332 



FARMERS' CONGRESS. 



FINANCIAL REVIEW OF 1886. 



of the Signal Service, and that of Prof. Mor- 

 row, of Illinois, on u Agricultural Education." 

 Mr. Coffin, of Iowa, read an exhaustive and 

 able paper on " Transportation," which pre- 

 sented the arguments in favor of general legis- 

 lation on inter-State commerce in the strongest 

 light, and at great length. 



After a full discussion of those measures, the 

 Committee on Resolutions submitted the fol- 

 lowing, which were adopted : 



That the Congress of the United States be and are 

 hereby requested to pass an act creating the office of 

 Secretary of Agriculture, with all the emoluments 

 and privileges of other Cabinet officers. 



That the Congress of the United States be re- 

 quested to extend the benefits of the Signal Service to 

 all stations, or portions of the United States permeated 

 by telegraph, for the benefit of agriculture, by the 

 necessary display of signals, or otherwise, as may be 

 thought advisable for such stations. 



That in view of the growing importance of inter- 

 state commerce, and the impossibility of its regula- 

 tion by separate State governments, this Farmers' 

 Congress earnestly recommends to the Congress of 

 the United States a prompt exercise of its constitu- 

 tional powers to regulate commerce amolig the States 

 in such a manner as to protect the productive inter- 

 ests of the country. 



That the Farmers' Congress recommends to the 

 Congress of the United States that the sum of three 

 million dollars, or so much thereof as may be neces- 

 sary, be appropriated to stamp out contagious diseases 

 among all domestic animals wherever such diseases 

 may exist ; and that the Legislatures of the several 

 States of the Union are respectfully requested to en- 

 act such laws as may be necessary to supplement the 

 acts of the Congress of the United States for the ex- 

 tinction of all such contagious diseases. 



That the Secretary of State be and he is hereby 

 instructed to ask our ministers of France and Ger- 

 many to use all proper means in their power to pre- 

 vent the restrictions upon American farm-products 

 properly inspected and shipped to those countries. 



Th 



pointed to ask of the Congress of the United States 

 the passage of an act incorporating the Farmers' Con- 

 gress of the United States ; said act to embrace the 

 constitution hereafter adopted by this body as a part 

 of its charter of incorporation. The President of this 

 Congress shall be ex-qfficio chairman of said com- 

 mittee, and the Secretary of this Congress ex-otficio 

 Secretary thereof. 



That the farmers of all the States of the Union be 

 earnestly requested by the committee, nominated in 

 the foregoing resolution, to organize in each State a 

 Farmers* Assembly under such constitution as the 

 farmers of each State may see fit to adopt, and that 

 such Farmers' Assembly shall be incorporated under 

 the laws of each State respectively. 



That every such Farmers' Assembly shall be en- 

 titled to send representatives to this Congress as fol- 

 lows : One representative for each member of the 

 House of Representatives, and one representative for 

 each Senator of the Senate of the United States. 



That this Congress respectfully recommends that 

 the Farmers' Assembly of each State meet in annual 

 session at the capitals of the respective States during 

 the session of the Legislature, and that the represent- 

 atives to this Congress shall be elected by such as- 

 sembly. 



That each delegate to this Congress is requested to 

 urge local organization among the farmers of his dis- 

 trict. 



Whereas, it has come to the knowledge of this Con- 

 gress that a late importation of three hundred and 

 fifty-four head of cattle from Scotland to Quebec is 

 found to be affected by the disease known as con- 

 tagious pleuro-pneurnonia, and the Canadian authori- 

 ties have ordered the entire shipment slaughtered and 

 crematedj and that an outbreak of this and other con- 

 tagious diseases is continually brought to our notice 

 as occurring throughout England and Scotland, be- 

 lieving that, unless the importation of cattle from these 

 countries is prohibited, the great cattle industry of 

 this country will be endangered : Therefore, 



Resolved, That this Congress ask the Secretary of 

 the Treasury to withhold his permit for the importa- 

 tion of cattle from those countries so long as any 

 reasonable apprehension of danger shall exist from 

 such importation. 



The only call of States was on the tariff 



'hat we most earnestly urge upon the Congress of 

 the United States the necessity or a speedy and com- 



$&ssasfii^BffiS3&E3z a' i u r io \ as mf 4 in the seventh re8olatio11 ' 



ing of equal importance to all the great interests and resul ted as follows : 

 commercial, industrial, and agricultural. 



That we recommend the restoration of the wool- 

 tariff to what it was in 1867, and the maintenance of 

 the present tariff on rice and sugar. 



That the Legislatures of the 'different States be re- 

 spectfully but earnestly urged to pass such laws as 

 may be necessary to prevent what is called " dealing 

 in futures," so far as relates to agricultural productions 

 of every description, and to provide that no contract 

 shall be enforced in any court of law for future sale 

 and delivery of agricultural productions unless it was 

 the bona-Jide intention of the seller to deliver, and 

 the purchaser to receive, the article or commodity bar- 

 gained for at the time the contract was entered into. 



That we look with much favor upon the law re- 

 cently passed by Congress in reference to the manu- 

 facture and sale of oleomargarine, and recommend the 

 strict enforcement of the law, and that the manufact- 

 ure of glucose in the United States be placed under 

 the same law. 



That the Congress of the United States is hereby 

 requested to increase largely the annual appropria- 

 tions to the Department of Agriculture, to be applied 

 to the extension of the Signal Service, and to the es- 

 tablishment and endowment of State experimental 

 stations ; and further, that the members of this body 

 are requested to urge their respective Senators and 

 members of Congress to favor the appropriations 

 asked for in the above resolution. 



That a committee of one from each State bo ap- 



After selecting Chicago as the place of 

 meeting for 1887, the Congress adjourned. 

 FINANCIAL REVIEW OF 1886. At the end of 



this year the outlook was generally hopeful, al- 

 though not wholly confident. Iron manufact- 

 uring, which had been very profitable and 

 more extensive than ever before, gave promise 

 of still greater development in response to the 

 demands for railroad building and furnishing 

 and structural work of various kinds. Other 

 branches of manufactures, which had been 

 held in check by the labor troubles, were in a 

 condition to resume on an extended scale when- 



