610 



MISSOURI. 



provement an amount not quite twenty mill- 

 ion dollars." 



Tlie convention was well attended. The fol- 

 lowing resolutions were adopted : 



The representatives of the commercial interest and 

 agricultural and other productive industries of the 

 Mississippi Viillov, in convention assembled at_ St. 

 Louis, Missouri, believing that the Mississippi Kiver 

 and its navigable tributaries, the great inland water- 

 ways prepared by the Creator for the use of the peo- 

 ple, are a most important and valuable part of the 

 national domain, free to all beyond the reach of mo- 

 nopoly, and affording to the whole people that compe- 

 tition" in transportation which benefits both producer 

 and consumer alike; and further, that cheap trans- 

 portation is the great necessity of an agricultural peo- 

 ple, the indispensable condition of the easy convey- 

 ance to distant markets of their staple products, bulky 

 in proportion to value, and that the familiar economi- 

 cal truth, that the cheapest transportation of such 

 products is by water, is especially applicable to the 

 great water-ways of this country, provided the same 

 be kept free from snags, sand-bars, treacherous banks, 

 and other obstacles to navigation, do therefore resolve 

 and declare: 



1. That it is the manifest and imperative duty of 

 the Government of the United States to cause to be 

 made such improvement of the Mississippi River, and 

 its navigable tributaries, as shall permanently secure 

 the sale and easy navigation thereof, thereby cheapen- 

 ing freights, reducing insurance and other burdens 

 and expenses ; promoting the vast inland commerce 

 of the nation and creating new avenues of foreign 

 trade, and thus not only inviting increased produc- 

 tion and population, but assuring greater prosperity 

 to the whole people. Especially is this duty obvious, 

 and our demand justified, in view of the donations 

 already made by Congress in land, amounting to near- 

 ly 200JOOO,000 acres, and in bonds issued or guaran- 

 teed, nearly $100,000,000 more, in aid of artificial 

 highways, the property of private individuals, and 

 necessarily furnishing, even at lowest rates, the most 

 costly form of transportation on a large scale, as com- 

 pared with appropriations not yet amounting to $25,- 

 000,000 in all, for the improvement of 15,000 miles of 

 natural water-ways, whose freedom from tax imposed 

 or monopoly is protected by constitutional guaran- 

 tees, while the cheap service and unrestricted compe- 

 tition they afford is the most effectual corrective of 

 exorbitant charges by any route to the sea-board. That 

 the appropriations for s'uch improvements should be 

 separately made, with due provision for assuring the 

 people of their faithful applications to the same, and 

 should be adequate to the continued prosecution of 

 the work once begun until the same is finished, so as 

 to avoid the wasteful destruction of work partially 

 completed by reason of the delay or stoppage thereof 

 for want of sufficient appropriations. And be it fur- 

 ther 



Resolved, That this convention recognizes with ex- 

 treme satisfaction and emphatic approval in the pas- 

 sage of the act of Congress of June 28, 1879 t " for the 

 appointment of a Mississippi River commission^" and 

 in the comprehensive and scientific surveys and impor- 

 tant rscommendations made by the distinguished en- 

 gineers appointed on that commission, as set forth in 

 their reports of February 17, 1880, and January 8, 

 1881, the first well-considered and effectual step to- 

 ward the complete and permanent opening of the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley to the markets of the world ; but 

 would also strongly express its regret at the refusal of 

 the last Congress, after creating said commission, and 

 notwithstanding the deliberate and emphatic approval 

 of their plans by the House Committee on Improve- 

 ment of the Mississippi, to appropriate the amount 

 estimated and recommended by said commission for 

 doing the work by them carefully laid out and pro- 

 posed. And be it further 



Resolved, That in the deliberate and earnest judg- 



ment of this convention, delegated to represent the 

 interests in that behalt of more than one half the 

 States and Territories of the Union, inhabited by 

 more than one half of its entire population^ from 

 whom is collected above 70 per cent of the entire in- 

 ternal revenue of the nation, whose internal com- 

 merce is already one half that of the whole United 

 States, more than twelve times greater than the total 

 foreign commerce of the nation, and larger than the 

 total foreign commerce of the world but upon whose 

 industry is this year levied, by the obstacle to the safe 

 and easy navigation of the Mississippi River and its 

 navigable tributaries, a needless direct tax, by way of 

 increased freights and insurance, demurrage, wrecks, 

 und repairs of not less than $10,000,000, it is the im- 

 perative duty of Congress and the right of the people, 

 for whom this convention is authorized to speaik, that 

 the legislation thus wisely begun be made effectual 

 and permanent by enlarging the powers of the river 

 commission to include the active prosecution of the 

 works already recommended by them, and by the 

 regular and separate appropriations from year to year 

 of such sums as said commission, acting under the 

 reasonable supervision of Congress, shall report as 

 necessary to that end ; so that 3iis great and indis- 

 pensable work, national in every sense, shall no longer 

 be delayed. And be it further 



Resolved, That the scientific and comprehensive sys- 

 tem of river improvement, by a competent commis- 

 sion thus inaugurated^ should be applied to the com- 

 plete and permanent improvement and maintenance 

 of all the navigable tributaries of the great river. And 

 be it further 



Resolved, That this convention recognizes with great 

 satisfaction the benefits already resulting to the navi- 

 gation of the Mississippi River and its principal tribu- 

 taries by the extension of the light-house system 

 thereto ; and expresses the earnest nope that the par- 

 tial lighting of those rivers may be speedily enlarged 

 by increasing the number of districts ana lights to 

 such an extent as the Light-House Board, in consulta- 

 tion with the river commission, shall find necessary 

 to render such service completely efficient. And be it 

 further 



Resolved, That the president of this convention be 

 and he is hereby authorized and requested to appoint 

 ut his early convenience a committee of twenty-one, 

 who shall be charged with the duty of preparing, as 

 soon as practicable after the convention adjourns, a 

 memorial to the Congress of the United States, on be- 

 half of the delegates composing this convention and 

 the people whom they represent, in support of and in 

 accordance with the foregoing resolutions, embodying 

 such statistics and information as said committee may 

 deem expedient ; that they cause to be printed a suf- 

 ficient number of copies of said resolutions and me- 

 morial, together with the proceedings of this conven- 

 tion, for wide distribution, and that a copy thereof be 

 E laced in the hands of each member of the United 

 tates Senate and House of Representatives as soon 

 as practicable ; and that said committee be and they 

 are hereby authorized to take such further action 

 touching the proper presentation of said resolutions 

 and memorial to Congress and procuring the due con- 

 sideration thereof as they may deem best. 



Resolved, That in the interest of cheap transporta- 

 tion, and to afford a choice of water routes to the sea- 

 board, we regard connections between the navigable 

 waters of the upper Mississippi River and the Great 

 Lakes as of great importance. 



This convention was followed by a Missouri 

 Kiver Improvement Convention at St. Joseph, 

 on the 29th of November, in which four States 

 and two Territories were represented. The 

 following are the resolutions adopted : 



We, the people of the Missouri Valley in conven- 

 tion assembled, after careful and deliberate consulta- 

 tion, hereby declare that the improvement of the navi- 



