The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-12-17


which the agriculturist needs to pur-
chase. Here your energy, intelligence,
industry, skill and shrewdness, have
warred with each other, as IN great
battle field, through that competition
which, the proverb tells us, is 1.-THE Life
of trade and the whole people have
reaped therefrom resulting benefits.
You have just taken another, and a
very wise step, in the same direction.
in the construction Of your great ele-
vator. You will furnish the farmer
cheap and safe storage, at low rates of
insurance; you will loan him, thro ugh
your banks! money upon his wheat at
low rates Of interest; and when he
wishes to sell, you will offer him good
market here, or at the mills Of Mime
apolis, or the choice Of several routes
to the scaboard. You will thereby
benefit, not only the man who stores
his wheat in your elevator, but you
will reduce thereby the rates of stor'
age, insurance and interest on farmers
loans all over the State. And be as
sured that whatever money you there
by enable the farmer to save, will not
be buried in the earth or sunk in the
sea; it will be returned to you in IN
creased trade and prosperity.
TRANSFORMATION.
But the question Of transportation
is, after all, the great question OF our
day and people.
We are an agricultural community.
Our mining interests are at present
nothing; our mber interests. great as
they are. are but local, and it is feared
by some, may be temporary. We are
not only an agricultural people, but for
thousand miles, south and east, we
are surrounded by agricultural popula-
tons. Situated in the heart of con-
tinent, our great necessity is some means
of cheap transportation to the seaboard !;
for the sea has been, in all ages, and IN
all ages will be, the chief pathway of
commerce and the lands of overflow
ing food need as corollary the lands
of overhowing population.
How are we, then, to obtain the
cheap transportation shall it be over
costly roadways of iron, made by the
hands of man; requiring large expen-
ditures to keep them in repair, and over
which freight can only be transported in
what might be called, by comparison,
small boxes? Or shall we resort to
that other medium, water where ra-
pidity of motion is combined with the
minimum of resistance and the mini
mum of cost, and where much greater
bulk can be contained in one vessel I!
surely all experience teaches Us that,
for the heavy freights of commerce,
the latter is clearly preferable. For
instance, the freight on bushel of
wheat from ST. Paul to the sea, dis
lance of about 1900 miles, is to-day,
forty-two cents; while from New York
to Liverpool, a distance of over three
thousand miles. it is only twenty cents.
When we have reduced railroad trans
pc, tation to its lowest practicable rates,
we will still find that the margin agains.
the Minnesota agriculturist is heavy
one. For travel and for those freights
which are small in bulk compared with
their value, the railroads need fear no
competitors but cotton, iron, salt,
wheat, corn, &C., can, it seems to me.
be transported for great distances, with
profit, only by water.
This fact being conceded, the ques.
ton comes, by what route can Mime
! sofa reach the seaboard at least cost
A glance at the map will answer the
question.
| THE IAroKrANcE OF LAKE SUPERIOR TO
MINNESOTA.
If we generclize the salient features
oil our great country, 1t appears as a
vast expanse of nearly level land, pen.
etrated by two great water-systems--
first those ''seas in land the Great
Lakes; and second. the Mississippi
river. BY remarkable coincidence
both these continental waterways orig
mate in Minnesota. They may be said
to reach out giant arms, one from the
Gulf OF st. Lawrence. the other from
the Gulf Of Mexico, and their fingers
interlock in the headlands Of our own
State; while on the initial finger Of the
one gllstens like a diamond the city of
Duluth. and on the hand of the other
SHINE those twin jewels, yet to be
melted into one magnificent signet. the
cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Here the Mississippi and the Great
Lakes, converging as we advance up
their currents, approach NOR CLOSELY
together than Gf any other point on
the continent. Each will drain. in the
great future, the most magnificent the
aires of human industry ever known
in the world: and where the energy
of man unites. their waters will
be the spot of primal importance
on the globe. There the cotton, the
tobacco, the sugar, the rice of the South,
will meet, in long procession. the COP.
per. the iron. the lum Der, and the wheat
of, the North; there the products of the
looms and factories and workshops of
the East will be interchanged with the
inexhaustible food supplies of the great
West: there zones of climate will
mingle their products: there will be
the clearinghouse Of the continent.
Here, then, is our great geographical
fact, which should never be lost sight
of, tina. we border upon the shores of
the greatest of the great lakes-Lake
Superior that that lake is to US an arm
of the sea: and that Duluth is practi
cally our New York. From the geo
graphical centre of Minnesota to Lake
Superior is, by an air line, but I35
miles: from the heart Of Minnesota to
Lake Michigan is, BY an air line. nearly
400 miles. So that. on an average.
Minnesota is oS5 rn.leS ,na-a.