The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-04-18
AN IMPORTANT CIRCULAR.
The Advantages of the lake Superior r. Z.
Worth million dollars annually to
Minnesota.

State and Commissioner OF Statistics,
made to the Government and by him
transmitted in the Legislature of the
State of Minnesota.
ssThe law is we'll settled that dis
ordinations by railroads in rates of
toll shall not exist, and hence MINES.
Ota has a vital interest in the Lake
Superior system of outlets to our COM
merce, since it can no more be forced
to seek the longer and more expensive
Lake Michigan routes, and she should
foster and sustain those great boons
to our people, by all proper and pru-
dent means.
BY the laws of trade, supplemented
by statute laws, nearly the entire
State is thus brought as near to lake
and seaport markets as portions of
Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. Taking
the city of St. Paul as receiving and
distributing point it will be seen that
she is distant from Milwaukee 324
miles; from Chicago 400 miles, and
from Duluth our port on Lake Superb
;, 155 miles. Wheat has been ship
| during the past season to all these
Its at Il maximum rate of 25 cents
.undred pounds. and flour at q
nun rate Of AZ cents per barrel.
evident to the most casual OBJ
hat these rates are dictated
AXE Suwerior system. 1t is
) against 324, without any
lsating advantages in favor of
.onger route, which must meet
compete with the shorter one on
u terms.
is within bounds to state that in
average year the number Of bushels
wheat, or its equivalent flour.
shipped from the trade centres Of st.
Paul, Saltwater, and Minneapolis
would not fall below ten million bush
els. The winter rate for 1876 and
1877, by rail to Lake Michigan,
averaged Is cents per bushel, and the
summer rates 10 cents per bushel.
This concession of five cents per BUSH
ell was clearly the dictation of the
shorter Lake Superior route, the val
ne Of which to the producers Of ten
million bushels of wheat having free
and unrestricted access to that outlet
is at least five hundred thousand dol
lars. TO this must be added the
amounts shipped from Hastings, Red
Wing, Lake City. Wabasha, &C.,
points clearly within the competitive
range of the shorter line, and also the
mighty outpouring which in the near
future, is to flow over the Northern
Pacific Railroad
1t is easy to demonstrate, then, that
the highway over Lake Superior for
our outgoing commerce alone, will
soon be, if it is not all e;dy, worth u
million dollars annually to the produc-
ers Of the State. In other words, it
adds one dollar an acre to the yearly
profit of every wheat field within the
range of its influence. (rhe tables
showing movements of Lake Superior
commerce, rec eived since the above
was written, and given in their appro-
pirate place, fully sustain these con-
cluSionS.)
What Il gift to our people is this
We certainly owe the duty to our
selves, and to our descendants, as well
rs to the daring and luckleSs project
Ors of enterprises 50 beneticient as
connections by rail with that great
water line, to see to it that this regu-
lator of commerce, this grand econom-
ic force, shall never, through our
blindness and incapacity, be closed or
turned against us. by the greed and
selfish combinations of capital. 1t is
due to the people of those sections of
the state, without as yet these advan-
tageS and connections. that they be
shown the safety and profit of an
emancipation from the tyranny and
expense of Il single and long route to
market, and that they be encouraged
by the dissemination of facts and tig-
ures, by illustration and argument
to avail themselves of this great high
way, to the end that all parts of the
state, geographically entitled to them
may participate in the blessings it can
and does confer"
Also to the resolutions unanimously
passed by the Senate of Minnesota, at
its last session. which says that The
competition created by the st. Paul
and Duluth Railroad. between the
different lines of transportation, has
added millions to the value of the
products of our State. and saved hun
dreds of thousands to our merchants
and manufacturers: and that the con-
troll OF said road by adverse interests
would be public calamity
l call your attention to these ex
pressions of existing facts. given not
from any interest the authors had in
the welfare of the company, but be-
cause it touched 4 subject of vital I'M
portance to every shipper of produce
from the State or every merchant
receiving goods from without the
State. who are directly interested in
maintaining the present favorable POI
sition held by Minnesota, through the
competition produced by the road of
this company. The effect in past
years has been that this company has
made the low rates for the benefit of
the State, while its merchants and
producers, unmindful of the result.
have given their goods to be shipped
to other routes and foreign compa-
MES.
This of course cannot continues
we have none of your goods to