320 THE GKOUNDSWELL. 



THE RESOLUTIONS. 



WHEREAS, The productive industries of the United States planta 

 tion and farm, mine and factory, commercial and mercantile are 

 not only the sources of all our national and individual wealth, but 

 also elements on which our very national and individual existence 

 depend ; and, 



WHEREAS, All national products are fruits of labor and capital, and 

 as neither labor nor capital w r ill continue actively employed without 

 an equivalent measurably just ; and, 



WHEREAS, The great national industries are only sustained and 

 prospered by the interchange of products of one section of the 

 country for those of another ; and, 



WHEREAS, The existing rates of transportation for the varied prod 

 ucts of the Union from one part of the country to another, and to 

 foreign countries, as well as the transit cost of commodities required 

 in exchange, are in many instances injurious, and to certain interests 

 absolutely destructive, arising in part at least from an insufficiency 

 of avenues ; and, 



WHEREAS, The great national want of the nation to-day is relief 

 from the present rates of transit upon American products; there 

 fore, be it 



Resolved, 1. That it is the duty of the hour, and the mission of this 

 association, to obtain from Congress, and the different State Legis 

 latures such legislation as may be necessary to control and limit by 

 law, within proper constitutional and legitimate limits, rates and 

 charges of existing lines of transportation ; to increase, where prac 

 ticable, the capacity of our water-ways, and to aid such new avenues, 

 both water and rail, as our immensely increasing internal commerce 

 demands, so that the producer may be justly rewarded for his honest 

 toil, the consumers have cheap products, and our almost limitless sur 

 plus find foreign markets at rates to compete with the world. 



2. That cheap transportation, both of persons and property, is most 

 conducive to free movement of the people ; that the widest inter 

 change and consumption of the produce of the different parts of the 

 Union is essential to the welfare and prosperity of the country. 



3. That constant and frequent association of the inhabitants of re 

 mote parts of the United States is not only desirable, but necessary, 

 for the maintenance of a homogeneous and harmonious population 

 within the vast area of our territory. 



