The Portland daily press., 1884-02-27
Notes from Washington.
Vhe Csmposition OF the Two Hsasss~
Delegate Raymond's II ome Inter -ssase
Commerce Hrexico's ReIaIiens Nikk ths
Emitted. 9fafea.

\ the upper and lower Houses Of Congress are
| lawyers; next to these perhaps in numbers are
manufacturers. and next farmers. VI ths
latter class PROBABLY no Congress has had one
who conducts his enterprises on 90 large scale
/ as one of the farmers In the present Hoass.
/ Delegate Raymond of Dakota, very quiet,
| modest looking young man OF less than forty,
| is one OF the largest farmers Of that large
farming section of the Northwest. His homs
is in northern Dakota aud his farm 5000
acres. On between three aud four thousand
acres of this he raises wheat, while the 70
mainder he reserves for pastursge for bis thou-
sand or more head of cattle. To hear OF his
methods Of farming reminds one Of Florences
stories in his new play of Facts, and one al
most unconsciously huns "Over the aAroea
Wall" when be hears Of wheat fields mse-
sured bv thousands Of acres and yielding hun.
dreds of thousands of bushels. On the other
hand one is the more ready 10 believe them
| when he looks upon Delegate r symond's frank
couhtenance and sees the elegant style In
which he lives here in Washington. His home
| is one OF the banisomest OF the many hand
some residences in this city, overlooking lows
Circle, elegantly furnished and tastsfui IN Al
| its surroundings.
"Are there mauy such farms as yours In
ID 'knta2'' your correspondent asked OF Ar.
Raymond.
s'N,s many ne answered; "of course theirs
are some much larger; the DslrymPle system
OF farming, for instance, Including o.OO0
acres; then there are one or two farms OF ctehs
and ten thousand acres, one near mine OF SIX
thousand, bnt they are not Dumerou. Tners
ara a good many farms OF 900 and 100 acres,
but even these are only very small irAction
OF the number of farms 10 Dakota. The large
proportion of the farms there are small, quar-
Ter sections and half sections. for iustsnce."
"now do YOU conduct operations on such
immense farms as ffiS-0f-Ronp,? 10 the aama
manner a. on q small farm?
"WelI," be said, ~ keep ten or . dozen
men at this time OF the year on the farm
taking care OF the stock In the sDriDg when
the see 1iDg time begins l hire thirty or forty
aud put them to work putting In the wheat;
after this is done discharge most OF them un-
til harvest time, except few whom employ
for hsyiHg a little earlier. When harvest
time comes employ perhaps seventy-nve
men. put self-binding reapers into the field
and all that the men have 10 do is Tn gather up
the sheaves and Set them up into shocks
That used to be boys work a few years ago.
The men that we hire for this work ara pro-
fessional hArvestsrs. They begiu harvesting
iD Tennessee aud work north as the season ad-
vaDces and reach US during the end OF the
summer when .our harvesting begins. After
the harvest ends thev plunge iuto the woods
aud spend their winter logging. 10 the spring
they seud their logs down the river aud tramp
back to Tennessee and begin their harvest
again to the North Oar harvest over We bo.
gin thresbing at once taking the wheat Ina
mediately from the shock to the steam-
thresher. We begin with one threshing
machine on the farm, set a second at work on
the stcoud day and another on the III rd days
and run along through the season with tnres
mach mes until We flush our IS 900 acres. Tho
she,t is shipped by rail to Ddlutn thence
around ty lake to Buffalo where 1t 10 ground
into fiJur.
"How far are you from the nor hern line Of
Dakota, Mr.. r " mond? from ManitobAY"
4 m. rad
are 10 the same lied river valley and have the
same sort of country ,D1rhsPs little better In
some rssD+cts aud not quite so cold"
"Are these published repor OF d'ssatisfae-
ton among the people OF Manitoba truer
"Yrs," he answered "they are largely true
and the indie atioDs at present lead to the be-
lief that Manitobt will ,me day be asking ad-
mission into the United States"
THE INTER STATE COMMERCE. BILL
Chairman Reagan Of the Comm0rce Com
mittee recognizes this as his golden opportuni-
ty to get his inter-,tate commerce bill before
| Congress and tomake it a law IL such . thing
| be possible and he Is emitting no effort 70
bring it about. He is holding the COMMITTEES
down TO the work const lntly. Near all Of its
sessions are given to the consideration OF this
bill. The work is by no meaDs completed -
5oarcsl IL n5sItg eSidsPs ihf hi
through the committee and into the House.
There is a strong feeling in the committee in
favor of a commission which shall have con.
troll Of "a way aft airs and it is quite probable
that the maj1r ty will decide against Mr.. RoA-
gan's system and 10 favor OF q commission.
This however, will be opposed in the House
by the class of people who oppose aDythinK
which creates new government offices. The
commission plan would create a board OF Rail-
way Commissioners with autocrstc power and
a large force of subordinates, bureau which
would perpetaate itself indefinitely and which
would after all be Inaccessible 10 the general
public. The bill will have pretty hard time
before it comes law.
OUR COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH MEXICO.
The State Department 10 a recent report to
| Congress on the relations of this country and
| Mexico has the following Interesting state.
meut: "The United States and Mexico, al
though territorialIy contiguous, have hereto-
fore been in a commercial sense widely separ-
sted, from the fact that an intervening belt OF
more than one thousand miles in width, with
out transportation facilities, has separated the
centres Of commerce and industry Of the
| two countries. But within the last three
| years enterprises have been inaugurated and
pushed forward. whereby the United States
| and Mexico will soon be placed in close COM
munication by means Of that most forcibls
agency of modern enterprise, the railroad.
The advent of this important change in the
commercial relations Of the two countsiss Is ct
hand. In few weeks the first Of the trunk
| lines designed to connect the two countries
| will be opened for traffic, and it Is probable
| that within two years from the present time
| three or four other lines with their branches
will have been so far advanced toward COM
4 Ma N alaC oil no mi
towns and cities of Mexico in Immediate oon-
muuicati with the commercial centres Of the
| United ates. Soon the awakening infa-
ence of the new aud grand possibilities thus
| opened for commercial intercourse will be fels
| in both countries
| The line of policy adopted by the Mexican
i government since the restoration of the repub-
/ lie, of aidiug aud promoting the construction
| Of railroads designed TO connect that country
| With the United States, and the persistency
| with which that policy has ever since heen
been pursued, comments Mexico to the favor.
| able consideration Of the more advanced ns-
| tions of the globe. Large and liberal frau
| chises have been granted to the American
| pr jectors OF such railroads, With snbven-
| t,ons TO the amount of $50 100000, conditioned
| upon the completion of the proposed lines.
| Mexico entered upon this great undertaking
| not upon Q basis of her ability at the time
| OF Its cOOception to carry into effect, bat BY
1
| aud Ia the possibilities of railroad
| transportation 30 to Increase the .tional reve-
| nue. and to quicken the prod active energies Of
the country as to enable her to accomplish her
| higk purpose and resolve.
This pol cy is lot the mere expedient OF
| faction or the expression OF the will OF the
party in power. IL voices the preVsii z senti-
ment of sll cl ,sses, from PAso del Norts TO Ts-
hsuntepec, aud from the Gulf Of Mexico 70
the Pacific Ocean.
The Mexican peDI le everywhere believe that
the esta 'liShm.nt of direct intercOurse with
the United Stats by means OF railroads, will
tend 10 advance the valCe of property, to quick
| gu con mt rcia AID industrial enterprise, 10 en-.
| haOcs the wages of labor, TO give employment
| to the unemp Iyed, to establish peace aud or.
| der and generally to promote the material In.
| Ierests OF their country.
Results already realized point to the wisdom
| OF this policy, and predicate its success Erop-
erty has already greatly enhanced in value
slong the portions Of the lines which have
been completed, the wages OF labor have In
creased, and the aSakebiug influence Of Ihe
new agency of social and commercial life
felt by people of all classes and
conditions. Among the enterprisins young
men OF the country the desire to acquire q
knowledge of the English language is quite
general. Mexico already sees the coming irui-
tiOn Of her hopes, aud seeks more intimate com-