The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-05
A GRATIFYING ADVANCE.

In common with every other city in
the country st. Paul has suffered for
some years past serious depression in
the activity of its realty market and in
the prevailing prices of available proper
ty. But the interested observer has
distinguished a steady, even if not al
ways percepuble, improvement in exist
ing conditions. Within the past two
years this Improvement has been espe-
cially noticeable. The supply of eligi-
BILE residences for renting purposes has
been entirely inadequate to the demand
1t is not possible today in this city to
find an available residence without
tenant; while the prevailing rentals rep
resent good return on fair vaIua-
ton of the property rented-a good re-
turn, in fact, on an amount largely in
excess of what the property could sell
for in even a favorable market
The returns of transfers made through
the office of the register of deeds for
the past year shows very gratifying re-
suits. An advancement of more than a
million dollars over the value of the
transfers of the preceding years, leaving
out those realty transactions which have
no especial bearing on the general real
estate market, represents a great re-
suit We may not deduce from it that
st. Paul realty is destined soon to show
the activity which distinguished it some
ten or fifteen years ago, or that the fig
ures indicate the approach of boom ex-
periences But we are fully justified
in congratulating ourselves, for the in
dication which the figures offer that ST.
Paul is steadily advancing in popuIa-
ton as well as in commercial and
industrial importance.
1t is safe policy for business men in
this as in other departments of activity
to conclude that St Pauls future ad-
Yancement will represent the steady and
natural accredon which comes from an
established position as commercial CEN
ter of a vast productive region, such as
that which is tributary to this city The
boom periods are the product either Of
large accessions of productive capital or
else of popular excitement. There is no
likelihood whatever of any such state
of things being realized in our time IN
st. Paul But with favorable local condi-
tions as to taxation, sanitation, street
facilities and adequate police and fire
e.
ieving that the advance made. as repre-
scented by comparative statement of
the real estate transfers of 1900 and 1889,
will be improved on during the coming
years, and that the condition of pros
perity so generally prevalent among the
masses will find its reflection in a great
ly increased volume of business not only
in the real estate market but in all other
forms of business activity.
The period when doubts more or less
profound were uppermost in the minds of
our citizens has gone by. There is no
man today who is not satisfied that st.
Paul's future is secure, and that she is
fated to be and remain one of the great
est industrial centers of the continent.
The result of the last census strengthen
ed the faith of our people in the future.
When any community, burdened as this
Internationally has been for years with
experiences and tendencies which work.
ed toward business depression, could
show such splendid gains in population
as that census revealed, the time for mis-
giving was seen to be past, and the time
for renewed faith and confidence come.
The new century opens up for st. Paul
with the highest promise of the fullest
attainment of her great possibilities. If
her people are true TO themselves, and
those entrusted with the management
OF her public concerns are true to their
several trusts the development of the
Immediate future will far transcend the
best he have as yet realized.