St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-04
TO KIlL CR0AKERS
H. S. FAIRCHMD'S INTERESTING
RECEIPT FOR BETTER TRADE
CONDITIONS LOCALLY.
HIS REPLY TO GEN. SANBoRN.
LIBRARY COMMITTEE SUBMITTED
A REPORT ON THE NEW BUILD
ING PROPOSITION.
QUESTION ALSO
Considered at Yesterdays Meeting
of the Chamber of Commerce
Regarded FayOrabIy.


said this at the close of a pointed
roast on the premature publication of
an article which has stirred the bust
ness men to Indignation.
Yesterdays discussion came up on
Gen. Sanborn's supplementary report,
which was the special order Mr.. Fair
child moved that it be recommitted to
Gen. Sanborn for revision. He said
that when he had found how securely
the report had been locked up, he had
hunted for its interesting pages, and
had found it in print in the generals
personal organ"
Most Of u.s." continued Mr.. Fair
child, make mistakes which on second
thought mortify us, and 1 move to re-
commit this because do not believe
that the general will care to have wide
ly published the statement that ST.
PauPs failure to hold the lead among
Northwestern cities was due to her be-
ing the capital, just as Madison was
less than Milwaukee, Springfield than
Chicago, Harrisburg than Philadel-
ph1a, and Albany less than New York.
Inc general seems to think there is
some kind of electrical repulsion when
a city is a capital which drives away
harbors and navigable rivers, railroad
centers, etc. The philosopher who ex-
pressed his admiration for the wise
providence which located the great
rivers by the large cities, on second
thought recalled that the rivers were
there first.
The general tries to find what the
ha .;@
the basis of the per capita cost of run
nlng the federal government. Like
wise, Col. Clough tried to fix city SAL
aries IN the same proportion to the sal
aries OF railroad officials that the in
comes of the respective concerns main
famed Uncle Rasmus, when asked
what ne would charge to Whitewash a
mouse, replied: 'Fo and three is ten
ana three times fibe is twenty-seven.
Dat cost you $40 Uncle Rasmus
might get a job in the Great Northern
accounting department in spite of that
IF st. Paul had lost the lead by re-
tanning the capital, it would have been
easy to send the capital to Minneapolis
when the general was in the senate.
But he afterwards suggests that the
dl1ference In cost of the two cities is
due to the respective systems of gov
eminent. 1t so happens that ST. PauPs
annual expense. per capita is $21; Min
neapolis', $l9.4. The difference is
more than accounted for by the extra
expense Of grading and sewers due to
the differences in topography and quail
ity of soil. While the city was gov
erned under the old charter, the indebt-
edness increased year by year until the
so-called Bell charter was adopted.
since which time every year has wit
messed a marked reduction in the city's
Indebtedness, and in Minneapolis, with
her lauded system, the Indebtedness is
constantly increa sing.
AS a matter of fact, st. Paul occu-
pies no peculiar position in compare
tive stagnation or the diminished ra-
pidity of growth. The conditions that
have caused this are not local, but
arise from complicated conditions that
have equally affected all the cities of
the Northwest, and almost equally the
cities of the East. Today real estate
is less salable in the city of Wash
ington than in ST. Paul Hundreds of
millions of losses by Great Britain in
Australia and the Argentine, and the
heavy boarded loans of the govern
ments of Europe in preparing for war
have deranged the finances of the CIV
iliZed world. st. Paul occupies the
same position with the other cities,
and is today in a position where, if
permitted by those who croaked and
groaned and disparaged their own city,
1t would resume normal business con-
ditionS sooner than most Of the cities
of the Northwest
I'm another part of the report re-
ferring to the board of public works, the
general states: Officers charged with
the responsibilities of government
should certainly rise above the whims
or caprices of individuals or a whole
community and decide questions with
reference to the public welfare Now,
if there is any one thing for which
the board of public works has been
more censured by the people of st. Paul
than any other, it has been for favor
ably reporting on public improvements
where public necessity imperatively
demanded them, but where not quite
a majority of the property owners in
tereSted had asked for the improve
ment; and it was monStrous doctrine
that four men sitting as a board of pub
lie works against the wishes of all the
property owners interested in the i'm
provement of the street, and against
the wishes of "a whole community of
citizens should assume a superior judg-
ment and recommend that such i'm
provement be made; that such a course
upon the part of the board of public
works would meet the universal con-
domination of the city of ST Paul, and
a clamor would go up for the abolition
of the board that would and should
compel it's abolition.
"But the general seems fond of
variety and shortly afterwards in con-
Sidering the same matter says IF the
imp ovement is TO be made because
private property is found benefited, let
the owner of the private property make
the Improvement when and how he
pleases' Well, let us see how this
would work. The property owners on
Seventh street almost unanimously
asked that it be paved with asphalt.
In accordance with their express
wishes the board of public works so
recommended and the city council SO
ordered. The contract was let and the
work in a few weeks completed to the
satisfaction of all interested. Now let
us see how the generals rule would
operate where the owner Of the
private property should make the i'm
provement when and how he pleased.
A would think that an asphalt pave
nent was preferable and he would Iay
his fifty feet with asphalt. B would
prefer brick, and SO on. Now, gentle
men of the chamber, when this report
was read many of you applauded Did
you intend to applaud the proposition
that the fact of the city being the
capital Of tho state prevented it from
being commercial city, no matter
how located, with regard to railroads.
rivers or harbors? Did you intend to
applaud the proposition that the board
of public works should recommend and
the city council order street improve
n1ents, though opposed by all the prop
erty holders or by the whole COM
munity? Did you applaud the doctrine
that If an Improvement is to he made
because private, property is found
benefited that the owner of the private
property should make the improve
ment when and how he pleased? Do