CHEAP TRANSPORTATION and the HENNEPIN CANAL. Proceedings of the River and Canal Improve¬ ment convention,held at Davenport,Iowa,Wed¬ nesday and Thursday,May 25 and 26,1E?81. » / USRARr U- OF RAILWAY LCONONIC3 Hi- CHEAP TRANSPORTATION / AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. PROCEEDINGS CONVENTION, HELD AT DAVENPORT, IOWA. Wednesday and Thursday, May 25 and 26, 1881, ■IW ■ >t ft IE 2>U ".|B * • A- GAZETTE CO.. PRINTERS, DAVEI* T, IOWA 1S81. * v. A , >■ J The Illinois and Mississippi River CANAL AND IMPROVEMENT COMMISSION OFFICERS : President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer. J. M. ALLAN, Gcneseo, 111. JAMES M. CAMP, Dixon, 111. JOHN MAIIIN, Muscatine, Iowa. EDWARD RUSSELL, Davenport, Iowa. T. J. ROBINSON, Rock Island, 111. BOARD OF DIRECTORS. C11AS. II DEERE, Moline, III-. L. D."WHITING, Tiskilwa, III. WILLIAMSON DPRLEY, Hennepin, III. T. I) BREWSTER, Peru, 111. S. C. HASTINGS, Snn Francisco, Cat. JOHN L. SWITS, Schenectady. N. Y. PEYTON RANNEY, Kalamazoo. Mich. J. H. FOSTER. Maclisou, Wis. JESSE SPAl'LDING, Chicago, 111. NATHAN COLE, St. Louis, Mo. SAM. M. CLARK, Keokuk, Iowa. O. C. MERlilMAN, Minneapolis, Minn. OFFICE OF SECRETARY: DAVENPORT, IOWA. t Taifiqy. /"Cr0N,^ X.SrBLEYW , A 0 'V ('ataWu^ Prtufh Fond du Lac^<- i n o a JIILLE WSI^laos / y\ v/t ! y Hinckley/,? x-HS . X S J i .Clear lak ^Vver I Wyoming : jvafs?^ zj^otvwillmans1 jspe, 71 ! \JJ> ] ..y %> & r C> TSv yQiimteTaUs^^ ~Gleiico3"> I o \ XedwoodFaUs\XBeaver Falls 0 CAQo VPVTX^ ftlCac Chetag itllc BearlLy) / Red CedarTZ -^eaV T. _A Adventure lanse xj/r /<-> w\OJ^G^ ~ -— j/dZrO[Chippewa Cy.j Py fpChvppewa IFaHs Jfed'ory ^ I SfarsliallX X.Tftankor. ^#1 j *-Saratoga Flajidreau / J voodFc k pi CHICAGO River Falls ) i/.Enn CTaire oVtTnity Osseo { siepn NT-, L J Jf O 1 fmorthfieia 'Yg&afc Co# „ \ f ,, „ "• 0 -X W-oK- « .Itbault fcffXaSiia Zumbrota c, ^ Arr^T -17 lM C%„ , 4\0»/}VM/l syjau NAS?/ "Menqmon ap-v c \ iorcester \1>.. 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X^ c ^ Wa?uy;e?^ o w in \vinfield \ Centre —\m-r- \ . y ^ Ky^i ukk t ° \^oganspo?"tl^ \ ) 1 Groeshock shfiTh^iJi^ T S-."? » White Rock )WI O? y/pAL^TiNvV S bneltpjliUeo v VvLrH rtx".\R» v7 IkeTprO ) i o SFr. Willis k«r^»o Liberty texas ^V^-.Jqfa Oxange ILiiling •ALVBSTOW HAaRlS90fl^" -Ztie^ysT'N H . „ Jun< to°j 2 orleans SABINE^I ®A/V J ^Hallettsville ArcoTl Columbii WaTlisville Z-Jw MudXx jSabine Cy.SiV. xV° otSv.-r !^ej nXil.„ - ,. * StoneV- [7 - . . "b-S^i C'blumbi/s . J) /^'^BiRMiiTGfiAM Stafl«-v:.Vzi>^lW~~^° > «. :sio» <^*TArteiia. JFayette > Xc int- •- o * J ' ygg| Kosciusko cisjper o w % •YAi V j CcI''ic 'PH Dalt^N S*Ugt/r.Valley i Brandon's / 7-X 4<;j; I' ff 1 GaylesviileJ fi p 1 .A^ajrsvilla \ K2?^4iXWaiy^ totljlnsrilleZ/ fZS 7,. ,. ^Z \ f \0*M- 1 Cal liQ^'n^;.^'|,"2 Jjlountsyille n o^Attaiiu^ Glagsden "Waltufla ^ mc ^ -t * *A L £ n pDall Gas tori'3., ^YorkVi y. 1%®4MSB^Y. J —^'<$u A S ■'a\'F J*jt Concord JV \ yog 9^a.l A Li Camerob jt'- x*^ / ii.otte af™*" j .-/v" w\ C v... c°<\% "v VLt ' Chesterfield_ VVaai^°XW [Hamlet tvLaurihTruif Magnfolia Cr.^ uUioiiMlle_V &!nc, iOioster M. 5«5>? I'_ ! ,\tAEr.- o ^ S 1—Jlfflng ,$Vr' T e., . at A y .fy'JAihYille Pt.Gibson r« isonburg:. f G'd Joseph< Crystal Springs jGallatin o 3Iartin / "I" *o V^rmiionW. MEJEAU, BAKE TP ILouisviUe Macon J . I Caryfflion °-C>t«, IX ■ ^^y^oTer^ \ °cpmart ^ /eoaturx ^enS Lii ^ -fV Zincolnton fc\ ^4^^°7wa8hinst°tt £ / /^OTTE ^ linelionaeHnmptoS^j- lelpKia . °* s-. Cplun^^/'Wilsonville r1^" * rfAc\ ^ / ^^^^7°^^^Griffin7. V k\ J \^Q' •„ Wavnesboro J" •°&cha?!/ifiTT 4^ 7\ -XZ.S •^, ^'. V A1/ >- A"A Wz -Ae,v WE^TEj^ 'bYCENTRAL^ ' " t^in7^0" 3„«ir O ^ /V •)". S / C7"'na Cr0K I 4lL r^^cSJ : /" ^pFtDeposlt ^ *^21 5 citXJ'zr^U. xa.2v_ Fleming ' Jl3F™~aJ! ."/. ..Ttgy^^y^r^KLo»,rocX"son^l^^^<2^ nticello X l^/rLwhTSV ^Aa, . frwinmlle JJolmesoille*****^ * ^ WmtA Af R , ^Aiken\_ Lewisvil] jPa,mw" AUGUSTA^^ GL ^^^wWilliston ' Thomson y >\Blackville /Orangeburg rsX 12 \ <$ 1 ^ j^RAyOH?. k -Allendale > A ^trf\foT^LSummer- vill« VNV Graham sj LL v jyy N fe ICingstri ftio Mount Olive 'r.enton o - /Onslow o THIS MAP IS PUBLISHED BY THE ILLINOIS AND MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND CANAL IMPROVEMENT COMMISSION. The Officers and Directors of which organization are : ^Fayette 3 chez o jfiealiu( . ALLAN, Geneseo, 111., President. 1 2ARD RUSSELL, Davenport, la.. Secretary. T. ■ ROBINSON, Rock Island, 111., Treasurer. J At L. CAMP, Dixon, 111. CH.iS. H. DEERE, Moline, 111. JOHN MAHIN, Muscatine, Iowa. L. D. WHITING, Tiskilwa, 111. Wl LIAMSON DURLEY, Hennepin, 111. T. >. BREWSTER, Peru, 111. Office of Secretary, Davenport, Iowa. S. C. HASTINGS, San Francisco, Cal. JNO. L. SWITS, Schenectady, N. Y. PEYTON RANNEY, Kalamazoo, Mich. J. H. FOSTER, Madison, Wis. JESSE SPAULDING, Chicago, 111. NATOAN COLE, St. Louip, Mo. SAM'L M. CLARK, Keokuk, Iowa. O. C. MERRIMAN, Minneapolis, Minn. THE BXjTJTD LIHES he.-ein, mark the all-water routes of transportation from the Great West to the Atlantic seaboard, via thjs Mississippi and its navigable confluents to New Orleans; to Quebec via the Illinois & Michigan Canal, Chicago, the Lakes, the Welland Canal and the St. Lawrence; and to New York via the Illin^j & Michigan Canal, Chicago, the Lakes, the Erie Canal and the Hudson. From the use of these lajj tYjjo described routes, the entire line of the Upper Mississippi is cut off for want of the connection proposed to he secured through the construction of the Hennepin Canal. That canal will extend fro7*. Hennepin, 111., (to which point the Illinois & Michigan Canal has been extended from its old terminu* at La Salle,) to the Mississippi direct, striking that stream at or near Rock Island. The proposed route of the Hennepin Canal has been carefully purveyed. The report of Col. Bod- nett, Civil Engineer, quoted at length in l< Report of the Select Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard,1' made to the United States Senate, April 24, 1874, affirms that "this woutb bi the cheapest canal ever constructed in the united states." a8 a Commercial canal, th l Buzzard RooSt Dublin- } >% meridian b ZEnterprisi IPaulding 3tdleigfi° ^ Shubuta 3 I t\ ' ^\s f'ptmsZGairulcn Turnhullc < WittiarAaburg. - ^^CedurrityicL S < ) h \ £| S / p *Zt*lr Andalusia ' ^{HolmesV %\ ^AuQpMhyy^\^-\ 1 f. ?\ * ojV Vernon ^ ° If ( f~ / Osyka }|/\ slU I fS //;/ r^_V. Frankliftlon , TX^^^SvtmJmn \/^ ^ Xf Xxf 3 \ille \ Aryeric}" . . ^ \JJ>T \ ( /J \Coclll-an tqAndersov J2eid3VlllLo ecpfsv o Spring-\ ?/ eccne^v^ ^ ^ # lg advantage in saving of 1 such a ro>ute of transportation, } cost of railroad, or part river and "freight charges, to accrue to the several points on the Upper Mississippi from the opening up of ivere shown in the Senate Committee's report of April 24, 1874, to be very great, in comparison with jart railroad transportation usually resorted lo i ow. Taking as a basis "the actual average rail- rates" of the freight tariffs charged by the respective railroads in 1872, during the season of navigaiion, and computing the cost of trans¬ portation on the Hennepin and Illinois & Mi< higan Canals to be on the same average as that maintained by the Erie Canal in 1872,-10 6-16 mills per mile—the committee made the followir g as its estimates of saving to the localities named: AblrevBtetff? S* TLimfber City JacksorirtfUh lid ^Spring, 1A« S«>«> "/A™V , ys p 77hs^?>^ 4v \ psaryton oS ) J Y 3 3.ine App^ j/(, . TrSy o C'fYtonT=r»rS^o u ^ '-A o"/ eonvije Hpnticetlp \ . \ x\\a 0 Jrwiiville JtolmessiUe IGalne^V^^JSL^f 2 , A . -jlrt x t l a n y ( •» tlba Orebo i 1 /IpBIL 'fcT=s;» »vl¥TV J> (Min™wx^feS5 AJgi-ih£ Eu/hoctAnna3\M l OKattaHoooh© ' ViT \ I' A L B A N Y\ Ptfersonton6 1f~ tfn p." v StatioaviWeS . , i * i (XfM>Trr-&rr7} c. ZUC \ ^n , y \ % hq pfp*c' { 7""""7""""*) ^ I _/ . a/ 1 S*4^ni*L -i y^s. / %/ cyxfrt transtt tall allan*^ Toco •" The canal-distance includes the Illinois & Michigan Canal from Chicago to LaSalle, 96 miles, the slack water navigation from LaSalle to Hennepin, 19 miles, and the Hennepin Canal, from Hennepin to the Mississippi River, 65 miles. t The above river-distances were furnished by the War Department. ;o St. Paul to Chicago Winona to Chicago La Crosse to Chicago Prairie du Chien loChica; Dubuque to Chicago Savannah to Chicago ... Fulton to Chicago Rock Island to Chicago.. Burlington, la., to Chicago DISTANCES. Distance by Rail and River. Miles. 458, water and rail. 340, all rail 305, all rail 245, all rail 188, all rail 156, water and rail 136, all rail 182, all rail 207, all rail Caual and Mississippi River. o Miles. 180 180 180 180 180 180 180 180 180 Miles. 389 271 236 176 119 65 45 9 g a> <53 t> A'C 153 13 §3 Miles. 569 451 416 356 299 245 225 189 262 RATES PER 100 POUNDS. o . $g rf o « sB C3 r-t « Cents 33.8 30.7 30.7 30.7 28.4 30.0 29.2 25.0 20.0 Water Rates per 100 Pounds. Cents 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 Cents 8.6 6.0 5.2 3.9 2.6 1.4 1.0 0.2 2.0 Cents 18.1 15.5 14.7 13.4 12.1 10.9 10.5 9.7 11.5 The following table gives the cost of transport per bushel by the two lines between Chicago and the several river towns meniioned: St. Paul to Chicago Winona to Chicago La Crosse to Chicago Prairie du Chien to Chicago Dubuque to Chicago '. Savannah to Chicago Y Y .... Fulton to Chicago .......! Rock Island to Chicago Burlington to Chicago Average Assuming a charge of six mills per ton per mile down the river, and eight mills per ton per mile up the river, as in the estimate made for the Fox and Wisconsin improvement, the results would be as stated in the following table: St. Paul to Chicago Winona to Chicago La Crosse to Chicago Prairie du Chien to Chicago. Dubuque to Chicago Savannah to Chicago Fulton to Chicago. ." Rock Island to Chicago Burlington, Iowa, to Chicago . Average d g, o,^ = w£ 2 " 2 T3 LH a 3^2 5 S S 2 cents. This statement shows that the rate on the Chicago, Rock Island A Pacific Railroad, which runs along the canal and competes with it, appears to he only 53 per cent, of the average on the other roads for the same distance, and that the farther each of the other roads is removed from competition with the canal the higher is the rate charged by such railroad. For in¬ stance, the Northwestern Railroad, which is, perhaps, not at all affected by the canal, charges the highest rate, eighteen cents. If it were neces¬ sary, hundreds of cases could be given, showing the great benefits of water CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 21 transportation by canal and by river as a means of regulating and reduc¬ ing railway charges. Build this proposed canal from Hennepin to Rock Island, and it will save annually to the people of the Northwest its entire cost in the cheapening of transportation. But will the general government build this canal ? I have had some ex¬ perience in the last six or seven years in urging the claims of this canal upon the consideration of members of Congress, who, I thought, should take an interest in it, and I want to say to the friends of the canal, that before it is ever built the people will have to demand it at the bands of Congress. A sentiment will have to be created in favor of building it, if it does not already exist, so strong that members of Congress will have to respect it. In urging the claims of this canal we have been told, and shall, no doubt, be told again, that if Illinois wants this canal built let her build it. I have been told that New York built her own canals, that Pennsylvania built her own canals, and that Illinois should do the same. It is true that New York and Pennsylvania built their own canals, but it is also true that tlie produce of the West and of other States lias been taxed by way of tolls to help pay for them,and, perhaps, suflkientiy to pay for them several times over. But it can be sately said, I think, that Illi¬ nois is not as much interested in the building of this canal as Iowa, Min¬ nesota, and other States and Territories west and north of Illinois, and that it is national in its character and in the benefits to be derived from it, and that if it is built it is tire duty of the general government to build it. My congressional district is so situated that it is largely interested in this canal, but the greater part of the State of Illinois is not specially inter¬ ested in it. Take all the people who live east and south of the Illinois river, and what special interest have they in the building of this canal Other than that they have in every measure which benefits commerce and adds to the wealth and prosperity of the country ? Chicago is greatly in¬ terested in tlris canal, more so, perhaps, than any other city, and next to Chicago no city in the country is, in my opinion, more interested in the building of it that the city of New York. In a conversation with Senator Wiudom, who is now Secretary of the Treasury, and who has taken great interest in the question of cheap trans¬ portation, had some two or tiiree years since, he said to me in substance, that if Chicago and New York did not awake to their true interests and take hold ot the building of this canal from Hennepin to ltock Island, or some other water connection between the Mississippi and the lakes, they would soon find the commerce of the upper Mississippi valley going down the Mississippi river to the Gulf, and this is undoubtedly true. In fact, it has already commenced taking that direction. In a private letter written by Senator Windom, January 12th, 1875, he says, in speaking of the Henne¬ pin Canal: " With reference to die Hennepin Canal, I desire to say, that having care¬ fully investigated its merits, I am very earnestly in favor of it, and will exert every effort in my power to secure favorable action upon it. In the report which I submitted to Congress last spring, I gave it prominence cheap transportation and the hennepin canal. among the improvements which I recommended, and urged it upon the attention of the country. 1 shall continue to do so, and hope to have it included in a system of improvements to he entered upon at the present session. I have studied this subject until I have become an earnest and enthusiastic advocate of improved water routes, and I know of none that will make greater return for the money invested than the Hennepin Canal," Now in conclusion, for 1 have spoken longer than I had intended, I re¬ peat, that this proposed canal from Hennepin to Roc'k Island is a great national measure. It is not in the interest of the people of Illinois alone, hut of the great Northwest, Nor are its benefits to be confined to the people of the Northwest, but will extend to and be enjoyed by the people of the East, as well as the people of the Middle States. It is in the inter¬ est of cheap transportation and of the people, and should be built. This is no new measure. There is a gentleman present, to-day, who attended a convention to consider the question of building this canal in 18U3, nearly fifty years ago. But then we had but little commerce to transport. Now the rich productions of this great Northwest begin to crowd every avenue, every means of transportation, by which to reach the markets of our own country and of the world. And the farmers, the producers, the hardy sons of'toil, who help to make the wealth of the country, have the right to de¬ mand the very cheapest transportation possible, to enable them to reach such markets with the productions of their industry, and be allowed some reward, some remuneration for their toil. I trust this convention, while it does not forget the great work of im¬ proving the Mississippi river, will not fail to speak in a voice that will be heard all over the land, and demand the building of this canal from Hennepin to Rock Island. telegram from secretary windom. At the conclusion of Gen. Henderson's remarks, the Sec¬ retary read the following telegram from Secretary Windom : Washington, D. C\, May 25, 1881. To the Pnxiilent of the Convention : I deeply regret that imperative official duties prevent my participation in your convention; and beg to assure you of my most hearty sympathy with the objects and with all other proper measures to secure cheap trans¬ portation. Wm. Windom. The President then introduced the Hon. John H. Gear, Governor of Iowa, who thus addressed the convention. gov. gear's speech. Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Convention: You have assembled for a most laudable purpose, having for its object the promo¬ tion of the welfare of the producers of the Mississippi Valley, by devising ways and means to lessen the cost of transportation of the products of the farm and factory. To do this is to confer a benefit on a vast number of CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND TIIE HENNEPIN CANAL. 23 people. It is the true interest of the States in the Mississippi Valley, hy every effort in their power to develope all the avenues for transportation. That they will be required is shown hy the fact that an area of less than one-half of the lands in the State of Iowa alone are under cultiva¬ tion, and yet the resources of the five thousand miles of railway in opera¬ tion in this State last year are taxed to their fullest extent to move the sur¬ plus produce. When it is taken into consideration that there was ex¬ ported from the State of Iowa alone, during the year 1880, nearly 52,000,- 000 bushels of corn, over 9,000,000 bushels of wheat, 12,000,000 bushels of oats, besides a large amount of other cereals, that the product of 058,000 hogs packed within the State, besides 2,570,000 live hogs were shipped out of the State over six liues of railway; that the number of live cattle shipped East hy the same lines amounted to over 372,000 head, it will be readily seen that a convention called, as this is, for the purpose of taking into consideration methods to cheapen the transportation of this vast amount of product, which is, with the exception of a portion of the item of cattle and hogs, wholly the growth of Iowa alone; and when you add to these shipments the vast amount of produce shipped from States around us, it will be readily seen that much depends on the action of this conven¬ tion in giving such tone to public sentiment as will best accomplish the results so desirable to the producers of the great valley of the Mississippi. No small part of the riches of the commonwealths which are represented here to-day is to be found in the mighty lakes and magnificent water courses which wash their borders, dividing them into separate States, yet uniting them together hy the powerful cement of common interest in those waters. How to utilize those waters so that they may bring to the people of the Northwest the full measure of advantage to he derived from their possession, may well attract the attention and command the most serious thought of all who feel interested in the highest physical development of this fertile part of the globe. Ages ago, when the upheaving earth was preparing itself to be the abode of man, these great bowls and those mighty pineries were left, that he who was to live here, and progressively subsisting, cultivating the soil and beautifying the landscape, should be aided in his struggle for material betterment as well as by the element that should fill them as by the solid earth. That man should abandon the use of the great highways thus provided hy nature as a means of intercommunication because other and swifter facilities for travel have been found, is not more reasonable than it would he to forswear the use of the common wheeled vehicle and insist on railroads being built everywhere, and occupying all our roads and streets. These water ways are here, challenging our admiration for the grandeur of the opportunities they offer us, mocking us for the feeble use we make of such possibilities, and calling, even bantering us, to make increasing efforts for their highest utilization. We often hear it remarked that the construction of railways obviates the necessity of using the water routes of the country, and this notion has very largely possessed the popu¬ lar mind. The rapidity with which the railroad system of the country has 24 CHEAT4 TRANSPORTATION AND THE iiENNEPlN CANAL. been developed, and the confessedly vast benefit that system has brought to the country, have done much to convey and strengthen this impression. Anil the remarkable events in the history of the country for the last score of years have had a similar tendency. The war of the rebellion, clos¬ ing, as it did, the Mississippi river to the commerce of the country, gave to that commerce a direction eastward that necessitated much more of railway transportation. The return of peace, securing once more, as it did, the freedom of the river, was not sufficient to recover the lost trade. The machinery of river transportation was too far dilapi¬ dated to permit of immediate revivication, and the failure, or rather lim¬ ited success of occasional efforts to move the surplus products of the West down the "Father of Waters," as was done in the early days of western settlement, had produced a feeling of acquiescence in the fact of the prevalent mode of transportation, and its acceptance as about the only thing to be had. Hence the reliance which has characterized the last decade, upon legislative control for the regulation of railroad rates, of which more presently. But the spirit of enterprise which has filled what has been so aptly called "this wilderness of centuries we call our prairie home," with the cream of the immigration, both native and foreign horn, that has sought for itself a new heritage in this occidental land, could not permanently endure the neglect of the generous facilities placed at our dis¬ posal by nature in these magnificent water routes, and when the perseverance of Eads had been crowned with success, his famous jetties gave unobstructed way to the ocean, we found the placid waters which in copious volumes penetrate and separate our western States, reproaching us for our supiue- uess and neglect of opportunities which even semi-civilized nations could not have fuiled to seize and make available. The last year or two have accordingly witnessed a gratifying revival of interest in our water-ways. This has been manifested in the success of the barge-line project already inaugurated, and doubtless soon to be followed by not a few emulators. To the consideration of the facilities offered by the revived route, of appropriations for its improvement, and of suggestions for its extension and enlargement, are we invited to-day. The river system of the valley of the Mississippi, it has been estimated, comprises fourteen thousand and eighty-six miles of water route, the entire expense of which to the United States, up to the beginning of the year 1878 was about $18,500,000, or an average of a little over $1,300 per mile; that is, the United States govern¬ ment had, up to that time expended about $18,500,000 in all for the im¬ provement of this system of water-ways. During the same period the gov¬ ernment gave in aid of the construction of railways about 187,785,800 acres of land, worth, at the rate of $1.25 an acre, over $234,000,000, and amount in land and values equal to2,000 acres worth $2,500, for each mile of rail¬ road yet built within the United States. Moreover, the government has loaned its credit to the amount of $04,023,512 to aid in the construction of the several Pacific railroads, and advanced in actual cash over $34,000,- 000 interest on bonds issued to aid in the construction of those roads. Thus has the government paid for the construction of railroads in which fcttEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN fcANAL. 25 it has no ownership, more than a dozen times as much as it lias for the improvement of this great river and its tributaries, draining, as they do, the largest part of the national territory; capable, as they are or might be made, of bearing to the ocean the entire surplus crops of the country, belonging, as they do, to all the people, and on which each may launch his own vessel, propelled as he may see fit, and freighted with such cargo as the changing currents of commerce or the exactions of other routes of transportation shall render it profitable for him to carry. If it was justifiable in the nation to part with so much of its domain, to facilitate the construction of railroads, in view of the the benefit antici¬ pated therefrom, and I do not question that it was, clearly it is right to use the nation's means for the development to the highest degree of the resources of this great system of rivers, and the removal therefrom of whatever may be found to obstruct their free navigation. The navigable waters of this system reach seventeen States of the Union, while the terri¬ tory drained by them is the home of the greater part of the people of the United States. Properly to improve these waters requires something other than the makeshift practice characteristic of the expenditures of the past in these rivers. The commission already provided tor by act of Con¬ gress to devise a systematic plan for the improvement of the Mississippi river is a step in the right direction, but as I understand it to be confined in its operations to the river proper, I do not deem the plan sufficiently comprehensive. It must go further. All the navigable tributaries of the great river, among which I would name the Missouri, the Ohio, and the Illinois, must be included in the scope of the labors of this commission. And these labors should be vigorously pushed. Every days' delay entails a loss on the commerce of the country. It is inevitable that this work is to be done. The demand for its accomplishment will grow in volume and intensity until the desired result is reached, and in my judgment wise enconomizing of our resources demands expedition in this great work. The increased commerce by way of the Mississippi river and tributaries within the past year or two is worthy of note here. I find that whereas for saveral years prior to 1879, the river business of the port of St. Louis was about the same each year, that there was a marked increase in the ship¬ ments by the river in 1879 over the previous years, and in 1880 both re¬ ceipts and shipments increased in wonderful proportion, the former in¬ creasing from 088,970 tons to 893,800, or about thirty per cent., and the latter from 077,155 to 1,037,525 tons, or over fifty-three percent.; both receipts and shipments of St. Louis by all modes increased between 1879 and 1880 about thirty per cent., while the river trade increased nearly fifty per cent. The shipment of corn in bulk by New Orleans boats rose from 3,585,589 bushels in 1879, to 9,428,538 in 1880, and those of wheat in bulk by the same method of carriage from 2,397,897 in 1879, to 5,735,079 bushels in 1880; and I have recently heard of through bills of lading for flour being given by the St. Paul and St. Louis Packet Company, via New Orleans to Liverpool, at seventeen cents per barrel less than prevailing rates via New York. The freight on bulk grain from St. Louis to London, 26 CHEAP TUANSPOltTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. via New Orleans, at latest advices was 4(i}j cents per hundred, or 27 cents per bushel, and on flour 35 cents a hundred. The added cost of insurance is 1.55-100 to 1.95-100 per bushel. The total expense, including insurance, from St. Louis to London is therefore about 29 cents per bushel. What better arguments can be adduced for the improvement of this natural high¬ way than the statement of these facts. There is a constantly increasing demand in Brazil and the South American States, and the West Indies for the flour and other products of the Northwest, and tins traffic can be developed to unlimited proportions. There are new avenues of commerce constantly opening up to the American people, vast amounts of capital are now being expended in railway building in the Southwest, and these lines will be completed at an early date, thus bringing us into close com¬ mercial relations with Mexico, developing a trade which will be constantly increasing and highly remunerative to our people. In addition, the early completion of the Southern Pacific railway to points on the Mississippi river, will largely increase the existing traffic between this valley, the Southwest and the Pacific coast. All these facts taken into consideration, emphasize the demand for congressional action looking to such improve¬ ment of this natural highway as will meet the rapidly increasing demands of the commerce of the nation. While it is unquestionably the duty of the general government to devel- ope by proper improvements the great national highways, it is also no less its explicit duty to create, by a proper expenditure of the public funds, artificial water ways in the form of canals, which should be maintained and operated by the government at a minimum of the cost, making them free to all, subject to proper restrictions, thereby reducing the cost of the transportation of our products to the Atlantic ports. Between the canal and river systems there should he no clash of inter¬ ests, but on the contrary, the greatest harmony should be cultivated and maintained, in view of the fact of the mutual dependence of the one on the other. Chief among this class of improvements is the widening and deepening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and the extension of the system to a point on the Mississippi river, thereby placing Iowa and the States to the north and west of her in closer communication with the great chain of lakes, the Welland Canal, the St. Lawrence river, and the Erie Canal. The value of this canal to the producing interests of Iowa may he meas¬ ured, partially at least, by the saving it would effectuate in the cost of moving the crops, as I shall endeavor to show. The freight rate by rail between this place and Chicago for the year ended June 30, 1879, based on the average rate per ton per mile on its en¬ tire line charged by the company owning and operating the railway be¬ tween the two places, was two dollars and twenty cents. By the proposed and contemplated canal, the rate, based upon the average charges on the Erie Canal for the year 1879, would have been eighty-four cents, or deduct¬ ing tolls, seventy cents, a difference of one dollar and fifty cents, or over sixty-eight.per cent. The comparative cost to Chicago from Fulton, the CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND TIIK HENNEPIN CANAL. 27 point on the Mississippi river nearest Chicago, similarly estimated, would have been one dollar and ninety-eight and one-half cents a ton by rail, and by water down the Mississippi river to Rock Island and thence by the proposed canal eighty-seven and one-half cents, a difference of one dollar and eleven cents, or fifty-six per cent. From Dubuque to Chicago the rail rate may he put at $2.97 per ton. The difference between this rate and the all water route, estimated as before, would be $1.81, or a little over sixty per cent. From Burlington to Chicago it would have been 84^ cents a ton, or forty-five per cent., and from Keokuk 95% cents, or fifty- four per cent. The rail rates quoted above are the rates reported by the roads to the Iowa Commissioners. In estimating the rates by water from the points named, I assume that grain would be loaded at the respective points into canal boats and towed direct to the canal, at canal rates, as is the case on - the Hudson river, thus avoiding the cost of resliipmeut and rehandling. The wheat and corn crops of Iowa for 1880 are estimated by the Secre¬ tary of the State Agricultural Society at 30,099,701 bushels of wheat, and 230,033,200 bushels of corn. We may estimate the surplus for ex- |« portation at 14,000,000 bushels of wheat, and 90,000,000 bushels of corn, I which would make a tonnage of 2,900,000. To get this surplus from the 1 , river to the lakes would cost, as I have attempted to show, from 84J^ cents to $1.81 a ton less, were the proposed improvements made, than by present modes of transportation, judged by the prevailing rates of freight. If we put the average saving at $1.20 a ton, and, according to the data above, I think this figure low enough, and assume that only one-halt of the crop would be moved during the season of navigation, the saving would be $1,090,000 in one year. But it may be contended I am overestimating the proportions of the surplus that will go this way to market. What if 1 am ? Would such surplus be likely to go to market by a more costly route? I think not, and if not, would not the very existence of this water route have cheapened transportation elsewhere, and thus indirectly effected a saving? In the foregoing figures of estimated savings, no account has been taken of the produce of Iowa, other thipo. Jpteti and corn, shipped from this State, all of which would feel the benefit of the cheapened" way. The diminished cost here, it is sufficient to say, could not but largely aug- j ment the amount saved to the producers of the West. Now what will the canal cost? This is here a very pertinent inquiry. I confess I have not given this question a scrutiny sufficiently close to permit of a precise answer. On this point you will doubtless have in¬ formation from others better calculated to impart it. I know that esti¬ mates have been made in regard to it. The highest of these, I find, puts the cost at a little over $4,500,000. Assuming this to be nearly correct, it would appear that less than three years' savings in the cost of moving Iowa crops eastward could suffice to pay for it. And when we add to these savings those to be derived from eastward moving freights from other parts of the West; from the westward moving freights generally, and from the local business of the territory contiguous to the canal, on 28 CltEAP TRANSPORTATION AND TltE HENNKITR CANAL. which last the savings will probably be even greater proportionately, one is persuaded that the canal will repay the cost of its construction at even a much earlier day. The proposed canal has received no little attention at the hands of the State authorities of Iowa, which have, at various times, endeavored to im¬ press on the general government the necessity of opening an all water route from the Mississippi river eastward. So far back as 18(54, the Gen¬ eral Assembly adopted a joint resolution as follows: "Resolved, That our Senators in the Gougress of the United States lie in¬ structed, and our Representatives be requested, to favor and support the construction of a ship canal Irotn the lakes to the Mississippi river, on a general western route." The same Legislature provided for the selection of a "competent en¬ gineer" by the Governor of the State, "lor the purpose of making a pre¬ liminary survey westward from La Salle, Illinois, of the nearest and best ship canal route to the Mississippi river." Nothing seems to have come of this action, because, perhaps, of the meagre appropriation made for it, although the act remains unrepealed. At another time, the General Assembly, in memorializing Gougress, said: "The great want of our State is cheap transportation for our heavy pro- ducts to the markets of the world. The most feasible plan to secure this end is to provide a direct and continuous Hue of water communication between the Mississippi river and the Atlantic seaboard." In his message to the General Assembly of 1870, Governor Merrill said: "Cheap transportation is the one question which is vital to these (North¬ western) States, and to none more so than to Iowa. It is of little conse¬ quence whether her products be moved by rail or by water, but of the greatest consequence that they be moved at rates whereby the market price will give back the cost of production and a living profit to the farmer. If railways can carry heavy freights its cheaply as water wajs, it is certain that they will not do it unless compelled thereto by water competition. The improvement of water channels will reduce the charge-, on every ton of heavy freight, whether moved by water or by rail." Again he says: "With wheat selling in the State of Iowa at an average price of fifty cents per bushel, and on Lake Michigan at seventy cents per bushel, our representatives in Congress should not long hesitate iu assuming for their constituents their part of the necessary debt, in order to open an ample water way between the Mississippi and the lakes. The full results no one can foresee." The Legislature to Which these words were addressed, in a memorial to Congress, more particularly in reference to another route, represented: " That the question of uninterrupted water communication between the Mississippi valley and the Atlantic seaboard has become one of all absorb¬ ing interest to the people of the whole country, and more especially to the food-producing States of the Northwest." Again: " The unanimous sentiment of the people of the entire West is, that they must, and will have uninterrupted water transportation to the Atlantic seaboard for their heavy products." CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 29 And again: " The one great object of the whole country is to cheapen transporta¬ tion between the East and the West. This can never be secured through the existing routes. There are many railroads between the two sections, but their interests are identical; hence, they will, and practically do, com¬ bine to promote that common interest, to-wit: high rates of toll for trans¬ portation ot products between the two sections." Governor Carpenter, in his inaugural address, in 1872. used this lan¬ guage : " If the State can encourage, by moral influence, the opening of direct water communication with" the Atlantic seaboard, it will aid in giving the West one channel for the shipment of surplus commodities, a large portion ot each year, upon which competition can be made effective." In 1874, the General Assembly adopted a joint resolution in relation to this very canal, showing that the lapse of ten years, during which other water route schemes had crowded to the front, had not abated the desire of the people of Iowa, as expressed by their legislative representatives, for all-water communication with the Atlantic seaboard. The Legisla¬ ture then said: Whereas, The question of cheap transportation, for the surplus products of the Mississippi valley to a profitable market, is at the present time the paramount question; and Whereas, We believe that the construction of a canal from Rock Island to Hennepin, in the Slate of Illinois, would open an unbroken water com¬ munication to the eastern markets for the largest agricultural region tribu¬ tary to any single artificial water way which has been proposed; and WHEreas, This line lias been surveyed by authority of Congress, and has been found to be practicable, to he a distance uf only sixty miles, and to be capable of construction at small cost in comparison with other pro¬ jects of this character; therefore, Be it rcsoloed by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, That our Sena¬ tors in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives therein be re¬ quested, to vole for and to use their active influence to secure such legis¬ lation by the national legislature as will insure the construction of the canal at an early day. My own views on the subject of water transportation were expressed in part when I entered upon the governorship, and 1 may be pardoned for here quoting the language I then used : " Owing to natural obstructions in the channel of the Mississippi river, and its virtual closing during the late war, our products have, of necessity, been carried to market by rail alone. By the recent completion of the canal around the rapids at Keokuk, and of the apparent success of the system of jetties now in operation at the mouth of the river,whereby ships of large draught have easy access to New Orleans, thus giving additional facilities for the transportation of our products to foreign ports, it is plain to see that in the near future a healthy competition must arise between the railway and river systems of transportation, the benefits of which must accrue directly to our grain-producing interests; and it is to be hoped that Congress will, at an early date, stimulate this competition by a sufficient 30 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. appropriation of money to cause the further improvement of the naviga¬ tion of tlie Mississippi and its tributaries, in order that Iowa and all the States bordering on this great highway may have the largest benefits pos¬ sible to be derived from additional facilities in the transportation of their products." The canal system once complete, the grain fields of the West would be brought into advantageous connection not only with the lakes, but also with the Erie Canal. That great work, conceived by tbe genius, and built by the energy of DeWitt Clinton, has not only paid for itself and its main¬ tenance, but has returned to the State of New York more than forty mil¬ lions of dollars, besides making up to tbe State millions of dollars of deficiency growing out of building and operating other canals in that State. In the year 1870, the eastward tonnage on the Erie Canal amounted to 2,540,002 tons, of which only 182,784 tons were of the products of the State of New York, or a little over seven per cent, of the whole amount. The remainder, excepting a small amount of Canadian produce, being of the growth of the western States. Are we in error in assuming that the West has contributed in about the proportion indicated to the growth of the great city of New York? And if not, we submit, in all candor and seriousness, whether it is more than justice that the State of New Yrork, after having been paid by the West for the construction of the canal orig¬ inally, as well as for its maintenance and enlargement, should now throw oft the tolls and make the canal free. For thirty-three years prior to 1880, the whole amount of tolls collected by the State of New York on all its canals, was .$118,550,291; of which the produce of tbe western States paid $00,- 081,033, more than one-half of the whole. During the last eleven years the tolls collected on the canals of New York amounted to $23,022,071, of which western producers paid $14,859,501, or over sixty-two per cent., and during the year 1879 the produce of the western States paid more than eighty-three per cent, of tbe canal tolls of the State of New York, the ex¬ act figures being $781,114, out of $941,574. This disproportion is partly caused by the fact that from most of the westward bound freight the tolls have been removed. Thus, for instance, all the westward bound and in¬ ternal freight on the canal paid only about three per cent, of the amount of tolls in 1879. The disproportion will therefore grow until the State of New York shall pay only an infinitismal part of the tolls, leaving to the West, practically, the entire burden of the support of not only the Erie Canal, but the other canals of that State, on some of which not a pound of western produce is even carried. This condition of affairs emphasizes the demand that the State of New York shall open to the world her great artificial stream. This demand, I may add, is now receiving powerful support from the city of New York, because of other reasons doubtless, but such as are none the less potent. As I understand the call of this convention to be a general one, and to invite free discussion of all matters pertaining to transportation, there is another phase of this question of which I will briefly speak. There is nothing which marks the immense growth of the American nation in a CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 31 more eminent degree than the development of its railway system. It is barely fifty years since the first bar of iron was laid in the United States. During that period of time, over ninety thousand miles of railway have been constructed, and at this date so great is the demand for increased transportation facilities that iron mills, car shops, and all the branches of manufacture which enter into the construction of railways, are taxed to their utmost capacity. As a consequence of this great growth, the old sys¬ tems of transportation have been neglected, and in some instances have even gone into temporary disuse, through the eagerness of the people to have the newer and swifter system. Aid by the nation, State and munici¬ pal governments, amounting to thousands of millions of dollars, have been freely given to build these roads, all of which has tended to develop the resources of the nation to a high degree. While the West has derived large benefits from this development, she has contributed largely of her means towards its accomplishment, and her grain fields furnish to the system an immense and constantly increasing traffic, thereby enriching the projectors and owners of this new mode of transportation. It may be truly said that the grain fields of the West constitute a bank which is con¬ stant and unfailing in its payments of dividends to the railway capitalist. This is right. The capital which constructs the canal, the steamboat and the railway and its equipage, should be, and is entitled to an income suf¬ ficient, after all expenses of operation and maintenance are met, to afford a fair profit on the investment. This, I think, is conceded by every fair- minded man in regard to all investments of capital, especially that cap¬ ital which is engaged in developing the country. During the past dozen years there has been growing in the minds of the people, not only of Iowa, but of the whole West, an idea that the railway corporations are makiug too much money by reason of exacting undue charges for the transporta¬ tion of the products of the soil, thereby arbitrarily reducing the profits of the producer. The people of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, after having submitted to onerous exactions in the way of freight charges for many years, finally became aroused to the necessitj' of taking decided action. This feeling culminated in a bitter contest between the people and the railway corporations. The people on the one side claimed it as a funda¬ mental principle of law that the corporations established or created by and under the law of the State, should be subject to regulations by the State. The railway corporations denied this right, claiming that the law creating them was a special contract, and by virtue of that fact placed them above all legislative control, other than police regulations. The contest on the part of the people of Iowa to establish the right of the State to control the charges of the railway corporations, was long and intense. In fact, party lines in the State, for the time being, were almost entirely obliterated. This contest culminated in the enactment by the Fifteenth General Assem¬ bly of what was known as the "Granger Law." This law provided a " schedule of rates," which established maximum charges per ton per mile for carrying freight. The railroad corporations contested the constitu¬ tionality of the law through all the courts. By the decision of the highest 32 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. tribunal of the nation, notwithstanding the able arguments of counsel in opposition, the right of the people of any State to regulate corporations was triumphantly vindicated. That decision will stand as law for the people of the future; first, because it is right in itself, and second, because behind it there is a constantly growing public opinion, jealous of any en¬ croachment upon popular rights, and fully able and determined to main¬ tain their rights against any and all who may attempt to deprive the peo¬ ple of the fruits of their hard won victory. The practical working of the statute of the Fifteenth General Assembly was found to be detrimental to the interests of some parts of the State. The " schedule of rates " was accordingly repealed in 1878, and a commis- sionership system enacted in lieu thereof. The Commissioners compose a board, before whom the people may make any complaint against the cor¬ porations of extortion, overcharges, etc. All complaints which have been made before the board up to this time, have been carefully examined by the commission, and decisions rendered. These decisions have, in all cases, I believe, been accepted in good faith by both the complainants and the corporations, and it is fair to presume that at this date, so far as trans¬ portation of local freight is concerned, there is a greater degree of har¬ mony between the people of the State and the corporations than at any previous time. But it must be borne in mind that the repeal of the so- called "Granger Law," and the establishment of the commmissionership system should not for a moment be construed into a surrender on the part of the people, of the right and the principle of control. Neither should it be accepted by the corporations as a denial of that right. Both systems are as yet experiments; the State having the absolute right to alter or modify the law at pleasure. As the State is limited in its control of rail¬ ways to the teiritory within its borders, and in view of the fact that the land traffic of the State, that is, traffic from point to point within the State, is only about fifteen or sixteen per cent of the whole traffic, it fol¬ lows that the remainder of eighty odd per cent is composed of freight which is carried beyond the limits of the State, ft therefore becomes inter-state in its character, and is not subject to the control of any statute the State can enact. The question of the control of this inter-state traffic is not only a vexed problem, but it is one of large proportions, demanding for its solution great care and study. It being beyond the power of the respective States to control inter-state traffic, it therefore devolves on Cmi- gress, under tiie organic law of the nation, to enact such laws as will give the relief so necessary to the welfare of all the people, and at the same lime guard against impairing the value of the capital invested in the railway system of the country, or discouraging the investment of other capital in the extension of that system, so necessary to the further devel¬ opment of the country. How this can best be done is yet to be seen. England, after enacting, during the past sixty years, over three thousand statutes regarding railways, has adopted the commissionership system, with certain judicial powers, and it is found to work well there. Massa¬ chusetts was the first of the States of the Union to adopt this system, and CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAD. 33 her example has been followed until at this date twenty States have adopt¬ ed it, in many instances with a great deal of success. There were introduced in the last Congress several hills on this matter of the control of inter-state traffic, all of which have their advocates and their opponents. Any law on this subject should be broad and compre¬ hensive, so as to work no injustice to either the people or the corporations. If we are to have a national commission to regulate the railway corpora¬ tions, its powers should be ample in order that its determinations may command respect and obedience. The railways should be required to make minute and detailed reports of the cost of the construction and op¬ erating, their profits, and all other facts in detail, in order to enable the commission to arrive at definite and ascertained findings. The commis¬ sion should have ample power to prevent illegitimate watering of stock, and combinations which deprive individuals and companies of the bene¬ fits of competition. Such commission should, in my opinion, have the authority to prevent pooling among parallel or competing lines, such as now enables one man, like Mr. Fink, who is to-day the immediate repre¬ sentative of several lines, whenever the water ways of the countiy are bound in the icy fetters of winter, to reduce the value of all the products of the West, by an arbitrary advance of rates, simply because he has the power to do so. This commission should be composed of representatives of different classes of individuals, having among its members, lawyers, farmers, manufacturers, and expert railroad men. Thus the commission would be the better able to ascertain and fix rates for the several railroads that would insure for the capital invested in the roads a return, and yet protect the people from paying an unjust tribute. A law should be enacted to secure for the shipper from an interior point, the control of his shipment; or in other words, the shipper should have the option of an all-rail shipment to eastern markets, or, if he prefers to ship his produce by river or lake he should not be compelled to pay for the fail transportation actually used, more than a reasonable and just part of the through rate to Chicago or the eastern markets. For the development of the natural highways of the country; for the construction of artificial water-ways; for the enactment of a national law regulating inter-state traffic; for the rehabilitation of our merchant ma¬ rine; for all things pertaining to our material welfare, the people should unceasingly and persistently demand of Congress such legislation as will bring about the results so much to be desired, and so necessary to our prosperity. It should be borne in mind that these results will not be se¬ cured in a day, or in a single session of Congress. For forty years the English people agitated the question of parliament¬ ary reform before the reform bill was enacted. For over twenty years they persistently demanded the repeal of the corn laws. It was only by constant agitation and persistent demand that these questions were settled. We, in America, with a popular form of government, where intelligence is general among the masses, where an untrammelled press freely discus¬ ses all questions which pertain to the welfare of the people, are enabled 3 84 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND TIIE HENNEPIN CANAL. to crystalize public sentiment into law in much less time than in Eng¬ land, whose government and institutions are so different from our own, and where precedent has such powerful hold. It therefore follows that the free discussion and agitation of these important questions will soon work out results vital to our prosperity as a people. Babylon and Rome, Venice and Holland, have been in their time, the mistresses of the commercial world; and now Britain may be said to oc¬ cupy that proud position, although the sceptre of the world of commerce is being wrested from her grasp by young America. The great Republic has to-day an extent of territory far surpassing Assyria and Rome in their days of greatest power, and she possesses a wealth ot resources beggaring by comparison those of the smaller but not less vigorous nations on the Adriatic and the Zuvder Zee. If we of to-day judiciously utilize these immense resources, and wisely administer the affairs of the mighty em¬ pire which we call our home, then will this our land be to the world more than all that the great nations of the past have been. TIIE MAYOR OF CHICAGO. Immediately on the conclusion of Governor Gear's speech, the chairman introduced to the convention the lion. Carter Harrison, ex-Member of Congress and now Mayor of Chi¬ cago : In addressing the convention, after a humorous allusion to bis official position as "chief magistrate of a city which was the envy of all its rivals, and the admiration of all the world beside, by reason of the daunt¬ less energy, resistless progress and grandly demonstrated achievements of its people," Mayor Harrison discussed the relation of water ways to the commerce of the country. He believed that water ways are the only reg¬ ulators of the railroads. These corporations could buy legislatures, and make their boast of it. But they could be circumvented by building canals and improving water routes. 11c predicted that unless the people are heard above the voice of the monster monopoly they would as a last resort repeat the scenes painted in history. Passing to the canal, he said the Mighty Engineer of the universe had marked out the line for a ship canal to the Mississippi. He hoped to see the day when even largest ves¬ sels might pass from the Gulf of Mexico to the harbor of Chicago, via the Hennepin canal and the Father of Waters. Sixty-five miles of canal built from Rock Island to Hennepin would enable the largest barge to pass with its grain from St. Paul to Chicago. He said the lumbermen of the north, as he understood, would antagonize this movement. A gentleman from Minnesota arose and begged to correct this state¬ ment. He said 110 delegate from that State would oppose such a measure. Mayor Harrison said that if his words had been instrumental in calling out that explicit disclaimer he was particularly glad that he had spoken as he had. He was pleased to be assured that Minnesota was so fully awake to its own best interests. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 35 Mr. Harrison tlien proceeded to show that the canal would cut down freight rates on grain four to five cents per bushel, at the least, and figured out on this basis a handsome percentage on the capital required for build¬ ing the canal. With the canal completed, grain could be shipped from Kock Island to Chicago for five cents per bushel instead of nine or ten cents as at present. A saving of four cents per bushel on the grain grown in the four great northwestern States would amount to $12,000,000 each year. No man had any right to forbid the 7,000,000 of people living in , these great States from getting the best price they could for their produce. Passing from home statistics, Mr. Harrison drew a comparison of what is being done in France, England and Germany, with what has been done in the United States. France has paid for canals and canalized rivers, of which she has over 5,000 miles, the enormous sum of $205,000,000. Amer¬ ica, a government of the people by the people, has expended but $40,000,- 000 for the same purpose. England up to 1874 had spent $370,000,000. He urged that the United States must be similarly alert in efforts to promote the development of the resources of its broad domain. He would have the Illinois & Michigan and the Erie Canals made ship-canals, and at the same time the Mississippi River be improved, and the Hennepin Canal constructed. All these works of internal improvement are needed. They should be vigorously prosecuted. Congress must be appealed to and pressed forward to action in behalf of these great water ways, so vitally necessary to the inter-State commerce of the Union. [Note. Mr. Harrison's address wae wholly extempore. During its delivery, the sten¬ ographer's services were unattainable, and the speaker has since been unable to res¬ pond, on account of other pressing engagements, to requests of the Secretary for a writ¬ ten re-production of the speech. The reporter's synopsis is, therefore, alone given.] REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CREDENTIALS. The Hou. George E. Adams as chairman, and in behalf of the Committee 011 Credentials, presented the report of that body, embodying a complete list of delegates present, and duly accredited, by credentials issued under the provisions of the Call for the Convention ; no seats being contested. On motion, it was ordered that the reading of the report be dispensed with, and that the same be received, adopted and the records of the convention have added thereto the following as the LIST OF DELEGATES appointed by the Governors of States, Mayors and Boards of Councils of Cities, Boards of Trade, Farmer's Alliances, Agricultural Clubs, et al: 36 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. from states at large: Michigan.—Thomas W. Palmer, Detroit; E. S. Pierce, Grand Rapids; Peyton Ranney, Kalamazoo; William Chamberlain, Three Oaks; R. G- Horr, East Saginaw; A. II. Morrison, St. Joseph; P. B. Loom is, Jackson. Minnesota.—Piatt B. Walker, O. C. Merriman, J. B. Basset!, of Minne. apolis. Missouri.—E. O. Stanard, A. H. Smith, R. A. Campbell, John G. Pray- ther, Charles E. Slayback, George L. Wright, W. C. Hobbs, D. N. Naylor, of St. Louis: John F. Phillips, Sedalia; J. M. Wood, Kahoka. Ohio.—N. M. Howard, W. T. Walker, of Toledo. Wisconsin.—Breese J. Stevens, Madison; James H. Foster, Oshkosh; J. C. Gregory, Madison; L. D. Breese, Portage; Charles Seymour, LaCrosse; J. R. Berryman, Prairie du Chien. Iowa.—R. C. Webb, Stephen R. Loughran, Des Moines; James S. Hurley, Louisa County; Horace Everett, Council Bluffs; P. H. Merrill, Ottumwa; F. M. MeClellan, Cedar Rapids; John T. Hancock, Dubuque; John H. Leavitt, Waterloo; J. F. Bassett, McGregor; J. N. Irwin, Keokuk ; William Bell, Burlington. Illinois.—George E. Adams, George Schneider, Jesse Spaulding, Chi¬ cago; R. II. McCllelland, Galena; G. L. Fort, Lacon; Henry Wood, Syca¬ more; J.S.Starr, Peoria; P. C. Hayes, Morris; James L. Camp, Dixon; Thomas J. Henderson, Princeton. California.—S. C. Hastings, San Francisco. New York.—Jno. L. Swits, Schenectady. from boards of trade, etc. St. Louis Merchants' Exchange.—John Hogan, E. W. Gould, Frank Garennie, Craig Alexander, Nathan Cole. Chicago Board of Trade.—John C. Dore, Win. Dickinson, Murray Nelson, Chas. Randolph, AV. J. Pope, S II. Larminie. Chicago Grain and Stock Board.—AV. AV. Brainard, Norman B. Ream. St. Paul Board of Trade.—Alexander Ramsey, H. H. Sibley, AA'm. Dawson, II. M. Rice, II. R. Marshall. LaCrosse Board of Trade.—AY W. Crosby, D. A. McDonald, Charles Michel, David Austin, Dan. Maeston. Quincy Board of Commerce.—Bernard Arntzen, B. AAA Dickson, J. G. Rowland, I). D. Merrian, Charles I. Coxe. Peoria Board of Trade.—A. AVoolner, Horace Clark, Chas. P. King, R. C. Grier, J. C. Hansel. Burlington Board of Trade.—J. AV. Burdette, It. Chamberlain, Geo- O. Ray, Y. W. Bullock, AV. W. Kinnear. Davenport Board of Trade.—J. H. Murphy, A. C. Fulton, Edward Russell, Henry Lischer, S. F. Gilman. Dubuque Board of Trade.—Chas. S. Burt, S. S. Wemott, Joseph Reyn¬ olds, M. C. Woodruff, Geo. Stephens. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 37 Des Moines Board of Trade.—Hon. H. C. Colver, E. J. Ingersoll, W. W. Witmer, J. H. Weuder. Citizens' Association, Keokuk.—Sam. M. Clark, Smith Hamil, Charles P. Birge, Samuel Kline, James Hagerman. Cedar Rapids Board of Trade.—T. J. Upton, J. F. Hamilton, J. H. Smith, Chas. Weare, J. R. Sage. Rock Island Board of Trade.—Alex. Steel, James S. Giimore, Joseph Baker, Wm. Blanchard, A. Loeb. Muscatine Board of Trade.—G. W. Dillaway, John Mahin, Suel Fos¬ ter, J. A. Pickler, S. G. Stein. Minneapolis Board of Trade.—C. C. Sturtevant, William Petti!, M. L. Higgins, John D. Lake, James McMullen. Moline Board of Trade.—John Deere, J. M. Gould, Wm. Kearns, W. C. Bennett, H. O. Sleight. Council Bluffs Board cf Trade.—John W. Chapman, J. C. Morgan, Ben. Newman, J. J. Brown, Nathan Pusey, Hon. L. C. Baldwin, Judge W. C. James, Marshal Key. Iowa City Board of Trade.—Ezekiel Clark, M T. Close, T. S. Parvin, J. P. Irish, S H. Fairall. Joliet Board of Trade.—S. W. Munn, C. B. Hayward, J. B. Elwood, Wm. Dougall, S. B. Reed. Chicago Commercial.—Carter II. Harrison, D. L. Shorey, W. S. Young. F. A. Stauber, Alderman Smyth. Muscatine Citizens' Association.—Suel Foster, J. R. Ilanley, Joseph Walton, Henry Funk, W. S. Richie, J. A. Aickler. from farmers' alliances, etc. Iowa State Farmers' Alliance.—L. S. Coffin, Jas. Wilson, B. F. Gue, Pliny Nichols, C. F. Clarkson. Farmers' Club, Jefferson County, Ia.—Hon. Jas. F. Wilson, J. L. Funk, Edward Campbell. Iowa City, Iowa, Farmers' Alliance Club.—Cary R. Smith. Johnson County, Ia., Agricultural Society.—Col. E. W. Lucas. Muscatine Farmers' Alliance.—Saml McNutt, Thos. Bowlsby. Farmers' Alliance, Stockton, Ia.—E. II. Hetzel, II. F. Lutt, C. F. Jackheck. Putnam County, III., Farmers' Club.—W. A. Kays, W. H. Casson, Joel W. Hopkins. Sterling, III., Board of Health.—J. U. Alexander, Geo. Davison, D. J. Jenne. from cities and towns. Atlantic, Iowa.—Lafayette Young, Wm. Waddell, C. F. Loffbouron, Isaac Dickerson, J. M. Emmert. Albany, III.—E. H. Nevitt, J. W. Dinneen, D. S. Epner, S. Ilosenbraus, J. B. David. Alto, III.—J. B. Countryman, E. W. Falon. 38 CIIEAl' TRANSPORTATION AND THE tlENNEPlN CAN At. Anamosa, Iowa.—Col. F. W. Shaw, J. C. Dietz, A. E. Martin, lloss Han¬ nah, 0. H. Monger. Arisfie, III.—N. Stevens, E. P. Boyden, John Gaynor, Edwin Brooks. Anna wan, Henry County, III.—1. G. Heaps, J. L. Dow. Buffalo, Iowa.—W. L. Clark, L. Morehouse. Burlington, Iowa.—Gen. S. L. Glasgow, Geo. Kaut, Charles I. Barker, Chas Starker, N. P. Sunderland. Cambridge, III.—W. J. Vannice, Geo. C. Smithe, F. G. Welton, Patter¬ son Holmes, N. B. Gould, W. II. Shepherd. Chicago.—W. J. Hines, Wm. Bross, J. M. Clark, Chas. Randolph, Geo. Schneider. Cleveland, III.—Geo. Hoffman, G. W. Hills. Clinton, Ia.—Chas. H. Toll, Wm. F. Coan, A. L. Stone, J. K. Andrews, Frank W. Mahin. Columbus Junction, Ia.—B. F. Murdoek, W. P. Paugh, W. H. Colton, Frank Colton, Arthur Springer. Danville, III.—Rev. W. R. Jewell, J. W. Howard. Davenport, Ia.—J. W. Thompson, H. H. Andressen, D. N. Richardson, I. II. Sears, J. W. Green. Dixon, III.—John Dement, Saml C. Eells, S. S. Dodge, Jayson C. Avers, Charles C. Hunt. Decorah, Ia.—H. C. Bulis', Clairborne Day, A. H. Bailey, G. R. Willett, O. P. Thompson. DeWitt, Ia.—Hon. N. A. Merrell, J. M. Gates, J. H. Price. Des Moines, Ia.—Thomas Hatton, C. C. Cole, G. L. Godfrey, B. F. Gue, Geo. H. Maish. Dubuoue, Ia.—Gen. W. Vandever, J. K. Graves, M. M. Ham, P. W. Crawford, J. II. Shields. Durant, Ia.—Robert Riddle, Frank Haller, E. P. Bills, N. Sehraeder, C. Oreutt Fort Madison, Ia.—John Van Valkenburg, E. C. McMillen, A. C. Rob¬ erts, J. A. Smith, H. C. Spreen, Samuel Atlee. Freeport, III.—S. D. Atkins. Geneseo, III.—Jas. M. Allan, E. A. Wood, H. L. Iviner, W. L. Fisher, A. Leiberkrect. Granville, III.—I. H. Cook, G. C. Reed. Giunnell, Ia.—S. F. Cooper, J. Iv. James, J. B. Grinnell, C. II. Spencer, R. M. Haines, G. M. Christian. Hampton, III.—Samuel Heagy, Geo. Wells, Wm. E. Crawford, J. H. Stoddard, Henry Warren. Hennepin, III.—P. Dure, Williamson Durley, J. H. Seaton, Win. Eddy, C. Wood. Indian Town, III.—Hon. L. I). Whiting, Wm. G. Gadget, Robert Kit- terman, J. H. Moore, Geo. E. Dexter. Joliet, III.—Thomas Clark, H. A. Sayer, Edwin Porter, C. E. Glover, AVm. Thomas. CUBA]? TRANSPORTATION AND TitE IlENNEPlN CANAL. 39 Keithsburg, III.—Wm. Drury, C. S. Orth, B. D. Frick, T. B. Cabeen, E. L. Marshall, E. Pritz. Keokuk, Ia.—Edward Johnston, A. M. Hutchinson, H. W. Rotliert, Frank Allyn, J. H. Cole. Lansing, Ia.—Henry Neilander, J. F. Metcalf. Lasalle, III.—John M. Welch, B. F. Dement, James W. Duncan, G. L. Blanchard, J. R. Corbus. Le Claire, Ia.—T. B. Hanley, Dr. J. A. DeArmond, T. W. Harford, Dr. James Gamble, G. M. Boyd. Lyons, Ia.—R. N. Rand, J. C. Hopkins, Elijah Buell, J. C. Root. Macon, III.—Rufus Ford, Geo. Nelson, T. J. Healy, G. C. Cushing. Marengo, Ia.—W. B. Ivetchem, J. N. W. Rumple, J. 11. Branch, H. B. Holbrook. Marion, Ia.—Hon. W. G. Thompson. McGregor, Ia.—Ernest Hofer. Maqcoketa, Ia.—Thomas Cannell, J. M. Hoag. Milan, III.—Geo. W. Dixon, R. P. Dart, Wm. L. Heath, J. F. Betty, Thomas Johnston. Monticello, Ia.—S. S. Farwell, M. M. Moulton, S. Kabn, N. W. Austin, John Blanchard. Morris, III.—E. Sanford, P. A. Armstrong, Geo. W. Lane, C. II. Gould, John Barr. Muscatine City, Ia.—G. W. Dillaway, H. J. Lundey, W. II. Hartnian, J. H. Munroe, D. McLambert, C. S. Whitney. New Bedford, III.—Nelson Hinksten, N. A. Lathrop, J. M. Draper. Newton, Ia.—F. T. Campbell, W. R. Hearning, Geo. B. Hoben. New Windsor, III.—A. J. Streater. Orion, III.—N. B. Lloyd, Thos. Stevenson, W. Warner, II. S. Trego, F. A. Crampton. Ottawa, III.—John D. Young, Andrew Lynch, W. II. Hull, Wm. Cul- len, E. F. Bull. Peoria, III.—H. B. Morgan, J. F. King, M. C. Quinn, W. T. Dowdall, Charles D. Clark. Quixcy, III.—Jas. D. Morgan, H. S. Osborne, T. M. Rodgers, Gen. J. W. Singleton, J. K. Webster. Richland Grove, III.—A. D. Merryman. Rock Island, III.—II. C. Connelly, Henry Carse, IV. II. Lundy, Mont¬ gomery Meigs, A. C. Dart. South Dixon, III.—Wm. Rink, J. V. Thomas, James B. Charters, John Dysart, Geo. Steele. Sterling, III.—II. A. Street, A. A. Terrell, W. A. Sanborn, T. A. Gait, B. C. Church. Tiskilwa, III.—D. C. Smith, George K. Kellogg, N. T. Allen, O. Wil¬ kinson, D. II. Baker. Utica, III.—Samuel Grove, James Clark, E. E. Taylor, II. S. Gilbert A. T. Griffin. 40 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. Viola, Lee Co., III.—(4. S. Dunton, H. R. Story, Wm. H. Laing, C. A. Dement, Geo. 15. Laing. Wapello, Ia.—L. W. Myers. Washington, Ia.—Wm. Wilson, Jr., J. F. Brown, H. A. Burrell. Wnnstkr City, Ia.—J. I). Hunter, <4. B. Pray. West Lirfiity, Ia.—W. W. Met June, T. C. Manfull, A. A. Ball, Pliny Nichols, J. W. MeElravy. Wtlton, Ia.—Charles Mclntyre, W. H. Jonston, W. F. Hayford, J. P. Walker, S. II. Wise. Wyoming, III.—Wm. Ilolgate, (4. W. Scott, John E. Decker, T. B. Wall, J. N. Thomas, Sr. PERMANENT ORGANIZATION. In behalf of the Committee on Permanent Organization and Pules, the Hon. John C. Dore, of Chicago, chairman of that committee, presented a report, recommending the selec¬ tion of the following-named gentlemen as the permanent offi¬ cers of the convention : President—Hon. R. G. Horr, East Saginaw, Michigan. Vice-Presidents—T. W. Palmer, Detroit; J. L. Swits, New York; J. W. Chapman, Council Blufts; Geo. Schneider, Chicago; W. T. Walker, To¬ ledo, Ohio; Charles Seymour, La Crosse, Wis.; Col. John Dement, Dixon, 111.; E. (). Stannard, St. Louis Mo.; Charles P. King, Peoria. 111.; Coker S. Clurkson, Des Moines, Iowa; William Pettit, Minneapolis, Minn. Secretary—[the temporary secretaries made permanent] .T. W. Bur- dctte, of Burlington, Iowa. Assistant Secretaries: Frank Garenie, ot St. Louis, Mo.; L. Breese, of Madison, Wis.; and J. W. Howard, of Danville, Illinois. The report also recommended the adoption of the follow¬ ing Rules for the guidance of the convention : 1st. The parliamentary rules governing this convention shall he the rules governing the House of Representatives of the United States. 2d. All resolutions shall lie referred to the Committee on Resolutions, without debate. 3d. The vote of the convention shall be taken by delegations, the chair¬ man of each delegation being required to announce the vote of his dele¬ gation. 4th. That four pages be appointed by the Chair. 5th. That debate he limited to ten minutes to each speaker. 6th. That a stenographer he appointed to record the proceedings of this convention. The report of the committee was, on motion, received and adopted by unanimous vote. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 41 On motion, the Chair appointed as a committee to escort to the platform the Hon. E. G. Horr, chosen permanent President of the convention, Messrs. T. W. Palmer, of Mich¬ igan, and John Mahin, of Iowa. On being introduced to the convention by the temporary President, the Hon. R. G. Horr, made a brief address, thanking the body for the honor conferred upon him, humorously referring to allusions to members of Congress made by Mayor Harrison, of Chicago, and expressing the hope that the deliberations of the convention would be harmoniously con¬ ducted and result in a successful advancement of the interests of the water-routes to the ocean, which it had been called to advance. The ad¬ dress was received with continuous applause by the convention. The President stated that it would expedite the business of the conven¬ tion, and relieve him ot duty which, by reason ot limited acquaintance with the membership, he did not feel well qualified to perform, if the del¬ egates from the respective States would be prepared, on the opening of the evening session, to announce their member of the Committee on a Plan for the Appointment of a Committee on Resolutions. The convention at six o'clock adjourned until eight o'clock. EVENING SESSION. At eight o'clock President Horr called the convention to order, and requested the Secretary to read the following telegram from governor cullom, of illinois: Springfield, III., .May 25, 1881. To the President of the River and Canal Convention : The business of my office will prevent my being away this week, it be¬ ing the closing days of the session of the Legislature. I greatly regret that I cannot be with you. I am strongly in favor of the objects of the con¬ vention. S. M. Cdllom. LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT. Hon. .John E. Henry, Mayor of the city of Davenport, requested and was granted opportunity to announce that a committee of cittzens, duly ap¬ pointed by the Common Council and by a public meeting, had arranged to entertain the members of the convention on the following day. At noon carriages would be in readiness to convey delegates around the city, across the government bridge to the United States Arsenal and over its grounds on the Island, and to the cities of Rock Island and Moline, at their pleasure. Also, that at four o'clock the members of the convention were desired, on invitation of a joint committee of Davenport, Rock Isl¬ and and Moline, to become the guests of " the Tri-Cities " at a banquet to 42 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAt, be spread in one of the arsenal buildings, the use of which had been tend¬ ered by Col. I). W. Flagler, F. S. A., Commandant of the Arsenal, for that purpose. On motion, the respective invitations thus tendered hy Mayor Henry were accepted by the convention. LETTERS FROM ORGANIZATIONS AND PUBLIC MEN. Mr. Edward Russell, of Davenport, Secretary of the Illi¬ nois and Mississippi River and Canal Improvement Commis¬ sion, announced to the convention that lie had received a large number of responses from invitations to attend the con¬ vention, to read which would delay the deliberations of the convention; therefore, he desired the convention to author¬ ize the incorporation and publication of the letters in ques¬ tion with the records and published reports of the proceed¬ ings of the convention. It was so ordered by the conven¬ tion. The letters, etc., referred to, were as follows: From E.c-Governor Seymour, of Nctr Tori'. utica, new Yokk, may 4, 1HS1. My Dtm Sir—1 am glad that a convention of the friends of water routes is to be held. 1 have been ill for the past six months, and I am not well enough now to leave home. If I could do so, I should make it a point to attend the convention. I send you a paper which gives my views upon the subject of water routes. It does not set forth as clearly as it should their value to the whole industrial community in carrying the raw mate¬ rials used in many branches of industry. In this way they benefit the in¬ dustry of the country more than railroads, which are best fitted for carry¬ ing merchandise, or other manufactured articles. Our mechanics are more deeply interested in water routes than may seem at first thought. Our great growing and varied commerce demands both railroads and canals. They benefit each other by promoting the general welfare and the general welfare ann the varied interests of labor and industry. Yours very truly, etc., Horatio Seymour. Edward Russell, Esq., Sec'y of Commission. From the Secretary of the Treasury. Treasury Department, i Washington, D. C., April 29, 1881. \" My Dear Sir—I have your favor of the 26th inst., and in reply have to say that it has been my wish, ever since the announcement of your con¬ vention, to be present. I still desire to do so, if possible, but fear that the extreme pressure of my official duties will prevent. Referring to your suggestion that at my leisure I send you a letter to CItEAP TRANSPORTATION AND TttE HENNEPIN CANAL. 43 read at tlie convention in case I am unable to go, I have to say, that I have not a moment's leisure at any time; but should I find an opportunity to write a letter 011 the subject, I shall be glad to do so. I cannot now, however, promise even that, and can only assure you of my earnest sym¬ pathy and co-operation in all proper measures for the improvement of the water communication of the Mississippi valley. Very truly yours, Wm. Window. Edward Ilussell, Esq. Hon. S- M. Gullorn, Governor of Illinois. Executive Office, ) Springfield, April 18, 1881. f J. L. Camp, Esq., Member of Mississippi and Illinois River and Canal Improvement Commission: Dear Gamp—Your letter of 12th was duly received and noted. I am for the convention, heart and soul. Think the canal should he dug without delay; will do everything in my power to help it along; hope the con¬ vention will take a course that will result in Congress taking hold of the work without delay. As the time draws near, it becomes more apparent that I shall not be able to get away. The bills are coming in on me pretty fast now, and the legislature has but a few days to sit. Do not see how I can leave it. AYill come if possible. If I can't, you can tell the people the reasoD. Yours, S. M. Cullom. From the Governor of Minnesota. State of Minnesota, Executive Department, ) St. Paul, May 14, 1881. )" Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River Improve¬ ment Commission: Dear Sir—Your communication under date of the 8th ult., with printed call for a convention in relation to the proposed extension of the canal system, to connect the Mississippi with the lake chain, duly reached me; and I am also in receipt of your letter of yesterday upon the same sub¬ ject, and of sundry maps, illustrative of the project proposed. The people of this State, in common with those of the entire Northwest, are, of course, deeply interested in all enterprises which promise an in¬ crease of facilities for the transportation of their multiplying products. The development of our vast interior water system is unquestionably an essential means for the accomplishment of the great end desired. While the proposed extension and enlargement of the canal to connect the Mis¬ sissippi with the lake system may be deemed an aid to such development, and is to be welcomed and encouraged as promising an additional outlet for the interior, I fear it will be difficult to enlist the active sympathy and interest of the people of this State in the scheme. Abutting directly upon the western end of Lake Superior, our State has an open and direct nat¬ ural water route eastward, and it is to this route our people have long looked for egress to the seaboard. It is, therefore, natural that they should 44 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. feel but a subordinate interest in more dillicult and circuitous routes in other directions, however essential to the complement of the general sys¬ tem, or important to communities in close proximity. I have endeavored to constitute the delegation desired for your convention, but, as yet, have been unable to find suitable men who are willing to expend the time and means requisite for attendance. Should I succeed in securing delegates, 1 will promptly notify you. Meanwhile, with cordial wishes for this, as for all other efforts in the interest of cheap transportation, I am, very re¬ spectfully, J. S. Pillsbury, Governor Minnesota. From the Governor of Michigan. State of Michigan, Executive Office, \ Lansing, April 11, 1881. S Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River Improve¬ ment Commission: Dear Sir—Yours of the 8th inst., inviting me to appoint ten commis¬ sioners to represent the State of Michigan in the Northwestern Convention in aid of river and canal improvements, to be held at Davenport, Wednes¬ day, May 2.5, came duly. I appreciate the importance of the work of the proposed convention, and shall cheerfully comply with your request. At an early day I hope to furnish you with the names of the gentlemen com¬ posing the Michigan delegation. With the highest consideration, I am very truly yours, David H. Jerome. From the Governor of Illinois. State of Illinois, Executive Department, i Springfield, April 1(1, 1881. ) Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River Improve¬ ment Commission: Dear Sir—Your favor of the 8th inst. is received, asking me to send del¬ egates to represent Illinois in the proposed Northwestern Convention, to be held in your city on the 25th prox., for the purpose of taking action in the interest of the extension and improvement of an all-water route ot transportation from the upper Mississippi to the Atlantic coast, as also your favor of the 12th inst., inviting me to be present on that occasion and deliver a brief address. In reply I have to say, that I shall appoint ten prominent gentlemen to represent this State in your convention, and will attend personally it my official duties permit. I will send a list of the Illinois delegates within a few days. Very truly yours, S. 51. Cullom. Hon. IF. S. Allison, United States Senator for Iowa. Washington, I). C., April 23, 1881. My Dear Sir—I am in receipt of your invitation to be present at the Davenport Convention, called for May 25, to consider the question of building a canal to connect the lakes with the Mississippi river. I am in CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 45 thorough sympathy with the objects of the convention, and am quite will¬ ing and ready to contribute my eftorts to secure the accomplishment of the work, believing that it will be of incalculable benefit to the producers of the Northwest to secure such routes. The experience of the New York canal shows that one central water route not only enables the products to be transported cheaply by water, but also has the effect to reduce the rates of freight on all the railways moving in the same general direction. The. ^proposed Hennepin Canal would probably save to the producer and con¬ sumer annually nearly the entire cost of the improvement. I regret that my engagements here are such that I cannot promise to be present at the time indicated. Very respectfully yours, W. B. Allison. Hon. Ed. Russell, Sec'y. Hon. W. B. Allison, United States Senator for Iowa. [Extract from a private letter.] Washington, May 22, 1881. My Bear Russell—Yours received. It is impossible for me to get away in time to reach Davenport for your convention. * * * But I am sure you all well know that the project you have in view has my full sympathy, and will be cordially supported by me in every way. It is a mistake to suppose that, this will interfere, in the slightest degree, with the improvement of our great river. It will only make the improvement of the Upper Mississippi more necessary. Yours truly, W. B. Allison. Hon. James F. Wilson, Ex-Member Congress First District of Iowa. Fairfield, Iowa, April 12, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary, etc., Dear Sir—Your favor of the 11th inst., inviting me to attend a north¬ western convention in aid of river and canal improvement, to be held at Davenport, Iowa, May 25 and 26, 1881, is at hand. I will make it my pleasure to attend, and to comply with the request communicated by you)' letter by delivering "one of the limited number of regular addresses on the question of water routes of transportation " on that occasion. Yours truly, James F. Wilson. Hon. J. W. McDill, United States Senator for Iowa. U. S. Senate Chamber, ) Washington, May 2, 1881. \ Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River Improve¬ ment Commission: Dear Sir—I am in receipt of your letter of April 29, 1881, enclosing a copy of a call for a northwestern convention in the interests of river and canal improvement, to be held in Davenport, May 25, inviting my attend¬ ance, and in reply 1 have to say, that my attendance here seems an abso¬ lute necessity, and I am unable to determine whether the Senate will be in session at the time named l'or the convention. If so, it will be impos. 46 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. sible for me to be present. Allow me to say, however, that I think I fully realize the very important nature of the work proposed by the convention. 1 have for many years believed that our people were not fully awake to the great necessity for utilizing our water-ways and the certainty with which such utilization would bring about a reduction in the cost of trans¬ portation of products from the Mississippi valley to the eastern seaboard. It has seemed to me a shame that our great rivers were so little used, and I think I see the dawning of a better day in the awakened interest which dwellers in the Mississippi valley are taking in all schemes tor the im¬ provement of the navigation of the great river and its tributaries. If the principle sometimes so earnestly contended for, particularly in the eastern States, should ever become a rule of action for railroads, namely, that they should charge a fixed or given rate per ton per mile, ac¬ cording to distance hauled, the only escape for producers in the Missis¬ sippi valley from utter ruin would be upon the river's broad bosom south¬ ward to the gulf and the ocean. It should never be forgotten that the stockholders and principal owners of the lines of railroads extending east from our State and the States west of us chiefly dwell in the Atlantic States, and are much more deeply interested in the building up of eastern cities than in the finding of the cheapest road to market for our wares. A wise people will guard against a possible evil when the means of avoiding it are at hand. The times are opportune for the work of developing the river route to the sea. The political dogma which once pledged the southern people to opposition to works of internal improvement has lost its control over southern minds. They are ready, I believe, to work and vote to make the great river what it ought to be, namely, the greatest in¬ land sea the sun ever shone upon, covered in its whole extent with vessi is loaded with the products ot the great West, on a cheap road to market. As I so heartily feel an abiding interest in the great work, I regret the probable necessity of foregoing the pleasure of being at the convention. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, James W. McDill. Hon. Alcin Sounder*, United States Senator far Nthrashi. United States Senate, i Washinotox, May .5, 1881. \ Edward Kussell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River and Canal Improvement Commission: Bear Sir—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 27th ult., inviting me to be present at a meeting of the Northwestern Con¬ vention in the interests of river and canal improvement, to be held in Davenport, Iowa, on the 25th day of this month. To be present on that occasion would afford me very great pleasure, but my duties to the public command my first attention, and I cannot, at this date, say whether I can be with you or not. I am in full sympathy with the movement of our western people to push forward the work of improving tne navigation of our western rivers, and, CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 47 indeed, in any enterprise that will tend to cheapen the transportation of the products of the West to the eastern and foreign markets. I look upon the rivalry of water routes as the simplest method of solv¬ ing the difficult and vexing questions at present existing between the railroads and the people. Legislation may be necessary, but it is heroic treatment, that may inflict hardships and injustice upon one of the grand¬ est instruments of national development; but rivalry excites no resent¬ ments, and the railroads would soon adjust their rates and ideas of profit upon a more moderate basis. Whether I am with you or not, I hope the result of your meeting will benefit the producers of the great Northwest. Yours respectfully. Alvin Saunders. Hon. David Davis, Senator for Illinois. U. S. Senate Chamber, ) Washington, April 20, 1881. j Dear Sir—I thank you for the kind invitation to attend the Northwest¬ ern Convention in the interests of river and canal improvements, to be held at Davenport, Iowa, beginning on the 25th of May. I regret that I cannot attend. My health is such that I must immedi¬ ately, upon the adjournment of the Senate, take a trip and try to recu¬ perate. • Wishing the forthcoming convention may be successful, I remain, with high respect, yours truly, D. Davis. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary, etc. Hon. John A. Logan, United States Senator for Illinois. U. S. Senate Chamber, ) Washington, April 20, 1881. ) Edward Russell, Esq.: Sir—I should be most happy to attend your meeting, but fear it will be impossible for me to do so, on account of my duties here. Respectfully, John A. Logan. Hon. John A. Logan, United States Senator for Illinois. U. S. Senate Chamber, 1 Washington, May 21,1881. \ Edward Russell, Esq.: Mi) Dear Sir—Your letter referring to my note of the 20th ult., in reply to an invitation to attend the Northwestern Convention on the 25th of May, in your city, is received. I had intended, if I could be permitted to do so, to be present. I fear that it will now be impossible. 1 have left on my hands a great deal to do before I can get away from here, and am so worn out and feel so un¬ well to-day, that I fear I will not leave here in time to reach your place. This I regret ver3' much, as I had contemplated a very pleasant, as well as a very interesting, time at the convention that is to meet in pursuance of your call. The questions that are to be discussed are of great moment to our peo- 4S CIIEAr TRANSPORTATION AND TIIE HENNEPIN CANAL. pie of the Northwest, and nothing would have pleased me better than to have been present and had an opportunity of taking part in your deliber¬ ations. I write this note that you may know the reason why I cannot attend. Sincerely, yours truly, John A. Looan. I/O,i. Jofih J. Tnyallx, Ua ited Stales Senator for Kansas. U. S. Senate Chamber, i Washington, May 1, 1881. )' Sir—My engagements are such that I shall not be able to attend the Northwestern Convention at Davenport on the 25th inst. Thanking you for the courtesy of your invitation, I am yours, .John J. Ingalls. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary, etc. Hon. Philetux Saicyer, United States Senator for Wisconsin. U. S. Senate Chamber, / Washington, April 1!), 1881. \ Edward Russell, Esq.: Dear Sir—Yours of the Kith inst., enclosing invitation to attend meeting of convention in the interests of canal and river improvements, is re¬ ceived. It will be impossible for me to be at Davenport in person at the time mentioned. I wish I could come, because my heart is with the movement which it is the purpose of your association to foster. I believe in the largest liberality on the part of the government in building up the commerce between the States and in aiding the work of transporting our immense crops from the interior to the seaboard. I do not believe the surplus revenues of the government can be better applied than in build¬ ing up and fostering the works of internal improvement that have been already commenced in the great rivers and lakes of the West. 1 am an advocate of all honest and feasible schemes for river and canal improve¬ ment. Yours truly, * Philetiis Sawyer. Hon.. M. ,4. McQoid, Member Vvnyress First District of Iowa. Fairfield, Iowa, April 15, 1881. Hon. Edward Russell, Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River and Canal Improvement Commission: Dear Sit-—Yours of the 11th inst. is received, inviting me to participate in the convention, May 25th next. I will be glad to do so, and will en¬ deavor to submit an address. Thanking you for the invitation, I am very truly yours, M. A. McCoid. lion. S. S. FarweU, Member Congress of Si eond District of I own. Davenport, Iowa, April 28, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Northwestern Convention: Dear Sir—I 1hauk you for the invitation to attend the convention called to meet in Davenport May 25th, and gladly accept the same. The people of this portion of Iowa have a deep interest in the construction of the CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 49 proposed Hennepin Canal, which, when built, will give a choice of water routes for the transportation of our pioducts to all 1lie great markets of the world. The time is opportune to revive the interest of the country in this work, which was felt, and to which the Iowa legislature gave forcible expres¬ sion, as long ago as 18C4 and 1866. Very truly yours, S. S. Farwell. Hon. N. C■ Deering, Member Congress Fourth District of Iowa. San Francisco, Cal., May 5,1881. Hon. Edward Russell, Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River Improve¬ ment Commission: My Dear Sir—Your letter of the 15th ult., accompanied by a copy of the " call for a Northwestern Convention in aid of river and canal im¬ provement," was forwarded from Osage, and has just reached mc here. I have only time to express regret that I cannot he present at the pro¬ posed convention on the 25th inst., and to assure you of my heai-ty sym¬ pathy with the objects for which the meeting is called. How to facilitate and cheapen transportation is the vitally important question for our peo¬ ple to consider. No other question affects so generally and so deeply all interests of the industrial and producing classes of the Northwest, and this has been too long and sadly neglected. The same must he said of the commerce on the Mississippi river. That great and beautiful river is des¬ tined some day to bear on its bosom a mighty commerce, and to bring untold advantages to States along its borders. I am glad of this awaken¬ ing to the importance of these questions, and hope for harmony in your deliberations, and that good results will follow. Respectfully and very truly, N. C. Deering. lion. W. G. Thompson, Member Congress First District of Iowa. Marion, Iowa, April 26, 1881. Hon. E. Russell: Dear Sir—Your letter inviting me to be present at the Northwestern Convention in aid of river and canal improvement has been received, which convention meets the 25th prox. Thanking you for the honor, I will be present and do what I can to forward the enterprise. Yours truly, . Wm. G. Thompson. IIon. J. A. Knsson, Member Congress Seventh District of Iowa. Washington, D. C., May 6, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary, etc.: Dear Sir—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation of April 25th, to be present at the convention to meet at Davenport May 25th, to consider the question of increasing the facilities of transportation by water routes to the Northwest. With a profouud appreciation of the importance of this subject, and with a thorough sympathy with the object presented in the call, I hope to 4 50 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND TIIK HENNEPIN CANAL. be present at the deliberations of the convention, and be able, in some manner, to unite 013' efforts with those of the people of the Northwest in attaining the result of cheaper transportation for their produce. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, John A. Kasson. Hon. C. C. Carpenter, Member Congress Ninth District, Iowa. Fort Dodge, Iowa, April 16,1881. Hon. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River and Canal Improvement Commission: Dear Sir—Thanking you, and the committee for which you write, for the honor implied in the request conveyed by your letter of the 11th inst., I will say in reply that if no unforseen accident prevents, I shall try to be present at the convention. I thorough]}' s}rmpathize with the objects ot the convention as I have believed for many years that the improvement and utilization of the water ways of the nation were the most practicable methods of controling the cost of transportation. Yours truly, C. C. Carpenter. Hon. C. B. Harwell, Member Congress Third District Illinois. Chicago, III., April 22, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq.: Dear Sir—Yours, with circular inviting me to be present at a meeting to be held on the 25th proximo, at Davenport for the purpose of aiding in the canal and river improvements, referred to in said circular, is received. I desire to say that I cannot be with }-ou for the reason that I shall leave here on that day for a trip to Europe, but I am in full sympathy with all those who favor these improvements and will do, in and out of Con¬ gress, all that I am able to do to accomplish the work contemplated. Yours truly, C. B. Far well. Hon. G. L. Fort, Ex-Member Congress of Ninth District of Illinois. Lacon, III., May 14, 1881. Edward Russell, Secretary. Your favor of yesterda}' is received and am much obliged for informa¬ tion. I hope the convention may be well attended and begin what may result in success. Very respectfully, G. L. Fort. Hon. R. M. A. Hawk, Member Congress Fifth District of Illinois. Mt. Carroll, III., May 2, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary River and Canal Improvement Com¬ mission : Dear Sir—Your favor of the 20th ultimo, inviting me to be present at a convention of those interested in river and canal improvement, to be held in your city on the 25th inst., is received. I hoped, upon receipt of }Tour invitation, that I could unqualifiedly ac¬ cept. I am fearful that a business engagement for Tuesday, the 24th inst., CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 51 will prevent my being present. I hope, however, that I can so arrange matters that I shall he able to attend. I am, with the people in this por¬ tion of the State, greatly interested in an intelligent, thorough economical improvement of our water transportation channels, a'nd believe the time has arrived when this subject should receive that attention which it de¬ serves. Very respectfully, R. M. A. Hawk. Hon. William Cullen, Member Congress Seventh District of Illinois. Ottawa, III., May 2, 1881, Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River and Canal Improvement Commission: Dear Sir—Yours of April 25th containing call for convention on May 25th, and an invitation to attend said convention is received. I feel a strong interest in the objects of the convention, and trust that at no dis¬ tant day Congress may be made to see that the work contemplated—a union ol the great lakes by an enlarged canal with the waters of the Mis¬ sissippi—is a work of National importance and one which would amply pay for the outlay neccessary to construct the same. I shall be present at the convention to hear the discussion of plans for the accomplishment of the work. Thanking you for your kind invitation, I am Yours truly, Wm. Cullen. Hon. L. E. Payson, Member Congress Eighth District of Illinois. Pontiac, III., April 27, 1881. My Dear Sir—Yours of the 25tli inst., enclosing a circular call for a convention in the interest of canal and river improvement, to be held in your city May 25th proximo, is duly received. I regret that professional engagements growing out of employment be¬ fore my election last November, will prevent my acceptance of your invi¬ tation to be present. I assure you that I am heartily in favor of the object sought, and shall be glad to co-operate with your commission in any steps deemed most advisable. I should be glad to receive a copy of the record of the proceedings of the convention. Yours truly, L. E. Payson, Eighth District of Illinois. Edward Russell, Secretary. Hon. T. J. Henderson, Member Congress Sixth District of IllinMs. Princeton, III., April 20,1881. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River and Canal Improvement Commission: 'Dear Sii—I am in receipt of your letter of the 12th inst., inviting me to attend an Illinois and Mississippi River and Canal Improvement Conven¬ tion to be held at Davenport, Iowa, on the 25th day of May, and to address the same, etc., and in reply will say, that I shall certainly be present at the convention unless prevented by sickness, and that I will be glad to 52 CHEAP THAN SPORT ATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. contribute in any way in my power to its interest and success. I look forward to tliis convention with a great deal of interest and trust it may be largely attended. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant. Titos. J. Henderson, Hon. 1). C. Smith, Member Congress Thirteenth District of Illinois. Edward Russell, Esq.: Dear Sir—Your invitation to attend the convention to be held 011 May 25th at Davenport is in my hand. It shall afford me great pleasure to be there if possible. I am strongly in favor of the proposed improvements, as through them we will approach the solution of the transportation problem, with some show of success. 1 have in the past and am at present doing all I can to direct public attention upon the improvement of our water ways. Yours truly, D. C. Smith, M. C., Thirteenth District Illinois. Hon. S. N. Moulton, Member Congress for Fifteenth District of Illinois. Shelbyville, III, April 30, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River Com¬ mission : « My Dear Sir—Your favor of the 25th ult. just received. I most heartily sympathize with the great object of the Commission and sincerely desire its success. I shall take great pleasure in attending the convention at your city on the 25th prox., and participating in the deliberations, and shall do what¬ ever I can to make the result influential for good. It is quite lime that the people of the West should unite to protect them¬ selves and thereby promote the common good. Very truly, S. N. Moulton. Hon. It. IT. Townse/id, Member Congress Nineteenth District of Illinois. Shawneetown, III., May 20,1881. Mr. Edward Russell, Secretary: Dear Sir—I regret that my engagement elsewhere will prevent my at¬ tendance at the convention called tor the 25th in Davenport. My sympa¬ thies are with all eflorts to improve the navigation of the Mississippi and its large tributaries. The improvement of the water ways by which the Lakes and the Mis¬ sissippi may be connected, as suggested in your circular, will prove of incalculable advantage to a very large portion of the producers of the Mis¬ sissippi valley, and will afford them one of the surest means of protection against the extortions of railroad monopoly. I deem it a patriotic duty to aid in securing the end. Very respectfully, R. W. Townsend, Nineteenth Illinois District. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 53 Hon. John B. Hawley, Ex-Member Congress from Illinois. Chicago, III., May 24, 1881. Hon. Edward Russell: My Bear Sir—Yours of the 21st, post-marked 23d inst., has just reached me. I had not previously received an invitation to attend the convention at Davenport to-morrow and it is too late now for me to go. I have been absent for three weeks and my attention is necessary here. I have no doubt your convention will be well attended and hope good results will follow. Very truly yours, John B. Hawley. Hon. P. V. Deuster, Member Congress Fourth District of Wisconsin. House of Representatives, ) Washington, D. C., May 5, 1881. ) Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River Improve¬ ment Commission: Dear Sir—Your invitation to the Northwestern Convention in aid of river and canal improvement was received, but am sorry to say that I shall probably be detained in Washington until the latter part of May, and on this account will be deprived of the pleasure of attending. Being convinced that nothing will aid more in developing the commer¬ cial interests of the West than the improvement of our important rivers, I have always been a warm advocate of any measure taken towards secur¬ ing these beneficial and necessary improvements. As a member of the House Committee on Commerce, not only I, but all my colleagues from the Mississippi Valley, have exerted ourselves most ardently on every occasion towards securing this desirable end, namely: the improvement of our long neglected Western rivers and harbors, and shall continue to do so whenever an opportunity presents itself. Thanking you again for your kind invitation I have the honor, dear sir, to remain, Yours very respectfully, P. V. Deuster. Hon. J. II. Burrows, Member Congress Tenth District of Missouri. Cainsville, Mo., May 10, 1881. Sir—In reply to yours of April 29, asking my presence with you May 25th, I would say, owing to a press of private matters, I cannot promise to be there, but in sympathy shall be there, and when valuable aid and en¬ couragement is asked from Congress hope to be of service to yonr under¬ taking and all others looking to the greater development of the vast re¬ sources and industries of the West. If I can get away I shall be pleased to be one in your number, and wishing you an enjoyable time and great interest awakened, I remain, Yours respectfully, J. H. Burrows, Member Congress Tenth Missouri District. Edward Russell, Secretary. 54 CHEAT TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. Hon. Mark II. Dunnell, First District of Minnesota. House of Representatives, \ Washington, April 30, 1881. f Edward Russell, Secretary. Dear Mr—1 am not now able to accept your kind invitation to be present at the convention to be held at Davenport, May 25tli, though I shall make a great effort to be there on that occasion. Yours truly, M. H. Dunnell. lion. D. G. Haskell, Member Congress Second District of Kansas. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary: Dear Sir—Yours of recent date containing an invitation to be present at a convention at Davenport is at hand. I regret to say that I have engagements that will keep me away, prob¬ ably. I should be much pleased to find myself able to meet with you. Respectfully, D. C. Haskell. New York Board of Trade and Transportation. New York, May 23d, 1881. Edward Russell, Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River and Canal Im¬ provement Commission: Dear Sir—I have the honor to transmit herewith the preamble and reso¬ lutions adopted by the Directors of this Board favoring the objects which your Commission aims to accomplish. Whereas, A Northwestern convention in aid of river and canal im¬ provement is to be held at Davenport, Iowa, on Wednesday, May 25th, 1881, as per annexed call, and Whereas, This Board will be unable to send delegates to represent it in the deliberations and action of the convention, therefore be it Resolved, That this Board, regarding as it does, the maintenance of the water routes as necessary to secure cheap transportation on which mainly depends the present and prospective development of the vast national resources of our country, desire to express to the convention its hearty approval of the objects to be considered by it, as embraced in the call, and will actively co-operate with those engaged in securing the desired results, Resolved, That a copy of the above be attested by the seal of this corpora¬ tion and the signatures of the president and secretary, and be forwarded to the convention. Ambrose Snow, President. Darwin R. James, Secretary. New York Produce Exchange. New York, May 25,1881. Edward Russell, Secretary of Northwestern Canal Convention : Sir—]Sfo official notice of your convention reached us in time to send delegates. New York interests demand increased facilities for the transportation CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. of the products of the great Northwest to the seaboard. The New York Produce Exchange favors, and will use its influence in all legitimate ways to advance, the construction of the Hennepin Canal. We are working for free canals in our State, and hope your convention will adopt such meas¬ ures as will insure free water ways from the Mississippi to New York. F. H. Parker, President. Buffalo Board of Trade. Buffalo, N. Y., May 33, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River Improve¬ ment Commission: Dear Sir—Your letter and communications relative to a convention to be held at Davenport May 35tli are received and contents noted. The said communications have also been posted on the bulletin board. At this season of the year, it is impossible to find any of our merchants who are willing to take so long a journey, and, therefore, our president was unable to appoint delegates to the convention who would act. The active members of our board, I think, endorse the desirability of the plan for uniting the rivers, etc., but do not express any definite opin¬ ions as to who should bear the cost—whether State aid should tie granted or government aid, or whether private individuals, by the formation of a stock company, should raise the necessary funds. Shall watch the report of your meeting with much interest, and hope for favorable results. Yours faithfully, Wm. Thurstone. From Hon. Ohas. Randolph, Chicago, Sec. Board of Trade. Board of Trade, ) Chicago, April 30, 1881. J Edward Russell, Secretary: Dear Sir—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 13th inst., and to thank you and the commission you represent for your very cordial invitation to be present at the convention called to meet at Davenport on the 35th prox. But more, I desire to thank the gentlemen who have unit¬ ed in calling this convention to further consider and urge the importance of the work of opening up a direct water way from the Mississippi by way of the present Illinois and Michigan Canal to Lake Michigan. The great value of such a work to the Mississippi valley is, as I think, but imper¬ fectly understood by those whose interest would be most promoted by its construction. I am in the fullest and most hearty sympathy wflth the ob¬ jects of the convention, as set forth in the call, and, if I possibly can, I shall be present, but my health is not good and I feel but illy able to par¬ ticipate in any duty not imperatively pressing on me. I have no doubt but that the Board of Trade will send a delegation, and I hope the city also. When the delegates come to be appointed, I hope it will be found that among those from this city there will be some one who can present the subject of the work in an able and creditable manner, and, so far as I can do so, I shall endeavor to try and have this done. Yours truly, Chas. Randolph. 56 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. Hon. Michael M'Ennis, President of Merchants' Exchange, St. Louis. Merchants' Exciiance, ) St. Louis, Mo., May 13, 1881. f Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River and Canal Improvement Commission: Dear Sir—Your favor of the 11tli inst. has my earnest attention. The call for the Northwestern Convention, to be held at Davenport, Iowa, May 25th, 1881, was couched in language calculated to raise the question whether any delegates south and west of the lower rapids of the Missis¬ sippi river were expected to take part. Your explanation to the contrary is received with pleasure. The Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis is not opposed to any improve¬ ment which will facilitate the business of and enrich any part of this great country. All we ask is that any change in the navigation of the Missis¬ sippi valley which may be suggested shall be of a nature that will not ob¬ struct the movements now on foot, or that are already accomplished, and from your letter we understand that this corresponds with the views and wishes of yourself and all the other officers and members of your com¬ mittee. The first great object, not only of the people of the Northwest, West and South, but of the whole country, should be to permanently improve the navigation of the Mississippi river—the natural highway to the sea—and all the tributaries, and to make sure, also, that the money spent at the mouth of the Mississippi river, under the jetty system, shall realize its full value. This great object can be accomplished, by judicious expenditures on the part of the government, for a sum of money that will be absolutely trifling compared with the results in the increased wealth and prosperity of the country at large. The improvement of our rivers would open a highway greater than is possessed by any other country, and the people of the United States would "own it." It would give us, in fact, an inland sea, the value of which to our country in the increase of population, wealth and influence is beyond die powi-r of man to calculate. Could we connect this inland sea with the lakes by opening a canal from Rock Island to the Illinois river, and enlarge the canal from La Salle to Chicago for vessels of large tonnage, without interfering with other improvements in navigation, none would be happier or more willing to ioin hands in the good work than the St. Louis Merchants' Exchange. If the views expressed in this letter are not in perfect harmony with your committee, you will please advise me early. Yours truly, Michael M'Ennis, President. J. Hollo, Esq., Secretary of Board of Trade, Toronto, Ontario. Toronto, April 28, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Canal Commission: Dear Sir—I am just in receipt of your favor of the 26th inst. Many thanks for your courteous attention I will lay your communication be¬ fore our board at its first meeting. The subject of cheap transportation CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE nENNEPIN CANAL. 57 for northwestern freight is one of very great importance, and the commer¬ cial interests of the Northwest will, ere long, force the question to an issue, whether that transportation to Europe shall pass through the Erie Canal to New York, or through the St. Lawrence river and canals to Hal¬ ifax or Portland. * * * Meantime, permit me to wish you every success in your convention, being well assured that the more thoroughly these subjects are discussed from a purely commercial point of view, the better will it be for all concerned. Yours very respectfully, J. Rollo, Secretary. E. A. Brenzier, Esq., Secretary of Board of Trade, Burlington, Iowa. Board of Trade, ) Burlington, Ia., April 20, 1881, Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary of Commission: Dear Sir—Your favor of April 16th is now before me and duly noted. At a meeting of this board to-day, the president was authorized to ap¬ point a committee of five to attend the convention called for May 25th, at your city. We regaid the matter as of vital importance, and trust your efforts will prove successful. Your truly, E. A. Breezier, Secretary. Anti-Monopoly League of Illinois. Chicago, III., May 24, 1881. To the President of the River and Canal Improvement Convention : Dear Sir—The "Anti-Monopoly League of Illinois" desires to express its earnest approval of the objects of your convention, and heartily wel¬ comes, and will assist to the utmost of its ability, any and all efforts to re¬ lieve our people from the extortions and exactions of the railroad monop¬ olies of our land; extortions which, if persisted in, will surely end in bloodshed; exactions which would not have been endured so long and so amelj' in any country less law-abiding and long-suffering than ours. May wisdom guide and successes crown your deliberations! Respectfully, The Anti-Monopoly League of Illinois, Edwin Lee Brown, President. Oshkosli Business Men's Association. Oshkosh, Wrs., May 28, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq.: Yours of the 21st, with map, received, and on this evening was laid be¬ fore our association. The sentiment, as expressed, was to the effect that we of the northern portion of Wisconsin have been for years working for the completion o'f a similar enterprise with your own, viz., the Fox and Wisconsin Improvement Co. There has already been a very large appropriation of public money ex¬ pended on this work. At Portage, Wis., a canal and lock are already constructed, admitting 58 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. the largest boats iu easy passage from the Wisconsin to the Fox river, and from thence through natural water courses to Green Bay. If you will take a map of Wisconsin and begin where the blue line ends, at Portage, thence follow the line of the Fox river to Lake Winne¬ bago at Oshkosh, thence through the lake to Manasha, and thence dcwvn the lower Fox to Green Bay, you will have traced the inland water route I refer to, and upon which the government has already expended over $2,000,000. Wish you would find Mr. S. B. Paige, now of your city, who will give you all details. Yours truly, K. M. Hutchinson, Secretary. lion. Ihiren R. Sherman, Ex-Auditor of Iowa. Des Moines, Iowa, May 5, 1881. Hon. Edward Russell, Secretary River Improvement Commission: Bear Sir—Your courteous favor, inviting me to be present and partici¬ pate in the deliberations of the convention to be held in your city on the 25tli inst., in aid of river and canal improvement, is at hand. I am glad to know that this subject has at last engaged the earnest at¬ tention of the business men, and so generally the citizens of the north¬ western States. The object is one of supreme importance to all our people, and I sincerely hope the convention will not only be largely attended by public-spirited citizens, but that its deliberations will be characterized by that wise harmony which shall compel, through action by Congress and the people, the accomplishment of the desired end. With thanks for the compliment of the invitation, and assuring you ot my purpose to be present and aid to the extent of my ability, I am very truly yours, Buren R. Sherman. State Treasurer Conger of Iowa. State of Iowa, Office of Treasurer, ) Des Moines, Iowa, May 7,1881. f Hon. Edward Russell, Secretary: Dear Sir—I am just in receipt of your very courteous invitation to be present at the Northwestern Convention of the river and canal improve¬ ment interest to be held in your city the 25th inst. I regret that I cannot be with you, but I assure you you have my heartiest wishes for success, as I believe you have of the whole Northwest. This transportation scheme, if properly encouraged and supported, is, in my judgment, to be our salvation. I am very truly yours, E. II. Conger. From State Auditor Lucas. State of Iowa, Office of Auditor, [ Des Moines, Iowa, May 4,1881. ) Hon. Edward Russell, Secretary Illinois and Mississippi River and Im¬ provement Commission: Dear Sir—Your very kind invitation to attend the meeting at Daven- CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 69 port, on May 25th, is at hand, and in answer will say that I have a deep interest in the river improvement scheme and all that pertains to it. It is my intention to be present on that occasion. I have faith in the barge system of transportation, and I believe the successful operation of it will, in part, revolutionize transportation from the West to the markets of the world. Yours truly, W. Y. Ltjcas. F. B. Thurber, Esq., President of Anti-Transportation Monopoly League. New York, April 14, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary: Dear Sir—I very much regret that I shall not be able to accept your kind invitation to attend the convention of May 25th. I most earnestly favor, however, each and every improvement of our water ways which will tend to free the public from the thraldom of corporate taxation, and our water ways are one great aid in that direction. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that these channels of commerce are closed by ice during a portion of the year, and all patriotic citizens should also co¬ operate to hold corporate power to a proper responsibility to the people, from whom it derived its existence. We must have both state and national legislation defining the relations of railroads to the public, as well as improved water ways, and the East and the West should heartily co-operate to this end. Here in the East corporate power has grown to be so strong that it villifles and abuses every one who dares stand up for the public rights. But we propose to make the issue right now, because, as stated by one of our prominent papers here, if the suffrage is to be our salvation, it must be applied sharply while there are still odds on the side of unbought. and unterrorized manhood. Yours truly, P. B. Thurber. Hon. J. A. T. Hull, Secretary of State. State of Iowa, Office of Secretary, ) Des Moines, Iowa, May 4, 1881. j" Hon. Edward Russell: Dear Sir—Your kind favor of the 3d inst. just received. I shall take pleasure in attending the meeting in Davenport, as I regard the object sought to be advanced as of great importance to the people of the State. I am very truly yours, J. A. T. Hull. Hon. William Larrabee, State Senator of Iowa. Clermont, Ia., May 11,1881. Edward Russell, Esq.: Dear Sil—Yours of the 3d, inviting me to attend the convention called to meet in your city on the 25th, at hand and noted. In reply, would say that it will give me much pleasure to attend the convention, and will do so unless something unforseen prevents me. Had the Hennepin Canal received one-half the attention its merits de¬ mand, it would have been in operation long ago. Yours truly, Wm. Larrabee. 00 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. Hon. B. F. Que, Ex-Lieutenant Governor of Iowa. Friend Russell—Yours in relation to River and Canal Improvement Convention received. I have already published your call for the conven¬ tion in the Homestead, and I this week call attention to it editorially. I regard it as a very important movement, and shall try to be at the conven¬ tion. Trusting that there may he a large attendance and earnest work done for water transportation, 1 remain yours very truly, B. F. Gue. A. IF. Waters, Civil Engineer. Severance, Kan., May 23d, 1881. Mr. Edward Russell: My Dear Sir—Permit me to say that I saw your name associated as Sec¬ retary in the Ilenuepin Canal improvement; hence, I feel that I can ad¬ dress you on the subject of cheap transportation, and that without reserve. I have been making a careful study and examination into some mode of relief for the commerce of the great West and Northwest. 1 have thought, and still think, that the Davenport and Rock Island people hold the key to an opening of that gateway by the construction of a ship canal from the Mississippi at your point to the headwaters of Lake Michigan, whereby vessels could load at your elevators direct to any foreign port or place of destination, and direct to Buffalo, then by the Erie Canal to New York. Any six or seven feet water dratt canal from your point to Chicago would be, within the next decade, inadequate to carry the tonnage that would seek such an outlet. By statistics it is shown that the Erie Canal is inadequate to carry the tonnage that seeks an outlet from Buffalo to tide water, as in 1879 the canal carried 5,302,372 tons; the two competing railroads (New York Cen¬ tral and the Erie) carried 17,228,394 tons. Hence, we must infer that the Hennepin Canal, with seven teet water draft, would fall far short of accom¬ plishing the object in view. All the producers of the Southwest, West and Northwest are looking to a point for relief in the line of transportation, and I hope that the citizens of Davenport and Rock Island will not stop short of a ship canal to Chi¬ cago. Please send me a copy of the convention proceedings. I am very re¬ spectfully yours, A. W. Waters, Civil Engineer. Henry L. Fish, Esq., Rochester, N. Y. Rochester, N. Y., May 24, 1881. To the Honorable Chairman ot the Canal Convention: Dear Sir—I read a notice in one of our Buffalo journals that your peo¬ ple had called a convention, to be held in Davenport May 25th and 2Gth, to inaugurate measures to construct a canal from Rock Island to Henne¬ pin, the improvement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and also the improvement of the upper Mississippi and the Illinois rivers, lakes, etc. I had intended to be present, but unforseen circumstances have intervened and prevented it. The people of the " Empire State " are in hearty sympathy with you and CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 61 your project, and bid you God speed m your good and all-important un¬ dertaking. It seems to the writer that your people of the West and North¬ west and the State of New York have, as it were, a common, deep and abiding interest in opening and improving the water channels from Rock Island to Chicago, shipping from thence via Buffalo and the Erie Canal. This will make the safest, quickest and cheapest water route opening an outlet for the increasing products of the boundless West. The New York canals are now being admirably managed, and the capacity of the Erie Canal from Buffalo to the Hudson river lias been largely increased, time of transit shortened and freights reduced. All the structures have been improved and a perfect discipline with all the em¬ ployes of the State perfected, and ere long we shall have nine feet of water, which will insure the successful introduction of steam, and this will dou¬ ble the tonnage capacity of this more than wonderful canal. This State, you may rest assured, will so improve and perfect her canal system as to fully meet the wants and demands of the West. Your people may rest as¬ sured of this fact. We have on the Erie Canal about 4,000 boats, of 240 tons burthen, that will make from nine to ten trips per season. We have no breaks and no detentions, all working smoothly. Success to your en¬ terprise. Truly yours, Henry L. Fish. Hon. Williamson Durley, of Hennepin, Illinois. Mr. Edward Russell: Hennepin, March 29, 1881. Dear Sir—I received your card of the notice of a meeting of the Missis¬ sippi and Illinois River Commission. * * * I think I attended the first meeting that was ever held in the interest of a canal from the Mississippi to the Illinois river, which was called by Dr. Langworthy, who then lived at Windsor (now Tiskilwa), and the meeting was held in Hennepin, in 1833. I well remember that Langworthy said, at that meet¬ ing, that people were then living that would see a water wTay made be¬ tween the Mississippi and the Illinois from Rock Island by way of the Bureau valley. I hope that meetings may be called through the season, and the subject agitated, so as to have the matter come up early in the next Congress. Very respectfully yours, Williamson Durley. From Citizens' Association, Chicago. Chicago, May 25,1881. To the Secretary of the River and Canal Convention: The Citizens' Association of Chicago express their sympathy with the objects of the convention, and give assurances of their co-operation. J. C. Ambler, Secretary. Edson Keith, President. COMMITTEE ON PLAN. The president of the convention then announced that he had been furnished with names of gentlemen selected by the 612 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. several delegations, as per his request, and would now make known their appointment as constituting the Committee to prepare and submit a plan for the selection of a Committee on Resolutions, as follows : John F. Phillips, of Missouri; J. C. Gregory, of Wisconsin; James L. Camp, of Illinois; A. H. Morrison, of Michigan ; N. M. Howard, of Ohio; Samuel M. Clark, of Iowa; J. B. Bassett, of Minnesota; John L. Swits, of New York; S. C. Hastings, of California. ADDRESS OF MR. CHARLES RANDOLPH. The president announced that the next business in order would be an address from Mr. Charles Randolph, Secretary of the Board of Trade, Chicago, who, being duly introduced, addressed the convention as follows: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: I confess I find myself laboring under a two-fold embarrassment this evening. In the first place, I very much dislike to occupy the time of the Convention, which should more properly be devoted to its regular business, and I should not consent to do so if it were prepared to proceed with that business. Again, I am well aware of the fact that the Convention and this audience desire to hear from the distinguished gentleman who is an¬ nounced to speak and will follow me this evening, and I can readily un¬ derstand that you will be impatient to hear from him while I consume your time. I trust none of you will misapprehend my ordinary calling when I an¬ nounce to you that I propose to speak to you from a text, or rather, T may say, from a sort of double text: a text with two wings to it. I am not, however, a clergyman. While 1 do not suppose I need apologize for this departure from the usual manner of speaking on an occasion like this, I think perhaps I ought to do so for a still further resemblance to some of the honored clergy, in that I shall take the liberty of resorting to the use of manuscript. It na¬ ture had kindly endowed me with the powers of eloquence possessed by many gentlemen present, I certainly should have preferred to address you in the more effective words that might be drawn from the inspiration of this occasion and of these surrounding; but, being only a plain man, I am compelled to ask that you will bear with me in this rather unpopular manner of communicating my thoughts. The words which I shall, so to speak, hang out at the head of my re¬ marks are not found in the inspired writings, but they are those of men especially well versed on the question of transportation—that great ques¬ tion which this convention has assembled to consider; a question in which every farmer, manufacturer, merchant, professional man, and laborer in CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 63 this country has a deep interest. All classes, high and low, rich and poor, educated and ignorant, are affected by it in greater or less degree, because it enters as an ingredient element into the value of the products of indus¬ try on the one hand, and into the cost of sustaining a comfortable exist¬ ence on the other. A few months since Messrs. W. H. Vanderbilt and H. J. Jewett, presi¬ dents respectively of the New York Central and Erie Railway companies, united in a letter addressed to a special committee of the New York legis¬ lature appointed to investigate the railway management of that State. In that letter those gentlemen said: "That the managers of a railway company desire to make all the money they can for their clients, and to do this they have constantly before them the question, What rate, within their chartered limits will an article bear?" That, gentlemen, I apprehend, is the basis upon which every railway tariff in this country rests. While not strictly speaking gospel, it is never¬ theless equally true. You will observe that the question as to what is or is not a fair and equitable rate of compensation for the service rendered forms no element in the structure. What rate an article will bear in the way of transportation charges may be determined from various considerations. At one time a rival railway line or some other form of competition may so disturb the normal condition of traffic that a rate wholly unremunera- tive to the carrier will, for a time, be adopted. Say, for instance: a rate of six cents a bushel for transporting wheat from Chicago to New York, or of ten cents per hundred pounds for transporting merchandise from Chi- dago to Denver, both of which rates have prevailed within the past few years. Such freaks in railway management do not, however, usually occur from any indifference on the part of managers as to their duty to guard the financial interests of the companies they represent, but solely from con¬ sideration of policy, having reference to a supposed ability to bring a rival to terms or to the retaining ot a traffic which in the future may be made to bear a sufficient charge not only to be a source of profit then, but also to cover the wastage or loss resulting from the low rate—the same polar- star, a "desire to make all the money they can for their clients," guides managers in such a course as rigidly as in one where no such conditions exist. The doctrine of the gentlemen to whom I have alluded, as promul¬ gated by themselves, I shall adopt as one of the wings of my text; the other is found in an extract from the testimony of a scarcely less eminent rail¬ way authority taken by the same committee; Mr. R. G. Blanchard, of the Erie Railway, referring to transportation within the State of New York, said: "The State holds within its grasp the great controller of the freight rate within its borders, to wit: the canal. There is no town within this State, from the extreme northeast to the extreme southwest corner of it, that is not affected, more or less, by the canal policy and rates of this State ?" Mr. Albert Fink, perhaps the best informed gentlemen on the general 64 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. railway affairs of this country, in an address before the Congressional Committee on Commerce In 1880, and recently by a communication to the New York World, enlarged on the same idea, and argued at length that the controlling influence of the rates prevailing onjithe Lakes and on the Erie Canal were still more far-reaching than Mr. Blanchard suggested. Mr. Fink contends that all railroad freight rates from all points in the West, North of the Ohio river, to all points in the Eastern and South At lanlic States, even 1o points considerably inland in the Southern States, are controlled by this great water route, not only in summer, but in winter as well. While I cannot as unreservedly subscribe to the views expressed by these latter gentlemen, in all their length and breadth, as to those before quoted, still I regard it as an indisputable fact that the Lakes and Erie Canal do serve as a check on railway charges over a vast area of our coun¬ try, and as an actually controlling influence over a much larger portion of territory than is perhaps generally supposed. Mr. Blanchard's remarks may be likened to Gospel truth subject to some limitations. The conclusions to which these two extracts seem to lead us, in respect to transportation charges, then, are these: Find. That railway tariffs, primarily, are adjusted on the basis of what the property to be transported will bear, without regard to any con¬ siderations as to what the service maybe really worth. Second. That what it will bear is chiefly determined by the compet¬ itive forces which come in contact with the railway lines, and that fore¬ most in those competitive forces are the water routes of the country. 1 shall not stop to discuss the point as to how far from a water line its influence in modifying freight rates may extend; that influence is un¬ doubtedly graduated from a power to actually control rates between certain points to an infinitesimal element in the question as it relates to other points. Let us be thankful for the fact that a beneficent Providence has so ad¬ justed His own grand highways as that the desire of railway managers to "make all the money they can for their clients" finds some limit not springing from their own notions of what an article will bear. Another element of competition in the transportation problem, which in times past has been expected to forever act as a restraint upon railway exactions, is the competitive railway line. 1 say in times past, because I presume there are few communities which have had any experience in this respect that now look upon a healthy competition between railway lines as an existing fact to any considerable extent. It is probably true that we sometimes fail to appreciate the great diffi¬ culty of so managing railway affairs as to give satisfaction to the public, especially as the public are inclined to feel that the officers of these lines are in some sense public servants, while at the same time they must recog¬ nize the fact that these men are but the employes of the corporations they represent, and that those corporations expect them "to make all the money CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 65 they can for their clients." A policy looking to this end, having a wise regard to the future as well as the present, is unquestionably a sound bus¬ iness principle from the standpoint of the stockholder. It is a policy which individuals in all branches of commercial and industrial life are pursuing every day. Every man wants and seeks to secure for his labor, whether it be physical or mental, all the market for it it will bear. We are all en¬ dowed by the Creator, or have very early acquired, the instinct for making money. This instinct is developed in some more fully, I may say more ferociously, than in others, but we all have it in greater or less measure; and I confess I cannot but regard the suggestion that any of us will not demand and conscientiously accept for our property, labor, or time all we can by any honorable means secure for it, as little less than unqualified and hypocritical cant. The value of anything we have to dispose of, whether it be time, knowledge, lands, grain, live stock, manufactured commodities, the use of money, or even transportation facilities, must fi¬ nally be measured by the test of demand and supply. We may think this a fickle test, and indeed it does sometimes seem utterly destitute of logical principle or basis, but it is the only one known in this world, and I pre¬ sume we and our children's children will be obliged in the future as in the past to abide by it. For one, I am not inclined to join in the wholesale denunciation of railway management that seems to be somewhat the fashion at the present time. I am not only willing to concede but freely accord to the great majority of the men charged with these duties an eminent degree of busi¬ ness ability, and that in respect to honesty and fidelity to their trusts they are, as a rule, the peers of the best of us. We must remember that these gentlemen are usually selected with special reference to their ability to produce for their companies the best financial results attainable, and hence we may reasonably expect, so long as stockholders remain in the flesh with like ambitions and desires for gain as the rest of us, that only men having these qualities will be retained in such positions. Now, gentlemen, if what I have said is substantially true, we find ourselves in this condition : The people of this great country, and espec¬ ially those of the northwestern States, are obliged to use and are dependent upon transportation facilities to so great an extent that questions relating to it take first rank in all their calculations of business economy—upon its cost depends the possibility of profitably conducting their industries at points remote from the markets they would seek both for their own pro¬ ducts and for such commodities as they may desire to purchase. The present mode of transportation is largely by railway, and is, [ have no doubt, likely to so continue. Railway rates are gauged upon the basis of what their managers can get or compel you to pay, and they are restrained only by considerations of prudence to their lines and by the elements of competition with which they are forced to contend. The expectation that Competing lines of railway will act as a restraint upon unjust exactions lido proved highly delusive—no sooner does railway competition trench upon the desired revenue than combinations are formed to effectually sup- 5 66 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. press and strangle it. Various expedients, as we all know, have been de¬ vised in the interest of the people to restrain and hold railway rates and methods within proper hounds; these expedients are, however, so far as they rest on legislative enactments, stamped all over with the word "failure," and it is not clear that we shall ever succeed by legislation in securing a permanent and equitable remedy. This being the case, we may waive discussion as to whether or not some new-fangled law will be likely to produce different results from those which have gone before, if we can de¬ vise some better, more efficient, and more natural remedy We are told by those who ought to know, that in the State of New York, notwithstanding the subtle influences of the railway lines which are charged with controlling in their own interests the legislation of that State, the key to the freight rate problem is still held by the little ditch which the great Clinton so successfully brought into existence long before rail¬ way lines exercised any influence touching the transportation question; and this, too, while so many claiming to hold advanced views on the sub¬ ject we are considering, are disposed to contemptuously sneer at canals as an antiquated means of transport. I have little patience and less sym¬ pathy with that class of reasoners who, arguing from the fact that railway lines are able, by one means and another, to secure a constantly increasing traffic, arrive at the conclusion that water-ways are losing their influence, and their usefulness is gradually but surely ceasing to be of practical im¬ portance. Let us look for a moment at the operations of the Erie Canal in the bus¬ iness of moving grain from Buffalo to New York. Grain is not, however, the only commodity affected by the beneficent influence of this great work, but it is an eminently representative one. During the season of canal navigation in 1880 the freight on wheat from Buffalo to New York by rail was held at nine cents per bushel. This is less than seven mills per ton per mile, and about equal to three and a half cents per bushel from Davenport to Chicago. This was a pretty low rate, considering the high terminal expenses at New York. It was, however, all the property would bear, because the canal rate between the same points, including about one cent per bushel tolls paid to the State, whicli the State of New York, considering that western products have long since paid back to the State much more than the State has ever expended on the canal, ought to be ashamed now to exact, averaged but six and a half cents per bushel, and despite the advantages possessed by the railway lines of securing grain freights by their lake propeller connections, the Buffalo shipments by canal in eight months were over 71,000,000 bushels of grain, against 31,000,000 shipped from Buffalo by rail during the whole year. As compared with 1878, the increase by rail was 11,600,000 bushels, and bj canal was 13,200,000. I respectfully submit that these figures not only show- that the canal controls the freight rate between Buffalo and New York, but also that it is, as a direct carrier, in a most vigorous condition of use¬ fulness. Just how much it saved to the producer or consumer of the 100,- 000,000 bushels of grain moved from Buffalo in 1880,1 will not undertaks CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 67 to say with certainty, but it was, undoubtedly, as much as five cents per bushel, or five millions of dollars; and if we add to this the reduced rate, (resulting from the influence of those prevailing on the canal) on over 150,- 000,000 bushels more moved eastward but not reshipped at Buffalo, we shall find that the saving to the people of this country, on the transportation of grain alone, in a single year was fully ten millions of dollars, to say noth¬ ing of the diminished charges on other articles either carried by the canal or on which the freight rate was controled or influenced by its existence. Such a grand result as this convinces me, at least, that this despised old fogy channel of transportation has not by any means outlived its useful¬ ness, but is to-day as important a factor in the economy of moving prop¬ erty as it was in the days of its greatest glory. But suppose the Erie Canal had been stopped at Utica, what influence would it have exerted for the benefit of the people of the West? Does any one suppose we should, in that case, see lake vessels discharging their cargoes of grain into cars at Buffalo to be again unloaded into canal-boats at Utica any more than we now see grain loaded into cars at Bock Island, hauled to La Salle, and there put into canal-boats to be transported to Chi¬ cago? The fact is that a canal, or any other form of water transportation, to be of any special value must extend from the place of shipment to that of destination, or form so considerable a link in the line as to justify its being transhipped to or from some other method of transport. In these days of railroads as well might a great river of a thousand miles or more in length be wholly unsuited to navigation as that there should be in it stretches of a hundred miles, here and there, of the very best capacity, with portages between requiring the transfer of property to other means by which they may be passed. A line of water communication from St. Paul to Chicago would be of little value if it were so interrupted at certain points that boats could not pass, but open the whole to uniform and good navigation and the same results will be attained as now exist between Buffalo and New York > or, indeed, better results, for while the line from Buffalo to New York has 350 miles of canal to 100 miles of river naviga¬ tion, the line from St. Paul to Chicago would have less than 180 miles of canal to about 400 miles of river, practically reversing the proportion of river and canal, and as it is conceded that river navigation as compared with that by canal is rather the cheaper, the Western line would, to that extent, have the advantage. The present Illinois and Michigan Canal, extending from La Salle to the city of Chicago, possesses a supreme power in controlling all freight rates on grain along its line, and a very marked influence for several miles on either side. Corn, the staple product in that portion of Illinois, is car¬ ried with substantial uniformity from La Salle to Chicago, 100 miles, at 'Uj' cents per bushel, including the tolls, and when it gets there, owing to the cheaper cost of handling from boat to vessel as compared with that from car to vessel, it is worth at least a half cent a bushel more than if shipped by rail. From points on the Illinois river below La Salle, while the canal route carries but little, the potent influence of what it stands 68 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND TIIE HENNEPIN CANAL. ready to do holds freight rates by rail, at points like Peoria, to the East¬ ern markets relatively lower than from any other portion of the West. Now, what might we expect as the result if the canal line was extended from the Illinois to the Mississippi river, and the Mississippi improved to the city of St. Paul, as it is practically certain to be at no distant day. I think I can assert without fear of successful contradiction, that if such a water line was in operation to-day, even if it were of no greater capacity than the present Illinois and Michigan Canal, wheat could be profitably transported from St. Paul to Chicago at less than eight cents per bushel, and from points less distant it could be done at a still lower rate; from Davenport to Rock Island four cents per bushel would undoubtedly be a profitable business. I am aware that the Senate Committee on Transpor¬ tation Routes in 1873 estimated the cost of moving wheat by this water line, if constructed, at nearly eleven cents per bushel, but that waspriorto the introduction of steam as a motive power on canals, and of radical im¬ provements in methods of transportation by river routes. In 1873 the Erie Canal was not able to transport wheat from Buffalo to New York in mid¬ summer at less than nine and a half cents per bushel, and the aver¬ age for that season was fully eleven and a half cents. In 1879, the canal capacity remaining unchanged, it was done at less than four cents in mid¬ summer, and did not reach ten cents until about the first of November. The season of 1880 is understood to have been fairly profitable for the canal business at rates within the range of five and a half cents in May and July and nine cents in November, the whole season averaging only six and a half cents. Tolls, however, had been reduced since 1873, about two cents per bushel. The committee stated the cost of moving grain from St. Louis to New Orleans to be eleven cents per bushel in high water, with an average in 1872 of thirteen and nine-tenths cents for the whole year. This spring I believe wheat has been shipped from St Louis to New Orleans as low as six or six and a half cents per bushel, and it is claimed that this rate was profitable. Applying these accomplished reductions in the cost of moving grain by water to the route we are considering and I think my estimate of less than eight cents from St. Paul to Chicago will be found fully as high as the probabilities will warrant. At present the railway lines make the rate on all business crossing the Mississippi and passing eastward. The rate so fixed on grain is modified to some extent by the possibilities of a diversion down the river, but hitherto that form of competition has exercised but little influence on rates. It is, however, now claimed that in the future it will be able to do so more effectually. If I -am asked if I expect, in case the water line from St. Paul to Chi¬ cago should be opened to its fullest capacity, there would be a large loss of traffic to the rail lines, I answer frankly, I do not, nor do I consider it desirable that such a result should be accomplished; but I do believe that the increasing production and business in this great Northwest will at no distant day—unless it be held in check by the expenses attending the dispo¬ sition of its products—make all the facilities which this line can afford a necessity, and, what is of equal or greater importance, that its ability to CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 69 transport property would then and now act as a restriction on all freight char¬ ges in the territory throughout which its influence may extend, bringing to all patrons of the railway lines substantial benefits, graduated in degree as they may happen to be located near or more remote from the line. If rail¬ way lines can and will do your business as well and as cheaply as any other mode of transportation you will be likely to patronize them; if they cannot or will not, then, as freemen having at least equal rights with cor¬ porations, you will seek such relief as lies within your reach. Would the construction of this water line be an injustice to existing rail- way lines? To this I answer emphatically no. I admit it would deprive them of the ability to make as much money as they might otherwise do, but any competition in business tends to that result, and no railroad, so far as I am informed, at least none in the West, was ever guaranteed against the effects of competition. I freely concede the great blessings which have resulted from the establishment of the railway system in this country, and as freely admit the general right of these corporations, on the same prin¬ ciple as a merchant, manufacturer, or farmer possesses that right, to make all the money they can; yet, I deny that they have acquired any right, severally or combined, to a monopoly of the transportation business of the country; and I affirm that they have taken the same risks as any private citizen in the investment of capital, and that they can in equity claim only such protection in the prosecution of business as any private citizen is en¬ titled to demand. I confess I am not quite sure that the desire of railway managers to make for their clients from six to eight, or more percent of dividends on from twenty to one hundred per cent more of nominal capi¬ tal than the stock and bond holders of a railway company ever paid to the enterprise, is exactly the sort of a desire that the public are under any special obligations to respect or inconvenience themselves to gratify, es¬ pecially while the actual capital of other people fails to find employment at over three to five per cent of annual interest. And when we remember how, by ways that are dark and tricks that are not vain, all railway com¬ petition has practically become obsolete and its existence as an element in the transportation problem a subject better worthy of jest than of seri¬ ous consideration, we conclude it is neither inappropriate nor dishonora¬ ble if we insist that the people are fully justified in setting in motion effectual measures for their own relief. If we consider the question of the cheapening of transportation from the interior of the country to the seaboard in respect to its hearing on our commercial relations with foreign countries, we shall find that as a national question it is of the very highest importance and lies at the very founda¬ tion of our ability to hold our present position in supplying cheap food to the people of Europe. During the past ten years, resulting almost entirely from reductions .in transportation charges attained within that time, our exports of breadstuffs have increased more than fourfold, or from $72,000,- 000 valued in a depreciated currency, in 1870, to $288,000,000 valued in coin in 1880, and of provisions, to say nothing of live animals, from $29,000, 000 in 1870 to $127,000,000 iu 1880. These commodities are in very large measure the growth and product 70 CUEAL' TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. of the Western States, and it is the large increase in our profitable export of them, more than anything else, which has advanced us to the very front rank among commercial nations and has raised us from a condition bor¬ dering on financial vassalage to the money power of Europe to the high degree of independence and prosperity which is manifest on every hand to-day. It is this, more than any other cause, which enabled us so success¬ fully and so easily to plant our financial affairs on the only sound basis known to commerce and civilization, and enables us to-day to conduct all our business transactions in the money of the world and not on promises to pay something or nothing. It is this, too, which has mainly contribut¬ ed to bring the credit of the government to the highest point, as compared with other governments, it has ever attained, and it is a source of congrat¬ ulation to us of the West to know that while we have contributed so much to the financial aid of the nation at large, the West itself is in a condition of general prosperity hitherto wholly unknown. Our developing ability to supply substantial and wholesome food at the low rates at which we are able to do it, while it has been hailed fry the toiling millions of artisans and laborers and by their employers in Great Britain and on the Continent as a solution of the question of their ability to compete in the markets of the world with the products of the manu¬ facturing industries of those countries, it has, on the other hand, produced consternation among land owners and their tenants, and has so depressed the agricultural interests of the old world that they are clamoring for re¬ lief, and pressing the story of their embarrassments on the attention of nearly all the governments of Europe. I need but refer to the prohibitory edicts, already issued in some of these countries and threatened in others, against the importation of American meats, and the absurd and scandal¬ ously false reports in respect to the quality and healthfulness of our meats, Hour, butter, cheese, and other articles with which the English and con¬ tinental press have been teeming for months past, and the discussions which have been going on, both in and outside of governmental circles, with reference to measures to further restrict or entirely prohibit the im¬ portation from the United States ot these staple articles, to remind you that a large and influential portion of the people there are deeply con¬ cerned and are inclined to resist the encroachments we have been making on the food-producing interests of those countries. What the outcome of this contest between the producers and the consumers ot food may be we cannot now predict; if it should result in the imposition of import duties on our bread and meats, as many there are now seriously urging, that duty might, even if but small in amount, utterly destroy all the profit we are now able to realize on our products of this class sold to them; hence it becomes of vital importance to us, if we would maintain the position we have reached in this respect, and be prepared for any contingency which may arise, that we see to it, that, to the very minutest item, the expense inter¬ vening between the producer in Uiese Western States and the consumer in Europe shall be reduced to the lowest point possibly attainable. Now, gentlemen, if it be true that the work of opening a suitable and CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 71 sufficient water communication, in the interest of the people of the whole country, from the upper Mississippi river to the Eastern States and to Eu¬ rope by the most direct, cheapest,* and for many reasons the most desira¬ ble route, whicli we know can be done by an insignificant expenditure of money, is a necessity, and is of national importance, may we not, in full assurance of the unqualified justice of our cause, demand that the national government shall immediately undertake its construction and press it to the earliest possible construction ? To complete au unbroken line of water communication of about 580 miles, from the city of St. Paul to Chicago, there connecting with the great Lake route to the ocean either by way of the Erie Canal or the St. Lawrence river, requires but the construction of about seventy miles of canal in the State of Illinois, and a moderate expenditure for the improve¬ ment of the Mississippi river. Time compels me to leave to others the discussion of details as to the most eligible route for the canal portion of the line, previous surveys, estimate of cost, etc. A word as to special ben¬ efits may not be inappropriate. The State of Illinois and the city of Chi¬ cago would undoubtedly receive substantial advantages by the construc¬ tion of this work. If Illinois and Chicago were to be solely or even chiefly benefited by the improvement I certainly should hesitate to ask the inter¬ vention of the national government in its aid. This is, however, a work for the benefit of many States directly and of every State indirectly. The States which, in my judgment, would reap the richest harvest of benefit by its construction are Iowa, the State in which this Convention has wise¬ ly assembled, and Minnesota; although Wisconsin aud States lying west of the Missouri river would share largely in its beneficial effects. The State of Illinois -proposes, by pending legislation, to appropriate, without charge to the national government, very much the most expensive portion of the whole line, conditioned only that it shall be brought up to and maintained in the highest degree of usefulness of which it is capable. Whether it be more wise now to urge that the line be completed to the Mississippi and thence to St. Paul of corresponding capacity with the present Illinois and Michigan Canal, which has a capacity for boats drawing nearly five feet of water, or to urge that the whole line be made of essentially larger capacity, which is beyond question entirely practi¬ cable, will no doubt be carefully considered by you. Now, as to the probability of securing from the Congress of the United * During the sittings of the Convention at Davenport a telegram was read announcing that a contract had that day been made in St. Louis for the transportation, via the Mis¬ sissippi river aud New Orleans, of 30,000 bushels of wheat, from Minneapolis to Glas¬ gow, Scotland, at 38. cents per bushel. At that time there was an exceptionally good stage of water in the river, allowing navigation by the largest class of barges to St. Paul, and, consequently, the lowest possible freight rate. On the same day the current rate of freight on wheat from Chicago to New York, by lake and canal, was 10% cents, and from New York to Glasgow, by steam, S?4 pence, or cents per bushel; add to this the lib¬ eral allowance of 8 cents from Minneapolis to Chicago by the proposed Hennepin canal, and not to exceed lbi cents lor transfer charges at Chicago aud New York, and we have 26 cents per bushel by the northern route, or a saving of $0(10 on the small shipment, o 80,000 bushels. 72 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. States the necessary aid to accomplish the end we have assembled to pro¬ mote. If any one having even a very imperfect knowledge of the com¬ mercial needs of the country will carefully examine the annual appropri¬ ation bills for internal improvements which are passed by Congress and see to what purposes the national treasure is expended, and then ask him¬ self if a work of this kind ought to command national aid, I think his answer can only be an emphatically affirmative one. I detest the doctrine that in order to secure a valuable and really merit¬ orious measure we must necessarily submit to a log-rolling combination which sandwiches it between other matters which, if alone, any honest man would recoil from the support of. I do not, however, expect to live to see this species of legislation eliminated from the system of Congress¬ ional appropriations. Appropriations of the public funds for purposes other than operating the machinery of the government, whether for measures meritorious or otherwise, are secured only by the efforts of the friends of such measures, and we may rest assured that nothing will be done in aid of this work un¬ less its friends rally to its support, and so present and press it as to make their influence felt and respected. It must, if successful, have supporters in as well as out of Congress, and I do not doubt but that there are many able and influential men now in Congress who, if they felt they had their constituents at their backs, would gladly champion its cause, and that, too, with successful results. In my judgment, it rests with the people specially interested to say whether this great enterprise shall be pressed to an early consummation or whether it shall sleep. It is for the men of this Convention and those who sent them here to say whether or not they need it and want it. If they do and will speak plainly and act judiciously, I do not doubt but that their demand will be listened to and will be acted upon by Congress. If the men here assembled are in earnest in their wish that this work go forward, and will follow up any expression they may make in that regard with united, persistent and vigorous effort, causing the men you send to Wash¬ ington to understand that the accomplishment of this end is the great ob¬ ject for wdiich they are expected to labor, and to effect which they are sent to the national legislature, then this Convention will not have met in vain ; but if, on the other hand, you are content with simply resolving in set phrase and all due formality, that Congress be respectfully requested to take action on the subject, and then go home with, perhaps, a feeling that you have so set the ball in motion that it will henceforth take care of itself, I tell you that in my opinion you might as well have stayed at home. Resolutions are well enough in their proper place, but they will not turn a sod, and for the purposes of this work are only valuable as a formulation of what are your convictions and wishes on the subject and as indicating what you propose to do about it. In this country we are supposed to vote for men whom we believe will fairly and honestly represent our views on public questions concerning which we have formed decided convictions, and if we succeed in placing CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 73 in power our representatives on a distinct issue, we expect tiienr to work for the success of the measures they were elected to promote. The general sentiment of their constituents on public questions is one that so-called public men rarely disregard, and if those constituents are so far in accord as to give clear and unmistakable voice to their wishes on such ques¬ tions, those whom they have selected to act for them are usually quite will¬ ing, nay anxious, to listen to the faintest whisper of that voice. If, then, the opening up of the grand highway of commerce which this Convention has been called to consider commends itself to your judgments as being a wise, practical, and economic thing to be done; if you are sat¬ isfied that for the fullest and most rapid development of the interests of the Northwest, and of the whole country, it is a necessity; that it can be done and can only be done, by the aid of the national government, then clearly your duly to yourselves, to your neighbors, to this great nation, and to those who come after us, demands that you, here and now, intelligently and vig¬ orously set on loot measures for its early accomplishment. Not only by your action here, but as each of you shall return to your home, let him not forget nor fail in all proper ways to press the consideration, the advant¬ ages, and the absolute necessity of this work upon the attention of those with whom you may come in contact day by day. And especially in your choice of representatives in Congress see to it that every man stands pledged to its support, and that he understands you will tolerate no in¬ difference or lack of zeal on his part which shall, in any degree, contribute to delay in securing such legislation as shall insure for it certain, early, and complete success. ADDRESS OF HON. .TAMES F. WILSON. At the close of Mr. Randolph's address, the president in¬ troduced to the convention the Hon. James F. Wilson, of Iowa, who thus spoke : Mr. President and Gentlemen op the Convention : The subject which induced the calling of this convention is one of great concern to the people of this country. It is more than the construction of a canal, the improvement of our rivers or the multiplication of our ways of commerce. These are methods; the subject lies behind them all. The need of a great people in the matter of getting to the world's markets at a reasonable cost was the inducement. In short, the transportation problem brought us together. Great communities rarely become agitated without sufficient cause. They seldom stop short of effecting the object1 to which that cause has directed their attention. Our people are profoundly stirred to-day by the subject which has brought us together. They feel that there is something wrong with the administration of the transportation system of this coun¬ try. They believe that it is both too expensive and too unstable. They are convinced that in both these regards it can be, and ought to be, re- 74 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. formed. To this end our inquiries are directed. Those whom we repre¬ sent want transportation for their vast products and wondrously develop- in}"' business at reasonable aud stable rates. Our attention is directed to waterways as one of the methods for reaching this much-desired end. But this brings us in contact with the general subject of transportation, and, therefore, I am sure that you will indulge me in a somewhat broader discussion of this question than would seem to be invited by the special purpose mentioned in the call in pursuance of which we have come to¬ gether. Water ways are the conservators of cheap and stable transportation. Hence, we should maintain those with which nature has provided us in the highest state of efficiency, and supplement them with such artificial ways as are needed to effect a complete system which shall assure us sta¬ bility and reasonableness in the matter of cost in getting to the market. Such ways are not the swift ones of commerce in these times of rail serv¬ ice, but they are the maintainors ol reasonable rates and better prices for the producers of things whose value depends on getting to the market. Transportation by rail is swift, and returns are expeditious; but the pro¬ ducer feels that he does not always get his fair share of the results. This tends to prove that it is rarely wise to provide but one way for doing a thing if two may be had. If but one way has been provided and fails, there is at least loss; but if two ways are at command, the failure of one will surely demonstrate the wisdom of having provided the other. We have depended so largely upon rail transportation, that we have too much neglected that by water. Hence, in a certain sense, our superb system of railway service has proven a failure. It has not produced that standard of equity, fairness, reasonableness aud stability in its practical adminis¬ tration which the country of right hud expected. It has done much. It has worked wonders in the development of the country. It may do more, and do it better. It is not to be unjustly dealt with, nor do the people de. mand any such action; but it must be brought to a realizing sense of the necessity of doing right in the matter to which I have directed attention. And there is no surer way to bring about this result than by the creation of an efficient water competition. Give us the two ways of getting to market, and we will soon realize that much can be done toward effecting cheap and stable transportation that ought to be done without such coer¬ cion. The result will be a practical confession of judgment that the most serious complaints of the people are well founded and should have never existed. Multiplicity of methods is true conservatism. Our civilization is better than that of earlier periods, because it has greater variety in its means of expression and action. We have magnificent States a thousand miles in¬ land because of the facilities provided for getting to the seaboard. The marvelous agriculture of these great States could not be except for our ways of commerce. Every man engaged in that business produces more than he can use. His surplus is wastage of capital, labor and results, if he be not able to dispose of it. What lie cannot consume must reach those CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 7d who do not produce, or his abundance is poverty and their unsupplied need is ruin. Transportation is the conservator that steps in here to de¬ fend the producer and the consumer. It gives value to the surplus of the former by placing it where it can supply the need of the latter. This is what has created these superb inland States. This is what has turned the possibilities of this marvelous western region into the wondrous facts which coniront us on every hand. It gives cheap food to the people of Europe by placing the products of our cheap farms in successful compe¬ tition with those of the high-priced lands of the old world, and maintains the balance of trade in our favor. But transportation is not all of these things; it is the instrument through which they come; it is their servant after they have come. It is not the proprietor of these worshipful empires and their populations, enterprise, abundance, aspirations and civilization. It is not the lord paramount of the estate. It is the creature of the neces¬ sities of a resolute people. It was created to do their work, and is entitled to a fair compensation for doing it. This is the rule which applies to all classes of service, in all departments of human employment, except when employer and employed set it aside by making a special contract for them¬ selves; and even such contracts are sometimes void, because in conflict with public policy. Established public policy overrides all efforts to avoid or evade it. Whatever contravenes it is void ; and the courts give no remedy to those who endeavor to infract it. This rule is necessary to the order, welfare and progress of organized societ}'. All things are subordinate to it. And so in no case is public transportation master of the people served, nor proprietor of the purposes and results of the service. It is but one of three parlies in interest when its extremest claim is asserted. It cannot act by itself. No one of the three parties is ever absent when transporta¬ tion is involved. Whoever has studied the economy of commerce will readily comprehend and assent to this fact. A just, and, consequently, reasonable, distribution of the benefits of transportation between the three parties interested is the only effective remedy for the evils which too often attend it. No student of the philosophy which enfolds and permeates this subject will hesitate to acquiesce in the correctness of this statement. It is hut a statement of the universally recognized rule of dependency and obligation, which is the paramount law of all well-ordered society, limited to a particular case. Let us give a moment's attention to this proposition. The three parties interested in public transportation are producer, trans¬ porter, consumer. The absence of either party destroys the whole case, so far as commerce is concerned. Each being necessary to the others, there should be an equitable adjustment of results. The producer should have a fair price for his product; the transporter a reasonable compensation for his service; the consumer a just and living chance in his purchase. The adjustment of the entire transportation problem should be made on this basis. The party whose conduct causes the greatest disturbance in the relations is the second or intermediate one. This occurs oftenesl when a people are dependent on a single mode of transportation, and especially when that is by rail. This is why I said, at the outset, that water ways are 76 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. the conservators of cheap and stable transportation. The reason for this is, that they supply a system of transportation that is independent, open to all, and can't he pooled. Whenever transporters by water pool with those by rail, or combine among themselves, at an unreasonably high rate, others are ready to put crafts on the free way, and, by competition, restore an equilibrium between the three parties concerned. Competition is bet¬ ter than law when it can he had free in its forces and activities. But law is better than injustice, and will certainly be had if the latter do not dis¬ appear. I do not mean to say that pooling is an evil perse. It maybe put to good uses, and made productive of good results. It is an offensive term always when applied to transportation. No one ever expects any good to come from it, or from any practice which it may be used to describe. I have often wondered why transporters have not discovered, borrowed or invented some happier and less offensive term. It smacks of gambling. AVhenever it is used, the public think it means a stake played for in a game in which they are always at a disadvantage. And yet it maybe used so as to promote most desirable ends; indeed, it is susceptible of be¬ ing a check upon the abuse of an element in the problem of transporta¬ tion that is regarded with almost universal favor. I mean competition. Many suppose that this needs 110 check—that the more we have of it the better. This is not always true. Hence, while pooling is not an evil un¬ mixed with good, competition is not a good unmixed with evil; and though one is a term always execrated, and the other a phrase universally commended, the exact nature of the principle involved in each is not in¬ variably so perfectly understood as to be clear to the general apprehen¬ sion. If pooling be used to prevent hurtful competition and to maintain stability in reasonable rates, and does not go beyond this limit, it is a conservator of public and private interests. If competition is resorted to for the purpose of destroying unprincipled pooling, or other like practice, it is to be unqualifiedly commended. These are general propositions. Now let me particularize. When pooling is made a means of establish¬ ing an arbitrary and unreasonable charge for a given Service, it is bad, and deserves to be summarily dealt with and destroyed. It is then an abuse beyond justification. It at once destroys the equilibrium between producer, transporter and consumer. Whatever does this is wrong. Each of these parties is entitled to equal protection. AVhenever the transporter maintains an arbitrary and unreasonably high rate by pooling, he perpe¬ trates an outrage upon both the other parties. He would justly complain of them if they should by law fix an arbitrary and unreasonably low rate for his services. But he has no more right to complain than they. Their respective rights are exactly equal. Production, transportation, consump¬ tion, are the three most forceful factors of progress, prosperity and civili¬ zation. AVhen they go hand in hand, contentment accompanies them; when they become severed, unrest, discontent, danger are abroad in the land. To maintain the former condition and prevent the latter should be the purpose and study of every one interested in the order and well-being CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 77 of society. Society cannot allow the latter predicament to obtain. There¬ fore, maladministration in transportation excites a demand for regulation by law. And so, if the just equilibrium to which I have referred be not maintained by one means, it will be by another. This is the experience of communities. It is the history of nations. If too long postponed or resisted, the remedy is apt to be harsh and sometimes unreasonable. But the harshness and unreasonableness are not likely to extend in degree be¬ yond that of the wrongs against which the remedy is provided. The swing of the pendulum is about certain to be equal; but it will swing, unless the clock runs down. When this happens, the clock is worthless. So will the pendulum of a people's activities swing. When they cease forceful action and it stops, the nation is in decay. We are not in that condition ; our activities are yet in the vigor of youth; our clock-work is in magnifi¬ cent action; our pendulum has a tremendous swing. The aspirations of our people will be realized. Reformations do not stop short of the pur¬ pose of the laws which start and direct them. Cheapness, fairness and justice in transportation will be accomplished. If they come not by the natural laws that, when unobstructed, produce them, then will they come through an exercise of that wondrously expansive power, set as a jewel in our constitution, in whose brilliant light we read the words, " Congress shall have power to regulate commerce among the several States." Un¬ just pooling for the maintenance of unfair and arbitrary rates will only hasten the day when a complete statutory remedy will be established on that constitutional foundation. There is the power ample, comprehen¬ sive, complete, to meet every phase of the inter-state transportation prob¬ lem. The combined interests of the three parties I have named constitute commerce. That of the West must go to the seaboard; that of the sea¬ board must come to the West. This is "commerce among the several States." This is the thing which Congress may regulate—not in passion, by capricious legislation; not in injustice, by unsound law; but by such deliberate and considerate action as shall assure that exact justice to the three parties concerned which of right belongs to each. To this end the public mind of this country is tending. It is the movement of a great people working out a mighty economic problem, which they will as surely solve as they have others of portentous import in the past. The man who cannot see and understand this is an inapt student of the philosophy of popular movements. But what of competition? I have said that competition is not a good unmixed with evil. What is competition V It is defined to be " the act of seeking or endeavoring to gain what another is endeavoring to gain at the same time." This involves the offering of inducements. These may be both proper and improper. If the former, we have right competition. In railway competition we meet with both kinds of inducements. When the first-mentioned is resorted to only the result is beneficial to all concerned; but the last-named involves many things as objectionable as pooling. Amongst these things I may mention drawbacks, rebates, favoritisms, dis¬ criminations in favor of or against individuals or localities. Each one of 78 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND T1IE HENNEPIN CANAL. those resorts is a violation of correct rules of business. They are depar¬ tures from the true economic rule of equality. They are generally the re¬ sult of arbitrary action, and often of the merest caprice. When these things occur, the competition which results is hurtful to the general pub¬ lic interests, however advantageous it may be to certain individuals or particular localities, Transportation rates should have some standard of stability, and they should be neither too high nor too low. The public good is promoted by fairly remunerative rates. In some of the countries of Europe, I am informed, this doctrine is enforced by governmental reg¬ ulations which establish both maximum and minimum rates. Railway managements) are not allowed to charge either more or less than a reason¬ ably remunerative rate. This is said to work well, for it protects both shippers and transporters by establishing fairness and enforcing stability. It destroys the entire brood of parasites that fasten themselves upon the transportation interests and produce unhealthy competition. Rebates, drawbacks and discriminations are impracticable in a system of healthy and legitimate competition. Each individual and each locality has an equal chance, and this is what each is entitled to. The spasmodic action of our system of railway management could not occur if the true condi¬ tions of competition were maintained. The cost of getting to market could be calculated with certainty; contracts of all kinds involving rail¬ way transportation could be made from reliable data; the unjustifiable favoritism, which gives unfair advantages to a few business men at the expense of many, would disappear; the arbitrary discriminations, which foster the interests of one town or city while destroying those of others, would lie unknown. In short, the capricious conduct of managers ot transportation lines, which gives rise to all the just complaints of individ¬ uals and communities affected thereby, would have an end. Bring about a permanent and true competition, and not only will agitation cease, but the real interests of all will he promoted. The people of this country will not stop their endeavors until that end shall have been reached. They have the rightful power to do it, and they will exercise it. Many communities all over the country are smarting under wrongs which cannot be cured by fine talk, strong argument or splendid theories. Time and again have communities taxed themselves, both in a public and private way, to secure the benefits of right competition. Provided with one railroad, they found themselves subjected to arbitrary rates for want of a competing line. They have retaxed themselves to secure a second line. This established, they congratulate themselves, and for a time fair and legitimate competition was afforded them. Then came that capri¬ cious competition, which ultimately drives the management of the lines to an accommodation. Then came the pool, and arbitrary rates are estab¬ lished as much too high as capricious competition had made them too low. The twice-taxed community is in no better condition than it was when a single railroad overburdened its commerce with excessive charges. A third time it taxes itself, and secures another line. Now competition becomes sharp again. The old lines refuse to let the new comer into the CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HEN N EPIN CANAL. 79 pool. They are strong and it is weak; but it cuts the rates and takes the business. The pool lines return the cut, and the community rejoices to have this thing go on. But it wakes up some morning to find the aspect changed. The pool has been enlarged and the three fish are swimming in it. The rates are as high as ever. What will that community do ? Tax itself again V No; why should it V No relief comes in that way. What will it do? Join the army of discontent, and demand a legislative reme¬ dy? And why should it not do this? Can any manager of a railway cor¬ poration supply a reason why this should not be ? Take another case. A certain community is provided with two lines of railroad. No pool exists, but on the contrary competition has reduced rates to a very low point. Business flourishes in that community, and trade is drawn to it from regions not naturally tributary to it. Other towns on the respective roads, but not at competing points, have high rates to pay on all their transportation. They know that these high rates are charged against them to make up for losses sustained because of the low rates given to the more favored community. Will they be content to rest under this injustice? Certainly not. They too will join the army of discontent. And why should they not? Has the reason yet been invented by managers of transportation with which to stop the mouths of such complainers? It can never be done. The whole thing is wrong, and an appeal to the law-making power is as natural as it is for a man to resent an injury. Not to understand this is sheer stupidity. To understand it and endeavor to repress it, will only tend to quicken the political forces through which the ultimate remedy will come. Like cases exist in the business experience of individuals. By the al¬ lowance of drawbacks, the granting of special rates, and other means known to the abuses of railway management, a few men, firms and estab¬ lishments are made to prosper, while others engaged in the same business in the same communities find themselves utterly unable tocompete unless they pursue their occupations at a loss. This is an iniquity which drives hundreds of business men into the ranks of discontent. They go there not because, they want to, but because there is no choice left them. They know exactly what it is that imposes the injury upon them, and they re¬ sent it. It is right that they should. They would be unmindful of their own interests, and those of the community in which they live, if they did not do so. Each case of the kind hastens the day of legal restraint. Every recruit to the ranks of the forces of discontent makes more sure the ap¬ plication of the legislative remedy. And these things come of illegiti¬ mate competition. But the corporations are not the only parties at fault here; none of these wrougs exist without two parties being engaged in them. It is difficult to get men to look at anything from which they ex- pijct a personal advantage, from the standpoint of public policy. The im¬ mediate and exceptional advantage to the individual is almost certain to close his eyes to that broader view which takes in the public good. Hence, for the good of all concerned, the promotion of the public welfare and the establishment of right competition, the whole list of abuses, whether ap- 80 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. plied to communities or to individuals, should be abolished and forever prohibited. The expedients to which communities such as cities, towns, and other localized bodies of people often resort for the purpose of securing to themselves right competition and reasonable rates of transportation, are almost certain, under the present system of management, to result in failure. Let me illustrate this statement. A town has one railroad enter¬ ing it. The rates are not satisfactory. The people tax themselves to se¬ cure another road. They are successful, and the second road is con¬ structed. The volume of business of the community is not materially in¬ creased. One road was ample to render all the service required. Two roads cost just twice as much money as one. The fixed capital involved in the transportation for that town is doubled. This capital expects a re¬ turn in the form of a reasonable annual dividend. The interest account on bonded indebtedness is twice what it would have been for one road. The operating expenses, the cost of maintaining the corporate organiza¬ tions, and of improving the properties is doubled. With these conditions controlling the case it is impossible for that community to have its trans¬ portation at as low a rate as it could or should be done by one road. Cap¬ ital, cost, interest, dividends, have all been doubled, and the volume of business has not been materially increased. One road could have done it all, and at far less rates of charges than two can do it If it bad done so, the seebnd road would not have been thought of. Now is there not some¬ thing wrong in the administration of a business that produces such re¬ sults? And won't that community soon come to understand that there is something wrong, and especially so if after all thut it has done to protect itself, even at the expense of doubling the cost of its transportation facil¬ ities, it finds itself at last immersed in a railroad pool created for the pur¬ pose of preventing right competition and the maintenance of arbitrary rates? (live it the very lowest rales that justice to the owners of the two roads can exact, and still they will not lie as low as the community ought to have bad from a single road. This is a kind of competition that don't compete. The fact that such a departure from proper practice is so com¬ mon as to become a general rule, is a reproach to the conceded sagacity of the managers of railway corporations. It is one of the abuses which has swelled the cost ol' our transportation system beyond what it should be, and to that extent enforced higher rates than would have been nects- sary under a more equitable administration of railway affairs. This is a case in which the people and the railroad companies have co-operated, to a certain extent, in the creation ot conditions which impose burdens that cannot be wholly disposed of; for all men admit that it is fair to allow railroads to earn enough to pay a just return on a capital invested. Were this not the case, our transportation system would soon become demoral¬ ized and pass into decay to tlie injury of all concerned. There is, however, a class of eases in which a like result has been reached without the co-operation ot the people, and without a duplication of railroads. I give you this illustration. A railroad is constructed at a CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 81 cost of $10,000,000. It is not only necessary for tlie company to earn op- crating expenses, interest on its debt, and proper to declare reasonable dividends to its shareholders, but it must maintain its property and per¬ fect it by such improvements as are calculated to carry it forward to the standard of a first class road. The public as well as the company have an interest in having these things done; for the better the road the safer and more satisfactory will be its service. Upon this proper plan the company conducts its affairs for the term of ten years. It has then a superb prop¬ erty, excellent in all its conditions and appointments. Its road-bed is per¬ fect, its bridges of the best character, its equipment unsurpassed by any other road. Its service to the public is safe, speedy and satisfactory. It has come up to this standard through the steady growth of ten years exis¬ tence. The managers take an account for the ten years, and find that for each one they have paid operating expenses, interest on the bonded debt, a reasonable dividend to the shareholders, and expended $1,000,000 in the substantial betterments and improvements that have placed the property in its satisfactory condition, or for this later purpose $10,000,000 for the entire term. On this showing they say; "This money was earned by us, and we had a perfect right to divide it among our shareholders as divi¬ dends from year to year. Instead of doing so we have served the public by giving them a better road than we could have done if we had divided the money. We have administered the affairs of the road justly. Our improvements have given the people a better road and better service than we could otherwise have done. This has cost us $10,000,000 of the money we have earned, so that the road now stands us $20,000,000, or just double the original cost. Our share capital remains at the original sum. We have only paid dividends on that amount. But the road has cost $10,000,- 000 more, and it is but just that this cost should be capitalized, and our stock shares increased to the actual cost, which is $20,000,000." Now this is a plausible statement of the case; and it looks so fair that we do not wonder at persons being willing to accept it who are interested in believing it to be a correct presentation of the facts. But is it correct f Who supplied the $10,000,000 now to be capitalized and represented by the new stock V Was it the property V Certainly not; every dollar of it was paid by the public who patronized the road. Their nioney put the property in its present superb condition. Shall they be required to pay interest in the way of dividends on their own money? If new stock be issued for the money thus furnished and expended, dividends will be ex¬ pected thereon; and so we shall have dividends paid on $20,000,000 on a road that cost the stockholders only $10,000,000. No reasoning can justi¬ fy this. When the public pay an amount suflicient to meet operating ex¬ penses, interest, necessary improvements and a reasonable dividend on the cost of the road, it has paid enough, and no doubling or watering of stock can have the slightest justification. This is one of the abuses which has crept into the railway system of this country which cannot have an end too soon. There is no surer way by which to put a stop to this in¬ crease of the nominal cost of railway lines than by the improvement and 5 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE IIENNEPIN CANAL. construction of water routes on which every one whosoever will may float his vessel for transportation of commerce free of toll or other charge. This will compel the keeping down of both the real and nominal cost of railway construction. It will enforce the greatest possible amount of con¬ struction for the least possible amount of money. If this had always been the rule and practice, the products of the west would be going for¬ ward to the seaboard at a much less rate than they now have to pay, and our entire transportation system would be rn much better condition than it is. It is carrying unnecessary burdens in the form of securities, and is therefore expected by the parties in interest to earn dividends which should have been unnecessary. A canal from the Mississippi river to the lakes, such as is proposed in the call for this convention, would tend to put an end to all practices by railway corporations competing with it. The outlet which the improvement of the Mississippi river furnishes to the products of the West will prove a most valuable check upon this evil, as it has already on the rates of rail transportation from some points on its banks to the East. Establish this new order of things and the men who manage the rail transportation between the West and the East will soon accommodate themselves and their system to it. There is no danger of irreparable injury coming upon them or the great interest they control. The ever increasing volume of traffic, resulting from the unprecedented development of the West, the advantage of rapid transit and the saving of insurance will take good care of them. These elements formulate com¬ pensations which will bring no unmerited harm to their great properties and trusts. There is no desire on the part of the people to deal unjustly by them. The American people are as just as they are determined, and while they are resolved to solve the transportation problem, they will do it as they have others of great concern in the past, firmly, but justly. If they make mistakes they will correct them; for they mean to do what is right to all interests involved. The abuses which I have mentioned they know to exist. They have experienced their pernicious effects. They be¬ lieve in the old and sound maxim of the law that "there is no wrong without a remedy." The}- know that they have the power to etlect a rem¬ edy. That through congress they may apply it by the establishment of a code for the regulation of commerce among the several states, and by the improvement of natural water ways, and by the construction of such arti¬ ficial ones as may be requisite to a complete remedy for the case they have taken in hand. They know that through the general assembly of the state they may apply such needed remedy as the power of congress cannot provide, in order that the system of water ways may be reached and utilized by all. And that this state problem rests on no such impo¬ tent foundation as that judicial fiction which allows the intervention ot the right of emini lit thiamin for the benefit ot a corporation for a pecunia¬ ry profit, but on that broad and all comprehensive principle that the state legislatuie may do whatsoever the public welfare requires, if not prohib¬ ited thereto by express constitutional restriction, which is not the case with us in that regard. These powers exist in both nation and state for CHEAr TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 83 the promotion of the public good, and are necessary for the protection of society and the interest of its members. The express power delegated to Congress carries with it all the implied powers necessary and proper to its efficient exercise. The absence of any constitutional limitation on the power of the state legislature leaves it tree to act in that regard. These propositions have both been maintained by our highest judicial tribunal. We have no need to waste time in discussing the question of power. Our concern is with the policies to be adopted. The policy for the considera¬ tion of which this convention was called is a right and practical one. Establish a thorough system ot water competition and vast benefit will at once result to the commerce and all industries of the West. If to reach a just and proper result this system must be supplemented by regulative laws, let them be of such character as will enforce such conditions in our transportation service as ought to exist without law. This can work no hardship to any person or industry. To enforce the doing of such things as of right ought to be done without coercion, is proper under all circum¬ stances. In providing a system of water route competition, let us be wise and cover the whole ground by working to a plan which shall be comprehen¬ sive and complete. The great river on whose bank we are convened is already working wondrous results for the producers of the West. The sys¬ tem of improvements put into effective operation by the general govern¬ ment for the enlargement of its capacity for commercial usefulness, should be maintained and perfected. But when all is done for it that can be done our system would be faulty if we shall not have done more. The plan should provide for all the contingencies likely to arise, and encom¬ pass all of the competitive elements that can aid us in our purpose. A canal of proper capacity to meet the nee'ds of our commerce connecting the Mississippi river with the lakes, will compel an enlargement of the Erie canal, and ultimate in the abolition of the tolls thereon. The great capital interests of New York City can't allow want of capacity in, or the obstruction of tolls upon, the Erie canal, to interfere with the business of the West, and force it to seek the seaboard at New Orleans. So, too, the latter city would be forced to use the power of her concentrated capital, and the best endeavors of Iter citizens of wealth and business enterprise, to hold as much of the traffic to her as possible. The efforts of these two out-ports would be supplemented by the capital and enterprise of two great cities of the West, Chicago and St. Louis, each in behalf of its own business advantages, and in favor of the water line on which it is located. Then we must remember that while the cold of the north would close the line to New York earlier in the season than that infihence would obstruct the route to New Orleans, the latter is liable to be visited by a pestilence which otten decimates populations, and suspends commerce during the summer months. When the former contingency happens we will still for weeks have an open way to the sea-board at New Orleans. When the lat¬ ter dread predicament transpires our way to tide-water would be open and free to New York. And it maybe that the Welland canal and the cheap transportation anl» the hennepin canal. St. Lawrence river may some day be ours through the operation of eeo liomic forces, and constitute a part of our great system of water ways, and furnish us with another out-port through which the products of the West shall go on their way to Europe. Let us have at least two ports through which to reach the outer world. Let us embrace all of the competitive elements which are to be found in the rivalries of cities, their concentra¬ tions of capital, their experiences in the ways of business, their study of economic problems, their developments of methods of trade and com¬ merce, and the inducements they may offer to secure the patronage and favor of this great interior region. Let us have as much of the year as is possible free on one line or the other to tide-water. Let us have one line where the pestilence does not come, and another where the approach of winter is longest delayed. Nor should we overlook political conditions and considerations in the creation and improvement of our system of wa¬ ter ways. Let it be such as will strengthen the unity of our country as well as serve our commercial interests. A system which shall embrace" the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers, the proposed canal, the lakes and their connections with tide-water, would meet the requirements in the particulars suggested. It would be one worthy of our great country, just to all sections of it, and effective as a solution of the great transportation problem. report of committee on selection of committee on reso¬ lutions. On behalf of the committee appointed to present a plan for the selection of a Committee on Resolutions, Mr. John F. Phillips, of Missouri, made a report, recommending the adoption of the following resolution : Rtxofat't1, That the Committee on Resolutions shall consist of one from each State duly represented in this convention under the executive call, such members to be chosen by the delegates of the States respectively. The roll of States shall be called by the president of the convention, and the chairman of each delgation shall announce the delegate chosen for his State. Mr. Phillips: This is the unanimous action of the committee. On motion, the report was adopted. It, was suggested that the Chair at once call the roll of States, as directed by the Committee's report. Hon. John Van Valkenbcro, of Iowa: Inasmuch as a large number of delegates are not here now, perhaps it would he well enough to have longer time. Some States are scarcely represented at all, and I would suggest that the names of the committee he reported in the morning, the first thing on the meeting of the convention, and I make it as a motion. Mr. Charles Randolph, of Illinois: I think it would not be wise to defer. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 85 Hon. John IIogan, of Missouri: Let me suggest to my friend that we can obviate all difficulty by simply resolving to make this committee now reporting the committee to carry out suggestions, and 1 move that as a substitute for the other motion. Mr. J. C. Starr, of Illinois: The substitute is to appoint this commit tee the Committee on Resolutions. Do I understand it V A voice: Yes. Mr. Starr: Then I would say, in behalf of the delegates from Illinois, our delegates are not present, anfl we are not willing to submit to that. Hon. Geo. E. Adams, of Illinois: However desirable it might be to ap¬ point this committee to-night, I should not think it would be right for this convention to appoint a Committee on Resolutions with so large a number absent, who do not understand this committee to he the Commit¬ tee on Resolutions. However inconvenient it may be to postpone the final constitution of that committee till to-morrow, I think it is no less than justice to do so. Let the delegates from the various States meet early in the morning and appoint their members. It seems to me that the motion to substitute would not be quite fair to those who are now absent. Hon. .Toiin IIogan, of Missouri: I simply wish to make the motion in the interest of economy of time. I believe the committee first appointed was a committee concurred in by all the delegations. I take it for granted, inasmuch as their names were sent up to the president. Now, what dif¬ ference does it make whether the whole delegation from the States is present, or not? They all concurred in the appointment of their man upon that committee, and one man from each State was appointed on that committee. I don't know who these gentlemen are, and I don't care, so far as that is concerned, who they are; they were the representatives from their States. Now, will they go forward and consummate their plans? If so, and any State is dissatisfied with its member upon that committee to-morrow morning when we meet here, if they will so state, there could be unanimous agreement that they might substitute another man upon it; that's all. That could be done to-night. We ought to ap¬ point this committee and have them go out and make up some of their report. If we have to wait till to-morrow to have that done, and we have to adjourn to go to the banquet at 12 m., why, then, we might just as well adjourn now. I hope that the convention will agree to the substitute, and the suggestion is made, in good faith, in the interest of the economy of time, and with the understanding, unanimously agreed in, that if any del¬ egations are dissatisfied with their man on the committee, they can sub¬ stitute another man for him to-morrow. I call for the question. Mr. Edward Russell, of Iowa: Mr. Chairman—I think after this con¬ vention has had its proceedings delayed, as they have been delayed, and we have wasted time, as we have wasted time, at the instance of gentle¬ men who made the plea before this convention this morning that we 80 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. should do so for the purpose of exercising particular care that the whole convention should have a favorable and fair action on this matter of mak¬ ing up the Committee on Resolutions, I think it would be a gross wrong-- indeed, an outrage—on this convention to ask that this committee, which was selected with another and a different purpose, should be the Commit¬ tee on Resolutions; that this committee should have a voice in framing the resolutions of this convention, which, in all probability, will he in direct contravention of the very object for which this convention was called. I have sacrificed my judgment; 1 did so this morning, as I feel now— yet no more clearly than I saw it this morning—while convinced that the action pressed upon this convention by gentlemen of St. Louis and the southern part of this State would delay the convention, if not endanger it. Yet I remained with my mouth closed. Why? For the sake of har¬ mony, and only that. I sacrificed my judgment, I sacrificed my intelli¬ gence, for that reason; but I don't propose to sacrifice my judgment and intelligence here and now. After we have submitted to this delay, which we did not desire, we must have, as a committee to make resolutions of this convention, a committee selected for that purpose only, as agreed upon in the adoption of the report just presented. I quite agree with my friend from St. Louis that it would be very desirable if we could have had the Committee on Resolutions appointed to-night; indeed, that committee ought to have been appointed this evening; that committee ought now to be deliberating and maturing their resolutions. It is no fault of ours that this has not been the case, no fault at all; and I must say that it comes with ill grace from the gentlemen that occasioned all this delay, now re¬ gretted, that they should ask us to consent that the proposed object of that delay should now be utterly abandoned, and that gentlemen who were, in some cases, permitted to go on the committee only because they were simply to recommend a phut, should now be the Committee on Reso¬ lutions itself! It would be unjust so to do—grossly unjust—and we can¬ not consent to it. And I desire to say— Hon. John Hooan, of Missouri (interrupting Mr. Russell): Mr. Chair¬ man—If the gentleman means to insinuate that I or my colleagues from St. Louis have done anything to incumber the progress of this convention, I beg him to reconsider it. We have made 110 speeches here, and we have occupied no time. The whole day has been consumed on his side of the house in speeches to prejudge the action of the convention. We are not to be brought here to be accused of delaying the action of this conven¬ tion when we ask for nothing but justice and right. We have been brought here, and before us has been placed, all the time, a map showing the connection of a single line of canal, and speeches by the hour have been made, showing the propriety of that one item of internal improve¬ ment. Why has nothing been said on the other side, if there is any other side? I didn't come to antagonize that proposition, and I don't intend that the gentleman shall characterize me as obstructing the business of this convention. 1 want to carry it on; I want to go through with it; but CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 87 I say to defer till to-morrow the appointment of the Committee on Reso¬ lutions, while to-morrow at noon we are to be taken from here—I would like to know when there is to be any discussion at all upon the measures for which this convention was called. If there was a private conception and a private idea to be carried out under it, and men were to be brought here gagged, we are not going to be gagged on that subject. Mr. Russell: When a gentleman arises on this floor, or on the floor of any convention or in any deliberative body, and undertakes to take the time which belongs to a gentleman who has the floor, I don't think that he is the one to complain of a breach of courtesy on the part of others. And— Hon. Geo. E. Adams: Mr. Chairman—I rise to ask whether there is a quorum present. I don't think it is fair when, perhaps, there is not a quorum present, when the members have gone away with the express un¬ derstanding that they should have a voice in framing it, I don't think it will have a good effect to press that substitute. Hon. Samuel McNutt, of Iowa: Mr. Chairman—I rise to a point of order. My point is that this convention adopted a report directing it to appoint a Committee on Resolutions, and the committee which was ap¬ pointed by the delegations from the several States represented here per¬ formed that duty; and they pointed out a way by which this convention should give expression to its opinion on the question for which this con¬ vention was convened; and by adopting that report, this convention has prescribed the way and manner in which they shall be constituted, and my point is, that that fixes the action of the convention without reconsidering that action, and the gentleman has made a motion out of order, calling upon this convention to appoint a committee contrary to the one in which this convention has said this committee shall be appointed. The Chair : This convention adopted a report, and by adopting it pre¬ scribed the manner in which the committee should be constituted; and when about to call the roll of States, a gentleman made a motion that, instead of that, it be postponed until to morrow morning. It is always within the province of a convention to stop proceedings and postpone to any time they may see fit. The first motion was certainly in order. Then the motion was made by the gentleman from Missouri to substitute; that motion you claim to be out of order V Mr. McNutt: Yes, sir. The Chair: The chair does not think it feasible to bind the conven¬ tion so but that a majority may change the method of appointing any committee. The Convention has the power to name the method of ap¬ pointment, and has power to change the method. The motion is in order. Mr. Edward Russell: Mr. Chairman—Have I the floor V The Chair: Mr. Russell has the floor. Mr. Russell: I was proceeding in my remarks when I was interrupted 88 cheap transportation and the hennepin canal. by the gentleman from Missouri, standing here till be had concluded his remarks, and I think 1 have the right to set myself right as to the re- llection which lie lias made upon me. I have not insinuated anything against anybody ; I simply called the attention of this convention to the indisputable fact that, in consequence of the insistance of this morning that this particular committee should he constituted, instead of the selec¬ tion of a Committee on Resolutions being determined by the Committee 011 Permanent Organization and Rules, the proceedings of this convention have been delayed. And I wish to impress upon the members of the con¬ vention the other fact, that that delay was advocated and was secured on the express ground that it was the desire of the convention, as it was of the gentlemen asking it, to secure an eminently fair and deliberate choice by the convention in the selection of the Committee 011 Resolu¬ tions, and I appeal to any gentleman on this floor whether 1 have not stated the actual fact. And now that the convention has taken this course, because asked so to do by the gentlemen now opposing me, I think it is, to say the least, indecorous to ask this convention, when so large a number of persons have retired, not expecting action, to ask that this part of the convention shall consent to this action and this method of appointing the Committee on Resolutions. I think that the good sense of my friend from St. Louis, and the good judgment of every member of this convention, will sustain me in that position. 1 do insist that, after we have been delayed so long in determining how to select a Committee on Resolutions, we are bound, in deference to the object of the convention, to take deliberate action and select that Committee on Resolutions in accordance with the letter of the resolve which occasioned the delay—in harmony with the spirit of the convention. A delegate: 1 move that we adjourn till nine o'clock to-morrow morning. Another delegate moved, as an amendment, that the hour be eight o'clock, which, being accepted by the mover of the original resolution, was put and carried. The chair declared the convention adjourned until eight o'clock a. m. on Thurs¬ day. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 89 SECOND BAT'S PROCEEDINGS. The convention reassembled on Thursday morning, and was called to order, at 8:30 o'clock, by the president, Hon. R. (t. Horr. Hon. John Hog an, of St. Louis, addressed tlie convention, resuming his argument of the previous evening in favor of his motion. He objected to the construction placed on his remarks in the Davenport Gazette of that morning, and then asked leave to withdraw the resolution he had offered. The chair decided that Mr. Ilogan's motion of the evening previous had been disposed of in the adoption of the resolu¬ tion of adjournment. COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS. The chairman stated that the next business in order was the appointment of a Committee on Resolutions, in accord¬ ance with the plan of the special committee reported to and adopted by the convention yesterday. The respective States were called upon in their order, and the following gentlemen were named, and were appointed by the chair, as constituting the Committee on Resolutions: Edward Russell aud S. M. Clark, of Iowa (to have one vote in commit¬ tee); John F.Phillips, Missouri; Gen. T. J. Henderson, Illinois; M. M. Powers, Ohio; B.J. Stephenson, Wisconsin; Wm. Chamberlain, Michi¬ gan; John L. Swits, New York; O. C. Merriman, Minnesota; aud Judge S. 0. Hastings, California. The committee was rerpiested to report at ten o'clock. Hon. John Van Valkenberg moved that, pending the re¬ port ot the Committee on Resolutions, the Hon. E. O. Stan- nard, of St. Louis, be invited to address the convention. Adopted unanimously. ADDRESS BY EX-LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR STANNAHD. Mr. Stannard came forward and addressed the convention as follows : Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: This is very un¬ expected to me, as I had no thought of making a speech in the conven¬ tion yesterday, and certainly not to-day, and anything I may say will he 90 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. of a disconnected character. While I have been invited to occupy the time of the convention between this and the reporting of the committee, 1 shall occupy but a very few minutes of your time, with the hope that we may hear from others of this convention relative to the matters that concern us, and that we are feeling a great interest in. But before I pro¬ ceed, I desire to say something, to refer somewhat, to what was said in this convention last night, at a very late hour, when many of you were away, and some remarks and insinuations in the Davenport diHette, this morning, relative to the purposes of the St. Louis delegation here in this convention, because I feel that we are occupying, from the standpoint of those representations, a false position. When this convention was called— when the order was promulgated for its assembling, early in this month— we of St. Louis did not fully understand the scope of it, and failed to comprehend what we were expected to come here for. We did not pro¬ pose to occupy any false position there with our friends in St. Louis and the friends of the Mississippi river improvement, and neither did we pro¬ pose to occupy a false position in this convention; hence, there was a meeting called, in the Merchants' Exchange, of the gentlemen who had been appointed delegates to come to this convention, and a letter was formulated and addressed by the president of the St. Louis Merchants' Exchange to Mr. Russell, the secretary of the commission for the calling of this convention, in order that we might understand precisely what our position would be if we came. The letter of the president of the Cham¬ ber of Commerce, that he sent to Mr. Russell, is published this morning in the Davenport Gaxette. I hope you have all read it. Editorial atten¬ tion was given to it. It you have not read it, I should like, in order that you might understand our position, to have it read, and the editorial answer. If it is not desirable to have it read, I will simply state a synop¬ sis of it, and read an extract of Mr. Russell's reply. [Voices—Read it; read it.] The secretary read the correspondence in full, as follows: Davenport, Iowa, May 11, ims], Michael McEnnis, President of Merchants' Exchange, St. Louis: Dear Sin : Through you, as its president, the Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis is hereby specially invited to be represented by five delegates in the Northwestern Convention, to be held in Davenport, commencing on May 25th. This special invitation is extended on the basis of and in accordance with the general invitation of the call for the convention, as per copy herewith enclosed. You will greatly oblige by notifying me at your convenience of the names of the gentlemen selected as delegates as invited. Please note explanatory letter herewith. Tours respectfully, Edward Russell, See. of Commission. ' CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 91 Davenport, Iowa, May 11, 1881. Michael McEnnis, Esq., President of Merchants' Exchange, St. Louis, Mo.: Dear Sir: Your telegram of this date, notifying me of non-receipt hy your body of any invitation to representation in the convention called for the 35tli, was instantly answered by telegraph on. its re¬ ception. Herewith please now receive the formal call. Allow me to ex¬ plain that the call itself, as issued and widely published, has been consid¬ ered as sufficient general invitation to representation by all bodies favora¬ ble to the objects of the convention. An announcement in the St. Louis papers, notably in the columns of the Republican, that the concern of your city should be and would be to antagonize the Hennepin Canal movement entirely, has certainly seemed to preclude possibility of a favor¬ able acceptance by the Merchants' Exchange of a special invitation. Very cheerfully, however-, do we now extend such special invitation, on receipt of intimation from you that it will be welcome. May I ask you to care¬ fully note the wording of the call V You will then see that, while it con¬ templates primarily a convention of friends of the Hennepin Canal con¬ struction, it as clearly invites the co-operation of all who are in favor of also improving still further the Mississippi and the Illinois rivers. Of course, then, we do not invite delegates to oppose the Hennepin Canal effort. Attendance for that purpose would, then, be indecorous, to say the least. But you may rely upon it that each of the originators of the con¬ vention call, members of the commission named at head of this sheet, are unalterably the earnest friends of the Mississippi river improvement, the barge line and cheap transportation to the South, as well as to the East. We trust, therefore, that St. Louis will be glad to co-operate with us in a generous spirit in behalf of the common interests sought to be subserved by the convention, as per the call. Yours respectfully, Edward Russell, Secretary. St. Louis, May 13, 1881. Edward Russell, Esq., Secretary Mississippi and Illinois River Canal Im¬ provement Commission: Dear Sir: Your favor of the 11th inst. has my earnest attention. The call for the Northwestern Convention, to be held at Davenport, Iowa, May 35th, 1881, was couched in language calculated to raise the question whether any delegates south or west of the lower rapids of the Mississippi river were expected to take part. Your explanation to the contrary is re. ceived with pleasure. The Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis is not op¬ posed to any improvement which will facilitate the business of and enrich any part of this great country. All we ask is, that any change in the nav¬ igation of the Mississippi valley which may be suggested shall be of a nature that will not obstruct the movements now on foot, or that are al¬ ready acromplished, and from your letter we understand that this corres¬ ponds with the views and wishes of yourself and all the other officers and members of your commission. The first great object, not only of the people of the Northwest, West CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. and South, but of the whole country, should be to permanently improve the navigation of the Mississippi river (the natural highway to the sea) and all its tributaries, and to make sure, also, that the money spent at the mouth of the Mississippi, under the jetty system, shall realize its full value. .This great object can be accomplished by judicious expenditures, on the part of the government, for a sum of money that will be absolutely trilling compared with the results in the increased wealth and prosperity of the country at large. The improvement of our rivers would open a highway greater than is possessed by any other country, and the people of the United States would own it. It would give us, in fact, an inland sea, the value of which to the country in the increase of population, wealth and influence is beyond the power of man to calculate. Could we con nect this inland sea with the lakes by opening a canal from Rock Island to the Illinois river, and enlarge the canal from La Salle to Chicago for vessels of large tonnage, without interfering with other improvements in navigation, none would be happier or more willing to join hands in the good work than the St. Louis Merchants' Exchange If the views ex¬ pressed in this letter are not in perfect harmony with your commission, yon will please advise me early. Yours truly, Michael McEnnjs, President. Davenport, Iowa, May 1(1, 1881. Michael McEnnis, Esq., President of Merchants' Exchange, St. Louis: Dear Sir: Your very welcome favor of the 13th has just reached this a. m. Its contents have been noted with great pleasure. Let me assure you, without the slightest hesitancy, that every line you therein write con¬ cerning the desirability and necessity of continued and thorough im¬ provement of the Mississippi for the purpose of navigation, expresses sen¬ timents only in exact accord with those held by every member of our commission, who have alone organized the new effort for the construction of the Hennepin Canal. Not a single one of us would for a moment con¬ sent to any movement which could in any manner hinder the work of im¬ provement on the Mississippi river. Indeed, you will please allow me to say, with eutire respect, that to us, in view of our constant, unremitting and anxious support of every effort made to secure appropriations for the Mississippi, such suggestions of our opposition or unfriendliness to the Mississippi river as have been made public in St. Louis papers seem to our view decidedly ludicrous. "Why, this city has had repeated represen¬ tation in conventions held in your city, St. Paul, Quiney and elsewhere, expressly to aid efforts tor the Mississippi improvements. Personally, I may say, I have attended two gatherings in St. Louis, and have journeyed to another at St. Paul, only to add a mite to such effort. Our members of Congress have ever been held to strict account in the direction of voting liberal aid in similar directions. But we have come to a point at which we feel it to he imperatively our duty to say, "This ought ye to have done, and not left the other undone." We want no abatement of effort for our grand inland sea, so successfully • CHEAP TRANSPOliTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 93 bearing our products southward ; hut we want no less a vigorous prosecu¬ tion of a union of that arm of commerce with the lakes and the route to the East. As to this, please note carefully the wording of our "call" as enclosed. Be sure, then, that delegations from St. Louis will be most cordially welcomed, while it will he our earnest solicitude to so frame the authori¬ tative utterances of the convention as to make up an entirely harmonious demand for the construction of the Hennepin Canal and the continued improvement of the Mississippi. Indeed, both must he regarded in order to satisfy our own people. They want the barge line to New Orleans, while they also want a chance, at least, for relief from the monopolies which control such transportation as must he had to and from the East. Surely, as so well expressed in your letter, "none" should he "happier" or more willing " to join hands in the good work " of securing such an improvement "than the St. Louis Merchants'Exchange," if that can he secured "without interfering with other improvements;" as it certainly can he, must he and will he. Yours respectfully, Edward Russell, Secretary, etc. Mr. Stannard, resuming his address— Now, gentlemen, upon the basis of this correspondence, the representa¬ tives of the St. Louis Merchants' Exchange and the State of Missouri are in this convention, and we were careful that there should be no misunder¬ standing. It was understood that we came here as friends especially of the Mississippi river and its improvement, because that is a sentiment that has been most thoroughly crystalized in the minds of the merchants of St. Louis and the State of Missouri, and, I may say, of all the Missis¬ sippi valley, and especially the entire country west of the Mississippi; and you can readily see that, under such circumstances, the merchants of the city of St. Louis cannot come to this convention without in some way representing the Mississippi river and asking, at the same time that we ask for appropriations for the Hennepin Canal, that we should formulate in our resolutions that the Mississippi river and its tributaries should also secure recognition—if not to the front, that it should he abreast of any¬ thing, and he abreast with any of the expressions of this convention. We were particular to have that matter understood. There might have been some fear here yesterday—there seemed to have been some fear—that the group of gentlemen over in that corner of the house [points to location ol southern delegates] were to create a dissension, a disturbance and an at¬ tempt to run away with this convention. Now, gentlemen, we have no such thought, if we could have done so; there is not a gentleman here from the State of Missouri who would have thought of such a thing. It did look a little strange, however, to us. There was a little fear lurking in our bosom, a few minutes after the organization of this convention, that this matter had been cut and dried. We observed that the first gen¬ tleman who made a motion to raise a committee was a gentleman front 91 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. Chicago. Now, wo have great respect for our friend from Chicago. AVc observed, in a few moments, that a prepared list of delegates was pulled out of the pocket of the temporary chairman. The next gentleman who arose to make a motion was a gentleman from Chicago, 011 the Committee on Permanent Organization ; and we observed, simultaneously, that the temporary chairman ptdled out a prepared list of delegates 011 that committee. Now, we were a little fearful that the next move would be that a gentleman from Chicago would make a motion for a Committee on Resolutions,• and that a like paper would he drawn out, and perhaps a prepared set ol' resolutions would also he drawn out, and we were a little suspicious that the Mississippi river might he left out en¬ tirely. Now, although very strange, we were not very suspicious, espe¬ cially of Chicago. I know they wouldn't do anything against the city of St. Louis; we are the most harmonious people in the world. They are simply at the other end of the bridge, and it is probable that the city will fill in between St. Louis and Chicago—all the space—and it will he a most harmonious organization. Sly friends from Keokuk had the same suspi¬ cion, even before we. did—1 know they did—and we wanted the conven¬ tion to have a voice in appointing that committee; we were fearful they didn't know that St. Louis was here at all, and hence our action. Now, that was all there was of it; we wanted a fair representation—we wanted something to he said relative to the city of St. Louis—we wanted something should he said in the resolutions relative to the improvement of the Mississippi when the water goes down. We need nothing of that kind now, and haven't needed any since February loth. I am glad to say we have had a great surplus of water, and, in some instances, too much of it; we would like to turn a large portion of it through this canal. But the time comes when the water gets low; then we need the improvement of the Mississippi river. We have shown, by what we have been able to do in the last three months, what the Mississippi river can do for the pro¬ ducers of this great northwestern country. More than six million bushels of grain went down the Mississippi river and out at its mouth, and was distributed to the hungry people of the world, before the northern route was open at all, and before the Erie Canal had opened its gates. We want to continue to have our share of commerce down the Mississippi river to New Orleans and its mouth. I say our share; we don't expect it all. We don't expect the Erie and Welland canals will close, but we expect that there will be a great deal of the time when this country will require all the transportation facilities that can be provided; and especially are we interested, and expect to be understood to advocate, that the •Mississippi river shall be adequately, systematically improved, so that we may receive a portion of tin; products of the country, and that the producers who are here in this great valley may have competition water ways and competi¬ tion transportation facilities that will give a fair rate to the markets ot the world. It is with this view that we are here. We would not tear down any¬ body's structure to erect ours, but we can't afford to be ignored in any CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 95 convention for commercial purposesju the Mississippi valley; and it is with this view that we are here, and 1 am glad to announce to the repre¬ sentatives of this convention that the jetties at the mouth of the Missis¬ sippi river, for which you paid $5,500,000 are a success, and that you are getting your money's worth every day out of that expenditure. I have in my hand a dispatch which I will read, to show that water route is now being utilized. Nathan Cole, care Northwestern Convention: Contract made here to-day for shipment oil through bill of lading of thirty thousand bushels of wheat from St. Paul to Glasgow, Scotland, via New Orleans. Geo. H. Morgan, Sec. Board Trade. And I will tell you what the contract price is, twenty-eight cents a bushel from St. Paul to Glasgow, Scotland. Now, I don't want to boast, but just figure up your railroad tariffs and see how cheap you can get it through the other way, and if it is not cheaper by eight cents a bushel than by any other route, I am greatly mistaken. Now, gentlemen, the business of the people of this country is not to be compelled to go to any particular city, or by any particular route, but it is to their interest to get their products to market by the lowest possible rate, and they are interested in getting their supplies that they may need at the lowest possible rate; and 1 want to show you when the improve¬ ment of the Mississippi river, and the keeping of it in good navigable condition is beneficial to Chicago, New York, and every other part of this country. It will force the railroads, if they carry anything, to do it at fair competition rates, and you get your benefit almost the same as if you had an improved water route yourselves, f fence, I ask the support of this convention, as we are invited here for this purpose, and knowing that we came here for this purpose, that in your resolutions that the improvement of the Mississippi river, and some of its large tributaries, should receive your hearty vote, and that it be improved till we have a channel that shall be five feet deep in low water from St. Paul to the mouth of the Illinois river, and eight feet at low water from the mouth of the Illinois to Cairo, and from there down nothing less than ten or twelve feet—and there's practically no difficulty. I hope you will not forget this. The parties here are one in interest in the support of the ample improvement of the Mississippi river, and it should stand upon its own footing and its own merits in Congress, and the expense should be borne by the whole people. I don't believe that the small tributaries should be pressed upon the atten¬ tion of Congress. I don't believe that the Hennepin Canal should depend on it—it should stand on its own merits. A commission recently ap¬ pointed by the government of the United States at a session recently held, asserted, in the meeting in the city of St. Louis, that there were no im¬ pediments in the way of the improvement of the Mississippi river so that there would be ample water even at low water, and it was only a matter of dollars and cents in the way of making it such a canal as the world never knew, and it could be done with a moderate expenditure to the people of the Mississippi valley; and the consuming people East and of the world, '•)() CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE IIKNNKPJN CANAL. as they arc as much interested as we arc, should have every convenience to have their goods shipped to them. I say that this matter should receive our most hearty co-operation. We are from St. Louis, 1 don't know whether we shall be able to put the Mississippi river in front, but I hope you will consider it with the Henne¬ pin Canal scheme. I thank you for your attention. ADDRESS RY HON. \VM. BKOSS. At the conclusion of Gov. Stannard's address loud calls were made for Governor Bross of Chicago. That gentleman was invited forward by the Chair, and introduced to the con¬ vention, speaking; as follows: Mr, Chairman : Gentlemen of the Convention—I have only afew words to say on this occasion, but it seems to me proper that I should reply, or rather talk after Mr, Stannard of St. Louis. It did seem to me that we had an era of good feeling. 1 wish simply on behalf of myself and the Chicago delegation, that we rejoice in this era of good feeling. 1 think Gov. Stannard will find the people of Chicago, and the press of Chicago have been in favor of the improvement of the Mississippi river, from its source to the Gulf of Mexico. We don't want anything less than the broadest improvement of this great artery of commerce, and ask nothing that is not right in regard to ourselves; nor do we want anything that is wrong to St. Louis. I met St. Louis in years gone by when the Missouri river was opened to St. .To; and she came then with her lip down. I was sorry and so are the Chicago people here to-day. We went there with the best possible humor, and I am glad to see her here to-day represented by Gov. Stannard, and I am glad to see that she is in a better humor: hut she was in a bad humor when this bridge was built, and a long time after it was built, but when the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the bridge, could be built, she submitted, and now has the best bridge on the continent, so that Chicago can go there if she pleases. Besides all that, I recognize that St. Louis has beat Chicago in a great many ways In 1870 she beat us about twelve thousand in the count; it was remarkable what figures these gentlemen could show. We have no feeling, therefore, toward St. Louis, and I am glad she recognizes our peculiar situation upon the lakes and is willing that we shall have tine clothes. Now, this I say as a matter ol congratulation to Chicago and her people, and every one connected with the progress and success of the great improvements that we claim are necessary for the Mississippi river. I am glad that Gov. Stannard can report the shipping of six million bushels on the barges. These six million bushels would hardly till one of our warehouses in Chi¬ cago. Let St. Louis take off the surplus—all she can—and we will take the balance, because the balance is largely on the side of the lakes, and is sure to remain so. We have no sort ot fear as to the future. The Welland CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 97 Canal will soon be so the largest vessels can land in Chicago and carry the products of the Northwest direct to the markets of the world. We have no feeling against St. Louis; and I can assure Gov. Stannard and the gentlemen from St. Louis that we have an endearment for the improve¬ ment of the Mississippi river, and so has the whole delegation from Illi¬ nois. I can answer for the State of Illinois that we paid $12,000,000 to $23,000,000 internal taxes last year; and we say to the gentlemen, only give us five per cent, of what we pay, and we will ask nothing more— we will put our hands in our pockets and pay the $22,000,000 every year; give us the five per cent., and we will improve our canal system and the river system, and we will carry the products of this great northwestern country to feed the hungry millions of Europe; give us five per cent.— that's all we want. Now, this convention—what it wants is, in some way, to impress upon the minds of the members of Congress the importance of this matter, and lay upon their tables the proceedings of this convention and the facts on which we base our claims for the improvement of our rivers. Here, it cost $5,500,000 to build the jetties, and we want $4,500,000 to build the Hennepin Canal—that's all. We want to do this, but we don't want to ignore the Mississippi river, nor the Missouri, as one of the great arteries of this continent. ,Neal'ly two years ago I started for Bismarck, and took a trip through Dakota up to the Northern Pacific ltailroad—spent several days getting there, and then took several days more to get another steamer and up the Missouri valley. Here is a vast reach of country", as deep and rich as our prairies are, that is to be developed in the near future. All this is open for settlement and cultivation, and people from Europe and people from the older States are going there in vast crowds to develop it. Hence, the sooner we cau put these improvements there, the better it will be for us. Let us take courage, and thank God we are still here and can do something to improve this vast valley. 1 thank you for listening to me so patiently. FRATERNAL GREETINGS. At the conclusion of Gov. Bross' remarks, Gov. Stannard stepped forward, and the two engaged in a hearty hand¬ shaking in front of the president's chair, amid enthusiastic applause from the convention. ADDRESS BY HON. J. C. STARR, OF PEORIA. The Hon. J. C. Starr arose, and being recognized by the Chair, said : Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : It is said that "when Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug ot war," but we have just witnessed a scene between St. Louis and Chicago of fraternal harmony 7 9K CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. that reverses that saying, and we can say, ""When Greek meets Greek, then comes peace." In this convention there has been, seemingly, an an¬ tagonism between these two great cities, eacli striving for the mastery, and to control the commerce of this great Northwest and the productive inter¬ ests of this great country. It is a rivalry which furnishes competition by which the farmers profit; it is a rivalry that should be encouraged in every possible way, and 1 am rejoiced to see in this convention gentlemen of such defined ability representing their respective interests—represent¬ ing their respective cities and States—representing the grand, glorious productive interests of the great West and of this mighty nation. I come here from a section of the State of Illinois half way between those cities. We stand upon the banks of the Illinois river—a river capa¬ ble of furnishing transportation through its lockage, at one time, of ten such canal boats as are transported over the Erie Canal, and barges or steamers ot two thousand four hundred tons. We represent a city that consumes, in manufacture, forty thousand bushels of grain a day. We come here demanding nothing sectional, but we want avenues for our products to the markets of the world; we want to improve the highways— the water ways of the great West—and we want them all improved and fnade navigable, and under the control of the general government. I have just come from the Committee on Resolutions, and I can tell the conven¬ tion the resolutions embrace, substantially, all the great water connections, and embrace the lakes and embrace the -enlargement of the Michigan Canal; embrace the improvement of the Illinois river, the improvement of the Mississippi river, and all the great interests of the people in this section of country. Now, we have one of these interests; we desire the enlargement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and Illinois river, but we don't want to ignore the Mississippi river or those laboring for its improvement, be¬ cause it is the grand, glorious Father of Waters. It furnishes, with its tributaries, twelve thousand miles of inland sea, upon the bosom of whose waters can float the productions of this great and mighty continent. We want all these embraced, for the reason that no single measure can be car¬ ried through the Congress of the United States. Should Gen. Henderson go to the Congress of the United States with a bill appropriating $5,000,000 for the purpose of building this canal from Hennepin, on the Illinois river, to the Mississippi river, they would say to him, in language not to be mistaken or misunderstood, the Illinois and Michigan Canal is under the control of the State of Illinois, and we don't propose to build a local canal in the State of Illinois unless it is made for the benefit of the people of this nation. They will say, make it national, and wait till you get a deed from the State of Illinois to the general gov¬ ernment for the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and then we will aid you in the building of this canal from Hennepin to Rock Island. Lined.c said a house divided against itself cannot stand, and it was said long before his time, and that is what the people ot the State of Illinois say to this convention to-day—"A house divided against itself cannot CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 99 stand." All tlieSe measures must go hand-in-hand, or we cannot succeed. We can then ask the people of the United States for the enlargement of the Michigan Canal; we can demand the improvement of the Illinois river; we can demand the improvement of the Mississippi river. But how are we going to accomplish this? The State of Illinois owns the Michigan Canal, and we want to improve the Illinois river. We want the canal enlarged into a ship canal; we want it improved to the same capa¬ city so that hoafs of the same number of tons can float upon the canal that can float upon and pass through the locks and the Illinois river. Then, upon that river, under our internal improvement system, we have ninety miles already completed, and almost one-half of the work done, by the appropriations from our own State, and at a cost of less than $1,000,000. We want a deed from the State of Illinois to the general government for this great artery, and that it shall be placed under its control for the use of the people. We want all these measures to be carried forward haud- in-hand for one single purpose. No man can go into the Congress of the United States and ask for an appropriation for this canal only, reaching across from the Illinois to the Mississippi river. We must form a combi¬ nation of interests; we must get interested parties to go to Congress from Missouri; we must get interested parties to go to Congress from Pennsyl¬ vania, from Ohio, from Kentucky, from Mississippi and Louisiana, from Illinois and Minnesota, from Iowa and Nebraska, and from the Empire State of New York. All are alike interested, and there is no other way on earth to get it. We demand of Congress an appropriation sufficient to make the Illinois and Michigan Canal a mighty ship canal, broad enough and deep enough to float the products to the markets of the world. It can only be done by embracing all these improvements in our resolutions and standing or falling together upon them. Now, gentlemen, 1 don't desire to detain you longer on this subject, hut I want to impress upon every delegate, every man here, the necessity of incorporating nil—not one single river, not the improvement of one single water way, but 1hat we all stand together and impress these measures upon the attention of Congress. We have no slight power to contend with. The railroad companies have combined into powerful monopolies, and, to a large extent, control the genius, brains, and ability of the nation. There is no power, except the general government, that can control them. We must go to the Congress of the United States and say: You have made appropriations for the development of the resources of the great West; you have appropriated to the railroads millions of treasure, and you have appropriated millions and millions of acres of the public domain to the railroad companies. Now we say, take the bonds of the Great Pacific and do unto us as you have unto these mighty railroads; give unto the people of this great country, who are praying for relief from railroad monopolies—give us a tithe of the millions you have contributed to the railroads, and we will be content. We must have harmony; we must press these several resolutions; we must act all together as one unit, and we will he able to accomplish the 100 CHEAP THANHPOUTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. great object for which we assemble—the benefit of the people of the mighty Northwest. The President: I hold in my hand the resolutions of invitation from Ihe Board of Trade ol the city of Council Bluffs, asking each membir of the delegation here, if possible, to meet with them, on June '21st, in the convention to take into consideration the improvement of the Missouri river. If there are no objections, these resolutions may be received and ordered printed in the proceedings of the convention. ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN HOGAN, OF ST. LOUIS. Continued calls being made for the Hon. John Hogan, of St. Louis, that gentleman was invited forward by the Chair, and said : Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: I feel highly honored at your invitation at this hour to make some few remarks to you. I need not say to you that this convention is representative of an idea, that idea being cheap transportation for the products of the West to the mark¬ ets of the world. I need hardly say that in my past life I have been con¬ nected with that Idea. I have been seeking to crystalize it all my public life. My old friends here, and others who have spoken, I think may have seen the workings of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and its varied im¬ provements and interests. Gentlemen, I am, as you see, a very young man yet, but I had the honor to vote for that measure in its first inception, in 1836, in the Illinois legislature. I worked for it and labored to bring it about, and other operations connected with the improvement of the great State of Illinois, and I have lived to see verified a prediction I made then in argument addressed to the Illinois legislature—I have lived to see the day when that State, of which I was then a citizen, become, as I said it would become, the third State in this glorious galaxy of States, possessing a population of nearly five million people. I said I would live to see that day. I have lived to see the day when all these railroads would permeate the State, and when improvement should develop such an interest as would develop this then wilderness region directly to the front among the galaxy of nations; and I have lived to see it pretty nearly, and I think I shall live to see it verified. From my observation I am satisfied we will see— those of us who are young enough to live long enough. We build here, in this magnificent Northwest, the granary of the world, supplying all nations with necessary food from our production here. Gentlemen, I don't arise here to pass a euloguim upon the 8tate ot Illi¬ nois, nor yet upon the Illinois and Michigan Canal, although I arise to regret the day when calamitous disturbances of 1837 compelled the State to desist from making it deep enough. 1 want it raised to an elevation so as to require water to be pumped into it, to connect between the Illinois river and Lake Michigan. I can't believe God and nature intended it to CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 101 empty itself from the Illinois river to the Mississippi river. I am in favor of internal improvement—of such improvement as will advance the in¬ terest of all the community, of all the country, of every portion of the country. I would not have any of these great works localized it I could avoid it; but we are here in the interest of a special work. Much was said yesterday, very much was said, of the propriety of building the Hen¬ nepin Canal from this point to the Illinois river, so as to make a five hun¬ dred mile canal from Chicago to St. Paul, so that the people in this upper country might have access to the great city of Chicago, where they might transact their business. Now, as was said by my colleague, I have no antagonisms to Chicago, although I llave formed considerable of an idea that Chicago is not situated in the center of this great republic, but from its influence and power I have looked upon it as a great place—a wonder¬ ful, a marvelous place—and I rejoice in the growth of Chicago, and its enterprise and its advancement, just as much as if I were a citizen of it, because Chicago belongs to my country, and the whole of it is mine, and I rejoice in every portion of it. But the gentleman who made remarks here yesterday must certainly have forgotten that a canal from the Mississippi river to the lakes, which was the great thehae yesterday presented—that such a canal exists, and has existed and has been built, and built at much expense of money and men—the Pox River and Wis¬ consin Canal. Now, look at it. There's a canal running through Wis¬ consin, and taps the great Wisconsin river. Its running affects the Win¬ nebago lake, fed by both it and Besty(V) lake, and could soon have a canal answering to the region above. That's the idea in outline, and the way I understand it. We are to pay out millions of dollars upon it, and here we are to-day ignoring the existence of the Fox River Canal. If the people of St. Paul, people of Wisconsin, of Minnesota, of Dakota and Mon¬ tana—if they want to use the transportation of the lakes, they have got it already—why not utilize it V Now, you may say, we want to supplement this canal with that. All right; I have no objections at all, if it can be done; but don't present the necessity for its construction upon the ground that there is no way to connect the upper Mississippi with the lakes but through this medium. Gentlemen, this Mississippi is my hobby. I have worked at it for many years, and I delight to see anything done for its improvement. In 1865 there was, in my recollection, a convention called in this city to demand the improvement of the Mississippi river. That convention the thirty- ninth Congress carried out the action of, and determined to make a fine channel for the upper rapids for steamboats and to build a canal at Keo¬ kuk to overcome the lower rapids. These works were projected as a re¬ sult of the Davenport convention of 1865, and since then this work has been going on, until now the Mississippi river is attracting the attention of the world to its carrying power and capacity, and we come here to-day to represent this great inland sea and demand for it everything that can be done shall be done to facilitate its commercial power with improve¬ ments to correspond with the magnitude of its grandeur. Look at it; 102 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. look at it! It is a stream which cannot be dammed up; which cannot be diverted from its course; which will bear upon its bosom the navies of the world, almost, and certainly can carry upon its proud breast the almost illimitable products, now and hereafter, of this vast country and this happy people of one hundred million freemen. Look at it! There it goes; there it goes in its majestic sweep onward. And when originally this country was made to bear the fruits of business, it was done by this river. As early as 182G the people down in the lower part of Illinois went to Galena on a steamboat on the Mississippi river. Another steamboat brought the people to this upper portion of the valley. I recollect very well when Iowa began, and steamboats brought the people to Burlington and Keokuk; and the steamboats have gone on advancing the interests of this country. Why strike at them? Why try to stop them ? But if they did so much in its youth, what will they do now, with the improved appli¬ ances that are brought to bear in the transportation ot the products of this country V Why, gentlemen, no artificial means of transportation can for a moment come into competition with the improved appliances that are brought to bear upon the Mississippi river and its magnificent tributaries. Our barge system, our barge lines, are bearing off the products of the West to the East through the jetties, and shipping them through the same means of exit. You don't know, probably, all of you, the character of this barge business, and I want to tell you. A powerful tug boat bears upon the bosom of the great Mississippi river six magnificent barges at a time, bearing onward, as several of them have done, twelve thousand tons of products at once. Can anything equal it? Can anything compete with it? Can anything divert it? No, gentlemen, no. You take one of these tugs that start from St. Louis and go to New Orleans, and I ask you, can any kind of conveyance or contrivance compete with it in quantity, in price or in time? You talk about railroads and their velocity, borne along like a current of wind. Why, gentlemen, our Mississippi barges can beat a little bit of a railroad, and give it one-half ot the time to boot We start out a barge from St. Louis, or a tow of barges with a steamer (we have done it this spring, and it can be done constantly) with seven hun¬ dred thousand tons of freight in six days. You send out from there a train ot barges that will fill eighteen hundred cars—and then they can't carry it all—and yet one steamer on the Mississippi bears it oft'to market, with its twelve thousand tons of freight, to the markets of the world; and, what is more, we have had the steam barges leave St. Louis and go down the Mississippi river, without stopping, thirteen hundred miles, right to New Orleans, and put this freight upon foreign ships, and have these ships go out at the jetties, and be in the Gulf of Mexico and on the way to Europe, in six days after they start from St. Louis. That is our trans¬ portation system. This is the beginning of it; and while now we have two hundred thousand tons of these barges, when you shall have filled up this valley, as you will, and when the production shall be quadrupled— nay, quintupled—when all these developments are made through this great country, then, and not till then, will the world know what a vehicle CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 103 of transportation is this Mississippi river. But we can compete with the world; everybody may come here and float upon this river, and one of its advantages is that nobody can monopolize it. Here are no pool lines, be¬ cause every fellow can put his own oar in and paddle off to the transac¬ tion of his own business; and whether he gets upon a palatial steamboat, that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, or gets in his own flat-boat, carried along by the current of the Mississippi, he goes free, untram¬ melled, without toll and without tribute to anybody. Gentlemen, this has been the idea of the fathers of our republic. In 1800, Madison, speaking of the Mississippi river, said that to the people of the West the Missis¬ sippi river (and of right) ought to be more valuable and of more interest than all of the other rivers of the country besides, and he instanced them and gave them by name, and included in them even the magnificent Hud¬ son. And it was with a view of the importance of the Mississippi river that Jefferson bought Louisiana and the Mississippi river, rather than have a war with Prance or Spain for its open mouth. So it has gone on, vindicating itself as a great natural highway, and as long as snow falls in the north and the clouds pour out rain in the south, so long will this glori¬ ous Mississippi roll onward to the sea, and will bear the freights and the products of the people, to an almost illimitable extent, grown upon its borders. As I was coming here, just now, I heard you, Mr. President, reading an invitation from some people on the Missouri river. The Chairman: Yes, Council Bluff's. Council Bluffs! Lord! Just think of it. What a distance that was out of the world in Gov. Bross' day and mine. A voice: It is in the world now. Hogan : I reckon it is. Voice: You bet it is. Hogan: That proud old muddy, that grand old muddy river, will raise more men and more products than almost any other portion of our coun¬ try in the near future. Do you suppose that the Almighty put that big river there, with its thirty-one hundred miles of steamboat navigation, for nothing? No; oh, no. He intended, and has raised us up to carry it out—He intended that that river shall be improved and made available for commerce, so that these millions of products shall have navigation to the sea; and it will be done. Now, let me say, in reference to it, Major Souter, who has had charge of that river, in an investigation, makes this statement: that he could protect this river, for eight hundred miles of the Missouri river, from the mouth and below the mouth of the Illinois river up to Council Bluffs and above—eight hundred miles, he says, can be furnished with a ten-foot channel, free from snags and bars and every difficulty, for an expense of $8,000,000. Eight hundred miles of such a highway! I know that you say four and a half millions is a very little 104 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. thing for running sixty-five miles of canal across here to run little boats in, as my old friend from Chicago last night said—these little barges that made some people sore-headed. 1 wouldn't wonder if they would make a good many sore-hearted before they got through. But to think of a mag¬ nificent river at an expense of $8,000,000! Why, gentlemen, what a world it opens up to the starving nations of Europe. Forty thousand dollars a mile is held to be about an average value of the cost of every canal in the United States. Forty thousand dollars a mile! The Lord dug a canal right down from the mountains of Montana and Idaho and Wyoming^ and sent it coursing along down the valley, and made the Missouri river ot it; and while in its progress it was doing wonders in the way of bank destruc¬ tion, Major Souter says that he can protect the banks and dig a channel ten feet deep, and every mile of it can be done for $10,000 a mile. Now what do you say? Isn't that magnificent? Don't that give you an idea of what we are coming to in this country? Good gracious alive! who ever had a conception of what this country will be? If 3*011 are nat¬ urally physically strong, 3*011 will live long enough to see it; 3'ou will see this countiy when almost one hundred millions of people shall he dwell¬ ing upon its land and cultivating the soil; when from the Mississippi and the Missouri, and from all these canals that can be built, millions, and millions and millions of the products of this country shall go to the markets of the world. Gentlemen, I think probably I have spoken long enough ; I think per¬ haps I have spoken too long. I don't like to obtrude myself upon an un¬ willing people. [Cries—" Go on, go on."] I can't say that you have been unwilling. I do most assuredly thank you very heartily for the very kind reception which you have given me in these palpably extemporaneous re¬ marks. I never could pull a speech out of my pocket in my life, hut I have often thought of an incident I saw a number of years ago. There was a gentleman in the Senate of the United States from New Hampshire by the name of Isaac Hill—a grand old man. While he was in the United States Senate a dinner was given, and, as a matter of course, Hill was in¬ vited, and, as a matter of course, was given to understand he would be toasted, and would be expected to make a speech, as was always done on those kind of occasions. In the order of the programme, when the toast was given to the Hon. Senator from New Hampshire—Isaac Hill—Isaac arose, as a matter of course, to reply, and pulled out of his pocket, as some do when they go to conventions or other places, and began to read his speech. " Being called upon very unexpectedly to address you, I am happy to call your attention" thus and so. Now. Isaac Hill has been followed a great many times by a great many men since, but I am not one of them. I can make an exhortation, but I learned early that I must have something to say if I wish to talk ; and I generally try, if I have anything to say, to weave it like a spider, out of its web, but with this difference, I have to weave it out of my head. [Laughter.J Now, if you mean by that to say you are perfectly satisfied with what I have said, it may do for my guide and as evidence of it, and I am ready to go on. [Cries of " Go on, Go CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 10,5 on.''] Gentlemen, I will say, before I close, as I have before intimated, still I am in favor of using every means, as was said of the British Parlia¬ ment, every means that God and nature has put into our hands to open the virgin soil of the West and give it means of transit for our productions. I am in favor of doing anything I can and everything possible to advance that thing. I began by saying, and I will close by saying, give us an open, unobstructed Mississippi river and its tributaries, to enable us to transport our products in open, glorious barges, that will fill the world with joy when they receive the grain from the West. I thank you for so patiently listening to me, and hope that, whatever else you do, you will formulate such a declaration as shall be unmistaka¬ bly known to be for an improvement of the Mississippi river and its grand, glorious highways for the benefit of the people. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS. In behalf of the Committee on Resolutions, Gen. T. J. Henderson presented and read to the convention the follow¬ ing report, recommending the adoption of the resolutions appended: This convention, representing the people of the Mississippi valley and the Northwest, in pursuance of the call of the convention, and in further¬ ance of the purposes hereof, unanimously declare: 1. That the Congress of the United States should devise by law, and sustain by liberal and efficient appropriations, a system of cheap trans¬ portation by water routes, connecting the Mississippi and its tributaries with the eastern Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. 2. That it has been the policy of Congress and the desire of the people of the Northwest, for many years to inaugurate and complete a system of water channel improvements having the Mississippi for its base; that, to give greater efficiency to the policy, there should be constructed from the Mississippi river, on the most direct and feasible route, to the Illinois river at Hennepin, and thence to the lake at Chicago, a canal adequate to the present and future transportation needs of that great part of the Northwest to whose people such a work of internal improvement is an imperative necessity, for a relief from excessive freight rates on the pro¬ duce and commerce of this country, and that the work so long needed should be immediately commenced. 3. That the continued improvement of the Mississippi river, under the auspices of the Mississippi River Commission, created by act of Congress, is a work of great national importance, and that the Congress of the United States ought to promote that scheme of improvement by the most liberal appropriations in a separate appropriation and bill therefor; and that we emphasize and enforce the united and earnest demand of the peo¬ ple of the entire Mississippi valley that Congress make prompt and ade- 100 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. quale appropriations for the improvement of the river and its navigable tributaries from the Falls of St. Anthony to the Gulf of Mexico, and that this convention has no sympathy with any policy that would depreciate or hinder this great enterprise of making fully navigable and building up a great commerce upon this central river, " nature's great highway of the continent." 4. That we hail with peculiar satisfaction the increasing success of the barge line system of transportation on the Mississippi and its tributaries, and the relief it gives to the producers and shippers of the Mississippi valley in the cheapening of freights. 5. That we heartily favor the proposed cession of the Illinois and Mich¬ igan Canal and the improvements on the Illinois river by the State of Illi¬ nois, and declare the Erie Canal should be made free of tolls; therefore, hope for the early success of the efforts inaugurated to secure these results. Gen. Henderson, after reading this report, said : Mr. President: I desire to add this remark, for the information of members of the convention: The action of the committee, in framing and adopting the report just read, was entirely harmonious. There was not even a ripple of controversy, or of disagreement, on the part of any member of the committee. I am also desired by the committee to state that two additional resolutions are to be offered to the convention by Mr. Edward Russell, which, while fully approved by each member, the com¬ mittee were not quite clear in the opinion that they came within the scope of the work entrusted to them. With the consent of the chair and the con¬ vention, I will ask Mr. Russell to read the two resolutions alluded to. Mr. Russell: These two resolutions which I am thus permitted to present as not, perhaps, strictly germane to the work of your committee, are simple in their character. One provides that each State represented in this convention shall be entitled to an additional member in the Com. mission under the auspices of which this body has assembled, while the other continues that Commission, with instructions as to a part, at least, of its duty in the future. These resolutions are: 6. That the Commission under the auspices of which this convention has been called be continued, with the proviso that its membership be enlarged by the selection of an additional member from each State repre¬ sented in this body, which additional member shall be named by the del. egates of the respective State; said Commission to afterwards elect its own officers and mature its own organization. 7 That the Commission, when organized as contemplated herein, be re¬ quested to select two gentlemen from each State to present to Congress the appeal for support to the work of internal improvement which is contem¬ plated by the foregoing resolutions. Mr. S. M. Clark : I desire to say that the address of the president of CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 107 the convention put the members of the convention into each other's arms, and the members of the convention unanimously concurred in recom¬ mending to this convention the unanimous adoption of these resolutions, and which I hope will include those offered by Mr. Russell, and that they will be unanimously adopted as the resolutions of this convention. Horace Everett, of Council Bluffs: I move to amend the report so that the words " Missouri river" be inserted after the words " Mississippi river." We don't consider the Missouri a tributary of the Mississippi. The motion was lost. The re-reading of the resolutions was called for, the secre¬ tary complying. J. C. Starr, of Peoria: There is not a word in those resolutions in re¬ gard to the improvement of the Illinois river. If it is referred to, it is by implication. It seems to me we should refer to the improvements now in process. We want something said in favor of recommending the contin¬ uing that system of improvement. Gen. T. J. Henderson: I wish to say that there were several proposi¬ tions submitted to the committee in regard to various works of internal improvement which were not immediately connected with the call for this convention, and it was deemed by us that the word "tributaries " of the Mississippi river, in the third and fourth resolutions, would include all that was essential; they, the committee, embraced it in the one resolu¬ tion. I want to say to my friends from Peoria, that the general govern¬ ment has appropriated for that work on the Illinois river, in the last eigh¬ teen months, $350,000. •J. C. Starr: I heartily approve of the scope of the resolutions, with the exception that they don't go quite far enough. 1 fully comprehend the fact that the resolutions embrace the Illinois river; but there is one important fact—the State of Illinois has already expended millions of dollars in the improvement of the Illinois river and in the building of a canal from La Salle to what is known as Copperas Creek, by which we have furnished water transportation for boats of twenty-four hundred tons burden. I desire to call attention to our dams and locks. These resolu¬ tions contemplate the cession of the Illinois and Michigan Canal to the general government, and it is necessary to amend them so that the cession will cover the locks and dams already constructed. Gen. T. J. Henderson: I would like to say that, so far as the cession of the locks and dams and improvements already made by the State of Illinois is concerned, that matter was not suggested to the committee in anyway. It did not occur to me; but I don't think that the omission make's any difference,'because the State of Illinois can do that if she thinks proper. The general government is to take the entire control of the canal and river, and it is for the State of Illinois to take such action 108 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. as they think proper as to the locks at Henry, etc. I don't think it is nec¬ essary l'or this convention to say anything about it. Mr. Mkkkiman,of Minnesota: If this question comes up in this shape, and the general government takes the canal, it takes the locks and dams. I hope that the fifth resolution is broad enough to cover the whole ground. J. C. Starr: I do not desire to intrude upon the time of the conven¬ tion; but there is a question now pending in the Illinois legislature with reference to the cession of the locks and dams, and I would like to have this convention give such an expression as will tend to secure the passage of that measure by the legislature and the approval of the State of Illinois to the improvement and enlargement of the canal. We are fearful that it explicit reference to the locks and dams is omitted, some members of the legislature will objict for that reason, and the bill maybe defeated. I move the resolution be amended so as to include a recommendation of the cession of the locks and dams at Henry and Copperas Creek. The question was put and no decision announced, as the Chair was unable to decide. J. C. Starr: I don't believe the gentlemen of this convention under¬ stand the proposition.. There is a bill now before the Illinois legislature for the purpose of ceding the canal and the improvements of the Illinois river, as hiade by the State, to the general government, and we want the resolutions so worded as to embrace specifically the locks and dams at Henry and Copperas Creek. The object is so as to have the general gov¬ ernment take control of'the whole measure for improvement. I under¬ stand that the Supreme Court of the United States has decided that the State of Illinois had the right to make these improvements, and had a right to tax tolls for the passage of steamers through the locks. We want it to be a free canal. The Chair: A vote will be again taken on the amendment of the gen¬ tleman from Peoria. That amendment is, to add after the word " im¬ provements," in the fifth resolution, the words, *' with the dams and locks," so that the clause will read, "of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the improvements, with the dams and locks, on the Illinois river." As many as are in favor of the amendment offered by the gentleman from Peoria will manifest it by rising. The amendment was declared to be duly adopted, leaving the fifth resolution to read as follows : 5. That we heartily favor the proposed cession of the Illinois and Mich¬ igan Canal and the improvements, with the locks and dams, on the Illi¬ nois river, by the State of Illinois, and declare the' Erie canal should be made free of tolls; therefore, hope for the early success of the efforts in¬ augurated to secure these results. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 109 r - The Chair : The question now recurs on the motion to accept and adopt the report of the Committee on Resolutions as amended. The motion prevailed by a unanimous vote, and the reso¬ lutions were declared unanimously adopted. On motion, the resolutions numbered 6 and 7, submitted by Mr. Edward Russell and approved by the Committee on Resolutions, although not formally incorporated in their re¬ port, were taken up and unanimously adopted. N. M. Howard, of Ohio. Mr. Chairman: I now ask that the resolutions not reported by the Committee be taken up, and move the adoption of that in relation to a continuation of the Hennepin canal eastward to the Wa¬ bash river and Toledo. The resolution was read, as follows: Resolved, That this convention favors and asks Congress to sanction and make early provision for the construction of a canal eastward from the Illinois from a point opposite to or near Hennepin or Peoria, Illinois, to a point in the Iroquois valley, to Logansport, Indiana, thence by the Wabash and Erie Caual route to the Maumee river and Toledo, Ohio; thus afford¬ ing a direct all-water route of communication between the Illinois river and Lake Erie. Mr. Howard. I want to ask the attention of the convention for a brief period only. I may say, coming from Ohio to attend this convention, and meeting as I do here gentlemen possessed of such intelligence and wis¬ dom, and such statesmanship, I come before it with a great deal of embar¬ rassment. I can understand how easily it would be for this convention to have transacted its business without any representation from the State of Ohio, and I can well understand how easily the other representatives for Ohio could have got along without my assistance. I have listened to speeches made by gentlemen 011 the tioor in favor of lower rates of trans¬ portation, and the resolutions now offered are not antagonistic to the great object contemplated by the convention. [Confusion arising in different parts of the house, the chair interrupted the speaker to call order.] Mr. Howard. Mr. Chairman : I hope that the convention will give me attention for a moment. 1 don't wish to impose upon you any lengthy talk. I can tell you what little I have to say in a few minutes. This proposition which we from Ohio ask to be adopted by this convention simply opens another means of transportation—another water route; in order that we may not only have water competition against railroads, but water competition against water competition. This water route from the Mississippi by way of the Hennepin and Illinois and Michigan canal around the lakes, makes water competition against the railroads, and the proposition we advocate simply asks, that the government take steps look- 110 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. iug toward the opening of a canal from the Illinois river at a point at or near Peoria and Hennepin to some point down the Iroquois valley, and taking the Wabash and Erie Canal at Logausport, and then to MaumeeBay. Not only the upper part of Illinois, especially the Northwest, hut the entire West will derive great advantage from it. It can he easily built. Its route is through a level, though a wet country, a country fliat is perhaps largely only fit for a canal. It would get produce to market in less than one-third ot the distance, and an appropriation for this would not be for a local object, but would be a national benefit as well as a local one. I am not talking for the interest of Toledo; I am talking for the interests of the entire nation, and the entire West—Northwest and Southwest. It must be a national benefit, for it seeks to bring cheaper transportation from the West to the sea. I hope these resolutions will be adopted as an expression of this convention for the benefit of the entire country. Carter Harrison, of Chicago. Mr. Chairman: I am opposed to pass¬ ing these resolutions, because I don't think we should encumber the admi¬ rably gotten up set of resolutions with these. We don't yet understand this canal proposed by Mr. Howard. No figures are given; we don't know how it will run; no survey has been made. We are groping in the dark, and if we do this for one gentleman from any locality, any other gentleman from any other locality has the same right to have his plan proposed. [A Voice: It don't run to Chicago.] When this convention was called, facts and figures were given us. When we met here we knew that we could build sixty-five miles of canal already surveyed, with the figures given, for $5,000,000. There was something tangible in that. The Mississippi river is already being improved; the plan is laid down, and we understand it. The Illinois and Michigan canal, and the improvement of the Illinois river, is another of the settled and existing facts. We are here acting on things we understand, and I therefore think it would not be advisable to adopt these resolutions. If the gentleman thinks it is a good thing, and they will get up a convention in Toledo, and will treat us as well as the people of Davenport have, we will go down and further his object ; but don't encumber these resolutions with it now. Mr. Howard. I am surprised at the gentleman from Chicago, for the measure he advocates is of local interest, while this one I offer is of general interest and of general benefit. Now, I don't care what it will cost to build this canal. It is not for the interest of Toledo. It is for the interest of the entire West, and of the entire nation. It is for the interest of the purchaser and for the interest of the consumer. I am not askiDg for an appropriation. I am simply asking the government to take the matter into considera¬ tion, and I hope this convention will give it that much of an endorsement, but it is not antagonistic to his project. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. Ill Mr. Campbell, of St. Louis. I hope that the resolutions from Toledo ■will be approved. It is simply a recommendation that the government of the United States take into consideration this canal project, and it certain¬ ly is in harmony with the object of this convention, to secure cheap trans¬ portation. Mr. Merkiman, of Minneapolis: Mr. President, I am opposed to the adoption of the resolution. We have met here for the purpose of consid¬ ering one project. If that resolution is adopted I want to offer one from Minnesota. Since the 1st day of January, we have shipped from 10,000 to 15,000 bushels daily by way of Duluth ; that is our route, and if we are to adopt this resolution we want to offer one for our route. lion. J. B. Grinnell, of Iowa: Mr. President, I arise in the interest of harmony, and as we have thus far voted harmoniously, I hope the gentle¬ man from Toledo will withdraw his motion. Then it can be said that when we go forth we go with unanimity upon all material questions pre¬ sented for our consideration; thanks to the spirit of those leading in the discussions from the great cities—Chicago, St. Louis and Peoria. Our good-natured friends of the city of the Father of Waters may he proud of their big bridge, and Chicago of being the Queen of the Lakes, and Peo¬ ria of her ample distilling highwine capacity; while the farmers of Iowa, with a vital interest in more good water and less whiskey, are for all real improvements, State and National. The State of Iowa, I hope is too brave and strong to have prejudices, and the jetties, so ably pictured by Governor Stannard, is a child born; but the Hennepin Canal is not, yet is not fated happily, to "die a-borning" at the hands of a St. Louis midwife. This agricultural Iowa stands by her friends. With the best soil on earth; happily between the Father aud Mother of Waters, and with a vigorous people proud of their young State; in her true but modest superiority; raising more corn than any State; in wheat the peer of any; outnumber¬ ing you all in cattle and swine; are just beginning to raise for our cities noble horses with " necks clothed with thunder;" fattening and selling un¬ numbered beeves, with juicy sirloin for even Europe almost to the horns; aud millions ot swine so comely that even the Jews are forswearing their religion to become pork eaters; Iowa cannot be jealous of any sister State. We should all cling to those who treat us best in making a market for our products; aspiring to the day, you, Mr. Chairman, will live to see—jolly- men are long lived—when some of our grain will not only float to an eastern market on a canal, but be condensed into food and animals that will bring the largest return for home aud foreign consumption. Iowa will freely join you in being taxed for the public weal, and has yet good acres for the homeless, by the million. Make your water ways, and if we can't help ourselves we will take to them, but still be a happy manufac¬ turing State, as by our destiny and aspiration we should be. But I invoke in this great convention harmony. Therefore I suggest the withdrawal of the motion of the gentleman from Ohio, 112 CI1EAI' TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. The motion on the adoption of the Howard resolution was put and lost, by a rising vote. Mr. Charles Randolph: I want to offer a resolution as follows: Resolved, That the delegates in attendance upon this convention desire to express their high appreciation of the courtesy and kindness of the people of Davenport, Rock Island and Moline, extended to us during our stay in this city, and for the exceptionally appropriate and convenient accommodations with which they have provided for the purposes of the convention, and for the pleasure of those in attendance thereon. Carried unanimously. Mr. Walker, of Ohio: Mr. President, I desire to offer a resolution, and move its adoption : Resolved, That this convention heartily endorses the claim of the citi¬ zens of Ohio, and especially the port of Toledo, for the construction of a straight channel through the Maumee river, from the waters of Lake Erie to the Illinois and the Mississippi rivers, as an absolute necessity in the interests of navigation, and the cheapening of transportation of the pro¬ ducts of the Great West, and especially to the products of a large portion of the States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. A rising vote was taken, and the the motion declared lost. Mr. Walker, of Minnesota directed the attention of the convention to the fact, that as the printing of the report of the proceedings in full had been ordered, and as the Commission had been continued and its powers enlarged by the convention, would require money to carry on its work, it would be necessary that some action be at once taken to procure the need¬ ed funds. Mr. Walker urged that many well-conceived efforts for the public good often failed because of want of care in providing " the sin¬ ews of war." Several voices: Oh, the Commission will attend to that. They will appeal to the several Boards of Trade, and communities, aud gel the money. ATo action was taken. Gov. Stannakd, of St. Louis: I now move that a vote of thanks of this convention be tendered to the Chairman, for the able manner in which he has presided. Also to the Secretaries, for the able manner in which they have conducted their parts. Carried unanimously, and three cheers given tor Daven¬ port. In behalf of the Committee of Arrangements appointed by the citizens of Davenport, Rock Island and Moline. Hon. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE nENNEPIN CANAL. 113 J. H. Murphy announced that carriages would be in attend¬ ance immediately to carry delegates to points of interest about the " Tri-Cities," and to the Arsenal, in one of the buildings of which the banquet would be spread at 4 o'clock. t The convention then adjourned sine die. THE BANQUET. The following report of the festivities at the banquet is condensed from the Davenport Daily Gazette, of May 27th: Promptly at 12 o'clock the Carriage Committee was on hand with eve¬ rything in the shape of conveyance at the Fourth street entrance of the Kimball House. The visiting guests, their work in Convention over and the best of good feeling prevailing at the result, soon occupied the car¬ riages. There were four hundred and fifty delegates, members of the press, and invited guests. The wishes of each carriage party were con¬ sulted. Some drove about the bluffs of Davenport, others went to Rock Island, but by far the largest portion to the Island and to Moline. The great shops of the last named city were witnessed with mingled surprise and pleasure; so were those of Rock Island City. The shady drives and broad avenues of the Island excited admiration on every hand, and on the part of every beholder. The great Arsenal and Armory shops which were generally visited, were, too, scenes of amazement. Many who had heard of Rock Island Arsenal, now for the first time saw the natural beauties of its location, and the massiveness of its architectural structures. They, of course, could only see and wonder. The banquet had been announced for four o'clock in the afternoon, and a half hour later it was served. The host in charge, was T. Coverdale, proprietor of the Newcomb House. The spread was abundant and elegant, tempting to the appetite, and a thing of beauty to behold. The long tables, two hundred feet in length, were placed in the east wing of the A building, the first on the right of the main avenue as it is approached from the west. Between four hundred and seventy-five andfive hundred persons occupied seats at the table. The bills of fare were printed on heavy cream-colored folio .card-board, lined with gold. On the first page was printed the words: " Tri-City—Davenport, Rock Island, and Moline Ban¬ quet, given in honor of the Hennepin Canal Convention, Thursday, May 2(1. 1881." At the cross table in the south end of the building were those occupying the seats of honor: Mayor Henry presided. At his right sat Gov. Gear, 8 114 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. Gen. S. V. Benet, Chief of Ordnance, U. S., Hon. John A. Kasson, and at the Mayor's left sat lion. James F. Wilson, Col. I). W. Flagler, Hon. M. A- McCoid. On the opposite side of the table were Hon. S. S. Farwell, Hon. R. G. Horr, of Michigan, Hon. E. O. Stannard, Hon. Edward Russell, Al¬ derman I). L. Shorey, of Chicago, Hon. Carter II. Harrison, Mayor of Chi¬ cago. All the guests were seated at one time and began the feast without form or ceremony. Five hundred representatives of the West, with a happy sprinkling of ladies, afforded a scene, perhaps, the Island has never he- fore seen gathered under such auspicious circumstances. Host Coverdale was superintendent, hut among his most active assistants were the solid business men of Davenport, Rock Island and Moline. There were several who could count their ducats by the hundred thousand dollars. Not a want of any person at the tables but was anticipated, everything passing off informally, but cordially. All lines of social prominence were disre¬ garded, and, in a word, everybody was made to feel at home. after dinner speeches. The feast over, Hon. John W. Green, Chairman of the Committee on Toasts, called the gathering from the banquet of edibles to the flow of soul. He said that, owing to the difficulty of hearing in a room so large and the lateness of the hour, he had been instructed to announce that the offering of toasts would be omitted. He rejoiced that the harmony and unit}' of the Convention had met at the banquet and hoped that it would be carried home by those present. Loud calls were made for Hou. R. G. Horr, of Michigan, the Perma¬ nent Chairman of the Convention, who mounted a chair in the south end of the room. He was received with cheers which required some time to silence. These subsiding, he said a year and a half ago he made his first speech at an occasion of this kind in Boston. He was addressing an audi¬ ence of Massachusetts men, and he told them that up in Michigan when¬ ever an orator from the East spoke he likened his crowd to a Boston audi¬ ence. The converse of this must be true and he therefore likened his crowd to a Michigan audience. After listening to the word-power of the convention he had no doubt the Hennepin canal would be built. He was sure of this after seeing the exhibition made of the alimentary canal. He said he would go home with the kindest regards. Congressmen were usu" ally considered pretty large men, but he could pick out a small one or two he thought if he should try. The closer you get to big men the smaller they grow. People run alike all through the Northern States. You can pick men all over the country just as good as those now holding promi¬ nent positions. He closed by saying there was a magazine of eloquence waiting to explode. He hoped all would go home with a just idea of the importance of the transportation question in its broad view. There were few imbued with the grand National idea. He paid a handsome compli¬ ment to the States of Iowa and Illinois, and pronounced the former the grandest agricultural State in the Union. What is done in this country CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 115 lias to be done by such workers as stood before him. He, himself was brought up on a farm and only quit it when he found that he was not built right for digging potatoes. People were just beginning to wake up to the idea that the West is an important part of this nation. He never had au idea of it until he went down to Maine last fall. He thanked his hearers for the courteous attention given him during the day. Hon. Carter Harrison, of Chicago, answered to loud mention of his name. He said the convention had decided to put the pick and shovel into the canal. All that was necessary to be done was to tell the Congress¬ men it must be done. Let every Congressman be told he could not have votes without pledges on this measure. He wished to return thanks to the people of the Tri-Cities—Davenport, Rock Island Moline—for the attentions received. Next Fall Chicago would have such a convention as Davenport had, and he would take pleasure in acting the host as earnestly. Hon. John A. Kasson. — This distinguished Iowan's name was an¬ nounced as that of the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. He thought the time somewhat unfitted for speeches. If there were time for him to tell his views on the objects of the Convention just closed, he would like to do so. If he had opportunity during the next Congrees to express his views, he should do so forcibly. In foreign conntries the im¬ provement of rivers is treated as a matter of national, and not local, im¬ portance. It'should be so in this nation. Hon. T. W. Palmer, of Detroit, Mich., said he wished to remark that he was in favor of canals—decidedly so. He quoted some scriptural anec¬ dotes which were apt and telling. Palsied be the hand which should oppose the improvement of the Mississipbi River or the building of the Hennepin Canal. Hon. M. C. Quinn, of Peoria, 111., said everything had passed off lov¬ ingly. He thought they—the cities of Chicago and St. Louis—could be married with advantage to both. St. Louis daughters would give virtue to Chicago, and Chicago sons would give energy and vim to St. Louis. He concluded that the company had had enough of wind and water. He thanked the ladies for their part in the hospitalities most earnestly and appreciatively. Hon. J. B. Grinnell supposed he was called upon to say something about water, because he was familiar with its qualities. He vouched for being so, and cruelly intimated that there might be some in the world not so fortunate as he. ADJOURNING. The gathering, of one accord, it now being after six o'clock, concluded to disperse, and as those present left the building, there was many a fraternal hand shaking, as if old acquaint¬ ances were separating. The Convention and Banquet were over, and everybody in the triune of cities was happy at the successful result of both. UNDELIVERED SPEECHES. THE CANAL AND CHEAP TRANSPORTATION. In arranging for the Convention, the officers of the Illi¬ nois and Mississippi River and Canal Improvement Commis¬ sion invited several gentlemen, of extended and national repute, as being thoroughly well informed on the great ques¬ tion of cheap transportation, to deliver addresses during the sittings of the body. Of these gentlemen, two were unable to speak at length without an evident trenching upon the lim¬ ited time of the Convention, which each declined to engage in. Therefore, the Commission directly and earnestly solic¬ ited from the persons named—the Hon. M. A. McCoid, member of Congress from the First District of Iowa, and Hon. C. C. Carpenter, member of Congress from the Ninth District of Iowa, and for four years Governor of that State —the privilege of printing their undelivered addresses as a part of the proceedings of the Convention. This request has been kindly complied with. The Commission therefore desire, in printing the same herewith, to solicit particular attention thereto, as embodying much valuable statistical and other information relating to the transportation and in¬ ternal improvement questions, collated and presented by gentleman of eminent ability, who have long made these questions their special study. ADDRESS OF HON. M. A. M'COID, OF IOWA. Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Convention : Bright and enchanting were the dreams of our forefathers of the future glor}' of their country, but in their fondest fancies they never beheld the vision which greets our eyes to-day. The expansion of our territory, the number of our people, the amount of our products, the changed system of our communication and commerce—all surpass their highest conceptions. It is fabulous. But the history of our past.is the prophecy of a future of far more grand and unexpected progress. There are resources undeveloped, forces unex- 118 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. peeled, and plans unexecuted, which must carry us on, with the certainty of the tides, to a prosperity yet undreamed ot. The future of hope is one of material greatness, its pathway leads awayj,from political arenas, and turns our thoughts to material interests. It is a tree whose roots fasten themselves in our fertile fields, our factories and our mines, and whoso branches bloom in free and prosperous commerce. It is a body whose pulses throb with trade currents. It demands a statesmanship animated by simple, practical wisdom. It invokes a spirit broad as the world, de¬ voted as a bride, and suffering no opposition from its subjects. The promptings of its thought, the pressing of its necessities has called this Convention into service. Among the preparations for the crowding present and grander future, is the improvement of our means of commerce and the cheapening ot the cost of transportation, and the enfranchisement of these subjects from the absolutism of corporations. Instinctively the people turn to our natural highways, and an absorbing interest is taken in these signs of progress. There is an intense determination on the part of the people, growing daily, to tind some way out of the toils that hem them in, to throw off the slavery which holds them remediless against countless wrongs. Thejr will be free. They will be masters of the situation. The object of this Convention suggests, and the discussion thus far has embraced, the whole subject of water improvements. The improvements of our water routes and the junction by the construction of canals form¬ ing a system in order to facilitate commerce and compete effectively with railways, is a subject of national importance, worthy of the support of all sections, and demanding liberal appropriations of public funds. And in this proposed water system, no work is more prominent and pressing than the Chicago and Rock Island Canal. Water courses have ever occupied a prominent place in history. They have marked the seat of nations. On them rude navies rode, and the sim¬ ple commerce of barbarous tribes was operated. They were the arteries of civilization and progress. The Nile, the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rubicon, the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Thames, are names of civilizations. On them vessels, could be easily, cheaply and rapidly moved, and they became naturally the carriage ways in the traffic of men and and nations. Along their banks grew up markets, influential merchants, and wealthy cities. All this was because of the necessities, convenience and enterprise of society. These causes remain, and these water courses continue to pos¬ sess the value and hold the prominence of those early times. But a new and rival carrier has entered the field, and in the last quarter of a century has revolutionized the.commerce of the country. It becomes necessary to consider and compare the advantages of rail¬ way transportation with carriage by water. Railways have many advan¬ tages over water ways, which may never be overcome. These are mainly speed, directness, organization and management, and the ability to take the goods from the shipper's door, and control its destination. Over all these advantages there rules a power which may become dangerous in its CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 119 absolutism; the power of confederation of railways, and the control of commerce through the manipulation of rates, and the supply of the means of shipment. Water ways have one grand advantage over railways. They are able to transport cheaper. But to the people, from a public stand-point, water routes have other and greater advantages. They, in a peculiar and sig¬ nificant sense, belong to the people. They are public highways. They are free to all. They cannot be handled for private ends as against the public interest. On them transportation is always subservient to com¬ merce, and not commerce subservient to transportation. Competition here exercises itself normally, naturally, and its laws can operate to the public advantage. They exercise a potential influence in the regulation of rates upon rail and all private ways. Every one of these are pregnant with in¬ calculable blessings to our people. A government which fails to secure them, and to make them in the highest degree operative is recreant to its duty. It is demanded as a matter of self-defense, and as protection that by government aid and enterprise our water lines be extended and im¬ proved to their highest utility, and be helped to maintain their proper re¬ lations to our internal commerce.. They should stand at the head of our commercial system. They should remain forever our great outlets. If one-half, yes, one-tenth of the aid given to railways was given to perfect these, railways will not change the course of commerce and supercede them, but they will become again what they naturally ought to be, the great highways for all the surplus products of the Western and North¬ western States to the seaboard and to foreign markets. And to them un¬ der proper State control railways will become feeders to primary markets, building upon our water lines, wealthy and influential commercial cities. It is a struggle between two systems for supremacy. The people's water¬ ways against corporation railways, with the advantages largely in favor of the railways. But it is not by any means a hopeless contest for the water-routes. They will have the popular favor. They will receive the support of all sections. Because, they are enduring and useful monuments of National progress; they are bonds of perpetual union; they strengthen the attractions and solidify the interests which bind us in one; they are cheaper and better than standing armies. As one of our President's said : "It is not within the compass of human wisdom to make a more effectual provision against the danger of disintegration, than would be made by the proposed improvements." They are National, the property of all, and of universal interest and value. They are in correlation to our system of raising revenue. And the free trade among the States, having so many varieties of climate, soil and industries, is based upon the principle that the diffusion and distri¬ bution of our fabrics and products, shall be cheaper that the production by each locality of all it needs. And this is one of the essential means by which the mutual accommodation and exchange and active intercourse of all sections can be cheaply and independently secured. 120 CHE AX" TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. There is a contest raging all along the line of public thought for the control of railway corporations. It will not cease; whenever it lulls it returns again with increased strength. It is irreconcilable. It is the insurrection of independent thought against absolution in power. The independent, thinking people of America will not endure absolute power, anywhere, over their material interests. It must be subjected to law. The people will be masters. Masters of everything before equal and just laws. The greater the power and influence opposed or independent of them, the more determined are they in the demand for its utter and complete subjection. It isn't safe for any man to grow too great in self assertion. There is a chord in the popular heart that may lie touched by the rude hand of selfish purpose, which will sound their requiem. Commerce is the servant of industry and toil and shall never be their master. These water-ways are worthy of support of all sections, because they will contribute largely to settle this great contest. This proposed water system should be regarded as a whole. And each step taken should have in view the whole system. The improvements ought to be begun and completed as if they were our sole dependence for commerce. IIow much could have been done had they been our sole means of commerce: had the genius of our people bent to their improve, ment! Now, what is demanded ? But one plan appears to be practicable. And this is, to take hold of our internal water system and improve and perfect it. Let nature compete with man. Give the people a choice of routes—one the gift of God and Government, the other the structure of the genius and enterprise of man. Each have their advantages and between them let our producers have a chance to choose. And at the same time place over this great system of railways a commission under which the necessary data can be procured, and a system of regulation may be perfected, national, equitable, just and impartial. I believe if the subject is promptly and energetically treated in this way, it will peacefully, quietly and naturally solve itself, and, at the same time, improve, enrich and build up for us a commercial, producing and manufacturing Nation, such as the world has never yet witnessed. Can water-lines be constructed and present ones improved so as to provide a regulating competition with railroads? Nature has not only given us rivers running in every direction, but has given us, in the upper northern lakes, reservoirs of water to supply the artificial rivers we are invited to construct. Now, what is demanded to perfect such a system of water¬ ways ? If the jetty system continues to prove a success, and this year of floods ought to decide it, then it appears to me that we ought to follow it with a canal, connecting the Gulf and the Atlantic, through Florida. This would save seven hundred miles of distance and the rounding of one of the most dangerous points in the path of commerce. Take your map and draw a line across from a point near Crystal Island to the river St. Johns, CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 121 Fla., and see what it would save in distance, turning the Mississippi itself into a route to an Atlantic sea-board. On the West the Des Lesseps or Eads project has a commercial importance equal to this. All eyes are turned to the the Mexican coast, whose harbors are soon to be reached by the Mexican Southern Railway, and commerce will turn south-west and seek competing markets in New Zealand, Australia, the Islands of Polynesia, Hawaiia, Japan and China by that route. Through the Mississippi and proposed canal, a water-line might be perfected commanding all these, and by competition bringing traffic by rail to its own level of the cheapest possible rate. Then comes these internal canals and river improvements, made doubly valuable and indispensible by these outlets. Bound together by this vast system of rivers, whose common mouth opens at New Orleans, penetrating to the remotest points in the South, East, North and West, a few well chosen connections by canals, will make our water system as nearly complete and perfect as is possible on any part of the globe. Hon. Joseph Nimmo, in his report of 1876, names the following competing water-lines: The Canadian waterJine, tin Welland Canal, St. Lawrence river, Lake Ontario to Montreal; the Western, Northern and New York line, via Erie Canal and Hudson; the Mississippi River line; the Ohio River line; the Cumberland River line; the Tennessee River line; the Arkansas River line; the Wisconsin and Fox River improve ment. And the following proposed lines: The Caughnawa and Cham- plain Ship Canal; the Oneide Lake route, from Oswego to Troy, N. Y.; the James River and Kanawha Canal or Central water line, from Rich¬ mond, Va., to the Ohio river; the Atlantic and Great Western Canal, from Guntersville, on the Tennessee river, to Macon, Ga., in connection with slack water navigation on the Coosa River, and the improvements of the Cliattahoocha river from Macon to its mouth; the Rock Island and Hennepin Canal. I have his map showing the lines and their relative importance. None, I may say, is more interesting and widely influential in its grand connec¬ tions and commercial importance, than this Hennepin and Rock Island Canal, as the Erie was to the area of country 'adjacent to the Lake Erie and New York; as the Welland was to the same slope of country and the Canadian sea-board; as these were to Chicago, so will this be to its Western terminus and all the adjacent cities and country. Rising above mere local interests and considerations, and looking at it from a national standpoint, what can be grander, in a commercial point of view, than connecting the two water-courses, whose unbroken waves lead to those seas which wash the shores of all lands. To stand here at Rock Island and Davenport and have a choice of either line, to make competi¬ tion complete with itself, and, in a free tight and a fair field, let the battle of the giants go on. Meanwhile, let the people enjoy the fruits of the contest. It may be true that localities have a special concern in this. Thus, Davenport and Rock Island may not then expect to be the least among the great cities who vie for the primary markets of the world. 122 cheap transportation and the hennepin canal. This may, indeed, prove to be the dizzy altitude of that commercial eminence which will rule the markets of a globe. If so, we congratulate you and do not envy you. If by fortunate location this is the point of most practical connection, here it should be made. It's not a matter of locality, nor a subject of jealousy, but a question of vast commercial concern. It is a question of national importance, worthy of the absorbing interest of our whole people. We can accomplish nothing without a definite plan and specific object. This one of the Hennepin Canal, forming a junction of the two great all water-routes, involving as it does the utmost practicable improvement of both, is worthy of primary attention. Speaking for Iowa, it is supremely important. In failures of the past, we can find nothing to more sincerely regret and deplore, thaD that such connection was not made twenty-five years ago. The resulting local advantages in building at the border of our State a great commercial city, may have been lost forever. But it is not too late to gain many advantages to all the West by it, and its effects cannot be fully anticipated. Upon this subject I received a valuable letter from Hon. Joseph Nimuio, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, which I take the liberty of reading. Letter from the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics. Treasury Department, Bureau of Statistics, Washington, D. C., May 14, 1881. Hon. M. A. McCoid, M. C., Fairfield, Iowa: Dear Sir:—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 25th ultimo, and, in compliance with your request, enclose to you herewith such data as I have been able to procure for you. I would call your attention to certain statements which you will find in my last report on the Internal Commerce of the United States. Your attention is especially directed to the following passages: First, to pages 8 to 14, of report proper; second, pages 97 to 102, of the Appendix; and third, pages 107 to 171, of the Appendix. I presume you have read, and have in your possession, the report of the select committee on transportation routes to the sea-board—"Senate Report No. 307, 43d Congress, 1st Session." Hon. Wm. Windom, now Secretary of the Treasury, was chairman of that committee and wrote the report It is regarded as one of the most important documents ever issued by the Government, in relation to the subject of transportation. You ask me for suggestions touching the question of transportation by water and by rail, with special reference to the subject which you are now considering, viz: the advisability of constructing a canal which shall connect the Mississippi River with Lake Michigan. I can touch only upon a few of the more salient features of the subject. The most important question you will have to consider, is, the regulat¬ ing influence of the rates charged on water-lines over the rates charged on rail-lines. The general fact, that the actual cost of transportation on water-lines is less than on rail-lines is well established. Therefore, water CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 123 rates regulate rail rates. But right at the outset of the inquiry as to the relative advantages afForded by rail and water transportation, the import¬ ant question presents itself, to what extent is thin regulating influence of the water-lines operative, and by what economic and commercial conditions is it limited? I answer: in the first place, the water-lines fail to meet certain important commercial requirements of the present day, which require¬ ments have had their origin in the facilities for transportation afforded hy railroads. This may be illustrated as follows: With respect to the rates which are charged for the transportation of merchandise ordered by telegraph and shipped as "express freights," in cars attached to "lightning express" passenger trains, the regulating influence of competing water- lines is practically nil. This is an extreme case, but you have to descend several degrees in the ordinary classification of railroad freights before you reach commodities, the transportation charges for which are to any appreciable extent influenced or regulated hy the rates charged on competing water-lines. The regulating influence of water-lines is confined almost entirely to the lowest classes of freights. But this regulating influence is of incalculable value to the Western and North¬ western States, since it covers the transportation of a large part of the surplus products of these States to the sea-hoard and to foreign countries. With respect to the higher classes of freights, which constitute a very considerable proportion of our internal commerce, the greater speed and regularity of movement, the superior facilities for receiving and deliver¬ ing freight, and other facilities afforded by railroads, greatly outweigh in importance the difference in the actual freight charges on water and on rail-lines. The cost of transporting the higher classes of freights in many cases consists largely in the expenses of handling and the clerical expenses incident to receiving and delivering goods. Expenses of this nature are practically the same on water and on rail lines. The facts as to the character of the freights actually transported on rail and water lines, fully prove what I have above asserted. I am unable to consider this very important aspect of the question more in detail in the present connection. In the second place, the regulating influence of water-lines is limited by the comparatively small extent of water transportation in this country. There are onl}' two water-lines which exert a potential, regulating influence over the transportation of the products of the Western and Northwestern States to the sea-board and to foreign countries. Those two lines are the Lakes at the North, in connection with the Erie Canal and the Hudson River, and also in connection with the Canadian Canals and the St. Lawrence River, and the Mississippi River below Illinois. "Disregarding sinuousities, the Northern water-line is about fifteen hundred miles in length, and disregarding sinuousities, the distance from St. Louis to the mouth of the Mississippi River is less than eight hundred miles. This part of the Mississippi River affords almost constant navigation for steamers and barges of the larger class. The Missouri and Ohio Rivers, and a few tributary streams, have less depth of water and are 124 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE IIENNEITN CANAL. much less reliable as navigable streams, than the Mississippi below St. Louis. These rivers also, in part, afford the means of water transportation from the Western and Northern States to New Orleans. The Lake system of navigation and the Mississippi River system of navigation are discon¬ nected." According to the latest returns there are nearly ninety thousand miles of railroad in the United States, extending into almost every town, closely connected and operated practically as one line, with respect to traffic shipped over two or more lines. Throughout its entire extent, the railroad system affords the facilities of constant and reliable transporta¬ tion. Without the railroads at least seven-eighths of the country would be practically cut off from that which now constitutes our internal com¬ merce. Thirty years ago there was not in all that vast region between the Mississippi river and the Rocky Mountains a mile of railroad in opera¬ tion, but, to-day there are twenty-one thousand miles of railroad within the territorial limits referred to. The States and territories embraced within these limits now enjoy the advantages of an enormous and rapidly growing commerce with other sections of this country, and with foreign countries. This vast region is almost entirely dependent upon rail trans¬ portation. Just here I would invite your attention to the following inquiry: In what manner does the regulating influence of existing water lines operate with respect to the transportation of the products of the Western and Northwestern States to the seaboard? I answer, mainly through the great markets of the West. I refer especially to the cities of Cincinnati, Louis¬ ville, St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee. These important commercial cities have grown up on the water lines, and now the regulating influence of those water lines is operative mainly, and I may say almost entirely, through the agency of the commercial forces of those cities. What are those forces? I answer, in each case a large community of enterprising men having an extensive knowledge of commercial affairs, and the capi¬ tal in the hands of those men which is available in carrying on commerce. These trade forces arrest the surplus products of the West in their east¬ ward movement, and present the option of transportation by water or by rail. The water lines exercise no appreciable regulating influence over railroads at points on the Lakes or on the Mississippi river where these essential elements of a market or trading center do not exist. A thousand trains a day may pass through towns situated on the lakes or on the rivers where there are none of those facilities for carrying on a large commerce, and the water line exercises no perceptible regulating influence over the rates charged on the railroads. This fact is very strikingly illustrated in the case of the railroads of Iowa which cross the Mississippi river. The river rates exercise no appreciable influence over rail rates. The railroads are not tributary to the river, but the river is tributary to the railroads to the extent to which the river towns are local markets for the purchase of the products of the State of Iowa. The regulating influence of the northern water line and of the Missis- CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 125 sippi river over rail rates for the transportation of the products of Iowa is exerted chiefly through the trade forces of Chicago, and Milwaukee, and St. Louis. The merchants of those cities appear through their agents or commercial correspondents at many points in the State, and thus control the movements of those products. At the two lake ports mentioned, and at St. Louis there is direct competition between rail and water transporta¬ tion. Eliminate these markets of the interior and the East and West trunk railroads would have things pretty much their own way. Through these markets, transportation is subservient to commerce, and not commerce to transportation. The competition of rival commercial cities exerts a most important con¬ servative influence over the commercial, industrial, and transportation in¬ terests of the country. The whole force of the commercial power of cities is exerted towards regulating rates on all lines, while rates on water lines regulate rates on rail lines. The former is superior, and the latter the sub¬ ordinate force. But to come now to the project which you have in view. Suppose you construct a canal from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river. What then will be necessary in order that this line may exercise a potential, regulating influence over freight charges on the railroads extending through Iowa, and into the States and territories West of that State. I an¬ swer, the agency of a great commercial city at or near the western termi¬ nus of the canal. In my view, therefore, the task which you have before you is, first, to construct a canal, and next to build a commercial city. It is a comparatively easy thing to build a canal; it is merely a question in finance and civil engineering, but the question as to the up-building of a great commercial city something very different. Cities, like Topsy, " are not made, they grow." I wdll not venture any opinion as to whether upon the completion of a canal designed to connect the Mississippi river with Lake Michigan, a great commercial city will, or will not grow up at, or near its western extremity. That would require the gift of prophecy. You have much better advantages for pursuing the inquiry than I have. The question also arises incidentally; to'what extent would the proposed canal regulate rail rates in the event of the existence ot a great commer¬ cial city at or near its western terminus. I answer, with respect to dis¬ tance, it would regulate them as between the Mississippi river and Lake Michigan, and with respect to territorial limits as before stated, its regu¬ lating influence would be exerted to the extent of the power of the markets of the supposed city. That influence would of course depend upon, and be in proportion to the enterprise and intelligence of the merchants of that city, and the amount of their capital available in trade. The canal would also have to compete with the river between the supposed city and St. Louis. The foregoing off-hand remarks are very general, and somewhat specu¬ lative, and I do not suppose they are of any more value than the ideas of hundreds of others who have had equally good or better, advantages for informing themselves in regard to the conditions governing the internal commerce of the country. 120 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. A few years ago, a gentleman of large experience in regard to commer¬ cial and transportation affairs, expressed to me the regret that the age of railroads had not hcen deferred twenty years in order that our system of possible water lines might have been completed. There appears to he much force in this view. If, before the railroad system of the United States had been extended from the Atlantic seaports to the Mississippi river, a broad and deep canal of sufficient dimensions for the navigation of steam vessels of considerable size had been constructed from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river, I believe that Iowa would to-day have at, or near the western terminus of that canal a large city, a city which would have severpl railroads tributary to its commercial prosperity, just as Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, and Louisville now have, and each one of these railroads would protect and re-enforce the commercial interests of that city. I have not written this letter with any intention ot presenting an argu¬ ment either for or against the construction of the proposed canal, hut simply with the desire of complying with your request that I should offer you some suggestions upon the subject. »I shall be much gratified if any¬ thing which I have said may prove to be helpful in enabling you to ar¬ rive at a satisfactory conclusion upon the subject presented in your com- ni unication. 1 am, sir, very respectfully yours, JOSEPH NIMMO, JR., Chief of Bureau. No man perhaps, in the nation, with all his modesty, is better in¬ formed and more capable of making valuable suggestions upon the sub¬ ject than this gentleman. I put great confidence in his opinions. Two points are of special interest in this letter. The possibility of the creation at the western terminus of this canal, if constructed, a commercial city of sufficient influence to sway its sceptre of competition over the area of country of which it might become a primary market. The extent of the regulating influence of the water line upon railways without that market, I do not now intend to discuss these. I prefer that they be answered by the results; be demonstrated by the experiment. But one thing is certain,the building of the canal which, as Mr. Nimmo says, is " a new question of finance and civil engineering," is but a bagatelle as compared with the least possible advantages which must result from its construction. The cost of construction is estimated at $2,899,722, in¬ cluding thirty-eight miles of Rock River feeder. Thisroute, it isestimated would in competition reduce the cost of transportation of grain from Iowa and Minnesota, 8 6 cents per bushel. I have just received a valuable table from the Superintendent of the Census, which I have not had time to make practical use of, but I insect with the letter of Supt. Walker, accompanying the same, for use and ref¬ erence, as follows: CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND TIIE HENNEPIN CANAL. 127 Department of the Interior, Census Office, Washington, IX 0., May 17th, 1881. Hon. M. A. McCoid, Fairfield, Iowa: Dear Sir: I have delayed answering your letter of the 25th of April, in consequence of my uncertainty respecting the amount of information which I should be able to furnish in response to your request, and as to the time at which the material could be given. 'I now send you, by this mail, a statement showing the production of cereals in the States interested in the public improvement to which you refer. This statement is necessarily still subject to correction as the result of correspondence now in progress, but I think the results given are substan¬ tially correct. Very truly, yours, C. A. WALKER, Superintendent of Census. r Cereals , Tobacco , Acres. Bushels. Acres. Pounds. Iowa. Barley 198,885 4,021,473 Buckwheat 16,318 166,895 Indian Corn 6,616,364 276,093,295 Oats 1,507,490 50,612,141 Rye 102,580 1,518,307 Wheat 3,049,347 31,177,225 Tobacco 694 420,722 Kansas. Barley 24,015 300,313 Buckwheat 2,483 24,602 Indian Corn 3,417,700 106,791,482 Oats 435,853 8,180,385 Rye 34,628 413,181 Wheat 1,861,342 17,324,141 Tobacco 334 191,749 Missouri. Barley 6,510 123,476 Buckwheat 5,502 57,934 Indian Corn 5,588,357 203,464,620 Oats 968,473 20,673,458 Rye 46,488 535,458 Wheat 2,074,314 24,971,727 Tobacco 15,511 11,994,077 Nebraska. Barley 115,125 1,731,410 Buckwheat 1,669 17,655 Indian Corn 1,660,907 65,897,982 Oats 249,793 6,555,296 Rye 34,284 421,344 Wheat 1,460,957 13,846,736 Tobacco 106 58,589 I have also a table of estimated products of the principal crops of the United States, for 1880. [See pages 128 and 129 following.] ESTIMATED PRODUCT Of the Principal Crops of the United States for 1880. (Prepared in the Department of Agriculture.) 11 oo p3 > *3 2! <■3 O O z > z e a a z z a o > z > State. Maine New Hampshire Vermont Massachusetts Rhode Island... Connecticut.... New York New Jersey... . Pennsylvania... Delaware Maryland Virginia North Carolina South Carolina. Georgia Florida Alabama Mississippi Louisiana Texas Arkansas Tennessee West Virginia... Kentucky Ohio... Corn. Bushels. 1,890,000 2,309,800 1,847,700 1,472,200 277,200 2,218,500 24,602,500 11,458,500 66,880,900 5,760,000 16,007,100 27,027,800 27,513,000 11,669,500 19,181,200 2,237,900 21,162,600 22,745,600 16,907,900 70,951,100 26,245,100 48,080,900 11,899,200 51,871,900 123,584,300 Wheat. Bushels. 383,145 204,525 520,096 15,606 43,720 12,931,237 2.473,974 22,299,090 1,369,040 7,485,800 9,322,350 3,478,080 690,720 2,582,370 940,620 374,000 3,901,500 1,167,600 9,309,600 4,651,140 5,347,120 37,792,800 Rye. Bushels. 40,412 48,960 87,740 451,651 23,881 442,380 3,395,96 435,666 3,642,660 11,500 278,841 359,456 311,808 34,960 41,472 35,751 248,994 275,270 737,229 1,037,286 oat9. Bushels. 2,076,429 1,131,200 3,933,800 591,448 90,000 1,197,090 44,204.160 4,180,950 31,502,988 307,440 3,454,880 5,011,677 2,965,259 1,406,592 4,542,980 118,085 1,373,118 956,310 16,480 6,240,145 1,156,734 3,456,960 2,638,454 4,871,340 24,340,830 Barley. Bushels. 810,000 129,200 159,166 54,012 8,550 26,190 5,735,744 ' '441,866 33,000 260,150 1,002,463 Buckwhe't Potatoes. Bushels. 507,600 140,78()| 359.420 61,200 ' 121,806 5,923,850 429,710 3,665,200 126,130' 77,140 Bushels. 5,154,725 3,784,725 4,959,675 5,244,750 444,375 2,793,570 32,825,237 4,238,900 13,504.670 308,000 856,076 1,304,053 1,386,000 90,850 441,600 372,248 440,000 1 89,420 77,060 208.730 755,840 976,720 1,173,172 913.500 1,716.000 10,574,000 Michigan Indiana Illinois ' Wisconsin Minnesota Iowa Missouri Kansas Nebraska California Oregon Nevada, Colorado, and the Territories. 33,105,000 111,038,000 303,305,300 40,310,100 10,008,900 207,303,500 111,125,800 72,436,000 61,381,500 3,537,600 84,500 3,107,800 30,705,000 38,341,990 53,707,300 16,404,000 40,752,000 36,098,400 30,688,000 19,850,000 10,308,000 45,700,000 12,920,000 18,005,000 232,378 388,432 ,005,025 1,659,738 121,600 330,197 559,559 ,455,432 680,472 213,850 24,140 12,647,400 12,488,665 49,651,701 30,125,345 17,273,088 38,394,790 18,360,652 10,058,958 4,173,592 4,518,780 2,594,268 2,901,096 1,019,245 520,200 501,750 3,870,720 2,441,432 3,806,790 434,520 823,680 15,533,540 369,600 716,130 97,460 134,830 566,950 130,890 130,180 54,780 68,450 27,660 10,897,600 3,469,200 11,190,000 13,551,813 4,870,800 10,241,950 6,621,720 3,924,900 1,086,750 6,916,800 925,140 1,431,000 Totals 1,537,535,900 480,849,723 22,272,702 355,553,684 38,171,802 13,695,370 168,385,999 Note.—These are preliminary estimates, and may be subject to some changes when the results of the Census are obtained. O a H > as > si 50 c w > o 51 t> 2! O a H Si a ►d o Si i> f 130 CHEAT TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. Now, take the estimated crop of corn for Iowa alone, 207,202,500 bush¬ els—five cents a bushel saved in transportation amounts to $10,350,240. An amount almost three times the cost of building the canal. Take Illi¬ nois, estimated product of corn, $202,205,200 bushels, five cents per bushel, $13,350,240, an annual saving equal to over three times the cost of the ca¬ nal ; Nebraska, corn product, 01,381,500 bushels, five cents saving, $3,000,- 075, almost enough to build it; Kansas, annual product of corn, 72,420,000 bushels, five cents saving, $3,031,300, enough to build it. Of course the whole product could not be shipped, but this is corn alone—leaving wheat, rye, oats, barley, and buckwheat to add to the reckoning. And then the indirect benefit in thus extending the water line joining the two routes, upon all adjoining regions is incalculable. There cannot be a single worthy objection made to it. What do we need to ensure its success? Why a generous unity, a definite purpose, and concentrated effort. That unity/purpose and effort, which it is high time the Middle, Western and South-western States were organizing and maintaining in pushing their material interests. One word more and I am done. Small as this canal is, it stands as a keystone in a great arch. It cements the East, the West, and the South iu an everlasting bond of Union. Here the waters of the Mississippi kiss those of the heroic Hudson. It would mark the beginning of a new era of internal improvements, and one after another of these public works would follow, each sending its beneficent effects to the remotest portions of the land. It would send the public thought into new channels, unnat¬ ural divisions would die out while constructing natural bonds of union. Why, sir, we would be lorked together, and the key thrown, with the key of Washington's tomb, into the all quiet Potomac. Too long have we neg¬ lected these works while we split the hairs of political divisions. Too long we have planned how to tear down, instead of how to build up. Let us catch the spirit of an approaching practical age, an age of material progress, and perpetuate it by enduring monuments of our national, pub¬ lic and liberal enterprise. It will be the greatest age of our history, fraught with blessings, productive of prosperity, and crowned with an un¬ dying patriotism. ADDRESS OF HON. O. C. CARPENTER, OF IOWA. Gentlemen of the Convention: In 1874 one phase of the transporta¬ tion problem culminated in the enactment of laws by the legislatures of several States for the control of railways. These laws were of course in many particulars crude and contradictory, but still in their general feat¬ ures they struck at evils which pushed to their horrible consequences were not only annoying to the public, but in some respects threatened to be¬ come insupportable. Many of these statutes have been repealed, or great¬ ly modified by subsequent legislation, but one of the indirect results which has grown out of them will remain in its ameliorating effects upon the ar- ogance of corporate capital for all time. Statutes may be repealed, and CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 131 laws may not receive the popular support necessary to give them vital force; but great principles, enunciated by judicial authority, especially when reinforced by popular sentiment, will not die. Before the passage of the Granger laws an honest doubt existed in many minds as to the con¬ stitutional power of the State to push control to the extent claimed by producer and consumer at both ends of every railroad line in the country. But the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States rendered March 1st, 1877, in which this full power is broadly asserted, settles be¬ yond all controversy every question regarding the right of control, and leaves the statesmanship of the future the narrow margin of statutory de¬ tails over which to wrangle. Upon this vital issue of constitutional power, Chief Justice Waite, speaking for the Court said: " We fiud that when private property is affected with a public interest it ceases to be juris priniti only. This was said by Lord Chief Justice Hale more than two hundred years ago in his treatise,' Be Portibus Maris,' and has been accepted without objection as an essential element in the law of property ever since. Property does become clothed with a public in¬ terest when used in a manner to make it of public consequence and effect the community at large. When therefore, one devotes his property to a use in which the public has an interest, he in effect grants to the public an interest in that use, and must submit to be controlled by the public for the common good to the extent of the interest he has thus created. He may withdraw his grant by discontinuing the use, but so long as he main¬ tains the use he must submit to the control." This settles the question of the power of control, and I believe is recog¬ nized by every man who has invested money in railway property, as well as every lawyer and statesman, as final and unchangeable. What remains for consideration are matters of detail and issues of expediency. It would be foreign to the purpose of this convention for me to enter upon a discussion of railway charges; and as to how and by what kind of legislation they should be regulated and controlled. We all admit the power; as to how, and by what authority, and under what circumstances this power should be exercised are questions of practical statesmanship which legislatures and Congresses will discuss and determine as experi¬ ence demonstrates their necessity. I may say, however, in passing, that in my judgment the proposition to shut up a Congressional or legislative committee, in a committee room, with the expectation that they can figure out in detail a comprehensive scheme of railroad rates, is to expect men can do upon the basis of a theory what has baffled the wisdom and expe¬ rience of practical railroad men for the last forty years. I am opposed unalterably to eliminating by legislation the principle of wholesale prices from the business of transportation. And this, in my judgment is the proposition involved in the idea of forcing railway managers to charge the same per mile for long hauls as for short. This would destroy the railway commerce of the West, because the life-blood of our commercial prosperity consists in the freedom to secure low rates per mile for long hauls, under the well-known law of railway profit, so frequently and aptly 132 CHEA P TRANSPORTATION AND THE IIENNEriN CANAL. expressed : "That the unit of profit in railroad management is a car-wheel in motion, and the unit of loss is a car-wheel at rest." There are certain abuses in railroad management, however, which I believe may be regu¬ lated by legislation. These time has demonstrated, and will continue to disclose to legislators; and one by one they will be eliminated by statutes, until a railway code as complete as any existing branch of the law, shall have grown up and taken permanent shape. But there is a method by which exorbitant rates can be reduced and freight charges may be regulated, the consideration of which is germane to this occasion, and it shall be the theme of the few remaining remarks I propose to make. The natural process for the regulation of prices is through competition. It is true, there are exceptions to every general rule, and under certain cir¬ cumstances the prices of freight and fare may require legislative regula¬ tion. But the normal method of determining the true basis of transpor¬ tation charges is by the natural law of competition; and this cannot be gauged upon a more equitable basis than the discovery of what a railroad can afford to carry for, when competing with a river, lake or canal, for a share of the business tributary to the water ways of the country. It is said, however, that railways charge extortionate prices for short hauls to make up for non-paying prices paid for long hauls; and that this is a con¬ scienceless discrimination, and should he forbidden by law. I am not so sure of this. Commerce is for the benefit of all the people. It is no more for the benefit of the man who raises a surplus to sell, than it is for the benefit of every man, woman and child in America. Commerce demands the removal of the heavy and cheap crops of the West to the markets of the Eastern seaboard, because they are required to feed the millions who cannot reach the West. If, therefore, the railroads cannot transport these heavy freights of the West to the Eastern seaboard, except at such rates as would destroy their production, then railroads must transport for such prices as will leave a margin sufficient to warrant the production of the heavy grains, and their products of cattle, hogs and sheep, and must make up losses by charging upon some other articles of traffic that can afford higher freight charges, and still leave a margin for production. But in my judgment there is a better way to obviate the difficulties that are ever present in every attempt to transport cheap, heavy and bulky commodities to a distant market, and leave even a small margin of profit to the producer. Let the Government relieve the railways from the ne¬ cessity of carrying such freights by constructing water ways for the trans¬ portation of products of this character; and remit to the railroads the bus¬ iness of carrying passengers and the lighter and more valuable commod¬ ities. In support of this proposition I appeal to facts. One fact is worth a thousand theories. Some years since when the enlargement of the Erie canal was being agitated, the cost of freight charges through this canal, as compared with those of the New York Central and New York and Erie railways, was sharply drawn and made the text for numerous arguments CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 133 in favor of the improvement. These comparisons extended over a series of years, and illustrated not only the advantages of water traffic for heavy and bulky commodities, over railway traffic, but also showed the effect, in the reduction of railway freights produced by canal competition. These comparisons showed that while freights on the New York Central rail¬ way averaged $3.58 per ton per mile, and on the New York and Erie railway $3.30 per ton per mile, the maximum of cost, all expenses included, on the Erie canal was one cent per ton per mile. In view of these facts, Prof. McAlpine, then State Engineer of New York, in an ad¬ dress before the Chamber of Commerce in New York city, could well say: " With many persons there is an idea that the railway has superseded the canal, and that the railroad now performs the chief part of the traffic of tire country. While the latter is true in regard to interior short lines of trade, it is a serious error in reference to the great transportation between the agricultural West and the Atlantic. The Erie canal, during the sea¬ son of navigation, conveys more of this traffic than all the railroads to¬ gether; more than all the trunk lines from the St. Lawrence to the Poto mac. The boats which come to tide water have an average cargo exceed¬ ing that carried by the longest freight train on the Central Railway. Dur¬ ing the busy season more than one hundred and fifty such boats arrive daily, and their tonnage would require more than one hundred and fifty trains. The greatest number per day is thirty on the Central Railway. The Erie Canal, therefore, is performing more than five times as much business as the Central Railway. Yet the slow, plodding canal boat at¬ tracts no attention, though burdened with more tons than the bustling, noisy, whirling freight train, which creates a sensation in every village through which it passes. The 4,000 canal boats, of an aggregate of 1,000,- 000 of tonnage, moving 5,000,000 tons of cargo per annum, exceeds the tonnage of the vessels engaged in the foreign commerce of this city [New York], even before the war." In the report of Senator Windom, as chairman of " The Senate Com¬ mittee on Transportation to the Seaboard," is a statement showing the rel¬ ative cost of transport by water and by rail in different parts of the coun¬ try, and under different conditions of water carriage. These statements are predicated upon the division of funds where railway and water trans¬ portation companies have run in connection and pro-rated their earnings. 1 cannot go into details as is done in the report, but I deduce from it these results: On the through line from the Ohio river to Boston, composed of the Baltimore and Ohio railroads, and the Boston Steamship Company, the railroad received sixty-eight per cent., and the Steamship Company thirty-two per cent., making for the actual distances operated four to one in favor of water transport. Between Baltimore and New York the pro¬ rating arrangement was two to one in favor of water. The Erie Company had an arrangement between Buffalo and Boston three to one in favor of water. From Parkersburg to Cincinnati the arrangement between the . railways and river steamers is two to one in favor of the river. The ar¬ rangement between the Erie Railway Company and the steamer lines 134 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. from Chicago and Milwaukee were five to one in favor of the latter. The Central Vermont Railway and Northern Transportation Company pro rated fror® Chicago to Boston at the rate of three to one in favor of water The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway pro-rates with vessels on the Ohio, on the basis of two to one in favor of the river. The Illinois Central Railroad pro-rates with the Mississippi river ou the basis of five to one in favor of the river. The Kanawha Coal Mine Company, shipping to Cincinnati, by rail from Huntington to the Ohio river, and thence by water to Cincinnati, paid a pro-rata amounting to six to one in favor of the river. This might be extended, but it is unnecessary to consume time upon an undis¬ puted proposition. The point being settled that even upon an artificial water way, freight may be carried at less than half the cost of railway transport, and upon a natural water way at a still less cost to the shipper, we come next to con¬ sider the effect of water transportation upon railway charges. Where a railway runs in competition with a canal which carries freight at lower rates than the railway, the fact that these railway rates should be to a greater or less extent reduced by the competition, is in the very nature of business. In the report just referred to, a most interesting table is given showing the reduction of railway charges when brought in competition with a water way; which is especially emphasized by the difference in rates during the summer and winter months. This table covers a period of five years, and gives for each year and each month in the year the freight charges under these different conditions of traffic. First, all wa¬ ter; second, all rail; and third, lake and rail. I will not detain you by repeating these elaborate figures; suffice it to say they produce the follow¬ ing results: During the year 1873 the all rail rates were 34.5 pe'r cent higher than the all water rates. The lake and rail rates seven per cent, higher than the all water rates, and the all rail rates were 1(1.3 per cent, higher than the lake and rail rates, upon all the through traffic from Chicago to New York. The same table discloses another striking fact. The average summer rail rates (May, June, July, August, September, October and No¬ vember) was 31.3-7 cents per bushel, for carrying wheat from Chicago to New York, and the average winter rail rates (December, January, Febru¬ ary, March and April) was 3(1.3-8 cents per bushel, or 16 per cent, higher than the average summer rates. It may be said that this increased rate of transportation in winter is caused by the increased cost of the winter months. But this is true only to a limited extent. The table before re¬ ferred to shows that while during the months of October and November, when the cost of railway transportation cannot be greatly increased over any other month, yet owing to absence of competition in the water -way traffic, the rate, on an average, was increased for a series of years 44.4 per cent, above the rates charged for the months of June and July. The late Wm. Walker, President of the C., B. & Q. R. R. Co. testified before the committee, that the winter and summer rates were the same on his road because they did not run in competition with any water line; and that he • thought that was the rule with western roads generally. But I need not CHEAP TRANSPORTATION ANp THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 135 dwell upon this point; one thing, however, is so important in this connec¬ tion that I must pause to allude to it. I refer to the fact that water route competition not only affects the prices of transportation upon railways running parallel with the water routes, and upon commodities so near the two routes that the shipper is free to choose between them, but it affects the prices upon roads so remote as to be beyond the immediate influence ot the water way. This may he illustrated by calling attention to a single fact which will come home to every gentleman who has taken a personal interest in this convention. Let ps suppose that this improvement is an accomplished fact, and that an unbroken water communication is opened from Davenport to Chicago; and let us further suppose that during the summer months this water route would afford transportation for wheat, grown west of the Mississippi, for four and a half cents per bushel, to Chicago, (according to the estima'te of the Senate report); under such cir- cumstances it will be apparent to every one that the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway would find it necessary to put down freights to some¬ thing near the figure at which shipments could he made by water or lose a large part of its business in heavy commodities. But upon casual thought it might be difficult for a person to see how it would effect the price of freight charges from St. Louis to Louisville and Cincinnati; and over the more southerly lines of railway to Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Or it may be asked how it would affect freights over the Chi¬ cago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad to Milwaukee; or over the Min¬ neapolis and St. Louis Railway to Duluth. But when we come to consider the rivalry between cities which is no less sharp and effective than be¬ tween water and rail transportation, it will readily be seen that the lines of railway dependent upon these rival cities for their traffic would be driven to reduce their charges in order to save the business to the cities upon which they were dependent. This is the philosophy of the transporta¬ tion business. Where the effect of the Hennepin canal would cease (if it were constructed) is a problem that experience only can solve. I may say, however, that when we consider how the commercial relations of rival cities are interlaced with the railways, rivers, lakes and canals which afford them their commercial connections, it is safe to infer that this im¬ provement, connecting the Mississippi and all its tributaries, with the great lakes at Chicago, would only be limited in its effects upon the cost of traffic, by the oceans which bound the continent. In this connection the words of Senator Windom, in a speech made in the Senate, June 10, 1878, seem almost prophetic. lie said : " The wheat and corn fields of the continent are rapidly moving westward; within a very short time one-half of the grain crop of the United States will be grown west of the Missis, sippi river, very nearly, if not quite, half the wheat sent to market is raised there now. When these immense crops shall reach the western hank of that river, they will refuse to bear burdens of railroad transporta¬ tion further, and will be trans-shipped to barges and steamers for New Orleans. The two hundred miles of costly railway transport, from the Mississippi to the lakes, will, in the not distant day of cheap river trans- 13(5 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. portation, prove an insuperable barrier to the Eastward movement from all the vast section of country west of that river. That barrier can only be removed by artificial water connections between the river and the lakes. Fortunately we have at least three routes which nature seems to have pro¬ vided for this purpose. Two of them, the Hennepin canal, in Illinois, and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers in Wisconsin, I had the honor to suggest to the Senate some five years ago, in a report on the subject of internal transportation. Another route, believed by many persons of equal, if not greater merit, is found by way of the Saint Croix and Saint Louis Rivers from the .Mississippi to Lake Superior, to Duluth." Gentlemen, I am in favor of the Hennepin Canal. I see in this conven¬ tion the renewal of a purpose to connect the Mississippi with the Atlantic seaboard, by canal, and river, and lake, which has seemed to me for many years to be the true theory of opening a practicable route for the heavy and bulky freights to an eastern market. We are not left in the dark in regard to the effect of this canal upon railway freights brought in competition with it. Hon. Joseph Utley, Pres¬ ident of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in a letter to Mr. Windom, shows that the rates on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, which competes with the Illinois and Michigan Canal, is only 53 per cent, ot the average charges for the same distances on the other roads. And he shows further, that the freight charges on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad is only eight cents per hundred pounds from Henry to Chicago, between which points there is water competition, while the rate from Tis- kilwa, only twelve miles further west than Henry, and beyond the effect of canal competition, is fifteen cents per hundred pounds, or nearly as much for twelve miles as for one hundred miles. 1 turn now to a consideration of the cost of construction, and to the in¬ quiry as to what will be required to secure the favorable action of Con¬ gress. It is estimated that the canal will cost $3,81111,728, we may say in round numbers $4,000,000, and to put it beyond all question or cavil I prefer to say that before its completion it will probably cost a long $0,000,- 000. You may say, and 1 will not dispute you, that the saving upon the transportation of the surplus of a single crop will repay all this, and leave a margin over; still this does not answer the inquiry as to how a majority of 203 members of Congress, whose local interests turn their eyes towards Maine and California, and the Gulf of Mexico, can be made to see this as plainly as it appears to us. Perhaps you may regard what I am about to say as a somewhat humiliating admission touching the selfishness of pub¬ lic men. Rut, nevertheless we may as well state facts as we will find them ; and it is the part of wisdom to look all the difficulties of a proposed en¬ terprise squarely in the face. In this view, you will be prepared for the statement, that to secure the support of a majority of 293 members of the House of Representatives, and of 70 Senators, representing Districts and States widely separated by lines of latitude and longitude, and no less widely separated in the enterprises they aspire to promote, it will be ne¬ cessary to show them that their constituencies will be benefited by the CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 137 completion of the Hennepin Canal; as in the expressive cant of the day, they will inquire whether their districts will receive a share of the " pork." It is true there are Congressmen whose action will be influenced by higher considerations, and who will support what they regard as for the general interest unaffected by local prejudices. But you must secure a majority to make appropriations, and a large number necessary to make this ma¬ jority, will inquire as to the interest their immediate constituents have in the proposed enterprise. To me, it therefore seems plain, that to secure favorable action in Congress upon this enterprise, notwithstanding its ad¬ mitted meritoriousness, you must couple with it other enterprises of equal merit, thus making it a part of a general and comprehensive system of public improvements. And under our form of government, so long as the revenues necessary to pay the cost of the Hennepin Canal must be drawn from every State in the Union, and from every locality in these States, I am not prepared to say there is an impropriety in this view of public duty. While I would not say a representative in his public acts, should always be governed by the simple consideration of how a certain act may affect the interests of his constituents and his locality, yet in this matter, involv¬ ing considerations solely of a material character, and professedly in the interest of commerce, which touches every individual interest, and every private right in every nook and corner of the country, it seems to me every honest legislator who will be called to act upon it may fairly inquire, " How will this benefit my constituency? Or how may it be extended so as to ameliorate the condition of the people whose interests it is my duty to represent?" As I see the necessities of commerce, in the not distant future, three great water lines present themselves to my mind as the chief outlets for the immeasurable products of this great interior basin of the continent. And it appears to me that the relations of this continent to the markets of the world, the necessities of the hour, and the demands of the coming millions, the echoes of whose approaching footsteps we already hear, and who will add to the overflowing surplus of products that to-day are crowd¬ ing the barns and bursting the granaries of the industrious farmer, em¬ phasize the advisability, and plead the availability of the three great Wa¬ ter routes which have been so frequently and urgently recommended by engineers and statesmen. First, in point of value both as a commercial artery, and in the political influence it will bring, as part of a well defined system of water way im¬ provement, I place the Mississippi River. This, in my judgment, should not only include the Mississippi, with the jetties at its outlet, and the Minnesota Reservoirs at its source, but also the Missouri River, which for 3,000 miles waters and drains millions of unsurveyed acres, that hardly need tickling with a hoe to be made to laugh with unexampled harvests. In regard to this route, Hon. Joseph Niinmo, Chief of the Bureau of Sta¬ tistics in the Treasury Department, in his report upon the Internal Com¬ merce of the United States, says: " But the Mississippi River is still, and will always continue to be, the most important avenue of commerce be- 138 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND TIIE HENNEPIN CANAL. tween the West and the South, not only with respect to the commerce ac¬ tually carried upon it, but in the influence which it will exert toward reg¬ ulating rates on competing rail lines, especially for the transportation of the heavier commodities comprising the lower classes of freight and em¬ bracing agricultural products, lumber, minerals, &c." The estimated cost ot the Mississippi improvement, by "The Senate Committee on Transportation to the Seaboard" was $10,000,000. But as $10,000,000 ot this sum was the estimated cost of opening a channel at the mouth, by the construction of the Fort St. Phillip canal, now rendered unnecessary by the successful experiment of the jetties, at a much less cost, this amount may be deducted from the estimates. The $0,000,000 estimated as needful upon other portions of the river is still deemed a necessary expenditure; and I believe at least $10,000,000 should housed upon the Missouri. With the navigation of these rivers improved and perfected by these expendi¬ tures of money, who will question that within the coming decade, wheat and corn, as a result of barge transports upon the rivers, and the steam navigation of the ocean, may not be shipped from Fort Benton and Lake Itaska, and laid down at Liverpool for seventeen cents a bushel ? Indeed, corn has already been delivered in Liverpool, by barge from Evansville, Indiana, to New Orleans, and ocean steamer from there to Liverpool, for ' less than twenty cents per bushel. The route next in importance, and I am not quite sure it should be named second to any line, is what is known as the Northern Route. This comprises a system of water ways from the Mississippi to the Atlantic seaboard at New York; and includes as part of the projected line, the Hennepin Canal, and the improvement of the Illinois River, connecting the Mississippi with the Lakes at Chicago. It also contemplates the 'com¬ pletion of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers improvement. Thus two outlets from the Mississippi to the Lakes will be opened, affording a traffic capa¬ city which will always be required between the Mississippi and the Lakes; and at the same time will accommodate the local business tributary to both lines. It is estimated that the completion of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers enterprise will cost $3,000,000. If we add this, together with the $4,000,000 required to construct the Hennepin Canal, to the cost of enlarg¬ ing the Erie Canal, either by the general government with the consent ot the State of New York, or by the State itself, so it will pass boats of 700 tons, thus completing connection with the seaboard at New York for boats of this tonnage, which is estimated to cost $12,000,000. it makes for the entire work a sum of $19,000,000. Whilst the Mississippi River line would possess some advantages over the Lake, River and Canal route to New Y'ork, in consequence of its barge lines, and in the length of the season it would be open for navigation during the year; still in some particulars the Northern route would have compensating advantages over the Missis, sippi. It would be a shorter and more direct route to the world's markets, and to the markets of our own country. It would involve no risk of loss from the torrid suns of the Gulf of Mexico. And it would offer, with greater certainty, to the ship owner, a return cargo from the European CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. 139 port back to the great commercial mart of the American continent. Taken together, these are two magnificent water ways, and when improved and perfected to their full traffic capacity, will but supplement each other, and present to this great valley commercial possibilities which would have been regarded as the day-dream of a visionary by the engineer and slates- man of a half century ago. The third and last great continental water line to which I propose to call attention, and which seems practicable, is the Central Route. It con¬ templates the radical improvement of the Ohio from Cairo to Pittsburg, at an estimated cost of $22,000,000. The improvement of the Kanawha River from its mouth to Great Falls, so as to give six feet of water at all seasons, at a cost of $3,000,000. And finally, a connection with the tide water of the James River and the ocean, by canal and slackwater, through the mountains of West Virginia, at an estimated cost of $50,000,000, mak¬ ing the entire cost of the central water line in the neighborhood of $75,- 000,000. It is true, the cost of the canal and slack-water improvements through the mountains of West Virginia to tide water, has been esti¬ mated at much lower figures than I have chosen to give. Mr. Lorraine, an accomplished Civil Engineer, estimated their cost at $37,308,911; and Maj. Craighill of the Engineer Corps, in the War Department, at $47,022,- 299; but I prefer to give extreme figures as best suited to the purpose tor which I state the probable expenditures on all these routes. The entire cost of the three lines which seem to me worthy of special favor and support would be $110,000,000. You say this is an immense sum, and that these are immense undertakings. It is, and they are. Of course they should be free to every man, and every company of men, to float their boats upon them under such rules and regulations as their safe and successful navigation may require. But by a system of tolls which would be but an insignificant tax upon commerce, this money could be refunded to the treasury in a few years. The State of New York has al¬ ready received many millions ot dollars in tolls over and above the cost of the Erie Canal, and all expenses of enlargement and repairs; aud there is no reason why these water ways will not produce equal returns. But sup¬ pose the original cost of these lines is never refunded, we need only pause a moment to estimate the advantages of these improvements to commerce, to show, that their entire cost will come back many fold to the people. Take the eight States from the great Mississippi Valley, that may be called the grain producing States, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minne¬ sota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin, and consider for a moment its benefits to these States. In the year 1879 they produced 982,077,500 bushels of com, 231,780,600 bushels of wheat, and 184,358,430 bushels of oats. It is of course impossible to determine the exact amount of these grains shipped to the Eastern seaboard. But it will take but little skill in math¬ ematics to show that the saving upon our surplusses, even if transporta¬ tion prices, under the influence of this system of water transportation) should be reduced but five cents a bushel, would still, in two years, pay the entire original cost of the improvements. In a little pamplet issued by Albert Fink, one of the most experienced 140 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE HENNEPIN CANAL. railroad men in America, and one among the wisest thinkers upon the economic questions connected with the transportation problem, he shows that since the first of last April the rates on grain, per hundred, had been reduced from thirty-five to twenty-five cents, owing as he says, "to the influence exercised by the present active competition of the Mississippi River." Then he goes on to say, (of course speaking in defense of rail¬ way management): "It may be noted here, as a curious fact, that that dangerous man, who, in the letter of Senator Windom to the Anti-Monop¬ oly League, was singled out as likely to control all the channels of com¬ merce, including, no doubt, the Erie Canal, the Lakes and the Mississippi River, as well as all the channels of thought, was one of the first to avail himself of the improvements made in the Mississippi River, by establish¬ ing a line of barges to transport grain from St. Louis to New Orleans at such low rates as to cause a general reduction in the rail transportation charges throughout the country." And he still goes on to say: "Accord¬ ing to Judge Black's theory and estimates an advance of five cents per 100 pounds on grain imposes a tax of $75,000,000 per annum ; the reduction of ten cents from thirty-five cents per 100 pounds, (which rate I have shown to be reasonable) must therefore produce a corresponding saving of $150,- 000,000." Gentlemen, the millions of dollars saved to the pockets of the Western farmers by recent movements, is an instructive commentary upon the sueers at the jetty system, and the long wail of despair which went up from doubter and croaker at an expenditure of $3,300,000 preliminary to these beneficent results. The inspired King of Israel uttered a great truth when he said: "There is that scatleretli and yet increaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." There are other points connected with this prolific and interesting theme which oc¬ cur to me; but I will not dwell upon them. The fact that while water competition will diminish railroad rates, it will not injure the railroads, as the additional business in lighter and more valuable commodities which will grow out of the increased prosperity of the producers will more than compensate for loss on heavy freights, could be easily shown. Again, it may be well Jo understand, that whether we command the great markets of the British Islands for our surplus wheat, or surrender them to the Rus¬ sian producer, may depend upon the question of a half a cent, more or less, per bushel, in our freight charges. This, too, is a proposition of much interest in this connection. The broad question of the work these enterprises would atiord to labor, and the profitable employment they would furnish to idle cap¬ ital, might also be considered with profit; I would like too, to show, that this " Central Water Line," linking Pennsylvania and West Vir¬ ginia to the West, is the route over which we must receive the hard coal and iron we will need in the future; but I forbear, and close by- quoting a few prophetic words from William H. Seward. In his notes on New York, he says: "The destiny of our country seems to have been opened to the mind of Washington, with a clearness almost equal to CHEAP TRANSPORTATION AND THE IIENNEriN CANAL. 141 that with which the varied career of the chosen people was revealed to their prophetic leader, on the sublime occasion when he was required to resign the trust he had so long faithfully discharged. Washington saw, that although the settlements of the United States had been clustering on the Atlantic coast during almost two centuries, yet the region, far more extensive, fertile and salubrious, which lay beyond the proper borders of the thirteen States, would become the home of the larger portion of the American family; and that, it the natural barriers between that region and the East should remain unchanged, the West would, at no distant pe¬ riod, refuse political connection with the maritime States; hut that, if those barriers could be surmounted by roads, and pierced by canals, con¬ necting the inland lakes and rivers with tide-water, the wealth and popu¬ lation of the whole country would be vastly increased ; ample provision would be made for defending every part of our extended borders; and the States, new and old, would be bound 'in an indivisible union of interest and affection.' In 1783 when he had proceeded up the difficult naviga¬ tion of the Mohawk to Fort Stanwix, now the site of the village of Rome, and had crossed to Wood creek, which flows into Oneida lake, and thence had descended to the sources in this State of the Susqueliannah, he gave expression to this glowing thought: 'Taking a contemplative and exten¬ sive view of the vast inland navigation ot the United States, I could not but be struck with the immense diffusion and importance of it, and with the goodness of that Providence who has dealt his favors to us with so profuse a hand. Would to God we may have wisdom to improve them.' " Standing as we do to-day upon the banks of the " Father of Waters," at a point where by looking eastward we may almost see the other side of fhe narrow isthmus which seperates the great River from the great Lakes, with a hundred years of added wealth, added experience, and added pop¬ ulation opening to our vision a grander perspective than that then stretch¬ ing out before the prophetic mind of Washington, it becomes us this day, to repeat his prayer, and lay our own hands to the work to help on its ful¬ fillment. 142 cheap transportation and the hennepin canal. A MAP Showing the Proposed Route of the Hennepin Canal. from the MISSISSIPPI TO THE LAKES, INDEX TO CONTENTS. PAGE Address of Maj. J. M. Allan 7 Hon. J. H. Murphy 9 Gen. T. J. Hendenson, M. C 1" Hon. J. H. Gear, Governor of Iowa 22 Hon Carter Harrison, Mayor of Chicago 34 Mr. Charles .Randolph, Secretary Chicago Board of Trade 62 Hon. James F. Wilson, ex-M. C. of Iowa 73 Ex-Lieutenant-Governor Stannard, of Missouri 89 Hon. William Bross, of Chicago 96 Hon. J. C. Starr, of Peoria 97 Hon. John Hogan, ex-M. C., of Missouri 190 Hon. M. A. McCoid, M. C., of Iowa 117 . Hon. C. C. Carpenter, M. C., of Iowa 130 Anti Monopoly Leagues: Letter from Illinois League 57 Letter from.President of National League 59 Adams, Hon. Geo. £., remarks '87 Associations: Letter from Business Men's Association, of Oshkosb. Wis 57 Telegram from Citizens1 Association, of Chicago 61 Barge Lines, facts as to 24, 94, 102 Banquet, remarks at...: 113 Boards of Trade, &c.: Letter from Buffalo, New York 55 Letter from Burlington, Iowa 57 " Chicago, 111 55 " Merchants1 Exchange, St. Louis 56, 91 " New York Produce Exchange 54 " N. Y. B. of Transportation 54 " . Toronto, Ontario 56 Bross, Hon. Wm., address of 96 Campbell, R. A., remarks of Ill Canals, advantages of 26 " " Erie 30,66 " " Illinois and Michigan 71 " " Irorn Illinois River to Toledo 109 " " Hennepin canal, advantages of. .8, 11, 19, 26, 27, 68, 71, 122, 1:38, 140 " saving in cost of transportation by 35, 67, 133, 134, 135, 136 " Hennepin and Rock Island, cost of 27, 71, 97,110, 126, 136 ~ ^ " " " Map of v 142 " resolutions of Iowa General Assembly on 28-29 Carpenter, Hon. C. C., address of 130 Census, letter from Superintendent of 127 Cereals, table of production of, in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska 127 Clark, S. M., remarks of. 16, 106 Congress, letters from Members of: Allison, W. B., Senator 44-45 Davi6, David, " 47 Ingalls, John J , " 48 Logan, John A., " 47 McDill, Jas. W., " 45 Sawyer, Philetus, u 48 Sanders, Alvin, " 47 Burrows, J. H., Representative 53' Carpenter, C. C., " 50 Cullen, Wm., • 51 Deering, N. C., '* 49 Deuster, P. V., " 53 Bunnell, M. H., " 54 Farwell, C. B., " 50 Farwell, S. S , " 48 Fort, G. L., " 50 Haskell, D. C., " 54 Hawk, R. M. A., " 51 Hawley, John B., ex-Representative 53 Henderson, Thos. J., Representative 52 Kasson, John A., " 49 McCoid, M. A., " 48 Moulton, S. N., " 52 Payson, L. E., " 51 Sniith, D. C., " 52 Townsend, R. W., " 52 Wilson, Jas. F., ex-Representative 45 144 INDEX TO CONTENTS. PAGE Commission, the Illinois and Mississippi River Canal and Improvement, organiza¬ tion of ^ 3 Convention Proceedings, first day • 7 1 4 44 second day 89 Credentials, report of Committee on 35 Crops of the United States, report of 138 Cullom, Hon. S. M., Governor of Illinois, telegram from 41 4 4 44 44 44 letter from 43 Delegates, list of 35 Gear, Hon. John II., Governor of Iowa, address ol 22 Governors of States: Letter from that of Illinois 43, 44 Letter from that of Minnesota 43 Letter from that of Michigan 44 Letter from ex-Gov. Seymour, of New York 42 Griunell, Hon. J. B., remarks by Ill Harrison, Hon. Carter, address of 34 remarks by 110, 116 Henderson, Hon. T. J., address of 17 remarks by 106, 107 Hogan, Hon. John, address of 10<) remarks by 85, 86, 89 Ilorr, Hon. R. G., Permanent President, addiessof 40 remarks by 41, 87, 114 Howard, N. M., remarks by 109, 110 Letter from Secretary of the United States Treasury 42 Letters from Prominent Citizens (see Congressmen, Governors and State Officers): From A. W. Waters, Civil Engineer 60 From Henry L. Fi/*h, Rochester, N. Y 61 From Williamson Durley 61 Local Entertainment, request of Mayor of Davenport 41 Notice by ex-Mayor Murphy 113 The Banquet 113 Map of Hennepin Canal route f 142 Map of Water Routes preceding title page Merriman, O. C., remarks by 108, 111 McCoid, Hon. M. A., address of 17 McEnnis, Michael, President ot Merchants1 Exchange, St. Louis, letter from 91 McNutt, Hon. Samuel, remarks by 87 Murphy, J. H., address ol 9 Nimmo, Jos. Jr., letter from 122 Organization and Preparation for Convention 3 Permanent Organization and Rules ' 16, 40 Palmer, Hon. T W., remarks by 115 Quinn, Hon. M. C., remarks by 115 Randolph, Chas., Secretary of Chicago Board of Trade, address of 62 Remarks by 16, 84 Resolution by 112 River transportation, facts as to * 24, 25. 103, 137 Resolutions, Constitution of Committee on 16, 62, 84, 89 Report of Committee on 11)5 Amended by Convention 108 Adopted by Convention 109 Of thanks to Davenport, Rock Island and Moline... 112 Thanks to Officers of Convention 112 Russell, Edward, remarks by 15, 42, 85, 87, 106 Starr, Hon. J. C., Address of 97 Remarks by 85, 107, 108 Stannard, Hon. E. O., Address of 89 Statistics, letter from Chief of Bureau 122 Of Crop Yield 127,128 State Officers (other than Governors,) letters from: Hon. B. R. Sherman, ex-Auditor of Iowa 58 Hon. E. H. Conger, Treasurer of Iowa 58 Hon. W. V. Lucas, Auditor of Iowa 59 Hon. J. A. T. Hull, State Secretary of Iowa 59 Hon. Wm. Larrabee, State Senator, Iowa 59 Hon. B. F. Gue, ex-Lieutenant Governor of Iowa 60 Telegrams from Secretary Windom 22 From the Governor of Illinois 41 From the New York Produce Exchange 54 From the Citizens Association, Chicago 61 Transportation, cost of 8, 20, 26, 27, 68, 69, 71, 78, 95, 103, 123, 125 Van Valkenburg, Hon. Jno., remarks by 84 Wilson, Hon. Jas. F., address of • • 73 Windom, Hon. William, Secretary of Treasury, extract from his report, 1875 21 Telegram fr m 22 Letter from 42