Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-10-28
afternoon Session

the convention took recess until $3.50 p. m.
afternoon Session.
On reassembling at o'clock the committee
on resolutions not being ready to report, brief
| addresses were made by Congressman Connor,
of Illinois, and General Rozier, of Missouri.
The committee on resolutions then, through
its chairman, Duncan F. Kenner, of New Or
leans, made the following report:
THE RESOLUTIONS.
The representatives of the commercial in
terests and agricultural and other productive
industries Of the Mississippi valley in conven-
ton assembled at st. Louis, Mo-, believing the
Mississippi river and its navigable
tributaries, the great inland waterways
people, are the most important aud valuable
part of the national dominion, free to all, be-
yond reach of monopoly and affording to the
whole people that competition in transporta-
ton which benefits producer and consumer
alike; and further, that cheap transportation
is the great necessity of an agricultural peo-
pie, the indispensable condition of the easy
conveying to distant markets OF their staple
products, in proportion to their value, and
that the fameliar economical truth that the
cheapest transportation of such products is
water, is especially applicable to the great
waterways of this coutry, provided the same
kept free from snags, sandbars, treacherous
banks and other obstacles to navigatiOn-dO
therefore resolve and declare:
First-That it is the manifest and imperative
duty of the government of the United States
to cause to be made such improvement of the
Mississippi river and its navigable tributaries
as shall permanently secure safe and easy navi
CATION, thereby cheapening freight, reducing
Insurance. and other burdens and expenses,
promoting the vast inland commerce of the
nation, and creating new avenues
of foreign trade, and thus
not only inviting increased production
and population, but assuring greater prosper
ity to the whole people. Especially is this
view of donations already made by congress
in land, amounting to nearly 20O, ,O0O, 900 acres,
and in bonds issued or guaranteed, nearly
100000 more, in aid OF artificial
highways, the property of private individuals
and the necessarily furnishing, even at the
lowest rates, the most costly form OF trans
portation on large scale as compared with
appropriations not yet amounting to S25 ,OOO,-
600 in all for improvement of $4,000
miles of natural waterways whose free
dom from the tax imposed on monopoly Is
protected by constitutional guarantees while
the cheap services and unrestricted competi
tian they afford to the most efficient corrective
of the exorbitant charges of any route to the
sea board that appropriations for such i'm
provements should be separately made with
due provision for assuring the people of their
faithful applications to the same, and should
be adequate to the continued prosecution
of work once begun until the
same is furnished, so as to
avoid the wasteful distinction of work par
TALLY completed by reason of the delay or
stoppage thereof for want of sufficient ap-
preparation; and be it further
ResolUed, That this convention recognizes
with extreme satisfaction and emphatic ap-
proval in passage of the act of congress of
June, 1S7S-1S79, for the appointment OF a
Mississippi river commissioner and in
the comprehensive scientific surveys and
important recommendations made by dis
tinguished engineers appointed by that COM
mission, as set forth in their report of Febru-
rary II, 1880, and January s, 1881, the first
will be considered an effectual step toward the
complete and permanent opening OF the Mis-
sissippi valley to the markets of the world;
but would also strongly express its regret at
the refusal of the last congress, after the
creating of said commission, and notwith-
standing the deliberate and emphatic
approval of their plans by the
house committee on improvement of the
Mississippi, to appropriate the amount esti-
mated and recommended by said committee for
doing the work by them carefully laid out and
proposed; and be it further
ReSOlued That on the deliberate and
earnest judgment of the committee
delegated to represent the interests in that be-
half of more than one-half of the states and
territories of the Union, inhabited by more
than One-half of its entire population, from
whom is collected about seven-eagths of the
entire internal revenue of the nation, whose
internal commerce is already one-half
that of the whole United States, more than
twelve times greater than the total foreign
commerce of the nation, and larger than the
total foreign commerce of the world, but on
whose industry is this year levied, by the OBJ
stacles to the safe and easy navigation of the
Mississippi river and its navigable tributaries,
and needless direct tax by way
of increased freights and insur-
ance, damages, wrecks and repairs of
not less than SIC, 900. 1t is the impera-
tive duty OF congress and the right OF the peo-
pie for whom this convention is authorized to
speak, that the legislation thus wisely begun,
to be made effectual by charging the powers
of the river commission, to include
the prosecution of work already
recommended by them and by regular and
separate appropriations, from year to year, of
such sums as said commission, acting under
reasonable supervision of Congress, shall re-
port as necessary to that end; SO this great
dLu luulSptlSdulG WOIh, III every
sense, shall no longer be delayed; and be it
further
ReSolved, That scientific and comprehen :
sve system of river improvement, by COM
petent commission thus inaugurated, should
be applied to the complete ana permanent
improvement and maintenance of all naviga-
BILE tributaries of the great river. And be it
further
ResoIued, That this convention recognizes
with great satisfaction the benefits
already resulting to navigation of
the Mississippi river and its tributaris by the
extension of the lighthouse system thereto,
and expresses the earnest hope that the par
tial lighting of those rivers may be speedily
enlarged by increasing the number of districts
and lights to such extent as the lighthouse
boare in consultation with the river improve
ment commission hall find necessary to rem
der such service completely efficient; and be
it further
ReSclued, That the president of the conven-
ton be, and he is hereby authorized and re-
quested to appoint, at his early convenience, a
committee of twenty-one, who shall be charged
with the duty of preparing, as soon
as practicable after the convention
adjourns, memorial to the congress
of the United States in behalf OF the delegates
comprising this convention, and the people
whom they represent, in support of and in ac-
oordanoe with the forepOinU raSolufions ON,