Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-02-26
THE TWO BOOMS.
| What Minneapolis Claims Under a Terri
torlal Steal.

COrlal Steal.
| To the Editor of the Globe.
There are many remarkable pieces of his
tory connected with the early settlement of
Minnesota, but none of the Legislative
anamolies of those early days appear SO
strange as the fact that the Territorial legis-
lature of Minnesota should SO far wipe out
the ordinance of 1857, as to make present
of forty-fye miles of the Mississippi river to
Il. Chute Co., of Minneapolis, and fully
and specially authorize the said company to
charge, receive and collect toll on all logs,
lumber and timber which any person or per-
sons should ever desire to run down the Mis-
sissippi to points below. The deed of gift
was duly signed and sealed twenty-three
years ago, and the grantees entered into inn
mediate possession of their grand property.
They put IN few shore rights at a figure
which made even corner lot spectators
blush. They built a. few piers, and then
commenced taking in the profits. which have
now amounted to over half million dol
lars, one half of which has been spent
buying property, and in improvements, and
the rest in accumulating a surplus or
paying - per cent. interest on the heavily
watered stock claimed by the owners of this
State grant.
This relic of the barbarous times of 10
Rolette and Pete Roy is among the heaviest
burdens which the pioneer lumbermen have
had to bear, and has impoverished more of
them than any other single cause. Owned
and run by and in the interest of men who
had no part in the lumber business, it has
been managed as monopoly, and con-
Quoted to build up few and tear
down the many, as scores of
hard working men have learned by painful
experience.
There was one other piece of work done
IN those early days that equailed this in i'm
prudence, and that was the cession of Mn
Resota to Carver, which was so vigorously
pushed in territorial times. The sort of meat
which these Caesars have fed upon has natur-
ally made them feel confident IN their power
and unblushing in their demands. Under
the charter they and their partners took
possession of three-fftils of the width of the
whole Mississippi river, and converted it to
their own use, and, as if this were not
enough, they coaxed the United States into
taking possession of the other two ffths,
and between the party built complete fences
across the river at the Falls, so that no man
should ever be able to rise up and say that
this grand river was free public highway
again.
Fifty cents thousand toll on all logs and
lumber to entitle them to pass Minneapolis.
mortgage on every thousand feet of the
ten thousand million feet now growing on
its waters to be paid before dollar can be
realized by its owners. Only $5,O0O,O0O to
be raked in out of one little legislative steal
of the early days. But this is not ALL With
the fences dams across the river to prevent
any person from getting logs below the falls,
every owner YVES not only compelled to pay
this toll, but to sell to about half dozen
men who enjoyed perfect monopoly of the
log trade. and who have gone for blood
every year until they have bankrupted
a large per cent. of all the working
men on the river. Logs have averaged from
So to 81 in price above the falls than they
brought in every Western market for the last
fifteen years.
Now the prospect changes. A frst-class
boom IS in process of construction at st.
Paul, capable of holding lOO,OOO,O0O feet of
logs. The United States have apparently
repudiated Rolette's gift and is going to put
in a pair of bars in the fences, while dire
CONSERVATION reigns at the ''seat of destiny"
The Minneapolis Boom company, with all
tuo loICo WHICH, tuey eau SCETo OUT OF coax
out, are on the war path to secure their accus-
toned part of the hard earnings of the log
gers, and loudly demanding to be s'let alone''
in the enjoyment of their steal They claim
SO cents per u toll, and no concession or ar
gument will induce them to abate a cent.
The loggers look to st. Paul for aid in this
extremity. and she should rise up in her
power and In her right demand that this
monopoly should cease and the Mississippi
be declared public highway in deed, as well
as in name.
If the log men are to be forced to pay toll
for the privilege Of passing by Minneapolis,
then the boom below the falls mi ,!ht as we'll
be suspended now as hereafter. The claim
OF the right to stop logs and hold them,
much less to tax the owners for the deten-
ton, is an outrage so gross that nothing
should excuse it in the minds of just men,
and it is to be hoped that the legislature of
the State will not be appealed to in vain to
right so grieyous wrong.