COMMERCIAL CONVENTIONS. 



115 



valuable the stock-raising districts of Texas, New 

 Mexico, and Northern Mexico, and thus enjoy un- 

 rivalled traffic. 



6. It will inevitably attract numerous feeders from 

 the neighboring Republic of Mexico, and thus not 

 only stimulate enterprise there, but secure to our 

 shipping-ports a greater portion of the bullion which 

 now seeks Europe by hazardous conductas and smug- 

 gling vessels. 



7. It will open the new cotton-growing area in 

 Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, the lands for cot- 

 ton-gro\ying being now useless on account of the lack 

 of facilities for transportation. 



8. It is well known that some roads, which would 

 be among the feeder-roads referred to in the resolu- 

 tion, have not only been projected, but are already 

 in active course of construction, without waiting for 

 Government subsidy or encouragement. 



9. The last, though not least the construction of 

 this route, more than all else besides, encourages what 

 we feel to be the great necessity of the hour immi- 

 gration and direct trade with Europe. 



A report of the Committee on Rivers and 

 Navigation was adopted. After rehearsing the 

 vast importance of a safe, speedy, and cheap 

 system of transportation on "Western waters as 

 necessary to the settlement and cultivation of 

 the extensive fertile regions of the South and 

 Southwest, it indorses the efforts of the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley Navigation Company for the 

 improvement of the system of Western navi- 

 gation. 



The sense of the convention on the ques- 

 tion of Chinese labor was expressed in the 

 following resolution, which was adopted, with 

 a preamble, stating the cheapness of this class 

 of labor, and the lack of means on the part of 

 individual planters to import foreign laborers : 



Resolved, That all the railroads in the South be re- 

 quested to employ upon these roads as many as pos- 

 sible of the Chinamen recently discharged on the 

 Pacific Bailroad, and that all companies engaged in 

 building new railroads be especially requested to em- 

 ploy as many of these laborers as they possibly can. 



Resolutions were passed approving of the 

 scheme of direct trade between Norfolk and 

 Liverpool, as well as between other prominent 

 Southern ports and Europe ; advocating cheap 

 freights on railroads for fertilizers, building- 

 materials, farm-implements, etc., and low rates 

 of fare for the immigrant, as a means of pro- 

 moting the agricultural interests of the South 

 and West ; in favor of requesting Congress to 

 cause the collection and publication of full re- 

 ports concerning cotton; showing the cost and 

 material advantages, and the most efficient 

 process of manufacture at home and abroad ; 

 the hest routes to foreign markets, and the 

 cost of transportation; and in favor of im- 

 proving the levees of the Mississippi River, so 

 as to secure the vast alluvial low lands of the 

 valley from overflow. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to memorialize Congress upon this sub- 

 ject, and the following resolution was adopted : 



That we earnestly invoke the early attention of 

 Congress to such legislation as may be necessary to 

 extend the aid of the Government of the United States 

 to the States of Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 and Arkansas, by the indorsement of the United 

 States of the bonds of these States in such sums as 

 may be necessary to rebuild, in a thorough and per- 



manent manner, the levees of the Mississippi Eiver 

 when these States, by satisfactory legislation, shall 

 have provided for the interest on the bonds, and for 

 their redemption at maturity. 



The subject of immigration held a prominent 

 place in the deliberations of the convention. 

 The committee made a long report, setting 

 forth the superior advantages of the South for 

 the investment of capital and labor; recom- 

 mending to European immigrants, destined to 

 the Northwestern States, the route via the 

 Mississippi River in preference to New York ; 

 and promising to extend to all immigrants 

 coming to the South friendly sympathy and 

 full protection in the rights of person and 

 property. After the appointment of a com- 

 mittee to report a plan for the permanent 

 organization of the Southern Commercial Con- 

 vention, this body adjourned, to meet at Louis- 

 ville, Ky., on the 12th of the following Oc- 

 tober. 



The second convention of the year was held 

 at New Orleans, on the 25th of May and the 

 three following days. It was made up chiefly 

 of delegates from the cities of the Mississippi 

 Valley and the lake region. One of the most 

 important subjects under consideration was 

 that relating to the removal of obstructions at 

 the mouth of the Mississippi and elsewhere on 

 its tributaries, which led to a thorough review 

 of the different systems of transporting freight 

 to Eastern cities. It was stated that, of the 

 gross value of exports of the United States for 

 the year ending June, 1868, amounting to 

 $476,348,029, ninety-five per cent, was the 

 domestic produce chiefly of the Mississippi 

 Valley ; that from one-third to one-half of all 

 the wheat, corn, oats, and pork, annually pro- 

 duced in the United States came from five 

 Northwestern States ; and that the produce of 

 this section finds its way to Eastern markets 

 by cross-routes, chiefly because of the ob- 

 structed navigation of the Mississippi and its 

 tributaries. It was stated that the cost of 

 transporting a bushel of wheat from St. Paul 

 to New York via Chicago was seventy cents ; 

 and that with the necessary improvements in 

 navigation in the Mississippi Valley wheat could 

 be carried from St. Paul to New York, by 

 river and sea, at a cost not exceeding twenty- 

 five cents per bushel. After an animated dis- 

 cussion of this subject, resolutions were adopted 

 in favor of memoralizing the Government to 

 adopt measures for the removal of obstructions 

 at the mouth of the Mississippi, and in the up- 

 per Mississippi, and the completion of improve- 

 ments at the falls of the Ohio ; and recom- 

 mending that the municipal authorities of the 

 river cities should reduce their rates of pilot- 

 age, towage, and wharfage, and extend every 

 facility for the advantageous transportation of 

 grain in bulk and of other freight ; and that 

 the national Government should create ports 

 of entry and delivery at all the principal cities 

 of the Mississippi and its tributaries. . 



There was much discussion as to the most de- 



