The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-11-27

ger d month or TWO ago. Inc dIsposI-
ton OF Indian and public lands, the i'm
provenent of western rivers and har-
bors, mining laws; the admissions of
territories to statehood; anti-option
legislation; national bankrupt law,
and the proposed Nicaragua canal, will
also, it is expected, receive attention
The canal project will probably be
heartily chanpioned by respectable
proportion of the delegates. for many
s-Mississippian believe that the
opening Of such a waterway under
American auspices would be OF great
Advantage to their part of the repub-
lie.
1t should not be understood that in
banding together for the purpose of
holding congress to further the in
terests of their own states and terri
tories -Mississippians feel their
interests to be segregated from the
interests of the rest of the country: as
d matter of fact. they realize fully that
the whole must be prosperous in order
to insure the progress and vell-being
Of both east and west. but this does not
conflict with the notion that the inter
ests of each section MY be vastly fur
thered by such gatherings for discus
sion as the one about to be held
The coming congress is not the first Of
/ the trans-Mississippian meetings, six or
seven previous gatherings OF the same
nature having been held during the
last few years. each of which. ii is be-
/ lievcd, has been OF great benefit in that
| it has brought nearer TO one another
! the men OF all the trans-Mississippi
/ states. Through these congresses the
/ American who lives and does business
away up in the northwest upon the
shores Of Puget sound has learned to
/ know that other american who lives
away 10 the southeast of the trans
! Mississippian region in the scmi-trOpic
state Of Louisiana and depends upon
/ sugar as the nOrthwesterner depends
upon lumber and salmon. The ranch
ers Of California and Arizona and the
/ farmers OF the Dakotas, the miners OF
! the mountain states, and the business
men OF St. Louis, Omaha, San Fran
| cisco and Denver, New Orleans and
Galveston, and the twin cities of Min
ncsOta, st. Paul and Minneapolis, all
meet together at these congresses and
exchange views, rub off sectional pref
udices, If any exist, and learn more of
the good qualities of their brother
! rans-Mississippians than they could
in a life time without such opportuni-
ties for personal contact.
Shortly after the st. Louis conven-
ton adjourns a grain congress will be
held in New Orleans, whose object will
be to look for a gulf port through
which the grain and other produce of
the west may be conveniently shipped
and through which European goods
may be imported. These congresses do
not interfere with each other; in fact,
attend the second, because of financial
interests in the objects of both.
Unless you have looked into the mat
ter little, you have not the slightest
idea of the vast stretches of territory
that intervene between the different
cities of the region west of the MisSis-
sippi. II you viii take foot rule and
measure upon the map the expanse be-
tween Olympia in Washington, and
New Orleans in Louisiana, you will see
that il is as far from one of these occi-
dental cities to the other as it is from
London to Constantinople and enough
further to go from Constantinople to
; Rome on the return trip. 1t is as far
from st. Louis to San Francisco as
from Lisbon, Purtrgal, to Berlin, Ger
many. 1t is as far from the point
{ where the Red river of the north runs
across the limo which divides Uncle
Sans farm IRON tyueen@v IcuOrla paJcn
of ground, to the point on the gulf
coast where the Rio Grande empties,
/ as is from Gibraltar to the Orkney
Islands, away up north of Scotland.
But, Notwithstanding the magnificent
distances of the some-time-to-be dom
| inant western section OF this republic,
| it is easier and more comfortable TO
travel between its extreme points than
| it is to journey between places not
! half so far removed in Europe. The
railroad system of the trans-Mississip-
pi region, although greatly inferior to