Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-01

them to our Fertile fields and rejoice in their pros
perity.
Judge FIandrau called upon Senator A.
E. Rice to respond.
Senator Rice remarked, at opening, that
he was sorry he had not received notice of
the desire to have him respond to this
toast in time to have prepared himself.
The sentiment was in itself comprehensive,
ard he would say that Americans were no
more delighted to welcome their adopted
fellow-c citizens than they were to come.
In proof of this see how readily they adopt
your customs and manners. The foreign
er appears in your city, for example, In
his sheepskin coat and short breeches,with
a meek, mild eye, suggestive of total de-
pendence upon your will and pleasure and
shortly disappears into the country. In
about year he returns
triumphantly elected to your
Legislature by a mixed bat intelligent con-
stituency and 10, what change in cir
cumstances. He has no longer the meek
Submissive eye of year previous, but
adopts the cheek of his American fellow.
citizens and demands the formation of
new judicial district for his constituents.
He becomes an American and prospers.
Mr.. Rice was warmly applauded.
FOURTH TOAST.
COmmerce-Once the sport of the W inds
and waves, but since the development of rail
roads, an exact science.
The assignment to this toast was J. J.
Hill, Esq, president of the st. Paul &
Manitoba road.
Mr.. Hill upon being named TO respond
to this toast was loudly and enthusiastic
cally cheered and responded in substance
as follows: It is pleasure for me TO meet
you this evening, to continue old acquaint-
ances and to make new ones. 1t has been
remarked that ''brevity is the soul of wit"
and in pursuance of that idea
l shall be brief though not witty.
The proper discussion of this theme
would occupy too much of your time and
patience. "Once the sport of the winds
and the waves" cannot be said to have
been the case to any great extent with the
commerce of Minnesota. We are not
much troubled with winds and waves in
the spread and development of our COM
merce.
When 1 came to Minnesota in
1856 became at once identified
with the transportation business
with which I have ever since retained my
connection. At that time the commerce
of Minnesota was limited to the exporta-
ton of few bales of furs and about 800
barrels of cranberries per annum. We
went to Galens, st. Louis or Dubuque for
our supplies. At that time We had water
transit only. If was impossible to settle
the country at any distance from a navi-
gable river.
st. Paul at the head of navigation on the
Mississippi thus acquired supremacy. In
the past twenty years the railroads have
entered our borders and have made an en-
tire new geography of Minnesota. Take a
map of the United States and place one
point of a pair of dividers here at st. Paul
| and one point at Jacksonville
Fla, move them northward to New
York city and you are 800 miles beyond
| that point in the Atlantic ocean; move to
the southwest and you strike the city OF
| Mexico; move onward to the northwest
and you have 1900 miles of agricultural
country to traverse, rich and productive
and capable of sustaining an immense
population. This portion of the
United States could never have
acquired the importance which 1t now
holds, nor could it have attracted such uni.
versal attention as northwestern Minnesota
| and Dakota now do had it not been for the
| railroads.
| Twelve years ago first visited the now
famous Red river valley, for which
must beg pardon if 1 expires:
a weakness, and from the
| point where Fergus Falls now is to the
boundary line at Pembina I found but tloc
| houses.
I recommended placing a small steam
| boat upon that river as the best thing We
could do. To-day the railroads have driv
ven the boats from the river and we have
that famous and wonderfully fertile VALLEY
at our doors. Then it tool
six weeks to make the triI
which we now make in forty eight hours
Now at our very doors we have tht
Assinniboin and Saskatchewan valleys an(
the valleys and hills of Montana whicl
have been rescued to civilization out o
the bowling wilderness by the railroads
and which without them would have re
mained for all time empty, desolate an,
void.
Mr.. President, while the railroad
are not all managed by saints
some of them very far from it. 1 woul
say to the members of this legislature VIII
| are now so soon to return to their home:
1 ldhS lllAS uOob4O1 VI LllO IdllIOdUS VIII
| you. Consider both sides fairly and hon
estly there. Consider that to the railroad
you owe the great developments of thi
great empire of the northwest, and Will
you are striving to solve this great prob
lem so as to do justice to the people an
the corporations, remember that to tn
enterprise of the railroads you owe tn
present great prosperity and developmer
of Minnesota; to the railroads whc
instead of awaiting the tide of emigra
ton, were constantly pushing OF
in advance even of the prairi
schooner. To the people o
Minneapolis 1 would say you can be we
proud of the fact that for the past eigi
months at least you have had the best loci
wheat market in the world, that staple b,
ing worth from three to five cents NOR
than in Chicago. This would have bee
impossible but for the railroad
am not standing her
Mr.. President, to apologize IL
the railroads-they need no apologist-b
as one who cut the stencil which marke
the first barrel of flour ever manufacture
f and shipped from your city, and who hi
t | watched the enormous increase of tn;
branch of business which now makes flo1