in the following remarks on commercial influences we
designate the period prior to 1860 as the era of water
transportation, or the era of western development.
For a like reason, since the year 1860, as the ten-
dency of railroads in this southern territory has been
so largely towards the formation of through trunk
lines, both by the construction of missing links and
by the consolidation of local roads, and as the move-
ments of commerce since that date have taken place
so essentially over railroad highways that water ave-
nues have assumed a secondary position and influence,
the period covered by the last twenty years may be
commercially termed an era of railway transportation.
During the era of western development the com-
merce of the entire United States followed essentially
an east and west movement, and this movement still,
as applied to the total commerce of our country, is
probably the largest one.
During the era of railroad transportation, most of
the changes in the commercial highways of the inte-
rior have tended to foster a north and south move-
ment of commerce, and the development of that move-
ment has been so rapid that it promises to become a
formidable rival to the ancient monopoly.
It is a universal accompaniment of distributive com-
merce that as railroads extend facilities for its move-
ment, they are liable at the same time to give like
facilities to smaller as well as larger centres. Hence
the very instrument which tends to develop a city's
distributing powers places the means at the disposal
of its tributaries to make of themselves active com-
petitors. In other words, an extension of railway
facilities in a country tends to increase the number
and decrease or rather equalize the size of distributive
centres. This tendency is mostly a subordinate one.
but it is not on that account to be lost sight of.
Furthermore, in a distributive commerce ave-
nues of transportation are always the elements of
primary importance in marking out its course and de-
fining its limits, while with productive commerce trans-
portation avenues may be secondary considerations.
A town may be a very active distributing centre,
and all of the elements of its prosperity appear to be
permanent, but every change in its railway outlets
and avenues must vitally affect its welfare for better
or worse, according to the nature of the change.
Examples of towns almost annihilated by changes
in transportation facilities are frequently to be found
in the South, because in the South commerce has been
almost wholly distributive. The town of Jefferson,
Texas, furnishes a notable example. From 1865 to
1870, when she formed the terminus of navigation on
Red River, and supplied with merchandise a section
through Texas, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory,
extending northwest, west, and southwest for two or
three hundred miles, she had ten thousand people,
and every prospect seemed to promise her lasting
prosperity. The Texas and Pacific Railroad with its
through connections was formed, passing through the
town itself, while already to the west the Houston
and Texas Central, with its supplementary connection,
the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, had cut off
its far western trade, so that to-day Jefferson is a way
station, with deserted wharves, and her population of
barely two thousand people are selling whole blocks
(whose stores used to rent for one hundred and fifty
and two hundred dollars per month) for the bare
bricks which their walls contain.
It is true, therefore, that centres of distributive
commerce are built upon foundations of sand, whilst
a city grown great through a productive commerce
will always possess a material element of prosperity ;
also that the trade limits of a distributing centre
more nearly correspond with the area whose crops it
markets than do such limits of a productive commerce,
the latter being almost wholly independent of that area
as defining its extent and location.
Again, the distributive commerce of the interior
consists most largely of an east and west movement,
i.e., exchanges between points east of the western
boundary of Pennsylvania and north of Mason and
Dixon's line, and points west of the western boundary
of Pennsylvania and south of the Ohio River and
State of Missouri.
The era of railway transportation has been also one
essentially of the building up in the West of manu-
facturing industries, giving to small towns a commer-
cial significance which makes them important compet-
itors for trade in the South.
A single accompaniment of productive commerce
may here be mentioned, which will show how largely
the fostering of such commerce adds to the wealth of
a city. The figures given are underestimates rather
than overestimates, and they embody the principle :
A ton of cast iron is worth, say $35
If made into wrought iron it may have a value of.... **80
If the wrought iron be converted into steel it is worth 1 20 to 200
If the steel be manufactured into agricultural tools
it is capable of bringing, say 400
If, instead, it be converted into knife-blades, they
will sell for 30,000
Or, finally, if it be made up into the balance-springs
of watches its value may become over 100,000
998
HISTORY OP SAINT LOUIS.
The factor of profit which is thus under proper
circumstances capable of converting thirty-five dollars'
worth of cast iron into one hundred thousand dollars'
worth of watch-springs is LABOR ; and it is evident
that, if these operations were carried on in a single
town, the added wealth which would result to that
town from the entering of a single ton of metal into
its productive commerce would be many thousand per
cent, of the original value of the material. The mere
handling of this ton of metal, or the result of its
entering into the distributive commerce of the city
interested, could hardly under any circumstances
amount to twenty-five per cent, of its original value.
And while the above may be, and undoubtedly is,
an extreme case, it is nevertheless a possible and an
actual case in some localities ; and the principle em-
bodied in this single instance is true of by far the
largest proportion of manufactured articles, viz. : that
the labor entering into their production bears a larger
ratio to their value than the actual cost of material.
This is the sort of trade which has made Boston
and Philadelphia so rich, and contributes annually
such vast sums to the grand resources of Great Brit-
ain. It is the sort of trade which St. Louis expects
to control when her resources are more fully in play.
In the mean time, the actual movements of pro-
duce and merchandise at St. Louis, as distinguished
from the possible and prospective, have been as fol-
lows, taking the census year for convenience of com-
parison :
STATEMENT stowing Amount of Freight, in Tons, received
GRAIN SHIPMENTS from St. Louis towards the east by rail, and towards the
south by river and by rail, each year, from 1871 to 1880, inclusive.
TEAK.
East by Rail.
South.
By River. By Rail.
1871
Bushels.
2,154,065
3,456,409
2,065,660
2,318,350
2,658,478
12,434,296
6,570,529
7,561,475
8,227,465
8,790,059
Bushels. Bushels.
4,565,973 1,322,457
6,618,757 2,194,019
5,920,687 1,874,386
5,344,534 1,683,478
3,260,035 ' 1,871,022
4,212,435 | 995,540
5,691,493 1,373,982
7,230,422 1,054,221
8,596,952 1,360,036
18,978,347 2,646,714
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
STATEMENT showing the increase in the commerce, population, and value of
property of St. Louis from 1865 to 1880.
1865.
1880.
Increase.
Per Cent,
of
Increase.
Arrivals of boats... No.
Arrivals of barges.. "
Receipts of wheat,
and flour reduced
2,767
1,141
17,657,252
13,427,052
743,281
1 19,838
66,822
34,781,570
6,391,030
94,307
52,133
99,663
3 204,327
$87,625,534
2,360
1,471
46,037,578
33,676,424
2,142,949
472,436
32,113
92,983,380
8,415,176
420,654
182,648
1,762,724
400,000
$163,813,920
2407
330
28,380,326
20,249,372
1,399,668
452,598
234,709
58,201,810
2,024,146
326,347
130,515
1,663,061
195,673
$76,188,386
28.92
160.73
150.81
188.31
2281.47
Shipments of wheat,
and flour reduced
Manufactures of
Receipts of cotton, bales
Receipts of pork...bbis.
Receipts of hams
167.34
31.67
34605
250.35
1668.68
95.76
86.95
Receipts of lard.... "
Receipts of cattle... No.
1 Receipts of sheep... "
Receipts of hogs. ... "
Value of real and per-
sonal property
1 1867. 8 Decrease. 3 1866.
at St. Louis by each Bailroad and River for Ten Years.
BOUTE.
1882.
1881.
1880.
1879.
1878.
1877.
1876.
1875.
1874.
1873.
Missouri Pacific R.R. (Main Line)
962,517
339,243
319,905
92,088
730,705
154,243
634,987
493,310
212,267
395,122
288,271
32,285
346,857
739,081
717,935
289,386
19,889
280,710
51,821
135,540
275,175
168,410
34,900
164,625
23,430
907,467
335,847
447,449
154,248
768,652
114,211
488,615
330,907
251,915
406,217
298,276
45,120
370,610
640,764
530,745
253,784
40,062
285,516
80,170
190,815
273,110
160,555
39,385
165,825
22,720
850,434
404,172
530,527
179,772
536,488
95,176
477,608
304,369
200,996
389,779
264,679
425,840
245,965
366,797
143,313
536,318
108,078
446,764
276,436
88,196
359,534
207,985
413,302
191,834
395,049
354,513
178,280
318,768
416,415
173,950
333,757
229,447
196,968
238,866
328,201
196,891
223,294
344,375
149,007
252,608
St. Louis & San Francisco Ry
Wabaah, St. Louis & Pacific R.R. (West Brch.)
Chicago, Alton & St. Louis R.R. (Mo. Div.)...
St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R.R
Missouri Pacific R.R. (Texas Div.)
353,172
78,652
383,739
223,248
63,885
262,952
191,020
340,740
109,864
380,204
257,536
89,435
243,496
136,977
325,097
110,773
37C,,4S8
230,707
107,984
268,073
167,525
451,225
53,885
406,653
221,634
103,808
280,557
184,834
292,842
65,734
362,470
216,898
82,470
319,217
195,691
392,634
73,291
445,765
177,611
17,927
337,074
203,765
Cairo Short Line R R
Louisville & Nashville R.R
St. Louis & Cairo R R
Chicago, Alton & St. Louis R.K. (Main Line)
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R.R. (east)
264,541
609,594
358,928
251,383
31,328
275,715
71,035
226,095
223,925
155,605
59,025
214,195
15,015
171,216
493,787
333,433
235,080
31.178
172,103
21,055
221,285
17U.400
10!,620
33,800
130,785
14,080
128,568
402,252
264,831
224,240
65,727
142,836
135,487
392,185
169,930
260,530
31,345
65,098
128,208
372,314
104,319
215,523
42,533
57,554
134.634
319,658
108,940
213,443
27 .2 25
60,993
134,498
276,138
118,481
215,252
29,865
107,151
139,484
294,445
142,232
202,929
25,727
46,304
St. Louis, Vandalia, Terre Haute & Ind. R.R.
Wabash, St. Louis <fe Pacific R.R. (East'n Div.)
Illinois & St. Louis R.R
Wabash. St. Louis & Pacific R.R. (Iowa Brch.)
Chicago, Bur. & Quincy R.R. (N. & N. W. Div.)
St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern R.R
174,065
174,180
124,785
56,040
171,900
13,730
136,715
149,825
104,200
49,645
192,055
12,045
224,860
147,185
129,940
50,345
124,125
12,200
100
198,100
128,020
153,995
30,100
146,805
6,345
100
231,060
169,780
192,770
44,830
87,985
6,000
340
281,176
226,535
125,715
38,630
123,075
4,850
1,075
Illinois River
Ohio River
7,702,702
7,602,985
6,990,384
5,352,048
4,500,007 4,108,873 4,119,975 3,896,295
3,897,858
4,046,233
Total by rail
6,900,622 6,750,575 6,096,524 4,663,078
802,080 852,410 893,860 688,970
3,785,307 3,464,388 3,431,220 3,232,770
714,700 644,485 688,755 663,525
3,165,093 3,245,178
732,765 801,055
Total by river
In addition to the receipts of 1880 by upper Mississippi River by boats, there was received 198,315 tons of lumber, logs, and shingles by rafts.
" " 1881 " " " " " " 356,020 " " " "
1882 " " " " " " 271,490 " ' " "
SAINT LOUIS AS A CENTRE OF TRADE.
999
Showiiig the Amount of Freight, in Tons, shipped from St. Louis by each BaUroml and Rioer for ten years.
L
v_
ROUTE.
1882.
1881.
1880.
1879.
1878.
1877.
1876.
1875.
1874.
1873.
678,706
180,927
246,049
90,990
549,991
24^,998
139,339
81,164
23,356
195,717
293,830
32,808
296,209
265,981
239,352
9,001
16,713
139,925
20,104
71,325
610,205
4,690
11,980
66,010
1,150
4,545
709,814
185,147
254,902
72,393
600,929
79,866
135,393
64,199
22,862
204,006
252,465
25,098
246,169
281,299
192,109
9,930
13,520
85,455
27,356
54,295
730,185
5,175
13,720
77,600
1,100
1,950
407,030 272,250
122,787 78,755
209,604 197,219
62,346 45,596
390,069 288,768
66,555 61,226
111,609 91,428
87,037 41,586
16,391 13,298
184,975 141,182
268,309 318,754
196,955
44,495
153,294
202.966
45,898
137,394
203,169
51,150
134,999
151,980
34,881
116,674
171,987
30,133
85,368
162,435
39,962
90,488
Wabasli, St. Louis <fc Pac. R.R. (West Brch.)...
Chicago, Alton & St. Louts R.R. (Mo. Div.)....
St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R.R. ...
Missouri Pacific Railroad (Texas Division)
222,641
45,039
68,027
49,416
12,405
136,677
256,444
215,731
47,523
66,992
29,350
11,806
144,065
174,454
193,833
45,131
38,909
30,249
4,970
207,905
149,285
211,726
40,635
76,092
25,944
13,961
108,998
135,647
155,181
39,337
37,753
44,845
13,968
145,914
97,885
122,605
54,956
39,917
53,000
5,520
158,523
81,158
Chicago, Alton & St. Louis R. R. (Main Line).
_CJicago, Burlington & Quiwcy R. R. (east)....
218,859
247,656
246,337
13,573
9,923
69,678
22.942
55,260
813,080
9,935
16,415
135,360
1,315
6,160
152,955
272,579
233,070
11,280
18,665
41,197
5,908
66,990
499,040
9,140
15,040
86,935
157,644
190,685
279,753
7,803
13,452
45,829
183,817
142,713
199,242
4,637
15,672
30,590
217,786
140,178
201,580
5,537
13,846
21,4-.'3
138,307
137,884
74,837
7,359
13,772
12,754
175,389
139,831
62,618
10,000
8,921
11,546
52,669
100,544
68,204
6,595
9,289
9,551
St. Louis, Vandalia, Tern> Haute & Inl. R.R.
Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Ry. (East'n Div.)
Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific R R. (Iowa Brch.)
Chicago, Bur. & Quincy R.R. (N. & N. \V. Div.)
-Sf. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad..
67,320
434,490
18,300
22,465
72,100
68,565
426,725
16,420
23,185
62,100
10
665
93,360
379,970
20,560
19,360
83,460
3,515
96,225
367,235
18,470
25,100
129,025
1,560
1,480
95,800
469,065
13,640
20,390
100,660
2,225
5,445
61,966
525,445
11,695
27,810
119,660
2,040
34,640
Ohio River
Red, Ouachita, Arkansas, and White Rivers..
4,519,065
4,346,937
3,793,205
2,962,861
2,495,234
2,250,520
2,260,175
1,940,545
1,938,001
1,938,672
Total by rail
3,749,160
769,905
3,462,912 12,755,680
884,025 [1,037,525
1
2,285,716
677,145
1,880,559
614,675
1,652,850
597,670
1,659,950
600,225
1,301,450 1,230,676 1,155.416
639,095 707,325 j 783,256
. ' i
Total by river
The total tonnage of freights received at and
shipped from St. Louis each year from 1871 to
1880, inclusive, is indicated in the following table:
Calendar Tons Received
Year. and Shipped.
1871 4,913,102
1872 5,712,229
1873 5,984,905
1874 5,835,859
1875 5,836,840
Calendar
Tear.
Tons Received
and Shipped.
1876 6,380,150
1877 6,359,393
1878 6,995,241
1879 8,314,909
1880 10,783,589
But St. Louis is not content with these results, gi-
gantic as they are, and rapid as has been the growth
and development of the trade of which they are the
indices. Dr. Samuel Johnson, when he was witness-
ing the sale of the plant and effects of Thrale's
brewery, was asked what he could find in such a
scene to interest him. " I see all around me, sir," he
answered, ;< the potentiality of great riches." That
is what St. Louis beholds in her exceptionally great
resources and favorable site, and her people will never
rest while these things, possessions and promises, re-
main undeveloped and unutilized.
All the cotton received at St. Louis, no matter
what its destination, and no matter how consigned,
Ireaks bulk there, is handled, compressed, and re-
shipped. Thus St. Louis makes some profit out of
every bale received. Before Chicago, by means of her
railroad, lake, and canal facilities, secured the lion's
share of the east-bound carrying trade in breadstuffs
and provisions, and so had her fortune made, every
pound of Western produce and Western merchandise,
destined no matter where, up the river or down, broke
bulk at St. Louis, and that city made a profit in it.
This trade, this control of trade, St. Louis seeks once
more to restore by renewing the supremacy of what
was its source and medium, the Mississippi River.
This is not a dream. It is not one of Governor
Allen's " barren idealities." On the contrary, it is a
legitimate trade expectation, which may be realized at
almost any moment. St. Louis had this control of
trade once through superior facilities and unrivaled
cheapness of transportation. The same facilities exist
now in a much greater degree, and the cheapness also.
The opportunity to make full use of them has not
quite arrived, on account of various causes and ob-
structions.
But in the mean time certain facts stand out in
alto relievo, and none of the commercial rivals and
competitors of St. Louis can deny them.
1st. Chicago and New York dread the completion
of the Welland Canal, because by that route grain
from the former city can be delivered in Liverpool
via the Strait of Belle Isle at rates with which New
York cannot compete. In other words, Chicago, to
maintain her grain trade, must transfer it from New
York to Montreal.
2d. But that route is closed five months in every
year by ice.
3d. St. Louis is not afraid of the competition of
Montreal and the Welland Canal, because she can de-
liver grain in Liverpool cheaper by the Mississippi
River route than it can possibly be delivered by any
other route. This has been proved, and will be
1000
HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
demonstrated again still more conclusively. At
present all that need be shown in this connection is
results, accomplished facts.
SHIPMENTS OF BULK GRAIN BY RIVER FROM ST. LOUIS TO
NEW ORLEANS FOR ELEVEN YEARS, FOR EXPORT.
YEAR.
Wheat.
Corn.
Rye.
Oats.
Totals.
1880
Bushel*.
5 913 272
Buthelt.
9 804 392
r,n-<ii,-i.*.
45 000
Butheh.
ButJtel*.
15 76 9 664
1879
2,390,897
3,585 589
157424
30928
6 164 838
1878
1 S7,(i3!
2,857,056
609041
108 867
5 451 603
1877
351,453
3 578 057
171 843
4*101 353
1876
37,142
1 737 237
l'774*379
1875
13. r >,9fil
172,617
308 578
1874
365252
1 047 794
10000
1 403 o46
1873
1 373 969
1 373 96'J
1872
1,711,039
1 711 039
1871
1870
66000
309,077
3,000
312,077
66000
Mr. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., in his notable report of
1881 on the internal commerce of the country, says
that
"The regulating influence of the interior water lines is
limited and conditioned by the fact that it is operative with
respect to the internal commerce of the country mainly through
the great interior markets, and notably those of Milwaukee,
Chicago, St. Louis, Peoria, Toledo, Detroit, Louisville, and
Cincinnati. This results from the fact that the movements of
commerce are directed by the trade forces rather than by the
transportation forces of the country. In the transportation of
the surplus products of the Western and Northwestern States
to the seaboard and to foreign countries, the regulating influ-
ence of the Mississippi River is rendered effective mainly
through the markets of St. Louis, and the regulating influence
of the northern water line is rendered effective mainly through
the markets of Milwaukee and Chicago, but also to a consider-
able extent through the markets of Duluth, Detroit, and
Toledo.
" The competition of commercial forces exerts an important
influence in determining the relative magnitude of the various
trade currents of the country. The constituent elements of the
trade forces of cities are, first, a large community of intelligent
and enterprising merchants having an extensive knowledge of
commercial affairs; and, second, the requisite capital in the
hands of these men available in the pursuits of trade. These
forces at Chicago, at Milwaukee, at St. Louis, and at other com-
mercial cities of the interior arrest the surplus products of the
West in their eastward or southward movement, such products
usually reaching those cities by rail. At these points the option
is first presented of transportation by water or by rail. A thou-
sand trains a day may pass through towns situated on the lakes
or on the rivers where these agencies and facilities for carrying
on a large commerce do not exist, and yet the water lines will
exercise no perceptible influence over the rates charged on the
railroads. This is strikingly illustrated in the case of the rail-
roads which cross the Mississippi River over bridges at thirteen
different points between St. Paul and St. Louis. The river
rates exert no marked influence over the rail rates from the fact
that at very few of those points is there the controlling influ-
ence of a market for Western products with its constituent
elements, viz., a body of men educated in the mercantile pro-
fession and controlling the requisite amount of capital actually
employed in trade or invested in warehouses and other instru-
mentalities for the successful prosecution of trade. The rail-
roads are not at those points, in a commercial sense, tributary
to the river, but, on the other hand, to the extent to which the
river towns are local markets for the purchase of surplus pro-
ducts of the trans-Mississippi States, the river becomes tribu-
tary to the railroads.
" It is only at Chicago, Milwaukee, and a few other lake
ports, and at St. Louis that direct competition between rail and
water transportation presents itself to any considerable extent,
in so far as relates to the regulating influence exerted by the
two great water lines over the rates which may be charged on
railroads. The extent to which the regulating influence of the
two great interior water lines is rendered operative through the
principal primary grain markets of the country is illustrated
by the fact that of the total eastern and southern movement of
grain, amounting during the year 1880 to 400,000,000 bushels,
about 320,000,000 bushels, or 80 per cent., was marketed at the
seven primary markets of the West, viz., Milwaukee, Chicago,
Duluth, St. Louis, Peoria, Toledo, and Detroit ; and that only
about 80,000,000 bushels were shipped direct from the Western
and Northwestern States to the Atlantic seaboard.
" Of the total grain receipts at St. Louis during the year
1880, amounting to 47,697,066 bushels, 40,121,783 bushels, or
84 per cent., was received by railroads, and only 7,575,283
bushels, or 16 per cent., by river; and of the total grain re-
ceipts at Chicago during the year 1880, amounting to 165,-
855,370 bushels, it appears that 159,129,984 bushels, or 96 per
cent., was received by railroads, and that 6,725,386 bushels, or
only 4 per cent., was received by lake and the Illinois Canal.
"About 90 per cent, of the grain, 85 per cent, of the pro-
visions, and 8 per cent, of the cattle which reached Chicago
during the year 1880 were actually marketed at that point;
and of the shipment of those commodities from Chicago, 61 per
cent, of the flour and grain and only 10 per cent, of the pro-
visions were shipped by lake. No live-stock was shipped by
lake.
"About 95 per cent, of the grain, 97i per cent, of the pro-
visions, and all of the live-stock which reached St. Louis during
the year 1880 were actually marketed at that point; and of the
shipments of those commodities from that city, 49 per cent, of
the flour and grain, 38 per cent, of the provisions, and 1.28 per
cent, of the cattle were shipped by river.
"The foregoing facts indicate that almost the entire work of
gathering up the surplus products of the Western and North-