St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-06-09

the railway inf used new life into North
western traffic, and the business inter-
eSts and Minnesota and Dakota took
second wind in new growth, and from
that time to this there has been no
marked reverse or hindrance in
The Continued Development.
The company of which Mr.. Hill as
sumed general management had little
over l,0o) miles OF track. Since then
he has added over $500 miles to the
lsystem. or practically one for each
working day during the past fourteen
years. Running at the rate Of thirty
miles an hour. it would take nearly
week Of constant travel to cover the
/ tracks of the entire system. This is
marvellous when figured down to the
details. From mere provincial or
7 ocal enterprise it has grown TO interna-
tional Importance. BE binds Atlantic
| waters and Pacific tides with a track OF
I steel longer than any under ons control
| on other continents, and yet it is mlnv
miles shorter across our own continent
| than any other line. After an existence
liof ten years, or, to bs exact, from May
f'24. 1879. to Sept. 16. 1889. the st. Paul,
Minneapolis & Manitoba became the
Great Northern railway. 1t was under
/ its new name that ii became tranScon-
| tlnental line. No government aid or
F.! patronage was given it, as was the case
! with all of the other companies span
| ming the continent. 1t was left
/ energy, who did not need state
aid and could safely fall back
upon himself to see his purposes car
/ ried out. to acquire this distinction. 1t
/ required nerve and money, and he had
| both. He saw the possibilities OF Min
nesota, the Dakotas and Montana.
| They had their princely wealth in cere-
| ais and meats, as truly as in mines and
| quarries AMI forests, and each staple
was awaiting development and mar
ket The wheat was in the loan. po-
tentialIy and waiting, as really as the
precious ores. coal and iron. under the
ground and the forests on top of It,
! The ores, Goals, timberS, woods, meats.
hides, grains and a hundred other ele
mentS of wealth have been in the vast
| Northwest
Waiting a Thousand Years
for the railway. They were natural
values on deposit without interest. and
subject to draft for all the uses and
profits of commerce. These great sta
pies now have their columns of prices
filled by the completion of the Great
4 Northern. Mr.. Hill saw that the nat
uIal resources of the new West were
more abundant than in the old East.
and he had no hesitancy in going out in
advance of the settler, and his locomo-
tives have been potent agency in haul
ing the NOrthwe to the front of the
procession of states. From the humble
railway of one state, little more than
decade ago. he now prOpels it into the
life and interests OF seven splendid
CO nmonwealths, having a combined
area vaster than the original states of
the republic, and his personal check can
be drawn for larger amounts than the
Federal Union could borrow from for
eign c. ltries hundred years agos
| As Already intimated, the present
system h. d its origin in bankrupt
tra ckage of little over LOCO miles. In
less than fourteen years it has grown to
system of 4,600 miles OF completed
track, and enough line in process Of
construction or contemplated to run the
total above the 5,000-mile mark.
From less than 200 cities, towns and
villages the number has increased to
| over 700. Think of it-500 new names
on tie map OF the Northwest, new COM
,munities, each busy with the concerns