St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-23
LEvEL-HEADED REDFIELD.
An Editor Gives the Board of
Trade Some Pointers.


yesterday morning Anthony Kelly
sent in communication, in which he
stated that Theodore ShOtwell, of the
defunct dry goods firm of ShOtwell,
Clerihew q Lathmann, had just re-
turned from the East, and was trying to
organize a stock company with 5O,OOO
capital in order to res inc the manu-
featuring branch of the late cOmpany'S
business. Mr.. Kelly further stated that
Mr.. ShOtwelfs Eastern friends would
put up One-half of the money il the
other half could be raised in MinneapO-
lis. The letter was referred to the conf
mittee on manufactures.
A. j. Blethen, Frank Nichols and E.
J. Phelps were appointed committee
TO make arrangements for entertaining
the party of st. Joseph, Mo-. jObbers,
who will visit Minneapolis to-day.
Judge Atwater called attention to an
editorial printed in the Tribune Oct. IA,
in which the manufacturing interests of
Minneapolis were compared to the man.
ufacturing interests of other cities. He
claimed that Minneapolis had been dam
aged by the publication of the state
ment. Capt. j. G. Reno, III. q. o. Nor
risOn and G. a. Nimmocks were named
as committee to investigate the mat
ter.
C.L. Redfeld. editor of "WOOd and
Iron." published here. addressed the
board at some length upon the pro-
posed manufacture of machinery in
Minneapolis. Il have been told repeat
edly," said he, "and know that # is a
prevalent opinion, that we cannot sue
cessfully build machinery here because
we are too far from coal and iron. am
here for the purpose of showing you
that this is not the case. The failure
of the Pray Manufacturing company
and North Star Iron works are pointed
out as instances, and the question is
asked, 'If these firms could not attain
success what is the use of anyone else
trying?" / claim to be able to answer
this question satisfactorily. Are we
too far from coal or iron? Ashland
sells her pig iron in Chicago, yet the
freight from Ashland to Chicago is rs
cents ton more than tits from Ash
land to Minneapolis. Ought it not to be
good enough if we can buy iron cheaper
than Milwaukee and Chicago? But this
is not all, for we have abundant iron of
the best quality just across the WiscOn-
sin border, and much nearer to us than
Ashland. Again, we can buy Missouri
and low grades southern iron to mix
with our higher grade native iron and
ship it by river from st. Louis
here from 81 to 81 cheaper than
Chicago can get it. New England
is the greatest manufacturing CEN
ter in the Union. Minneapolis
has more advantages than that section.
Worcester, the great manufacturing
center, has to go to Pennsylvania for
her coal and iron. Minneapolis is 200
miles nearer iron than Worcester. Min
neapOiis now gets soft coal for s. per
ton; it costs Worcester $40. In other
words, the Worcester manufacturer
must pay 20 per cent more for his fuel
than we have to pay. Further, am in
formed that an Illinois coal miner offers,
under certain circumstances, to load
coal on bargeS at 81 per ton and haul it
here for so cents, making it $3.50 at the
foot of Washington avenue, which
would make the Worcester fuel bill 240
per cent greater than ours.
Worcester, like all other Eastern
cities, is closely surrounded by COM
petitors, and must seek her trade at
long distances, we being among them.
We have no competitor nearer than 400
miles, and we are the nearest large
point for 100000 people. Worcester
has but few railroads and limited ship
ping facilities; in this regard we are
second only to- Chicago. Why, gentle
men. with cheaper coal, cheaper iron,
superb shipping facilities and an I'M
limited home market we can not make
an engine worth 800 or tack hammer
worth ID cents. No. we must go 1000
miles away and pay that much extra
freight for the privilege of buying
where materials are expensive.
"While if l have no definite statistics
- hn nf
here, have enough to enable me to
show that we could not supply the de-
mand if we added another POO, 600 people
to our population, all of whom would
be supported by our manufacturing in
dustrieS, and who would produce for the
city annually an amount equal to our
whole taxable property. From data
gathered from some of the local agents,
estimate that some 300'or 400 engines
are sold annually by the agents of Min
neapolis and st. Paul, and that there
are 200 or 500 more sold direct from the
factories in the territory that we might
consider ours.
THE failures of the local manufactor-
les were due to the fact that they had
neither capitol nor machinery. The
machine business in this city IS simply
paralyZed. Go to the proprietors of
your shops, and you will be told that
they would build machinery for this
market were they able to command the
CAPITAL. For the lack of capital and
machinery to work with they are COM
PEELED TO do job-work, and for the same
reason they cannot do much work that
comes to them, even though there be a
good profit. Numberless persons have
sent work to Chicago; others have sent
to Saltwater. and know of at least two
who have gone to AnOka to get
made what they could not get
here. In fact, the man who
wants a machine built can go any
where as long as it is out of Mimi
apolis. | know of more than one fact
Ory which would like to locate here, but
hesitates. How are we TO get them? |
am opposed to the bonus plan. First,
out of principle, and second, because |
have never known it to be success. If
you put the 100000 in good plant of
your own, you own the property, the
profits are your profits and the success
OF the concern will attract others with
out the payment of a bonus. To offer
bonuses for manufactures is topublicly
advertise that we do not think this is a
good place for them, but hope that the
money consideration will be enough to
outweigh the disadvantages"
In reply to questions Mr.. Redfeld
stated that the Pray company failure
was principally due to the fact that
they had made too many costly expert
ments. They had gone in too deep, and
before they realized the firms capital
was all tied up, and the failure which
followed was the consequence. He
claimed that the North Star works re-
moved because they were not able to
manufacture the high quality OF ma
chinery wanted in this city.
At the conclusion of the address
President Wyman took the floor and
made a lengthy address, in which he