History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 6

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 6

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In 1849, the year of cholera and fire and financial depression, the voice of trade was as follows :

" We have repeatedly spoken of the great manufacturing and commereial facilities of St. Louis, and notwithstanding the mis- fortunes and afflictions of the past season, all that has been said of her wealth and constantly increasing commerce is being daily confirmed. Not a year passes but we are called upon to note new discoveries of mineral deposits, the increase or exten- sion of manufactures, or marked changes in her extensive inter- course with different portions of the country ; and by means of a wide-spread navigation, distant points, hitherto inaccessible, are being brought within the boundaries of her trade, and new commodities, either for consumption or export, are constantly arriving at her wharf. Her manufacturing interests, too, are not neglected, and there is a steady and uninterrupted increase of mills, foundries, machine-shops, and various ininor mechani- eal works, for the consumption of coal, iron, lead, grain, etc., which bid fair to become permanent and, profitable invest- ments. As a commercial city, St. Louis ranks second in the West,-a distinction attained within the past ten years,-and if her progress is onward, as is generally conceded, ten ycars more will scarcely transpire before, in many of the most important branches of commerce and manufactures, she will be classed as the first. With a population of seventy thousand, she has eon- tinued to inerease in strength and improve in size down to the present period, and in commencing the last half of the present century it may not be thought visionary to predict that before it expires she will be in direct communication with the lakes, the Eastern seaboard, and the Pacific, and thus become the cen- tral depot for the vast commerce of the two hemispheres."

In 1858, upon occasion of the establishment of the overland mail to California, we read the following in the current news notes of the day :

"Arrival of the Overland Mail .- What has hitherto been re- garded as a visionary and speculative enterprise has been estab- lished beyond all doubt, and St. Louis and San Francisco have been brought within twenty-four days' travel of each other, on a stage line, and a route which will admit of easier and safer travel than did the trip from St. Louis to Philadelphia thirty years ago.

" When the Atlantic cable was laid it was hoped that daily communication had thus been established between Europe and America. In our opinion a greater enterprise has been accomplished in the establishment of an overland mail con- necting the Atlantie with the Pacific, passing over our own soil, and affording a semi-weekly, soon to be converted into a daily, communication between the extremes of the republic. Nine years ago, when the discovery of gold in California led to the immense emigration to that State, it was regarded as an expeditious trip if made from the Mississippi to the Pacifie in eighty to one hundred days. Thousands were occupied a much longer time, and hundreds perished by the wayside. The establishment of this mail route, and of the route from St. Joseph to Utah, and thence to Sacramento, has changed the whole current of things; and it is now demonstrated, on a first trial and under adverse circumstances, that it is practicable to earry the mail to San Francisco in twenty-four days, and this will be reduced, if necessary, below twenty days."

In 1854 the city's condition and prospects were described as follows :

" Here stands a city, enjoying far beyond any other eity of the same magnitude or pretensions the advantages of that inland navigation, compared with which even our vast foreign eommerce is sinking into insignificance. It has five thousand miles of that navigation belonging peculiarly to its own waters, with ten thousand miles of coast, yielding up the products of an immense and fertile region, for which it fur- nishes a thousand outlets. To these may be added the forty thousand miles more of navigable rivers which connect with St. Louis. Soon the vast means of communication furnished in this way to our city will be enlarged by the completion of twelve hundred miles of railroad already begun or projected within the borders of the State, and connected with a network of similar roads stretching to every point of the Union, in one direction to the Gulf of Mexico, in another to the head-waters of the Mississippi, and in a third to Labrador in the far east and to San Francisco in the far west. Through her gates will pour the commerce of the Pacific, of India, and of the isles of the ocean on the one hand, and the commerce of the Atlantic and of Europe on the other. Stripping from her all which may be considered as accidental or adventitious,-all of which jealous and more fortunate rivals may by possibility deprive her,-still she is left the commercial centre, the natural mart of seven hundred thousand square miles of territory, full of min- eral and agricultural resources, and capable of sustaining in vigorous life a population of a hundred millions. .. . What shall forbid an accumulation here of inhabitants beyond any- thing of which we have authentic records, millions upon millions, until there shall have sprung up here a city contain- ing hundreds of square miles, with an area even then affording but reasonable accommodations for the vast multitudes col- lected within it,-a city with quays and warehouses stretching interminably in lines which, still unbroken, fade out of sight in the dim distance ? Of course, such visions relate to the future; but that future, midst the growth of such a nation as ours, cannot be long postponed. Meanwhile the present gen- eration will witness a progress with which it may well be con- tent. That progress, it is true, will depend much upon the

1010

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

enterprise and energies of our citizens. We are fully aware of this truth, while we repeat the expressions of our confidence in that progress. For we fully rely on it that its citizens will be true to their city and themselves, alike the thousands who are now here and the hundreds of thousands still to come hither. That may be no idle dream wbich conceives for St. Louis the most exalted destiny, which, with a just, propbetic forecast, transforms the humble hamlet of Laclede into the future me- tropolis of the New World."

In 1857 one of the " manifest destiny" writers of St. Louis (the greater part of them are of that order) wrote as follows:

"This city is beginning to receive the attention from abroad which her rapid growth, her extraordinary natural advantages, and her approaching destiny demand.

" Her present commercial importance, which is unsurpassed by any city in the valley of the Mississippi, is derived from river navigation alone; and her commerce from this source is drawn from the most extensive and the richest agricultural and mineral region in the world, scarcely one-tenth of whose wealth and latent resources are yet developed.

" There is nothing problematical therefore in this statement, the geographical fact speaks for itself. The commerce of St. Louis will be increased ten times its magnitude in less than twenty-five years from the one source wbich has made her now all that she is, from river navigation alone.

"To this advantage of river navigation, which is unequaled by any city in the world, and which must ever continue to be her most important and cherisbed source of wealth, is now being superadded that of railroad facilities. The commercial import- ance given to St. Louis by her river navigation will eventually insure to her an equal supremacy as the emporium of railroad intercommunication. The great lines of railway from the At- lantic border are all pointing to this city as a common centre, and she is sending out and receiving branches from the rich agricultural and mineral regions of the 'Great West.'

" St. Louis, from her unrivaled facilities for trade and manu- factures, will occupy in the Mississippi valley as decided a pre- eminence in commercial importance as the city of New York now commands on the Atlantic seaboard. The main current of trade on this continent must forever set in the direction of east and west. St. Louis is the heart of this great current, while commanding a controlling point on the grand highway of com- merce between the upper Mississippi and the great lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. She is in the latitude of thirty-eigbt and

a half, the most beautiful climate of the temperate zone, and her navigable waters are open to the commerce of the world during many weeks, and not unfrequently months, while more nortbern marts are bound in fetters of ice.

"To ber well-known and pre-eminent advantages as tbe centre of commerce for the Mississippi valley, which is forever assured by geographical position, St. Louis is the emporium of one of the best agricultural and mineral regions in the world, which immediately surrounds her. Southern and Central Illi- nois and the rich mineral region of Missouri pour their undi- vided wealth of trade upon this city.

"There are other cities in the Mississippi valley which are distinguished by a commanding position for extended and lucrative commerce, and by tbe indomitable energy and admi- rable enterprise of their inhabitants. St. Louis, from her cen- tral position and extraordinary facilities of approach, is especi- ally aided and strengthened by the prosperity of each one and all of these cities, while imparting to them a reciprocal benefit in the general increase of commercial facilities."

Yet, in 1881, Mr. Nimmo, of the Bureau of Statis- tics, while fully admitting the transcendent past, pres- ent, and future importance of the river navigation to the trade of St. Louis, could show that the railroads, for the time being at least, had carried off nine-tenths of this vaunted inalienable possession, the river trade. Note his figures : " A radical change," he remarks, " has taken place in the conditions governing the move- ments of commerce at St. Louis. Twenty-five years ago that commerce was almost exclusively confined to the Mississippi River and its tributaries, but at the present time railroads extend from the city in all di- rections. Each one of these railroads has become an important avenue of commerce." In proof of this, we find that of the total tonnage transferred during 1880 there was moved by river 1,981,385 tons ; moved by rail, 8,852,204 tons.

These facts, as Mr. Nimmo truly says, indicate that the commerce of St. Louis has largely accommodated itself to the facilities afforded by railroad transporta- tion. This he shows by the following table :

TONS OF FREIGHT received at St. Louis from the north, and of freight shipped from that city to the north, by river aud by rail, from 1871 to 1880, inclusive.

RECEIVED.

SHIPPED.

TOTAL RECEIPTS AND SHIP- MENTS.

CALENDAR YEAR.

TOTAL.

By River.

By Rail.

By River.

By Rail.

By River.

By Rail.

Tons.

1871

236,887

60,793

78,967

14,875

315,854

75,668

391,522

1872.

242,584

120,422

55,235

23,965

297,819

144,387

442,206

1873.

281,175

72,031

61,966

18,840

343,141

90,871

434,012

1874

231,060

137,016

95,800

20,467

326,860

157,483

484,343

1875

198,100

88,218

96,225

26,526

294,325

114,744

409,069

1876

224,860

100,087

93,360

35,269

318,220

135,356

453,576

1877

136,715

96,443

68,565

46,262

205,280

142,705

347,985

1878.

174,065

208,563

67,320

59,281

241,385

267,844

509,229

1879

221,285

224,336

66,990

65,770

288,275

290,106

578,381

1880

226,095

378,078

55,260

102,543

281,355

480,621

761,976

1011

SAINT LOUIS AS A CENTRE OF TRADE.

It appears that the tonnage to and from the north by river fell from 315,854 tons in 1871 to 281,355 tons in 1880, and that the tonnage by rail increased from 75,668 in 1871 to 480,621 tons in 1880. The

river traffic constituted about 37 per cent. of the total northern traffic during the year 1880.

The following table illustrates the point still further :

TONS OF FREIGHT received at St. Louis from the south, and of freight shipped from that city to the south, by river and by rail, from 1871 to 1880, inclusive.

RECEIVED.

SHIPPED.

TOTAL RECEIPTS AND SHIP- MENTS.

CALENDAR YEAR.

TOTAL.

By River.

By Rail.

By River.

By Rail.

By River.

By Rail.

Tons.

1871.

327,262

782,539

523,505

172,026

850,767

Tons. 954,565

1,805,332

1872

308,480

1,083,600

578,596

257,493

887,076

1,341,093

2,228,169

1873

232,460

1,107,228

562,125

275,998

794,585

1,383,226

2,177,811

1874

176,120

1,020,414

476,735

291,084

652,855

1,311,498

1,964,353

1875

134,465

1,237,205

370,275

368,357

504,740

1,605,562

2,110,302

1876.

159,485

1,151,049

383,485

313,092

542,970

1,464,141

2,007,111

1877

161,870

1,177,779

427,400

371,402

589,270

1,549,181

2,138,451

1878.

187,910

1,102,696

434,490

397,528

622,400

1,500,124

2,122,624

1879

293,480

1,455,792

499,040

496,306

692,520

1,952,098

2,644,618

1880

238,940

1,614,637

820,555

671,661

1,059,495

2,286,298

3,345,793

And the summary completes the illustration and emphasizes it :

ACTUAL TONNAGE OF ALL CLASSES OF FREIGHT SHIPPED FROM ST. LOUIS DURING THE YEARS 1878; 1879, AND 1880. SHIPPED BY RAIL.

1878.

1879.

1880.

Tons.

Per Cent. of Total.

Tons.

Per Cent. of Total.

Tons.

Per Cent. of Total.

To the north

59,281

3.15

65,770

2.88

102,543

3.72

To the south ...

397,528

21.14

496,306

21.71

671,661

24.37

To the east ...

1,029,006

54.22

1,129,820 593,820

25.98

801,767

29.10

Total by rail

1,880,559

100.00

2,285,716

100.00

2,755,680

100.00

SHIPPED BY RIVER.

To the north

67,320

10.95

9.80

55,260 820,555

5.33

To the south.

434,490

70.70

66,990 499,040 96,075 15,040

73.70

79.09

To the east.

90,400

14.70

14.19

145,295

14.00

To the west ..

22,465

3.65

2.22

16,415

1.58

Total by river.

614,675

100.00

677,145

100.00

1,037,525

100.00

TOTAL SHIPMENTS BY BOTH RIVER AND RAIL.

To the north.

126,601 832,018

5.07 33.35 44.86 16.72

132,760 995,346 1,225,895 608,860

4.48 33.59

157,803 1,492,216

4.16

To the south.

39.34

To the east.

41.38 20.55

1,325,004 818,182

34.93

To the west.

1,119,406 417,209

21.57

Total shipments.

2,495,234

100.00

2,962,861

100.00

3,793,205

100.00

And yet the river is ten times more valuable and more important to the trade of St. Louis, and especially to the city's position as a trade centre, than it was in 1857. It is needless to pursue this branch of the subject any further. The people of St. Louis have a

perfect confidence in their resources and in their abil- ity to develop them. As they contend, in speaking of their ability to utilize their stores of fuel, for ex- ample : The output of coal in England to-day will load a railroad train sixty miles long. The coal basins of

49.43

1,179,709

42.81

To the west.

394,744

20.99

Tons.

1012

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

the British Isles, when compared to the basins of this valley, are as one to twenty, or even fifty. The output here daily in the coming times will be simply enormous. The same remarks apply to the iron mountains and iron fields, lead, zinc, and copper fields. They are as fifty to onc, compared to the mineral fields of the Brit- ish Isles. The agricultural resources of this basin hold the same position. The railroad system of the British Isles has about reached its culminating point, as have all the developments of the mineral and agri- cultural resources of the island.

England has herctofore manufactured all the hard- ware and heavy goods for the nations of the world. Now, as these people will be large consumers in the future, and the great supplies of raw material, as cot- ton, iron, lead, zinc, copper, and other elements, are in this basin, it does not require the vision of a prophet to foresee that in the coming times the iron industries, tanneries, potteries, smelting-works, and a hundred other industries will grow up here and supply these foreign markets, and that St. Louis will be the im- porting, exporting, wholesale mart, general distribu- ting point, and railroad centre of this great valley of the Mississippi, or basin of the continent.

And they meet the suspicion of indifference and lack of energy in this wise, to quote from a St. Louis newspaper of the day after Christmas, 1878, --

" Are St. Louis men unprogressive ? Some of our contempo- raries out West are disposed to 'poke fnn' at St. Louis hecause of the apparently unprogressive and unenterprising character of those who are rulers in her marts of trade and hanks. Well, perhaps it is a truth that St. Louis is provokingly slow, hut it would he well to remember that St. Louis is exceedingly sure, that she does not act for to-day only, hut for all time. The truth is St. Louis is a very solid city, that the actual financial condition of her business men is a little too good for a very ag- gressive campaign for traffic. We do not say that the city is in danger of permanent injury from the too prosperous condi- tion of her citizens engaged in the business of merchandising, manufacturing, hanking, building, and other industries. St. Louis is a conservative city, that we readily admit, hut the con- servatism of our citizens does not lead them to neglect the great interests which centre here, and which have thus far led to a great and substantial development. It is true, and we readily admit it, that the rather ultra-conservatism which prevails here sometimes delays the consummation of designs necessary to the continued prosperity of the city, and, to the extent of such de- lays, retards and injures its commerce. But the good people of St. Louis are neither hlind nor destitute of ordinary intelli- gence. They know their interests, and will he very certain to guard them with jealous care."

make them clear in their full exponential value. The returns of the census of 1880 were a source of disap- pointment approaching dismay. But this was because the census of 1870 was a fraud and delusion. This fact is now conceded upon all hands, and indeed has been conclusively demonstrated. There is no reason to doubt or question the substantial fidelity of the census of 1880. As Mr. Charles W. Knapp says, in the paper elsewhere quoted,-

" Look where you may for disproof of the censns figures, you will find nothing to indicate St. Louis had much more than the 350,000 the census gives it. Inquire of the postal business and you will find that the Chicago office collected 9,000,000 pounds of mail matter and sold $1,114,000 worth of stamps, while the St. Louis figures were only 4,250,000 pounds of mail matter and $600,000 worth of stamps in the year ending with June, 1880. Count the names in the Chicago directory of 1880 and you will find 170,388, while the St. Louis directory had only 120,517. The Chicago directory contained 33.87 per cent. of its whole population, and the St. Louis directory would indicate, according to that percentage, a population of 355,822 for this city. Come nearer to the present and you will find that a school census taken in Chicago last July showed a population of 562,693, while the directory of this year shows 192,567 names, or 33.78 of the whole number reported hy the school census, while the St. Louis directory contains only 139,151 names, in- dicating a population of 412,000 on the hasis of the Chicago percentage. Doubtless this is a larger population than Boston can show, but it is not enough to advance St. Louis ahove the fifth place, nor are there any other collateral statistics that can be depended on which indicate that the Chicago figures are too high or the St. Louis too low. The relative number of pupils enrolled in the public schools of the two cities may seem to in- dicate a small difference in population, when it is found that the enrollment reported in Chicago in June, 1880, was 59,562, or 11.84 per cent. of its reported population, while the St. Louis enrollment was 51,241, which, on the basis of the Chicago per- centage, would indicate a population of 431,934 for St. Louis. I warn you that only the most short-lived joy is to he got of such a calculation, however, for in June, 1882, Chicago had 68,266, or 12.21 per cent. of the population reported by the school census, while St. Louis had only 53,050, indicating only 437,820 population on the Chicago basis. It is so absurd to say that St. Louis has only increased 5886 in the past two years that you must see there are reasons why the school statistics are unavailable as an index to population. I was told at the office of the superintendent of schools that there is really no class of statistics more inaccurate, hecause of the manifest care- lessness of the principals in their preparation, while, aside fromn that fact, the adequacy of the school accommodation influences the school enrollment even more than the increase of population, which cannot swell the school attendance if the schools are already filled to their full capacity. It is of no avail, therefore, to appeal to the school statistics to impeach the census, and we must let the figures of 1880 stand."

We have spoken of the population of St. Louis, and In spite, however, of the fact that St. Louis falls one hundred and fifty-three thousand below Chicago in population, and still more in manufac- tures and some branches of trade, as pork-packing and grain shipments, St. Louis shows more wealth, the people and natives who compose it, more than once in the course of these volumes, but the subject will admit of further discussion. The figures of the census representing the city's growth have been given above, but a word or two of explanation is needed to by ncarly ninety millions of dollars, than the rival

1013

SAINT LOUIS AS A CENTRE OF TRADE.

eity. This may be, and is in great part, from lower assessments, but that lower assessment simply means that people in St. Louis own their property while Chicago is owned by money-lenders in New York, Bos- ton, and elsewhere in the East, who have mortgages upon all the land and improvements, railroads, mills, stoeks, and bonds in Chicago, and get their percentage out of every man's earnings and income. St. Louis, moreover, is a larger produce market than Chicago, as the following table shows :

MONEY VALUE OF PRODUCE RECEIPTS, 1881.

Chicago.

St. Louis.

Flour

$4,780,285

$9,412,800

Wheat.

13,669,903

15,230,106

Corn

30,732,449

10,629,655

Oats

5,780,597

2,527,020

Rye ..

837,779

469,769

Barley

4,244,893

2,411,723

Cotton.

20,000,000

Tobacco

...

3,000,000

Hay

1,000,000

1,600,000

Potatoes

1,900,000

1,100,000

Total

$62,945,886

$66,381,073

It is the largest wheat market in the country, and the largest flour market in the world. It is, more- over, as already shown, the largest interior cotton market in the country. These are consolations for the less accelerated growth of population ; but, the fraud of 1870 eliminated, Mr. Knapp believes St. Louis to have grown more rapidly during the past decade than ever before. Thus, while St. Louis in 1800 had 957 people, in 1820 only 4598, in 1830 5852, the range with Chicago from that time forward was as follows :

1840.

1850.

1860.

1870.

1880.

St. Louis .. ..... .. 16,469

77,860

160,773

213,301

350,522

Chicago ....

4,479

29,963

109,260

298,977

503,053

(The population in 1870 is reduced 100,000 below census figures.)

On this basis the relative percentages of growth werc as fol- lows :

Chicago.

St. Louis.

Difference,

1840 to 1850

569.00

373.00

196.00

1850 to 1860

261.00

106.00

155.00

1860 to 1870

173.00

32.67

140.33

1870 to 1880

68.61

66.82

1.79

1880 to 1882

11,85

18.81

6.96

In other words, it took the population of St. Louis ten years to recover from the effects of the civil war, during all which period Chicago was expanding and developing with acceleration. Nevertheless, St. Louis has entirely recovered from that period of bouleverse- ment as respects population, and in another decade will have completely recovered as respects industrial growth and development of transportation facilities.

Mr. Knapp, however, who is as frank and candid in his statements as he is keen and searching in his analyses, warns his fellow-citizens that there are still some hindranees to progress, which must be removed

if they desire to see the city of their hopes grow and expand vigorously and equably. Prices are too high, he says.

"It is the same unvarying story, from the bootblacks and newsboys up to the merchant princes and millionaire bankers. We are overloaded with high taxcs, high money, high freights, and high labor. Rents are higher, food is higher, clothing is higher, and even fuel is higher than in either Chicago or Cin- cinnati, and so handicapped we cannot make a fair race. I know your eyes are tired of figures, but pardon me just once . more, for I think in the following table there is the suggestion of one of the first of the dead weights we must strive to remove.

"Tax rate on $100 of assessed valuation, all taxes aggregated. Boston. $1.51

Brooklyn 2.57}

Philadelphia. ... 1.90

Chicago

6.48

St. Louis. 2.58"

Cincinnati. 2.22

New York .$2.47}

Interest rates are too high also, he says, higher than in any other city of the first class ; and where interest is high, either the security is not good or money is not plenty.

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 6

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358