St. Paul daily globe., 1893-06-11
Manufacturing and Jobbing
Increase Exhibits Won
derful Activity.
Part Played In the History
Of the City by the
Railroads.
Passing but Instructive Re-
view Of the Record of a
Score Of Years.

SCOIO VI C0Ios
No tax ever assessed against the
writer will be paid more cheerfully than
his share of the appropriation made by
the city for doing honor the past week to
the president of the Great Northern, for
certainly no man has done more in the
past ten years to build solid foundations
for st. Paul than James j. Hill. At this
time, as we celebrate the opening of the
Great Northern railroad to the Pacific
coast, it seems fitting to note the
progress made by our city In the
past, and to consider what may
reasonably be expected of the future.
The combined jobblng and manufact-
uring business of St. Paul in 1869,
twenty-four years ago, was only S9.S70,-
500. From 1869 to 1878. inclusive,
period of five years, the jobbing and
manufacturing of the city aggregated
more than $40, 100000. During the next
five-year period, ending 1878. the COM
bined jobbing and manufacturing of st.
Paul exceeded S14O,000.000, and 1878
alone showed nearly twice the business
of 1878. Thus did solid st. Paul do bus
iness through the years of financial re-
cOvery from war times, while the sever
est depression ruled cities elsewhere.
During the five years ending 1888, the
combined jobblng and manufacturing
Of this city showed very heavy in
crease. 1t aggregated S349, 1926, ,447, and
1883 exceeded 1878 more than two and
half times over.
No Skating Here.
In 1884 the Northern Pacific railroad
was completed to Puget sound. The
East was seriously disturbed by the
Marine bank, Grant & Ward and 9th er
heavy business failures. Here, how.
ever, business went on with tremendous
strides. Jobbing and maEufacturin
made the enormous total of S563, 937,
l42 during the five years end
ing 1897, and 1887 alone exec eded
1883 by $40, 372, ,95S. In 1887 real estate,
which had kept about even pace with
this enormous growth. rested, but bust
ness, reinforced by the trade of the vast
territory opened by the rapid extension
of the lines of the Great Northern, still
went on. and during the five years end
ing in 1892 iobbing and manufacturing
made the astonishing total of $9l6,334,
621, and 1892 alone exceeded the big real
estate year of 1887 by $50. 1922, ,687. The
five years ending 1892 exceeded the five
years ending 1887 by 1852, ,397, 479.
Growth along other lines during the
past five years has been equally sur
prising. The city directory of 1887 con-
taired 62, ,231 business names. The 1892
directory contained 62,614, an increase
of 20, 1888, which, at the usual ratio of
t,uo n hoI ronOnia For nanh HirantNru
name, showed population increase Of
5O.957 between 1887 and 1892, but that
is not all. The clearing house re-
turns for 1887, the big real estate
year, were S205,012, i22. In 1892 they
were $271 1886. 713, an increase of $66, $685.
591. But more than that. The records
of the building inspector show buildings
worth S45, 156, 1872 erected during the five
years since 1887, against S43, ST, ,457 dur
ing the five years from 1888 to 1887, be-
ing an excess of $1,63S, 725 for the past
five years, and. besides, 1892 shows an
increase in building over 1891.
HELPED by Railroads.
Considering the quiet that has pre-
vailed in most other cities during the
past half-decade, growth like this seems
wonderful. The explanation lies in just
two words-railroad building. For the
phenomenal growth Of the past five
years, st. Paul already owes more to
James j. Hill than she can
ever repay. And the debt has
only just begun to accumulate.
The opening of the Great Northern to
the Pacific, which we this week cele
brate, brings 4,63O miles of main lines
and feeders running through more than
800 villages and towns into direct COM
munication with st. Paul. Its grade is
so light that one locomotive can haul a
train of thirty cars over it from st. Paul
to Puget sound.
Judging from the results of the OPEN
ing of the Northern Pacific in 1884. the
opening this year of the Great North
ern could not fail to make the next half
decade more memorable than any that
has preceued it. But when we take
into account the $780," the Amer
lean branch of the Canadian Pa
cific, which will be completed by
Aug. l, enabling cars to make the
run from ST. Paul to Vancouver in less
than seventy hours. thus opening the
second transcontinental line In 1893, the
effect on trade and traffic here cannot
fail to be phenomenal. Note a few of
the new advantages in sight from 1898.
First-The area of territory tributary
to st. Paul will be more than doubled.
Secondly the eastward connections
of the Canadian Pacific and the Great
Northern through Michigan and the
upper lakes, st. Paul merchants will
get Eastern goods as cheaply as can
Chicago merchants.
Third-Under present conditions of
ore and fuel supply our manufacturers
will get pig iron as cheaply at the head
Of Lake Superior as at Pittsburg, thus
saving the expense of the long haul be-
tween those points.
Fourth-The trade Of Alaska and
British Columbia and the islands of the
Pacific and Western Asia will soon be
competed for by these new transconti-
mental lines. st. Paul does not even
dream of the future magnitude and
benefits Of this traffic.
New Manufactures.
The Business Mems Union of st. Paul
has lately seen the necessity for so
largely widening our doors that the ad-
dtional multitudes Of people that will
be brought here by these new railroads
can come in and get what they want.
During the past eighteen months they
have located enough manufacturing
plants to employ over $4,000 additional
pOpuldtlOl lh OPOloItliS IhChi, nuu lOOuS
ing, clothing and otherwise providing
for the needs of the operatives.
The growth of st. Paul thus far is
certainly astonishing, and yet how much
of our tributary territory remains un-
developed. Of the arabic land of Min
nesota only about 10 per cent: of that
lying westward of Minnesota. less than
per cent is now in cultivation. And
the villages and towns, how Ihinly they
are spattered over this immense field
New and crude, however, as such devel-
opment is, it has built the st. Paul
of today, and such vast new fields now
suddenly thrown open with Eastern
and Western gates swinging freely for
all who care to come. must soon make
this city the center Of unprecedented
traffi,. Unparalleled as has been the
record of the past, the writer believes
that the coming ten years will see by
much the largest growth of any decade
in our history. d. S. B. JOHNSTON.