The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1878-05-04
The st. Paul & Duluth Railroad.


in giving the people of Minnesota
cheap freights than any other
agency, and in order to make the
line a success the merchants of that
state should not fail to direct their
goods to be sent from eastern mar
kets marked "via. Duluth" The
following extract from the report of
the Assistant Secretary of State and
Commissioner of Statistics, made to
the Governor and by him transmit
ted to the Legislature Of the State
of Minnesota, will be read with in
terest:
"The law is well settled that dis
examinations by railroads shall not
exist, and hence Minnesota has a
vital interest in the Lake Superior
system of outlets to our commerce,
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 prudent means.
"By the laws of trade, supplemen-
ted by statute laws, nearly the en-
tire State is thus brought as near to
lake and seaport markets as por-
tions 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 354 miles; from
Chicago 400 miles, and from Du-
lnth, our port on Lake Superior, l55
miles. Wheat has been shipped
during the past season to all these
points at maximum rate of 25
cents per hundred pounds, and flour
at maximum rate of 40 cents per
barrel.
1T is evident to the most casual
observer that these rates are die
tated by the Lake Superior system.
1t is l55 miles against 324, without
any compensating advantages in IA
vor of the longer route, which must
meet and compete with the shorter
one on equal terms.
sit is within bounds to state that
in an average year the number Of
bushels of wheat, OF It's equivalent
flour, shipped from the trade centres
Of St. Paul, Saltwater and Mime
apolis, would not fall below ten
million bushels. The winter rate
for 1876 and 1877, by rail to Lake
Michigan, averaged l5 cents pen
bushel, and the summer rates 10
cents per bushel. The concession
of five cents per bushel was clearly
the dictation of the shorter Lake
Superior route, the value of which
to the producers OF ten million bush
els Of wheat having free and unre-
strlcted access to that outlet is at
least five hundred thousand dollars.
TO this must be added the amount
shipped from Hastings, Red Wing,
Lake City, w abasha, etc, points clear
" within the competitive range of
the shorter line, and also the mighty
outpcuring which in the near future
is to flow over the Northern Pacific
railroad.
''It is easy to demonstrate, then,
that the highway over Lake Supe-
rior for our outgoing commerce
alone, will soon be, if it is not
already, worth a million dollars an
nually to the producers 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.
"@ hat gift to our people is
this We certainly owe the duty to
ourselves, and to our descendants,
as well as to the daring and luck
less projectors of enterprises SO
beneficent as connections by rail
with that great water line, to see to
it that this great regulator of COM
merce, this grand economic 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 those ad-
vantages and connections, that they
be shown the safety and profit of
an emancipation from the tyranny
Of a single and long route to market,
and that they be encouraged by the
dissemination of facts and figures,
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 bless
ings it can and does confer"
Also the resolutions unanimously
passed by the Senate of Minnesota,
at its last session, which says that
"The competition created by the
St. Paul d Duluth railroa ad, between
the different lines of transportation,
has added millions to the value of
the products Of our State, and saved
hundreds of thousands to our mer-
chants and manufacturers; and that
the control of said road 10y adverse
interests would be public calam-
ity."