Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-10-21

and / will say to you before | am done
that you have made degree of prog
ress that is not surpassed by that of
any state in the union. question if
any other state in the union has ever
equalled it. (Applause.) You must
look to your agricultural interests |
take care of the young people. send
them to school and train them in the
great work of farming. the science of
agriculture. No place in the world
will show the advantage of good earth
more than the farm. To be brief and
in order that might be correct | have
had a record prepared of what has hap
pened since 1SS2-and these figures are
all from the railway and commercial
reports so that they are official In
1882 we had 1907 miles of railway In
1892, 3.417 miles; in 1903, 5,59S miles.
In 1882 we had 1877 locomotives; in
1892. 327, and in 1903. 637 OF passen-
ger cars in 1882 we had 119. in 1892,
26S and in 1908, 544. Freight cars in
1882. 1907; ten years later. in 1892
1867; in 1903. 29,731. Now here is
the material growth of the North
west: In 1882 We moved 1907 900
tons of freight; in 1903 We hauled &c.,
14S.O0O tons; or 1900 per cent. in
twenty-one years Now the tons Of
freight hauled-in 1882 these records
were not kept and l cannot give the
figures-in 1S92-that is hauled one
mile-were 997 900 900; in 1903. 1906,
100000; or 400 per cent. in ten years.
And the important thing to you and TO
us as well-in 1882 our rate for carry
ing ton of freight, that is, the average
rate over the whole line one hundred
miles, was $2.51 In 1892 it was $1.2l.
and in 1903 it was $S5, which is one
third of what the rate was twenty-one
years ago. In doing that this result
has been brought about had the COM
pany received the same average rate
per ton per mile or for carrying ton
of freight one hundred miles in 1903
as in 1882. it would have collected $780,
S2O. 109 as freight earnings, during the
past year; while actual collections
were $30,915. 900. a decrease
through reduction in freight rates Of
$59. .9O4,S75.00 That means that if the
rate of twenty one years ago had been
in force you would not have lived
here; you could not have raised grain
enough to pay the cost of cultivating
the soil and paying us for carrying it 70
market. 1t would have been impossi-
BILE. The reduction in freight rates
has been brought about by increasing
the volume of traffic-that is. we have
created new traffic by making it pos
sible for men to cultivate the soil and
raise crops which we carry to mar
ket Before you can get the traffic you
! I n r
in mind this: that whatever benefits
you. directly or indirectly, whatever
gives you pleasure directly or Indirect
ly. will in almost every case put money
into our treasury. If you raise grain
wheat flax, cattle. hogs, whatever it
may be. we profit by it. If your chill
dren want to go back to the old home
to see their grandfather. their rela-
tives. we get a profit from it. And
want you to bear in mind also that
whatever advances your interests or
whatever forwards them, forwards our
interest as we'll; and working on that
| line we have been able to bring about
results in North Dakota l am glad to
say better than in most other
places-your progress has been great
er. You have so many stations on the
lines of the Great NOrthern-l do not
know about the other lines in the
state, although l believe | am charged
with owning about all the railroads
now north of Saint LOuis-but l have
been busy all the time trying to take
care of our own lines. 1t used to be
a rare occasion that any station would
exceed in revenue in any year 800. 00O
| lou, hnW CO
kota that l cannot count them without
referring to a book. can count them
off in Minnesota. however; you stop
at Anoka when you get out of the Twin
Cities coming down the Fergus Falls
division; then Elk River st. Cloud.
Alexandria. Evansville; then Stevens
and then ST. Vincent; and only re-
Gently have the two last reached $780,
Great Growth Of State
600 a year But now here in North
Dakota you have done yourselves
proud. To give an idea of the growth
i will try and be brief-Aneta, it is
only a few years since the track was
extended there. our business last year
was $141 900; Hatton, $155 900; North
wood. $125,OO0: Fargo. $271 900; :;
Grand Forks. $595,O0O. Now to com
pare Grand Forks with the big cities !;
take Minneapolis. two million and a
quarter Grand Forks produced over a
quarter of the entire revenue OF Min
neapolis proper. Grafton, $l03. 900;
Neche. $334,000. Now | am going out
into the new country: LarimOre-
and will 60 north on the branch line
where there is nothing but local bust