lantic so that vessels may pass, without breaking bulk, to the waters of the ocean. It may be something more than a dream, that we shall yet hear the ebb and flow of the Atlantic on the shores of the Zenith City. Our lake steamship trade is the marvel of the world. Great records are made only to be broken.

But we are not yet done and must linger to note that an entirely new commerce has appeared on the north shore of lake Superior. Originating within our own territory, the rapidity and magnitude of its growth is absolutely astounding. In 1883, not a pound of iron ore had yet been shipped from Minnesota. The Vermilion range was opened in 1884, and the great Mesabi not till 1892. In 1897, the Mesabi produced twice as much ore as either the Marquette, Gogebic, or Menominee ranges. The port of Two Harbors takes both Vermilion and Mesabi ores, while Duluth handles Mesabi ores only. The investment in the lake Superior ore trade, including mines, buildings, railroads, and docks, has been estimated at $150,000,000; and the value of the fleet doing this special transportation is but little short of $50,000,000. The latest movement in the transportation of this ore appears in the fleet of steel steamers, put in our trade by the Bessemer Steamship Company of Cleveland, behind which is John D. Rockefeller. They are now building these steam monsters with a capacity of 7,000 gross or long tons, with barges of equal capacity. The lakes control the entire ore traffic.

This inland navigation starts with Minnesota. Among the components of its volume, ore stands first, grain second, lumber third, and then comes general merchandise. In 1857, it cost nearly ten cents per bushel to ship wheat from Chicago to Buffalo; but in 1897 wheat was shipped from Duluth to Buffalo at rates slightly over one and a half cents. Ore has been carried from our ports to lake Erie, in 1897, for 57 cents a long ton; and returning vessels have carried coal to Duluth for 15 cents a short ton.

THE ADVENT OF RAILWAYS.

It has been well said, that the highways of nations are the measure of their civilization. By means of speedy transit,

society, government, commerce, arts, wealth, intelligence, are developed and advanced to their highest excellence. The thirty-one roads which radiated from the forum of Rome into her vast provinces, like spokes from the nave of a wheel, were proofs of the wisdom and grandeur of the Roman rule. The substitution of turnpikes for muddy lanes is on the line of true progress. In the pre-railway times of England, freight transportation by earth roads averaged twenty-six cents per ton per mile. The railways came and soon carried a ton of goods twenty-five miles an hour for two cents per mile. The value of a wagon load of wheat is totally consumed in hauling it on an earth road three hundred miles. The advent of the locomotive into our territory swept away other modes of transportation, except by water, and became the swift civilizer of the prairie and wilderness. No other known power could have accomplished what we now behold, in the compass of a single generation.

In the spring of 1862 there was not a mile of railway in Minnesota. On June 30th, 1897, the aggregate length of our railways was 6,086.35 miles. It is quite difficult to fix the precise time of the very first agitation for a railway within our borders. There is some unwritten history which may here be snatched from oblivion. In 1847, Prof. Increase A. Lapham outlined a plan for two railroads, one from lake Superior and another from St. Paul, which were to meet on the Red river, below where Fergus Falls now is; and that point of junction was to be called Lapham. This gentleman carefully viewed the country and made a map of the routes and a written outline of his plans, which are in existence to this day. James M. Goodhue, in an editorial in the Pioneer, in 1850, gave the first prophetic vision of a Northern Pacific railway, and specifically outlined a northern route, which he believed was shorter and safer than the one then proposed from St. Louis to San Francisco. He cited the fact that there was then a trail from the Red river to the mouth of the Columbia river, over which mails were regularly carried by the American Fur Company. His article was headed "A Short Route to Oregon."

Before the admission of Minnesota as a state, in 1858, many railroad companies had been chartered by the Territorial legislature. The first recorded effort was by J. W. Selby of this city, who gave notice of the introduction of a bill on March 2nd, in the session of 1852, to incorporate the Lake Superior and Mississippi River Railroad Company. It passed in the House, but failed in the Council; but it actually became a law March 2nd, 1853, by a subsequent legislature. The second charter was granted to the Minnesota Western Railroad Company, March 3rd, 1853; and the third to the Louisiana and Minnesota Railroad Company March 5th, 1853. Not less than twenty-seven railroad companies were authorized and chartered from 1853 to 1857. But there was no life in any of them till March 3rd, 1857, when Congress made a magnificent grant of lands "for the purpose of aiding in the construction of railroads in the Territory of Minnesota." Then the scene changed, and on May 22nd, 1857, the Territorial legislature passed an act granting these Congressional lands to four corporations, namely, the Minnesota and Pacific Railroad Company, the Transit Railroad Company, the Root River Valley and Southern Minnesota Railroad Company, and the Minneapolis and Cedar Valley Railroad Company.

The state constitution, adopted October 13th, 1857, provided in Art. 9, Sec. 10, as follows: "The credit of the state shall never be given or loaned in aid of any individual, association, or corporation." But on March 9th, 1858, the state legislature passed an act submitting to the people an amendment of this section of the constitution, so as to permit the loaning of the credit of the state to the land grant railroad companies to the amount of five million dollars; and it was adopted by popular vote on April 15th. Grading on each of the recognized lines began, and Gov. Sibley delivered to each of the roads such bonds as they had earned under the conditions of the grant.

The railroad companies, however, failed to pay the interest on the bonds; work on the lines was practically suspended, and the five million loan amendment was repealed by a nearly unanimous popular vote, November 6th, 1860. During the year 1860, the state enforced its lien on each of the lines, and

became the owner of the franchises, lands, and roadbeds. Subsequently, in 1862, the state made new grants of these franchises and lands to other companies, thus infusing new life into these dead railways.

The first company to get the benefit of this new effort to revive the lapsed roads, was the Minnesota and Pacific, which reappeared with a new name, the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company. The franchises of the old line were conferred, March 10th, 1862, on Dwight Woodbury, Henry T. Welles, R. R. Nelson, Edmund Rice, Edwin A. C. Hatch, James E. Thompson, Leander Gorton, Richard Chute, William Lee, and their associates and successors. A contract was made with Elias F. Drake, of Ohio, and V. Winters, to construct that portion of the line between St. Paul and St. Anthony, and it was completed and running June 28th, 1862, and was the first railway in operation within the limits of our State. The establishment of this line gave an impetus to railway matters in Minnesota. Edmund Rice was the first president of this road. The first engine was named "William Crooks," and was run by Webster C. Gardner. President Rice went to Europe about this time, to solicit the first foreign capital in aid of railways in our state. He shipped back 3,000 tons of rails, and work was pushed on toward Breckenridge.

The second railway was begun in 1863. Section 25 of the original charter of the Minnesota and Pacific Railroad Company had authorized a line from Winona to St. Paul. On March 6th, 1863, a grant of state swamp lands was made to this line, and St. Paul gave it a bonus of $50,000, being the first bonus to a railway in our state. The name was now changed to the St. Paul and Chicago Railroad Company. Edmund Rice was also the first president of this company. He again visited England and secured aid for the construction of the road, and work was prosecuted with diligence. He also went to Washington to secure an enlargement of the land grant. It was there I first met Edmund Rice. He was distributing magnificent bouquets to the wives of members of Congress with a princely hand. It is needless to add that he secured his land grant. This line was completed to La Crescent in 1872. Through eastern trains began running, via

Winona, in September, 1872. In a short time, this line was consolidated with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, and its separate existence ceased.

In contrast with the convenience of travel and transportation of freight now afforded by this river valley route, I may recall the conditions of sixty years ago. En-me-ga-bow, the aged Indian pastor and co-worker of Bishop Whipple and Rev. J. A. Gilfillan among the Ojibways of northern Minnesota, who has been a welcome visitor at the White House in Washington, and who is yet living on the White Earth Reservation, has related the experiences encountered in his youth when he passed down the Mississippi, transporting his effects in his bark canoe from the Pillager bands in the north to Prairie du Chien and return, meeting no white man on the way except at Fort Snelling.

To follow the birth and development of our great railway lines is a task far beyond the limits of this paper. But we must notice the growth and influence of two or three systems upon the fortunes of our state, and from them learn the influence of all. Take the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad Company. This company was incorporated in 1857, to build one of the lines of the Root River Valley and Southern Minnesota railroad. But in 1864 it was organized anew, and was called the Minnesota Valley Railroad Company. Under the operation of the Five Million Loan, some work had been done in 1858, between Mendota and Shakopee. This work had been suspended as upon other lines, but was revived under the act of 1864. The new incorporators were such men as E. F. Drake, John L. Merriam, J. C. Burbank, Capt. Russell Blakeley, and others. It was essentially a home institution, these men, who were citizens of St. Paul, furnishing the money to construct and equip the road. It was opened from Mendota to Shakopee on November 16th, 1865; to Belle Plaine, November 19th, 1866; to Mankato, October 12th, 1868; and to Sioux City in 1872. The telegraph was opened through at the same time. During all its building period, this railroad was owned and operated exclusively by St. Paul men. Its first president was E. F. Drake; its chief engineer was John B. Fish; its first superintendent was John F. Lincoln; and its