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THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



who had fully intended to be here in session, but a call elsewhere made it 

 absolutely impossible for him to be present. A few minutes ago 1 was 

 asked to represent the company upon the platform of this Congress. I 

 have frequently been pressed into this kind of service with the sugges- 

 tion that the people assembled would like to look a railroad man in the 

 face, to see if rt is really true that he wears horns on his head and has 

 hoofs on his feet, as the public might be led to suppose by what t^ey 

 read in the newspapers. On that ground I am always glad to look any 

 convention in the face, and show them that we railroad men are men in 

 the truest sense, and so far as our company in this Trans-Missouri coun- 

 try is concerned, you all know they have been in the foremost ranks 

 in the development of the country, by extensions of their lines even in 

 advance of any population whatever going into the country. The com- 

 pany which I represent are friendly to you. The gentleman from South 

 Dakota who just spoke knows that 20 years ago the company built 750 

 mrles of railroad in advance of any inhabitants, and it was 15 or 20 years 

 before the company ever received enough revenue to produce them a 

 penny of profit on their investment. But the president of the North- 

 western Railroad Company and the board of directors who stood by him 

 saw, even 20 years before they realized anything on their investment, 

 what was in that great country. This was not only rn South Dakota, but 

 in all the Trans-Missouri states. 

 Transforming the Desert. 



"As I look at these signs seating the delegates I notice that they are 

 all Trans-Missouri states. We, who are not at present in the schools and 

 colleges of the country, will rememher that in the geography which we 

 studied in our day — ^this country, starting from the west bank of the 

 Missouri river and extending through to the Rocky mountains, was put 

 down on the maps as the great American Desert., and in those days any 

 man would have been set down as a candidate for the insane asylum who 

 would ever have ventured to assert that that territory could produce a 

 crop sufficient to support a population, and there are many reports made 

 by explorers, — people who have been over this country, — which commit 

 rhose representatives to the proposition that it would not support a 

 population. And yet, the state of Nebraska east of the 100th meridian 

 had proven itself to be capable of equalling any state in the Union in 

 its production. West of the 100th meridian, profiting by experience in 

 that country, the farmers have taken up the question of arid or dry 

 farming. There are some stations along the lines of other railroads in 

 Nebraska where, even since I came into the country 12 to 15 years ago, 

 it was supposed by the inhabitants themselves that it was impossible 

 to raise a crop, or support any population. However, under the experi- 

 ments that have been going on, there are some of the best crops in that 

 arid section that have been produced in any similar country. \ 

 Railroad Interest. i^~t 



"And so the railroads desire to be understood by all of you that they 

 are interested in this kind of development; that they are with you; that 



