New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-07
Minneapolis, Aug. 3.

MtnnedpOtS, Huy' o.
II may be true, as Kansas City
thinks, that cities are built, and DO
rot just grow; but there are many
illusions in the after view. II can
not be so inceptively. Building il
by pattern; you cut the pattern first
Growth makes its pattern up. Be-
ginnings seem always casual. Many
are accidental.
Why should the centre OF the
corn cob pipe industry be in Mis-
souri, and not in Iowa? For no rea-
son save that somebody began to
make corn cob pipes in Missouri, and
made them we'll enough, and was
initiated rapidly by others, until
there was no good reason why they
should be made anywhere else. 1t is
an industry worth several millions q
year, and has evolved a special kind
Of corn.
Why should there be 4 great shoe
manufacturing industry In St
Louis, The only answer is that
somebody began TO make shoes IN ST.
Louis, with the idea that he could
compete with tho New England
product; he made it pay, and was
initiated. 1t might as well have been
fine cutlery or automobiles. Why is
Detroit the automobile town? Partly,
perhaps largely, because Henry Ford
happened TO be born near there and
never had time to move away.
WHAT A MILL TOWN CAN DO.
A man in Minneapolis has a pat
ent bed spring. He gives it name.
Then he begins to manufacture 1t in
Minneapolis, not because that it Is
the best or the most logical place
in which to produce his goods, but
because he happens to be there. He
imports his material from state
where steel wire is produced and ex-
ports his bed springs over all the
country, hoping ultimately to sell
them TO all the world. Minneapolis
proudly adds bed springs to the list
of the commodities produced in her
environs, and increases the sum
which represents the annual value
of her industries, as if it were the
most natural thing imaginable for
bed springs to have their origin in
-four milling town. 1t was alto
gether accidental. II you were going
to manufacture cotton underwear
you would not think of going to Min
neapolis to do it, but if you were
there when the idea seized you, as
a certain man was, and il you made
good underwear, you might give
Minneapolis another distinguished
trade mark. Stranger things hap
pen. Minnesota exports iron ore to
Pittsburgh where it is made into iron
or steel, then brings it back, to-
together with coke, makes it into
shells and sends the shells TO Eu-
rope.
MINING A COUNTRY.
Instances might be multiplied al
most without end. The lesson is that
transportation in this country has
been and is so cheap that everybody
can afford to waste it. The vast
ing of it is a thoughtless passion.
The last thing a man needs to
think of generally is the cost Of
bringing his raw materials from
far of places and of sending his
finished products out.
But everywhere is waste. One
sees so much Of it on every hand that
it is taken for granted. An effort
of imagination is required to see it
at all, it is so commonplace. When
one begins to look for it one soon
is at the point of asking whether
this country has yet begun to be
developed, or whether so far it has
not been rudely mined. One rubs
ones eyes at seeing in Minneapolis
or Duluth 80, "a and SO page daily
papers. The obvious explanation is
that they have to be big to contain
the advertising; the real explana-
ton is that white paper and print
ing have been so cheap that every
body has been wasting newspaper
space.
WASTING A BIRTHRIGHT.
Minnesota is wasting a royal
birthright. She has the richest and
most available iron ore deposit in the
world. She is mining it for imme-
iiate returns. 1t is raw wealth dug
up out of the ground and sold away
by the millions Of tons. 1t goes by
rail TO Duluth, thence by lake car
riage and rail again to Illinois and
Pennsylvania, where the heat and
labor are applied. II Minnesota her