Mr. TAYLOR. I understand that; there is to be an amendment conditional upon the city furnishing 40 feet.

Mr. FITZGERALD. I know that condition would be perfectly satisfactory to the city.

A number of vessels have struck on this reef, because the river at that point is quite congested. You are all familiar with the conditions.

This

I wished to say this much on behalf of the officials of the city. is not a matter that appeals to my district any more than to any other district; it is a matter that affects the city in one respect and the entire country in another respect.

Mr. BARCHFELD. Is not that on the inner course of the Sound? Mr. FITZGERALD. It is a part of that channel. There are some things talked about in connection with some of these projects which are in the far distant future, and some of them are in the immediate future.

I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. We are very glad to have heard from you, Mr. Fitzgerald.

Mr. Ten Eyck, do you desire to be heard?

Mr. TEN EYCK. No, sir; except to say that I fully indorse what Mr. Fitzgerald has said. He has completely covered the ground. (Thereupon the committee proceeded to the consideration of executive business, after which it adjourned.)

HEARINGS

ON THE SUBJECT

OF THE

IMPROVEMENT OF GALVESTON HARBOR, TEXAS, BY THE EXTENSION OF THE SEA WALL

GALVESTON HARBOR, TEX.

JANUARY 21, 1914. STATEMENT OF MR. WALTER GRESHAM, OF GALVESTON, TEX.

Mr. GRESHAM. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I will be rather brief with my statements and with any suggestions that I make, and if there is anything in my statement which any member of the committee thinks may require a further explanation, I will be glad to have you interrupt me, so that I can explain the matter without delay. The reason we are asking for this additional appropriation I will try to explain. It is because the population of Galveston has increased to such proportions that we can not afford to allow any possibility of damage or any stopping of our channel, as was the case in 1900. We can not afford to allow that to occur again if we can avoid it.

I suppose the members of the committee are aware that Galveston's exports and Galveston's import trade combined are greater than that of any port in the United States, with the exception of New York.

Mr. KENNEDY. You mean it is greater than Newport News?
Mr. GRESHAM. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. How is that? I did not hear what you said.
Mr. GRESHAM. I say the export and import trade of Galveston,
taken in the aggregate, is greater than that of any other port in the
United States, except the city of New York.

The CHAIRMAN. I am inclined to question the accuracy of that statement. The export trade

Mr. GRESHAM (interposing). The reports show that.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you looked up the report for Tampa Bay, Fla. The reports and figures in regard to the export trade; I mean the tonnage.

Mr. GRESHAM. I am speaking of the export trade.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, the export trade in tonnage

Mr. GRESHAM (interposing). You are speaking of the tonnage. I am speaking of values.

The CHAIRMAN. Tonnage is the chief thing. You might bring a hundred million dollars worth of freight in some ports on 12 feet of

water.

Mr. GRESHAM. You could not do that economically and safely, because the character of ships that carry twenty or twenty-five thousand bales of cotton could hardly get over 12 feet of water.

The CHAIRMAN. I am not speaking of that. That is not a safe criterion. It is something to be considered, of course; but the main thing is the tonnage. Of course, you have to have deeper water to

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accommodate heavy tonnage than you would to accommodate lighter freight, though of great value.

For illustration, the most valuable freight that comes into my town is Cuban tobacco; and you can bring enough tobacco, perhaps, in two boatloads, the boats drawing 15 feet of water, to last a whole year and make 300,000,000 cigars. So that is not a fair criterion.

I am not undertaking to detract from your harbor, which is one of the great harbors of the country.

Mr. GRESHAM. In answer to that, I will state that this question as to whether the tonnage or the value of the tonnage should be taken into consideration has been before this committee, to my knowledge, for more than 20 years. You take the great West, where they have the heavy tonnage of iron ore and lumber, and dead-weight cargoes, coal, and things of that sort, and there you get on a car probably the result of the labor of two men for a day. On the contrary, on a car loaded with cotton you get the labor perhaps of five or six men for a year.

Now, those people who produce cotton or that class of light commodities are entitled to as much consideration as those people who put a carload of coal on a vessel.

Consequently, we contend that it is fairer to the people of the country that they should take into consideration the value of their labor rather than the bulk of it. But that is, perhaps, foreign to this

matter.

The CHAIRMAN. No; I think it is important to have your views in regard to it.

Mr. GRESHAM. I do not speak accurately of the figures in regard to the total exports, as to what they amounted to in Galveston, but my impression is that the value amounted to $280,000,000. Since that report was made, since this report was filed, we have handled over the wharves of Galveston over 20,000,000 bushels of wheat, and in the last 90 days we have handled from five to ten million bushels of corn from Argentina, and we are now handling there a large number of cattle from Mexico and Central and South America. Last week we unloaded a vessel from the lower coast of Mexico with over a thousand head.

Mr. DONOHOE. Have those corn and cattle shipments largely increased recently?

Mr. GRESHAM. That is, the imports, are they increasing?

Mr. DONоHOE. Yes.

Mr. GRESHAM. Yes; only very recently, since the passage of the tariff bill-it has only been very recently that they have been ad

mitted.

Mr. DONOHOE. How many million bushels of corn did you say? Mr. GRESHAM. I should say somewhere between five and ten million bushels.

Mr. DONOHOE. And large imports of cattle?

Mr. GRESHAM. Yes; cattle are coming in. Last week there were over a thousand head of cattle.

Mr. BURGESS. Do you know where these cattle went?

Mr. GRESHAM. A good many of them to north Texas and upon the plains for fattening.

Mr. BURGESS. Did any of them go to Fort Worth?