The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-19
BEYOND
THE MISSISSIPPI
ARE CANVASSED
Seattle Entertains the. Trans
Mississippi Congress, Whose
Members Discuss Com
mercial DeyeIopment-One
Speaks for Fewer Immigrants

SEATTLE. Wash. Aug. 1S.-The
fourteenth annual session of the Trans
Mississippi Commercial congress.
which convened in this city today,
started out under the most favorable
auspices. The attendance is unusually
large there being delegates from every
state and territory in the Trans Mis-
sippi region, from Alaska and the Ha-
waiian islands. Large delegations are
present from Oregon, Colorado. Texas
and Louisiana.
Donald G. Fletcher, chairman of the
local committee on arrangements. call
ed the assembly to order. Mr.. Fletcher
stated that the president of the con-
gress. John H. Kirby, of Houston,
Tex, had been called suddenly to New
York on important business and would
be unable to be present at the sessions
this year and that Judge c.. J. Gavin,
chairman of the executive committee
had been delayed in Portland on his
way here. He therefore introduced
Walter Gresham. former president Of
the congress, as temporary president.
Mr.. Gresham spoke referring to his
connection with the congress in pre-
vious years and expressing confidence
in the future usefulness of the organ
izatlon. He introduced Gov. Henry r.
Mcbride, of washington. who. in be-
half of the state of Washington de-
liyered an address of welcome. Mayor
Humes welcomed the delegates in be-
half Of the city Of Seattle.
Invasion Of the Orient.
Thomas Richardson, of New Orleans,
then read the annual address of Pres
ident Kirby. 1t explained the scope
and purposes of the congress, reviewed
commercial conditions. and concluded
1.-THE American has begun the CONNER
cial invasion of the Orient in anticipation
| of that Fastening day when the surplus
food Stuffs and manufactures of our de-
1 veloping country must find purchaser
not alone in the Asiatic, but in the
| spheres of colonial and commercial in
| fiuence now occupied by Great Britain
and Continental Europe. And in this
| thought l am reminded that from this
audacious city of eSattle was shipped
under the directing genius of the greatest
railroader in the West. the first cargo of
| American cotton that ever cleared out
of an American port for the Orient.
When consider the geographical posi-
1 ton of the United States with respect
/ to Mexico, with respect to the Pacific
coast states of Latin America, with ref
erence to the Pacific coast provinces of
China with their teeming millions of pop
/ ulation now dependent on Europe to pro-
| vide them with the necessities, and that
| Europe TO gain the trade of the Orient,
must cross two oceans while the United
States will cross but one, I am convinced
| that the Great Master of the Universe
| has designed the American Republic to
eventually become the one transcendent
| civilization of the world. But the great
| Master will not solve for US the problem
| in transportation and craftsmanship that
these conditions make obligatory upon a
| chosen people.
| .sNot the least of these is consulate
| service in the hands of men who hold
| their positions by the grace of partisan
| favor 1t is the peculiar province Of this
| congress to consider this as well other
problems to which 1 have given but scant
| attention in an address demanded rather
| than as a matter of form than as an ex-
| haustive treatise on economics. I will
| therefore no longer encroach upon your
| prerogative but will leave to the gentle
| men selected by your executive commit
tee and whose names appear on the pro-
| gramme that expert and authoritative
| discussion Of those great questions upon
| the adjustment Of which depends the
wealth and pepetuity of civilization
| greater today than any that has gone be-
! fore it,
At the afternoon session two adj
| dresses were made. w. r. Richard
| Roads association, spoke on Good
| Roads" His speech was an eloquent
| summary of the benefits of good roads.
Would Restrict immigration.
| Thomas Richardson, manager of the
| New Orleans Progressive Union, took
| for his subject Immigration and Its
! distribution" speaking, in part, as fol-
| lows:
| The great West can furnish homes
| for millions of people, and it is into the
| great trans Mississippi country which is
| crying with open arms for the agrfcul-
| turists and the artisans that the immi-
| grant should be taken, there to- work out
| his material redemption and become All
/ honest, prosperous member of the body
/ polite.
/ To-day the native born of the United
| States are looking in absolute dismay at
| the enormous immigration which is COM
| ing into the United States from South
| ern Europe.
/ .In our agricultural sections the Ger
| mans, Belgians, French and Italians (by
| these latter l don't mean the Sicilians)
| are fitted to make splendid agriculturists,
| and the German and French particularly,
! are among the most prosperous. class of
regions of the West-thrifty, industrious
| and conserving the established institu-
| lions of. this county-they are desirable
immigrants and we can't have TOO many
fact when they arrive with at least per
sonal possessions sufficient to establish
them and make them at once contributors
to the general prosperity instead of adj
ding to the demands which charity today
| is finding almost insupportable.
with the extension Of the irrigation
waters of the Mississippi valley. the arid
sections of the West will become as
profitable as the lands which make UP
| the beautiful Mohawk valley of the En-
pire state Human necessity will force
conditions which today may seem i'm
possible of contamination. and in pro-
portion to the demands maze ny an III
creasing population, so will nature con-
spire to human benefit, and unproductive
areas will be made to contribute their
quota to the assistance of the ever in
creasing human family.
I'm my opinion the trans Mississippi
commercial congress should adopt some
resolution laying stress upon the neces-
sity for a much more acute restriction IN
the matter of foreign immigration. The
influence of the immigrant upon the pol1t-
ical conditions in this. country are such
as to seriously endanger the right OF
purely American citizenship and are rap
| idly engendering socialistic doctrines and
| practices as is evidenced from time to
| time in the greater cities of the East and
| Middle West. Anarchism, communism
and socialism, in their present day mean
| ing are intent, should have no place
| for harbor in the free states, nor should
the teachings nor practices of their adj
vocates be considered nor tolerated
The report of the committee on the
advisability of merging the Trans
\, he n