this state shall make through the added trade possibilities that will be presented especially to you by the opening of the great international waterway now nearing completion. Let us see what this will mean to New Orleans. The Mississippi Valley produces 85 per cent of our corn (the figures I give are those of the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor), 75 per cent of our wheat, 70 per cent of our live stock, 70 per cent of our cotton, 70 per cent of our iron ore, 70 per cent of our petroleum, 50 per cent of our wool, 50 per cent of our copper, 50 per cent of our lumber, 50 per cent of our coal, approximately 40 per cent of our manufactures, and nearly 70 per cent of the farm areas and farmvalues of the country. In short, it is to-day the world's greatest single producer of the articles entering international commerce and requisite in that commerce. By the breaking down of the barriers which have separated the Atlantic from the Pacific, the Mississippi Valley, through New Orleans, will have a direct route by water to all of the west coast of South America; a route to Japan 5,000 miles shorter than at present; to Shanghai 3500 miles shorter; to Hong Kong 2,000 miles miles shorter, to the Philippines 2,000 miles shorter, to Australia 5,000 miles shorter, and to New Zealand nearly 8,000 miles shorter.

"It will place New Orleans nearer to most of these ports than is London, the great commercial center of our principal rival in the Oriental trade.

"But it is more especially in the trade with Latin America. that New Orleans should find its greatest opportunity. Trade cannot flourish unless governments are stable and conditions peaceful. How important is it, therefore, that we should, especially with respect to the countries in geographical proximity to the Canal Zone, contribute to the removal of conditions of turbulence and instability by giving them all proper assistance in the promotion of peace, in the development of their resources, and in a sound reorganization of their fiscal systems. This has lately been the effort of the Federal Government with respect to Honduras and Nicaragua. By reason of long years of government maladministration and internal disturbances these countries found themselves with depleted treasuries and burdened with debts and claims which they were unable to meet without outside aid. Their plight directly or indirectly obstructs the development of the rest of Central America. These

two republics sought the aid of the United States in the placing of their finances and administration upon a sound and stable basis with a view to securing the tranquility, prosperity and progress of the two countries. Heartily sympathizing with the Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua in their laudable desire to develop their countries by a reconstruction of their fiscal and economic situ ation, the president empowered me to negotiate with each a treaty having this object in view. These treaties are now before the Senate awaiting that body's advice and consent to their ratification.

Not only Louisiana, but every state bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, is interested in the peaceful development of Central America. It is estimated that in 1909 the total trade of the United States with Central America and Panama exceeded $42,000,000, of which more than 25 per cent was handled through the gulf portsNew Orleans alone having $9,000,000 of this trade. Stop and consider that since the United States extended a helping hand to the Dominican Republic the total trade of that country has practically trebled, and you will have some idea of what benefit would result to the Southern States should the Nicaraguan and Honduran conventions be consummated.

To no part of our country is the development of our commerce in the Caribbean region of more importance than to the State of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, and to no part is it of more interest that in that region conditions for the promotion of trade should exist. Such conditions cannot exist in circumstances such as control in Honduras and Nicaragua, with a baleful indirect effect upon the rest of Central America. Therefore, as useful instrumentalities for commercial expansion, if for no other reason, the treaties with Honduras and Nicaragua now before the Senate should have the sympathy and support, not only of Louisiana, but of the whole Mississippi Valley and the Southern States.

Aside from its commercial importance, which was made conspicuous at once, the State of Louisiana soon attained an eminence in the professions of law and medicine. In medicine its medical college was the first to be founded in the Southwest and its Charity Hospital, one of the first free hospitals to be established in the United States, made good provisions for clinical lectures when they were almost unknown in other parts of the country. In the law, I recall Edward Livingston, who wrote the Code of Judicial

Procedure in 1805, which was used for twenty years, and whose famous Criminal Code, with its philosophical introduction, is one of the foundation stones upon which criminal reformatory legislation has been built. Then there were Mazureau and Christian Roselius and Judah P. Benjamin, the author of one of the classics in the literature of the law, and Randall Hunt, whom Abraham Lincoln's friends wished him to invite into his Cabinet, und John A. Campbell, for some years a judge on the Supreme Court of the United States, who came from Alabama but practiced chiefly at the New Orleans bar after his retirement from the bench. Finally, and not least, there is the present distinguished chief justice of the United States, Edward Douglass White, whom we all admire, not only for his legal abilities, but for his personal qualities.

"In educational facilities the state is surpassed by few, if any, of the other states of the Union. Its public school system is ample and its institutions furnishing the higher education are too well known as too numerous to mention; while its charities, including the hospitals at New Orleans and Shreveport, an institute for the blind, and three insane asylums, give evidence to the humaneness of its citizens.

"The conspicuous part played by men of Louisiana in the nation's past history should not be overlooked. Zachary Taylor went from his victories in Mexico to the President's chair. Edward Livingston left the Senate to be General Jackson's Secretary of State, and, at Jackson's direction, wrote one of the greatest of American state papers-the proclamation of 1832 against the doctrine of nullification. Another citizen of Louisiana, Charles M. Conrad, was Secretary of War under President Fillmore; another, William H. Hunt, as Secretary of the Navy under President Garfield, created the Naval Advisory Board in 1881, which laid the keel of our new navy. When the great work of building the Panama Canal was undertaken a member of the first two commissions was the eminent engineer, Benjamin Morgan Harrod. I mention these as few; the list could be expanded.

"In belles-letters, too, Louisiana has added to our wealth in literature. Who has not read with interest the novels of George W. Cable, the portrayer of Creole life; the Oriental literature of Lafcadio Hearn; the historical sketches and novels of Grace Elizabeth King, the portrayer of character developed in Louisiana by blend

ing of Anglo-Saxon and Latin blood, slavery, and the change from opulence to poverty by the Civil War, and the poems and novels of Mrs. Davis; while Charles Gayarré's 'History of the Foreign Domination in Louisiana' is cited as the standard in the encyclopedias of to-day.

"It is becoming that the people of the State of Louisiana should take pride in the great commercial, financial and industrial progress which they have made during the past hundred years, retarded though that progress has been for a season by civil strife, and it is fitting that they should give expression to that pride in this centennary celebration. They are not alone in their rejoicing; their pride is shared by the citizens of the other communities forming the Federal Union; for what benefits one benefits all. Each in its prosperity adds strength to the whole; while the Federal Government, watching over them, preserves their rights and protects and promotes their interests abroad. Pride in and loyalty to one's state is proof of the value of one's citizenship in our great, common country."

Professor Alcee Fortier, President of the Louisiana Historical Society and chairman of the General Committee on Centennial Celebration, delivered the formal oration of the day.

ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR FORTIER.

Mr. Chairman, Honored Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

In 1903, under an act of the General Assembly of the State, the Louisiana Historical Society prepared a program for the celebration of the centenary of the transfer of Louisiana from France to the United States, according to the treaty of Paris of April 30, 1803. The exercises took place on December 18, 19, and 20, and were worthy of the occasion. France was represented by her distinguished ambassador, M. Jusserand; Spain, by her consul in New Orleans, and the President of the United States, by Admiral Wise, of our Navy. Governor Francis, of St. Louis, represented the directors of the great Fair which was soon to be opened to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the cession of Louisiana to the United States. The French, the Spanish, and the American navies were represented by great battleships, which had assembled in our magnificent river, not for war, but on an errand of peace.

The celebration of 1903, Mr. Chairman, was a great success, and your honored predecessor, Governor W. W. Heard, expressed the thanks of the State to the Louisiana Historical Society for the patriotic efforts of its members in commemorating a great event in the history of Louisiana. Again has an important trust been confided to our Society by a legislative act, and, conscious of our responsibility, and grateful for the honor conferred upon us, we have prepared a program for the celebration of a centenary of perhaps greater importance than that of