Omaha daily bee., 1895-09-29
FoR WESTERN INTERESTS.
Conference called to Meet ut Topeka
October I.


FOR WESTERN INTERESTS.
Conference Called to Meet at Topeka
October 4.
TOPEKA, Kan, Sept. 2S-Arrangements
are now being made for the conference OF
representatives of the states and cities west
Of the Mississippi river, which Is to be held
in this city October 1. The object OF the
conference is to devise means OF making
available to the great west a deep water
harbor on the gulf and to arrange for the
holding Of an lnteramerlcan exposition.
Ex-senator ingalls, has written the follow-
ing letter concerning the meeting:
ATCHISON. Kan, Sept. 27.-Mayor c.
A. Fellows, Topeka. KAN: Dear Sir-Pre-
vicus engagements which l have not been
able to defer or cancel, render my attend
ance at the western states conference inn
practicable. but l am cordially In sympathy
with the movement and shall nearby CO.
operate with its representatives in the ac-
comp,ishment of the results they have IN
view. Having been one of the pioneers OF
its unprecedented growth | am profoundly
interested in the emancipation of its ener-
gies from those burdens and Limitations
which have hitherto restrained Its develop
ment and retarded its destiny.
We have been the recipients of the ma
tional bounty, and are not ungrateful Tor
domain and land grant railroads that have
made those homes accessible, ana thelr
by which the desert has been subjugated
and the frontier abolished. Without these
instrumentalites of civilization and the
agricultural machinery devised by the in
yentive genius of the American people, II is
doubtful whether the Missouri would not
have been today practically the boundary
between the farm and the wilderness.
The transformation effected by tnese
forces is one of the marve!s of the centuries .,e
of men the great column of migration
marching westward has completed the con
quest of the continent. The solitude has
become populous; the desert has become
the oasis whose products supply the gran
aries of the world. Great as are our ooliga-
| these consequences possible our contribu-
! tions to the prosperity and wealth of the
| people far exceed the benefactons we have
| received. Costly were the donations of
| free homesteads measured in money, and
| vast as were the subsidies of lands and
| bonds given to the railroads, the investment
| has been enormously profitable and Will
| yield yet richer returns hereafter.
So rapid has been the building of the en-
| pire of the west that under the readjust.
| ments of the eleventh census the seat of
| political power has been transferred from
| the seaboard to the center of the continent,
| and the states of the Mississippi basin with
| their natural allies. the states of the Gulf
| and southeast Atlantic, can control the
purse and sword of the nation. United, as
| they must eventually be, by community of
products, climate and destiny, they Will be
| invincible. They can elect a congress, SEN
| ate and president, who will represent their
! interests and be the agents and ministers
| OF their VIII.
| 1t is in this regard that the conference
| of the southern and western states has i'm
mense Significance, and IT is altogether Mt
| coalition should proceed from Kansas, the
central state of the union, whose relations
| to the greatest event of our history were
| SO striking and whose people have always
| been foremost in every movement for the
| amelioration of the evils that afiiict our
| race.
Omitting from present consideration the
vast problems of the future with which we
lpl,p I,.. fnA1 TO han i'm
mediately concerned in the question of Sc
curing more profitable returns for our sur
| plus farm products and cheaper freights
upon the commodities for which they are
| exchanged in foreign markets. Having
long entertained the belief that the natural
outlet for exports and the natural gate for
our imports was through the Gulf of Mex
leo. I always, supported, while in congress
all measures looking to the Improvement OF
the Mississippi and the opening of a, deer
water harbor at Galveston. l had the
Captain Eads, the most intrepid engineer
of his time, who dealt with the creates,
natural forces as a child with his toys; 9
whose demeanor was equaled only by the
immensely of his designs and the grandeur
was that the only question in any civi
engineering project was money, witt
ne often said that it would not require
many millions to secure deep water a
Galveston was there last winter ant
| lem had been solved and that the heavies
! draught ocean steamers would soon finC
ample depth to enable them to depart fol
| Liverpool with the cotton and corn anC
cattle that can reach its inner harbor will
| nearly one-half less land transportation
than the Atlantic seaboard.
Nothing can more surely aid in calling
the attention of the world to these condi
tions than the proposed exposition at Gal
weston in 1897. Nor can anything con
tribute more powerfully to the elimination
of obstacles to the unification of the in
dustrial and productive energies of thos,
regions of the republic whose interests arr
Identical and whose solidarity is the in
evttable dictate of the Immediate future
Very respectfully, JOHN j. INGALLS,.