<tl^ 
 
Class V^O 'r. 
 
 Book . (j 74 
 
Ml « I? E S TJ, 
 
 \l$ I^egouiice? and po^^Mifie^. 
 
/ 
 
 MINNESOTA 
 
 Its Resources and Possibilities. 
 
 Physical: . - - Professor C. W. Hall. 
 Commercial: - - - Mr. David C. Bell. 
 Religious: _ _ ^ - Rev. J. H. Morley. 
 
 READ BEFORE THE 
 
 dongregatioqal Club of IjinnB^ota, 
 
 — AND— 
 
 Published by Request. 
 
 PRESS OF CHAS. E. YOUNG & CO. 
 MINNEAPOLIS, 1885. 
 
F(fiO 
 
 .Clf 
 
 40o92 
 
 At a meeting of the Congregational Club of Minnesota, held April 
 27th, 1885, in the Pilgrim Church, in Minneapolis, the papers now laid 
 before the public were read, and, by the unanimous vote of the Club, 
 copies were requested for publication, in order that the valuable facts 
 compiled with such care might be more widely known. 
 
 H. C. HOVEY, 
 
 M. M. G. Dana, 
 H. H. Hakt, 
 
 Committee. 
 
I h)c- physical • PossilDililics-o[-^ii-)i-)CsoIa. 
 
 BY PROFESSOR C. \V. HALJ.. 
 
 7]S knowledge accumulates and opportunity for observation 
 {^ broadens, thoughtful minds are more and more incliiKHl 
 to look to the physical world for the causes of conditions amoii"" 
 men. It is a fact, hard and rugged as it may appear to the 
 sentimental mind, tbat man is a true child of nature. The 
 warm days of a springtime are enervating. One feels a 
 lethargy stealing over him as the high nerve tension of winter 
 gives place to the greater indolence of the summer months. 
 Resist it as he will, the body cannot respond to amlntious effort. 
 The proverbial shiftlessness of the south and the shriveled and 
 narrowed physiques and intellects of the high north are well 
 attested facts. 
 
 The laws which direct the course of things extend to the 
 human race and bind man down to the conditions which surround 
 him, except so far as a touch of the divine gives him power to 
 modify himself or to bring under his own control the surround- 
 ings under which he passes. 
 
 Touching this position one becomes convinced on reading the 
 opening pages of Curtius' History of Grreece. With a masterly 
 hand the author traces the'jpeculiar" traits of tlie several tribes 
 of the Grecian nation to the characteristics of soil, climate and 
 surroundings of the several portions] of that peninsula. How 
 the warm, sunny valleys and rich bottom lands developed the 
 disposition to submit to the will of heaven : and how the hills 
 W(ire covered with the spirit of brave independence are clearly 
 pointed out. ''Yet at how early a date/' says the author, "would 
 Greek history have come to an end had its onlv theater been 
 
PHYSICAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 under the skies of Ionia! It was, after all, only in European 
 Hellas that the fullness of energy of which the nation was capa- 
 ble came to light; on that soil so much more sparingly endowed 
 by nature; here, after all, men's bodies received a more power- 
 ful, and their minds a freer, development; here the country 
 which they made their own by drainage and embankment and 
 artificial irrigation, became their native land in a fuller sense 
 than the land on the opposite shore, where the gifts of God 
 dropped into men's laps without any effort being necessary for 
 their attainment." 
 
 On coming to a later day and a newer country we can see the 
 finger of physical destiny pointing out to the great British king- 
 dom the way to universal supremacy. 
 
 The uplifting of Britain since the land was first occupied by 
 man and her separation from the rest of Europe by the inflow- 
 ing of the sea has protected her people from encroachments; has 
 allowed of an internal development possible to no other nation 
 of this globe — not even to China. 
 
 The people were fitted by a vigorous and healthy intellectual 
 growth to seize upon and utilize the wonderful material resources 
 of the island, the stores of coal and iron, the fertility of the soil 
 and unsurpassed shipping facilities. National traits, too, have 
 been allowed to crystallize. The light-hearted, keen, ready, 
 witty, impulsive Irishman, and the Scottish highlander, neither 
 merry nor witty, but reserved, unexpansive and determinedly 
 persevering, were originally the same being. 
 
 The fertile soil and soft climate which have made Ireland the 
 ''Emerald Isle," the freedom from foreign interference, and the 
 certainty of a return for his labor have left but little to mar 
 the gayety and the careless, childlike temperament of the Irish- 
 man. Narrow glens, high, rugged hills, a scant and stony soil, 
 and a wet. cold uncertain climate environ the hio-hlander. The 
 
IMIYSICAF. I'OSSIl'.lM riKS OK MINNKSOTA. 
 
 clouds arouncl the hilltops shut out the sun from his fields, the 
 seed often rots in the <2^round, ;ind the «i^rjiin will liardly rij)eii 
 in his sniiill and hardly wroii^^ht corn patch. He, too, like the 
 j^ranite hills that shut him in, has become hard and endurin<j^_ 
 
 If this seems a solitary illustration drawn from modern days, 
 compare with it the same Celtic race as developed amouf^ the 
 mountains of Switzerland and on the fertile plains of lowland 
 France. 
 
 The state from which this Club receives its name occupies the 
 very apex of the North American continent, with a mantle of 
 soil 84,286 square miles in extent. Of this area 29,453 square 
 miles are drained to the northward into Hudson's ])ay throu<^h 
 the Hed and Rainy Lake rivers; 7,689 square miles eastward 
 into the gulf of St. Lawrence through the St. Louis and Pigeon 
 rivers, and also the Brule, Temperance, the Baptism and the 
 Devil's Track — long may they flow, and may the speckled trout 
 ever sport in their waters! — the drainage of 1,929 square miles, 
 a tract nearly as large as Delaware, in the southwestern corner 
 of the state, is directed into the Missouri, while the waters from 
 the remaining surface, 35,215 square miles, flow to the south 
 and with those of the Missouri are lost in the gulf of Mexico. 
 
 And touching this position, too, the terms apex and center are 
 practically synonyms, for it is only 200 miles further from St. 
 Vincent to Astoria. Ore., than it is from Pigeon Point to East- 
 port, Me.; or standing beside the falls of St. Anthony, where 
 the Father of Waters slides down over a plank of pine from his 
 bed upon silurian corals, brachiopods, mammoth orthoceratites, 
 and the progenitors of the oyster into the dark uncertainties of 
 the Cambrian age, one is only 400 miles nearer the isthmus of 
 Panama than the Behring strait; he is as near the spot where 
 Dr. Kane and his party went into winter quarters, almost upon 
 the shore of the open polar sea. as he is to the route of the 
 
6 PHYSICAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 proposed canal across Nicaragua; indeed, Fort York, the Hudson 
 Bay port for the northwest territory, is nearer to him by many 
 miles than either Montreal or Vicksburg. 
 
 What distances to contemplate! As we stand here and try 
 to grasp the capabilities of this stretch of country beyond us 
 we find that its half cannot now be told. Between the Missis- 
 sippi river and the foot of the rugged Rocky mountains, from 
 the south line of Dakota to the northern limit of the cereals 
 there lies a territory upon which England, France and Germany 
 can be extended and an empire still be left. Nearly all this 
 area is fertile for grain or grass or fish. We are located upon 
 its very border, whether we consider space or time. 
 
 So if it were the physical possibilities from a commercial 
 standpoint, we should see that Minnesota is the gateway through 
 which must pour in the future a large portion of the products 
 of a continent. As at a break in an embankment, if the small 
 stream be not promptly stopped, soon an irresistable current 
 will follow. So here with the currents of trade and travel. The 
 stream has already been directed through the state into the vast 
 empire beyond us, and unless checked by the perversity of men, 
 or turned by their unpardonable lack of business vigilance, it 
 will take on volume as it rolls. The return will be greater 
 than the flow, since it will have the added momentum of all the 
 surplus the great northwest can produce. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances one would suppose this central 
 area from which the waters run would be to the surrounding 
 states what a New England hillside is to the patches of bottom- 
 land along her streams. Such might have been the case had not 
 the gently sloping surface of our state been prepared for its 
 present occupants by the plow. Not the plow of our fathers, 
 that old farm implement which rises to our imagination with its 
 wroughtiron point, its wooden mould board, its long beam, its 
 
PHYSICAL I'OSSl HI LITIKS Oi? MINNESOTA. 7 
 
 rough handles and its complete show of clumsy liaiidiwork: for 
 this plow was devised, served its generation, did well its rough 
 work and passed into new and improved forms, long aft<'r tliat 
 original plow closed up its work upon the arable portions of 
 our continent. But I refer to that great glacial plow, guided 
 by infinite hands, cutting deep through fields of ice and into 
 the ancient rocks, carving furrow after furrow from the nortli 
 towards the south. By it the wrinkled gneisses and schists were 
 torn up and carried along, the upturned edges of the slates were 
 cut away, the uppermost silurian was shaved off, while lava 
 fields, hundreds of miles in extent, to the north of Lake Su- 
 perior and in Canada were removed piece by piece. All then- 
 debris in fragments, coarse and fine, rounded and smoothed by 
 constant rolling and pushing and perpetual contact, has been 
 left in uneven ridges on almost every square mile of our state and 
 of our neighboring states. It covers the bed-rock with a layer 
 from a few inches to several hundred feet in thickness. It con- 
 tains silica, alumina, lime, magnesia, potash and soda, phos- 
 phoric acid and ^vater, in short, every chemical constituent neces- 
 sary to make a varied soil. It has in places a sub-soil of clay- 
 there grasses will never cease to grow— elsewhere a gravelly sub- 
 soil will allow the many fruit and forest trees to brace themselves 
 deep and strong against the winds. 
 
 So we see that Minnesota will yield wheat and oats, corn, rye, 
 and grass, fruit and amber cane; and we see something more: 
 these staple products will grow side by side and in alnmdant 
 crop. A few figures will prove the statement: 
 
 According to the tenth census tables, the yield per acre in 
 Minnesota was: 
 
 BUSHELS. 
 
 For Wlieat H^i 
 
 For Rye 16 
 
 For Oats '"^^ 
 
 For Barley 11^2 
 
 For Buckwheat H 
 
 For Corn ^^ 
 
PHYSICAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 The whole United States, Minnesota included, yielded per 
 acre : 
 
 BUSHELS. 
 
 Wheat 13 
 
 . Eye 11 
 
 Oats 25 
 
 Barley 22 
 
 Buckwheat 14 
 
 Corn 28 
 
 Calculating for all the crops, the average per acre for the 
 same tables we get for Minnesota, eighteen bushels, for the 
 whole United States, 14.3 bushels. 
 
 In the above list the wheat crop is the one about which we 
 are particularly sensitive. We know we produce the best wheat 
 and want to produce the most of it. The crop for 1879, and 
 from which the tables were calculated, was 34,600,000 raised 
 on a little more than 3,000,000 acres; but since those days of 
 the last decade we have increased both our total yield, and our 
 yield per acre. 
 
 
 ACRES. 
 
 YIELDED. 
 
 BUSHELS 
 PER ACRE, 
 
 In 1882 
 
 2,547,000 
 2,571,637 
 2,780,539 
 
 33,030,500 
 38,365,373 
 47,792,662 
 
 13 
 
 In 1883 
 
 15 
 
 In 1884 
 
 17.18 
 
 
 
 .\ncl the least of these is equal to the total average of the 
 United States in 1879. 
 
 Lest anyone should think that the wheat crop was exception- 
 al, I have calculated the total of these several crops — wheat, rye, 
 oats, barley, buckwheat and corn for Minnesota, and found them 
 to be for 1880, 16.6 bushels per acre of all the crops named. 
 
 1881, 16.3 bushels per acre of all the crops named. 
 
 1882, 17.1 bushels per acre of all the crops named. 
 1863, 17.5 bushels per acre of all the crops named. 
 
 While 1884 has yielded the most bountiful harvest the state 
 has known. 
 
PHYSICAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 9 
 
 Turning- to jiiiothcr i)r()(luct. it is sulticient perhaps to state 
 that more grass will grow to the acre in Minnesota than in any 
 other state in the union. In 1879, the latest report at hand, 
 Minnesota yielded 1.55 tons per acre of hay, while the whole 
 country yielded only 1.15 tons. Following Minnesota in the 
 order named, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin produced 1.45, 1.33 
 and 1.28 tons; the remaining states so little as to bring down 
 the average to the figures named, /. e. 1.15 tons. 
 
 This superior fertility for grass is the bow of promise for our 
 state. With the filling up of our many sloughs and shallow 
 lakes the acreage of choice grass lands is constantly increasing. 
 Domestic animals of all kinds are of superior health and vigor. 
 The possibilities of the future in all those products of the farm 
 depending directly upon the amount of hay and grass annually 
 grown are almost beyond estimate. 
 
 These are a few of the present facts, from an agriculturist's 
 standpoint. We might philosophize long and profitably from 
 them to the possibilities, did time permit. The history of agri- 
 culture has shown that everything depends upon a wise selection 
 of varieties, whether in raising crops or rearing flocks. The 
 soil of Minnesota will respond to almost any reasonable demand. 
 But our farmers have learned that nature cannot be controlled: 
 her laws are ever executed: wheat will not always mature, corn 
 will not always ripen— they will not both thrive at their best 
 under the same physical conditions. * * * The fortunate 
 choice from an almost indefinite number often makes all the 
 difference between profit and no profit, l^etween success and 
 failure 
 
 One of the ])roblems. yes, of the possibilities, of the future 
 lies in that mental grasp which will select those crops, rear those 
 varieties of animals destined to crown labor with profit, and ex- 
 periment with the highest success. 
 
10 PHA'SICAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 These vast agricultural actualities and posvsibilities it is possi- 
 ble to move to the markets of the world with surprising facility. 
 The millions who were so unfortunate as not to have been born 
 in or migrated to Minnesota must be fed aud kept warm. 
 
 The lowest part of our state, the shore of Lake Superior, is 
 602 feet above the sea; the highest, the Mesabi, the watershed 
 between the head waters of the St. Lawrence system and those 
 of the Hudson bay, less than 2,500 feet high. The great prairie 
 region is singularl}^ uniform in altitude, and the average height 
 of the whole state is not far from 1,200 feet. Railroads can be 
 built anywhere, long trains can be drawn and markets ])e reached 
 with cheapness and quickness. 
 
 But the man who has no taste for farming must not think 
 there is no place for him in this great garden of the northwest. 
 Here is the center of the continent. Clustered aiound this geo- 
 graphical center, the falls of St. Anthony, are flouring and lum- 
 bering mills, the like of which the world has never seen. Here 
 the new products of the farm and forest are prepared for use, 
 and men must come to do this work. Over 135,000 horse-power 
 can be utilized for ever}^ branch of manufacturing the needs of 
 a half million square miles demand. 
 
 This is only a fraction of the sum total of the water power 
 available along our many streams. The rapids of the St. Croix, 
 the St. Louis, the Minnesota, the Red, and the many smaller 
 streams of the state lie as yet almost wholly undeveloped, as 
 possibilities, the magnitude of which will grow with each suc- 
 ceeding year. 
 
 The building stones of Minnesota deserve notice. Wherever 
 the smoother hummocks appear, too hard for the glacial plow 
 to overthrow or wear away, the l)est of material for pavements, 
 business blocks, bridges, and every other heavy structure can be 
 found. General Gilmore has determined the resistance to pres- 
 
I'HVSICAL I'OSSIHILITIKS OF M I \.\ KSOTA. 1 1 
 
 sure of our granites mucI syenites, to be something surprising; 
 25,000 to 2S,000 ])()iiii(ls })!')• s(|u;ir(' iiicli is tlie iisiuil shvngtli 
 of tliosc )-o{'ks now being (jiiarrieJ in tlie central part of tin* 
 stale. A power of 2.000 tons per square foot in a well built 
 wall will enable an areliiteet to east fear to tlie winds. Ibit tin,* 
 granites are only the foundation rocks. Lying upon these are 
 rooting slates, as at Knife Falls and Thompson; then conies the 
 t^andstone and the quartzite of the southwestern portions of the 
 state: next the Lake Superior brown stone — that of our West- 
 minster church, a grand and eternal-looking structure — lies in 
 immense beds around Fond-du-Lac; nor is the supply by any 
 meanssmall along the Kettle river valley; while into the perpen- 
 dicular bluffs of the Minnesota and the Mississippi at Mankato, 
 Kasota, Shakopee, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Stillwater, Nininger, 
 lied Wing, Frontenac, Winona, Dresbach, and a score of other 
 places, the quarry man has begun to hew and blast. From these 
 quarries the stonemason dresses the best limestone, dolomite and 
 sandstone of the upper Mississippi valley. When around and 
 to the west of us twenty or more millions of people, with all 
 the wealth and development of public and piivate enterprise 
 Avhich such a population implies, are bringing to a still higher 
 perfection their physical and commercial possibilities, these beds 
 of granites, sandstones and limestones, with deposits of brick 
 clay in every county, yes, almost every township in the state, 
 will only begin to show their capabilities. 
 
 According to the reports of explorers brought in from the 
 woods, the northeastern portion of the state will never be well 
 adapted to agriculture. But there is a grand compensation. 
 It contains what are believed to be some of the richest deposits 
 of iron ore thus far discovered on this continent. The ores are 
 hematite and magnetite, varying in their yield of metallic iron 
 from 50 to 70 per cent. The beds of ore are so situated that 
 
12 PHYSICAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 the cost of loading the material on the cars is a mere trifle. 
 And already, even before the mines are fairly opened, thousands 
 of tons are transported to the smelting furnaces of Cleveland. 
 When the time comes that smelting works and steel works and 
 rolling mills are located at Duluth, Grand Marais, and other 
 soon-to-be important lake ports, we shall see an industry wholly 
 Minnesotan, of which every inhabitant of the state must be 
 proud. We can scarcely compnte the amount of iron which will 
 be needed to meet the business wants of the 300,000 square miles 
 of prairie grain fields and pastures soon to be occupied between 
 the great lakes and the Rocky mounta'ns. Minnesota can yield 
 enough to supply every demand. 
 
 Gold and silver have long been known to exist in the north- 
 ern part of the state. Many an explorer has taken his pack, 
 his miner's pick and a box of matches and traversed that broken 
 country in search of metals. The search is last at successful. 
 The sanguine prophets of the past, who have been looked upon 
 as dreamers or speculators, are now rather regarded as keen- 
 sighted men, who did not tell the half they knew. Samples of 
 gold and silver ore are being sent in from the tract lying to the 
 north of Lake Superior, which disclose to the assayer a surpris- 
 ing richness. 
 
 The temperature of Minnesota is another subject of vital 
 importance. Our 10,000 lakes form a vast reservoir of heat, of 
 which a single computation may giye a more definite concep- 
 tion. According to Rev. C. M. Terry, in his paper on the 
 hydrology of Minnesota, the lakes will give an average, taken 
 at their highest tempterature, of about 75 degrees, or 43 degrees 
 above freezing point. Ten feet may be taken as a fair average 
 of depth for the 5,688 square miles of water surface these lakes 
 contain, thus giving 10.68 cubic miles of water. Each cubic 
 foot will contain about 1,250,000 foot pounds of heat, or heat 
 
PHYSICAL POSSIIUI.ITIKS OK M I N N KSOTA. 18 
 
 enough to raise 1,250,000 ])oini(ls one foot from the eartli, thus 
 giving' to the whoh: hulk of waici* Ihc cuoiuk/us jiowcrof 2/.)r)2, 
 r);-U).8()0,000.()00,000 foot pounds, in other words, there is heat 
 enou«;h stored up in our IVIiuiicsota lakes eacdi suiuiuer and 
 given otf during the cooling auiiiiun. to raise a hlock of granite 
 as large as a township and 100 feet thick, to a highth of over 
 800 miles al)ove the level of the sea. 
 
 One of the possihilities of Minnesota is that these thousands 
 of lakes will l)e filled up hy growing ])lants, and tliis heat will 
 be stored in earth which will give it up rapidly, thus ujaking 
 our summers hotter than they are now, and affording no pro- 
 tection against our northern winds, which bear over the state 
 the chilling winds and nipping frosts of autumn. This, how- 
 ever, is not a probability of the immediate future. 
 
 The rainfall of our state is a significant figure in the problem 
 of climate. These figures are shown by observation: the 
 annual rainfall at the Fort Snelling station for the eighteen 
 years between 1837 and 1854 inclusive, was 25 30 inches. Mr. 
 William Cheney tells us that for the last eighteen years, the 
 average has been at Minneapolis 28.67 inches, which is just 
 about the average of the w^iole United States, not including 
 Alaska. Since we consider our country the nearest perfect of 
 of any on the globe, we can flatter ourselves that this state is 
 not far from the golden mean, so far as rainfall is concerned, 
 at least. As Mr. Cheney's figures indicate to us that it is rain- 
 ing more and more with each succeeding decade, another of the 
 physical possibilities is that we shall be drenched by perpetual 
 rains and a second flood. 
 
 The effect of this rather dry air — I say rather dry because 
 the bulk of our United States population lives in the moister 
 climates of the east and south, the dry plains of the interior 
 which average our rainfall, are not yet peopled — is to increase 
 
14 PHYSICAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 nervous activity. Our nervous system is not wholly in our 
 heads. Fibres and termini are thickly interwoven over every 
 square millimetre of our skin. Moisture soothes and quiets 
 them; dryness irritates and excites. This excitement gives an 
 impulse to activity which hears the whole nature before it: 
 urges both mind body on in an impetuous movement. If this 
 movement be rightly directed the result is good. Occasional rest 
 is essential, but the projjer rest cannot be found at home. The 
 south or the seashore where the air is soft, where moisture ener- 
 vates, should be visited. 
 
 The physical possibilities of Minnesota can scarcely be estima- 
 ted. We have computed present possibilities chiefly, and merely 
 hinted toward the future. Calculating that future from the 
 equation of the past, we can obtain a result difficult to compre- 
 hend, yet in no way tending to excite alarm. It should spur us 
 on to honorable effort that in coming years this great common- 
 wealth shall be iu every way what we in our calmest moments 
 with the orreatest confidence foresee and declare. 
 
J qc ■ Lon-)n')crcial • ossibililics • o • l^injqcsola. 
 
 BY DAVID C. UELL. 
 
 T must regret tluit this branch of the tlieme which we consider 
 ^ to-night had not fallen to other hands, for I am admonished 
 at the ontset that I must undertake to sail between the Scylla 
 of Professor Hall's paper which has just been given, and the 
 Charybdis of Mr. Morley's, which is to follow. There is, how- 
 ever, I perceive, some allowance made for the exercise of the 
 gift of prophecy. 
 
 What better foundations for material and commercial pros- 
 perity could be laid than were laid by the Creator in the most 
 favorable physical conditions with which he endowed this 
 region; and what higher ends can be set before us as citizens of 
 Minnesota, than the moral uplifting of all the people of our 
 commonwealth? 
 
 We come then directly to our topic: " The Commercial Pos- 
 sibilities of Minnesota. " We shall find our prime factors in 
 the favorable geographical position that our state occupies, near 
 the center and at the grand watershed of the continent; and in 
 our large territorial extent. 
 
 The first is made sufficiently plain by a glance at the map. 
 The second is iUustrated by the figures before you. The area 
 of New England is 65,038 square miles; New York, 47,000; 
 Minnesota, 84,287. That is to say, Minnesota is some 80 per 
 cent, larger than the Empire state, and 30 per cent, larger than 
 the six New England states. Not only this, but her 53,943,379 
 acres are mainly arable, and of abounding fertility; so that, 
 after deducting the 3,608,012 acres, or nearly one sixteenth of 
 the whole, for the large and small inland lakes, we still have 
 
16 COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 over fifty millions of acres in our domain. The general char- 
 acter of the state's surface is gently undulating prairie land, 
 covered with nutritous natural grasses, with alternating timber 
 belts. A large section of the state is fittingly designated " The 
 Park Region. " Ten thousand clear lakes, well distributed over 
 the entire state, furnish, with their numerous outlets, an abun- 
 dant and never failing supply of the best water. 
 
 Fish abound in the lakes, and in the streams are vast hydraulic 
 powers, many of which are easily controlled and developed. 
 Now, when we come to speak of man's development and use of 
 these great natural resources that we have so briefly outlined, 
 it will not be surprising if few of us have given the subject any 
 careful study. Possibly one of our first surprises will be the small 
 beginnings thus far made. A glance at the following diagram 
 
COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OP MIKNESOTA. 17 
 
 will show you tluat only 6,5000,000 acres— less than one- 
 eighth of our stiite— has yet been brought under cultivation, and 
 that but imperfectly. This is not, however, a remarkable fact, 
 when we remember that it is but twenty-seven years this present 
 month since Minnesota became one of the United States of Amer- 
 ica. As states count their history, ours still wears the swaddling 
 clothes of its babyhood; yet T doubt not when the figures are 
 before us, all will admit the vigor and promise of the infant. 
 
 As to agricultural products or commerce, Minnesota had 
 none worth the name up to the date of her admission into the 
 Union in 1858. We need not therefore, go back of that date for 
 our commercial statistics. Let us, in the first place, note the 
 growth in the products of the soil. As late as 1859 local deal- 
 ers in St. Paul and Minneapolis were announcing large consign- 
 ments of flour and oats from down-river points, which meant 
 from Dubuque, Davenport and Galena. 
 
 Think of sending oats to a state that raised over 41,000,000 
 bushels last year, and of shipping flour to Minneapolis, the out- 
 put of whose mills for the current week was 142.836 barrels, 
 making it the largest flour manufacturing center on the globe. 
 It is the leading primary wheat market as well, her receipts in 
 1884 exceeding those of Chicago by more than 2,000,000 bushels. 
 Besides this our single lake port, Duluth. shipped over 11,000,- 
 000 bushels of wheat in 1884, giving it rank with the great wheat 
 markets of the country. 
 
 Beginning with the year 1860, we shall find the increase in 
 Minnesota's three leading staples as follows: 
 
18 
 
 COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 
 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 OATS. 
 
 CORN. 
 
 I860 
 
 2,186,993 
 
 18,866,073 
 
 34,601,030 
 
 47,792,662 
 
 17.18 
 
 2,176,002 
 
 10,678,261 
 
 23,382,158 
 
 41,203,742 
 
 40.18 
 
 2,941,952 
 
 1870 
 
 4,743,117 
 
 1880 
 
 14,831,741 
 
 1884 
 
 23,630,000 
 
 1884, average yield. 
 
 35.50 
 
 OTHER PRODUCTS (ESTIMATED.) 
 
 AMOUNT. VALUE. 
 
 Early amber cane syrup 1,000,(X)0 galls $500,000 
 
 Butter and cheese 30,000,000 lbs 4,000,000 
 
 Logs and lumber 691,000,000 ft 18,000,000 
 
 Flour, etc 40,000,000 
 
 Total products of dairy, orchard and farm 75,000,000 
 
 We shall find another index to our development along these 
 lines, in the property valuation as listed to the assessors for 
 taxation. The official records give us the following figures up 
 to 1884: 
 
 PROPERTY VALUATION. 
 
 1860, real and personal $ 36,743,498 
 
 1872, real and personal 108,373,836 
 
 1880, real and personal 268,517,736 
 
 1884, real and personal 401,028,587 
 
 1890, real and personal estimated 600,000,000 
 
 1900, real and personal estimated 1,000,000,000 
 
 Let us bear in mind the fact that not over one-half the actual 
 value of real estate is given, and probably not over one-quarter 
 to one-third the value of personal property. 
 
 We come now to note the advance in population. Here also 
 we find a wonderful gain in the few years since Minnesota 
 began to attract settlers from the older states, and from over 
 the sea. There has been worked out here in a brief period a 
 substantial development and prosperity, that all in all,has scarcely 
 been paralleled in the world's history. Until we learn some- 
 thing of the people themselves that have wrought the miracle, 
 we shall have missed its secret. 
 
 Not long since the writer spent a day and night in one of 
 
CDMMKRCiAL PUSSlblLiTIES OF MlNXEbUTA. i'.J 
 
 the newer timbered regions of our state. My host mid his 
 family had moved from Wisconsin; their ])resent homo a h>«^ 
 cabin, tlie farm but partly cleared. Near the cabin on a fine 
 elevated site was shown the stone foundation for a iicw house. 
 Piled close at hand was the luuiber for the superstructure. 
 In an adjacent shed were tlie door and window frames, made at 
 odd times by this farmer and his handy sons; and spread out on 
 my host's knees not many hours after my arrival, wer<' the 
 ground plans and elevations of this prospective house, with its 
 piazzas, bay windows, bath-room and modern improvements. 
 In a few months the log cabin will in the natural course be 
 exchanged for this really fine house. This is a sample of the 
 thrift and enterprise of the people that make up our population. 
 They get on in the world. 
 
 For a suggestive contrast to all this, go with me down into 
 New Mexico, where there is a different race and a diverse civili- 
 zation. Here yon shall find a regulation adobe house, on the 
 sunny or shady side of which, according to season and time of 
 day, basks the shiftless householder, where generations of his 
 ancestors have lounged before him. His commercial and agri- 
 cultural ventures are limited to occasionally driving to town a 
 sorry burro loaded with an armful of pinon wood, or plowing 
 his field with yoked cows and a crooked stick, as in the days 
 of the Ptolemies. He neither knows nor needs hardware mer- 
 chant, lumber dealer, or agricultural implement man. 
 
 Having considered somewhat the quality of our population, 
 let us now regard numbers. We shall find here the same rapid 
 growth that has marked our state's development in other lines: 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 1860 ( two years after admission ) 172,023 
 
 1865 250,097 
 
 1870 , 4:39,-107 
 
 1880 780,773 
 
 1884 (estimated) 1,000,000 
 
 1890 (estimated) 1,450,000 
 
 1900 (estimated) 3,000,000 
 
20 COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 Minnesota presents an interesting field for the study of the 
 race problem. Inasmuch as a consideration of this question 
 must largely aSect her commercial future, we may briefly 
 glance at it in this connection. With a purely native American 
 population of scarcely more than 28 per cent., she possesses a 
 distinctly foreign element of about 34 per cent. Of this the 
 Scandinavian races furnish nearly one-half — no other state has 
 so many ^ while the German population is less than 10 per 
 cent, of the whole, and the Irish scarcely 3 per cent. 
 
 Our Scandinavian people make excellent citizens. They are 
 for the most part a moral, temperate, industrious, Sabbath- 
 keeping, home-loving, law-abiding folk. They Americanize 
 readily, and show such thrift and enterprise withal as easily to 
 persuade us that they are the true Yankees of Europe and our 
 very kith and kin. 
 
 As this is "Minnesota day," we may be excused for making 
 one or two suggestive comparisons with our neighbor on the 
 southwest, Kansas. In the matter of insurance, there was 
 carried in 1872 in this state fire risks amounting to $48,718,176, 
 which in 1883 had increased to $188,063,006. The same year 
 the fire risks carried in Kansas amounted to only $85,811,151 — 
 over $100,000,000 less; while in life insurance premiums she 
 paid $114,169, as against Minnesota $521,691 — ^or scarcely one 
 quarter as much. But these are incidental rafcher than important. 
 
 RAILWAYS. 
 
 Let us now briefly consider the subject of railways and trans- 
 portation. The 300 to 400 miles of natural water ways which 
 Minnesota possesses may be deemed a sort of reserve. Rail- 
 ways have proved the great factors in developing and pro- 
 moting our commerce. Of these not a rail was laid in the 
 state as late as 1861, and only ten miles were built in 1862. 
 The Red river cart and dog train were at that time the only 
 com mercial ties that connected us with the vast British posses- 
 sions lying along our northern border, to which we are now so 
 
COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 21 
 
 closely linked with iron bonds. What is the present showing? 
 At the close of 1884 there were in operation in Minnesota, 
 4,125 miles of railroad, built at a reported cost of $181,370,722, 
 with reported annual gross earnings amounting to $28,508,089, 
 and paying into the state treasury a yearly tax of $613,865. It 
 may now be asserted that no portion of the state south of our 
 great trans-continental line, the Northern Pacific railway, and 
 west of the Mississippi river, is twenty-five miles distant from 
 a railroad. 
 
 MINNESOTA AT THE WORLD's FAIR. 
 
 Minnesota's part in the world's exposition at New Orleans 
 has been highly creditable. While the results minister to our 
 honest and warrantable state pride, let them also furnish our 
 citizens some useful practical hints. 
 
 Among the notable premiums awarded to Minnesota products 
 were two each for sugars and syrups — early amber — eight for 
 grapes, two for horses, forty-one for poultry, and twenty-one 
 for butter and cheese. Perhaps more significant than all the 
 rest was the sweepstakes premium for butter. This doubtless 
 points to a future development in the line of dairying, that 
 will in time dwarf all the farming interests in our state, and 
 bring great and permanent prosperity to our people. Already 
 Minnesota contains 1,500,000 head of stock, valued at $51,000,- 
 000; but the dairying capabilities of the state are scarcely 
 touched. Governor Hubbard in his late message to the state 
 legislature, refers to this growing industry as follows: "In 
 the older portions of our state, where our agricultural industry 
 has demonstrated the adaptability of our soil and climate to 
 the employment of the most advanced methods of husbandry, 
 there has rapidly developed in recent years large interests in 
 stock raising, and extensive establishments for the manufacture 
 of dairy products, from which the farmer realizes handsomely 
 from his investment and labor. " He adds: '' As a result, these 
 are eminently prosperous and accumulating wealth." That 
 
22 COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 we might have this matter, which seems to be so related to our 
 commercial future, brought before us in the most intelligent 
 manner, I have lately communicated some inquiries to our able 
 state dairy commissioner, Mr. W. C, Rice; and from his reply 
 make the following extracts : " In regard to the matter referred 
 by you; there is such a thing as the dairy belt. It is limited 
 to a section 150 miles wide extending across the country 
 between latitude 42 and 45 degrees north. Within this limit 
 the climate possesses the qualities which cause cream to ripen 
 to perfection. It also yields the grain and grasses best calcu- 
 lated to produce milk rich in the constituent elements of butter 
 and cheese. Then in addition to climatic influences there are 
 local causes which exert a marked influence upon the perfection 
 of dairy products. Wherever in this belt there is a limestone 
 or granite soil, with hard water, there the tame grasses flourish 
 best, and a peculiar aroma and solidity characterize the dairy 
 products of such sections. Minnesota possesses in a remark- 
 able degree every one of these essential elements for success in 
 dairying. They may be summarized as follows: 
 
 First — The unusual healthfulness of animals. 
 
 Second — A soil known as a blue grass soil. 
 
 Third — Clear, hard water. 
 
 Fourth — A clear dry atmosphere, without sultriness or fogs. 
 
 Fifth — A location which commands markets east and west. 
 
 The dairy interests of Minnesota have grown from nothing 
 in 1880 to 30,000,000 pounds of creamery butter in 1884. 
 ( The first creamery built in the state was in 1880.) A corres- 
 ponding increase has been made in dairy butter and cheese. 
 
 Tbe possibilities of Minnesota in this direction are practi- 
 cally unlimited. The state can keep 2,000,000 cows and make 
 400,000,000 pounds of butter in a year, and only use one acre 
 in four of her arable lands. But of course mixed farming is 
 what our state needs, and a proper proportion of dairying 
 makes a very large possible resource to the state. " 
 
OOMMERICAL POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 23 
 
 I hiive attempted to «;n)iii> t<)<^etlier and present to you in 
 this condensed form some of the l<'adin<^ factors in tlie material 
 deveh^l>ment of our <ijreat commonwealth, and to [)()int out 
 some orood signs of her future commercial possibilities. 
 
 Perha])s the most sutj^gestive showint^ as well as hest ei)itome, 
 will ])e the summary of the business statistics of Minnesota's 
 two <4reat cities. 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL. 
 
 Statistics of imi. Aggregate. 
 
 Population 200,000 
 
 Banking capital »$12,H60,717 
 
 Buildings erected during the year 4,848 
 
 At a cost of $15,481,377 
 
 Real estate sales for the year 29,076,859 
 
 Jobbing sales 120,418,050 
 
 Manufactures (Minneapolis) 00,347,0(K) 
 
 I need scarcely say that our reliance in this paper has been 
 on facts and figures, rather than on any setting of words. 
 
 I recall, however, a prophecy concerning Minnesota, spoken 
 by William H. Seward, in September, 1860, from the steps of 
 our state capitol. At the time these words were uttered they 
 seemed to us who listened, little more than the compliment of 
 the hour; but they now read so like the inspired words of a 
 seer, that I venture to quote them in closing: 
 
 "Here is the central place w^here the agriculture of the rich- 
 est regions of North America must begin its magnificent sup- 
 plies to the whole world. On the east, along the shores of 
 Lake Superior, and on the west, stretching in one broad plain, 
 in a belt across the continent, is a country where state after 
 state is yet to rise, and whence the productions for the support 
 of human society in other crowded states must forever go 
 forth. This is then a commanding field; but it is as command- 
 ing in regard to the commercial future, for power is not to 
 reside permanently on the eastern slope of the Alleghany 
 mountains, nor in the seaports of the Pacific. Seaports have 
 always been controlled at last by the people of the inland and 
 
24 COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF MIKKESOTA. 
 
 of the upland. Those who inhabit the sources of the mighty- 
 waters are they who supply all states with the materials of 
 wealth and power. The seaports Avill be the mouths by which 
 we shall communicate and correspond with Europe, but the 
 power that shall speak and shall communicate and express 
 the will of men on this continent is to be located in the Miss- 
 issippi valley, and at the sources of the Mississippi and the St. 
 Lawrence. In other days, studying what might, perhaps, have 
 seemed to others a visionary subject, I have cast about for the 
 future, the ultimate central seat of power of the North American 
 people. I have looked at Quebec, and at New Orleans, at Wash- 
 ington and at San Francisco, at Cincinnati and at St. Louis, and 
 it has been the result of my best conjecture that the seat of power 
 for North America would yet be found in the valley of Mexico; 
 that the glories of the Aztec capital would be renewed and that 
 city would become ultimately the capital of the United States of 
 America. But T have corrected that view, and I now believe 
 that the last seat of power on the great continent will be found 
 somewhere within a radius not far from the very spot where I 
 stand, at the head of navigation on the Mississippi river, and on 
 the great Mediterranean lakes. " 
 
 Had it been permitted to this great statesman to revisit our 
 state now, a quarter of a century after these words were spoken, 
 he should have seen indubitable proofs of the certain fulfilment 
 of this glowing prophecy. 
 
r)C • I\cliqious- ossibililics-oj • A \ir)i^csola. 
 
 BY KEY. JOHN H. MORLEY, ST. PAUL. 
 
 ^^he materiiil and tlie spiritual are closely connected. The body 
 -'■ influences the spirit, and in turn is influenced by it. So 
 the material interests of the state are connected with the spir- 
 itual. As a strong body gives the spirit larger capacities, so the 
 material prosperity of the state is a help to its spiritual growth. 
 The vigorous body may rule the spirit, and the material pros- 
 perity of the community may dwarf its spiritual growth. 
 But material prosperity is an aid to spiritual prosperity. Here 
 lies one of the religious possibilities of Minnesota. We have 
 the conditions which will result in a rich, prosperous commu- 
 nity. Minnesota wheat and flour are celebrated the world over. 
 Our lumber has brought riches to many of our number who 
 are using it for the Master. The growing of cattle, 3^et in its 
 infancy, is destined to bring wealth to those portions of the 
 state where w^ieat is raised only with a small profit. Consider^ 
 then, that we are favorably situated to secure cheap transporta- 
 tion, the w^ater aiding us in keeping down freight; reflect that 
 w^e are at the initial point of those great lines which lead out to 
 the west and northwest, and that these sections are tributary to 
 our twin cities, if we have the shrewdness to make them so; 
 remember, too, that our population is of that hardy, energetic 
 type, commonly found in this belt of latitude, and that it is des- 
 tined to be increased through the large unoccupied portions of 
 the state until this commonwealth is the home of millions; 
 reflect that our people have shown thrift, adaptability to new 
 or to hard conditions, so that when wheat shows signs of failure 
 they have turned to live stock and have retrieved themselves ; 
 
26 RELIGIOUS POSSIBILITIES OP MINNESOTA . 
 
 that ill our southwest corner they have been undaunted by re- 
 peated visitations of grasshoppers in past years; that our mer- 
 chants are showing power to control the wholesale trade of the 
 northwest, and we see that here are the conditions of a rich, 
 populous state. 
 
 If these energies be turned into religious channels Ave shall 
 have a noble exhibition of religion. If the habit of Christian 
 benevolence be established, we shall soon make our colleges 
 independent of eastern aid, and our churches self-supporting. 
 There is in the near future the power to make Carleton and 
 Hamline and Macalester, by the aid of Minnesota money alone, 
 as rich as Yale or Princeton. It needs but a few years of 
 prosperity to make our churches independent of the home mis- 
 sionary aid by which so many of them have been nurtured. It 
 needs but a few yjears more to make the churches of this state 
 the great treasury of Christian benevolence from which the 
 golden streams shall go out to the ends of the earth, as they 
 have come to us from many eastern states in the past. That 
 this is not a remote possibility is seen from the fact that, in 
 one Christian denomination, Minnesota led in gifts to home 
 missions, and that the church whose gifts to benevolence last 
 year and the year before are the largest, as reported in our year 
 book, is in this city. To some extent our people appreciate 
 their responsibility to give as the Lord prospers them, and there 
 is here not only the possibility, but the moral certainty, of a bet- 
 ter giving to missions than we have ever seen. 
 
 But, again, let us notice that the character of our population, 
 and its attitude with regard to morality, education and religion, 
 prefigures indefinite religious possibilities. The trend of 
 thought upon morals and religion is in the right direction. 
 Take the question of temperance, which is closely connected 
 with our religious welfare. We may not have gone so far as 
 
RELiaiOUS POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 27 
 
 some of our sister coinnioiiwefiltlis. We may, considering' the 
 hetero^n^neous character of our people, be buiklin<,' more wisely 
 than if we buikled more rapidly. For that law is wise, not 
 which is ideally the best, but which best meets the needs, the preju- 
 dices, the various complications existing in the people for whom 
 it is framed. Now the direction of public sentiment on the 
 temperance question is right; our laws will become more strin- 
 gent; our people are becoming better informed as to the effects 
 of liquor drinking and the necessity of restricting the traffic. 
 In various communities high license has been carried. In some 
 of them it will remain. The state will carry it ere long. All 
 this is the more encouraging because the large foreign element 
 in our population which has been educated to look at the tem- 
 perance question differently from us, might have prevented the 
 advance already made. 
 
 Education is the handmaid of religion. An uneducated peo- 
 ple, a people educated out of sympathy with Christianity, are 
 not susceptible to high religious progress. Our system of edu- 
 cation is Christian. The temper of our people demands that 
 religion, so far as it is the basis of morality, shall be taught in 
 our public schools, so that our education is Christian, and the 
 majority of the teachers in our common schools are either 
 Christians, or have Christian spirit In the Christian spirit 
 which is in, and gathers about our state university, which per- 
 vades our three normal schools, in the warm religious atmos- 
 phere which pervades our Carloton and our Hamline, we are re- 
 minded of large possibilities of religious influence permeating 
 our lower schools, affecting our whole population in those 
 nameless ways by which consecrated mind impresses its sur- 
 roundings. As the small nunvber of our colleges gives promise 
 of adequate support for them all, so the temper already seen in 
 them promises not only high scholarsliip, but the production <»f 
 religious character. 
 
28 RELIGIOUS POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 Notice now that quality of our population which makes it 
 hospitable to the Christian church and its institutions. When 
 a new town is started it expects the church. It always has a 
 nucleus about which the Sabbath-school and the church can be 
 formed. This is true even in the case of a town started by 
 those avowedly hostile to Christianity. They would have the 
 church. In any new town the money comes easily to build the 
 first church, and when it is needed the second and third, and 
 sometimes when not needed. Our population is naturally 
 Christian to this extent that it craves the prayers, the preaching 
 and the sweet songs of the church. 
 
 As a feature of our character which indicates our religious 
 future, I may add that our religion is intensely practical. For 
 instance we haye not in our preaching discussed questions of 
 theology so much as questions of evangelism. Our temper has 
 not been one of debate over possibility of a second or continued 
 probation for any members of our human race. It has de- 
 manded rather, the immediate appliance of the gospel to save 
 sinners now. We have not engaged largely in discussions in 
 the higher theology; but we have founded churches; we have 
 converted men; we have pushed the kingdom of Christ. This 
 temper of our churches and ministers is one of the most hope- 
 ful signs of large religious growth. They who present Christ 
 to human hearts will save them. Those old words come to us 
 as a melting anthem, '' I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
 draw all men unto me. " 
 
 We should be humble enough also to recognize that one ele- 
 ment in our foreign population not only does not hinder, but 
 helps on religious character. We have the largest Scandinavian 
 population of any state in the union. The Scandinavians are 
 law-abiding, industrious, moral, religious. They are more easily 
 educated to right views upon temperance than the Irish or Ger- 
 
RELIGIOUS POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 29 
 
 iiicius. They are in full sympathy with our free institutions. 
 They take kindly to education. They are Protestant. All these 
 characteristics make them, as some believe, the best possible 
 class of settlers. 
 
 Their religious character is destined to affect ours favorably. 
 The Scandinavians are now passing through that great politico- 
 religious ex])erience through which all our Protestant churches 
 passed centuries ago. Emancipation from state religion, the 
 going back to the simpler forms of truth, the taking the last 
 appeal to the Scriptures; all these things we have passed 
 through. They are passing through them now. Hence they 
 assimilate with us religiously as w^ell as politically. In many 
 respects they will, if we come into closer sympathy with them, 
 influence us favorably. Their piety is simple and unaffected; 
 their reverence for the Bible is profound. "What does the 
 Bible say?" is their ultimate appeal in matters of religious 
 faith. The movement by which the free church has just been 
 formed began in an appeal to the Bible. This movement, which 
 takes us back to the inception of our own free churches, is 
 one of the most striking manifestations of divine power. 
 
 The coming in contact with a people thus alive to the lead- 
 ings of God's providences cannot but invigorate our piety. 
 From the influence communicated to us from them we shall re- 
 ceive great benefit. It goes without saying that the benefits 
 will be reciprocal. We can assist the mission churches in their 
 poverty with our wealth, we can aid them to an educated min- 
 istry, of which they are now destitute, in many nameless ways 
 in which a delicate Christian instinct will discover, we can aid 
 them. But I should not dare say which party would receive 
 the larger benefit. A thoughtful observer of the religious out- 
 look will be thankful that we are to be reinforced by Scandina- 
 vian faith and piety. It is believed that in the religious char- 
 
30 RELIGIOUS POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 acter of its immigrants Minnesota is especially favored. Scan- 
 dinavians come to Minnesota as their home, and we have the 
 largest population of any of the states. 
 
 If now, we consider how all these conditions of progress are 
 accelerated by the probable increase in our population, we gain 
 some idea of our possible religious development. We are thinly 
 settled even in the most populous parts of the state, while large 
 areas are practically uninhabited. Let Minnesota receive as 
 many inhabitants to the square mile as Massachusetts has, and 
 our population will be about 20,000,000. Let it equal that of 
 England and Wales, and it will exceed 30,000,000. Three mil- 
 lions of people for Minnesota in 1900, would not be an over es- 
 timate. That our population is, in the next century, to be im- 
 mense, that it will partake of the same general character as the 
 present, having its thrift, its predilection in favor of temper- 
 ance, education, religion, admits of no doubt. Many of our 
 older states have, in certain respects at least, reached the limit 
 of their possibilities; they must work upon the people already 
 there, increased slowly by natural law, increased to some extent 
 by immigration of an undesirable kind, and drained by the emi- 
 gration of its best element to the west. Our possibities are all 
 before. The flush of youth is upon us. Our strength is unde- 
 veloped. 
 
 Perhaps I may be allowed to specify two or three points of 
 danger. First, there is danger that the temperance question be 
 neglected; that it be decided upon pecuniary rather than moral 
 considerations, or, that it be decided without the aid of the sober 
 minded, thoughtful, prudent portion of the people, whose 
 judgment must be invoked, before a permanent statute which is 
 to be enforced, can be passed. There is a tendency to push the 
 temperance question to the front, but the tendency is ephemeral' 
 A community is roused to-day and torpid to-morrow. Many 
 things conspire to push the temperance question into the back- 
 ground. Then there is a tendency to elevate pecuniary consid- 
 erations above the moral. The fact that high license will bring 
 
RELIGIOUS POSSIBILITIES OF MINNESOTA. 31 
 
 larger revenues to the city and state is not conclusive ])r()of 
 that high license is wise. Yet this argument is pushed to the 
 exclusion of other considerations. The pecuniary considera- 
 tions are slight. High license may he the thing for which we 
 should aim, considering the present state of puhlic opinion and 
 the varying prejudices of our mixed population, hut the ques- 
 tion is to be decided by other than pecuniary considerations. 
 
 So we are exposed to the danger of relegating the question 
 to the temperance reformers so-called. I have only respect for 
 them, but the question cannot be settled by them. When it is 
 settled to stay, it must be settled by the great body of law-abid- 
 ing men and women who have property, who pay taxes, who 
 have no pet theories, but who will decide the question upon its 
 merits. It is obvious that a great work of education is to be 
 performed before the final settlement. If we place a law upon 
 our statute books adapted to our needs; if we enforce it; if we 
 so educate public sentiment in our state, now in its infancy, 
 that its future millions shall respect and practice temperance, 
 we need to bestir ourselves. 
 
 There is danger, too, that the education of the young shall 
 not be religious. As I have indicated the tendency of educa- 
 tion here is religious. Religion, as the basis of morality, can be 
 taught in our schools. Our system is in sympathy with religion. 
 I know the delicacy of any attempt to make our schools more 
 Christian. But we may improve the opportunity, allowed us by 
 law, to teach religion as the foundation of morality farther than 
 is yet done. We may throw the power of personal influence 
 with teachers in favor of the many indescribable methods by 
 which a teacher can win his pupils to morality and to the 
 church. We may see, as far as is possible, that men in sympa- 
 thy with Christian faith are chosen as teachers. It is for the 
 public good, not simply for the good of the church, that our 
 teachers be religious men. They will the better teach morality, 
 thrift, and all those economic virtues which aid the state. 
 All this is supplementary to the main work of the church. 
 
32 RELIGIOUS POSSIBILITIES OF MIKKESOTA. 
 
 We are to aim directly at the religious training of the young. 
 Every school supported by the state must be hampered in its 
 religious teaching. There is only a limited range in which it 
 can teach religious duties. We make no criticism upon state 
 schools because of this limitation. We only emphasize the 
 duty of the church to do what the state cannot do. In the 
 line of the religious training of the young in the Sabbath- 
 school; in the supporting of the church with its institutions in 
 communities where the population is foreign, irreligious; in the 
 full equipment of our colleges, are wrapped up the possibilities 
 of the state. 
 
 There is peril, too, that our religious development shall be 
 dwarfed by our material development. In a region where the 
 material possibilities are so gigantic, where the success already 
 achieved faintly foreshadows that which the hurrying future 
 will bring us, we must be spiritually alert if we meet the emer- 
 gency. To many a man, the planting of a little church far out 
 upon the frontier and the moulding of the community after 
 the divine model, seems a small thing compared with the span- 
 ning of a continent by a railway. The opening of a mission in 
 one of the degraded parts of the city, and the converting men 
 to Christ, and the building them into Christian manhood, these 
 seem insignificant compared with the building of stone and 
 granite blocks and the filling them with the products of the 
 trade of a continent. We may feel that this material develop- 
 ment, all this glory of bud and blossom, promises more for the 
 welfare of society than does the gospel. We need to keep our 
 personal faith in Christ intact, to maintain our confidence that 
 the mightiest forces now operating to save society are in the 
 gospel, and that from the cross there go out through all the 
 world those lines of light and love which will surely dispel the 
 darkness, and make the earth blossom with love as old Eden 
 blossomed with flowers. If we hold ourselves responsible for 
 the building here of a Christian state, we may, by God's grace, 
 achieve our possibilities. 
 
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