The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-07
SUNDAY, FEB. 7, 1904.
A TolLER OF THE SEA.

Yesterday there was launched at
New London the second of the great
ships under construction for the Great
Northern Railway company, to carry
its Pacific business. Not because of
her splendid dimensions or her I'M
rivaled capacity or her superiority to
all the great sisterhood that have
floated on the seas from time i'm
memorial is the launching of the Da
kota so especially significant. 1t is
rather because of her place and mark
in the new era of world commerce. It
is because in the drama where the ma
tions are about to act with serious
meaning their several parts, first place
will be given to these mighty toilers
of the sea.
more than monstrous machines, more
than commerce carriers; they are en-
bodiments of a splendid idea, far
reaching conception, which is only now
coming home practically to the minds
of the people. They represent the
latest phase in commercial evolution;
and are hardly more wonderful in
their. physical proportions and per-
feet adaptation to the ends they are
meant to serve than as the creations
and products of our time and the great
est genius and master of commerce
stands the meaning of the towering
bulk of the Dakota as it rests upon
the placid waters today has mastered
a problem in transportation that began
in the times Of the Phoenician gal
leys and will reach it's ultimate soIu-
ton only when every want of the world
can meet its satisfaction with the
maximum of ease and the minimum of
cost.
about complete, and its ends are be-
ing forged together by the wonderful
INSTALLATION and grasp of Mr. James
]. Hill. Ineligible to every man are
the elements of this conception, now
that it has been worked out, now that
the plans are projected visibIy upon
the face Of earth and sea. In the
future there is to be a more complete,
perfect and detailed interchange of
commodities Iatuyaax, t1,o ,xon;o,.z -
pies of the earth than ever before. The
activity of the nations heralds it, the
spread of a few dominant races pro-
claims it, the disappearance of the
weak and the savage confesses it. Com
merce is to multiply everywhere, until
the business of the busiest ages of the
past and the work of the greatest COM
mercial peoples shall seem as rude to
us as do the implements of the stone
age to the modern engineer.
For such an era as this, instru-
mentalities equal in scope to it's de-
mands and adjusted to their perform
ance viii be required. 1t is the great
and peculiar distinction of Mr.. Hill that
he foresaw the need, predicted to him
self years ago the inevitable process of
commercial evolution and designed and
has produced against this time of con-
summation the very agencies which
must answer to its call. He perceived
that this new world traffic must choose
the shortest route about the world.
and that this route, according to the
distribution Of industries and the nat
ural commercial relations of those who
follow them would not run eastward
but westward in it's swift journey about
the world. He observed that this made
possible the low freight rate. if facili-
ties were provided commensurate with
the work to be done; and that the low
est cost of service must forever govern
and triumph against any rivalry. be-
Ing natures own agency of competi-