The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-06
The New Northwest.

When the prosperity and progress Of
the New Northwest are spoken of, the
public turns instinctively and of right
to the large cities TO see what their
records show. Their statistics of in
crease of population, of the growth Of
bank clearings, of the establishment of
new Industries and of the extension of
business in all directions are taken as
the most infaIIible indication Of North
western development. And this is
right For the pulsations Of the heart
indicate the degree of health or weak
ness in the body.
But this is only part of the story,
and the minor chapters are neither less
interesting nor less significant than
those in which is written the record of
st. Paul. of minneapolis and of Duluth.
These are the great clearing houses OF
Northwestern business. To a large ex-
tent it is elsewhere that this business
originates. From a thousand less no
cable sources springs the activity thai
constitutes the industrial life of the
Northwest The reader of the G l o b e
who has scanned the special reports
which it has published from some Of
the mere important towns in our tribu-
tary territory viii find that their news
of the day is made up largely, not of
gossip or reports of the doings of
prominent individuals. but Of a cata-
logue Of business improvements that
tell of life and growth.
Here a creamery has been started.
There a new manufacturing industry
has just put its machinery in motion.
A brickyard is turning out its product.
A factory is planned or in process of
construction. IEconsiderable items,
these, when we happen to run across
them in the story of the days doings.
Hardly worthy of mention they may
seem to those cognizant only Of great
affairs. Yet if one choose to take a
sheet of paper and list the total for a
week he will be surprised at the in
tense activity of business life and en-
terprise throughout the Northwest. He
will begin to realize what those con-
Versant with the facts have long
known; that the heavy hand of bust
ness depression touched but lightly the
vast spaces of this country Of ours
outside of the large cities; that it has
been growing and gaining in wealth,
resources, accumulated capital and
business needs; and that the advent
of good times means the letting loose
of forces that are working steadily and
surely to send the Northwest forward
with great, new impetus like that
which first made it a marvel to the
imagination of the rest of the country
The tale is told in the immense in
crease of jobbing business, measuring
the trade of the country merchant, and
in all these items of the employment
of capital in new enterprises that need
to be massed in order to be seen in
their true proportions. The North
west is prospecting and growing as it
has not done since the DAYS of the
first great wave of settlement and of
the boom. While the large cities have
already felt the quickening of fuller
and more active life, it is on the farm.
in the village, and among the cities
and towns that the advances are most
perceptible and most secure. Built on
this broad foundation. prosperity can
not fail. We congratulate all our peo-
pie on an outlook that was never. as
cheering and as little Elusive as it is
today.