on this particular occasion; that it has not only the most satisfactory arrangements for conventions and exhibits of all sorts, but its people have an abounding welcome for all who are going to help them, and their hospitality is appreciated, I assure you. That is all I will say in reference to this particular matter.

It devolves upon me to appoint certain committees which are to act during the congress: One is the committee on resolutions and the other is the committee on credentials. I have been assisted by the most able minds here in preparing this list.

On resolutions I appoint the following committee: Nelson P. Lewis, Clifford Richardson and Charles W. Ross. If any gentleman declines or wants to decline to serve, he must say it now or forever hold his peace.

As a committee on credentials I appoint the following: Samuel Hill, G. W. Cooley, Paul D. Sargent, E. L. Powers, R. A. Meeker, P. St. J. Wilson, J. Y. McClintock, M. Driscoll, C. P. Price and W. H. Connell.

In the order of addresses which follow, and in order to get in all the work we have before us, I am going now to ask Mr. Samuel Hill, President of the Washington State Good Roads Association, to say as many words to you as he will. Mr. Hill, Gentlemen. (Applause.)

MR. HILL: Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to look into your faces again. As I look around I see my friend from Alabama and another from New York, and I see Mr. Clifford Richardson here on the platform and Mr. Harold Parker also, and many whose faces have been familiar sights at every convention on good roads, which I have attended; and on my right hand I see my friend, Mr. Cooley, the commissioner from Minnesota, with whom, thirty years ago, I carried an ax while he carried a transit to lay out a road in Minnesota. We miss, however, one face from this gathering-I refer to Mr. James H. MacDonald, of Connecticut, whom many of you know.

I have been, in the last thirty nights, twenty-two nights on a sleeping car. I got here last night and got to bed at two o'clock this morning, and I am not prepared to say to you the words I would like to say.

I regard this convention as one of the most important, if not the most important, convention ever held. But, first, I want to say a word, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Sheriff,

about your kind reception here. I was very much gratified indeed when Mr. Parker told me that I was to follow the sheriff and not have the sheriff follow me. I was glad when I heard this Garden of Eden described, and particularly when the mayor spoke of the climate here, and I recalled the words in scripture, that when Adam and Eve had just left the Garden, Eve remarked to Adam, "What a remarkably early fall we have had." This is indeed a garden spot in a garden land.

The man who has control of transportation has always dictated the policy of the world. There was a certain man named Mr. Noah, and he was a monopolist. In his day they had no roads, but did have water transportation, and on one occasion when he went out, he not only declined freight, but refused to carry passengers, and the Ark sailed with only those that he wanted to take on board.

This matter of primary transportation is easily and far away the most important question before the American people today. There are men here in this room who will speak to you and who will tell you in every detail about how to build and place the best roads. They will say, perhaps, as a distinguished candidate for the presidency said, that the tariff is a local issue; and so road building is a local issue.

Some of you heard me speak a year ago about the question of convict labor. We in the far West believe that that settles two questions, and I will repeat, if I may, a short account of what happened on a road we are building by convict labor along the great Columbia river.

A big, thick-necked contractor came along and he said: "You cannot build a road that way, Sam Hill or any other man. I am a contractor and I know." I said, "You are a contractor and you don't know. I will take you down there as my guest and show you." We got to the place and after going around and seeing the work, he said, "Mr. Hill, this is a very remarkable camp, I do not think I have seen any better than it at any time." "Do you think so? It is the best I have ever seen and I have seen thousands of them," I replied. "Not thousands of them, Mr. Hill!" I said, "Yes, as President of the Washington State Good Roads Association, I have seen thousands of them." He said, "Well, I did not know that." "No, you did not know it, but you

talked," I replied.

This camp was clean and dry and the men were very well housed, and when they came in from their work, they had free tobacco and plenty of good, nourishing food.

Then we went over to another part, and he looked at the rock and he said "This is the most remarkable rock I have ever seen. What do you pay a man to get that out for you?" I said, "I give him his board and his clothes." He said, "His board and his clothes?" I said, "Yes, he is a convict." He said, "Ain't you afraid of him?" I said, "No." Then he said, "How much powder does he use?" And I told him. Then he said, "He cannot get out that amount of rock with that amount of powder." I said, "This man is a specialist, a safe-blower, and he does not waste any powder. He puts in a few grains and makes it do all that it can do. He makes no false moves."

He said: "Who is that man in the cap?" I said, "He is a sergeant. Major Ball was a West Pointer, and he had army sergeants buy their time and when he got a man that he knew knew his business and did a day's work, he would have that man buy his time, and they serve here." I said, "You understand, that man is a dead shot. Не would shoot the eye out of a bird on the other side of the road. And the convicts hear me tell him that if he shoots and wings a man he will lose his job, but if he kills him outright it is all right. No one tries to escape after that." Then he said: "This is remarkable cooking you have here, Mr. Hill. Who does your cooking for you?" I said, "He is an expert cook. He used to run a German restaurant; he is in for trying to kill the second cook." He said, "What noise is that I hear?" I said, "I do not hear any noise." "Don't you hear that? Go out and see."

I then said, "Oh, that is a kennel of bloodhounds in case the sergeant misses them."

He said, "These men work like fiends for you. Do you drive them?" I said, "No, we have an indeterminate sentence here in this state, and they get out much quicker by doing what is right and proper." Nineteen were freed a short time ago, I told him. That is the settled policy of the state I come from.

The governor of Oregon invited me some time ago to come over and see him and I went over there about thirty days ago, and explained this matter to him and at the last election the counties voted by a two to one vote to go ahead with this plan.

Colorado and other western states are doing this. When your highway commissioner spoke, he said it was a question of raising the money. Now, here is an asset which the state has, or rather, which can be turned into an asset, but is now a dead loss. But convict labor does more than build roads; while you are making roads with the convicts, you are making men of them. That is a much better work, as there is no work in the world like humanitarian work. When those men come to us they are many of them pickpockets and burglars and thieves, and when they leave us they are strong and self-reliant and they know their strength, as knowledge is power. I won't speak more on that just now.

Here in Monroe county, you are, indeed, very fortunate. You have almost everything that one may desire, but you must remember that you are part and parcel of the whole United States; that we must stand or fall together, and that you must reach out your helping hand to those of us who live on the outskirts of the country.

Mr. Harold Parker, our distinguished president, has for years led the way in Massachusetts, and that state, small as she is, has done a vast deal of work in this line. Massachusetts sent Mr. Harold Parker across the country to all the conventions, that its highway department might get all your ideas on good roads, and try them out and then give you its ideas of good roads. And so, having all theso things here before you, you must try to take the time to educate further some of us who live in the outskirts.

I was on a train not long ago with a very distinguished citizen now passed to the beyond, Mr. Denman Thompson. Thompson was a little near-sighted and he tried to force his way down the aisle past some people who were in the way, and he did not see for an instant that the man who blocked the way was handcuffed to a detective. He said, "Hurry up here. Time is money. Move on." The man turned and said "If you think time is money, I have five years I do not want and haven't any use for."

I only wanted, in saying the trivial things to you, to make a smile come over your faces, and assure you that here is where my heart is. I regard you as the most interesting public servants of all that I know. Your work is not recognized at present as it should be, but some time, perhaps not in your lifetime, the reward will come to you all.

I thank you for this opportunity to make a few remarks, and I hope some time during the convention, to discuss some of the measures that come up. I thank you. (Applause).

PRESIDENT PARKER: Mr. Hill generally gives us a longer talk, but he has been traveling for twenty-nine days without sufficient rest or sleep, and that is the reason he is not quite up to his standard in the matter of time, although what he said is excellent, as usual.

Mr. Bachelder, Master of the National Grange and exgovernor of New Hampshire, has been detained in some way. He is not here, but Mr. Powers has persuaded Mr. Frank Terrace of Seattle, Washington, the same state Mr. Hill comes from, to talk to you on the same subject which Mr. Bachelder would have talked about.

I think you will enjoy Mr. Terrace's talk, as I have heard him frequently and I consider him a "star." (Applause).

MR. TERRACE: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention:-I did not expect that I would be called upon at this particular time. This is unexpected by me and as I am only a plain, country farmer, and not used to making talks in public, you must not expect much from me.

I am a granger and I have to take the place of the national master of the grange, that great and wonderful institution composed of farmers all over this broad land of ours, from the Atlantic to the Pacific-men that are tilling the soil, the men who should be most interested in this good roads movement of any class of people in this great country of ours. I am sorry to say that even among them they are divided on this great road question that is before us today.

As you know, a road is like a good restaurant in a city— it does its own advertising. (Applause.) If a man gets a good meal in a restaurant you can depend upon it that he will come back and bring his neighbor along with him. This good roads movement is identically the same, but the great trouble with the rank and file of the farmers of this land is that they know nothing about good roads. They have not seen them. When you go out into the great western states, where they have no roads and know nothing about roads, it is no use talking to them. You must educate them by degrees, and finally show them the road and then they believe in it; and they will work hard in the interest of it.

I well remember when I was converted to this great