The Saint Paul globe., 1902-12-21

ern and Eastern Canada. And in view
! Of the position the city has already
! attained it can be recorded as a cer-
| tain fact that much of the business OF
| the Pacific coast and Orient trans
ported by the Grand Trunk will find its
terminal IN St Paul
| It is not my purpose in this re-
view Of the year to enter into details
concerning specific development. AS
F the merchant quoted above said, speak,
ing In a general way. all Of OUR whole:
salers have been locking during 1902
for and many scouting larger quarters.
This appliHs nlanufac cturing as we'll
! as wholesale business a visit to the
West side fleres our manufacturing
industries hav but just begun, will
best iIustfats MHats has been going on
| in the nas gear whole area shows
| the nesI ngs1sked pfngress experienced
in any Essr since the so-caIled flats
were resau fronH the embrace of the
MississippI river. The progress at st.
| Antheny Park isseen by but few of
our own people h.lt the seeptre of the
furniture tnade fef the, United States
will during the next fifteen years pass
from Grand Rapids, Mich, to ST. Paul
and fits suburb, st. Anthony Park.
There are over fifty manufacturing
plants located In the Park at present,
representing some five millions of cap
/ ital. And some seventy-fue differanf
lines Of furniture manufactured and
represented a aennpfoyfng over f,5oo
hands, The Expositioa bIlIIilding, where
the wares efered for sale are displayed,
is a veritab1e exposition Of itself, and
visitors are coming dafly3fron the Pa
ciffc eeast and all i1rternfeSiate points.
to taKs,aa of tile opportunity
theresrS One large wholesale
mind arrgilag g ior the erection of
new buiIiB ~ will enable them
to add 4oesssrplggss to their present
force. ~
To showtse rfftaaes which st. Paul
has made III connsetion with the older
sections Of the country, I might
also cite the fact that the boot
and shoe trade, which was once sup
posed to be permanently eentered in
Boston has passed from that great
metropolis to the West, and largely to
ST. Paul, where over five million pairs
of shoes are annually manufae aetured.
| Two houses in ST. Paul-eaeh sells more
rubber goods annually than the largest
house in Boston. It is not often that
traffic so securely eentered in a city, as
was the boot and shoe business in Bos-
ton, is transferred.; and while Cinein-
natl Chicago and st. Ibuis all made
| their inroadS, it was not until this
young giant of the Northwest deve1-
oped it's strength that the sceptre final
ly departed forever from the shadow of
Bunker Hfll. .is
Taking consensus of my personal
interviews it is within bounds to place
the combined wholesale and nlanufae-
turing business in the city for the year
1902 at two hundred million dollars, a
figure which, while water mark at this
writing, will soon be looked upon as
small in Comparison with what the fu-
ture has HI store for us.
The Individual merchants T inter-
viewed gave their increase Of business
in 1892 ranging from 10 to 25 per cent,
none less than 10 per cent, and few less
than 25 per cent; while some even ex-
ceeded that figure. The year has seen
a large amount of new territory added
to the business Of the city. A good
deal of territory not very distant in
miles, has been SO served by railroads
and their connections as to make Chi
ecage and St Louis purchasing points
for the retail merchants. That terri
tory has lain at our very door for
years, as a sealed book, owing to rail-
road facilities, but through the Mil
waukee,r the Minneapolis & St. Louis
and the Rock Island system vast pop
ulation has during 1902 been turned in
this direction for their supplies. This
nYsxy aO1,, mi
lest portion of the state. The trade of
the far East has also increased, but 1t
can scarcely be said to more than have
only just begun. When the great ships
are put on the Pacific next spring ca
pable of carrying sixty train loads OF
wheat at a, single, trip, there will spring
into existence a traffic which makes
the present great as it seems infnites-
inal, and as lines Of traffic broaden,
men will broaden with them, and the
opportunity presented to st. Paul will
be grasped in the future as it has been
in the past. Within my own recel1ec-
ton the wholesale trade Of st. Paul
has grown from three or four million
dollars to its present great proportions.
The next generation will see this trade
increase with an impetus which It
would seem wild to attempt forecast,
and extrayagant as any estimate might
be it would probably fall far short OF
the reality which the next fifty years
will witness. While fifty years is a
considerable time in one mans life
time, it is a. mere bagate1le in the his
tory and progress of the world. We Of
T the present day ought to have sufficient
sense and capacity to foresee what Is
coming, and instead Of endeavoring to
block the wheels of progress, welcome
the advaneenent and give it opportuni-
ty to come rapidly and continue with
us permanenfIy