake. Amen. CHAIRMAN JENNINGS: The Executive Committee has been exceedingly gratified at the general and ready response from all sections of the Trans-Mississippi region to the invitation extended for the Sixteenth Annual Session of this Congress. Many matters 14 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS of national importance will be brought up. The prominence of the men who are to speak, and their intimate knowledge of the different subjects that will be discussed, is a guarantee of an un- usually interesting meeting. We were fortunate indeed in having as president of this Congress a man who has been successful in those things he has undertaken to do, and one who has proved him- self to be a leader among men. I take great pleasure in introducing our President, the Honorable Theodore B. Wilcox, of Oregon. (Great applause.) MR. WILCOX: ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WILCOX. Members of the Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen. Owing to my in- ability to be with you last October in St. Louis, this is my first oppor- tunity to thank the members of this Congress for the great personal honor and distinction they conferred upon me at that time by electing me President of this Congress. And yet I felt that it was done more as an honor to the State of Oregon and the City of Portland than for any personal distinction to myself. That my personality has been employed in bringing to our city and state at this time this splendid body of repre- sentative men from the Trans-Mississppi region is honor enough for a greater man than I; and I thank you not only for my electon as your President, but more, far more, for taking the time and trouble to come great distances, as most of you have done, to be present at this Con- gress, and to discuss the various interesting subjects with which we have to do. And although addresses of welcome to our state and to the Northwest will be made here today by Governor Chamberlain, of Oregon; Governor Mead, of Washington, and Mayor Lane, and you will also be welcomed by President Goode, of this magnificent Expo- sition, I want to say to you as a citizen of Portland that while our latch- string always hangs out here in the west, the latch has been removed, and the door to our hospitality has been taken from the hinges and laid away while you remain with us. (Great applause.) The Trans-Mississippi region, representing two-thirds of the ter- ritory covered by the United States, nevertheless lies farthest from those points where our ancestors first landed on the shores of America. Scarce fifty years have passed since first our honored pioneers braved the dangers and privations of frontier life to earn the fortune, the freedom and the health which the land of the setting sun affords. And as yet the great tracts of arable land are but sparsely settled, the treasures of the mountain side but barely touched, the waste places are still waste, the forests still stand, and the magnificent rivers remain unsubdued to the uses of mankind; but the advancement that has been made justifies the hopes of the pioneers and stimulates us to renewed effort day by day. Our needs are many and our merits are great; but our population is sparse, our wealth but limited, and our importance singly in the halls of government small and unavailing. What, then, is there for us to do, but combine our' influences and work together by all fair and honorable means for the things we need? For the improvement of our waterways, for good land and mining laws, for irrigation of the arid lands, for our livestock interests, for the isthmian canal, for Oriental markets, for statehood for our territories and a com- plete territorial government for Alaska (applause), for all the things we need to advance the interests of our particular states or sections, TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 15 and to make the Trans-Mississippi region as a whole, great in wealth and influence as it is in territorial extent. And yet, my friends, we are but a part of one great whole. As I hear the gentleman from California extol the wondrous beauties of that great state, her great expanse and the mass and variety of her products; the gentleman from Texas dilate upon the extent of their cotton crop and livestock output of that empire by itself; the gentleman from Wyoming, who tells of the great wealth of her coal and metal and the vast herds that roam her hills, I feel that while individual effort is everywhere mak- ing each section stand for itself, exploiting its own peculiar attractions, and thus each is aiming to be only a bright particular star in that constel- lation which is today and must forever be the greatest nation on earth, the greatest on land and on the seas, the greatest on the Pacific as well as on the Atlantic. (Great applause.) In the early days of your organization one of the principal objects of your efforts was improved waterways in the west. By your com- bined influences you have long ago given the City of Galveston govern- mental aid to produce a deep-water harbor, which, by shortening and cheapening the route from the middle west to the markets of the world, has produced lower freight rates and greater profits to the producers, until Galveston stands third in the list of American ports. You have afforded a waterway to the gulf for a great portion of the state of Texas, formerly limited to the mercies of a railroad; you have improved the Mississippi and its great port at New Orleans, and you have pro- cured a deep-water harbor at San Pedro, and, gentlemen, with your help we shall deepen the lower river and the mouth of the Columbia river for vessels of modern type, and the business that passes back and forth (great applause), and we shall also remove the obstructions to navigation in its upper reaches just as far into the interior as there is water enough to float a flat-bottomed boat or a ton of produce paying a railroad two prices for its transportation. (Great applause.) The reclamation of our arid lands has always been one of the prin- cipal topics to engage the attention of this body. It has inspired and aided in placing upon our statute books the irrigation law, which, in its fulfillment, will be our country's crowning glory. To take the waste parts of the earth and subdue them to man's use and benefit; to make two blades of grass grow where nothing grew before; to make some- thing out of nothing, this is almost creation, a sublime achievement. But the importance of this subject has been recognized in a separate body similar to this, an organization has been established for its special care and maintenance. Contiguous to the Orient is the territory we represent, nearer than any other great commercial nation, and the nearest portion of our own great United States, it is eminently fitting that one of our topics for discussion in all its various phases, and from all the various view- points, should be the universally absorbing topic before the commercial world of today Oriental trade. Several addresses will be delivered tomorrow on this subject, which, I think, you will find interesting, per- haps instructive. Another topic which will occupy our attention is Alaska. This great territory, purchased from Russia in 1868, by that far-seeing sec- retary of state, Seward, has proven a, wise and profitable investment to our people. She needs our influence and help, and I bespeak your favor- able consideration of her wishes. Many of you may not know that the territory of Alaska is equal to nearly one-sixth of the entire United States; that the Yukon river is the largest river flowing into the Pacific, and is over two thousand miles long; that much of the land of Alaska is tillable and capable of supporting population, and that its gold output of $700,000 in 1890 has risen to nearly $20,000,000 in 1904; that it supplies 16 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS from its waters the major portion of the salmon of commerce today; that, in addition to her great mineral wealth, she holds the future coal supply of the Pacific. You may not know that in 1896-97 she proved a haven and savior to many an unfortunate from the states, smitten by the hand of misfortune, whose only capital was energy, courage and an honest desire to recoup his fortune and pay his debts. You may not have heard that out of the gold fields of Alaska many have cpme with the horn of plenty and poured its rich contents into the prosperity of the Northwest; but these things are true, and more, and in the years to come Alaska will be a mighty power. When we have drawn the population from the crowded centers of the east to our great completed and per- fected Trans-Mississippi region, Alaska will be the west. A complete territorial government will not long suffice for a land great enough and good enough to make three more stars in our grand constellation. (Ap- plause.) I cannot close without referring to this beautiful Fair, placed here by this lakeside, among the green hills, looking out upon these majestic snow-capped mountains and great stretches of river and landscape, not alone to commemorate the achievements of the past, but to stimulate our people to new and greater endeavor in the future, and while it stands as a monument to Lewis and Clark and all those later pioneers who utilized their discovery, it stands equally a monument to the public spirit and progressive nature of the west. (Great applause.) The members of this Congress who have for sixteen years labored and traveled without compensation or emolument, know that their recom- mendations have been a potent factor in much of the legislation at Washington affecting the material welfare and advancement of the west. We have been met, ladies and gentlemen, by the men of the east and of the south, with a spirit of helpfulness, encouragement and co-opera- tion. They have harkened to our petitions in Washington with a ready ear, a willing voice and hand, and the west is receiving today and has for several years, its share of national aid for improvements. But there is more to do yet, more aid to be sought and obtained, and this Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, representing more than 30,000,- 000 of people, must continue its work unflaggingly and never resting. Its existence depends not upon the pleasure of any individual nor upon any one state, but upon the devotion of public-spirited citizens, who are banded together for mutual benefit by every fair, just and honorable means in our power, and your sons and their associates will continue to work with my sons and their associates long after you and I are gath- ered to our fathers, and until this great west shall be populated with happy homes on every plain and hillside, until the waste places shall be made to blossom and to bear, and until the center of population in this great United States shall be moved over to this side of the Mis- sissippi river. (Great applause.) I welcome you all here today, and I congratulate your various states and the American people that in these days of selfish greed there are in every state and territory and in every section of them, men who, prompted by patriotism, will work for the upbuilding and betterment of their own states and for the glory of our common country. (Great applause.) Meeting as we do, gentlemen, .within the limits of the state of Ore- gon, it is fitting that you should be welcomed here many of you having come from without the state by a man whom we love and honor, Gov- ernor Chamberlain, of Oregon," whom I now have the pleasure to in- troduce. (Applause.) TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 17 GOVERNOR CHAMBERLAIN then addressed the Congress as fol- lows : ADDRESS OF HON. GEO. E. CHAMBERLAIN, GOVERNOR OF OREGON. Mr. President and Members of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Con- gress. I take pleasure in extending to you a most cordial welcome to the state of Oregon. It is most fitting that your Congress be held in this city and upon this spot at this particular time, where is being held an exposition to commemorate the achievements of Lewis and Clark and the statesmanship of Thomas Jefferson. It was near the place where this building now stands that Lewis and Clark and their sturdy followers rested after having planted the Stars and Stripes on the shores of the Pacific ocean, thereby adding to the domain of the United States, by right of exploration and discovery, a territory as vast in extent as it is rich in all the resources that tend to make our country the greatest of the earth. Out of this magnificent domain have been carved the commonwealths of Oregon, Washington and Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Montana. The first of these alone, the mother of them all, is larger than New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey com- bined, whilst Washington is larger than all of New England with Dela- ware and the District of Columbia added, and these two states exceed by four thousand square miles the area of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Denmark and Holland, which maintain a population of more than fifty millions. The Oregon Country itself is equal in extent to the thirteen original states of the Union, with their population of thirty millions, and there is reason to 'believe and hope that in the years yet to come this country will boast a population that exceeds the present population of all New England. Not only Oregon, therefore, but all the Oregon Country and the Pacific coast, feel honored by the selec- tion of this city for your place of meeting, and all unite in extending to you a most cordial welcome. The needs of the country west of the Mississippi river and the necessity of united action to accomplish them first gave birth to the idea of organizing a congress of representatives from all of that section, and it is safe to say that the development of the Trans-Mississippi country in wealth, both commercial and industrial, has been greatly hastened by the discussions which have been had 'in and the efforts which have been made by the several sessions of your Congress. On all questions that vitally affect the vast territory which lies between the Mississippi river on the east and the Pacific ocean on the west, our senators and representatives in congress have usually been able to act in perfect harmony, without regard to politics or party, and it is safe to say that but for this unity of interest and of action the reclamation of the semi-arid lands, which form so large a part of our domain, would have been postponed indefinitely, or would have been delayed so long that the development of the country must of necessity have been retarded for a long term of years, whilst improvements of our rivers and harbors would have been delayed indefinitely at the ex- pense of our commerce. Until the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress made its appearance as a factor for good in the development of the west and south there was a lack of unity and of purpose among those who rep- resented us in the halls of^ congress as well as in commercial and other bodies which had for their object the development of each particular section, but now each of the states embraced within the territory from which delegates to this Congress come makes common cause, and all 18 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS ,L have found that, acting unitedly, everything is possible and easy of ac- complishment which goes to making of a richer country, a happier and a more prosperous people. But much remains yet to be clone, and some things to be guarded against. In the first category, I call attention to- the tardiness with which the semi-arid regions are being reclaimed, and in doing this I do not mean to be understood as claiming that the officials in charge of the reclamation service are doing nothing. I realize fully the difficulties which they encounter in the prosecution of these great government works because of the fact that there are innumerable conflicting private interests which have to be reconciled, and other ob- stacles which try the patience and retard the work. But I feel xhat works which have been undertaken, in this state at least, and possibly in other states where I am not so familiar with conditions, ought to- have been pushed to completion with greater rapidity than has been the case. I fear that this is occasioned either by too much red tape in ;.he departments at Washington or by a lack of appreciation on the part of the officials having these works in charge of the importance to the people of speedy consummation. I believe that if your Congress would call the attention of those in authority to conditions as they exist it would result in more aggressive work and a speedy completion of many of the projects now under way. There are other matters of great public interest, such as appropri- ations for our rivers and harbors, and for the construction of canals as natural regulators for freight rates for commerce from the Inland Em- pire to the sea, that ought to be taken up and considered by this Con- gress, but it is impossible for me in the brief time allotted to do more than call attention to them. In the list of those things which ought to be guarded against, and against which this Congress should sound an alarm, is the unrestricted immigration of Chinese to this coast. I know that China threatens a boycott against the commerce of the United States unless more liberal laws than are now in force are enacted for the admission of their people to this country, and I know that there are those standing at the head of some of our own commercial bodies who advocate the removal of the restrictions contained in the act of congress of 1902 upon this immi- gration, but I venture the assertion that in many cases the threatened boycott receives encouragement from men in this country who have personal interests to subserve, and much of the clamor here for Chinese- immigration comes from those directly interested in exporting products to Chinese ports, constituting a small minority of the people of the coast. I feel that the best interests of the great majority of the people of the United States demand a rigid enforcement of the present law re- stricting the immigration of Chinese laborers, and if any amendment to- that law is made, it should be for even greater restriction than now ex- ists. Not only that. The reasons which demand the exclusion of the cheap labor of China from our shores demand the restriction of Jap- anese laborers as well, and of all Oriental countries that send to our shores a class of people inferior to our own, and who, under the laws of the Almighty himself cannot intermarry and assimilate with our own peoples without their degradation and the lowering of the standard of civilization. Our friends from the east and from the south cannot fully appreciate the evils that will be wrought to our social and our industrial system by the unrestricted immigration of the cheap laborers of Oriental countries. They are not homebuilders; they cannot assimilate with us; they can live and accumulate money for transfer to the Orient upon a wage which our people cannot exist upon, and steps ought to be taken here and now to sound a warning against the enactment of any laws which shall make it harder for the toiling masses of this country to earn* their daily bread. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 19 I do not feel that in an address of welcome I should dwell at length upon any of these subjects which demand and will doubtless receive your careful consideration. I content myself with calling attention to them, and in conclusion permit me to express the hope that your stay among us may be both profitable and pleasant, and that when you return to your several homes you may cherish none but pleasant recollections of our city and of our people. We are glad to have you with us, and we bid you welcome. PRESIDENT WILCOX: We should be delighted to feel that Ore- gon was all there was of the Northwest. It used to be; but we have cut off two other branches, and Washington state is one of Oregon's loyal daughters. I take great pleasure in introducing Governor Mead of Washington, who will welcome you. (Applause.) GOVERNOR MEAD thereupon addressed the Congress as follows: ADDRESS OF HON. ALBERT E. MEAD, GOVERNOR OF WASH- INGTON. From the dawn of the morning when Lewis and Clark began their eventful journey to the moment when the sound of the gavel called to- gether the sixteenth annual session of this Congress, there are no brighter pages in history recording deeds of dauntless courage, patient perseverance and loyal devotion to country than those chapters describ- ing the upbuilding of the great Northwest. Those pathfinders, in the forest and on the plain, who blazed the way for the settlement of the Northwest, recognized the wisdom and strength of co-operation. They practiced that form of religion wherein the strong holds out a helping hand to the weak. This congress stands for that same sentiment, and your final judgment upon the questions before you will be reached be- cause of the exercise of that virtue. Your recommendations to state and federal authorities will be respected and followed because your organiza- tion speaks for the highest interest of the people inhabiting the pro- gressive commonwealths from which you are drawn. In bidding you welcome to the Northwest in behalf of the 800,000 people of the state of Washington, we are not only confident of the suc- cessful outcome of this session, but we are mindful of the rich con- tribution received at your hands when the great influence of this organi- zation was brought to bear upon the Congress of the United States, whereby the system of national irrigation was placed upon the federal statute books in the enactment of the reclamation law. As stated editorially by the leading paper of this city, "largely through your efforts the Government of the United States has now in its treasury upwards of $30,000,000 available for the reclamation of arid lands in the West." By the application of the proceeds of the sales of public lands in the states named in this beneficial act, the subjugation and ultimate annihilation of that country included in what is popularly known as "The West" will soon be complete. The great gaps between the East and the West will soon close; the waste places will be made fruitful; the eternal silence of the great desert will be broken by the noise and shouting of the greater and lesser Captains of Industry. Washington's contribution, from the sale of public lands, of more than three millions of dollars has helped to swell the reclamation fund. We are thus not only permitted to draw upon this fund to add 20 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS to our created wealth and population, but the natural wealth bequeathed us by a generous Providence permits us to lend a helping hand to the states of the arid belt not so highly favored. We are interested in irrigation, improved harbor facilities for ocean commerce, and cheaper transportation by rail, but we hope this body will take a pronounced position in keeping the citizenship of this country up to the standard it has attained by opposing the modifica- tion of any treaty that will admit to our shores undesirable Asiatic immigration. We are interested, as other states are interested, in pursuing a policy that will enlarge our markets in the Orient. ^We want the benefit of increased and increasing trade in the far East, if it can be purchased at a fair price. In opening wider the gates to Chinese immigration and thereby debasing our American citizen- ship, we are paying too great a price. Among those of alien coun- tries who desire to follow the fortunes of the American flag, we are entitled to the best; we will not have the worst. We are a commercial as well as a productive state. Therefore, our people are in hearty accord with the efforts of this Congress for the betterment of rail and water transportation. As the waters of our Inland Sea offer excellent harborage for the fleets of the world, our needs for harbor improvements are easily satisfied. A further solution of the problems of transportation is found in the fresh waters coursing from mountain to sea, which will furnish, when fully developed, a force equal to a million horsepower, and allow us in this electric age to supplement steam transportation systems by connecting lines moved by a cheaper power. Other states of the Northwest are equally favored in this respect. James B. Meikle, Secretary of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, has aptly expressed the magnitude of our water power in these words: "It is safe to say that at least 1,000,000 horsepower might readily be developed in every state of the Northwest. The swift rivers that flow from the glaciers and snow fields of the Cascades and Olympic mountains have power enough to turn the wheels of all the mills west of the Mississippi River." When you have rendered full justice to the cause of your con- stituents as representatives in this Congress, when you have enlarged your knowledge of these two northwestern states, and returned to your homes, then if you decide that your field of usefulness would be enlarged and your happiness increased by taking up your permanent residence in the Northwest, the people of the state I have the honor to represent, will again extend to you a most cordial welcome. We are doubly related, by the tender ties of motherhood and sisterhood. to the grand, old State of Oregon. We revere the memories of the brave men and noble women of that state who made such great sacrifices to add the Oregon country to the national domain. In obe- dience to that sentiment, and in deference to the distinguished Execu- tive of that splendid state, whom I have the honor to follow, I will add that if you hereafter decide to become permanent residents of either Oregon or Washington no one will be more enthusiastic in commending your good judgment than yourselves. Washington bids you welcome to this Congress, welcome to the Pacific Northwest, welcome to the homes and hospitality of its peo- ple. May your efforts in this sixteenth annual meeting attest the wisdom of your creation, and immeasurably contribute to the progress and well being of the Republic. PRESIDENT WILCOX : None of you would imagine that all this Fair rose in a night. Some of you may be curious to know who TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 21 is responsible for it, and I take great pleasure in introducing the- man to whose intelligence, through whose patience and persever- ance, this Fair has been completed, and through whose tact it is, being conducted in a most peaceful manner, equal to that of any society that ever graced our city President Goode. (Applause.) PRESIDENT GOODE: ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT H. W. GOODE. Mr. President and Delegates to the Congress It is my pleasant duty to extend a cordial welcome of your members to the Exposition. The people of Portland and the management of the Exposition are ex- tremely proud that you should have selected Portland and the Exposi- tion Grounds as the place in which to hold this convention. We have had many conventions at the Exposition, but I regard the Trans- Mississippi Commercial Congress as the most important of all. I speak from an Exposition standpoint. The work of the Trans-Mis- sissippi Commercial Congress is absolutely in line with the work, the intent and purpose, of any international or national exposition. The initial purpose of this Exposition was to celebrate the Lewis and Clark expedition and the acquisition of the old Oregon territory; and we had a loyal desire to do honor to those people and to cele- brate in a fitting way that great event. But underlying it all there was the purpose of exploiting this Northwest country, of letting our own people, the people of the United States, and the people of the world understand what we had here and to show them the resources of this great section. The development of the country is the primary purpose, and that we all understand is the object of your Congress. For many years your delegates have unselfishly given their time and money to attend these meetings and take up the important matters affecting all that portion of the country lying west of the Mississippi River, and it is a matter of very great pride to th'is Exposition that we are a part of that development. How well we have succeeded at this Fair in show- ing the resources of the country and in interesting our own people and the people from abroad I will leave you to judge. We have spent a large amount of money, the people of the country are loyal to a man, and it would be remarkable, indeed, if the Exposition did not have a magnificent effect upon this section and its growth. I hope that you will find time from your labors at this Congress to devote a certain portion of your stay here to looking over the Fair and the exhibits we have here. I am sure you will be greatly interested, and I sincerely hope they will meet with your approval and that you may be able to say a good word for us on your return to your homes. Again I thank you for your attendance, and for your meeting at Port- land and extend to you a most hearty welcome. (Applause). PRESIDENT WILCOX : I was very much afraid this meeting was not going to be the perfect success that it should be, but the one man required to make our success has come in within the last two or three minutes, and I take great pleasure in introducing Senator Fulton.. (Applause.) 22 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS SENATOR FULTON : ADDRESS OF HON. CHAS. W. FULTON, U. S. SENATOR. Ladies and Gentlemen I realize that I am a little late for these cere- monies, but this being Elks' Day at the Fair as well, and I being a mem- ber of the Order of Elks, you can realize how I naturally inferred that all important ceremonies took place at eleven o'clock, and there- fore that these ceremonies would begin at that hour. I realize from a slight experience in the past how important it is to a speaker that his audience shall be impressed with the fact that every statement he makes is founded on the rock of truth; and therefore I shall be very careful to avoid making any statement which will not commend itself to you at once as a perpendicular fact. On yesterday I received the first intimation that I was expected to attend these ceremonies. The message came to me while I was standing on the banks of a trout stream, -just in the act of landing a nine-pound mountain trout (Laugh- ter and applause.) Now, I don't know whether that is applause, or whether it is a slight indication of unbelief (laughter); but certain it is, when I was assured that I was expected to be here in order to extend to you a welcome, I realized it was my duty to come at once, because I had a keen realization of the deplorable situation you must be in, wandering around here in the very heart of the city, on your own initia- tive as it were, without knowing whether I approved it or not. (Laugh- ter.) I cannot say exactly that I abandoned the plow in the field to be here, but I can assert without fear of successful contradiction that I did that which required far more self-denial, namely, quit a fishing trip to come here. And I am glad that I came, now, since I am here, for I never saw assembled a finer looking body of men in my life (laughter and applause), and what few of the ladies are here certainly surpass any that I have ever met. I congratulate the State of Oregon that you have come here to hold this Congress. I think it means very much to the people of this state. I congratulate you also that you are permitted to meet in this Queen City of the Northwest, where the mid-summer heat is placed on storage by the cooling breezes from the Pacific. I trust and believe you will enjoy your stay with us, and I assure you that if you do not, it will be because of no fault or effort at least on our part, because we appreciate most highly the fact that this convention has selected this city for its place of meeting. I congratulate the country at large that you have assembled here and that so distinctly a representative class of men have been sent here to discuss the great questions that are before the American people today. For I believe that in its history seldom has there been before the American people for solution questions of greater importance than are before them today, and which I understand will be brought before this Congress. I shall make no pretense to discuss any of those questions, or even to refer to them except in this general way. I only want now to assure you of our hearty welcome and to express the hope that when you shall depart for your homes, you will go away entertain- ing the same kindly feeling for us that we now and shall at all times entertain for you. (Great applause.) PRESIDENT WILCOX: The next speaker I shall introduce will be Mr. Cake, president of the Commercial Club, father of promo- tion and publicity in the Northwest. (Applause.) TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 23. MR. CAKE: ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT H. M. CAKE. Delegates to the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, Ladies and' Gentlemen. I have been requested to add a few words to what has been already said on behalf of the commercial interests of the City of Port- land and the Northwest. It is hardly fitting for me in bidding you gen- tlemen, strangers to our city, welcome, to elaborate upon the resources of our city, state and Northwest. We leave you to acquire knowledge of those through observation while in our city, and through the dis- cussion of the topics which will come before this convention; however, I want to say in this connection of the Northwest, that when Lewis, and Clark crossed the divide in 1805 and gazed for the first time on the Oregon country, they little dreamed of its future greatness and of the magnificent states to be carved out of that territory Washing- ton, Idaho and Oregon. While integral parts of a great nation, one people, one country with one destiny, the people in the Middle West, the South, the Southwest, the Inter-Mountain States and the Pacific Coast States are bound together by mutual ties that compels them,, if they would seek their highest prosperity, to work together as a unit^ This has been elaborated by the President of this organization, and I feel it should be the key-note of this convention. Only in helpful and continued co-operation can we in the states expect to overcome the handicap of Eastern wealth and influence and secure from the National Government that which is our due in the distribution of national appro- priations. Only in harmonious and uniform action and effort can we protect ourselves from the encroachments of corporate expansion, maintain the integrity of our citizenship against the coolie labor of the Orient, and attain that dignity of development, commercial and indus- trial, to which by nature we are entitled. We in the Northwest realize that we must establish close reciprocal relations with our sister states and cities of the great Columbia River, and make the highway which was intended by nature from the mouth of the river to its navigable, limit in the inland empire. The cities on the lakes, on the Atlantic seaboard, on the gulf, have by their concerted action compelled the recognition of the national government and are today secure in their supremacy as commercial states through the facilities afforded them by adequate river and harbor appropriations. We on the Pacific Coast,, not of Oregon alone, are entitled to like consideration and aid. In common effort we must reclaim these vast arid deserts and popu- late them that we find in the West and in the Southwest In this. Exposition Portland and the Northwest sought to cement the ties of friendship and good feeling by bringing gentlemen from those vari- ous states together, hoping as a result for closer ties between the states and producing a deeper feeling of interest on the part of the whole in the welfare of each. You from the middle western states, we bid welcome, because to you we owe much of the brawn and sinew that has laid the foundation of our statehood and rendered possible its future development. To you from the South and the Southwest, we extend the right hand of fellowship, and in the language of the Southern Cato when he met his ancient Northern foe in the reunion of the blue and the gray, we would say to you: "We are glad to meet you, for to know you is to love you." To you from Washington, Idaho and Nevada, the city is always open, for you have borne with us the heat and burden of the development of the Northwest and the increase of our great commonwealth. To you from California, we say, we send and give you greetings and thanks, for we have no better evidence of your good will and fellowship than the crowds you have put into our 24 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS state within the last ten weeks. (Applause.) We welcome you all; Portland, the Rose City of the Northwest, is yours. (Great applause.) PRESIDENT WILCOX : The next speaker I shall introduce is Mr. W. D. Wheelwright, president of our Chamber of Commerce. (Ap- plause.) MR. WHEELWRIGHT: ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT W. D. WHEELWRIGHT. Mr. Chairman and GentlemenIt is one of the pleasant duties that at- tach to the office of President of the Chamber of Commerce, for which body and with the distinct disclaimer of any personal merit I accept the honor to help in giving greeting to this distinguished company. The word congress in its usual acceptation, especially in this coun- try, means the law making power of the nation. Even in that sense it is not inappropriate that the word should be applied to this asso- ciation, because, next to agriculture, commerce is the great source of the nation's wealth, and therefore commerce has much to do in sug- gesting the enactment of those laws under which trade, the calm health of nations as the dramatist calls it, flows through the veins of the body politic. Therefore, this Congress meets to perform a great national service and duty, into which it should enter seriously, and with a full sense of its responsibilities. When I look about me and see this array of distinguished men gathered here from all parts of the Union, I am impressed with a sense of the real grandeur of Ameri- can citizenship. "The Empire is Rome" was the ancient watchword of despotism. "Paris is France" was the later cry raised by those who wished to centralize power in the hands of the few who lived in the chief city; but how different it is here in this, the beginning of the twentieth century. In a comparatively isolated community, somewhat sparsely populated, three thousand miles away from the national and financial capitals, is gathered this great company of distinguished citizens from many parts of the Republic to consider the great ques- tions of the country's growth and development and to recommend to the Congress of the United States a course of legislation that shall stimulate that growth and enlarge that development until it shall reach the full measure of the stature of the grandest and most powerful and intelligent nation on the face of the earth. Let me not be misunderstood in saying this. It is glory we aim at, the glory we have not yet reached. If we had solved the problem of government, would it be necessary for a President of the United States to say, as he did on Friday last, that we had only begun to recognize the ethical principles that should control the conduct of nations towards each other? Would it be necessary to say that weaker peoples had a right to make appeal to our consciences as well as to our emotions, and that in our own domestic affairs great corporations are resorting to every expedient to nullify the laws so that governmental control is a necessity? We need new laws; we need the just enforcement of all laws, both new and old; we need a new policy in our treatment of foreign nations that will grant to the weak every privilege that we yield to the strong; and, more than all, we need to awaken public conscience that shall serve to keep this great and powerful nation in the path of rectitude and honor. And so I appeal to you in your deliberations to regard principles as well as policies; to observe the rules of equity as well as the considerations of business; to look upon TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 27 PRESIDENT WILCOX : I take great pleasure in introducing Gen- eral John W. Noble of Missouri, father of the Department of Com- merce and Labor, former Secretary of the Interior. (Applause.) GENERAL NOBLE : RESPONSE OF HON. JOHN W. NOBLE. Mr. President and Members of the Convention I feel embarrassed to appear in the place of my distinguished fellow-citizen, who we thought would be present this morning, the father of the great Exposition at St. Louis, Hon. David R. Francis. He would have filled this place well. As your First Vice-President, I have to thank you for the honor you have conferred on me at St. Louis, and to signify my great interest in this Congress at all times and places, a part of which I have endeavored to express by traveling four days and nights, with a delay of fourteen hours, to be among you this morning. You will allow me, instead of making a set speech which possibly I may do later, as I believe the President has assigned me a text on some other day to tell you a remin- iscence. When I was twenty-four years old, I had already endeavored to make my way in life and was not succeeding very rapidly, in the State of Missouri and not wanting to live on others, I determined to go to Puget Sound. I studied the grand round of the Columbia River, and I knew then probably more than I do now as much at least be- cause I had learned about The Dalles and the Cascades and Puget Sound, and a little town called Steilacoom. I made a map of this country, got the money, packed my trunk and was about to start, and would have been one of your pioneers, when some friends induced me to go to the State of Iowa, the town of Keokuk. There I went, and as they say in Kansas nowadays, "I struck oil," got side-switched, and never came to Portland until now. Allow me to say, however, that my interest in this western country has not awakened just at this time. It was my position under General Harrison's administration, to have the governors and secretaries of the territories of North Da- kota, South Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington interested in me, because their appointment depended somewhat on the office I then held. I saw our states move westward from the Missis- sippi and the Missouri Rivers to the great Pacific, making the bulwark stronger and the prow sharper to move on with our commerce and influence to the regions of the Orient. I, too, am a Union man. I love to think what our country is as a unit, as one great force with one grand thought, the elevation, prosperity and power of the American people. I love to reflect that within my time I have traveled those plains where the buffalo .spread beyond the limit of the eye's sight. Within the last few days I have seen the harvesters spreading over the great desert, and been amazed at seeing the wheat and alfalfa coming nearly to the Rockies. To be sure, some of the corn, as one man was bragging about the corn in Missouri being so high you could not reach it on horseback, is not quite so high as that, for the other man from the State of Idaho said: "Well, it is the same in my state, but it is so low down that you can't reach it on horseback." (Laughter.) However, it led me to reflect what mighty power, resources and intelligence there is already developed, and still more to come. I remember of being in California two years ago, and looking upon the Pacific and the Golden Gate, it seemed to me that I was on the prow of a great ship, her cargo the wealth of the field, the mine, the manufactory, with a passenger list of intelligence, morality and thought, and that her power was beating rythmically as she was destined for the East, conquering not "28 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS by cannon and shot, not by destruction and lust for empire, but by the beneficent influences that our civilization confers and as we believe, our religion will come to make them better and bearing them the flag of a .great Republic, the hope of humanity. (Great applause.) PRESIDENT WILCOX : I am pleased to find in the audience Gov- ernor Prince of New Mexico, and I take great pleasure in introduc- ing him. (Applause.) GOVERNOR PRINCE: RESPONSE OF HON. L. BRADFORD PRINCE. Mr. President To make reply to gracious words of welcome is always a pleasant thing. It has fallen to me on many of those occasions to be called on to make such a reply, but never more heartily and earnestly than in this City of Portland. If this were to be a sermon instead of a very brief talk of a desultory nature I would choose for it two texts, one from the New Testament and one from the Old one, that ex- clamation of the disciples on the Mount of Glory, "It is good to be here"; and the other from the Old Testament, when the Queen of Sheba said to Solomon, "The half hath not been told of me." (Great ap- plause.) For what a wonderful land you have in this Northwest! As one passes through it on the railroad or steamboat, what does he see? What man has been able to do in the course of comparatively few years in turning, that, which was forest and desert, into fruitful plain and orchard. Not only on land but on the sea, in commerce as well as in agriculture and horticulture. If I might be allowed one moment of reminiscence, as was my friend, the former Secretary of the Interior, I would say that it was a source of renewed sorrow to me that I made the mistake of my life more than a quarter of a century ago when I was offered the governorship of the only then remaining territory in what was a part of old Oregon, when I declined it from mistake and misapprehension, and consequently have not been a resident of this part of the country ever since. (Great applause and laughter.) It was a turning point and the mistake of my life, and I recognize it, and I never was so regretful about it as I was yesterday and the day before when I traveled through this part of the country. (Great applause.) I was greatly interested, Mr. President, in rereading, as I did then, this old volume of the reports of Lewis and Clark. The volume itself, thumbed and torn as it came to me through my father, from my grand- father who owned it first, for in those days they did not have so many books and so they read and reread them; but I could not but be struck by the contrast between that which was described and that which I saw. This volume is taken up in more than two-thirds of its pages by a description of the Indian tribes, and the curiosity and peculiarities of their manners and customs, then almost unknown to the Eastern Ameri- can people. I thought of the amazement of those captains and of their followers if they could have been with me yesterday; of the new things they would have seen; of the railroad train which so swiftly brought us across those mountains which they traveled with danger and hard- ship; of the beautiful steamboats on this river which they descended with so much difficulty and trouble. If they could have seen the railroad which was unknown in their day, the steamboat, which was unknown; the telegraph; if they could have been met at the station by an auto- mobile, that they never heard of; if they could have telephoned to a hotel by means which they never dreamed of; if in that hotel they TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 29 could have been carried up on an elevator to a height which they never imagined, except as the height of a mountain, what amazement would have been theirs, and yet this contrast is the work of comparatively few years of American enterprise and industry. I wish to quote for I have not seen it quoted anywhere in connection with this Exposition or this anniversary two lines in the beginning of the report of Captain Lewis: "The great object of our expedition was to aid commerce and population." Those words ought to be written in letters of gold, it seems to me, over the entrance to this Exposition. "The great object of our expedition was to aid commerce and population." How wonder- fully that has been exemplified in this brief period that has passed. And of the Exposition itself, from whose chief we have had words of welcome, what is to be said of that? I say to you, Mr. President and ladies and gentlemen, in confidence that while I believe I am not the oldest man in the United States, I believe that there were others who lived in the fifties; so far as I know, I am the only man now living who is willing to say that he has been at every Exposition that ever took place in the United States, including the Crystal Palace in New York. But I was there, and I remember it better than I do any of the newer ones, just as we recollect those things which we saw in our boyhood. The Crystal Palace in New York, the Exposition in Philadel- phia, the one in Chicago, the Mid-Winter at San Francisco, the one at Omaha, the one at Buffalo I have seen them all but among them all, while this is not the largest, and does not pretend to be, yet there never has been one more perfect in its detail or more beautiful in its arrangement. (Great applause.) Not only the people of Portland, but the whole people of the Pacific slope have reason to be proud of it. For myself, I am only afraid of its too great fascination. I believe it will be the destruction of this year, practically of this Congress. You gentlemen of the Exposition have already shown what you can do. A year ago you sent representatives to this Congress at St. Louis and you got it to vote to come here this year, although every man who voted knew that to go to a city where there was an Exposition was a detri- ment to the Congress itself. You have hypnotized the members of the Executive Committee who have been here, so that they have recom- mended in their report that we should have 6nly one session a day, al- though every one of them knew perfectly well that we needed three sessions a day in order to get through with our business, and I fear now that we are on the ground that you will so charm us all that by tomor- row morning when we meet, the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Con- gress will be willing unanimously to adjourn so that the best use they can make of their time is simply to go and view the Exposition. (Laugh- ter and applause.) PRESIDENT WILCOX: The Secretary has given me permisssion to call on Mr. John E. Frost of Kansas for a few words. (Ap- plause.) MR. FROST: RESPONSE OF HON. JOHN E. FROST. Mr President, Gentlemen of the Congress, and Ladies and Gentlemen It is a matter of considerable embarrassment to me to be called to speak to you after the eloquence to which I have listened. I had not the remotest idea that I was expected to say anything upon this occasion. It has been a great pleasure to listen to the words of welcome which 30 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS have been extended to us, and to the eloquent responses. I can add little to what has been said, but I want you to understand the interest which Kansas takes in the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress. I think it was in 1888 that the question of making the deep water harbor upon the Gulf of Mexico was one of great moment to the people of the Southwest. The people of Kansas felt deeply interested in it, and after thinking the matter over we decided the thing to do was to call a convention to further that movement. We accordingly called the con- vention, which was was known as the Deep Harbor Convention, which met in Topeka. As a result of that convention the movement received great encouragement, and appropriations which were in a measure com- mensurate to the occasion were secured from Congress, and that con- vention gave birth to the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, of which this is the sixteenth anniversary, so we feel deeply interested in this Congress and are glad to be represented here. I hope, notwith- standing what my friend, Governor Prince, has suggested, that while I was present at the birth of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress in Topeka, I shall not be present at its funeral in Portland. (Great ap- plause.) PRESIDENT WILCOX: We would like to have had Governor Brady of Alaska with us today, but the Secretary has a telegram from him which he will read. SECRETARY FRANCIS read the following telegram: Sitka, Alaska, Aug. 14, 1905. Theodore B. Wilcox, President Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, Portland, Oregon: Alaska sends greeting to the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Con- gress. A large part of Alaska is good for homes, and those who are anxious to build them should be encouraged by the United States Con- gress to come here. Legislation favorable to schools, postal routes, railroad construction, telegraph and cable extension will be in line of proper encouragement. We are now enjoying what General Greely and his corps have already accomplished and it helps us wonderfully. JOHN G. BRADY, Governor of Alaska. Also the following letter from General Greely, who is now in Alaska : WAR DEPARTMENT SIGNAL CORPS U. S. ARMY. OFFICE OFFICER IN CHARGE ALASKAN CABLE AND TELERGAPH SYSTEM. Seattle, Wash., July 8, 1905. Mr. Arthur F. Francis, Secretary Portland, Oregon: Dear ^>ir I have to acknowledge your courteous invitation on be- half of your President, Mr. Theo. B. Wilcox, and the Executive Com- mittee of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, to attend its meetings in Portland from August 16th to 19th, and to address its delegates upon Alaska. It is an indication of foresight of your President and Executive Committee that emphasis has been given the great and almost unde- veloped Territory of Alaska. Few realize the magnitude of the com- TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 31 tnercial relations of Alaska or of its possibilities in the immediate fu- ture. It suffices to call attention to the fact that the entire volume of trade in and out of Alaska approximates thirty million annually, and this presents aspects of importance to the intelligent and enterprising business men of whom the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress is composed. Your truly, A. W. GREELY, Brigadier-General, U. S. Army, Chief Signal Officer. SECRETARY FRANCIS : If the President will permit I would call the attention of the delegates to the fact that each state should get together during the afternoon and perfect their organization and select two members of the Committee on Resolutions, one on the Executive Committee to serve two years, one on permanent or- ganization, and also a Vice President to serve during the following year. These names should be handed in tomorrow morning upon the call of states. PRESIDENT WILCOX: The delegates have heard the announce- ment of the Secretary. If there is no further business the Con- gress stands adjourned until 9 :30 tomorrow morning. REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS SECOND DAY AUDITORIUM, LEWIS AND CLARK EXPOSITION GROUNDS, AUGUST 17, 9 :30 O'CLOCK A. M. The Congress was called to order by General John W. Noble, First Vice President. GENERAL NOBLE: Gentlemen, inasmuch as the President of the Congress will participate in the proceedings today, he has as- signed to me the duty as your First Vice President of presiding. With your kind "assistance I will endeavor to perform the duties of the office. I want to say just one word before we proceed. I think this Congress is about to be one of the most important and influential of any of the Congresses that are being held in our country, for two reasons : One is that the questions which are com- ing before you and before the American people at this time are not only comparatively new as compared with the questions which have agitated the economic and political world in our country, but they are to work an immense influence upon the immediate future of our country. These questions I need not enumerate; they are in your own minds. The second reason is that of a number of conventions, both of this Congress and the opportunity I had in St. Louis last year of seeing the men who came to discuss different questions in different congresses, I feel that in this body of men and I speak not in compliment there is that exhibition of intelligence, strength, courage, and patriotism that will go far not merely to discuss, but to decide these questions so far as this Congress is concerned, with intelligence, justice, and for the public welfare. (Applause.) The first business in order this morning is the call of states and the re- ports of delegations to be made therefrom. GOVERNOR PRINCE : As this is the first business that has been announced, I have a matter which I desire to bring before the call. The call includes the name of a vice president from each state and the members of the committees. In the Constitution and Rules, as they are printed, these having been made up from resolutions passed at different times, there is an incongruity; because in the statement under the head of officers it says the state vice presidents are to be named by the President of the Congress, and not by the states and territories ; but in another section they are to be named by the states and territories as they always have been, and therefore, with the TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 33 concurrence of the Chairman of the Executive Committee, I offer an amendment to the section on officers in order to avoid that diffi- culty so that it shall read as follows : "The officers of the Congress shall be a President, four Vice Presidents at large, a Secretary and Treasurer to be elected by the Congress at each session, and to hold office until their successors are elected, and a Vice President from each state and territory to be elected as hereafter provided. There shall be a standing executive committee, consisting of two members from each state and territory, and seven general officers and an advisory board of five members to be consulted by the officers and executive committee." I offer that as an amendment. The motion was seconded. GENERAL NOBLE: I understand that motion to mean that owing to an ambiguity in the Constitution, it is the expression of opinions and sentiment of this body that by way of amendment this interpretation shall be in favor of the larger way of selecting the vice presidents, namely, through the Congress and not through the President. That being the interpretation I put upon the mo- tion, I suppose the vote being an amendment to the Constitution ought to be by states and territories upon a call. The Secretary, however, suggests to me that owing to the early time in the morn- ing at which this is heard that we have the vote take viva voce, and if there is no objection, we will take it in that way. I feel more at liberty to do that because I look upon it merely as an interpretation of the existing Constitution. Whereupon the motion was put to a vote and unanimously carried. The call of states and territories was then made by the Secre- tary, with the following result: COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS. ARIZONA Ramon Soto. J. C. Goodwin. CALIFORNIA. Scipio Craig. E. H. .Benjamin. COLORADO. James F. Callbreath, Jr. Geo. W. Schneider. IOWA. C. F. Saylor. H. M. Stone. IDAHO. Geo. W. Tannahill. J. H. Richards. 34 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS Sam Kimbal. W. R. Edwards. Chas. Wegner. Fred W. Fleming. A. C. Smith. L. B. Prince. E. A. Williams. E. A. Hawkins, Jr. Jos. Stamford. KANSAS. J. B. Case. MINNESOTA. H. E. Hastings. MONTANA. MISSOURI. H. B. Topping. NEBRASKA. C. B. Porter. NEW MEXICO. G. R. Engledow. NORTH DAKOTA. W. H. Robinson. TEXAS. Edw. F. Harris. UTAH. John Henry Smith. WASHINGTON. A. L. Black. Miles Moore. COMMITTEE ON PERMANENT ORGANIZATION. ARIZONA. Miss Lucy T. Ellis. CALIFORNIA. J. E. Raker. COLORADO. J. B. Melville. IOWA. C. L. Early. IDAHO. M. E. Lewis. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 35 KANSAS. A. J. White. MINNESOTA. John Kingsley. MISSOURI. E. E. Yates. NEW MEXICO. L. B. Prince. NORTH DAKOTA. , John F. Wallace. OREGON. Tom Richardson. TEXAS. M. W. Stanton. UTAH. John R. Barnes. WASHINGTON. Joseph Shippen. HONORARY VICE-PRESIDENTS. Alaska W T illiam A. Kelly, Sitka. Arkansas C. C. Reid, Morrillton. Arizona Walter Talbot, Phoenix. California E. H. Benjamin, San Francisco. Colorado Mitchell Benedict, Denver. Iowa J. L. Kamrar, Webster City. Idaho^-John B.' Morris, Lewiston. Indian Territory Henry J. Keller, South McAlester. Kansas John E. Frost, Topeka. Louisiana J. S. Dixon, Natchitoches. Minnesota H. E. Hutchings, St. Paul. Montana David G. Browne, Fort Benton. Missouri Hon. John W. Noble, St. Louis. Nebraska Henry T. Clarke, Omaha. Nevada E. L. Williams, Reno. New Mexico G. R. Engledow, Raton. North Dakota N. G. Larimore, Larimore. Oklahoma C. G. Jones, Oklahoma City. Oregon E. L. Smith, Hood River. South Dakota Wesley A. Stuart, Sturgis. Texas D. D. Peden, Houston. Utah Wm. N. Williams, Salt Lake City. Washington Hon. Albert H. Mead, Olympia. Wyoming Fennimore Chatterton, Cheyenne. 36 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Alaska R. H. Kemp, Skagway. Arkansas Geo. R. Brown, Little Rock. Arizona J. W. Benham, Phoenix. California Rufus P. Jennings, San Francisco. Colorado Arthur F. Francis, Cripple Creek. Iowa E. H. Hunter, Des Moines. Idaho J. R. Good, Boise. Indian Territory J. G. Rucker, Claremore. Kansas E. E. Hoffman, Leavenworth. Louisiana H. M. Mayo, New Orleans. Minnesota John Kingsley, St. Paul. Montana Herbert Strain, Great Falls. Missouri Fred W. Fleming, Kansas City. Nebraska C. B. Anderson, Crete. Nevada A. H. Manning, Reno. New Mexico G. R. Engledow, Raton. North Dakota W. N. Steele, Rolla 1 . Oklahoma J. H. Johnston, Oklahoma City. Oregon Tom Richardson, Portland. South Dakota Homer Johnson, Armour. Texas T. S. Reed, Beaumont. Utah Geo. Romney, Salt Lake City. Washington J. R. Stevenson, Pomeroy. Wyoming W. J. Thorn, Buffalo. T. P. A. C. W. Ransom, Portland, Oregon. U. C. T. Wat R. Sheldon, Denver, Colorado. GOVERNOR PRINCE : In connection with the matter which came up a little while ago, I will state that an examination of the rules discloses several matters of ambiguity, and I move that a committee of five be appointed to report to this body during its session such amendments to the rules as seem to be necessary to make them harmonious. The motion was seconded and duly carried. The Chair stated that he would announce the appointment of this committee at a subsequent time. GENERAL NOBLE : I have the pleasure now to introduce to the Congress Major W. C. Langfitt of the Corps of United States En- gineers of the United States Army, with whom you are all ac- quainted by reputation, and many of you by personal acquaintance on the Pacific Coast, whose labors you appreciate, and who has been appreciated by the government so that he has been recognized as worthy of advancement, who will deliver us an address upon the Columbia river. (Applause.) TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 37 MAJOR W. C. LANGFITT thereupon addressed the Congress as follows : ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. C. LANGFITT ON "COLUMBIA RIVER." The subject of this paper, as just announced, is a large one, too large to be covered in the time at my disposal, and this, together with my lack of preparedness, is my apology for lack of sequence and incom- pleteness. The Columbia River is the second largest river in the United States; it is the largest river along the whole Pacific Coast, and is in fact, one of the great rivers of the world. Its drainage area is approximately 245,000 square miles, and its discharge varies from over 50,000 cubic feet per second to 1,500,000 cubic feet per second or more. The Cascade range of mountains divides the drainage basin into two parts of which it is estimated that the part lying to the eastward of these mountains contains 185,000 square miles. This portion embraces the great inland empire, the fertile wheat lands of Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington and Idaho. The natural outlet for the products of the greater portion of this empire is down the Columbia River to the sea and thence to the markets of the world. Unfortunately in its natural state there existed several complete barriers to ordinary river navigation between the east- ern and western portions of the drainage area. BARRIER TO NAVIGATION. These were the cascades of the Columbia, fifty-five miles above the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia; the falls and rapids in the thirteen miles between The Dalles, forty-five miles above the cas- cades, and Celilo; Priest rapids, 190 miles above Celilo, and farther up are other obstructions not necessary to mention here. The Snake River joins the Columbia 228 miles above the mouth of the Willamette and seventy-three miles below Priest rapids. This river is navigable at all but the lower stages and can be improved with comparative ease. It reaches a large portion of the wheat and fruit lands of the eastern area already mentioned. The Columbia between Celilo falls and the Snake needs also but a relatively small amount of work to render it easily navigable for river boats. The stretch of thirteen miles between The Dalles and Celilo is now under improvement, work on Three-Mile rapids having been prosecuted last season and to be completed this year. The first contract has been let for beginning construction of The Dalles-Celilo canal, which will pass river boats around the Five-Mile, Ten-Mile rapids and Celilo falls, overcoming at low water a total fall of eighty-one feet in eight miles. IMPROVEMENT OF RIVERS. A canal has already been nearly completed to overcome the cas- cades and has been in operation since 1896. Two lines of river steamers ply regularly between Portland and The Dalles. Portland lies on the banks of the Willamette River, twelve miles above its confluence with the Columbia and 110 miles from the sea. Aside from other natural physical advantages of its site, the growth of Portland is accounted for in large part by the fact that it is located in the very fertile valley of the Willamette and at that point to which in early days the small seagoing vessels of that date could ascend. As the size of vessels increased, the need of improvement in the channel 38 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS between Portland and the sea became imperative and early operations were confined to work on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers below Portland the work being officially known as "improvement of the Co- lumbia and lower Willamette Rivers below Portland, Oregon," and does not include the "improvement of the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon and Washington." The work on "the Columbia and lower Willamette," this is to say, on the river channel, has continued intermittently as funds were made available until now, with the aid of annual dredging, a navigable channel twenty-four feet in depth at low water is maintained from the lower end of Portland harbor to the head of the estuary of the river. DREDGING EVERY YEAR. At low water in the river a tidal range of two feet and over exists at Portland, the range increasing down the river to about seven feet at the head of the estuary. The amount of dredging required to obtain these results above given is quite large, but this would be immaterial were it not for the fact that every year requires going over the same ground. As a matter of fact, there has been nothing done in way of permanent work to reduce this necessity of annual dredging in the last twelve or more years, the funds available being sufficient only for the temporary work of each year. The permanent work previously done was totally insufficient, though effective where well placed. As an indication of the necessity of permanent work, the fact may be stated that one dredge is continually employed in the estuary to main- tain a low water depth of twenty to twenty-two feet, but as in the estuary the tidal range averages almost seven feet, by using high water any vessel that can use the river above can cross the estuary. As a further indication of the need of permanent works, it may be stated that during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1905, the total amount dredged in maintaining the existing channel from Portland to the mouth was practically 2,000,000 cubic yards, and that past experience shows that to maintain the present status this amount more or less must be removed annually. PERMANENT WORK ESSENTIAL. It sometimes unavoidably happens that the dredging cannot keep pace with the falling river after the June floods, and several shoals need dredging at once, causing delays to shipping. By properly designed permanent works, much of this annual dredging could be eliminated and the places where dredging would be required reduced in number. A combination of permanent works with a consequent minimum of annual work of maintenance by dredging is essential. The estimated: cost of this improvement is approximately $2,750,000, and it should be made available in such manner that work can be steadily and vig- orously pushed without stoppage for lack of funds. The fact that with small appropriations recurring only every two years no permanent and sufficient channel can be obtained is evident, and I wish to state here that even the moderate results in the way of channel improve- ment already obtained would not have been possible with funds ap- propriated by the general government alone. The City of Portland, through its Port of Portland commission, has most generously aided in the work, both by constructing large modern dredges and by operat- ing them and by construction of some permanent work. The total expenditures of the Port of Portland have exceeded $1,500,000, while the total expenditures made and authorized by the general government have aggregated but $2,000,000 since 1866. The amount of seagoing commerce using the river has increased from 436,192 tons in 1895 to 778,328 tons in 1904. The belief, with TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 39 strong basis of fact for its support, is held by many that this develop- ment will continue and, further, that the completion of the works for obtaining an open river through the construction of The Dalles-Celilo canal, already spoken of, will give a still more marked impetus to sea- going trade. The bar at the entrance of the Columbia River has always been troublesome, even to the smaller vessels of earlier days. The channel across it has continually shifted in position, the depth has varied within comparatively wide limits and, owing to its exposure, the crossing dur- ing a large part of the year is always very rough. This roughness necessitates reduction in the loaded draft of the vessels that can be taken across the bar by varying amounts up to several feet, depending on the state of the bar or during the fall and winter months, the most active shipping season, involves much delay to loaded vessels awaiting the rare occasions of smooth water. BAR RESTRAINT TO COMMERCE. The small natural depth on the bar, together with the conditions just cited, has limited the size of vessels frequenting this port, has pre- vented general development, increased the cost of freights, and has caused much commerce, naturally tributary to this outlet, to seek other ports. Before 1885 various plans were considered for improving the chan- nel, and finally in that year work was begun on a jetty to extend out from Point Adams (Fort Stevens) on the southerly side of the entrance to a point about three miles south of Cape Disappointment. This jetty was completed in 1895 and a channel thirty-one feet in depth temporar- ily resulted. The depth in 1885 was but twenty feet. The jetty as con- structed was four and a quarter miles in length and practically ad- vanced and extended the southerly side of the entrance so as to bring it abreast of the northerly side. Such action, while perhaps a necessary preliminary to complete improvement, could not in the light of further experience be expected to produce permanent results. Accordingly the thirty-one-foot channel began to shoal and vary in position and again became very unsatisfactory, the depth reducing in 1903 to as low as twenty-one feet at mean lower low water. CONGRESS MADE EXAMINATION. Meanwhile the shoaling that had occurred in 1896, 1897 and 1898 led to the belief that further work was necessary, and in 1899 Congress ordered a further survey and examination with plans and estimates of cost looking to a channel forty feet deep at mean lower low water. This work was done and provided for a three-mile extension of the south jetty as already constructed. Before adopting this plan Congress re- quired a review thereof by a board of engineers with a view to decreas- ing the cost, if possible. The board reduced the length of the projected extension of the south jetty to two and a half miles, to be carried out on a slightly different line, and recommended the trial of a seagoing suc- tion dredge for temporary relief, and further stated that while it was hoped that the extension of the existing jetty alone would produce the desired results, it might not prove so, and in this event advised that a second or north jetty would be necessary. A trial of a seagoing dredge was made, but owing to local condi- tions the results were not considered commensurate with the cost of operation, and the dredge was accordingly tied up until conditions should become more favorable for its use. 40 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS BENEFITS WILL BE GREAT. Work has proceeded on the extension of the south jetty as recom- mended by the board and is now being vigorously prosecuted. In order to complete it, however, the sum of $850,000 is needed in addi- tion to the $300,000 authorized but not appropriated by the last session of Congress. The necessity of this improvement is almost self-evident. There is now but twent3 r -three feet at mean lower low water on the bar. Vessels are increasing in draft each year and the delays caused by lack of depth and roughness of bar, and which would be largely re- duced by deeper channel, prevent these large carriers from frequenting this port. The amount of commerce at present affected has already been given in considering the ship channel from Portland to the mouth. The funds desired are small compared with the benefits to be derived and are equally so when compared with appropriations for other some- what similar ports. Thus the total appropriations for the Columbia River entrance to July 1, 1905, aggregated only $4,425,745.81, while those for Mobile bar and harbor aggregated $5,047,647.60, Savannah bar and harbor $7,599,973.05 and Galveston bar and harbor $9,739,129.66. That work on the jetty should proceed without stoppage is most important, both from the standpoint of early results as well as from that of economy, and it is hoped that funds will soon be forthcoming for the reason that money now available or authorized will be expended by the end of the calendar year. (Applause.) GENERAL NOBLE: The next speaker needs no introduction to you ; our esteemed President, Theodore B. Wilcox of Portland, will now address you on Oriental trade. (Applause.) MR. THEODORE R WILCOX thereupon addressed the convention as follows: ADDRESS OF MR. THEO. B. WILCOX ON "ORIENTAL TRADE." Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen I am invited to speak here to- day on "Oriental Trade," because for eighteen years past 1 have taken part in its growth and development, and while I know that from our Atlantic ports large quantities of American products are shipped to the Orient by way of the Suez Canal, and around Cape Horn, I have been more interested in establishing better markets for the products of the Pacific Coast, and transportation for other American products through our Pacific ports, and it is from this standpoint I shall speak. I pass over the period of early Oriental trading, when merchants fitted out vessels in New York and London with ventures of Ameri- can and European goods, and went bargaining through the various ports for Oriental products, in charge of the old-time supercargo, al- though even then, a century ago, Oriental trade had its attractions and its possibilities. Not until 1867, and in view of the completion of the first railroad across the American continent, was there established a steamer service across the Pacific. Small carriers slow and infrequent but during the following twenty years the trade grew to a fleet of several steamers, with a total carrying capacity of some 30,000 tons. In 1887 the Canadian Pacific Railway established the Empress line from Vancouver; in 1889 the Union Pacific a line from Portland; in 1890 the Northern Pacific a line from Tacoma, and in 1896 the Great Northern Railway established a line from Seattle. These various steamship lines have been increased from time to time with more and larger steamers, TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 41 many of them of the largest and finest types afloat, until the carrying capacity of the fleet now employed is more than 300,000 tons, exclusive of lumber carriers. This will show you the growth of the Oriental trade from Pacific ports better than any other statistics could do. The deadweight base of nearly all of these cargoes has been flour, made from wheat grown on the Pacific Coast. Now it is not an easy thing to turn a people like the Chinese, who have followed the same customs for centuries, to new articles of food. Their accustomed diet is rice, and long before Confucius established the religion of the empire, the Chinese had adopted the same articles of food that have sufficed for centuries past. The establishment of a flour trade with such people has necessarily been slow and an educational process. But in catering in every way to their ofttimes seemingly peculiar notions of what they want and how they want it, much, however, like the buyers in other countries, an annual trade of 150,000 tons six million bags of flour, and requiring seven million bushels of wheat has been built up with China alone. This trade has, however, suffered during the past year. Owing to the high prices of wheat in America, the active competition of Aus- tralia: and other causes, it has fallen off nearly one-third, whether tem- porarily or otherwise remains to be seen. With Japan it has been different. Beginning the import of flour in quantities only in 1897, this trade has grown rapidly, and though it has been fostered and cultivated but half the time, it already equals the vol- ume marketable in China, and while doubtless some of it supplies the re- quirements of the war at present, the growth of the trade and the manner of its growth, point to a constantly increasing volume. The Japanese have already realized that wheaten foodstuffs as employed by other peoples make for a better physical manhood, and that strength of bone and muscle begets a higher mental development. Eventually, we are told, much of the cereal foods of both China; and Japan will come from Man- churia. But Manchuria will remain a part of China, and be but slowly colonized by Japan, and its production of wheat will not overtake the de- mand already established, for many years to come. But the rapidly in- creasing population of the United States, and especially of the Pacific Coast States, make it very problematical what our surplus wheat crop may be, long before China and Japan produce their own supply in Man- churia. The total exportable surplus of the Pacific Coast at present would feed but ten or twelve millions of people, as we use flour. From this must be deducted the increasing requirements of Central and South America and the Pacific islands; and unless our wheat production in- creases more rapidly than our increasing population may require, the limit of our ability to feed the Orient will soon be reached, and they must look to Australia, to the territory east of the Rockies, to Manitoba or to Manchuria. Meanwhile the fact remains that the development of the Oriental flour trade has taken approximately one-third to one- half of the surplus wheat of the Pacific coast at prices above an Euro- pean basis, at prices which have been remunerative to the producer, and at prices which have advanced the value of farm lands in ten years from $10.00 per acre to $40.00 and $50.00, and even more. It is not a great matter in bushels or dollars, compared with millions of Atlantic or gulf exports, but it is enough to bring prosperity and happiness to the thou- sands of Pacific coast farmers. The demands of the Orient for American cotton goods is not new, but it has grown in volume until for the year ending June 30 last the total value of our exports was nearly $30,000,000, of which China alone took $28,000,000 a pretty fair amount of money from people working for six to fifteen cents per day. With the close of the war between China and Japan in 1894, Japan took up more extensively the manufacture of cotton goods for her own 42 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS people and for Chinese and Corean markets. To produce goods that would compete with American goods, she wanted American long- fibered cotton to mix with the cheaper grades of India and China, and her purchases of American cotton in 1904 amounted to 315,000 bales,, valued at $17,000,000 not a great trade in volume, nor a great part of our cotton crop, but great enough, with the requirements for manufac- tured cotton sent to the Orient, to remove the surplus and reduce the supply below the usual demand, with higher prices and greater pros- perity throughout the south. The demand for American lumber has amounted in the past year to 55,000,000 feet, valued at $600,000 not a large part of the total out- put of the northwestern mills, amounting to some 4,000,000,000 feet, but a thriving, profitable and growing trade. There is a long list of American products sent to Oriental markets clocks, watches, typewriters, bicycles, sewing machines, locomotives and other machinery, nails, leather, copper, tobacco and oil. In all these articles your American merchant and manufacturer has spent time and money educating the Oriental buyer in their various uses, creating a want and then filling it. The trade in no one of these articles is great, but in the aggregate our exports total some twelve to fifteen- million dollars per month not much when compared with the enormous total of American exports; but the building up of this Oriental trade has been the hope and the early future growth of the Pacific coast, and the southern cotton grower and the eastern manufacturer have not been unmindful of its possibilities. It is estimated that there are in those portions of China readily accessible to trade relations, somewhere near four hundred million peo- ple, more than all the United States and Western Europe combined,, but with little or no purchasing power, which is, in fact, the keynote to the slow progress that has been made in the development of the trade. With the ending of the present war and the settlement of the political status of China, there will be an influx of foreign capital to- build and equip railroads and waterways, mines will be operated, fac- tories will spring up, trade and commerce will be done on modern lines, labor will be in demand at advancing rates, and the purchasing power will rapidly increase, as it has done in Japan since her awakening, and will continue to do, as she establishes and maintains herself as one of the great nations of the earth. What man can measure the possibilities of trade with the Orient, or even of China alone, during even the next ten years? Other nations than ours are alert to its possibilities, and its development is not for us alone, nor are its fruits. England has her Hong Kong, France her Saigon and Amoy, and Germany has planted herself on the Shan Tung peninsula. We have planted ourselves on the Pacific coast, and in the Philippine islands, from which somewhat re- mote bases the lamented John Hay has tried to hold open the door to this Pandora of trade, while the underlings of the government, the petty office-holder and hanger-on have subjected Chinese merchants,, students and travelers of high character, and for whose proper and courteous treatment our treaty stipulates and our national honor de- mands, to humiliating and physically uncomfortable treatment, of such character and frequency that Chinese of the privileged class, men of importance and influence in their communities, have returned home and spread abroad among their people that we are violators of international courtesy, faithless to our treaty obligations, and naught but western barbarians, unfit and unworthy of even commercial cultivation. (Ap- plause.) But further than this we have given to other nations, to our com- petitors for this trade with China, such a weapon against us as will prove our undoing, if not quickly destroyed. We have been guilty of TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 43 such offenses against a friendly nation, against a buyer of our products, that we may look for sharp retaliation, possibly instigated by competing nations, possibly only the turning of the worm. Already from Shanghai, the center of foreign influences, comes the boycott of not only Ameri- can goods, but of American vessels, and doubtless of Americans them- selves. But I want to say here that the boycott is a two-edged sword, and agitation against Americans may not stop with the American in a land where all foreigners are "devils." Whether a boycott of American goods and American people by the Chinese merchants combined in the guilds or chambers of commerce may or may not meet with the approval of the Chinese government, is immaterial. Gentlemen will tell you that China must have American products, but there is nothing now supplied by us which cannot be procured from other sources. The Chinese gov- ernment cannot force her merchants to buy American goods, and while the attitude remains as it is, and if a general boycott be established, Australia will furnish the flour, India the cotton, British Columbia the lumber, and European nations the balance of their requirements. Causes which lead to such interference with trade may be removed, but a trade once interfered with by such causes can only be regained, if at all, by long years of work and sacrifice of profits. The situation must be met and satisfied without delay. The presi- dent of the United States has undertaken to secure proper treatment at our entry ports for the privileged classes of China, but so long has this been delayed, so flagrant have been our offenses, that jt is doubtful if this will now suffice to restore our proper trade relations. It may suf- fice with the Chinese government, but will it satisfy the Chinese mer- chants? Will it destroy the weapon we have given our competitors? Will it remove the boycott against American products? I am a laboring man, born of working people. I am a believer in the right of all true and honest laborers to combine their strength to secure proper wages and conditions under which they labor. I do not hold organized labor responsible for the errors or crimes of the indi- vidual, and I have tried to do my part in upholding the dignity of labor by laboring myself, by paying good wages, by helping my employees to secure their own homes. I have befriended them in times of sickness and trouble, and I am not willing to offer any suggestion, or knowingly join in any plan which will prove a menace to the best interests of true and honest labor, but the dignity and prosperity of the American farmer, the American cotton grower and the American manufacturer must not be sacrificed or jeopardized, in the solution of the difficulties that con- front us. (Prolonged applause.) I have never employed a Chinaman except in my kitchen, but as a man who loves his country and his fellowmen, who wants to see the United States the first, the best and the greatest in all times and in all places, I say, if it shall become necessary in the negotiation of a new treaty with China, to satisfy the Chinese government, or to satisfy the Chinese merchants and remove the boycott in order to protect Ameri- can trade, that we consent to the admission of a limited number of Chinese coolies, I shall favor such action to such extent as Chinese coolie labor can be employed within our domaini without serious detriment to our own American "laborers. Chinese coolies to perform the labor on sugar plantations are a pressing need in the Hawaiian Islands, and the prosperity of that portion of our country demands them. On the Pacific Coast there is a dearth of laborers to perform work which in their absence remains undone. There is the clearing of lands, cultiva- tion of sugar beets, fruit raising, hop growing and common labor that will not pay the wages which white labor demands, and if it becomes a bone of contention, or a necessity to the solution of the question, I 44 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS am in favor of admitting a sufficient number of Chinese coolies to supply our own needs, and satisfy the requirements of the case. (Applause.) In the early stages of agitation for the exclusion of the Chinese coolie, the one port of arrival and departure was San Francisco, and it was here that the Oriental first became obnoxious. But today with the five ports of entry, a limited number will be distributed over a far greater territory and be found far less offensive than formerly, and a limited number can be used to advantage. Terrifying spectacles of race riot and bloodshed, by reason of the admission of the coolie, have been held up to us by newspapers and politicians, but I question whether there have ever been cases of such disturbances of the peace in the past where the Chinaman has been the aggressor, but always the inoffen- sive, unoffending worker, upon whose head have been visited the venge- ance of individuals, for whom I do not hold organized labor responsible; but I believe that a moderate number sufficient to cover our own neces- sities could be easily assimilated and absorbed in the interests that require that kind of labor, and would be of vast benefit in the growth and development of the western country. I am confident, moreover, that white labor that commands good wages would not be injured or disturbed in any way by such a course; and it is necessary today for the laborer and the politician as for serious thinking progressive men, to join ini hastening a solution of the problem of protecting and maintain- ing American-Oriental commerce. Heedless and unjustified exclusion of the Chinese will inevitably mean the coupling with it the exclusion of Japanese. Already an organization known as the Japanese and Corean League has been formed in California for the purpose of projecting legis- lation that will bar from our shores even the Japanese, but there are few politicians, or even laborers, who will care to assume the responsi- bility of striking the first blow at this newly discovered nation, and our amicable and friendly relations with them. It seems to me that the solution of this question lies in a revision of our immigrant laws. It is too late to raise the cry of America for Americans, but it is not too late to demand that every citizen of this Republic shall be Americans in all that the word implies, and that no other nation of the world may longer utilize the United States as a place to deport their criminals under the guise of immigration or col- onization. It is high time that the gateways of international travel be closed against the undesirable element of all nations. The most pressing problem before the American nation today is not Chinese exclusion, but the exclusion of the undesirable class of every nation and every clime from the United States in the future. Paupers with the instincts of poverty and misery through generations, criminals of any sort or description, renegades and the irresponsible are not desired from any country. (Wild applause.) Not a word of objection should be raised against any man, what- ever his nationality or his race, so long as lie is worthy to become a ckizen of this great nation, but it is our duty as citizens of this Republic to stop the influx of elements that can never be properly fused and assimilated with true American citizenship. It is not class considera- tion, but a question that concerns the man with the. pick and shovel, with the saw and plane, as much as the man in the counting- room, for it concerns us all equally, and our children and our children's children. Earnest, honest, far-sighted champions of the cause of labor- ing men have sounded the note of alarm long ago, but mot until the events of recent years in industrial centers imprinted their scars did the people of the nation awake to a realization of its importance. There will be opposition to any movement of this character. Politicians have not found it prudent to uphold any radical changes in the laws affecting immigration; Atlantic steamship owners will fight to protect their traf- TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 45 fic,. and although in the past the immigration question has been deemed one that the East should settle because its problems had not become of consequence to the West, the time has come when the West has a vital and immediate interest at stake, and we must get together and act, while we have a national executive great enough and broad enough and brave enough to settle our questions with the world without hesitancy or fear or favor. What shall be the qualifications to determine whether a foreigner may be admitted or not is a matter too grave and too im- portant to decide without the most careful consideration, but I believe we should not only call upon the President to appoint an immigrant commission to investigate and report to Congress, with recommenda- tions for a comprehensive law, stringent and studied, to cover every undesirable person from every country, but we should see to it that the members of Congress, representing thirty millions of American citi- zens, give their time and effort to the accomplishment of something that should have been done a score of years ago, and cannot now be too soon concluded. (Applause.) Population is desired in states and territories of the Trans-Missis- sippi region, but not mere numbers or quantities irrespective of char- acter or quality. Let the immigration laws be remodeled with a view to excluding the undesirable elements from every nation, but let them apply with equal force and effect to every nation whose people desire to join us. Let them apply alike to the hordes of Southern Europe, to Chinese and Japanese, and if the European immigrant cannot comply with their requirements, let him be excluded, and let the Chinaman or the Japanese enter or be excluded upon exactly the same terms and conditions. (Cries of "good.") Pending such action as this, who shall cavil at the losses sustained because of a boycott on the part of China, or any other nation whoso interests, individual or collective, shall stand for a moment, in the way of a course of action which shall be for our country's good and the preservation of the greatest free and enlightened form of government on earth? (Prolonged applause.) GENERAL NOBLE: I will now introduce Mr. Barrett, present American Minister to Colombia, who will address you on a topic of great interest. (Applause.) ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN BARRETT. HON. JOHN BARRETT: Mr. President, Members of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen I was almost happy when our distinguished chairman was about to pass me by, because I am sure it is a most difficult thing to rise here and address you after the most careful paper we have just heard from a gentleman who is an expert on this great question. Although it has been my privilege for a great many years to be laboring in the interest of our trade with the far East, and in that time I have heard papers from men both practical ani unpractical, I do riot remember of listening to one more instructive than has come from tnis representative man of the Northwest, Mr. Wilcox. (Great applause.) In foreign lands and at home I have heard this question discussed in all its phases, but with such an abundance of profound ignorance that it is a great satisfaction to hear it discussed from the standpoint of practical knowledge by a practical man; and I hope that every one here will carry away with him an acute recollection of all that Mr. Wil- 46 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS cox said, and of the impartial and thorough consideration with which he treated his subject, without that spirit of enmity towards international relationship which characterizes so much of our comment today. My friends, as a minister of you all to foreign countries, let me say that the great thing which is working for our success as a nation is the application of the principle of the golden rule; the golden rule applies to nations just as much as it applies to men and women. (Great ap- plause.) The same laws and rules that govern the relationship of your- selves to your neighbors; the same principles and relationship that governs one city in its relations with another; one state with another state these govern the United States in its relation with Europe, Asia, Souh America, with all the world, and, thank heaven, we have had within the last seven or eight years a man who has stood for that new idea in diplomacy, which has been of such benefit to us. I refer to the Hon. John Hay of lamented memory. (Great applause.) But, as he has passed away, we still have in our executive a man who has told every minister and there are some thirty-six or thirty seven of us that wherever we go we can understand that just as Uong as we tell the truth and give everybody a square deal, we will be backed up. (Great applause.) I want to congratulate Portland on having the session of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress. When I look back two years and remember how this hillside was then rough and uncouth; when I remember that this beautiful lake was a muddy slough, and when I look now and see these wonderful buildings, and in that lake the re- flection of the master work of the builder and the architect, I say it is typical of the progressive growing spirit of the Northwest, and it is fitting that here should come this year the Trans-Mississippi Commer- cial Congress, composed of the representative, forceful men of the Trans- Mississippi country, who are banded together to advance its interests before the rest of the United States and before the world. I want to add credit to these representative men of Portland who have made this Exposition a success, because this is all in line with the spirit of Oriental trade and commerce. We can remember those who objected, who fought the project; but when I see this magnificent triumph I con- gratulate those who have carried it to a successful conclusion. And I think it is only fitting that some one should refer to the splendid work for the success of this Congress that has been done by the efficient Sec- retary, Mr. Arthur F. Francis, of Colorado. I have known of him for a long time, and I know how hard he has labored to make this meet- ing a success, and I think you all join with me in that sentiment. (Ap- plause.) It is also fitting that this city should welcome you at this time, as it has entered upon a new era of prosperity and growth, largely as the result of it being one of the gateways to the Orient. Ladies and gentlemen, in all earnestness, I say to you, and with less knowledge than many of you, and with not more knowledge than some, that the time has come which is the most critical in the develop- ment of our trade with the far East and Asia. The hour is at hand when we must decide whether our trade is to expand with legitimate and natural growth or whether it is to be limited by adverse conditions. We are at the turning of the ways, and it will be largely owing to the leadership of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress whether our pathway is onward or backward, or whether we shall simply mark time and make no progress. It is so serious that I believe this Congress in discussing this question can start a realization of its seriouness all over the United States which may save us from the loss of the magnifi- cent trade which is only in the infancy of its development when we look forward and see the Pacific Ocean about to become the center of events, of trade and commerce, and political, social and educational TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 47 development, which has never been surpassed from the Atlantic. We have at this moment a most convincing argument, a most convincing proof that we are at the turning of the ways, and that is in the Chinese boycott, to which Mr. Wilcox has referred. When, therefore,* the situa- tion is so serious we should stop a moment as sensible men and women and consider what is the real practical value of this .Trans-Pacific or Asiatic commerce, and I hope I may convince you that it is of such great importance that it is worthy of our careful consideration in every detail. Let me call your attention to one or two general facts which are as it were, the basis of our argument. Do you realize that today there are 500,000,000 of living human beings debouching upon the waters of the Pacific across from us, whose great demand in the future for sup- plying what they need must come to this country if we only prepare the way, but which may go, as Mr. .Wilcox has stated, to the rest of the world, if we turn our backs upon them and reject the opportunities which are before us? Think of it! Japan, with 40,000,000 of people, just realizing their possibilities; China with 400,000,000, Corea with 45,000,- 000, Siam with 15,000,000, the Philippines with 10,000,000, Australasia with ten or fifteen millions, and other countries facing on the Pacific with ten or fifteen millions more, until the total goes beyond 500,000,000 of human beings who are just beginning to realize what they cam buy after their own internal wealth and capacity for production is developed. I will not give you .false figures, nor picture to you an impossible realiza- tion; but take the actual record for the last ten years, and if there is a man or woman here who thinks for the moment that I exaggerate or am led away with dreaming, or that I am a "hair-brained diplomat," I want him or her to say so, and see if I cannot convince him or her that I am right. Remember what the actual figures tell you. Ten years ago the commerce of the United States with Asiatic oceanic Countries amounted to only $125,000,000. I remember it very distinctly, because in those days when I first went from this grand old state as ^minister to Siam I know how hard it was to awaken any interest in this country in Asiatic trade. I was criticized by newspapers for my prophesies and enthusiasm; so today I look upon this progress with serene satisfac- tion as some justification of one who has tried to do his duty in a very humble way. (Great applause.) Ten years ago the entire foreign trade of the United States with Asia and Oceanica was only $125,000,000. For the year ending June 30, 1905, that trade had grown to $350,000,000, or an increase of $225,000,000 in ten years, nearly 200 per cent, an increase unrecorded in our trade with Asiatic Europe, South America, Africa or any other part of the world. (Great applause.) And yet there are men who would throw away that enormous trade for fear one or two China- men or Japanese might get into this country by some mistake or other. (Applause.) Let us analyze this trade a, little further. We find that in 1895 our imports from the far East were only $95,000,000. Now, you know that any country in order to become a great market must buy as well as sell. In 1895 our imports were $95,000,000; last year our imports were $188,000,000, an increase of $93,000,000 in ten years, or 100 per cent. Here is something that will appeal to you, manufacturers, merchants and exporters. In 1895 our total exports in manufacture and agricultural products to this far eastern country was only $30,000,000. Last year re- member this, those of you who would minimize this trade it amounted to $160,000,000, or an increase of 500 per cent, never known before in the history of the United States. And yet, ten years ago the San Francisco Chronicle called me "a hair-brained diplomat" because I said our com- merce ought to double in ten years. If, in the last ten years we have 48 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS developed our trade $130,000,000, why should we not in the next ten years increase it from $160,000,000 to $500,000,000? (Great applause.) My friends, our exports have increased three times as fast as our im- ports in our trade with the far East. Does not that show the value of the market? There are lots of countries where our imports have in- creased far more rapidly than our exports. That points to you the practical value of this trade. Another thing: Let us notice the last five years. We find that from 1900 to 1905 the increase of our foreign trade with the far East has increased $124,000,000., which is about 50 per cent. If you look over the increase of our trade with South America, with Canada or Asia, you will find that the increase with the Orient is far ahead of what it is with any other part of the world. Perhaps a few comparisons will illus- trate this better; we often: size up things by observing how they stand along with other things. We draw conclusions largely by comparison. South America today is one of the most inviting fields. Perhaps I can say that with a little measure of interest, because of having served you as minister in three different countries of South America. I believe South America has a magnificent future, and I fear we have been too long holding the mote in our own eye and the beam in the eye of criticism, when possibly we should have taken the beam out of our own eye before we said so much about the Latins. The more I see of the Latin people, the more I am convinced there is a great deal in their favor. I have never heard stories of graft, as we call it, among them. In the great City of Buenos Ayres, one of the most magnificent capitals in all the world, I never heard a suggestion of municipal graft, and it is one of the best governed cities I ever lived in. There is also that great gov- ernment, the United States of South America, growing more rapidly than any other in the world except our own; there were some talks of revolution, but. none of defalcations or peculation: among government officials. (Great applause.) Revolution there represented in a measure the spirit of enthusiasm, a desire 'among the people to have good govern- ment in its administration everywhere. So, let us stop and think some- times in this country, if we haven't a little beam in our own eye before we criticize too much. In 1895 our trade with South America was $145,000,- 000. In 1905 it had grown to $207,000,000, an increase of 62 per cent. Bear in mind, now, the figures for the corresponding time in our trade with the Orient was $350,000,000 as against $207,000,000 with South America, an increase of 42 per cent with South America, and an in- crease with Asia of over 200 per cent. Now a word more with regard to the far eastern question. The most critical period in the history of American-Asiatic commerce would seem to be at hand. The developments of the next year will decide whether the trade of the United States with the trans-Pacific countries is to ex- pand with legitimate and gratifying growth or to be limited by adverse conditions. Either Europe or the United States is to be the dominating influence in the foreign commerce of Asia, according as events of the following year shape themselves. This is a note of warning inspired by facts known to all students of Oriental trade. We are already face to face with a crisis that has come upon us with startling rapidity, but convincing force. The Chinese boycott in the terms of its expounders is the culmina- tion of influences that have been at work for years, and represents the climax of remonstrance against the failure of our people, in the opinion of the Chinese, to carry out the principles of the golden rule in dealing with Asiatics. It therefore behooves net only our commercial interests but the people at large first to consider and ^analyze without delay the conditions, character and importance of our commerce with Asia, and then to act accordingly. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 49 The defenders and promoters of the Chinese boycott declare that China is asking a new deal and a square deal in her relations with the foreign world. She is awakening to a sense of her inherent rights and of her latent power. She is realizing as never before the value of her markets and the capacity of her vast population directed along ad- vanced lines. While as a government she .^cannot possibly have any unkind feeling toward our government, the Chinese higher classes can- not understand why they should be treated differently from the corre- sponding classes of other races and nations who may wish to enter the United States. There is no greater mistake than to think of China as a nation ex- clusively of coolies. She has millions of men distributed over her em- pire who possess intelligence, refinement and wealth. The Chinese have a distinct racial and national pride that we are prone to overlook. It is only a question of time when China, like Japan, will startle the world with her onward movement, and yet it was only a few years ago that foreigners looked upon the Japanese as they do now upon the Chinese. In discussing the possible dangers of Asiatic labor competition and Asiatic immigration, it is well 1 to bear in mind that the price of labor along the whole Asa.tic coast from Singapore to Yokohama has in- creased on an average of 25 per cent, according to quality and skill, in the last decade, and bids fair to keep on increasing proportionately during the next ten years. As for the Chinese, in addition to pur having little to fear from the just application of the present exclusion la.w, it should be borne in mind as a hopeful condition that the number of coolies who might wish to enter our borders or those of other countries is now largely regu- lated by the powerful Chinese guilds, which, for their own interests, ar- range that the supply shall not exceed the legitimate demand. Further- more, there is no doubt that if China inaugurates the material and inter- nal development that now seems imminent, the home demand of China, supported by the natural preference of the Chinaman for his own land as a field of labor or residence, will tend to limit those who would come to the United States. The so-called yellow peril, viewed in a practical light, can be de- scribed as a "bogie." The yellow peril may be made a yellow blessing. The more Japan has developed her own industries, resources and com- peting capacity with the foreign world the more has she purchased from it. Japan as a manufacturing or industrial, nation has now a total trade with the United States of $100,000,000 per annum, against one-fourth of that amount when she began her new era as a world power. Since China commenced at Shanghai and other treaty ports to foster her in- dustrial interests her trade with the United States has grown until last year it reached, including Hongkong, the unprecedented total of $92,000,- 000, which is triple what it was a decade ago. It is illogical and unjust to predict that universal peril and danger will result from the material, social and political awakening and ad- vancement of Asia. Along with Japan's growth in military and political prowess she is bending her energies to the betterment and enlighten- ment of her people. This condition will be just as characteristic of the Chinese when the movement for progress is fully inaugurated. Japan and China will purchase from abroad as they become greater manu- facturing and producing nations. In other words, as ou"r foreign trad'e has swelled in harmony with internal development, so will that of China and Japan, and dispel the nightmare of the yellow peril. When we remember the amount of capital and the number of labor- ers that are beneficiaries of an annual trade of $350,000,000 with Pacific countries, we must consider well and carefully any harsh measures, 50 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS methods or policies that may tend to cripple or reduce such a mighty- traffic. We must determine soon whether this trade shall advance rapidly and surely to the $1,000,000,000 mark, with corresponding employment of capital and labor, or remain stationary or sluggush with unfortunate effect on capital and labor alike. The possible results of the Chinese boycott come home to us with special emphasis in view of the fact that our exports to China are nearly twice as great a our imports from that country and the tendency of expansion must be largely in the line of export trade. Ten years ago the total foreign commerce of the United States that went through and came into Pacific ports, like Portland, Puget Sound and San Francisco, was valued at $76,000,000. This last year it amounted to $165,000,000. (Great applause.) I want to be understood before I go any further that I am not one moment reflecting upon the honesty and fairness of judgment of those who hold different views. There is in ttiis country the right of holding opinion just as you choose and expressing it as freely as you wish. That is the glory of our institutions, and I stand as strongly as any man for the execution of our laws; but I believe those laws should not be strained until a great nation is insulted. I see no more reason why we should bend backward than that we should bend forward, and close our eyes; let us stand simply straight and give everybody a square deal; that is all we want and that is all China wants. (Great applause.) Let us rise up and exhibit to the world a white race that can stand on a pedestal and be white in the true meaning of the term, and present such an example to Asia, South America and Europe as is worthy of that splendid citizenship which this country can produce when it tries. (Great applause.) In other words, let us remember that whether there is a yellow peril or a, yellow blessing in Japan and China depend fargely upon the example which this nation sets to all the world. Whether Japan shall go onward, and China with her 400,000,000, and become a mighty influence for good throughout the world largely depends upon the example and influence of the American people. It is a sign of promise that we can gather together today so many thoughtful men and women carefully to consider these questions. Therefore, let us go- forward with confidence; let us feel in our hearts that spirit of joy which this sunlight now brings into this room, because we have these great problems; let us look beyond ourselves, and in the same way that we are discussing these great problems in our states, cities and towns, go out to the four corners of the world and find everywhere a welcoming hand for the true American. I thank you. (Great applause.) GENERAL NOBLE : I am sure that I but voice the sentiment of this Congress in saying that we most highly appreciate, and are very thankful to the eminent gentleman, our President, and par- ticularly our minister to Colombia, for the eloquent and instructive argument and persuasive addresses they have given us upon the trade of the Orient. (Applause.) I now have the pleasure of in- troducing to you Hon. F. B. Thurber oFNew York, president of the- United States Export Association, who will address you on the subject of "The Future Markets in the Orient." TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 51 HON. F. B. THURBER: ADDRESS OF HON. F. B. THURBER. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen We have had so much of fact and eloquence that it is rather difficult to tread in such shoes. I think it was Colton in his Lacon who said that "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready main, writing an exact man." We have had pretty good illustrations of the full man and the ready man; but I do not know whether I shall be able to fill the bill of the exact man. However, before starting in with my paper I want to say a word about Hon. John Barrett. I have known him a good many years, and he has been one of the most useful men to the people and the commerce of the United States that we have ever had. The San Francisco editor who termed him "a hair-brained diplomat" made the biggest mistake of his life. It would perhaps be well if some of our other diplomats had a few of the qualities which Mr. Barrett possesses. (Applause.) You remember that at one time the Women's Christian Temperance Union called on President Lincoln to protest against the further continuance of General Grant as general of the army. He asked what their objection was. Why, he drinks." "Well, what does he drink?" "He drinks whisky." "Do you know what kind of whisky he drinks?" "No, Mr. President; why do you ask" "Well," replied the President, "I would like to get a little of that same kind of whisky for some of the other Generals." (Laughter.) What all juries want are facts upon which they can base conclu- sions, and therefore the great big jury of public opinion comprised in the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress will, I am sure, pardon me if I give you in this paper more facts and opinions of others than I do of my own. At the same time counsel before a jury, in his opening, usually indicates what he expects to prove, and I cannot better do this than by giving you an extract from an editorial in "The Age of Steel," pub- lished in St. Louis, some years ago, entitled: "THE CHANGING MAP OF TRADE." "There is no fixedness in commercial supremacy. It has come and gone from one nation to another, and all the way down the page of history the bright and dark lines have had their changing alternations. They are changing now, and the sifting lines are slowly shaping the destinies of nations, young and old. Rightly or wrongly, by fair means or foul, the older nations are pushing their conquests or colonies wherever the opportunity offers, to retain their grip on commerce, by secur- ing new markets for their surplus products. "Commercial necessity has replaced the old lust of empire, and is really the key to the avidity with which Europe is divid- ing Africa as hunters do their game, and is casting its eyes over continents and oceans for commercial territory. "It is beyond a doubt of peradventure a sober and unde- niable fact that the routes of commerce are shifting from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In that direction lies the future arena of the world's struggle for commercial supremacy. A glance at the growth of populations from the western slopes of the Rockies to the sunset rim of its sea lines, and from Alaska to the Mexican border, with what it signifies of enterprise and development, we see the massing of a commercial momen- tum that will dot the Pacific with its ships and overlap the 52 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS fringes of Asia. The eddies of this movement will eventually- spread beyond the Isthmus to the Horn, and history will run its iron pen over an opening chapter in the story of man. With Siberia intersected with Russian railways, and its areas populated; with Japan a new and potent factor in the East, and China waking out of its long slumber, to say nothing . of the future of Australasia, with its persistent and aggressive race, it needs no prophet to forecast the coming change in the map of commerce. "The place of the United States in this recasting of history is settled by its geography. From a national point of view, this outlook is more than encouraging, and we make Bold to say our destiny in this matter can be best reached by the merchant and the manufacturer accepting the situation, and not neglecting its opportunities." As a merchant who has been around the world and connected with the larger trade movements; for some years chairman of the committee on foreign commerce of the New York Chamber of Com- merce, and of the committee on railroad transportation of the National Board of Trade, and for the last ten years president of the United States Export Association, I have had to study these great politico-economic questions as a college professor has to study to keep ahead of his class. It has been a study of absorbing interest to me, and whatever opinions I may have formed are based upon this experience. According to the best estimates there are about 1450 millions of people on this globe, of which 890 millions are in the Orient, distributed as follows: Asia Countries. Population. Area Sq. Miles. Ceylon 3,578,333 25,365 China 426,047,000 4,277,170 British East Indies 294,360,356 1,766,797 Dutch East Indies 35,736,000 736,400 French East Indies 18,508,000 256,096 Hongkong 297,142 31 Japan 46,304,999 147,655 Formosa 3,082,404 13,458 Korea 12,000,000 32,000 Persia 9,500,000 628,000 Russia, Asiatic 22,697,469 6,564,778 Siam 5,000,000 220,000 Straits Settlements 572,249 1,472 Oceania Philippine Islands 7,635,426 115,020 Commonwealth of Australia 3,776,273 2,972,906 New Zealand 772,719 104,471 Mauritius 371,023 705 Hawaiian Islands 154,000 6,449 Total Asia and Oceania 890,393,393 17,918,797 Of these perhaps China and Japan afford the largest opportunities,, although all are worth cultivating. The foreign trade of China during the calendar year 1904 aggre- gated 585,000,000 haikwan taels, as against 541,000,000 for the year 1903,. according to the annual publication of the Chinese customs authorities,. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 5S just received by the Department of Commerce and Labor through its Bureau of Statistics. China's commerce with the United States during the past year was- the largest on record, being fifty-six and a quarter million haikwan taels,, as compared with 55,000,000 in 1902, the previous high record of trade with the United States. (The value of a haikwan tael is about 70 cents.) The annual return of the foreign trade of the Empire of Japan iir the year 1904, issued by the Department of Finance of that government,, and just received by the Department of Commerce and Labor through its Bureau of Statistics, presents the statistics of commerce of Japan during the past year, as well as data showing the proportion of its trade with each of the principal countries. Japan has made rapid progress in-, her foreign commerce during the past decade, and her trade with the United States shows an especially rapid growth. The imports into Japan in 1904 were the largest on record, being; $184,938,000 in value, as against $157,933,000 in 1903, $143,056,000 in 1900,. and $66,311,000 in 1895. Exports from Japan in 1904 also established a new high record, being $158^992,000 in, value, as against $144,172,000 last year, $101,806,000 in 1900, and $69,825,000 in 1895. Thus the imports into- Japan have increased by $118,627,000 and the exports from Japan by $89,167,000 since 1895. During the past ten years Japan has imported about $200,000,000- more than she has exported, the excess of the imports over the exports averaging about $20,000,000 annually during that period. An examination of the statistics of commerce with the principal countries shows that Japan imports most largely from Great Britain,. British India, the United States, China and Germany, these five countries supplying about 77 per cent of her total imports. Of the total imports into Japan in 1904, amounting to $184,938,000, the United Kingdom sup- plied $37,346,000, or 20.2 per cent; British India (including Straits Set- tlements), $35,228,000, or 19 per cent; the United States, $28,942,000, or 15.7 per cent; China, $27,295,000, or 14.8 per cent., and Germany, $14,291,- 000, or 7.7 per cent. Of the exports from Japan, amounting to $158,992,000 in 1904, the- principal countries of destination are the United States, $50,423,000; China, $33,857,000; France, $18,087,000; Hongkong, $14,024,000; Korea,. $10,154,000; Great Britain, $8,787,000, and Italy, $6,011,000, these seven countries taking about nine-tenths of the exports from Japan. It will be observed that the United States is by far Japan's best customer, ex- ports to the United States from Japan representing about one-third of her total sales to foreign countries. Among the nations exporting goods to Japan, however, the United States occupies a lower rank, being ex- ceeded in that respect by both Great Britain and British India. In this connection the following notable article from the "New- York Journal of Commerce" is of interest: "THE WORLD'S GREATEST MARKET/' Under the above title the editor of the "Journal of Com- merce" points out the commercial possibilities involved in the modernization of social and industrial conditions in Asia. In- cidentally he gives impressive illustrations of the ability of highly paid intelligent American workmen, operating Ameri- can machinery, to produce commodities at a cost that makes it possible to sell them at a satisfactory profit in competition with commodities produced by less well paid and less intelli- gent workmen anywhere in the world. The article says: "No one, however, in reviewing the statements given of the growth of our foreign trade with Oriental and European countries, will 54 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS have a complete conception of the forces that give direction to the commerce of the world, if he omits to give due considera- tion to the advantages secured through the unequaled facilities and low rates of American transportation service. The power of American enterprise to achieve the commercial conquest of the world is demonstrated by the achievements of this power in supplying transportation facilities by means of which com- merce is made possible. The mileage of the railroads of the world per capita of population served is: United States, one mile for every 400 Europe, one mile for every 2,400 Asia, one mile for every 28,000 The consuming capacity of a people must inevitably grow as their earning power grows. Power to buy is the inducement to work, the incentive to work harder or more intelligently that more may be pro- duced or earned. As the power to buy grows, the sale of commodi- ties increases. This is illustrated by the industrial development of Japan. In 1878 the foreign commerce of Japan was about 60,000,000 yen. In 1898 it was 440,000,000 yen.. The growth of its internal industries, manufacturing and railroad facilities during the same period was equally great. Our exports to Japan in 1881 aggregated 1,781,103 yen. In 1898 they amounted to 40,001,097 yen, and in 1903 they exceeded 50,000,000 yen. (A yen, is worth about 50 cents gold.) Our share of the total import trade of Japan in 1881 was 5.72 per cent; in 1898 it was 14.7 per cent, and in 1902 it was 16.3 per cent. In twenty years our exports to Japan increased thirty times and our share of the whole import trade of Japan increased three times. In the light of these facts the United States can find no cause for alarm in the tremendous industrial development that is certain to take place in Asia when the "historical cycle of war, poverty, peace, pros- perity, pride, war," again enters the era of prosperity that must succeed the era of existing war. We have nothing to fear from competition with the industrial forces and resources of Asia or Europe. Our intelli- gence will enable us to manage our labor problems in a way to keep our workmen fully employed and to. find a market for our products in Asia or Europe in successful competition with labor and transportation condi- tions anywhere throughout the world. The logic of events clearly indi- cates an ever-growing share in the commerce of the world for the American people. Every gun now being fired in the Orient aids in opening a door for American products. The writer of the foregoing article strikes the key-note when he gives credit to our transportation service for the enormous expansion of our foreign commerce. Our railroads carry our products to the sea- boad at less than half the rates charged by those of other countries. Time was when it was thought railroads would only carry the lighter and more valuable kinds of freaght, but now not only are our cereals and cattle almost exclusively carried by rail, and largely our coal and ore, but granite paving stones from Maine are transported to our cities throughout the country, and the lumber and shingles of Oregon and Washington are carried overland to New England. This result has been attained by free and untrammeled American railroad management, and yet there are- some short-sighted and narrow- gauged men who advocate putting our magnificent railroad system into official clamps by conferring the rate making power, in some degree, upon an inexperienced political commission of five men, when five hundred skilled traffic managers, who have devoted their lives to this business, TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 55^ cannot suit everybody. We should think twice before taking such a: step. It would probably result in rates based on mileage, and this would' seriously curtail all long distance and export business. The same per- sons who would thus cripple our railroads are enthusiastic advocates of water transportation, forgetting that railroads are the great collectors of traffic for our water lines and that each supplements and helps the other. Many persons have great expectations of commercial benefits from the Panama Canal, but they will probably be disappointed, for^ while it may prove to be a useful link in the world's chain of commerce, it will be of but little benefit to the United States, at least until we get an American merchant marine to use it. The lack of this is one of the short-sighted things in American policy. Every ship is a missionary of trade, and steam- ship lines work for their own countries just as railroad lines work for their terminal points. Department stores don't hire competitors' wagons to make their deliveries. An American merchant marine would be a re- cruiting ground for an American navy an auxiliary navy nearly self- sustaining in time of peace and a militia of the sea in time of war; and yet some good people shy at the word "subsidy" just as some good horses shy at an umbrella. Ten per cent of the amount we spend an- nually on our navy, spent in building up an American merchant marine would be the best investment the United States could make. It would put our flag and our goods into every port in the world, and for a country with the greatest sea coast of any nation except Great Britain; a nation of maritime instincts and an unbroken record of skill and intrepidity on the ocean, from Paul Jones to George Dewey, it is a national disgrace that our merchant marine should have been allowed to decline from carrying 90 per cent of our exported products down to 9 per cent, and leave us paying foreign ships two hundred millions of dollars annually to carry our goods to the markets of the world. WHAT WE NEED. To develop our great resources in fields, forests, mines and factories,, give remunerative employment to labor and capital and prosperity to all the people of the United States, ^we need: First To foster our transportation system both on sea and land. Help it, don't cripple it. Second We need to appreciate that this is the age of steam, electricity, tricity, machinery and organization, and that untrammeled American in- dividualism controlling these forces will produce better results than offi- cialism, socialism and communism. Yellow journalism is daily, weekly and monthly teaching the contrary. Don't shy at "trusts," whether of labor or capital. They represent "organization." Control but don't cripple them. We are dependent upon them for progress. Third Our foreign policy should favor "the open door," and to get this we should make reasonable concessions in our tariff policy, through reciprocity or otherwise. Fourth As minor means to this end systematize our consular service on a basis of permanency, promotion and adequate compensation. We have superior talent in our consular service as a whole, but it is dwarfed and discouraged by the lack of these prime requisites. Fifth Revise our treaties with Oriental countries so that while pro- tecting American labor against "the yellow peril" it will give both Ameri- can labor and American capital "the yellow opportunity" to supply 890,- 000,000 of Asiatics with what they want to buy and what we want to sell. In other words, don't let the unreasoning fears of American trades unionism insult the educated Asiatics who come to trade with us or to study with us, even if a few "coolies" do get in under false pretenses. I believe in the dignity of peaceful American labor and that American 56 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS capital should assist in maintaining it, but I also believe that "yellow journalism," which seeks to play upon the prejudices and fears of organ- ized labor is a greater peril than either eastern or western immigration. In the World's Work for August Mr. Hill has about a page and a half of matter in which there are more concrete facts stated than in any similar number of words I have seen, and I will ask your indulgence for about two minutes while I read it. It is as follows: "THE FUTURE OF OUR ORIENTAL TRADE, BY JAMES J. HILL, PRESIDENT OF THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY. "The future of the trade across the Pacific depends almost entirely upon the assistance given to it by the government and the people. We have gone as far as we dare go under the present conditions. I shall not build more ships for the Oriental trade until I know that the present ships are a success, and until I know that this business will be helped and not hindered by the United States Government and people. Up to a little time ago we were carrying thousands of tons of Minneapolis flour to Seattle for shipment to South Africa and Australia. They told us we had to publish our ocean rates. That would mean giving every foreign tramp steamer a chance to cut below them and we had to give three or ten days' notice before we could change them. This compelled us to withdraw that rate, and we are now carrying none of that flour to those countries. "This whole Oriental trade is a matter of evolution. Ten years ago it was very small. What came across the Pacific came mostly through San Francisco and Vancouver. In 1893 the Great Northern Railway had just reached the Pacific Coast. It found there nearly 400,000,000,000 feet of standing timber the best in the world. It had no domestic market. To bring it to the eastern markets where it could be sold they had to pay 90 cents per 100 pounds. That rate was prohibitive. The question was how to make a rate low enough to bring this lumber east. "We could not afford to haul empty cars west to carry lumber east. It costs, roughly, $125 to haul a car 2,000 miles across the continent. At that time our freight west-bound was heavier than east-bound, and we had empty cars coming east, I met the lumbermen of the Pacific North- west. They told me they could pay 65 cents per 100 pounds on the lum- ber. I did not think they could pay more than 50 cents. I offered them a 40-cent rate on fir and 50 cents on cedar, and those rates went into effect. The result was that the demand for this lumber grew until we had more cars of lumber to carry east than we had full cars going west. "To make them equal again we had to look for more tonnage from the east. We took cotton from the lower Mississippi Valley, Alabama and Texas and carried it 3,000 miles to ship from Seattle. More and more we got manufactures and other material from the east, going to the Orient. In 1896 the Japanese Steamship Company made a contract with us and put on regular steamers. We had previously sent men to Japan and China to study the trade to find out just what they could use of our productions, and what they would give us of theirs. That was the beginning of this Oriental trade. It came out of this effort to make the east-bound and the west-bound trade nearly equal, so we should not have to haul empty cars either way. The Japanese gave us a chance to ship them cotton and rails, we offering to pay any losses on the experi- ment. There were no losses. That business has constantly increased. "Now, this country cannot export very many things to the Orient. A people like the Japanese, who only earn a few cents a day, cannot pay for many luxuries. They have to get their food and clothing cheap. Be- cause this country produces cotton, grain, iron ore and coal cheaper than TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 57 any other, there are some things that this country can lay down in Japan and China cheaper than any other country can lay them down. We can get the trade in these things; but in manufactured goods of most classes we are beaten by the Germans and the Belgians. Labor is too expensive in this country. You cannot pay our prices for labor and make many goods to sell to people who only get from ten to twenty-five cents a day for their work. "What we must do is to make the most of what we have. There should be no restrictions on our carrying grain, cotton, steel, machinery, etc., to the Orient. We must give the Japanese and the Chinese wheat flour so cheap that they will use it instead of rice. We cannot do that so long as we have not a free hand. You must cut your profits to the very edge to make it possible. We cannot do that so long as we are constantly interfered with. Nor can we do it while the law compels us to tell every tramp steamer captain just' what our rates are. "When I went to the state of Washington you could not give away the cedar logs. They used to let them run out into the sea to get rid of them. Because we made rates that made them valuable, the price has gone up about an average of $12 to $15* per 1,000 feet. On the 400,000,000,- 000 feet of timber in the territory the advance in value is about $600,- 000,000. Low rates have added that amount to the taxable wealth of those states. Every year we have put millions of dollars into the mar- kets of that country which could not otherwise have been put in circu- lation. "Take the single item of cotton. In 1901 we carried to Puget Sound 13,070 bales of cotton piece goods and 13,230,000 pounds of raw cotton. In one year these figures increased to 64,542 bales of piece goods and 41,230,000 pounds of raw cotton. Outside of cotton in nails, wire, ma- chinery and other things of that sort we also built up a good business. We had to do it by making rates to meet the necessities of the case. It was to keep those rates low that I wanted the Minnesota and the Da- kota big ships of 28,000 tons. Somebody had to build ships of that class. To make them economical they must carry large cargoes, so we have to make the tonnage to fill them. Most of the other ships on the Pacific are from 2,500 to 7,000 tons. I think the largest Canadian-Pacific ships are 6,000 tons. "You must realize that in this Oriental business we are not com- peting against the other railroads alone. On local business to the coast to Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Vaucouver we do compete with them. But upon freight from New York to Japan or China by rail and water we are competing with the all-water route from New York to the Orient around the Cape and via the Suez Canal, and with European com- merce by sea. We have to make rates to hold the business against these routes. We must meet the English and other tramp steamers. No one regulates these tramps. Moreover, to lay down American goods in Hong- kong you have to make them as cheap as German goods, Belgian goods or English goods. These countries are nearer the market, and they have no long haul by rail. They do not have to haul their freight across the Rocky Mountains. "The future of this business remains to some extent a matter of conjecture. If all the railroad forces, the people, the government and the laws unite to help this traffic, Puget Sound will be the great seaport of the Pacific. It will be the clearing point for the biggest volume of the tonnage going to the Orient and coming from it. Presuming that Japan will come to be a great commercial nation, American trade on the Pacific Ocean should soon rival that of the Atlantic." (Applause.) 58 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS MR. PRINCE: Mr. President, it is now Thursday noon. We have to adjourn by Saturday midnight at the very latest. We have had some admirable papers, but we have not yet entered upon the business of the Congress itself. The Committee on Resolutions ought to report tomorrow afternoon in order that there shall be time for the consideration of the matters that come before it. I move that we now receive resojutions to be referred to the Committee on Resolutions. The motion was secondecj. JUDGE RAKER (California) : I understand each of the state delegations has a committee on resolutions which has met and tried to harmonize upon the resolutions, and that such resolutions may be introduced to the general Congress tomorrow ; but to attempt to introduce resolutions now will, I think, make supreme confusion. GENERAL NOBLE : The first thing to be done before the dis- cussion goes further is to announce the Committee on Resolutions which has been adopted by this convention. The Secretary thereupon read the names of the Committee on Resolutions. GOVERNOR PRINCE : Mr. President, in support of my motion that we now receive resolutions, I would say it has always been the cus- tom to receive them from the beginning of the convention. The committee has ordinarily been appointed at an earlier time than this, which is really the end of the second day's session, because we have no session this afternoon. The only time the committee will have for their consideration will be this afternoon and tonight, because any one can see that we must meet tomorrow afternoon or Saturday afternoon in order to have any business of the Congress done at all. GENERAL NOBLE : The motion now is to receive resolutions to be referred to the Committee on Resolutions. They are not subject to discussion, but if gentlemen wish to present them instead of sending them directly, and read them, they will be received. That is the motion before the house. The motion was put to a vote and carried. GENERAL NOBLE: Gentlemen of the convention, you have passed a resolution that resolutions be received and referred to the Committee on Resolutions. All there is to do now is to receive resolutions immediately, or at such time as you shall proceed to put them in. We must proceed with our business. There are two other gentlemen here who are to read papers, and we can not stop the session in order to have resolutions prepared. If you have your resolutions ready, they will be in order. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 59 JUDGE RAKER : I move that no resolutions be presented at this time, but that they all be presented to the proper committee this afternoon and tomorrow as they may be presented. GOVERNOR PRINCE: I arise to a point of order. Two resolu- tions are ready to present in open session. The introducer, if he chooses, can explain the object of his resolution for three minutes, and, without debate, it then goes to the committee. GENERAL NOBLE : There are a number of resolutions being sent in order. Are there any resolutions now to be presented? THE SECRETARY: I have some resolutions. GENERAL NOBLE : There are a number of resolutions being sent up which will go to the committee, but it is the privilege of gentle- men to read them if they desire; if not, we will go on with what we have. GOVERNOR PRINCE: I have two resolutions; one on a depart- ment of mines, which I will read; and one for statehood for New Mexico, which I will also read. The resolutions were referred to the Committee on Resolutions, and are as follows : DEPARTMENT OF MINES! Resolved, That the mining industry of the United States has grown to such proportions and importance, and is capable of such vast extension if fostered by the government as is the agricultural industry; that we heartily favor the establishment by act of Congress of a national depart- ment of Mines and Mining, whose head shall be a Cabinet officer. STATEHOOD FOR NEW MEXICO. Whereas, The fundamental principle of American republicanism is that of self-government, and no body of American citizens should be deprived of that right when it is possible to exercise it; therefore, Resolved, That the people of New Mexico should no longer be de- prived of self-government; and that territory should be admitted as a state without delay. MR. VAN LOBEN SELS: Mr. Chairman, I desire to offer the following resolution on rivers and harbors : APPROPRIATIONS FOR CALIFORNIA. Resolved, That it is the sense of the sixteenth Trans -Mississippi Com- mercial Congress that the Secretary of War be urged in the most urgent manner to make the necessary appropriations to improve immediately: First The Sacramento River and tributaries, and San Joaquin River, both for navigation and for affording drainage; and Second To continue the work of improving of: (a) The harbor of Oakland; (c) the harbor of San Pedro. P. J. VAN LOBEN SELS, J. C. HIZAR. 60 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS THE CHAIRMAN : It will be. referred to the Committee on Resolutions. GENERAL NOBLE: We will now listen to an address by Mr. George W. Dickie of San Francisco on the "Merchant Marine." MR. DICKIE: ADDRESS OF MR. GEO. W. DICKIE. Mi. President, Members and Delegates of the Trans -Mississippi Com- 9>ic>-cial Congress When I was coming up from San Francisco to Portland, I flattered myself that I was going to be one of the big guns of this Congress, and I kept up that delusion until I got in Portland. Getting the morning issue of your great newspaper, I found that the subject I was .gpimg to present to you was "of no importance"; that the sooner it was given up and no longer formed any part of the deliberations of pur Cnn- .gress the better. That was very discouraging indeed and indicated to me that a good deal of education was still wanted on a very important subject. Some thirty-five years ago down in San Francisco they were holding an industrial exposition. I was younger then and somewhat more innocent than I am now, and I set to work to prepare for that exhibition a plan of a vessel suited for the Australian trade. I spent a great deal of time on those plans, painted them up very attractively and sent them to the exhibition. The committee on arrangements studied them very carefully anid decided that the proper place to put them was among the Japanese curiosities. (Laughter.) There was another Japa- nese curiosity which they put right above the central picture I had sent in, and that was a bust of Beethoven. Going through the exhibition one evening I came up behind two ladies who were looking at^ this thing I had sent in. They thought it was Japanese embroidery, and they were commenting on the skill of the Japanese in that sort of thing. One said to the other: "Yes, it is very pretty, indeed, and I suppose that is the bust of the man that made it." (Laughter and applause.) They needed some education on the shipping question. Some eight years ago, walking on the quarter deck of a British war- ship in company with three Cabinet officers of the government of Japan, the Minister of Commerce made a statement that I have thought about a good deal since. He said: "Mr. Dickie, do you know that it is the ambition of the Japanese people to make Japan to the Pacific Ocean what Great Britain is to the Atlantic? We are going to do it, and perhaps sooner than you people think." Looking over to two vessels not far away, an armored cruiser and a second class cruiser belonging to Russia, he also remarked, that it might be necessary for them to dispose of that kind of vessel before they accomplished it. Just think of that today! Two years ago, in 1902, out of total entry of 23,000,000 of foreign shipments into the ports of Japan, 57i per cent of that shipping was under the Japanese flag. At the time that my friend made the state- ment I have quoted, there was less than 2 per cent. This shows what the Japanese, poor as they are, have been able to accomplish in the way of bringing about for themselves a position in the commerce that is carried on the ocean. With these introductory remarks, I will read my paper: Before a Congress representing the commercial interests of the western half of the United States and standing on the western edge of this great country facing the Pacific Ocean, destined to be the stage on which will be enacted the great commercial development of the future, the subject I have been requested to present to you needs no apology TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 61 for its introduction. In the official call for this Congress, the subject of this paper is No. 4, to which has been added No. 15, "The necessity of differentials favoring Pacific Coast ports in the building of naval ves- sels." So I am here with these subjects, which, in order to understand some' things that to many people are obscure, I have put in the form of a question, "Is naval power, both commercial and military, necessary to the future development of the United States?" For the last twenty-five years or so I have from time to time, by speech when I found any one willing to listen and by papers as far as I could find readers for them, endeavored to awake a sentiment in this country in regard to ocean borne commerce and its necessity to the future prosperity of this great nation. To arouse a sentiment in this country that would result in practi- cal measures for the revival of its merchant marine has been a difficult task and has tired out many vigorous advocates of the needs of our ship- ping, even events that when they were happening were expected to produce great results have not, as yet, had the desired effect; to illustrate this let me quote from an address, delivered by me before a body of commercial men in the early part of 1899, showing what I had expected from the events then taking place: "In studying important naval events in which this country has played the leading part and which will make this period figure Largely in naval history, a great fact has impressed itself on my mind, a fact that, if I understand the meaning of these events that have been following each other in rapid succession during the last few months, is going to make a mighty and lasting impression on the immediate future history of this country, and this fact is that the sentiment of this country relative to the necessity of being a great naval power has undergone a marked change in the last few months, and that sentiment will assert itself in the councils of the nation with a force that will demand recognition. Who would have ventured to predict the sequence of events which have followed so close on the heels of that declaration, the object of which was to force Spain to free Cuba, and to accomplish this the President of the country was empowered to use the full force of the army and navy to compel the Spanish to vacate that island? Troops were moved from the west to the east to help in the invasion of Cuba. The battleship Oregon (applause) that we had just built to guard the Pacific Coast, the only battleship that we had on the Pacific Ocean, was ordered to the Atlantic Coast, not in the leisurely way in which battleships reach distant stations, but with few stops and the best economical speed she could make. Other battleships under the same necessity might have accomplished all that the Oregon has. done, but the fact remains that up to this date (1899) the voyage of the Oregon stands alone at the head of ocean voyages made by battleships. (Great .applause.) This movement of troops and our battleship from this coast to the Atlantic was the first national move in the events of the war. While these orders were being carried out, who could have foreseen that the small Asiatic arm of our new navy should have struck such a blow to the Spanish power in Manila as to force a rearrangement of all the plans of this war and render necessary a large military expedition to the other side of the world. This is somewhat different from ferrying troops to Cuba, and at once shows our weakness in a merchant marine. This ex- perience is to be the grand lesson of this war, and in the matter of ocean commerce the lesson will bring forth fruit in the near future. Then the gathering of many thousands of our young men from the mid- dle states where the sea and all its interests had no part in their daily life, and far less in their ideas of their country's place among the nations of the earth, and transporting them to the Pacific shore, there to board transport ships for the long ocean voyage to Manila, is to be an educa- tion to these men, taken as they are from every walk of life, that will 62 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS bring the sea home to those states with such a power as will forever dispel the apathy that has prevailed in the heart of this country for the last twenty years in regard to all matters affecting the ocean commerce of this great nation." These hopes expressed seven years ago have not as yet been' real- ized, though much work has been done by those who have the interests of our foreign commerce at heart, yet the outlook is not very bright. Hon. Chas. H. Grosvenor, chairman of the congressional committee on the merchant marine, on June 1st, writing to those who had been active in the work, says: "In the opinion of the best judges of these events, unless something is done by the next Congress at least, the hope of American shipping interests may as well be abandoned. If, with all the present information we have, Congress and the President will continue to ignore the just measures which have been introduced and promoted by the friends of the American merchant marine, we may as well abandon all future contests and make the best terms we can with foreign ship- ping." This shows how tired those laboring in the cause of our mer- chant marine have become and how much they need that the growing sentiment through the country in favor of a revival of our foreign shipping should be exerted with such force that Congress will not be able longer to withstand the demand for action. It is self evident that to any country like this, having an immense seaboard on the two great oceans of the world, great power, both naval and commercial, is a very desirable thing, yet the history and progress of this country shows that at certain stages in the development of such a country it is not a prime necessity. In the earlier history of this country, with the bulk of its population centered on the Atlantic seaboard, and dependent on an interchange of products with the mother country and her colonies, the energies and accumulated wealth of the people naturally turned to the sea. Behind them were great forests of magnificent material with which to build ships and in front of them the ocean highway to all countries. With such opportunities this young and vigorous country, in the early part of last century, found an extensive mercantile navy an absolute necessity to its development and growth in power. The destruction of a portion of the shipping of this country during the civil war is often given as a reason for the rapid decline of the country's foreign shipping trade. It is quite natural to come to such a conclusion because the civil war happened at the same time as this decline of American shipping, but its absurdity becomes apparent as soon as we think about it. All other properties destroyed during the war that were needed for the future progress of the country were replaced in better form than that destroyed. If a city like Chicago is destroyed by fire and the country needs a city in that place, it is restored, grander and better fitted for all purposes than that which was burned. It is so with every product of man's labor, so long as the thing is needed and the man's ability to produce it is not destroyed, anything that destroys or takes away the tools he works with is an incentive for him to devise and produce better tools. That the shipping interests of the United States did not recover from the injuries received during the civil war, but kept on steadily declining, is in itself an indicaton that a mercantile navy was not abso- lutely necessary to the prosperity and development of this country. Other causes operating at the same time and in conjunction with the destruction of these properties became powerful factors in preventing a prompt restoration of all ships destroyed. One of these was the change, then taking place, in the material for the building of ships. The native oak of Old England that had enabled her flag to "brave a thousand years, the battle and the breeze," was TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 63 "becoming a very scarce article, and ships being an absolute necessity to her power and position among the nations, a new material must be iound out of which to build ships. This new material, iron, had been gradually gaining the confidence of those "who go down to the sea in ships and do business in the great -waters," and while privateers were burning the best wooden ships that carried the stars and stripes, the British shipyards were learning the most economical methods whereby iron plates and bars could be put into ship shape to carry freight, and not only equal the wooden walls in strength and power to carry, but to far excel the best the shipbuilder's art could do in wood. In this new material Great Britain saw her opportunity to not only maintain her position on the sea, but to extend it to a magnitude that has become one of the wonders of this age. The American shipbuilder and ship owner could see all this going on, and no doubt understand how it would end, but to his country ship- building and ship owning were not a national necessity in the same sense as it was to Britain. The necessity was a personal one and not national on the American side, while the position of Great Britain among the nations depends upon her naval supremacy. Hence the British shipbuilder had only to learn his business of building good ships and the government would see that the ship owner did not lack encour- agement to use them. Then the Yankee loved to whittle wood it was his nature to do so and the ships he whittled out of his forests were the best expression -of the art of wooden shipbuilding the world had ever seen, but the men that deftly hewed the timbers of the sailing clippers that graced the middle of last century, were not the kind of men to take kindly to bend- ing angle bars and riveting plates and, while it broke their hearts to see the glory of the old craft depart leaving only a tradition of what could once be done in wood, their country, for so it thought, could get along without making any special effort to hold the commerce of the sea, for to do so involved the mastery of a new science, the creation of a new <:raft and working with new material. This kind of revolution comes only through a nation's necessity, and, just at the time all this occurred, there was a greater necessity confronting the people needing all the wealth and energy of the country to accomplish. So the men who could Tiandle great enterprises were driven from the sea to make great high- ways for commerce oni land. There was a continent to open up stretching irom the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean, and that for the United States at that time was a greater necessity than learning to build ships in iron and steel. So the generation now active in the affairs of this great country is purely and solely a railroad generation); that is to say, the leaders in enterprise among our business people, as a rule, whether in finance or 'Commerce, have been trained to regard the development of railways as the one great and all-absorbing field of enterprise in this country. All other necessities for the best development of the country have been made subordinate to this. Perhaps at no time in the history of the development of any country lias one generation absorbed and brought under the power of civilization such a vast territory as has the present generation in the United States. While this vast work was beimg accomplished, ocean commerce appeared to the men spending hundreds of millions of borrowed money on railroads as a very small thing, and hardly worth while bothering about, and the government thought so, too; with Europe sending its hoarded wealth to us to build railroads, not in exchange for products sent to them in ships that we had built, but for a promise that the next 64 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS generation would pay it all back, or if not, they might come over and take the railroads. To men who could finance such enterprises, the best returns ever received from ship owning were not worth looking at, and while the wealth of the old world was being scattered through the country for material and labor to build railroads, where was the necessity for foster- ing a business that required a new kind of training and did not present anything like the opportunities for the getting of wealth. Thoughtful men, however, throughout the country, especially in states facing the oceans, have been feeling for some time that a change was approaching, and that the time is not far off when this country will find that it is necessary, even at some cost, to build up an- ocean commerce through ships under our own flag. As American wealth increases it must find an outlet on the ocean and our government must find a way to make it profitable to do so by placing her ship owners on. an equal footing with those of other nations with whom they must com- pete. Look at any railroad map of the United States and note the tangled net work of black lines crossing it and recrossing it in every direction and you will be forced to the conclusion that in our generation, at least, there is not much room left for more railroads, at any rate, not for many more great trunk lines such as have been built in the last forty years, some of them spanning the entire continent. This is one of the facts that I look to as helping to bring about an ultimate change of public opinion in the direction of the ocean on both sides of the continent and in favor of a development of our merchant marine. How long it will be before this growing sentiment takes practi- cal effect, bringing the conditions to a necessity compelling action, no one can say; but if the hope is not father to the thought I believe it can- not be much further deferred. When this country once realizes that the time has come when it is a national necessity that merchant ships, built in our own shipyards, manned and officered by our own citizens, owned and operated by our progressive men of affairs, represent her enterprise and power in all parts of the world, there will 1 be found a way to do it with profit to all concerned. This necessity, when it grows strong eiough to become active in practical results, will itself be the product of sentiment that must be cultivated to such an extent that efforts to revive and stimulate shipping will be understqod by the people, and questions regarding such matters needing legislation will be treated in the manner that their importance demands. The British government never permits an opportunity for culti- vating a healthy sentiment on the part of the general public in regard to naval matters to slip by unimproved. Maritime exhibitions are fostered at the principal seaports. Naval maneuvers are carried on along her whole coast. Launches and trials are made semi-public functions. All the traditions of the past glories of the naval and mercantile fleets of Britain are made part of the education of the youth, and the desire to increase the glory of future fleets is carefully instilled into the coming generation, until it has become a part of the national life. No matter what the programme may be for the increase of the British navy, or the advancement of the mercantile marine, the country responds heartily. If we felt the necessity for naval power as Britain feels it, then nothing could prevent its realization. Every country today that aspires to a leading place among the nations feels the necessity for securing, no matter at what cost, a position on the sea, commensurate with the posi- tion aspired to in the council of nations. The development of the great coast lines of America, the necessity of providing industrial opportuni- ties for the population of the cities and states bordering on the ocean, are questions that are pressing now for a solution, and this pressure will increase until it commands attention. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 65 No industry equals shipbuilding in the amount of work it provides for large numbers of men. The shipyards of which I was until lately manager, not a very large one when compared with the great yards in the centers of shipping interests, yet maintains through its direct employ- ment between three and four thousand men, a population of at least fourteen thousand. Into no other product of man's skill does such a large proportion of the money expended go for wages. That is orTe reason why shipbuilding centers are so generally prosperous. The ship- builder may fail to get rich personally, and generally does, but as long as he builds ships he never fails to scatter wealth all around. The pity is that so few of them succeed in holding on to a small portion for them- selves. The shipbuilders' art and the art of making wealth are hardly ever found in the same individual. It has often been said of my own family, "that they would rather build ships and remain poor than do anything else and grow rich." When the necessity for our flag being represented in the commerce of the world in proportion to the wealth of the country becomes a general sentiment among the people, obstructive laws will be swept away and wise laws to carry such sentiment into effect enacted. Till then those who have this great question on their hearts must work and wait, using every opportunity that presents itself to impress upon others the necessity, that they see and feel to be fast coming upon this country, to assert itself as a power that means to take a fair share in ruling the wave. If, then, the time is fast approaching when the United States, in a commercial sense, must give an affirmative answer to the question of the necessity of being a great power on the sea, how is it in regard to the same question in a naval sense? Our country has already answered this question in the affirmative. The civil war had served to show in what direction the naval architect must look for the warship of the future. This knowledge, however, was for the benefit of British and French naval establishments and not for the country that had so dearly bought the experience. The government had greater and more pressing necessi- ties to provide for than the reconstruction of a navy. The whole edifice of government had been shattered and must be rebuilt almost from the very foundations. Among the many necessities of the time a modern navy was not by any means the most needed, so the navy department fell out of sight of the people; they had so many other tilings to look at that were nearer home. The politicians, therefore, got the navy department and used it as an instrument, not to build ships, but to build up and support whatever kind of political structure he happened to be engaged upon at the time. For about twenty years the people of the United States knew nothing about their navy and did not appear to care whether there was a navy or not. During these years a revolution, based partly on what had been learned from this country's experiences, had taken place in the navies of the world. The warship, like the mer- chant ship, was being built of new materials, and a race was being run between steel protection and gun penetration. Modern machinery was increasing the speed for short distances, as well as the ability to run long distances. When at last the American people, about eighteen years ago, began to feel that a navy was a necessity, if we were to be secure at home or honored abroad, the politician had to give up the navy depart- ment, or what was left of it, which was very little, and let whoever had heart and head t9 do anything begin what was practically a new business. What other nations had reached through twenty years of experiment must be mastered at once by the United States naval architect, as this people have never been tolerant in regard to mistakes, as we know to our cost. With the growth of experience in the British and European naval centers, had grown up great plants for handling the raw material 66 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS required, and skill in operating them, so that the result could be depended upon. With us, such plants were expected to be brought into existence and perfect operation without passing through the experimental stage and the result be not only equal to the best produced hitherto, but better in every particular. How the engineers and naval architects of this country responded to this sudden demand upon their ability, both in design and execution, has been the admiration of naval experts the world over. Eighteen years ago our naval architects and shipbuilders were twenty years behind those of Great Britain. Today we are abreast of the most advanced practice in warship construction. This brings me to that part of my subject that looks to a continu- ance of warship building on the Pacific coast. Should the government provide for any differential in favor of the Pacific coast shipyards in the building of naval vessels? Twenty-four vessels of the new navy, includ- ing those not yet delivered, have been built in Pacific coast yards, twenty of these by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco. Most of these have been built without any differential in favor of the yard that built them, although in several cases Congress had provided for a 4 per cent possible differential in favor of this coast. The reason why in all cases this coast did not benefit by the differential provided was that the contracts came to this coast because our bid was actually the lowest. To be really of advantage to the shipbuilder here the acts of Congress should have provided that the contract should be awarded to the lowest satis- factory bid, irrespective of location of yard; should a Pacific coast bid be the lowest that bidder should have the contract with a bonus of 4 per cent; this would have insured the preference proposed. The only vessel built on this coast where a real fixed preference was given was in the case of the battleship Oregon; she was one of the three first battleships built in the United States, and the government desired very much to have one built on the Pacific coast owing to the need of such a ship on the Pacific. Our bid, however, was above that of the Philadelphia yard that got the contract for the other two. The question as to the power of the navy department to award a contract to oher than the lowest bidder was referred to President Cleveland, who, after considering the question, decided to offer the contract to the Union Iron Works at the lowest eastern bid, plus the difference in freight on the steel material required to build the vessel from Pittsburg to Phila- delphia in one case and from Pittsburg to San Francisco in the other. This differential originating with Mr. Cleveland's offer to the Union Iron Works and accepted by them, is the only true ground for requiring a differential in favor of the Pacific coast. The claim that the Pacific coast shipyard pays higher wages than the yards on the Atlantic coast cannot be justly made a sufficient reason for a differential in favor of the Pacific yard. The wages paid in the Atlantic yards differ as much between the highest and lowest there as the difference between the highest there and the rates on the Pacific coast, but the cost of trans- portation between the steel works and the shipyards is a fixed and known quantity, and it is only fair to ask Congress to provide a means whereby shipbuilders on this coast will be placed on an equal footing with those on the Atlantic, leaving it to the shipbuilder to find out a way to make the amount of his wages bill in building a warship no greater than his competitor's on the Atlantic side, no matter what the rate of wages may be. The 4 per cent preference, if made a certain thing for the Pacific coast builder, will fully meet the difference in cost of trans- portation of steel materials, and should be introduced in the next bill that comes before Congress for an increase in the navy. Whether this preference that can be justly asked of Congress would enable the ship- yards on the Pacific coast to continue building warships is a problem for the shipbuilder here to settle. The keen competition among the ship- TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 67 yards of the country to secure government work renders the outlook anything but bright for the Pacific coast yards. Nothing but the most rigid economy and the highest shipbuilding ability will enable them to continue in the fight with any chance of profit; they should have more local encouragement than is afforded them. Neither San Francisco nor California has done anything for this industry that has done much for their upbuilding. Seattle has done better by her shipyard and it rs~ hoped that she will do more. It pays a city to encourage her shipyards; it pays a state to provide every facility for this industry, and it will pay the navy department to keep the Pacific coast shipyards in an efficient condition, as the country may need them some day badly. I do not think that it is necessary to say anything more on the naval part of my subject. This in relation to Pacific coast shipyards will, no doubt, come more directly before the Congress. The progress made towards pro- viding this country with an effective, powerful and in every sense modern navy has been very satisfactory, and the navy department, with its splen- did staff of naval architects and engineers, is quite able to meet the requirements of the future. Thoughtful men sometimes wonder what we want with a navy, representing us at the various mercantile seaports of the world, when we have no merchant marine whose interests it is the duty of the navy to protect. I do not think it necessary to take up much time describing existing conditions as far as our merchant marine is concerned. It is a matter of universal' knowledge, and I think almost universal regret, that our deep-sea shipping is practically driven -From the ocean. More than 90 per cent of our foreign commerce is being carried in foreign ships flying foreign flags. In order that the United States may participate in ocean commerce to the extent that her own imports and exports entitle her to, there must be: First. A strong sentiment throughout the country in favor of carrying the products of our industry under our own flag to every country that cares to exchange products with us. Second. Wise national laws to foster and protect our mer- chant marine, making it possible for our shipbuilders to construct and equip ships and our ship owners to purchase and operate them. Third. State and municipal laws on the part of seagirt states and maritime cities, encouraging shipbuilding and ship owning within their own borders. I have already spoken of the need of a general sentiment throughout our country in, favor of a revival of the merchant marine. Now, what has been done in regard to securing wise national Legislation looking to the revival of American shipping for foreign commerce? The President in his annual message to Congress, December 7, 1903, said: "A majority of our people desire that steps be taken in the interests of American shipping so that we may once more resume our former position in the ocean-carrying trade. But hitherto the differences of opinion as to the proper method of reaching this end have been so wide that it has proved impossible to secure the adoption of any particular scheme. Having in view these facts, I recommend that the congress direct the secretary of the navy, the postmaster general and the secretary of commerce and labor, associated with such a representation from the senate and house of representatives as the congress in its wisdom may designate, to serve as a commission for the purpose of investigating and reporting to con- gress at its next session what legislation is desirable or necessary for the development of the American merchant marine and American com- merce." In response to this earnest recommendation, congress passed the act of April 28, 1904, creating the merchant marine commission, com- posed of five senators -and five representatives. This commission set to work. The mercantile interests of the country welcomed the investiga- tion and readily appeared before the commission to give testimony. The commission held meetings and took evidence in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Galveston, New Orleans, Pensacola, Brunswick, New- 68 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS' port News, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and San Francisco. The commission, also held daily sessions in the city of Washington from November 22 to December 12, 1904, hear- ing evidence, sifting the printed testimony and preparing the bill that is now pending. The testimony given, before this commission, now published in three volumes, is a remarkable mass of evidence, with much difference of opinion as to methods and policies, but nowhere is there any difference as to the main principle of national recognition and encouragement of our hard-pressed ocean-carrying trade. Of the hun- dreds of witnesses who appeared before the commission a large propor- tion we,re men who have not a dollar's worth of actual interest in ships or shipbuilding, showing that the people are now really interested in the possible revival of our merchant marine. The report of the commission, largely explanatory of the bill introduced by them, should be carefully read by every one interested in the revival of our foreign commerce. The bill itself is a compromise measure; very few will find it entirely satis- factory in all its provisions; there are many conflicting interests that must be considered, and the result of the labor of the commission, as embodied in this bill, should receive the hearty support of all who desire to foster the upbuilding of our merchant marine. The Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress can do much to further the passage of this bill, which has been framed in an honest effort to unite all interests in the one purpose of placing us where we should be amongst commercial nations. Natural conditions, over which our ship owners and shipbuilders have no control, and which they either, individually or collectively, are powerless to change, makes the cost of building vessels in the United States much greater, from 30 to 40 per cent at least, than the cost of building vessels in other countries. The cost of manning and victualling American built ships is also much greater, probably not less than 30 per cent than it is in foreign ships. In addition to this, there are other expenses in the management of vessels which are greater in the United States than they are in other countries, such as taxes, repairs, outfit and equipment. Most of these higher costs are the outgrowth of conditions resulting from the policy of high protection that has obtained in the United States during practically the same period that American shipping engaged in the foreign trade has been declining. The cost of materials entering into the construction and outfitting of American vessels is necessarily higher because of the conditions that obtain in other industries that are highly prosperous under the protec- tion afforded by the tariff industries employing precisely the same mate- rials that are employed in shipbuilding and outfitting. The" wages of the workmen employed at our shipyards are on the same high scale, due to the general standard of wages prevailing in similar industries that are great, powerful and profitable under our protective system that covers everything but the ship engaged in foreign trade. Let me give you a comparison I made in 1900, when visiting shipyards abroad, of the actual wages paid in the Union Iron Works shipyard, San Francisco, with the average wages paid to the same class of workmen in twelve of the principal yards in Great Britain: TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 69 Draughting Room. Union Iron Works. British Yard. Draughtsmen, per week 19.44 9.24 Apprentices, per week 6.30 3.10 Pattern shop, pattern makers, per week 22.74 9.75 Helpers, per week 13.20 6.25 Apprentices, pattern makers, per week. . 6.07 3.02 Blacksmith shop, blacksmiths, per week 20.28 9.84 Helpers, per week..: 13.20 6.62 Apprentices, per week 6.72 3.78 Machine shop, machinists, per week.... 19.38 9.69 Helpers, per week 13 . 20 6.86 Apprentices, per week 5.58 3.05 Boiler Shop. Laying out work, per week 20.28 10.00 Boiler makers, per week 19.74 9.36 Apprentices, per week 7.08 3.22 Joiner shop, joiners, per week 21.18 9.50 Helpers, per week 12.72 6.35 Apprentices, per week 7.08 Ship carpenters and caulkers, per week. 22.14 9.88 Helpers, per week 13.20 6.22 Apprentices, per week 5.76 3.32 Ship fitters, fitters, per week 20.10 9.50 Helpers, per week 12.60 6.52 Apprentices, per week 7 . 25 3 . 67 Riveters, per week 21 . 50 9 . 88 Drillers, chipping and calking, per week 18.34 8.98 Helpers, per week 13.28 6.72 Rivet heater boys, per week 7.80 4.20 Coppersmiths, per week 19. 20 9.72 Helpers, per week 13.44 7.36 Boys, per week 7.20 3.86 While these conditions continue to exist it is futile to suggest, as has been done, that ships can be built in the United States as cheaply as they can be abroad. If they could, they would be, and the fact that they are not built at all indicates that their cost renders them unprofit- able in comparison with foreign vessels. If, therefore, other nations did none of the things that they so long have done, and still do, for the encouragement and maintenance of their merchant shipping, the differ- ence in cost of constructing, operating, etc., between American and for- eign vessels would suffice to make it unprofitable, and hence unattractive to Americans, either to invest in or build ships for the foreign trade. But when we add to these undeniable advantages these foreign competitors possess over our own citizens, the advantage they also possess through government assistance and regulation, then the reason why our Ameri- can vessels carry but 9 per cent of our foreign commerce, valued at about two thousand five hundred millions of dollars annually, and why foreign vessels carry over 90 per cent of this commerce, receiving there- for freight charges closely approximating two hundred millions of dol- lars, are pretty well explained and set forth. These are the conditions that congress must recognize and adequately meet through the adoption of .effective legislation before the problem of establishing an American merchant marine in, the foreign trade, measurably equal to our foreign carrying needs, has been solved. I have faith in the ability of congress to solve the problem of how best to revive and maintain the merchant marine in this country. The work done by the present commission has thrown much light on what was obscure in the problem, and the long 70 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS suffering shipbuilder and ship owner will yet see what he has so long looked for, business that, if well done, will bring satisfactory compen- sation. Whatever expenditures the government may have to make in order to build up our merchant marine will be a good investment for the nation. We are spending on our new navy over $80,000,000 annually, and without a corresponding merchant fleet to depend on for service in time of need the war fleet's power may be very much weakened., During the Spanish war the United States was hard put to for merchant steamers to carry men and materials; we had to buy freight ships at any price that was asked, and this war was a small thing for -this great country, yet the lesson taught in this respect has passed unheeded. During the war between Japan and China, Japan had no merchant ships to depend on of her own; she had to hire or buy whatever she could get, but the experi- ence was not lost. After the war she determined to have a merchant marine of her own and set about bringing it into existence, the govern- ment helping the shipbuilder and ship owner to the extent necessary to bring about the desired result. When the time came to try her strength against that of Russia she had at least fifty large ocean steamers of her own ready at once for the work, enabling her to strike a quick and deci- sive blow at the Russian, who was dreaming that it would take the Jap a long time to get ready. She had transports all ready to send with her army as soon as war was declared. Her investment in a merchant marine was a paying one. We will soon see to our sorrow a still further e:\pansion of the merchant marine of Japan. No nation can be a great sea power without a great merchant marine giving a reserve of both ships and men in the time of need. Besides the aid that must come from national legislation. I have always maintained that the sea-bordered states will be forced to apply state legislation to the upbuilding of their own shipping interests. The state can foster shipping just as effectively as the nation, as the benefits to be derived from large shipping interests will center in the ship owning and shipbuilding states. For instance, to every ship built and owned in the state in which she is enrolled the harbors of the state ought to be free, and all shipping property when engaged in interstate or foreign commerce should be relieved of all state or municipal taxes. Some states have done this to a limited extent, and these states own whatever ocean trade this country possesses today. The eyes of the people of this country are being opened to the importance of naval- power, both in a military and commercial sense, also to the future position we are destined to occupy among the great nations of the world. One thing is certain, we have entered on a course that is to lead us, if not into deep water, at least on to deep water, and on deep water we will be much safer in our own ships. (Applause.) SECRETARY FRANCIS: I am requested to announce that the Committee on Resolutions will meet at 2 o'clock this afternoon in the Chapman school building, immediately in the rear of the Auditorium, and that the Committee on Permanent Organization will meet in the parlors of the American Inn at 7 :30 p. m. MR. BLACK (Washington) : Mr. Chairman, it seems to me thus far this Congress has been a flow of oratory and no business, and it is time that we got down to some sort of business. Under our Constitution we ought to have had our election and the new officers should have taken the chair this morning. Our Committee TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. / 1 on Resolutions has not yet taken the first step towards doing any- thing, and yet the second day, so far as sessions are concerned, is about at an end. I would therefore move that immediately on the adjournment of this session, the Committee on Resolutions meet here and now, and organize. If we don't do that, we will go to lunch and no one will get back here if we fix the meeting at 2 o'clock, and nothing will be done. Let us get started. JUDGE RAKER (California) : Mr. Chairman, that is not fair to the other members. Two-thirds of themjiave gone, and it is not fair to have a meeting and select a chairman and secretary now. It was determined and so announced to the convention by the Secretary that this committee should meet at 2 o'clock. Now let that stand as directed. MR. CASE (Kansas) : I am for a fair and square deal. It has been announced that the committee shall meet at 2 o'clock; let us not change it. But I want to ask if it is a part of the organization that we shall not know anything about what we are to do. I heard my name mentioned as one of the Committee on Resolutions. This is my first visit to this kind of a convention, but if I have a duty to perform I would like to know what we are to do. Is it our duty to receive resolutions and hand them to the convention with our recommendation, or will those who introduce them be expected to read their resolutions in this body before we are authorized to con- sider them? A motion was passed awhile ago that resolutions could be introduced in the convention, and a few were read, and some handed their resolutions to me. As I understand it, I have no right to present them to the committee until they are read in the convention. GENERAL NOBLE: I don't profess to know anything, but I know a little, and I learned most of it in the different conventions of this Congress. In the first place, when a committee is appointed, it has a chairman ; usually the first named, where it is not otherwise designated. That committee meets on its own motion. The reso- lution that that committee should meet here at 2 o'clock after the committee had been made would be a control that is not ordinarily attempted to be exercised by a convention over a committee already in existence, and as you might say, out of sight. To reply to the gentleman's other question, on motion of the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Prince) this morning it was decided that resolutions would be in order until the Committee on Resolutions should re- port. It is the understanding that any person who has a resolution can read it or he can hand it to the Secretary, and in either case, without debate, it will go to the Committee on Resolutions. What- ever resolutions come before your committee you are to consider, and whatever you deem unnecessary you need not report. You 72 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS do report and set forth resolutions which meet with your approval, and they come before the convention for discussion. That is as good an answer as I can give, and I think it covers the ground. MR. BLACK: In making the motion I did, I did not know of the announcement spoken of. My idea was that there were more here now; but with the consent of my second I will withdraw the motion. Consent was given, and the motion was withdrawn. GENERAL NOBLE: Is there anything else before we adjourn? JUDGE RAKER: There has been no time designated by the Chair, or any one, when the Committee on Permanent Organization will meet, and no one named as chairman of that committee. SECRETARY FRANCIS: I have already announced that the Com- mittee on Permanent Organization would meet at 7 :30 p. m. in the parlors of the American Inn. The following letter was read by the Secretary : Elkins, W. Va., July 28, 1905. Mr. Arthur F. Francis, Secretary Trans-Mississippi Commercial Con- gress, Cripple Creek, Colo: My Dear Sir I have received a copy of the call for the Portland session of the Congress, also various printed matter which you have sent to me, also your letters, for all of which please accept my sincere thanks. From all appearances it would seem that the coming meeting of the Congress will be the best and perhaps the most important in its history. I am pleased that the people of the far west take a deep interest in the Congress. The subjects for discussion this year are all live subjects and the Oriental trade is a subject of the highest importance. Our country is now in the colonial business, expanding its possessions for good of all. It is a new subject, especially in its trade relations, and yet still more important is it from a national aspect. It spreads before us a future, the possibilities of which no one can foretell. I am hoping for the opportunity of a short trip to Europe for a few weeks' vacation, otherwise I would be with you at this meeting of the Congress. My regards to the officers^ members of the Executive Committee and to the Congress itself, and with good wishes for its success and con- tinually increasing influence as a commercial factor in the upbuilding of this great nation, I remain, Sincerely yours, R. C. KERNS. (Applause.) GENERAL NOBLE : I will now announce the special committee on revision of the by-laws : L. Bradford Prince, New Mexico ; Tom TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 73 Richardson, Oregon ; Arthur F. Francis, Colorado ; Hon. T. T. Crit- tenden, Missouri; Rufus P. Jennings, California. GENERAL NOBLE : There are yet two papers to be submitted at this session of the Congress. It is nearly the hour of adjourning, and it rests with the Congress as to what shall be done. One of these goes over until tomorrow ; that of Mr. Van Loben Sels. What shall be done with the other? JUDGE RAKER: I move that the gentleman be invited to state very briefly what his paper is, and that we consider it read. The motion was seconded. A delegate from Nebraska moved that the paper be read by title only and printed in the Record. The motion was seconded, and it was so ordered. The papers by Mr. Van Loben Sels of San Francisco on "The Improvement of Rivers and Harbors" went over, and that of B. C Wright of San Francisco on "The West the Best" was submitted and herewith follows : THE WEST THE BEST. A paper by Benj. C. Wright, of San Francisco, Cal., at the Trans- Mississippi Commercial Congress, Portland, Ore., August 16-19, 1905. My proposition that the west is the best is so self-evident to the members of this Congress, that it appears to be a work of supererogation to present proofs. You all believe it to be true, and furthermore you all know it to be true. The evidence which I shall produce in confirmation of its truth is rather for the benefit of those benighted ones who are still trying to eke out a living among the congested conditions which prevail on the eastern side of the country. It was Bishop Berkeley who said, "Westward the course of empire takes its way," and he only voiced what was patent to everybody even in his day. Over sixty years ago, Horace Greeley said, "Go west, young .nan; go west." That was good advice then; it has been good advice ever since; and it will be good advice until the uttermost regions of the west are as densely populated as the eastern sections are today. The millions who have heeded that advice have occasion to be grateful. Those who projected the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, carved put for themselves a goodly heritage when they allowed the great Mississippi river to be the division line, choosing that portion of the country lying west of that river as the field of their operations. It may be considered a stretch of poetic license to designate the section thus set apart as the west, but for the purposes of this occasion and this address it will be so considered. In the few minutes allotted me I can only ap- proach the fringe of my subject. Within these limits there are nineteen states and five territories, while east of the Mississippi there are twenty-six states and the District of Columbia. 74 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS One hundred years ago, that portion of the country lying west of the Mississippi was a comparatively unbroken wilderness, practically uninhabited, except by Indians. The discovery of this portion of the great northwest by Lewis and Clark in 1805 is the event which is now being celebrated in the fine exhibi- tion on these grounds. Sixty years ago, the only organized states within the limits of this Congress were Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa and Texas, with a combined population of about 1,000,000. The last census gave these states a population of over 11,000,000. The other fourteen states and territories have come into existence since 1850, and most of them at a still later date. Considering the jurisdiction of this Congress as the western por- tion of the country, it will be in order to present some facts to substan- tiate the claim that the west is the best. First, as to area. Excluding Alaska, the United States comprises 2,970,230 square miles of land area, and 55,370 square miles of water surface. That portion of the country under the special care of this Congress comprises 2,115,527 square miles of land area, equal to over 70 per cent of the total of the whole country, and 28,118 square miles of the water surface, equal to more than 50 per cent of the whole. This clearly proves that the largest half of the area of the country is within the con- fines of this Congress; and it goes without question that, with the excep- tion of population and wealth, both of which will be developed in due time, it is the best half. As all wealth can be traced back to the earth in some form, it is a good thing to have plenty of eartrl, and earth that has not been worked to exhaustion through long years of crop bearing without proper replen- ishment. There are many square miles of earth in the zone under con- sideration that have never been scratched for cultivation purposes, while there are many more square miles that have been tilled for only a few years. Viewed from the standpoint of population alone, the western por- tion is more prosperous than the eastern. The population of the nine- teen states and four territories west of Mississippi in 1900 was 20,771,- 062, an increase of 25 per cent from 1890, whereas the increase for that portion of the country east of the big river for the same decade was less than 20 per cent. It is safe to say that the increase in the western half for the last five years has shown a larger percentage of gain than for the previous ten. The state census of Washington just completed shows a gain of 84 per cent in the last five years. As elbow room is essential to health and progress, it is a pleasure to be able to state that we have plenty of room for many more millions of people, and they are coming by every train that crosses the continent. There are less than ten persons per square mile west of the Mississippi) while there are about sixty-five persons per square mile east of that boundary. For commercial comparisons we may restrict the west to that por- tion bordering on the Pacific Ocean as drawn by a line along the ridge of the Rocky Mountains. The foreign commerce of the leading four ports on the Atlantic coast, as compared with the principal four ports on the Pacific coast, will further confirm our view of the importance of this end, of the country. The imports at New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore for the calendar year of 1904 were valued at $789,461,000, an increase of 42 per cent over the total of 1894. This increase was apportioned as fol- TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 75 lows: New York, 44 per cent; Boston, 62 per cent; Philadelphia, 4 per cent; Baltimore, 64 per cent. The imports at San Francisco, Portland, Tacoma and Seattle for 1904 were $54,666,130, an increase of 34 per cent from 1894. This increase was apportioned as follows: San Francisco, 13 per cent; Portland, 248 per cent, and the Puget Sound ports, 446 per cent. The heavy increase at the northern coast ports was due to the rapid development of the Oriental trade in the past decade. The exports from the same Atlantic ports for 1904 were valued at $743,389,740, an increase of 40 per cent from 1894. This increase may be credited as follows: New York, 48 per cent; Boston, 3i per cent; Phila- delphia, 80 per cent, and Baltimore, 27 per cent. The exports from the same Pacific coast ports for 1904 were valued at $73,018,929, an increase of 132 per cent from 1894. The increase from San Francisco was 80 per cent; from Portland, 90 per cent., and from the Puget Sound ports, 383 per cent. As will be noticed, the increase in exports from the Pacific coast ports in the past decade is more than three times as large as from the Atlantic ports. The flour and grain trade of the United States for the cereal year of 1904-5 was unusually light, and the Pacific coast states suffered with the remainder of the country, but not proportionately to the same extent. Had foreign countries depended upon the United States for breadstuffs in the last fiscal year, they would have fared poorly. The three Pacific coast states helped out in this trade as never before, contributing 35 per cent of all the flour shipped from the country, 90 per cent of all the wheat, and 51 per cent of all the barley. ' They also contributed liberally to the supplies needed in the United States from Minneapolis to Boston. In the previous fiscal year these same states contributed 20 per cent of all the flour exported from the United States, 16 per cent of all the wheat, and 98 per cent of all the barley. From the grain standpoint, these coast states are of much importance. From the bank standpoint, a comparison of the clearings in the same cities shows to the advantage of the Pacific coast. The clearings at New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore for 1904 were $72,680,- 908,473, an increase of 120 per cent as compared with 1894. The clearings at San Francisco, Portland, Tacoma and Seattle for 1904 were $2,013,- 861,658, an increase of 166 per cent over 1894. Though the figures are not at hand for a comparison of the growth in banking resources between the east and the west for the past ten years, we have no hesitation in saying that such growth has been more rapid west than east of the Mississippi. In the past five years 133 national banks alone have been organized in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Alaska. Complete returns show 477 banks of all kinds in California on May 29, 1905, an increase of 62 per cent in five years, with an increase of 67 per cent in resources and deposits. Other states in the Congress have done equally well. One thing that distinguishes this part of the country from that east of the Mississippi is the product of the precious metals. It is fortunate for the development of the Atlantic coast states that the pilgrim fathers landed there instead of on this coast. Otherwise the attractions here would have retarded settlements there. It was ordained that the treasure vaults of the United States should be located in the western end of the country, and further, that they should not be discovered until the beginning of the last half of the last century. From the opening of the mint in 1792 to January 1, 1848, the total gold and silver product reported by the mint authorities was less than $25,000,000. The population of the country at that time was about 20,000,000, which made the money supply equal to $1.25 per capita. That was a small amount of metallic money 76 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS with which to transact business, but it was all there was in sight .at that time, and there was nothing to show that the next fifty years would increase the supply in any greater ratio. At this critical juncture the west came to the relief of the east. Gold was discovered in California in 1848, and twelve years later in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Montana; and still later in other adjacent states and territories. These sources of supply have added materially to the world's stock ever since. The total amount of Ameri- can gold and silver produced to the close of 1904, in round numbers, is $4,700,000,000, nearly all of which has been extracted from the territory covered by this Congress. This immense amount of recognized wealth has not only been of great advantage to the United States in a high credit standard, but of much value to the whole world in producing a sub- stantial metallic basis for the paper money in such general circulation. Instead of a metallic money supply of $1.25 per capita, as in 1848, as based on a population of 20,000,000, the per capita has been advanced to $24.42 on a population of 83,259,000. The best part of this story lies in the fact that this precious 1 metal supply is still flowing, and for aught that is known to the contrary will continue to flow for years to come, and all are invited to help maintain and increase the gold and silver streams. I must not omit a brief reference to the salmon fisheries for which this coast is so distinguished. The Hume brothers started this industry on the Sacramento river in 1864, and two years later began operations along the same line on the Columbia River with a pack of 4,000 cases, which pack was steadily increased from year to year until 1884, when it reached 656,000 cases, the record total on that river. Geo. W. Hume, one of the pioneers in this trade, is a daily visitor at the Merchants' Exchange, San Francisco, though not as robust as when pulling a boat in the Sacramento river over forty years ago. Canneries on the Alaskan coast which started with 36,000 cases in 1883, packed over 5,000,000 cases in 1901, the best total on record. Excluding British Columbia, the total coast pack of salmon to the close of 1904 was 44,237,000 cases, which at an average of $5.00 per case means $221,185,000. This represents only the value of the canned salmon produced. . Of this total pack, the Columbia River is credited with 14,807,484 cases, and Alaskan waters with 19,698,407 cases. Please note that this single Alaskan industry has produced $100,000,000 in the lae adapted to the industrial or business needs of the people. Necessity that is, the needs of the people must be the basis of our legislation, political theories and our diplomacy. This means honesty in all things. Those in authority are but the agents, who through governmental organization give direc- tion to our business methods, restraining here, encouraging there, and assisting everywhere. 4. Our national influence in securing markets for our products, will be extended more through our ability to supply the wants of human- ity, at a profit to us, than by the strength of our navy, necessary as our navy is. This is a mere matter of business. There is no halo around it other than the halo that honesty and capacity in business methods always bring. 5. We possess the natural bounty, from agricultural, mineral and intellectual standpoints, which are the raw material underlying all. But to get out of them that which will make us great and fit us to enjoy, our government must do more than restrain men from injuring one another. It must be so organized and equipped as to help them help one another. The government should be a positive force supporting that which is best, rather than a negative force, simply restraining that which is worst. 6. Under the American idea, the business of our government must extend beyond raising revenue, equipping armies, wrangling over boundaries and restraining evil. It must ransack the earth to find any- thing new that will benefit agriculture or any other of our national indus- tries. It must aid in seeking markets for American products. It must assist in encouraging scientific methods in farming, mining and other American industries. 7. To meet the full measure of its responsibilty to the American people, our government must take every reasonable step to equip the people to triumph in this industrial contest. How can this best be done? is the question of the hour. The great co-operative tendency in our industrial undertakings is one of "the potent forces making our highest industrial development possible, if honestly directed. Honesty applied to these great industrial ventures would render this co-operative tendency invincible. The government by proper departmental equipment, can do more to bring about honesty in promoting industrial ventures than any other force known to this enlightened age. Dishonesty in promoting and manipulating great corporations cover more ground than mining. If publicity is the remedy, then our government through the legislative and executive branches can create and apply the remedy. It is the part of wisdom to dp things, and do them in a manner that will count for the future. This is what distinguishes us from the 82 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS savage, who keeps his attention more upon the present, and is the crowning element of civilization. Therefore, if industry is to be our builder, then it should be directed in a manner that will be most endur- ing because most scientific. The rivalry of nations is becoming conspicu- ously an industrial rivalry. Commerce will take care of itself, if you will produce a quality wanted, at a price adapted, transported where needed. Some say the question of capital enters in. There is no ques- tion about capital where promotion and management rest on honesty. A billion dollars could be secured any time from the people, for any legitimate undertaking in this country, if assured of honesty and ability behind it. We must meet international competition which is daily becoming more intense. Modern facilities for communication are bring- ing the nations so closely together that this competition to produce and transport at lowest cost will tax even American ingenuity, courage and enterprise. The use the European governments are making of their highly equipped bureaucratic organizations in industrial fields warns us of our own needs. We must be better prepared than ever before to more than meet the influences of their mighty governmental organiza- tions in seeking the trade of the world. How shall we do this? Simply by equipping our government to more effectively direct the industrial energies of the American people by insisting upon honesty in all the greater enterprises of a general public nature. This will stimulate honesty in smaller enterprises; in fact, make honesty popular. Also by opening new avenues for industrial enterprises and new avenues for sale of American products, and by making it possible to secure better results in present methods. In the light of these suggestions I can conceive that a wonderful uplift can be given to American industrial life through what I call industrial departments of our government. Can any thoughtful man today doubt the wisdom of creating and the usefulness of our agricultural department? It is making agricul- ture a science. It is making agriculture attractive. It is making it remunerative. It is making it a source of pleasure to the progressive man. It is lifting it out of the condition of "the man with the hoe" toward what it was intended. It tends to place it on a basis where it should be. Could we do without our department of agriculture now, with all the hope it gives? No, and yet it is just in its infancy of use- fulness. I have not so much to say in favor of the department of commerce and labor, because I do not feel that department rests on the true basis of a department. Commerce is a result rather than a cause. Labor can best be served through avenues of production. I trust I may be wrong in my views relating to this department. But this is no argu- ment against a department founded on an enduring basis. I believe the great mining industry can be uplifted and the Ameri- can people thereby blessed by a mining department on as great a scale as this agricultural department which has so blessed our country. Min- ing furnishes the most enduring material wealth of the world. It takes from none; it gives to all. If there is a seeming taking from investors without giving in return, it is not due so much to mining as to dis- honesty and incapacity of those representing it. Cecil Rhodes, one of the world's great miners, says: "Mining is the backbone of all wealth and the spinal column of all certainty. Of course you can lose your money in mining if you put your money in a mine that is worthless, and in the same way you can lose it if you invest it in a store that contains no merchandise, or in a bank that contains no money. Investigate your mining company as you would any other business. This is easily done, and you will then make no mistake." TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 83 The United States produces 37 per cent of the world's coal. Coal made England great. Coal and our splendid water falls will make America greater. The United States produces 39 per cent of the pig iron of the world. This of itself possesses the element of national great- ness. The United States produces 51 per cent of the copper of the world. This in its ability to direct currents of electric force gives to the "rock-ribbed earth a nervous system and makes a whispering gal- lery of the world." America produces 30 per cent of the lead of the world, 57 per cent of the petroleum of the earth and 25 per cent of the zinc, and the mining industry of this country produces annually over a billion dollars in value and 52 per cent of the tonnage of our trans- portation lines. This establishes its importance to the American people. This justifies us in inquiring what benefits a department would be in aid of this industry that the people may reap the highest reward possible from so important source of supply. While I shall not attempt to present for your consideration all the benefits such a department would be, I will attempt to state the most important benefits as they appear to me. In the first place, why have a department rather than a bureau? Because my conception of the purpose of our government is to lay an industrial foundation in this country broad enough to sustain the possi- ble development of the combined material and intellectual possibilities of this most favored land. This cannot be done by the red tape of a bureau; but only by the grasp of America's greatest statesman, who alone are worthy of standing at the head of so great an opportunity. This great responsibility should be presided over by bn,e possessing origi- nal authority, power to originate through suggestion and execution. He must not be limited to details, but to creation He should have authority not simply to go in ruts as bureaus do, but to make a rut as large as a river and let bureaus work on the tributaries. The water shed of this river is the whole world and the tributaries of it will reach into all lands as well as into all conditions of American society. A department of this character is a big thing or nothing. As I see them, the following are some of the important benefits: A department of mining would keep the executive and legislative branches in close touch with the wants of mining and allied industries, that a proper foundation for legislation might be made clear, because all legislation should be the child of necessity; that is, the wants of the people and that the political department might know the scope of national and international questions relating thereto. A department would create a co-operative tendency between the people and the government, not in a paternal sense, but in the sense that the government is but a business instrument through which evils can be suppressed, and good things encouraged. The co-operation between the government and the agricultural department illustrates my idea. A department would aid in avoiding the great waste now so appall- ing in mining, because it would aid, as in. agriculture, by wise legisla- tion, scientific information, the discouragement of illegitimate promotion, the encouragement of legitimate mining, and giving reliable information to the people of the real worth of mining to them. A department would aid in placing mining on a scientific rather than a speculative basis as now. In other words, it would, as Cecil Rhodes said, "make it the spinal column of certainty." This would more and more remove mining from gambling and place under it enduring principles of sound business. A department would not alone be of great assistance to the pros- pectors, miners and reducers of ores, but would aid in harmonizing mining and allied industries, by making scientific information available 84 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS to those who most need it for their own protection, and through such legislation as intelligent experience shows to be in the interests of those who are not in a position to insist on legislation in their interests and well being. Mining employs a large proportion of the American people. A department would aid in placing mining on a sound legal basis, a basis in harmony with the highest development, consistent with a just protection of individual rights, and in harmony with all the varied branches of mining. A department would aid in placing mining on an investment rather than a speculative basis. Look at the great coal and iron mines, the great Comstock, Homestake, Treadwell, and others of a similar char- acter. Why are not such properties a safe and profitable investment if honesty and capacity vitalize their promotion and management? A department would encourage legitimate mining and the promo- tion of the same. All dishonesty is not included in mining propositions and management, but mining offers a great field for such methods because of the great profits possible. This is all the more reason why every safeguard within reason should be thrown around such promotion and management. A department would discourage illegitimate mining promotion and management. Would this be in the interest of mining and the American people? If so, then its importance is conceded and our government should be so equipped that its influence could be felt in this regard. A department would aid in harmonizing all branches of mining and allied occupations. It would help develop a scientific system of what now is confusion in the minds of the American people. This makes it possible for illegitimate fortunes to be acquired in a manner not possible in any other calling and incomes expanding as our wants increase by tributes unreasonable and undeserved. A department would aid in giving proper recognition to the future possibilities of Alaska, one of the greatest storehouses of mineral wealth now known. That territory, properly guided and conserved, will prove one of the greatest bulwarks of this country in its hours of trial and need. It is of interest and importance to the American people that this great heritage be properly fostered. Then, taking the question as a whole, the purpose of our govern- ment, our wonderful mineral resources, the ever-expanding wants of the world in the light of modern civilization, the competition we must meet, the enduring strength scientific industry gives to a people, the courage that comes from enlightened selfishness, the character building possible in wresting from the combined resources at our command, the wealth they can give, and the statesmanship resulting from guiding so great a purpose does it not seem necessary to have such department that tangible results worthy of such opportunities may be realized, espe- cially when we know that "to protect and encourage the productive industries of the people is the highest type of statesmanship under any form of government"? If so, then such a department should be created, otherwise not. It is known by all who pretend to keep themselves in touch with agricultural conditions in this country, what the department of agri- culture has done for this industry, how it has enlarged our markets for these products, diffused essential information relating to crops, soils and tillage, how effectively it has assisted the agriculturist in fighting the pests that have lessened his profits, and how it has invested agriculture with a new dignity and importance by making it a scientific occupation. We contend this department has demonstrated the necessity of such a TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 85 department in enabling cfur government to bring to the American peo- ple that which intelligence alone can give. I now believe as firmly as I believe in my country and its destiny, that a department of mining would bring to the prospector, the fore- runner of promise; and the miner, that scientific information concerning mineral formations, the character of various ores and their proper treatment, to convert them into a condition of usefulness, that would return to the American people a far richer legacy than the department of agriculture is bringing and will bring them. This co-operation on the part of our government may give prospectors just the chance in life they so richly deserve and which may be vital to their success in giving to the American people the treasures of earth. It is just as important to the American people that our government prosecute this exhaustive geological research in every mining district that will make the work of the prospector and practical miner and the reducer of ores easier, cheaper, more certain and more remunerative as for the government to ransack the earth to find a remedy for the San Jose scale in fruit trees, make elaborate experiments in the cultivation of tea, cotton, grains and grasses. No intelligent man can doubt the beneficence of such govern- mental work. A new impetus and dignity would be given to mining through such a department, the wholesome effect of which would stimu- late all industry. Therefore, to my mind, the creation of a federal department of mining by congress, rests on service to the American people by our government. That which will equip our government to wisely direct the industrial life of the American people in harmony with the funda- mental political principles underlying our national existence will of necessity energize our national vitality, encourage legitimate human endeavor, discourage our one great internal foe, dishonesty in high places, stimulate individual and co-operative industry, inspire us with a greater unity of purpose as a people, strengthen our grasp on that which is best, and thereby wrest from our opportunities the enduring results that are legitimately possible. This department would enable the people of this country to clasp with a friendly hand that which is the backbone of America's most energizing and enduring source of material wealth and the spinal column of our industrial life mining. (Applause.) At the conclusion of Judge Richards written address, he said: I am speaking simply for myself, not for the American Mining Congress; I would not want any mistake or lack on my part to detract from the great work that congress has in view; therefore, I am not speaking for the American Mining Congress, but for myself, because that congress does not want to be held responsible for any lack on my part. This question, so far as I can discover, has not been discussed by any of our greatest statesmen. I can find nothing that has been written on the subject, nothing in the Congressional Record that seems to throw any light on the topic; and therefore if there are any shortcomings in the few suggestions I have made the mining congress should not be held responsible for it. If there is any good in it, I am perfectly willing to give the mining congress the benefit of it. When I see the great Pacific country bordering upon this great Father of Waters, and realize the opportunities we have in this inter-mountain region, and the great wealth of Alaska; and when I see how much it needs the broadest statesmenship of our nation's greatest men to com- prehend it all, it seems to me there should be placed at the head of this great industry some man large enough to comprehend the country's need along the laws of mining, because of the enduring wealth which 86 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS it gives to the world. There are no more courageous and vigorous American citizens than those we have engaged in mining; it seems to give them an enduring quality, the same as the metal which they bring from the bostom of the earth. It is for this reason that that great source of the world's enduring wealth in this country should be guided and served by the highest statesmanship, and the greatest organization it is possible for this nation to give to the world. We have the statesmen, we have them, we have the opportunities and the mineral wealth and the whole of the Orient at our command; and there will be yet gliding across the bosom of this great deep west of us, a commerce such as the world has never seen, if we but take advantage of pur present oppor- tunities and organize this government to meet intelligently and gener- ously the wants of humanity of that great world which is just opening to a new civilization. I hope that a resolution will be passed which will express the confidence of this Congress in this question of a department of mines and mining, and which will express it strong enough to be heard in the halls of congress. I thank you for your attention. (Great applause.) GEN. ANDERSON (Oregon) : Mr. President, will it be in order now to ask the speaker a few questions ? THE CHAIRMAN : Yes, that is in order after every address, or remarks are in order, and asking of questions is of course at the option of the speaker. JUDGE RICHARDS: I do not mean to say that I can answer all questions, but I will be glad to have any questions asked, and if I can answer them I will gladly do so. GEN. ANDERSON : I would like to ask if the Mining Congress has any plan to prevent what is called "The crime of Amalga- mated," without assuming that there is a crime of Amalgamated, such as we have read of in the articles by Mr. Lawson. If such a thing is possible, I would ask the honorable gentleman if the Min- ing Congress has any method to propose to meet that condition of the big fish eating the little fish ; of inside syndicates booming or developing stocks to the detriment of the small investor. JUDGE RICHARDS : I would answer the gentleman in this way : That the board of directors of the American Mining Congress have discussed that very carefully at many meetings, and we have come to the unanimous conclusion that there is no force in this country that is able to compete with the one suggested by the gentleman, except the government of the United States; outside of merely educating the public to a higher standard of business methods. As I suggested awhile ago, if honesty was back of our great financiers in high places, as much as ability is behind them, there is no nation, or any half dozen nations, on this earth that could compete with this country in its industrial development. (Great applause.) There is our great lack, therefore ; the only thing to do is to bring the right kind of pressure upon it, or an organization such as the TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 87 great government of the United States; and the time is coming, if it is not already here, in my judgment, when that government must establish the fact in the minds of the American people that it is greater than any corporation it ever created. (Great applause.) That about covers the general idea of the matter, I think. MR. LOVERAN (California) : I have been very glad to hear this discussion. This is a question that I have always been greatly interested in, for the reason that in my business career throughout the United States I have found an influence that properly put in motion could create a power beyond anything that we have to take care of all these little disturbances which are bound to arise and ruin the business interests of our country. I mean the organization of the whole business interests of the United States to protect and take care of the business interests of all concerned. This is something I have never heard mentioned anywhere, but as I see it, the only way out of the difficulties mentioned is the organization of the whole business interests of the country, which would make a power be- yond anything we have, to take these matters in hand for the best interests of all concerned. We have a great railroad trust, which is the greatest combination in the world ; we have, our capital trusts, our newspaper trusts, labor trusts, and all those propositions with nothing to guide or regulate; like a steam sawmill, if we turn the steam on with nothing to regulate it, what can we expect? As the gentleman says, what shall that power be? It shall be the organization of the whole business interests of the United States. DR. GEORGE P. NEAL (Iowa) : I desire to offer the following resolution : DES MOINES MISSISSIPPI DAM. WHEREAS, The Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress has from the earliest conception of the idea, and has at every meeting of this body, lent aid and comfort to the evolution of the project of the proposed high dam across the Mississippi river to develop the electrical power at the foot of Des Moines rapids. WHEREAS, An enabling act authorizing the construction of the same has passed both houses of congress and has been signed by the president of the United States (February 9, 1905). WHEREAS, The legislatures of many states representing views of their constituents have passed resolutions favoring it, the United States army engineers having fully endorsed it as ideal. WHEREAS, The proposed dam between the cities of Keokuk, Iowa, and Hamilton, Illinois, is situated in the geographical center of the middle west and within the commercial center of the railroad and river freight traffic of the United States. WHEREAS, The proposed dam will be the greatest triumph of engineer- ing skill and the water power the greatest of the kind, except the com- bined works at Niagara. The dam itself will be the greatest in the world, except the system built by the British in the Nile. WHEREAS, The said dam to be built across this great river, which with its tributary waters the most fertile lands of the globe, its millions of 88 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS highly enlightened inhabitants pay for the early construction, in order to utilize this tremendous power which at a minimum estimate is 60,000 electrical horse power, with a maximum double that amount; therefore, Be it Resolved, That it is the sense of this Congress held in the City of Portland, Oregon, August 16, 1905, that all fair and honorable means be taken in the interest of the early construction of this great cheapener of electrical power. Resolved, That this body express its satisfaction at the success of this measure and its appreciation of the broad-minded policy of our repre- sentatives in congress who have opened up a wide field for manufactur- ing; and be it Further Resolved, That this Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress pledge its effort to enhance this great interstate improvement. HON. CHARLES L. EARLY. HON. HENRY STONE. HON. JOHN L. KAMRAR. HON. C. R. CORNELIUS. HON. LUKE HUISKAMP. HON. FRANK B. COLE. DR. GEORGE P. NEAL. HON. C. F. SAYLOR. HON. E. H. HUNTER. HON. JNO. CLASSEN. HON. A. H. GALE. THE CHAIRMAN : The resolution will be referred to the Com- mittee on Resolutions : GOVERNOR CRITTENDEN (Missouri) : Mr. Chairman, I see the time has arrived, and the gentleman also, who is to address this audience, the president of the greatest exposition the world has ever seen, Governor Francis ; and if it is in order I move now that we have an intermission to give us the pleasure of hearing Governor Francis on this occasion. I know there are a number of people here who desire to hear him. I have heard him often, on all occa- sions and on all subjects, and I have never been disappointed in anything he has said. I make the motion that we now hear Gov- nor Francis. The motion is seconded. THE CHAIRMAN : No motion is necessary. The Chair was just about to make the announcement that it was the first matter on the program today, but Governor Francis was not present at the opening of the session. It is with great pleasure I make the an- nouncement to the Congress that Governor Francis is now with us, one whose reputation is great as a governor, great as a secretary, great as a man of affairs, and whose name is now synonymous with success in great expositions. (Applause.) Governor Francis needs no introduction to any audience anywhere in the United States. (Applause.) TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 89 GOVERNOR FRANCIS: ADDRESS OF HON D. R. FRANCIS. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress I am an accredited delegate to this Congress and I feel honored by being so, but I have not attended its sessions because I was endeavoring to avoid the task of delivering what may be called an address. I have made a few desultory talks during the past year or so, but I can't say that I have ever read a paper or delivered any talks that might be digni- fied as an address. I am glad to have this opportunity to appear before this representative body of men for several reasons. In the first place, I desire on behalf of the universal exposition held in St. Louis in 1904 to thank the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress for. what it con- tributed towards bringing about that exposition, and towards that measure of success with which it is credited. I well remember when the meeting of this Congress was held in Houston, Texas, I journeyed uninterruptedly from New York City to Houston in order to appear before the Congress to enlist its aid and encouragement toward an international exposition which we were then planning to commemorate a great event in the country's history. I also well remember attending the meeting of this Congress at Wichita, and upon both occasions ring- ing resolutions were passed by the men representing the great territory whose acquisition we purposed to celebrate, asking congress and the general government to recognize this effort on the part of the Louisiana territory, and asking all sections of this country to participate in that exposition. You will remember that a period of five or six years elapsed between the time that this celebration was spoken of and the holding of the exposition. This is the first meeting you have held since that exposition terminated. I come to you as its representative to render an account of my stewardship. I come on behalf of that exposition to thank this Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress for its very efficient aid in bringing about that exposition, which has gone into history. I leave it for others not connected with the management to say whether it was a success, to say whether the assembling within the limits of the Louisiana territory in this Trans-Mississippi country, of the representa- tives of all the states and territories in the Union, representatives of every civilized country on the globe, of the installation of the best products of the human brain and brawn, as to whether a competition between all classes of men and all sections of the world was properly conducted and in a fit manner commemorated one of the greatest events in the history of civilization; I mean the purchase of the Louisiana ter- ritory. That exposition has ended, and its gates have been closed, but the effects of that exposition, its far-reaching influences will continue to be felt for a generation to come. If we of St. Louis expended, as we did, $10,000,000 without expect- ing any return in dollars and cents; if some of us devoted six years of effort to inaugurating and conducting that exposition without expecting or receiving any commercial return, we still feel that we have been more than amply compensated for all of our expenditure of treasure and of effort. We trust the country cherishes the same feeling concerning that universal exposition. I know of no event in this or any other country that has contributed so much toward the promotion of universal good feeling of all races and all nations as did that exposition held in St. Louis last year. I believe it was one of the prime causes, if not the main cause, of the two great nations of the world who are now engaged in deadly strife, consenting to have their ambassadors meet in this country in an effort to negotiate terms of peace. (Great applause.) Within 90 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS the gates of that exposition was held an international peace conference, where all the great nations of the earth were represented. The expression of good feelings there made removed the necessity for any bitterness between any races or any sections of the earth. Think what it means to have assembled within the limits of our own country all of the highest products of the human hand and human brain! All over this country today and I dare say the same state of affairs exists in other countries you may see that universal exposition alluded to in the sale of products of all the factories on the globe. The standards of interna- tional competition were fixed at that exposition. Those standards were continued until another international exposition is held. There will be other international competitions, but I think it will be a long time before there will be a universal international competition. By universal I mean a competition in the products of every line of human endeavor. There will be several international expositions, in electricity or education, or machinery, or perhaps in agriculture, but in my judgment it will be a long time before any city in this or any other country undertakes to assemble in friendly rivalry all of the peoples of the earth in all of the lines of their energy and enterprise. I doubt whether such another effort would be commendable, whether the game would be worth the candle. The advantage of an exposition where you can, without wearing yourself out, see all of its beauties, is fitly illustrated in Portland. No exposition of any size ever had a more beautiful setting than this, and no visitor from wherever he may hail can view the exhibits in this expo- sition without being interested and edified. I have talked of expositions so much that I think many of you, if not all, must have heard me from time to time give expression to these thoughts. I wish, without trespassing upon the time of this Congress, to say a few words upon other subjects. I desire to commend the spirit and the motive which brings annually together representative men from dif- ferent sections of this country to exchange views upon questions that agitate the public mind, and which are dear to the hearts and interests of the people whom they represent. You do not come here for the purpose of promoting personal or selfish ends. You come to lay before this assemblage of representative men the needs of your section of country. You come without any hope of reward, other than a con- sciousness of a duty well performed. It has been said that such Con- gresses as this should not be confined to a section of the country. That instead of being Trans-Mississippi in name and membership, this Con- gress should be national. There are national congresses of this charac- ter, and they are not without their effect. It is eminently proper that this great section of country in which we live should occasionally have such an assemblage as this in which may be discussed its interests as distinguished from the interests of the other section of the country, and in which there may be arranged a unity of action, without which we can accomplish nothing, and without which in the present existing state of affairs our interests would be neglected to the advantage of other inter- ests of this country. The subjects which you consider are numerous and various. I have sometimes thought, however, that the influence of this Congress might be greater if we confined our attention to fewer subjects; if, instead of having a long set of resolutions giving expression to our convictions upon various local matters, we confined those expres- sions to two or three subjects in which we are deeply interested, and then appoint committees to go to congress and lay before that body the sentiment of the west concerning those subjects. If we did that, our influence perhaps might be greater and our work more effective. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 91 To you people of the Pacific coast, as well as to us who live on the banks of the Father of Waters and its great tributaries, there is no sub- ject of greater importance than the improvement of our navigable water- ways. (Great applause.) I think the tendency of this day is to overlook the importance of water navigation. There has been such rapid improve- ment in the construction of railroads and their operations that we have been inclined to feel that railroads could do all of the transporting ot this country without the aid of our rivers, and without perhaps the improvement of as many harbors in this country as we desire to see improved. I am very far from failing to give credit to the great trans- portation lines of this country for what they have contributed towards its development and progress; but I do maintain that the most healthy regulation of these great railroads are the navigable streams which come into competition with them. I believe, and I have said it time and time again, during the past twenty-five years, that it is a crime for the people of this country to permit the Mississippi river to be unused as an artery of commerce to the extent that it has been. I believe if that great waterway were in one of the European countries, if necessary for its use, it would be deepened from St. Paul to its mouth; that, if neces- sary, there would be a continuous levee built along its entire length. They are building great canals in England and in Germany, where there are no waterways, for the purpose of holding the railroads in check, and of cheapening modes of transportation. It has been said that the improvements in locomotives, in railroad iron, and in the capacity of the cars, will enable the great transportation lines of the country to carry freight cheaper by rail than it can be carried by water. It is only neces- sary, to show the fallacy of that reasoning, to call the attention of an audience such as this to the fact that in the case of the Mississippi river, for instance, there is a great waterway provided by nature; all that you have to do is to keep its channel so under control that a depth of water will be maintained sufficient to permit the navigation of the stream by barges carrying hundreds of tons at a load. Do you mean to tell me that such a waterway as that, provided and maintained by nature, cannot per- form the same service at less cost than the railroad that parallels it, which costs from $40,000 to $70,000 per mile to construct, and which costs 50 to 60 per cent of its gross earnings to operate and maintain, which has bonds on it for 25 per cent more than it costs, and stock on which earns possible dividends for as much as all of the bonds com- bined? I am not disposed to inveigh against the railroad interests of the country; I have had some experience as a railroad man, and I have railroad interests today; but I believe we are guilty of great neglect in the Mississippi valley if we fail to utilize the Mississippi river. I know that you people on the Pacfic coast are as much interested in the improvement of your navigable waters, and we, by uniting with you, might be able to impress on future congresses the importance of improv- ing: these navigable streams. (Applaus*.) I am not sectional in my conviction, and certainly do not intend to be in any of my public utter- ances. At the same time, my friends, it is proper that we of this Trans- Mississippi country should meet and confer from time to time as to our interests, and should make plans to be carried out by concerted action. There has never been a time in the history of this country when we had greater opportunities than we have today. You see now, being held in Chicago, an assemblage similar to this, whose deliberations resulted in a set of resolutions which will be heard all over this country. That convention, as is this, was non-partisan in character. I am not going to speak of what that convention did, other than to say that its incentive was the conviction upon the part of those who planned it that there was over-production in this country; that we are, or soon will be, unable to find a market for all of our agricultural and manufactured products. It 92 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS was for the purpose of opening up new channels of trade, or of prevent- ing barriers being placed in our present channels of trade. I think the effect of that convention will be widespread and wholesome, but in what direction lie these new channels of trade upon which the great producing interests of this country rely, to which they look forward with such glowing hope? It is the Orient. They expect to find a market for these surplus products across the country which we inhabit and which we rep- resent here, and through the harbors along your Pacifiic coast. The interest that the people of this country feel in this trade is demon- strated by the universal interest that is cherished in the Panama canal, which forced the government to take up that subject and make an appropriation ample to construct that canal. That may bring us of the Mississippi river closer to the Pacific coast. I hope I will live to see the day when ocean steamers will be loaded in St. Louis and unloaded here on the Pacific coast without breaking bulk in transit. (Great applause.) Gentlemen, the eastern section of this country has contributed its full share toward our glory and prosperity, and it has had its due share of recognition during that time from the general congress. I do not mean to say that we have been hewers of wood and drawers of water, but I do mean to say that we of the west, and of this Louisiana territory, have done our full share toward contributing to the glory and wealth of the United States (applause); and I mean to say that we are entitled to full recognition in every respect from the federal congress and treasury. These waterways that are navigable should be improved; these harbors of yours should be deepened. Appropriation for the construction of the Panama canal was, in my judgment, a wise one, and I am sure that the efforts now being made by the President in the White House to construct that canal promptly and economically will be carried out if he has the ability and his life is spared to do it. (Applause.) God hasten the time when that canal will be completed. That will be a waterway which will be a panacea for your evils; it will be a competition between the rates that prevail between the Atlantic seaboard and the Pacific coast and between the Mississippi valley and the Pacific coast. That is why I say that canal should be completed, if for no other reason; that is why I say that the Mississippi river should be improved, if for no other reason; and we of the west are beginning to feel our independence financially as well as politically. The time was not more than two dec.ades ago when there could not be a railroad built west of the Mississippi river unless we got the consent of the New York financiers and had them furnish the money for its construction. How is it today? I can speak for my own section of country, and those who are here will corroborate my state- ment, when I say that when we think a section of the country needs a railroad we build it; we do not go to New York and ask their consent to build it. (Applause.) We are doing what we consider is proper to be done for the development of that Mississippi valley and we are sure you on the Pacific slope are doing likewise here. If you can encourage us as you did by your participation in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of last year, you promptly avail yourselves of the opportunity to do so. If we can encourage you in any of these undertakings, it is not only our duty but our pleasure to extend that encouragement. (Great applause.) Now, my friends, I do not want to detain you. (Cries of "Go on, go on.") I came here for the purpose of visiting this exposition, and attend- ing the sessions of this Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress; but I was not aware until I arrived in the city that I had been appointed a delegate. I should not have waited, however, for an appointment from any source; I feel at home in any assemblage of Trans-Mississippi peo- ple, especially in this Congress, whose sessions I have attended in pre- ceding years. I trust that these annual assemblages will continue; that every year, if possible, the membership of the Congress will become TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 93 more representative, and that instead of having a series 9f resolutions that try to encompass every subject with which the attention of man is occupied, it will systematically give forceful expression to its views from certain subjects which are of vital and immediate interest. The question of irrigation is one that should deeply concern all the people of this section of the country, and we of St. Louis and the Mississippi valley are interested in it because there are great sections of arid land tributary to us which could be made to blossom as the rose if irrigation were extended to them. Another' subject which I see has interested this convention, and one which very properly should receive from you some expression, is that of immigration. You of the Pacific coast have had that problem to consider for many years past.. It has been solved by national legisla- tion according to your behests. We who live farther east, and all of the people, especially of the Atlantic seaboard, are beginning to realize that this question is one they must consider and solve anew. When we have one million immigrants landing in this country in one year we must look to the character of that immigration if we would preserve our national institutions. (Great applause.) There is already an immi- gration law that prevents the admission of contract labor; that extends, of course, to the Pacific coast as to all borders of the country. Your laws prohibiting the importation and immigration of Chinese at all is one to which we of the east have not given very close attention, because we have not seen the effect of unrestricted Chinese immigration as you were beginning to see and feel it when the Chinese restriction act was passed. Now, I want to say this from my limited experience: I had a little exper- ience with China during the St. Louis exposition. China gave at the universal exposition of 1904 the first official representation and partici- pation that it ever gave to any exposition. Feeling grateful to this country for what we have done for it when the attempt was made to dismember the Chinese empire, in deference to our representatives who were sent to the emperor and empress 'dowager of China, that country made liberal appropriations for representation at the universal exposi- tion of 1904, and its exhibit there was of the most interesting character. Complaint, however, was constantly made to me of the indignities to which the Chinese were constantly subjected when attempting to enter this country by the Pacific coast. That is one of the reasons why the people of this country are beginning to feel that this Chinese restriction is too restrictive. (Applause.) It is because the educated people who have come here from China, tourists and visitors, who have not come with any intention of settling in this country or abandoning their native land, have been subjected on the Pacific coast to the grossest indignities. It would seem that the people who have had the enforcement of that law have attempted to make it odious to the people of this country by the manner, in which they have enforced it. We of the eastern portion of this country do not advocate that the gates be thrown open upon the west to the unrestricted importation of coolie labor, nor of any other kind of labor. We are desirous, however, as you are, that this rich field in the Orient should not be ignored by the law makers of our country at a time when our production is so large that it is a problem to find. mar- kets for what we produce in excess of our own consumption. At the same time, I would be untrue to my feelings and utterances if I failed to make this additional remark, that there is something that is dearer to us and of greater value to us than even finding a market for our sur- plus products and increasing the commerce of our country, and that is the preservation of the purity of our citizenship and the perpetuity of our republican institutions. (Great applause.) We do not wish to per- mit the coming into this country of any element of any race from any country on the globe who will not come here and appreciate our institu- 94 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS tions, enter into the spirit of American citizenship, and entirely divorce themselves from all fealty to the countries whence they hail, because a temporary advantage to us is one that we should not appropriate if it is going to result in a limited or permanent injury, or the weakening of our republican institutions. I said here three days ago when replying to an address of welcome from the president of this beautiful exposition, that one of the best qualities of an exposition, one of the greatest benefits it bestows, is inspiring people with a desire for knowledge. I can see a change in the section of country around St. Louis between three years ago and today. The people know more and live better; they have a greater desire for knowledge. It is education, which is the very foundation or corner- stone of our republican institution; we want the people who come here from foreign countries to be imbued with the same spirit. Education is the corner-stone and patriotism the foundation of this Republic. (Great applause.) I thank you, Mr. President, and ladies and gentlemen, for your patient hearing. (Great applause.) GENERAL NOBLE: Mr. Chairman, I ask permission to submit a resolution, which I will read if I may be permitted : THE CHAIRMAN : Certainly you may read it, and then it will be referred to the committee under the rule. GENERAL NOBLE read the following resolution: CONSULAR SERVICE. Resolved, That while this Congress recognizes the consideration given and the improvements made in the consular service, it still urges as its judgment, as heretofore often expressed, that the business interests of the country and the public welfare require that appointments to this service should be based on experience, ability, character and loyalty, unbiased by political considerations, or personal favor. MR. MAHER (Oklahoma) : I desire to offer the following resolution : OKLAHOMA AND INDIAN TERRITORY. Resolved, That it is the sense of this Congress that the people resident in the domain now named the Territory of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory, upon their application therefor, are entitled to admission to the Union of the United States upon an equality in all particulars with any other of the states. THE CHAIRMAN: It will be referred to the Committee on Resolutions. TOM RICHARDSON (Oregon) : I desire to have permission to forward to President Roosevelt a telegram of congratulations upon his attitude in behalf of humanity in his relations with Japan and Russia. Permission was given. The message follows: TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 95 MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. Theodore Roosevelt, President, Oyster Bay, L. I. The Trans-Mis- sissippi Commercial Congress, now convened in sixteenth annual ses- sion, by a standing vote has unanimously commended you for the initia- tive which you have taken for the re^establishment of peace between Japan and Russia, and earnestly hopes that your laudable effort will be crowned with complete success. THEODORE B. WILCOX, President. ARTHUR F. FRANCIS, Secretary. MR. LOGGIE (Oregon) : I desire to offer the following resolu- tion, Mr. Chairman COOS BAY HARBOR. Resolved, In view of the increasing importance of the country tributary to and served by Coos Bay, this Congress would most earnestly sug- gest to the federal government our conviction that this harbor should be improved by dredging the inner harbor channels and strengthening and extending the jetties at entrance to the bay. Further, as the govern- ment has at this time the dredge Chinook lying out of commission at San Francisco, we would urgently recommend that this dredge be sent to Coos Bay and be instructed to dredge the inner channels of the harbor. THE CHAIRMAN : The resolution will go to the Committee on Resolutions. MR. LOGGIE: Mr. Chairman, I wish to read a brief paper on this subject. THE CHAIRMAN : You will be allowed but three minutes under the rule. There will be ample opportunity to discuss all of these resolutions when the report comes in. MR. LOGGIE thereupon submitted the following paper, a por- tion only of which he read. Gentlemen I beg leave to submit the following paper pertaining to llie resources, industries, commerce and products of the Coos Bay country. In bringing this paper before the Oregon Development League, a con- scientious and earnest endeavor has been made in the gathering of facts regarding the Coos Bay country so that the members or others who have access to the league's records may, if they wish, follow up such things in this paper as may interest them. Realizing fully the vast importance of providing the league with only such information as will bear the closest scrutiny, a special care has been given in this paper to the complete elimination of all state- ments tending, ever so slightly, to extravagance, the real tendency being rather to slightly underrate them than to overrate. All facts and figures given are from sources of absolute, final and unimpeachable authority and upon those honest facts North Bend and Coos Bay rests its case. In using the term "Coos Bay Country" in this paper it may be indefi- nite to a great many delegates to this league. Its meaning may be vague to them. If it is, let us get a large wall map of the United States, and enclose with a pencil the following territory in a heavy 96 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS black mark: Beginning at Coos Bay, follow the coast north to the mouth of the Siuslaw river, thence east to the crest of the Cascade mountains, thence south to the California line, thence west to the coast, thence to Coos Bay, the point of beginning. This territory that is enclosed within the pencil marking is the Coos Bay country. To make a comparison which will give an idea as to its area, let us this time enclose the following territory in a heavy black mark: Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, on the Atlantic coast. When this has been done, let us step back far enough from the map till the eyes focus themselves on both coasts, and we will observe that both territories within the enclosed pencil marks are nearly the same in area with the Coos Bay country the larger, so much so that to give full measurement we could throw in the District of Columbia, but to get it back would require a search warrant to find it. By again looking at the map we will also notice that the two pencil markings which enclose these respective territories lie in the same latitude, which, if we look at a map of the globe, we find is the great business belt around the world, or the international highway of traffic, where the east and the west span the shortest possible distance in exchanging products. Again note another comparison, the one pencil line encloses the great states situated on the Atlantic, with a coast line of over two hundred miles, with a score of seaport cities, while the other the Coos Bay country here on the Pacific, with an equal mileage of coast line, has but a single deep water harbor Coos Bay. But, you migh\ask: "Why take a map and put a pencil line around a given territory in Southwestern Oregon and then call it the Coos Bay country? To answer that, let us look at a map of Oregon, and particu- larly the southwestern part of it, and if we follow the lines that mark the river courses with their tributary and mountain ranges within the boundaries made by the pencil mark we will be forcibly struck by the fact that the Coos Bay harbor is approachable from every productive section by a down grade route. From all points within the pencil lines it is easy going to Coos Bay. This, then, makes it a fact of tremendous significance. The law of nature that makes water run down hill applies with dominating force to heavy transportation of a productive country. Freight traffic will follow the line of least resistance. It will take the down hill track. With this principle in mind, let us now turn to a topographical map of Southwestern Oregon, and while tracing up stream from Cops Bay and the coast on each side, the lines of water courses we will dis- cover the ramifications of commercial Coos Bay. Thus we will see that this territory is marked out by conditions of nature which no art with the lead pencil can change, as tributary to the common center of Coos Bay. Therefore, we are justified in accepting the title which the condi- tions of nature have conferred, "Coos Bay Country." So, therefore, any and all efforts to direct the traffic of any part of this territory into other courses and other centers must run counter to the law of gravity, and while for a time they may appear to be successful, they must in the end, when competition presses, fail. Coos Bay being the place accessible to the ships of commerce, and where the productions of the vast tributary country can be most easily and cheaply massed, makes it impossible to divorce the interests of the Coos Bay harbor from the tributary country. Or, in other words, the business and commercial interests in all that country which by the laws of distance and grades is tributary to Coos Bay harbor should co-operate with the interests on the bay for the improvement and betterment of the Coos Bay bar and inner harbor while TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 97 the commercial interests on the bay should reciprocate by aiding the interior interests with transportation facilities. Before giving data pertaining to the Coos Bar bar and harbor or the needs of railroad facilities to the harbor, I will give a short sum- mary of the great timber, mineral and agricultural products that will eventually pass through the Coos Bay harbor to their final markets. In the reports on the forests of the United States prepared by the United States geological survey, under the direction of Professor Henry Gannett, it will be found that the total standing timber in the United States is a little less than one thousand billion feet, B. M.; of this the report states that the state of Oregon has two hundred and thirteen billion three hundred and ninety-eight million feet, B. M., or a little over 20 per cent of the standing timber of the United States. And, according to these same reports, we find that the Coos Bay country has standing ninety-five billion feet, B. M., or nearly 50 per cent of that of the total standing timber in Oregon, or 10 per cent of the total standing timber in the United States today. These ninety-five billion feet in the Coos Bay country, if with the annual increase of the growth, were cut at the rate of one billion feet a year, would last over a hundred years. If this vast forest of timber now standing in the Coos Bay country were cut into lumber and sold at the present market price, it would bring the enormous sum of nine hundred and fifty million dollars, or 50 per cent of this timber were to be shipped to the middle and eastern states, at the present freight rates, the trans- continental roads would get over seven hundred million dollars for hauling it, which they eventually will. And when the remainder is shipped via the harbor of Coos Bay which it will nearly three hundred million dollars will go to the vessel owners for freight. Loggers and lumber manufacturers say that 70 per cent of the price received for lumber at their mills goes for labor. So if the Coos Bay country cuts a billion feet a year, nearly seven million dollars annually will go to pay for labor. The Coos Bay country forests consist of fir, white and red cedar, spruce, hemlock, larch, yellow and sugar pine, oak, maple, ash, alder, myrtle, and numerous other varie- ties. The fir of the Coos Bay country is known as the Oregon fir. It has no equal among timbers of the world in the variety of uses to which it can be put. According to governmental tests it is stronger than oak. Tall, straight as an arrow, without a limb for a hundred feet. Next in importance to the fir is the white or Port Orford cedar, growing only in the Coos Bay country; it is one of the most valuable species found on the coast. It is tough, durable, fine of fiber, making an excellent finishing lumber, and can be used for so many purposes that it is much in demand; it is used much in shipbuilding for finishing lumber, and brings a high price. Red cedar grows along the water courses, though the amount is limited. Spruce grows in considerable quantities; is also a valuable tim- ber; it also makes a fine finishing lumber. Hemlock is found growing all over the country, scattered at inter- vals through the other bodies of timber. It is also a valuable timber, there being absolutely no comparison of the hemlock of the coast with the hemlock of the east, so far as their relative values are concerned. Sugar pine occupies an area in the southeastern part of the Coos Bay country, where it is mixed with yellow and white pine and fir. Incense cedar is found along the coast in considerable quantities. Myrtle is one of the finest woods that grows. It is very hard, fine grained and susceptible of very high polish. For fine hard wood finish- 98 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS ings and furniture, it cannot be excelled. The largest stand is found near Coos Bay. Ash, oak, maple and alder are found in considerable quantities scat- tered all over the country. As regards size and quality, the remarks regarding myrtle will apply to maple. For furniture, flooring and inside finish, this lumber has superior qualities. The timber of the Coos Bay country can be cut into lumber and put on the high seas through the harbor of Coos Bay cheaper than can be the timber, similarly situated near any other harbor on the Pacific coast. This is admitted by Pacific coast lumbermen. This, then, gives the Coos Bay country an inalienable advantage in the lumber markets of the world, as the Pacific lumber is sold in all countries on the globe. COAL RESOURCES. Coos Bay is the only fuel harbor south of Puget Sound, which gives it an inalienable advanaage over harbors without fuel. Every locomo- tive and steamer that goes out of Portland, Eureka, San Francisco, San Pedro or San Diego uses coal that comes from Coos Bay, Puget Sound, Wyoming and British Columbia. The geological map of the United States shows vast coal fields in the Rocky Mountains, middle and east- ern states, but on the Pacific coast are two small specks, one in the state of Washington, and the other in Oregon around Coos Bay. The accessible area of the Coos Bay coal field is nearly three hun- dred square miles, with an available gross tonnage of over a billion tons. If this were to be mined at the rate of one million tons a year it would take a thousand years to exhaust this field. The coal fields around Coos Bay are not the only beds in that region. New discoveries have been made at several other places, some of which are high grade bituminous coal, adapted for domestic, coking and blacksmithing purposes. Some of these beds are over twenty-five miles in extent. So the amount of wealth contained in the undeveloped coal deposits of the Coos Bay country is beyond calculation. The tonnage and value of these deposits will simply result in figures that cannot be fully grasped or realized. MINING. The United States geological reports and the history of the Coos Bay country shows that the mineralized portions of this section is the richest and largest in the state of Oregon. Gold is not the only mineral found here silver, cinnabar, lead, nickel, copper, platinum, molybdenite, aluminum, asbestos, gold, coal, iron, clays, lime, marble, quarries of the most precious stones, such as jaspar, jade, agate, opal, and hundreds of others; in fact, every mineral known to commerce. The United States mint report for 1904 states that nearly 80 per cent of the gold mined in the state of Oregon comes from the Coos Bay country. Today, according to the United States geological survey report, of the total platinum mined in the United States, over 12 per cent comes from the mines of the Coos Bay country. WATER POWERS Outside of mining and lumbering the undeveloped water powers of the Coos Bay country promises more wealth to the investor than any TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 99 other industry there. No country can boast of better topography in this way than the Coos Bay country. From east, north and south comes numerous streams bounding down from almost inaccessible heights, ready and willing to do the work of the power plant. AGRICULTURAL. According to the United States agricultural statistics and the numer- ous reports published by the Oregon agricultural college, show that by comparing with other localities, the agricultural lands of the Cops Bay country are better, stronger and more fertile and, together with the climate, makes possible a range of agricultural productions embracing every grain, grass, fruit and vegetable known to the temperate zone. The yield is much heavier, the harvest certain, the market is good. The soil of the Coos Bay country is rich; it has all the necessary chemi- cal ingredients for the propagation of all kinds of crops. It needs no fertilization and is practically inexhaustible. The climate enables a man to work outdoors at something every month of the year. There is but little land in the Coos Bay country that is not good for one product or another, either wheat, hops, fruit and vegetables, berries or pasture. The farmer can seed all the fall until Christmas, or all the spring until IVLay. Harvest is continuous just as long as the grain will stand. There is room in the Coos Bay country for over twenty-five thou- sand new farms of one hundred and sixty acres each. And when improved and farmed along the line of modern methods the income that will be derived from these farms, if figured at only one thousand dollars to each farm, will be the enormous sum of twenty-five million dollars per annum. CLIMATE. In regards to our climate, (according to the United States signal service reports, it is shown that the observing station near Coos Bay has the most equable temperature of any of the observing stations in the United States. The government records for eighteen years show that the total average range of the thermometer during the year near Coos Bay is but thirteen degrees. The rainfall varies from fifty inches on the coast to about twenty inches in the interior. Having given an outline of the Coos Bay country and her resources, we now come to the questions relating to transportation. The capacity of >a railway is that of its point of greatest resistance; that is heavy grade and curves. The Coos Bay country, no matter from whatever productive point it may come, whatever railroads that will be built, will eventually have their terminal on Coos Bay, for the reason that to it the grades will be in favor of the traffic. Therefore, the products from the forests, mine and farm in the Coos Bay country while going to their final markets can be more economically shipped through that harbor then via any other seaport on the Pacific coast. In ocean transporta- tion, the tonnage and the draft of the vessel is always regulated by the depth of water over the outer bar at the harbor entrance. The capacity of the vessel regulates the freight charges; the greater the tonnage the less the freight charges, so with this in mind it stands to reason that for every new depth made on the outer bar of the Coos Bay harbor entrances increases the value of every product in the country tributary to that harbor just by that ratio, whatever the deductions the vessel owner makes by carrying the increased tonnage without the increase of crew. This, then, makes it a matter of vital importance to every mer- chant, lumberman, mine operator and farmer that is operating in the Coos Bay country. They should co-operate with the shipping interests 100 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS for the further improvement of the Coos Bay bar, and in return the bay interests should aid the interior in getting railroad facilities. coos BAY. Trade routes, the lines of least resistance between the sources of products and their final markets, have in all ages located commercial cities at a point where a break in transportation occurs that is from the rail to the vessel. When the railroads which are now projected to Coos Bay will be completed, a break of transportation will occur in the harbor of Coos Bay, which brings with it the birth of a new city. Now, then, gentlemen of this convention, in view of the rapidly growing commerce of the Coos Bay port, we earnestly petition the influence of this Congress in our aid in procuring from the national con- gress sufficient money to deepen our inner harbor and channels, and to strengthen and extend the jetties at the entrance to our bay. In this connection I would call to your attention that within the past thirty days it has been determined by the Southern Pacific Railway Company to construct a branch, leaving their main line at Drain station, into the harbor of Coos Bay. This will give to our section what has so long been needed direct rail communication with the outside world. We have also information, which we consider reliable, that before many months pass the world will have the assurance that a great trans- continental railway will have its terminus in Coos Bay, reaching our territory through the great untapped section of our state known as Eastern and Southern Oregon. In concluding this paper permit me to state that I hail from the thriving young city of North Bend, on Coos Bay, and come as a dele- gate to this convention to ask its help in our behalf and on the part of our citizens. Allow me to thank you for your patience in listening to the story of our needs. THE CHAIRMAN : The Secretary has more resolutions, which will be referred to the Committee on Resolutions. By FRANK W. HIBBS, Seattle, Wash., representing the Cham- ber of Commerce of that city : NAVAL CONSTRUCTION ON PACIFIC COAST. WHEREAS, It appears that prior to the year 1903 the congress of the United States enacted such legislation in connection with its appropria- tions for increase of the navy as tended to encourage steel shipbuilding on the Pacific coast, by providing that a stated number of the vessels appropriated for should be built at those ports, and allowing an excess margin or differential of 4 per cent of the lowest accepted bid for corre- sponding vessels received from Atlantic coast builders (such margin or differential being only such as would reasonably cover the additional cost to Pacific coast builders due to the greater distance of necessary transportation of steel materials), with the result that a very valuable and beneficial steel shipbuilding industry has thereby been estab- lished; and WHEREAS, It appears not only from such consideration, but from actual bids submitted upon naval work since that time that the omission of such a provision effectively shuts out Pacific coast builders from such competition, and will continue to do so indefinitely; and WHEREAS, The present status of the American merchant marine is such that there is little or no immediate prospect of supplanting naval work, TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 101 when present contracts are completed with merchant work of sufficient magnitude and amount to keep these shipyards occupied; therefore, Be it Resolved, That we consider it to be to the best interest of the country, considering the growing commercial importance of the Pacific to provide such legislation in future naval appropriations as will permit Pacific coast shipbuilders to compete for that work upon an equal basis with eastern shipbuilders, allowing as a basis of equalization a differen- tial of 4 per cent of the lowest acceptable eastern bid; and by providing in the case of two or more vessels of the same size and type that one or more shall be built upon the Pacific coast, subject to the same restric- tion as to cost; and that a memorandum to this effect be presented to the federal congress next convening, as an expression of the prevailing sentiment of this Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress. By E. A. HAWKINS, JR V and E. F. HARRIS (Texas) : SEA WALL PROTECTION AT GALVESTON. Resolved : First That to advance our position as a great commercial nation, congress should provide by adequate appropriations under con- tinuing contracts, for the widening, deepening and extending of our har- bors, so as to accommodate the largest modern steamships, the inven- tion of which have revolutionized the carrying trade of the world. Second That owing to the great increase of commerce passing through the Port of Galveston, and the deep draft of vessels in which the commerce of the world is now most economically carried, we fur- ther recommend that provisions be made by congress for securing in that harbor a uniform depth of not less than thirty-five feet of water at mean low tide, with a width and extension commensurate with the growing importance of that port, and the needs of the largest and deepest draft vessels. Third That we favor the protection of the sea wall built by the United States government for the protection of its property at the port of Galveston, in accordance with the recommendation of the board of United States engineers, and that $159,000, the balance of the money rec- ommended by said board be appropriated as soon as possible for the protection of said works. By E. A. HAWKINS, JR., and E. F. HARRIS (Texas) : NATIONAL WATER WAYS CONFERENCE. WHEREAS, The National Rivers and Harbors Congress has, at the re- quest of the Ohio Valley Improvement Association, determined to call a national water ways conference to meet in Washington, D. C, the early part of the year 1906, the exact date to be determined later, for the purpose of urging upon the congress of the United States the necessity of devising ways and means for the speedy improvement of the rivers and harbors of this country; therefore, Be it Resolved, That the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress at its sixteenth annual session, held at Portland, Oregon, August 16 to 19, 1905, heartily approves of the calling of such a conference, and recom- mends to its members and the people of the states and territories entitled to representation in this Congress, that they send delegates to such national water ways conference, when called, and that they lend their influence and energies towards securing the success of the same. 102 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS By J. J. DONOVAN ( Bellingham, Wash.) : REPEAL OF PROVISIONS IN FORESTRY LAW. Resolved, That we request the repeal of that provision of the United States forestry laws which prevents the sale or use of timber from forest reserves, except within the states where such reserves are located. By SENATOR HILL (Colorado) : RECLAMATION OF THE ARID WEST. Be it Resolved, That we heartily endorse the action of our national gov- ernment in its efforts in the reclamation of the arid west, and would recomend that further and more speedy action be taken by it therein, and in which case we would further recommend that in the distribution of the funds so used by it in the continuation of its irrigation develop- ments, that on account of their location and long distance from rivers and harbors, those states and localities lying in the interior and receiving no benefit therefrom be given special consideration out of these funds. By SENATOR HILL (Colorado) : RESERVOIRS FOR FLOOD WATERS. Be it Resolved, That in the appropriation made by our national congress for the construction of levees and other improvements for the control of the high waters of the Mississippi and other rivers throughout the United States needing such improvements, we recommend that special investigation be given by congress to the practicability of the construc- tion of large storage reservoirs .at the headwaters of such streams, so as to store the water therefrom during their flood season, in order to relieve the threatened dangers caused by them below, and to allow their use later for the irrigation of the land tributary to such streams by the canals and reservoirs taking and to take water therefrom. By H. R. WHITMORE (St. Louis, Mo.) : AN AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE. Resolved, That the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress reaffirms its previous action favoring the building up of an American merchant marine. By E. F. HARRIS (Texas) : COLLEGE OF COMMERCE. WHEREAS, The people and government of the United States of America are or ought to be the natural friends of the republics of Central America and South America, and should enjoy the most cordial commercial rela- tions with said republics; and WHEREAS, Owing to close inter-educational and inter-social relations Europe controls 90 per cent of the foreign trade of said republics, a great part of which trade might be and should be enjoyed by the com- mercial interests of this country; Be it Resolved, That the projected Pan-American Trades College, or College of Commerce, to be established upon the gulf coast of the Trans- Missisippi country, conveniently located relative to transportation both TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 103 by land and by sea, in which the languages, habits, usages, customs, wants and needs of said republics shall be exemplified and taught, and where the American merchant and exporter may readily find expert agents and salesmen familiar therewith, an institution to be established, fostered and maintained by the governments of the American republics, is by this Congress heartily endorsed and the aid of the congress of tlie United States is invoked. IMMIGRATION. Resolved, That the Trans-Mississippi Congress favors the restriction of immigration from any country of a character and quantity which will endanger the welfare of American labor, but we are net disposed to allow a minority of laborers, mostly of foreign birth, who have organized, to be the sole judges of this great question; and who by violence seek to prevent other men from working and intimidate our legislators by threats of their displeasure if law makers are not subservient to their views. THE CHAIRMAN : The next paper on the program is that of Mr. P. J. van Loben Sels, of San Francisco, upon the subject, "The Improvement of Rivers and Harbors." MR. VAN LOBEN SELS: IMPROVEMENT OF RIVERS AND HARBORS. Mr. President and Fellow Delegates of the Trans-Mississippi Commer- cial Congress The influence which large, deep, and navigable rivers have upon the growth, the commerce, the health and the climate of a country is perhaps not always sufficiently understood. By the drainage they afford they can promote the health and agri- cultural interests; if their source is located well inland they will affect the climate, the fertility and the prosperity of a country for a radius of several miles most beneficially; if, in addition to this, they have a deep channel of correct alignment, filled perennially with a sufficient supply of water, with a current of not too great velocity, they may exercise an influence over a country as great as if it were gifted with a deep sea harbor on the seashore as great and as large as that of New York or San Francisco. The cities located on its banks may, and often have, become sea- ports, allowing ocean vessels requiring a draft of twenty-seven feet to discharge their valuable cargoes at the quays of its streets, and bring together vessel and rail right in the center of the town, creating condi- tions which almost inevitably lead, the development of its commerce, and thereby of its financial and political influence, which at once insure a great prominence. To prove the truth of the foregoing assertion it is but necessary to quote Hamburg on the Elbe, Bremen on the Weser, Antwerp on the Scheldt, Rotterdam on the Rhine, all situated over fifteen or thirty miles inland, and each controlling a tonnage larger than that of the port of San Francisco. Almost the entire maritime commerce of the northern part of the great German empire is carried on through the ports of Hamburg and Bremen, which, by the wise and paternal care of the imperial govern- ment were transformed by artificial means into deep sea harbors. The enormous development and growth of the little kingdom of Belgium, its industries and manufacturing enterprises, its commercial prominence date 104 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS from the time of the conference of Vienna, held in 1815, after the down- fall of Napoleon I, when the little republic of Holland was forced to abandon its claim to maintain what has been known as the closed Scheldt. To understand this it must be remembered that for centuries the Dutch republic, abusing of its strength, wishing to develop the com- merce of its own seaports of Amsterdam, Dordrecht and Vlissingen, had closed the Scheldt, i. e., had forbidden and by force prevented Antwerp from holding communication by ship with the sea, a condition of affairs which may well shock our modern notions of fairness and propriety. Rotterdam, situated twenty-one miles inland on the banks of the Rhine, the commerce of which in about 1875 had dwindled to almost nothing, is now, with the sole exception of Hamburg, the seaport on the continent of Europe controlling the largest tonnage. Still, it was only in 1863 that the state's general of Holland enacted a law authorizing the construction of the "new water way from Rotterdam to the sea." It was a gigantic undertaking which might well have staggered a people less energetic and enterprising than the Dutch. It meant the construction of an entirely new river bed 1,600 feet wide, partly through a chain of sand dunes which is thirty feet high and over a mile in width, to deep water in the channel of the North Sea. The work of construc- tion was commenced at once and vigorously prosecuted. While formerly a ship, after leaving Rotterdam, was obliged to pass four locks and to be towed through long and crooked canals, and finally to wait for high tide to reach the sea, causing a delay of at least eighteen hours, and often of several days, the first steam vessel with a draft of twenty feet went through the new water way directly from Rotterdam to the sea in 1874 in less than two hours. Since that time work has con- tinued and during the last twenty years the deepest sea going ships reach Rotterdam without break of cargo or waiting for a tide with per- fect safety. The result of the development of the port of Rotterdam may briefly be stated to have been as follows: In 1850 the streets of Rotterdam covered 107? acres. In 1896 the streets of Rotterdam covered 530 acres. In 1850 the number of ships entering Rotterdam was 1,907, with a tonnage of 393,393 tons. In 1880 the number of ships entering Rotterdam was 3,570, with a tonnage of 1,728,305 tons. In 1896 the number of ships entering Rotterdam was 5,904, with a tonnage of 4,951,560 tons. From 1874 till 1896 the city of Rotterdam spent $9,000,000 increasing the area of her port from 100 acres to 312 acres, and the length of her quays and wharves from seven miles to sixteen and a half miles. Since then the area has been increased to 572 acres, and each year Rotterdam spends about $1,400,000 in an effort to increase her harbor and wharfage sufficiently to satisfy the constantly growing demands of the trans- Atlantic commerce. History confirms the view that lands which by their harbors or their rivers have free communication with the sea and thus make their influ- ence felt upon other countries have become prosperous and powerful and have dominated the world. In fact, it might be said other condi- tions being equal that to the extent that a country has a well indented sea shore, with many deep and navigable rivers draining the interior, the country will be prosperous, well settled and powerful. Is there a more energetic, frugal and hard-working people than the Swiss? They are surrounded, however, by other lands, and thereby cut off from the sea. Switzerland does not possess a single navigable stream, and the result has been a hardy race, whence sprang and was nurtured that indomitable spirit of independence and of liberty which has been a boon to other lands, but in other respects, in its influence upon TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 105 the affairs of the world, its commerce, its wealth, its literature, even in art and in science, Switzerland has remained and is now backward com- pared with other nations. The same applies to Austria, Bavaria, Wurtem- berg and even Russia. For over three centuries Russia has endeavored to get a port whence it could send out its ships, and develop a com- merce and a navy. Czar Peter the Great, with far-seeing statesmanship, desiring to raise the people dominated by him to a higher plane of civili- zation, left no stone unturned to create a seaport and a commercial fleet. He founded the port of Kronstadt on the Baltic, but it is ice bound in winter and controlled by the powers which border on that inland sea. England has seen to it that the Bosphorus remains bottled up for her. Vladivostock is ice bound and almost useless, and the little island empire of the Pacific will take care that Port Arthur, developed at an enormous cost, will not again be a part of the Russian empire. Her navy is crushed and wiped off the sea; it is believed that that fact puts an end to v the enormous mass called Russia as a world power. Need I quote ancient Greece and Rome, both sea powers, and their influence in ancient history, or England, Portugal and the United Netherlands, in later times; and is it not a fact that the United States of America had not been recognized as a world power till its fleet had annihilated the Spanish ships? And in 1898, when liberty-hating, free- dom-crushing, pelf-loving England desired to steal a gold mine and in order to paint South Africa red, found it necessary to crush two small independent republics, whose existence it had guaranteed by solemn treaty, the fact that the Boers had no seaport, no connection with the outer world, preventing them from getting supplies other than those which they took from the British, decided the fate of 250,000 freemen and enabled their enemy to reduce them to practical slavery. It was the one factor in which the British were superior to the Boers. It can be said that the civilization, the degree of development, the standing of a people and the moral worth of a government can be deducted from the condition of its rivers and the care for the main- tenance and improvement that is bestowed upon them. The old Romans understood this, and wherever they went one of their first acts was the development of the river beds for the purpose of commerce, drainage and reclamation of adjacent lands. As early as a hundred years B. C. they bestowed much time and money upon the care of the rivers in the countries brought under their rule. The first dikes in Holland, the forerunners of the present enormous structures which astonish the tourist, were built by the Roman soldiers while encamped in their winter quarters, and the present connection between the Rhine and the Yssel, allowing one-ninth of the total amount of water discharged by the former to find its way to the sea through the latter, was built in the year 85 B. C. by the Roman general Drusu, and that canal, which we would now call a cut-off, is to this day known as the Drusus gracht, or Drusus canal, and is now in perfect working order and in constant use. The same applies to the Po in Italy, the Seine in France, at the mouth of which the port of Havre is situated; the Elbe and Weser in Germany, and the Rhine, the Yssel, the Waal and the Meuse in Holland, the Scheldt in Belgium, the Mississippi with its famous Eads jetties, and the Columbia River in the United States. And who does not know of the enormous amount of money about to be expended upon the enlargement of the Erie canal in New York paral- leling the New York Central railroad, which work is still considered necessary for the development of the Empire State? In order to give some idea as to what has been done in other coun- tries for the improvement of their ports, rivers and water ways alone, I quote the following from official documents, showing what has been spent in the little kingdom of Holland: 106 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS Totals from In 1897. 1844 to 1897. Rhine $ 115,000 $ 3,727,687 Waal 112,600 4,304,752 Yssel 47,400 1,198,288 Merivede 147,300 6,889,120 Dordrecht rivers 18*9,500 1,673,976 Meuse 129,200 4,285,089 Change of the mouth of the Meuse 567,320 10,024,913 Rotterdam waterway 278,600 17,024,105 Totals $1,586,920 $49,127,930 And all this is but a small portion of what is yearly spent in Hol- land ports for smaller water ways, to say nothing of dike construction and reclamation of lands. For the port of Amsterdam alone $5,000,000 was spent for the construction of the North Sea canal commenced in 1819 and finished in 1825. Since that time the facilities had proven entirely inadequate to satisfy the demands of modern navigation. A new and shorter way through "The Y" direct to the North Sea was con- structed, begun in 1865, and finished in 1882, at a total cost of $9,500,000. Lately, in 1894, a new lock was constructed at Ymuiden, allowing deeper and wider ships to enter the port, at a cost of $2,500,000. Various other plans for the improvement of the commerce, involving millions, are under consideration. The port of Antwerp, in Belgium, is about to spend $50,000,000 for providing a better, shorter and safer communication to the sea by improv- ing the river Scheldt for that purpose. In Italy the valley of the Po, about 200 miles long, and from thirty to sixty miles wide, has been improved by the construction of works in the most substantial manner with stone riveted banks in many places, masonry bed works, bridges, outlets, sluice ways, overfalls^ syphons and other structures. The Columbia river, after the Yukon, the largest river on the western side of America, rises in British Columbia, flows through Washington and forms the northern boundary line of Oregon for 350 miles. It has an esti- mated length of 1,400 miles; its drainage area, including tributaries, is computed at 298,000 square miles. In 1896 the federal government completed the canals and locks at Cascade, at an expense of nearly $4,000,000. The navigation is now open to The Dalles. The govern- ment is about to commence work to overcome the obstructions at The Dalles. On the Mississippi river the government has spent between 1882 and the close of the fiscal year 1903 more than $18,000,000. The states and levee districts interested during the same period spent more than $4,000,000, and it is estimated that 94,000,- 000 of cubic yards will be necessary for the construction of the levees at an estimated cost of not less than $20,000,000. Since 1879 the national government and the states (each contributing about one-half) have spent the aggregate of $29,000,000 in the improvement of the Mississippi river, and it is estimated that about $22,000,000 more will be needed to complete the work. This does not include the cost of the Eads jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi river, planned and executed by Captain Eads, and by the construction of which he made his name immortal, and by which he made a seaport of New Orleans. We of California, who live in a country blessed with a great many privileges, among which is the fact that our state, from north to south, is divided in two great valleys, those of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, stretching almost from the northern boundary line to the TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL CONGRESS. 107 Tehachipi, count among our greatest advantages the existence of the two great Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. Sacramento valley is traversed in its entire length of about 262 miles by the noble stream destined to be a boon and blessing to the state, not only affording a great highway for deep sea and inland commerce, but also by the drain- age and irrigation it can furnish to become the means of great wealth and prosperity to the adjacent and to the entire state lands. Springing from the flanks of Mt. Shasta, the little Sacramento is soon joined by the Pitt and McCloud rivers, and after emerging from Iron canyon at Red Bluff, enters into the lowlands and passing Colusa, Sacramento City, the capital of the state, and Rio Vista, discharges into Suisun bay, itself a portion of San Francisco bay. Previous to the advent of man, in 1849, the waters of Sacramento river were clear, and deep sea going vessels could, and up to about 1860, did go up to and discharge their cargoes at Sacramento City, the capital of California; a strong tide then ran up past that city. By the folly and neglect of man, all that is now a thing of the past. The waters of Sacra- mento river are now muddy and brown. The bed above and below Sac- ramento has been filled with sand with a deposit variously called debris and slickens, so as to impair seriously, if not totally destroy its use- fulness as a navigable channel and drainage bed. At times during the summer months steamers with a draft of but five feet could not reach the capital and had to lighten their load on barges. Of late the government maintains^, channel of seven feet by means of temporary, flimsy jetties which are not kept in repair and are allowed to be partially washed away. Tidal action is now not noticeable, except at points twenty miles below Sacramento City. The United States claims and maintains the exclusive jurisdiction over the navigable channels of the country. It seems a self-evident fact that if ever a privilege implied a duty it does so in this instance, and it would seem, further, that where the federal government claims exclu- sive power of control over the navigable channels it should be obliged not only to furnish a channel for limited navigation, but to develop and maintain that channel at the highest degree of usefulness, both for the purpose of navigation and of drainage of which that river fs capable, and that if it fails to perform that duty, if it allows that river to become a scourge, a curse and a means of destruction to the surrounding country, it falls short of fulfilling the duty which can reasonably be expected of an enlightened government. A man who owns a house, although its primary object may be to furnish a dwelling, is not allowed to use it in such a manner that it becomes a menace to neighboring structures. Is a man allowed to keep an animal in his stable which by being tainted with a dangerous and contagious disease may do damage to others? Now we submit that this is exactly what the federal government allows the Sac- ramento river to be and to remain a menace and a danger. A river is not primarily a means of navigation. Its most important province, that for which it is intended and created, is to provide drainage for excessive rains and melting snow to tide water. If that channel is fit and suitable for that purpose, of sufficient area and of prper alignment, it will be a source of benefit, indeed, and a boon. If it is made or allowed to remain ^ by those who are charged with the duty of taking care of that channel T unfit to perform that work, it must necessariily become a source of destruc- tion and waste. The floods, which the channel is not capable of carry- ing to tide waters, will break their bounds, destroy crops, bringing ruin and devastation in their path. This is- exactly what happens with Sacra- mento river. It traverses a plain of immense fertility, from thirty to fifty miles in width, destined to sustain and capable of nourishing a popu- lation numbered by the hundreds of thousands. At a comparatively 108 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS small outlay conditions could be created for Sacramento valley equal to those of the valley of the Po or the Rhine. But in reality, the channel has partly by man been made absolutely unfit to perform its duty of affording drainage. On the 9th of Decem- ber, 1862, its angry waters broke through and overtopped the levees of the capital of the state, inundated the entire city, and rushed through its streets to tide water. The entire valley from Red Bluff to the bay, from mountain to mountain, containing an area of over 1,200,000 acres, was an inland sea on which steamboats could and did roam at will. Other floods have occurred with painful regularity, devastating often this entire portion of the state. Wherever the flood occurs it carries with it all improvements, houses, barns, fences; the work of years, constructed at great cost, is destroyed in a day. It leaves the country a barren waste requiring years of renewed labor, renewed effort to restore it to its former condition. One break, which occurred in March, 1904, and was called the Edwards' break, caused a loss estimated at $5,000,000. It will be easily understood how similar conditions of ever impend- ing danger, threatening at any time to destroy the work of a> lifetime, must necessarily retard the growth and development of the country, prevent the erection of permanent improvements, drive away capital and prevent the settling up of the land by colonists. Indeed, in 1904, the Sac- ramento Valley Improvement Association Company, after it had, at great cost, induced a number of colonists to come to and settle in Sacramento valley, had the mortification to be obliged to tell them that the lands which had been set apart for them were inundated and devastated. It must be admitted that Sacramento river at no time of its history has been in a fit condition to carry its flood waters to tide water, but nature had provided means to overcome and shorten the evil not only through over-bank discharge in the adjoining basins, but through well- defined sloughs, or natural water courses. The riparian owners, desiring each in their own way to reclaim their land, did so regardless of the effect their work might have on other sections. They dammed off the sloughs, and prevented over-bank dis- charge by the erection of levees. Each has worked and still works for himself, and his main endeavor has been and still is to reclaim his land in such a way as to drown out his neighbor opposite, above or below him, as that will give him the much needed relief. The result is what might be expected confusion worse confounded. The government beholds, looks on, but does nothing. A consciousness that it has a duty to perform in the premises, that it, and it alone, can lead and regulate and restrain individual efforts, and must devise means to correct the evil, making possible the reclamation of the 1,200,000 acres involved, has not even dawned as yet on the minds of its officials. Over $25,000,000 have been spent in the last thirty years by private land owners, mostly in vain efforts to reclaim their valuable lands. At best, 25,000 acres can be considered to have been reclaimed successfully. Reclamation in Caifornia>, as a whole, is a physical impossibility, unless the government discharges its duty of rendering the channel fit to do the duty for which it was primarily intended. If thoroughly reclaimed, the lands, all incredibly fertile, can be made very valuable, capable of producing immense crops and sustaining a population teeming with life, supporting schools, churches a