The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-20
Second Day of Transmississippi
Congress Ends Abruptly.
Chairman Announces Impend-
ing Street Car Strike.
STARTED A STAMPEDE.
One Man Adjourned the Con ven
ton by Himself.
Geo. b. Harrison Again Elected
Treasurer of the Congress.


Seattle, Wash, Aug. 2O.-The proceed
angs of the second days session of the
Transmississippi congress were broken
off with a jar in the afternoon when
John Henry Smith of Utah who was
presiding temporarily raised his hand
Tor order and announced that the wo-
men in the hall had better hurry to the
city for there was rumor that the
street car men were going out on d
strike at o'clock in the afternoon. Five
minutes later the hall was cleared, not
only Of women but of men as well.
Truman G. Palmer was in the middle
OF an able paper telling about the Phil
ippines when the announcement of the
possible strike was made Before the
hall was entirely deserted. one man
had the presence of mind left to make a
motion to adjourn but no one stayed
long enough to vote on the question. Mr..
Smith declared the motion carried any
way. Although no action has been ia
ken it has been understood that the next
session of the congress will be neld in
st. Louis during the Worlds fair. Rich
ard O. Kerens, the Republican leader
of Missouri, was unanimously elected
president for next year.
A. L. Black of Whatcom Wash was
nominated as first vice president; Wal
ter Gresham of Galveston, who was
presiding over the present congress was
selected as second vice president; John
Caultield of st. Paul, third vice pres
ident; c. B. Booth of Los Angeles, fourth
vice president; Geo. B. Harrison OF
Kansas City was reelected as treasurer
and A. V. Francis of Cripple Creek,
was reelected secretary
At the afternoon af 17a in
PRODUCTION of resolutions the discussion
of irrigation" presided over by George
II. Maxwell, chairman of the national
irrigation executive board, was COM
menced.
This was followed by an address by
Chairman Maxwell on THE Future of
the Great Northwest" and an address
by F. H. Newell, department of the
geological survey. on Irrigation"
G. b. BOothe Of Los Angeles, chairman
of the executive council of the National
Irrigation association then addressed the
congress. Truman c. Palmer, secretary
of the National Beet Sugar association
spoke on The Philippines" His ad-
dress in part was as follows:
We are trying to develop a vast arid
country where people say we can grow
walking sticks if we but remove the fer
rule stick them in the ground and wa
ter them.
In sense that is true. but what can
we produce commercially We have a
sparcely settled country, the centers of
population are far removed, and for ex-
port or surplus crops we are restricted
to those which are sufficiently valuable
to stand long haul transportation
charges.
The great staple crops OF the east. in
Guiding corn, wheat, oats, rye and bar
ley, cannot be profitably grown under
irrigation and shipped across the con-
tinent. Poultry and eggs, the great mi
nor product of the east, can only be
produced here for local consumption.
We cannot make butter here and ship
1t east in competition with their butter.
We can grow several crops OF alfalfa
year as against their one annual hay
crop, but long haul freight charges pre-
vent our shipping it away. And so it
goes with nearly everything.
The farmer in the east has at his
back door village of five, ten or TWEEN
~ thousand people, which will take ev-
cry surplus pound of everything he can
produce, be it fruit, vegetables, cereals,
poultry, hay. butter or stock. The farm
er of arid America has al his back door,
a village of jack rabbits, coyotes and
rattlesnakes.
I'VE of the arid west are exceedingly
limited as to what we can produce and
find a profitable market for, and it be-
hooves us to guard most jealousy the
few products we can ship to advantage.
We can turn our ranges and our al
falfa and our best pulp into stock and
find a market for it.
I'VE can grow special fruits and ship
to the Eastern market but aside from
the product of California, what do they
amount to as compared to the fruit
crop of the United States. And so in
the matter of vegetables.
NO use to blind ourselves to facts;
they are too stern realities to be ignored.
We can produce to perfection and tenn
perate zone crop in the world. but we
can ship but few of them to market.
Now what else can we do. or can we
grow that we can ship out in any con-
siderable quantities? I will tell you of
one, the only one l know of. We can
grow sugar beets to perfection and ex-
tract the sugar and supply the Ameri-
can people with the two and one-half
million tons they annually purchase
from foreign countries and put $780,
100000 a year into our pockets by so
doing.
For arid America the future of the
sugar industry is worth more than all
other of our possible industries COM
bined. and the figures will prove it,
IT, of your few industrial jewels. you
permit your Legislators 10 fritter away
this crown jewel, this jewel which OF
itself is a diadem which will yield to
YOU untold riches, you will deserve to
continue to live in the sage brush and