Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-02-20
THE GREATNESS OF DULUTH.
"A Minnesota Statesman Says Proctor
Knots Vision Has Come True.

Col. c. b. Graves of Duluth. speaker of the
house of the present Minnesota legislature, is
spending the winter in Washington in the in
terests of the great chain of lakes, which he
says is no stronger than its weakest link the
Sault Sainte Marie canal. or plain $500" as it
Is called in the northwest. A STAR reporter
found the colonel in his cheerful quarters al
the Portland flats. a. serene and hopeful as
when in the time preceding Proctor KNOTS
oratorical irony he combed the head of naviga-
ton and gathered to himself properties that
have made him an easy fortune.
GAS your legislature holds only biennial ses-
sions you are probably here to get a few points
from Speaker Reed?" remarked The STAR re-
porter.
Hardly that" said Col. Graves sour
people need but few laws, and want them far
between. Speaker Reeds quorum rule will be
the parliamentary law of the future, and one
need not come to Washington to find 1t out. !
am here to present few facts regarding the
great fresh waterway to congressional COM
lnittees. We of the west think the work OF
improving the 500 canal between Lake
Huron and Lake Superior is of such general
public interest that a separate appropriation
should be made for the purpose.
DULUTHs GREATNESS.
"Dulath is now the largest freight handling
as Proctor Knott predicted it would be. 1t is
the largest primary grain market on the globe,
and there is enough iron in the hills north of
the city to supply the demands of all Christen-
dom. Already 5000, 900 tons of ore a year are
shipped from the Lake Superior country"
Your people don't seem to resent Proctor
Knots satirical vision?'
''victors need never be resentful. When
say the lake commerce OF that country is ten
million tons a year the mind fails to grasp its
volume 1t would take 5000 vessels, each laden
with 1000 tOns-a fleet which in size and num-
bers would make the Spanish armada but play
things on the waves-to bear the products of
our mines and grain fields to market and bring
fuel and fabrics from the east. A ton is a
pretty fair load foc wagon, but if we loaded
ten million wagons with these products, allow
ing fifty feet to each team. it'would make a
caravan thrice girdling the earth. with enough
left over to run line from the equator to the
poles. At the rate of four miles an hour it
would take it three years, moving night and day,
to pass given point. and another crop would
be ripe before it made the first lap. No, we
are not resenting anything; we want Congress
to expedite the canal improvements and pro-
vide against accidents. Ten million tons Of
freight is OF too great importance to be per-
mitted to hang very long by that rotten link in
the chain OF lakes"
OCEAN VESSELS IN THE LAKES.
''What about ocean vessels going up the
lakes?"
'1t is a matter of only few years when
vessels will load at Duluth and unload at Liver
pool and return laden again. Some improve
ment in the waterways is all that is needed.
We are on the head of navigation and have
pretty nearly got the world by tho top knot"
How big is your town now?'
1T had 3,400 population by the census of
1880, about Il, 900 in 1885; the coming census
will give us $4,000 or $4,000 and in five more
years well have to six figures. We have
eight or ten railroads that come into the city
or have connections, we have shops and ship
yards making railroad cars and iron vessels, we
have the best and most rapid transit of any
city in the country and can handle more
freight In given time than any other city on
earth. Our elevator system is perfect that
a grain vessel can be loaded at the rate of a
thousand bushels minute, and an hour
suffices to put on pretty good cargo. Vessels
and cars unload or load from the same ware
houses, and thus the work of handling freight
is reduced to the minimum"
''Cold climate?"
well, nearly everybody out there wears
some clothes most of the year, and there are
no flies on our ordinary winters, but this sea-
son has been specked up good deal and no
ice has formed in the lake. though the bay has
put on thick overcoat. Do you good to come
up and see U.s..