Morning journal and courier., 1892-01-28
Thou Verdiantt Forest K
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE..

Transaction of Routine Business Tho Mayor Lewis Memorial Fund Interesting Papers Read by y. Rice W1nchen and William Warren. President Easterbrook presided last even | ing at the regular meeting of the chamber of commerce. After the meeting was opened the presiding officer announced | that the executive committee had, after due deliberation, decided on new suite of 1 rooms in the Palladium building on Orange street for the use of the members, and that the present meeting would be the last | to be held in the present headquarters of the chamber of commerce. The subject of the Mayor Lewis memo rial fund was referred to, when the state ment was made that the gentleman who had collected money which the chamber had devoted to the fund had been paid $37.25 for his services. Efforts will be made to swell the fund to about $4 ,000 if possible. It was voted that the chamber pay the sum mentioned above from it's treasury.
 David Grotta was elected 8 member of the chamber.
 After discussion, regarding the amount at which the annual dues should be placed, it was voted that they be made s2 payable February 1.
 A communication from Sergeant H. J. Cox of the weather bureau asking the chamber to use it's influence towards pro- curing from congress an additional appro- priation for selfregistering instruments at the station in this city was read and it was
 Voted, That the communication be accepted md hot 10 nf hic obo .lar quested to communicate with the Connecticut delegation in congress, asking their aid in secur- ing kthe.appropriation refuerrd to in Sergeant Cox's letter.
 After the transaction of the routine business, J. Rice Winchell read paper which was prepared to be read at the re- cent annual meeting of the state board of trade at Waterbury.
 In opening, MT. Winchell read the reso 1ution which passed the chamber of com merce, regarding the passage by congress of the tonnage bill. He then referred to the decline of the American merchant marine with the added statement that the cause should be discovered and remedied. The paper as read embodied the following:
 Many nations excel us in shipping in terests while in other ways our nation ex- cells all, or nearly all, of |. these powers. One cause of this is that we have such an enormous enterprise devoted to our internal growth. In other words, many hands and brains are denoted to domestic development that would otherwise be devoted to the ship ping interest.
 In the six years ending December 31 last 42 653 miles of railroads were built in the United States, which is an example of our internal growth. These railroads are near ly enough in length to go twice around the world Many 'nthar atatiafioo of nature were read.
 As a majority of the great steamship lines are owned by foreign investors, they receive a large amount of American money which is paid by Americans for passage to and from foreign countries.
 The time is ripe for activity on the part of the United States. The governments of England, Italy, France, Brazil, Spain and other countries have given financial aid to shipping enterprises.
 Our government aids other deserving causes. Government lands have been de- veloped by settlers who obtained land on easy terms. Many similar cases were cited.
 If our government should devote sufi- cient amount of money to aid our mer- chant marine the outlay would before long produce satisfactory and beneficial results.
 Why should great nation like ours be IouQO nesltat1ng 1n sucn case!
 Connecticut is especially interested in shipping and the development of the ship ping interest.
 The importance of the passage of the river and hsrbor bill is recognized. Are the harbors of less importance than the ships? Of what use are the harbors with out shipss
 In closing, MT. Winchen repeated the lines that are substantially as follows: '"There is that scattereth and yet increas- eth and there is that which withholdeth more than is meet and it tendeth to pov- erty." MT. WineheH was greeted with loud applause as lie finished reading the paper, after which unanimous vote of thanks was passed to him for his able and interesting document.
 A very interesting paper, which was read by Willard c. Warren, will be found in another column.