The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-10-19

What Shall the Commercial Club Do
for Nankato?" was the timely question
discussed at meeting of the Social
Science club held in the Commercial
College hall, last evening There was a
fairly good attendance of the members
of that society and also the Commercial
Climb. A number of business men were
present and many of them participated
in the discussion which followed the
reading of the main paper by DIR. |. ID.
Webster. The doctor was introduced
by President c. y. Andrews of the So
cial Science organization. Dr.. Web
ster's paper is as follows:
The subject of this paper puts
question, which there is no reason to
believe. | can answer better than any
one present. 1t is not a subject upon
which one is able to inform himself by
a short research, but on the contrary it
calls for judgment. 1t is probably
equally true that if our wisest citizen
was. to occupy your attention upon
this theme for an entire evening, his
effort would not be productive of as
much good as a general discussion of
the subject For that reason l have.
aimed not to take up much of your time,
because / do not wish to curtail the
much more valuable exchange of ideas
which I hope will follow, the reading of
this paper.
The question: ''What Shall the Com
mercial Club Do for Mankato!" i'm
mediately raises another, namely,
what Are Her Advantages and Disad-
vantages for Future Growth and Bust
ness Prosperity" While it is praise
worthy to think well of our town, I be-
lieve we can exercise a still greater 10y
atty BY being more sparing in our
praises of her advantages, and more
willing to see the situation clearly with
which we are dealing.
Some of the Disadvantages.
Nankato is an inland town, without
raw material or cheap fuel, and this
fact removes it from the possibility of
becoming city of the first magnitude.
But YOU say. what of our stone quar-
ries?" If stone alone would do it, KasOta
would be a large city to-day, and much
the same argument can be given re-
garding what other material we possess
as a natural advantage. Do l then
think our case is hopeless? Yes, if it
is our ambition to build here another
Chicago, but emphatically no, if it is
the reasonable ambition to build here
i'm the next few years a most attrac
tive city of at least 10000 people, and
have no doubt Mankato will be much
larger city than that. But these points
that | have noted as disadvantages are
only so by comparison. For while we
are not located on the Great Lakes as
Buaffalo and Cleveland are, and cannot
boast of the manufacturing which Pitts
burgh does, OF of the shipping which
clears from the docks of Seattle, we
can claim to be the best located town
i'm southern Minnesota. We can claim
a territory which should be tributary to
AIankatO, wide in extent, and more
fertile than which there is no other in
this country. Here, then, lies Man
kato's greatest advantage. Important
as our stone or any other material,
which we may have at hand, may be, it
is as nothing compared with the UNI
limited resources and uncounted wealth
which can be developed in the country
about us. This town is something more
than fifty years old Through much of
this period the country surrounding us
has been too sparsely settled, and the
people living in it were too poor to
make it possible for them to contribute
much to the building up of CONNER
cial center in their midst. While peO-
pie. and their dollars have multiplied
about us, and we have grown to speak
of the wealth of this section, L, for one,
am entirely dissatisfied with conditions
as they exist around us. The methods
of farming are an outrage on the mag
nificent soil upon which it is practised.
y higher state of cultivation of the soil
49,