The Frankfort roundabout. [volume] (Frankfort, Ky.) 1882-1908, 1893-01-21
A Representative Meeting At
tended by Many Distin-
guishcd People.
Congressman Berry, Attorney Gen.
eral Hendrick, Hon. Theodore
Hallam and Others Ad-
dress the Meeting.
Resolutions Requesting Congress
to Make Large Appro-
priations.

of taking steps to urge the speedy
completion of the improvement to
river navigation before Congress was
attended by large number Of dele
gates from the various counties in
terested in the work. 1t was rep
resentative meeting, and included all
classes of people, from the farmer
and mechanic to bankers, State OFF,
cials and Congressman.
The hour fixed for the meeting was
1. O'Clock, but was about a quarter
past II when Mr.. John w. Rodman
moved that Judge Lysander Hord, of
this city. be made the chairman of
the convention. 1t was unanimously
adopted.
Mr.. John w. Pruett then moved
that Mr.. NJ. P. Gray, OF this city, be
made the secretary, and it was
adopted.
Hon. w. s. Bailey, of Carroll coun-
ty, stated that the county Judge of
his county had requested him to act
as the representative from Carroll,
and that his county was enthusi-
astically in favor of the early COM
pletion of the work.
Judge Hord by this time took the
chair, and in few remarks, in which
he called attention to coal famines in
winter from ice and summer from
shallow water on the Ohio river, said
that the convention had assembled to
consider the best method of urging
the rapid completion of the most
important work to the people of the
State and the whole Ohio valley that
Congress could possibly perform for
them.
Hon. Albert S. Berry, of Newport,
member of Congress from the Sixth
district, was called for and made an
address to the meeting,
He said he had always taken great
interest in the improvement of the
Ohio and tributary rivers, and had
the privilege of introducing the bill
in the Legislature that gave the pos
session of this river to the Federal
Government.
He had promises then made on the
part of the Federal Government that
the river would be speedily locke ed
and damned, but from the progress
that has been made in the twelve
years since it was coded he did not
think the grandchildren of the pres
emit generation would witness tn e
completion of the work. He said the
people of Kentucky, with coal right
at their doors, are bound to depend
for their supply on the mines from
Pennsylvania; that those living along
this river draw it many hundred
miles down the Ohio and then up
the Kentucky, when, if the naviga-
ton were improved to the headquar-
tiers as contemplated it would require
its transportation but a few miles
down this river. A suggestion, he
said, had been made that the i'm
provement be put under the contract
system, which it was represented
would accomplish the requirements
of the meeting.
For fifteen or eighteen years after
the war, the speaker said, the repre-
sentatives Of Kentucky in Congress
refused to accept the idea of the Fed
eral Government making appropria-
tions for internal improvements
They commended that it was opposed |
to the true principles of government
and kept the State from obtaining
the benefits of such appropriations,
which were uninterruptedly made
for rivers and harbors of the north
ern and eastern States.
In the meanwhile Kentucky was
one of the largest revenue paying
States in the Union, and the appro-
priations were regularly made to
other States until at last it settled
into fixed policy of the Government
to contend against, which now is
sheer nonsense and stubborn opposi-
tion to the material interests of the
people of this State. Having been 80
long, therefore, deprived of the ben
efits of these appropriations, Colonel
Berry thought itno more than justice
that large amounts should be expend-
al an fha cixy, NO 90 KantuoI1u onA