The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-19

upon the puplc lanuS. The laDor con tinued. mostly devolving upon him for 10 years The result was a forfeiture by the roads of land grants held by them for speculative use equal in area to three states as extensive as Alabama. A hun dred million acres of public land was thus laid open to homestead settlers.
 In the year 1876 Congress published a voluInnous report from 8 commission sent to the Pacific slope to investigate Chinese labor and the effects of Chinese immigration Contractors who had built the transcontinental railroads testified that the 10000 Chinese engaged on the work proved that race to be the best and most reliable labor in the world. owners of the largest wheat farms of California declared they could not operate their business without Chinese harvesters and Chinese ditchers. Coast lands could only be redeemed. to be made wheat fields, by laborers who would work all day. month after month, up to the waist in water and only Chinese would undertake the job. Building contractors in San Fran cisco gave only glowing accounts of Chi nese laborers, who never struck for in- creased wages and who never failed to live up to their obligations.
 At this time the southern cotton plan ters were sorely oppressed by the pcliti- tei ItBIOtS. A Wlue inquiry WtDl out for Chinese substitutes. Nevertheless, early in his senatorial service. Morgan supported the Chinese exclusion bill.
 The senator from Alabama was placed on committee to tour the Indian res- ervations of the west, to examine the causes of discomfort of the tribes. He travelled in an army ambulance. drawn by mules. He lived in his tent and studied as never had been done before him. the crtb noaf ftar Af li .x.,.fs-x In this work he spent four summers, hav- ing with him at least some of the time his young daughter, Miss Mary. He made a report of 600 pages. This document is of Indispensable importance to the hostorv of the United States It is vivid ac- count of the life of all kinds of In- disns. The five tribes, their civilized habits of life their industry, their schools Their constitutional forms of government become profoundly interesting to the ob- serving reader. The Creeks, who by be- hind the other four. are explained in their lapse of power by the fact of the pres ence of negro blood in so many of their numbers. The Indian question was thus introduced anew into Congress. Debates were frequent and earnest When the committee examination began raids were frequent and destructive warfare was common. In 15 years all Indian disturb ances ceased.
 Undoubtedly the leadership of Senator Morgan effected the building of the isth- milan canal. He never brought his mind to state of faith in the practicability of permanently engineering the route through it's present location. He spoke of inevitable caving and landslides. In a letter written to the waterways conven- tion at Tuscaloosa, in 1886, he said the Nicaragua route should be adopted, that the canal would cost $100, ,OO0,000 and be open to navigation In 10 years. lie said the rescued unearned railroad land could be sold by the government for money enough to build the Nicaragua canal
 Twice the senator was sent on a com mission to Paris to arbitrate the Alaskan seal fisheries President Harrison appoint ed him to this duty. President Mckinley sent him on the commission to prepare form of government for the Hawaii Islands. He was more in favor with the republican administrations than with MT. Cleveland
 In special service to Alabama. Senator Morgan, in 1877, caused the government to study in this state the ravages of the cotton caterpillar. He introduced the bill that became law appropriating 46,s00 acres of Alabama coal lands to the Uni versity of the state. He introduced the bill granting 5000 acres of coal lands each to the Montevallo school for white girls and for the negro school at Tuske- gee.
 His first effort in this line of work. directly for the state. was in asking for an appropriation of $1O.Oo0 for a prelimi- nary survey of Mobile bay That be- ginning was steadily pursued, in result that ships of heavy draft now are tied at the foot of Government street.
 On February 12 1888. a tariff bill being before the Senate, Senator Morgan spoke at length. touching upon various illus trations of his subject. He said if the development of the mineral wealth of Alabama, then promised resulted in rais- ing the price of cotton field labor in the black belt above 50 cents day" the state would not profit py the latter enter prise. He opposed the protection of coal and iron by tariff. In Alabama those subjects of commerce could be 80 cheaply put upon the market that artificial stirnu- latlon of production was not needed for their successful competition with foreign output.
 These expressions greatly excited citi- zens of the state who had invested In the mineral region. When the senator found in 1900 that they were remembered still. he explained that taking negroes from the plantations to make coal miners of