The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-01
DAWN OF A NEW Sun
PROSPERITY'S ORB IS ILLUMINING
THE BUSINESS HORIZON OF
ST. PAUL.
PROSPECT OF A GOOD CROP
RESULTS IN A GOOD DEMAND ON
WHOLESALERS AND MANU-
FACTURERS.
To Many Extra People in the Capital
City's JObbing and Manufacture
ing Houses.

Never in the history of st. Paul nave
the business conditions presented so
bright a prospect as at present. In
passing through an era of hard times, a
wave of distress which swept from one
end of the country to the other, leaV-
ing the CHASTITY tombstones of thous-
ands of failures in it's wake; st. Paul
suffered equally with all other large
cities-no more and no less. The
strongest concerns withstood this test.
while some of the weaker ones went 10
the wall; 1t was case of the sur
Vival of the fittest. The retail mer-
chants of the towns throughout the
Northwest in many instances, bowed
down before the storm, and their fall
ure to meet their obligations brought
distress to the wholesale merchants;
1t was one thing to sell goods and an
other to collect the pay for them.
The spring of 1897 will always be
looked back upon. therefor, as mark
ing the turning point in this condition
of affairs, whether it be due to polit-
cal action, adjustment of economic
questions, a restoration of confidence
or merely the natural recuperation
for which the American people are
noted-or from all these reasons COM
bined. Be this as it may, however,
all indications point to the fact that
the Northwest is about to enter upon
an era of prosperity and business &C
tiVity greater than it has enjoyed for
years. This feeling is in the air and
extends not only to the manufactures,
the wholesaler and the retail merchant,
but to the purchasing public and es-
pecially to that large class of people
who constitute the bone and sineW CT
the Northwest-the farmer. The lat
ter especially is to be congratulated
this year, for with the exception Of
few small areas. the crop prospects
were never better than at present, and
the prices of all kinds of grain remain
at an excellent figure.
The country merchants, the best
thermometers of local conditions, fore
seeing this dawn of prosperity, are al
ready sending in their orders in very
liberal manner and many of them are
taking every advantage of the cash
discounts; the collections for the month
of July, as reported by some of our
wholesalers, are far in excess of any
previous year. And the wholesalers
themselves, in order to keep abreast of
the times, have been obliged to make
unusually large purchases to accomo-
date their trade, and are now prepared
to do a vastly increased volume of
business during the fall and winter
months.
I1f- Il
only to the merchants; there has not
been a time within the past five years
when skilled labor was so much in de-
mand in st. Paul than at present. The
manufacturers in such lines as cloth
ing, shoes, and the commoner necessi-
ties of life are all running their es-
Establishments in full force, giving addi-
tional employment to hundreds of men,
to say nothing of the greatly increased
army of travelling statesmen, clerks,
packers, shippers, etc, all Of whom
profit by increased business activity.
And there is another thing that must
not be lest sight of; the field tributary
to st. Paul is steadily increasing. With
improving railway facilities and reduc-
ton in freight rates, the territory to
be supplied by its merchants is WIDEN
ing day by day. Not this alone, but
there has sprung up a cordial feeling
of these outside retailers, favorable to
St Paul; they want to do business
here, all other considerations being
equal.
AS an expression of the general SEN
timent among wholesalers and manu-
facturers the following opinions and
statements gathered at random by a
Glo b e reporter will be read with in
terest.
Milton Griggs, of Griggs, Cooper &
Co., had just returned from a trip
through Southern Minnesota and Iowa.
when seen by a G | o b e reporter yes
terday morning. Said he: 'The crops
are all looking fine; there is a little
complaint Of chinch bugs in some Sec
tons but they will not do much dam
age this year. 1 went down on the
Minneapolis & st. Louis road, as far
as Fort Dodge, stopping at Luverne,
Livermore and Britt. 1t is a fine coun-
try and I found everyone along the
line in favor of Twin City market,
even as far as Fort Dodge. There is
no reason why we should not get this
trade; it is a field which belongs to
US, although now cut up by Chicago
and Milwaukee. The freight service is
good and the rates put us in competi-
ton with the East-and the natural
advantage is on our side. I noticed a
large quantity of corn of the '95 crop
stacked up in cribs along the road,