Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-18
THE TARIFF TOPIC.
Protection and Free Trade Each
Finds Its Advocates in the
WESTERN COMMERCIAL CONGRESS.
Both Majority and Minority Reports
Favor Free Coinage.
BENEFITS OF IRRIGATION SET FORTH

KANSAS CITY, April 17.-At the CON-
mercial Congress this morning the subject,
Transportation and Improvement ofW ater-
ways, Lakes, Cults and the Pacific Ports, -
was taken up. S. A. Thompson, Secretary
of the Commercial Club of Duluth, advo-
Gated the improvement of waterways as
affording the cheapest tran sportation.
Colonel T. c. Catchings. of Mississippi,
argued that an increase in water traffic,
however great, would not decrease railroad
business, but would rather increase it.
Hon. j. M. Murphy, of Iowa, spoke on
the Hennepin Canal. His life had one
purpose and his heart one hope, and that
was the construction of the Hennepin
Canal. He explained in long speech the
benefits to accrue from the construction of
the canal, and be had no doubt that the
Government would construct it if the Gov
ernment could be brought to a realizing
sense of the canals importance.
The Irrigation Problem.
Colonel A. C.-Fisk, of Denver, delivered
an address ON irrigation. He said 900, ,0O0,-
900 of people were kept alive on food raised
on irrigated land in Spain, China, Egypt,
Russia, India and the United States, ret the
subject of irrigation, although carried on
successfully for hundreds of years, was but
little understood. In the trans-MississiDpl
country enough land was allowed to 20 to
waste that was susceptible of cultivation to
support whole nations of people. The work
of irrigation HAD already been begun by the
United States Major Powell estimated
that there were 1 1000, 900 square miles of
arid lands in the Western country that
could be made productive by irrigation. At
the minimum price of public lands, 81 %
per acre, this land had value of $500, OOO,-
900. At $50 per acre, moderate estimate
of its value when irrigated, it would be
worth SIG, 200, ,O00, 900. .
Government Should Do the Work.
The Government had done very little for
the great West. Upon other public i'm
provements the Government had expended
practically nothing for irrigation. With
out agriculture the arid lands would never
be settled, and there would be no people to
provide irrigation. The Government
should start the work.
Mr.. Wickliffe said he would treat his sub
ject, Immigration and Settlement Of Va
cant Lands" from the text "America for
Americans" He spoke against unrestricted
immigration, and cited the New Orleans
affair as case in point.
The majority report of the Committee on
Resolutions favors the adoption bv Congress
of law authorizing free, unlimited coinage
OF silver, and the issuance of sufficient
amount of legal tender notes to be redeema-
BILE in both gold and silver to restore the
equilibrium between money and all othsr
products; favors tariff for revenue only,
and urges Congress to enact laws to place
the tariff upon purely revenue basis at as
early date as practicable; declares that the
interstate commerce of the country shopld
be controlled by the General Government;
favors the improvement of the Mississippi
river;
The Construction of the Hennepin Canal
and other waterways by the Government;
the enactment of national bankrupt laws;
the suppression of trusts and combines; an
amendment of the immigration laws; the
restoration of railroad land grants to the
public domain, and the opening of the sur
plus lands to settlement; the reclamation of
arid lands; the enactment of laws to prevent