St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-27
after if he doesn't set up a good
variety of April this particular year.
AN ORGANISED APPETITE.

believed that the movement was any
| thing more than that of a lot of des-
| perate land boomers, caught on the
| receding wave with a lot OF equities
which must have value pumped into
them, and who would soon go into
| the hands of a receiver, themselves
| exhausted receivers, if the boom
| could not be revived. But the rep
resentative movement which present
ed the claim and arguments before
| the legislature, the unanimity of the
| press of that city, the space they
| give it, all tend to convince us that
the organized appetite of M;nneapo
lis for jobs is again ravenous.
| We have had from our other con-
temporaries ample statistical proof
of how ravenous this appetite is,
| and how conSumingly has munched
on the state treasury, but these are
| mostly in the line of public institu-
lions, worthy of support, which must
| be located somewhere, and it may
| be as well in the city of slabs and
flour as anywhere. But the rapacity
of, not that city not of its people,
but of its leading spirits, is shown
in other matters, partly private,
| partly public. The state treasury is
not the only public fisc it's citizens
have raided. They have been fully
as thrifty in their raids on the fed
eral treasury, more SO, in fact, be-
| cause the whole benefits have enured
to their individual pockets. We Of
fer one instance here to supplement
those given by our neighbors, mere
| ly to illustrate the dominant spirit
/ of the leading men of that city.
The falls of ST. Anthony attracted
early the attention of the Spectator
| who saw in it's latent power source
! of wealth. The abutting land was
bought, and later company organ
| lied to exploit it. The construction
of dam involved large outlay
Ordinarily, and under Democratic
notions Of government and it's rela-
tons to it's citizens, such work would
have been left to the individuals in
terested. Under governmental
control favorable to jobbery no citi-
zen should think of investing his own
capital if by hook or crook the public
purse could be tapped. There were
couple of fiat boats propelled by
steam above the falls This gave the
cue. Congress was appealed to to
appropriate money to build a dam
that would Improve the naviga-
ton on the upper river Successful
IN this, further appropriations were
OBTAINED to put an apron on the
Ialis to prevent the erosion of the
underlying sandstone which threat
ened the dam. In all over half a
mlli1on dollars were taken from the
money collected by taxes from the
people and invested here in order
that a private corporation might
take annual tolls from the factories
and mills that used the water power
OF the United States and the AL
mighty had created for them.
linen came the clearing of the
lands of their timber along the nm
per river and it's tributaries, with
the resulting quickness of the flow
to the river of the rains which fell
on the great watershed, and the Sc
quent period of low water impairing
the value of the water power and
iesSening the rentals. Sometime
must be done to repair the loss. Mills
ana factories were putting in steam
plants to supplement the diminished
water. The railroads had paralleIed
the upper river and the fiat boats
mad long since disappeared. Naviga-
tlon was limited to an occasional
Terry and the yawl of a fisherman
or the dug-out of an Indian. The
Old pretenSe which had been eff
cient to pull a half a million from
the treasury was played out. Then
the navigation on the lower river.
lmpeded by the sawdust and refuse
from the mills, became suddenly an
OBJECT OF great public concern-to
the water power company. The fact
that railroads had lined both sides
OF the river and that the packet
lines had dwindled to a few irregu-
larry running boats presented no OBJ
Stacle. The lower river imperatively
demanded that it's volume during
the dry period be replenished. The
Touring mills with their steam
plants and the water power COM
pany with its rentals were kept in
the background. The motive power
| usually is.
Then came the reservoir scheme.
If great dams could be thrown across
the outlets of the lakes at the upper
reaches of the river a supply of
water could be accumulated which
could be let loose at the proper time
and steamboats, could run below the
Tails and carry to and fro the pro-
ducts of the country. There were
some beautiful arguments used
about the need of the steamboats, as
governors Of railroad rates, and
well, the usual happened when
party enamored of private iobberv
| is in control of the government. The
reservoir system was established
and another half million dollars
went into it's construction; the rice
beds of the Indians were flooded.
| and money had to be spent in subsist-
| ing them, and an annual expendi-
! ture necessitated to repair and main
| tain the dams. Now, when the
spring and summer rains are shed
and the water gets low and the
rentals Of the water power COM
| pany are threatened, the dams are
| opened, their store of water set
loose, and Everything is set going;;"
the logs that didn't get down to the
mills in the spring run, the mills
using the water Of the company's
power; the steamboats, that do not
exist, except in the imagination of
the lobbyist, and the flow of rentals
into the Golfers of the st. Anthony
| Water Power company-everythin
and especially the last, sis set
| going"
LAW OF COMPENSATION.
The Atlanta Constitution, a sill
IL 44I-