The Glenwood post., 1907-11-23
COMMERCIAL CONGRESS.
Great Trans-Mississippi Convention
in Oklahoma.

SdlSb WcIc pItScAl ucIc uSoudy
David Frances. former governor of Mis-
souri,, called the eighteenth annual
meeting of the mississippi Com
mercial Congress to order. In few
well chosen words he welcomed Okla
homa into the Union and declared the
meeting formally opened. Maty Tiger,
one of the chiefs of the five civilized
tribes, delivered an address of greet
ing to the congress. Maty Tiger spoke
in his native tongue. He said in part:
All citizens of this government have
been and are encouraged to buy and
hold lands, and we are told that the
best citizenship is made UP of the 100
acre home-owners. In the light of this
teaching and truth, why should my
people be encouraged to sell their
lands.
"The polished and educated man
with Indian blood in his veins who ad
vocates the removal of restrictions
from the lands of my ignorant people,
apart from governmental regulations,
is only reaching for gold to ease his
itching palms, and our posterity will
remember him only for his avarice and
his treachery.
81, together with many full-blood In
dians, am capable of caring for and
protecting my property rights, but
decided majority of my people are
merely crawling children in the white
mans business world.
THE matter of the Indians landed
rights in this new state is based upon
agreements and treaties solemnly
made between the government and the
Indians, and any abridgement or alter
alton of these treaties should in all
justice be left to the government and
the Indians without any outside inter
ference or influence"
President H. d. Loveland then de-
livered his annual address, dwelling at
some length upon federal improvement
of waterways. In part, he said
consent of the governed does not
mean the idealist's dream of unani-
nous consent but rather that consen-
sus of opinion which is the ripened
fruit of the tree of knowledge brought
to its best development in the soil of
thoughtful consideration and in the
/ Vi puDllS 'loSuooloh
1T is in this spirit that | feel We
have assembled for the eighteenth an
nual session of the Trans Mississippi
Commercial Congress, to represent
22,000,O0O of the best people of our
land, and with the authority which
they have given us to take heed nf
the present and plan for the future t1
the end that we and those who come
after us may realize ard enjoy to the
| fullest the surprising greatness of this
wonderful Trans Mississippi empire
which we are proud to call our home.
We are here to make history.
I'VE have much to be proud of in
the past The influence of the Trans
Mississippi Commercial Congress in
the great work of irrigation and the
reclamation of our arid lands, from
the inception of that work, is freely
and thankfully acknowledged. Deep
waterway for Galveston harbor. the
improvement of the harbor at San
Pedro, California, the Department Of
Commerce and Labor, the preservation
of our forests, the proper safeguard
ing the sale of public lands. the i'm
provement of the Columbia and other
rivers, agitation looking to the es-
tablshment of a Department of Mines
and Mining, comforting upon territories
the rights of statehood. the improve,
ment of public highways, the proper
regulation of interstate railroad rates,
the development and fostering of for
eign commerce by promoting friendly
relations with other countries cspe-
cially Canada and our sister American
republics, all of these anG other i'm
portant matters have received the
thoughtful and helpful consideration of
this congress, yet our work is just be-
gun Our field of usefulness is con-
tinually broadening.
THAT a portion of that great work
is beyond the Mississippi in no way
diminishes it's Importance to use of
the Trans-Mississippi country Broad
and comprehensive loyalty to and
united support of such meritorious
and necessary internal Improvement
must be the shibboleth which will in
sure us of success.
Think what the construction of the
great waterway from the Lakes to the
Gulf will mean to the people of the
Mississippi valley; think what the
opening of the Missouri and the i'm
provement of the Arkansas from the
Muskogee to it's confluence with the
Mississippi will mean to the agricul-
tural, the manufacturing, the mining
and the commercial interests of the
Trans-Mississippi region.
ut requires no gift of prophecy to
foretell the benefits which must flow
from the completion of these great
improvements, and we of the Pacific
Coast will rejoice with you of the Mid
die West and South when you shall
have come into this noble heritage.
"The improvement of our rivers and
harbors will do more toward regulat-
ing rates for freight and pass ,nger
traffic than many interstate commerce
commissions can ever hope to do, al
though the work of that commission
commands our respect and indorso-
ment. Let us support these great
projects and with their consummation
another monument will have been
erected to the helpful influence of the