The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1897-04-16
WHAT IS NEEDED.

With the opening Of spring there
ought to be thorough awakening up
on the part of Mankato to the value
and the necessity of more manufacture
ing interests. For two or three years
matters have been very quiet. Capital
has not been seeking investment, but
rather hiding to await the blowing
over of the storm. But the worst is
now over, and recovery has set 10.
True it is slow, but the tide has
turned in that direction nevertheless,
and will continue to grow better as
time passes. 1t is not to be expected
that matters will at once resume
their old time form of prosperity any
more than that man will at once
get up and go about his work after an
attack of fever that has for weeks
been sapping his vitality and then
leaves him. He must take weeks,
perhaps months to build up, so must
it take time for the great industrial
patient to build up after the effects
of the fever of tariff reform has left it.
But the descent has been arrested,
the upgrade has been struck, and as
the industrial world travels slowly
back to the prosperous point again,
what is Mankato going to do toward
lettering its condition? One good
step has been taken in the appoint
ment of committee by the board of
trade to look into the sugar beet in
dustry. But all efforts should not be
confined to one line, but proper en-
couragement given to any industry
that will in any way benefit the city.
What Mankato most wants today is
increased manufacturing interests.
1t has plenty Of store buildings, and
needs nothing more in that line for
the present. In fact, Mankato's
facilities in this respect are sufficient
to meet the requirements of it's
growth to town of twice its size.
What is needed is that which will set
all idle men and women at work, and
draw others here to work. Manu-
featuring is what has built up the
east, and it is what will build up the
west: it is what will make MankatU a
large, wealthy city. What we need is
to have new industries started and
those already here strengthened.
Of course there are lines of manu-.
facture that would not be suitable to
Mankato, but there are many that
are. We can .kmanufacture carriages
sleighs, boots and shoes, hosiery, I'M
derwear, ready made clothing, and
many other lines of light articles as
profitably as they can be manufacture
ed in the east. In fact more so, for
we are nearer the supply of raw ma
terials for all of these articles than is
the east, and we are also at the door
of vast market for all Of them. Not
only can the freight on the raw ma
terial be saved, but also the return
freight upon the finished product.
1t is the securing of some such in
industries or the strengthening and
building up to degree of greater use
fulness, such of them AS may already
be located in our midst that Mankato
ought to direct itself during the COM
ing months, and it would prove most
fruitful field through future years.
But the plea is made that there is no
capital here for such work, that we
have no men with large sums of money
to devote to manufacturing, and that
eastern capital is hard thing to at
tract here. There is truth in the last
part Of such statement, but the first
part of it will not bear investigation
There is plenty of money, even in this
vicinity, if it could be gotten together.
What is most needed is to get the
right men to head an enterprise. The
writer was told few days ago that
5000, 900 could be raised for the pur-
pose of starting new Eank in this
city. Now Mankato is well supplied
with banking facilities, and has no
immediate need for and enlargement
in that line. The amount of money
above named, if put into beet sugar
factory, or any Of the lines Of manu-