therefore, to raise cotton, sugar, and tobacco, and I am glad you are
not neglecting cattle, sheep, hogs, corn, and all the cereals. We
have been trying to do what we could from Washington to make for you
a larger and better market for your enormous meat products. [Cheers.]
We have felt that the restrictions imposed by some of the European
governments could not be fairly justified upon the ground stated by
them. Already the Secretary of Agriculture--himself a farmer, who has
with his own hands wrought in all the work of the farm--has succeeded
in procuring the removal of some of these injurious restrictions,
and has announced to the country that exportation of cattle has
increased 100 per cent. in the last year. [Cheers.] I beg to assure
you that these interests will have the most careful attention from
the Government at Washington and from our representatives at foreign
courts. It is believed that we have now by legislation a system of
sanitary inspection of our meat products that, when once put in
operation and examined by the European governments, will remove the
last excuse for the exclusion of our meats from those foreign states.
Our time is so limited that I can scarcely say more than "thank
you." We cannot at all repay you for this demonstration of welcome,
but let me say that in all your prosperity I shall rejoice. I do
desire that all our legislation and all our institutions and the
combined energies of all our people shall work together for the common
good of all our States and all our population. [Great cheering.] You
have great resources of a material sort, and yet above all this I
rejoice that the timely forethought of your public men has provided an
unexampled school fund for the education of the children.
These things that partake of the life that is spiritual are better
after all than the material. Indeed, there can be no true prosperity
in any State or community where they are not thoughtfully fostered.
Good social order, respect for the law, regard for other men's rights,
orderly, peaceful administration are the essential things in any
community. [Cheers.]
GALVESTON, TEXAS, APRIL 18.
The President and his party, accompanied by Governor Hogg, arrived at
Galveston on the afternoon of Saturday, April 18, and were tendered
an ovation by the hospitable residents of the Island City. The
distinguished travellers were met at Houston by a committee of escort
consisting of Chairman Leo N. Levi, George Sealy, Julius Runge, R. B.
Hawley, W. F. Ladd, Col. R. G. Lowe, Maj. C. J. Allen, Aldermen C. M.
Mason and T. W. Jackson, D. D. Bryan, J. W. Burson, Mrs. R. L. Fulton,
Mrs. R. B. Hawley, Mrs. Aaron Blum, Mrs. W. F. Ladd, and Mrs. C. J.
Allen.
On arriving in the city the President was welcomed by the other members
of the Reception Committee, headed by Mayor Roger L. Fulton, the Board
of Aldermen, and the following prominent citizens: Leon Blum, R. S.
Willis, J. C. League, H. A. Landes, J. E. Wallis, Col. J. S. Rogers, P.
J. Willis, Robert Bornefeld, C. C. Sweeney, M. F. Mott, Albert Weis, M.
Lasker, J. Z. Miller, Fen Cannon, Col. John D. Rogers, J. N. Sawyer, W.
H. Sinclair, Joseph Cuney, Geo. Seeligson, Julius Weber, J. D. Skinner,
Thos. H. Sweeney, James Montgomery, F. L. Dana, James Moore, W. F.
Beers, J. H. Hutchings, Wm. H. Masters, M. W. Shaw, W. B. Denson, H.
B. Cullum, C. H. Rickert, W. B. Lockhart, U. Muller, F. Lammers, H. F.
Sproule, Judge C. L. Cleveland, Judge Wm. H. Stewart, R. T. Wheeler, N.
W. Cuney, Thomas W. Cain, Samuel Penland, R. G. Street, J. Lobit, D.
M. Erlich, C. M. Trueheart, L. Fellman, C. R. Reifel, Charles Vidor,
George Butler, W. Vowrinckle, Joe Owens, C. E. Angel, Rev. S. M. Bird,
Dr. A. W. Fly, Dr. J. T. Y. Paine, Dr. H. P. Cooke, J. R. Gibson, Howard
Carnes, Charles Maddox, Bishop Gallagher, Rev. A. T. Spaulding, A. B.
Tuller, Dr. J. D. Daviss, Rev. J. E. Edwards, A. B. Homer, Rev. Joseph
B. Sears, J. Singer, R. C. Johnson, J. W. Riddell, B. Tiernan, T. A.
Gary, John Focke, Joseph Scott, W. E. McDonald, Geo. Schneider, F. O.
Becker, Thomas Goggan, J. D. Sherwood, O. H. Cooper, E. O'C. MacInerney,
Thos. S. King, Robert Day, Daniel Buckley, J. J. Hanna, F. W. Fickett,
Wm. Selkirk, and J. A. Robertson.
Immediately following their arrival the presidential party, escorted by
Hon. Wm. H. Crain, Mr. Leon Blum, and other members of the Reception
Committee, enjoyed a trip about the harbor aboard one of the Mallory
line steamships, enabling them to view the extensive Government works
for deepening the channel at the entrance to the harbor. This excursion
was followed by a ride across the island amid a shower of flowers.
The parade was participated in by all the military and industrial
organizations of the city; also by the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias,
and other orders, and was a most imposing demonstration. The G. A. R.
veterans acted as a guard of honor to the President on the march, and
the day was just closing when the column arrived at the Beach Hotel,
on the very shore of the Gulf of Mexico, where the formal address of
welcome was ably delivered by Gen. T. N. Waul.
President Harrison's response was the longest speech of his trip, and
attracted wide-spread and favorable comment. He said:
_My Fellow-citizens_--We close to-night a whole week of travel, a
whole week of hand-shaking, a whole week of talking. I have before me
10,000 miles of hand-shaking and speaking, and I am not, by reason of
what this week has brought me, in voice to contend with the fine but
rather strong Gulf breeze which pours in upon us to-night; and yet it
comes to me laden with the fragrance of your welcome. [Cheers.] It
comes with the softness, refreshment, and grace which have accompanied
all my intercourse with the people of Texas. [Great cheering.]
The magnificent and cordial demonstration which you have made in our
honor to-day will always remain a bright and pleasant picture in my
memory. [Great cheers.] I am glad to have been able to rest my eyes
upon the city of Galveston. I am glad to have been able to traverse
this harbor and to look upon that work which a liberal and united
Government has inaugurated for your benefit and for the benefit of
the Northwest. [Great and prolonged cheers.] I have always believed
that it was one of the undisputed functions of the general Government
to make these great waterways which penetrate our country and these
harbors into which our shipping must come to receive the tribute of
rail and river safe and easy of access.
This ministering care should extend to our whole country, and I
am glad that, adopting a policy with reference to the harbor work,
here at least, which I insisted upon in a public message [great and
prolonged cheering], the appropriation has been made adequate to a
diligent and prompt completion of the work. [Great cheering.] In
the past the Government has undertaken too many things at once, and
its annual appropriations have been so inadequate that the work of
the engineers was much retarded and often seriously damaged in the
interval of waiting for fresh appropriations.
It is a better policy, when a work has once been determined to be of
national significance, that the appropriation should be sufficient to
bring it speedily and without loss to a conclusion. [Great cheering.]
I am glad that the scheme of the engineer for giving deep water to
Galveston is thus to be prosecuted.
I have said some of our South Atlantic and Gulf ports occupy a most
favorable position for the new commerce toward which we are reaching
out our hands, and which is reaching out its hands to us. [Great
cheering.] I am an economist in the sense that I would not waste
one dollar of public money, but I am not an economist in the sense
that I would leave incomplete or suffer to lag any great work highly
promotive of the true interests of our people. [Great cheering.]
We are great enough and rich enough to reach forward to grander
conceptions than have entered the minds of some of our statesmen in
the past. If you are content, I am not, that the nations of Europe
shall absorb nearly the entire commerce of these near sister republics
that lie south of us. It is naturally in large measure ours--ours by
neighborhood, ours by nearness of access, ours by that sympathy that
binds a hemisphere without a king. [Cheers.]
The inauguration of the Three Americas Congress, or more properly
the American Conference, the happy conduct of that meeting, the
wise and comprehensive measures which were suggested by it, with
the fraternal and kindly spirit that was manifested by our southern
neighbors, has stimulated a desire in them and in our people for a
larger intercourse of commerce and of friendship. The provisions of
the bill passed at the last session looking to a reciprocity of trade
not only met with my official approval when I signed the bill, but
with my zealous promotion before the bill was reported. [Great and
prolonged cheering.]
Its provision concerning reciprocity is that we have placed upon our
free list sugar, tea, coffee and hides, and have said to those nations
from whom we receive these great staples: Give us free access to your
ports for an equivalent amount of our produce in exchange, or we will
reimpose duties upon the articles named. The law leaves it wholly to
the Executive to negotiate these arrangements. It does not need that
they shall take the form of a treaty.
They need not be submitted for the concurrence of the Senate. It
only needs that we, having made our offer, shall receive their offer
in return; and when they shall have made up an acceptable schedule of
articles produced by us that shall have free access to their ports,
a proclamation by the President closes the whole business. [Cheers.]
Already one treaty with that youngest of the South American republics,
the great republic of Brazil, has been negotiated and proclaimed. I
think, without disclosing an Executive secret, I may tell you that
the arrangement with Brazil is not likely to abide in lonesomeness
much longer [great and prolonged cheering]; that others are to follow,
and that as a result of these trade arrangements the products of
the United States--our meats, our breadstuffs, and certain lines of
manufactured goods--are to find free or favored access to the ports of
many of these South and Central American States. All the States will
share in these benefits. We have had some analysis of the manifests
of some of our steamers now sailing to South American ports, and in a
single steamer it was found that twenty-five States contributed to the
cargo.
But we shall need something more. We shall need American steamships
to carry American goods to these ports. [Great cheering.] The last
Congress passed a bill appropriating about $1,500,000, and authorized
the Postmaster-General to contract with steamship companies for a
period not exceeding ten years for the carrying of the United States
mail. The foreign mail service is the only mail service out of which
the Government has been making a net profit. We do not make a profit
out of our land service.
There is an annual deficiency which my good friend the
Postmaster-General has been trying very hard to reduce or wipe out.
The theory of our mail service is that it is for the people, that we
are not to make a profit out of it, that we are to give them as cheap
postage as is possible. We are, many of us, looking forward to a time
when we shall have one-cent postage in this country. [Cheers.] We have
been so close and penurious in dealing with our ships in the carrying
of foreign mails that we have actually made revenues out of that
business, not having spent for it what we have received from it. Now
we propose to change that policy and to make more liberal contracts
with American lines carrying American mail. [Cheers.]
Some one may say we ought not to go into this business, that it is
subsidy. But, my friend, every other great nation of the world has
been doing it and is doing it to-day. Great Britain and France have
built up their great steamship lines by Government aid, and it seems
to me our attitude with reference to that is aptly portrayed by an
illustration I mentioned the other day. In olden times no wholesale
merchant sent out travelling men to solicit custom, but he stood
in his own store and waited for his customers. But presently some
enterprising merchant began to send out men with their samples to seek
the trade, to save the country buyer the cost of the trip to New York
or Philadelphia, until finally that practice has become universal, and
these active, intelligent travelling men are scurrying this country
over, pushing and soliciting in their several lines of business. Now
imagine some conservative merchant in New York saying to himself: "All
this is wrong; the trade ought to come to me." If he should refuse to
adopt these modern methods what would be the result? He must adopt
the new methods or go out of business. We have been refusing to adopt
the universal method of our competitors in commerce to stimulate
their shipping interest and have gone out of the business. [Laughter
and cheers.] Encouraged by what your spokesman has said to-night,
I venture to declare that I am in favor of going into business
again, and when it is re-established I hope Galveston will be in the
partnership. [Great cheers.]
It has been the careful study of the Postmaster-General in preparing
to execute the law to which I have referred to see how much increase
in routes and ships we could secure by it. We have said to the few
existing American lines: You must not treat this appropriation as
a plate of soup, to be divided and consumed. You must give us new
lines, new ships, increased trips, and new ports of call. Already the
steamship lines are looking over the routes to see what they can do,
with a view of increasing their tonnage and establishing new lines.
The Postmaster-General has invited the attention and suggestion
of all the boards of trade of all our seaboard cities. Undoubtedly
you have received such a letter. This appropriation is for one year;
what the future is to be must depend upon the deliberate judgment of
the people. If during my term of office they shall strike down a law
that I believe to be beneficial or destroy its energy by withholding
appropriations, I shall bow to their will, but I shall feel great
disappointment if we do not make an era for the revival of American
commerce. I do much want that the time shall come when our citizens
living in temporary exile in foreign ports shall now and then see
steaming into these distant ports a fine modern man-of-war, flying the
United States flag [cheers], with the best modern guns on her deck,
and a brave American crew in her forecastle. [Cheers.] I want, also,
that in these ports, so long unfamiliar with the American flag, there
shall again be found our steamships and our sailing vessels flying the
flag that we all love, and carrying from our shores the products that
these men of toil have brought to them to exchange for the products of
other climes.
I think we should add to all this, and happily it is likely to
be accomplished by individual efforts, the early completion of the
Nicaragua Canal. [Cheers.] The Pacific coast should no longer be found
by sea only by the passage of the Horn. The short route should be
opened, and it will be, and then with this wondrous stirring among the
people of all our States, this awakening to new business plans and
more careful and economical work, there will come great prosperity to
all our people. Texas will spin more of the cotton that she raises.
The great States of the South will be in discontent with the old
condition that made them simply agricultural States, and will rouse
themselves to compete with the older manufacturing States of the North
and East. [Cheers.] The vision I have, all the thoughts I have of this
matter embrace all the States and all my countrymen. I do not think of
it as a question of party; I think of it as a great American question.
[Cheers.] By the invitation of the address which was made to me I have
freely spoken my mind to you on these topics. I hope I have done so
with no offence or impropriety. [Cries of "No, no!" and cheers.]
I would not on an occasion so full of general good feeling as this
obtrude anything that should induce division or dissent. For all
who do dissent I have the most respectful tolerance. The views I
hold are the result of some thought and investigation, and as they
are questions of public concern I confidently submit them to the
arbitrament of brave and enlightened American suffrage. [Applause and
cheers.]
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, APRIL 20.
The President and his party passed their first Sunday at Galveston,
leaving the Island City at midnight and arriving at San Antonio at
11:15 Monday morning. A special committee, consisting of Hon. C. W.
Ogden, Chairman; Col. C. M. Terrell, S. M. Johnson, J. S. McNamara,
Mrs. Ogden, Mrs. Johnson, and Miss Eleanor Sullivan, escorted the party
from Galveston. The _Alamo City_ was profusely decorated in honor of
the visit, and a great throng greeted the President's arrival. He was
received by the Hon. Bryan Callaghan, Mayor of the city, at the head of
the following committee of leading citizens: Gen. David S. Stanley, U.
S. A.; Col. J. P. Martin, Col. W. B. Wright, Col. H. B. Andrews, Maj. C.
C. Cresson, Hon. W. W. King, L. M. Gregory, B. F. Yoakum, C. W. Ogden,
H. D. Kampmann, J. S. Alexander, W. J. B. Patterson, A. W. Houston,
Reagan Houston, Richard Wooley, Jr., R. H. Russell, N. Mackey, George
Dullnig, J. V. Dignowity, J. S. Thornton, F. Groos, H. P. Drought, D.
Sullivan, Charles Hugo, Rev. Dr. Giddings, C. K. Breneman, W. H. Weiss,
Frank Grice, Alex. Joske, Henry Elmendorf, Robert Driscoll, Paul Wagner,
J. Ronse, J. E. Pancoast, Adolph Wagner, George H. Kalteyer, Charles J.
Langholz, C. B. Mullaly, R. H. McCracken, A. G. Cooper, Dr. G. Graham
Watts, Dr. J. P. Ornealus, Dr. Amos Graves, and A. T. Wilson. Mayor
McDonald, of Austin, and Hon. L. L. Foster also participated in the
reception.
A rainstorm interfered with the parade, and the public reception
was held at the Opera House, thousands being unable to enter. Mayor
Callaghan made the welcoming address and introduced President Harrison,
who spoke as follows:
_Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens_--I very much regret that frequent
speaking in the open air during the past week and the very heavy
atmosphere which we have this morning have somewhat impaired my
voice. I am sure you will crown your hospitality and kindness by
allowing me to speak to you very briefly. I sympathize with you in the
distress which you feel that the day is so unpropitious for any street
demonstration, but I have been told by one wise in such matters that
this rain is worth $5,000,000 to Western Texas. That being the case,
it greatly moderates our regret. It has come to be a popular habit
of attributing to the President whatever weather may happen on any
demonstration in which he takes a part. I suppose I may claim credit
this morning for this beneficial rain. [Applause.] I generously assure
you that if it is worth as much money as my friend has estimated I
shall not take more than half that sum. [Laughter.] In visiting for
a little while this historic city, I had anticipated great pleasure
in looking upon the remains of an earlier occupancy of this territory
in which you now dwell. Our glance this morning must be brief and
imperfect, but the history has been written and the traditions of
these martyrdoms which occurred here for liberty are fresh in your
minds and are still an inspiring story to be repeated to your children.
I remember in my early boyhood to have heard in our family thrilling
descriptions of the experiences of an uncle, whose name I bear, in
some of those campaigns for freedom in Texas in which he took a part,
so that the story to me goes back to those dim early recollections of
childhood. I am glad to stand where those recollections are revived
and freshened, for they were events of momentous importance to this
country, to this State, and to the whole Union. I rejoice that you
have here so great a commonwealth. The stipulations under which Texas
came into the Union of the States, and which provided that that great
Territory might be subdivided into five States, seem not to attract
much attention in Texas now.
Indeed, as far as I can judge, no man would be able successfully to
appeal to the suffrages of any hamlet in Texas upon the issue that
the State should be divided at all. [Cheers.] The great industrial
capacities which you have, the beneficent climate that spreads over
much of your vast territory, the great variety of productions which
your soil and climate render possible, give a promise for the future
of a prominence among the great States of the Union that seems to me
can scarcely fail to bring Texas to the front rank. [Cheers.] You are
only now beginning to plough this vast stretch of land. You are only
now beginning to diversify those interests, to emancipate yourselves
by producing at home in your fields all of those products which are
necessary to comfortable existence.
I hope you will soon add, indeed, you are now largely adding, to
this diversity of agricultural pursuits a diversity of mechanical
pursuits. The advantages which you have to transmute the great
production of the field into the manufactured product are very great.
There can be certainly no reason why a very large part of the million
bales of cotton which you produce should not be spun in Texas.
[Cheers.] I hope your people will more and more turn their thoughts to
this matter, for just in proportion as a community or State suitably
divides its energies among various industries, so does it retain the
wealth it produces and increase its population. [Applause.]
A great Englishman, visiting this country some time ago, in speaking
of the impressions which were made upon his mind, said he was
constantly asked as he travelled through the country whether he was
not amazed at its territorial extent. He said while this, of course,
was a notable incident of travel, he wondered that we did not forget
all our bigness of territory in a contemplation of the great spectacle
we presented as a free people in organized and peaceful community. He
regarded this side of our country and her institutions as much more
important than its material development or its territorial extent, and
he was right in that judgment.
My fellow-citizens, the pride of America, that which should attract
the admiration and has attracted the imagination of many people upon
the face of the earth, is our system of government. [Applause.] I am
glad to know, and to have expressed my satisfaction before, that here
in this State of Texas you are giving attention to education; that
you have been able to erect a school fund, the interest upon which
promises a most magnificent endowment for your common schools. These
schools are the pride and safety of your State. They gather into them
upon a common level with us, and I hope with you, the children of the
rich and poor. In the State in which I dwell everybody's children
attend the common schools.
This lesson of equality, the perfect system which has been developed
by this method of instruction, is training a valued class of citizens
to take up the responsibilities of government when we shall lay them
down. [Applause.] I hope every one of your communities, even your
scattered rural communities, will pursue this good work. I am sure
this hope is shared by my honored host, Governor Hogg, who sits beside
me [applause], and who, in the discharge of his public duties, can
influence the progress of this great measure. No material greatness,
no wealth, no accumulation of splendor, is to be compared with those
humble and homely virtues which have generally characterized our
American homes.
The safety of the State, the good order of the community--all
that is good--the capacity, indeed, to produce material wealth, is
dependent upon intelligence and social order. [Applause.] Wealth and
commerce are timid creatures; they must be assured that the nest will
be safe before they build. So it is always in those communities where
the most perfect order is maintained, where intelligence is protected,
where the Church of God and the institutions of religion are revered
and respected, that we find the largest development in material
wealth. [Applause.]