Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1885-09-04

tnI5 SIb6rnOOQ Al 3 o CLOCK, ana LQo various
committees were announced.
A long discussion ensued on the basis
of representation, resulting in the call of
Gov. Hubbard being fixed upon as basis.
The Committee on Organization re-
ported for permanent president VIM. War
ner of Missouri, and for secretary Platt B.
Walker of Minnesot4.
These were accepted by the convention,
and VIM. Bross, explaining that be had
given out to the Associated Press proofs of
a speech, he would deliver the same, and
cid SO, as follows:
MR. BRoss's SPEECH.
GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: thank
you most cordially for the honor you have
conferred on me by electing me your pre-
siding officer. With your assistance and
courtesy may We not hope for entire har-
mony in the proceedings of the conven-
ton? The great numbers here assembled !;
the wide range of country from which
you have come the leading position which
many of you hold in the States OF the Mis-
| sissippi Valley in politics and in all the
relations of the social, financial and COM
| mercial affairs of the Northwest; the in
tellectusl and moral force manifest here,
give assurance that its influence will make
itself felt in the council halls of the nation
and secure from Congress adequate appro-
priations to improve the waterways of the
Mississippi Valley. True, some of US have
grown gray in the service of the cause for
which we are here assembled, but in the
| meantime the States we represent have
| been growing vastly in wealth, population
and power, and their reasonable demands
/ can no longer be ignored by our repre-
| sentatives in Washington. We speak for
| more than 10,000,000 people whose rod
ucts on their way to q market will mainly Y
| seek the waterways for whose improve
ment we contend, and the lessened cost Of
| their transit by water will | ave millions
of money in their pocket, while they will
cheaper the cost of the bread and the
| animal food on the table of every man
IN the seaboard States from 10 to 20 pei
cent. for every day in the year. This
| statement has been proved time and
| again, and it will be made plain to the
| comprehension of all men Oy the facts and
arguments that will appear in the pro-
| ceedlng5 of this convention. The pre-
tense that railways have entirely super
seeded waterway transit is in part true, Tor
| while long, narrow canals with imiteC
business have been filed up to give placs
70 railways, the larger and longer water
ways still do most of the carrying trade al
against all railway competition. Ii not
how is it that the freight on wheat mount
up to from II to 10 cents per bushel be
tween hicags and New York as soon a
lake navigation ceases, while in summer i
is scarcely half the higher figure? Th'
proportionste charge by rail for the transi
| of bushel of wheat between Chic ago ans
| Buffalo would be in the winter from
6 to S cents, while by lake it is gen
orally only two cents, and often less tnal
that. The freight on a bushel of whes
between st. Paul and Chicago is from 1
to II cents, while Maj. Benyaurd ha
shown that by the Mississippi and tn
Hennepin Canal it would not exceed
cents. Now see what a vast amount G
money it would leave in the pockets Q
he people of the upper Missippi Valle
if such a reduction on the transit OF thei
cereals to market we're realized. Oficis
govern ment estimates of the crop of whes
| in the states of the upper MississipF
! Valley for 1884 were:
| n,