USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > The story of a great city in a nutshell : 500 facts about St. Louis > Part 3
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On May 27, 1896, St. Louis was swept by a tornado. The terrible storm caused the sacrifice of nearly as many lives in the town of East St. Louis, across the Mississippi, as were lost in the Mound City ; but here it was that the greatest financial damage was suffered. Though there can be no accurate record of the casual- ties caused by the tornado, it is estimated that 215 lives were blotted out and 1,000 persons injured in St. Louis. The money loss approximated $15,000,000. Reaching across the Mississippi River, where it de- stroyed part of the approach to the Eads Bridge, the terrific storm hurled itself through the south central part of the city, demolishing houses and destroying every-
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HISTORICAL.
thing in its path. For several days the community was stunned by the shock. The City Hospital had been razed and the telegraph, telephone, lighting and transit facilities of the community were crippled. But scarcely had the outside world been acquainted with the true ex- tent of the horror before St. Louis arose to the awful occasion. The work of rehabilitation started with the work of rescue and relief. Other cities offered aid, but the mayor of St. Louis declined it. Of course, assistance came in various ways, but practically through her own resources St. Louis picked her way out of the debris and ruins and reared her head aloft, prouder. more beautiful and self-reliant than before.
ST. LOUIS TO-DAY
T OO far north to be a Southern city, and too south- ern in its social characteristics to be a Northern city ; with all the polish and finish of an Eastern center, and yet toned by all the warmth and spirit and verve of a Western metropolis, St. Louis cannot be exclusively claimed by one section.
" Neither Northern nor Southern, neither Eastern nor Western, but just an all-American city." This is the description proudly applied to his home by a St. Louisan. It reflects with rare accuracy the virtues and merits of the Mound City. And current history impreg- nates St. Louis' Americanism with an important signifi- cance-a significance that will appeal to the civilized universe through the medium of a World's Fair.
St. Louis has entered the new century with Progress and Advancement for her handmaidens. Incrested on her diadem of industry is the flaming legend, " Nothing Impossible." The center of universal in- terest is gravitating toward this forward-pointing figure.
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ST. LOUIS TO-DAY.
And no historic enterprise has promised better or more extensive compensation for the interest of civilized peoples than is contained in the plans for St. Louis' World's Fair-an universal exposition in a thoroughly American city to commemorate a thoroughly American event.
On April 30, 1803, was consummated the purchase from France of the Louisiana Territory, than which no section of the United States has since done more to increase the puissance of American enterprise or to enrich the possibilities of Columbia's future. It is to celebrate the centennial anniversary of this historic event that St. Louis has taken the lead in the move- ment for a commemorative international exposition. As the city selected to be the scene of a World's Fair, surpassing in importance and grandeur any previous undertaking of its kind, St. Louis ceases to present merely local interests. It assumes the complexion of the vast domain for which the enterprise stands repre- sentative. It becomes the hub of that great, tremen- . dously resourceful and incalculably energetic area once comprised in the Louisiana purchase, but now more properly described, in an inclusive sense, as the Trans- mississippi States.
St. Louis' strides to the front rank of world's cities were accompanied by an equal advancement on the part of the great section of which she is the metropolis. In the onward career of the United States during the past century, and particularly during the current gen- eration, no region has shared more fully than the
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IN A NUTSHELL.
Transmississippi States. The census of 1890 showed that the increase of wealth in the Transmississippi section for the decade ended with that year was 470. 19 per cent, while the enhancement of property in the remainder of the Union during the same period was only 222.67 per cent. During the thirty years ended with 1890 more than half of the national increase of population of 99. 16 per cent was in the Mississippi River states and west thereof.
The Mound City itself, at the beginning of the century, finds itself in the midst of the country's cen- ters of production and population. The center of area is west of her, in Smith County, Kan. ; the center of population, constantly moving westward, was, in 1890, in Decatur County, Ind. ; the center of wheat pro- duction that year was in Hancock County; Ill., close to the border of Iowa; the center of corn production was in Lewis County, Mo. ; and the center of manufac- tures was near Canton, O., pursuing a westerly trend.
But the relatively phenomenal growth of St. Louis cannot be better indicated than by the fact that in forty years its assessed valuation has increased nearly eight fold. In 1860 the municipal assessor's rolls showed property valued at $57,537,415; in 1880 the figures were $160,493,000; in 1896, $345,940,150; and in 1900, $380,779,280. Even more remarkable is the tremendous swelling of the volume of St. Louis' manu- factures. In 1860 the value of the city's manufactured products aggregated $27,000,000. Since then they have increased more than 1000 per cent, so that for
CITY HALL.
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ST. LOUIS TO-DAY.
the year 1901 their value becomes beyond the accuracy of computation, and well-informed men hazard the estimate that the amount will approach a billion dol- lars. In 1880 the value of these products was $114,- 333,375 ; in 1895 it was $300,000,000, and in 1900 it was $350,000,000.
It would be difficult for the most fanciful imagination to conceive a picture of progress equal in scope and extent to that offered by the St. Louis of to-day as compared with the trading post founded by Pierre La- clede Liguest. From a settlement of a few scores of inhabitants it has worked its way by bounds and leaps into the fourth rank of American cities, with a popula- tion in round numbers of 600,000. This count does not include adjacent towns and residence districts reached by electric cars. Counting these, the popula- tion of St. Louis approaches the 800,000 mark. The remote trading post of the eighteenth century has be- come a trade, financial, manufacturing, industrial and social center whose influence and importance are felt in the furthermost circles of civilization. St. Louis trade-marks penetrate to the antipodes and find their way to Kamschatka ; they are sought in the marts of Europe and are found as well in the shops of the Cau- casus and the Ind ; they carry fixed values to the trader of Africa and are common in the markets of South Amer- ica. St. Louis capital has quickened the pulse of in- dustry in every quarter of the globe ; St. Louis manu- factures are sold to every people of every tongue who barter and trade with civilization ; St. Louis banks and
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financial institutions rate in every counting-house of the world as first-class, solid institutions.
With a people whose intelligence and virtues are re- flected by social standards than which there are none higher or more liberal in Christendom ; with an enter- prise and thrift that are typified by the marvelous growth of the city herself ; with a wealth that finds its proof not only inside her corporate limits but on the bourses of Europe as well as in the stock exchanges of all America ; with a business conservatism that has given her name to proverbial use among financiers ; with every adjunct of the highest order of civilization- schools, art galleries, universities, libraries, musical conservatories, churches, hospitals, technical acade- mies, scientific exhibits and an annual exposition and fair, St. Louis is proud of her distinction as the most American of American cities.
And in this pride, confident of her unfailing capa- bilities and resources, dowered with the trust of her sister cities and inspired by her eager interest of a na- tion and the attention of a whole world, she is prepar- ing to set the crowning jewel in her crest-the record of the Louisiana Purchase Commemorative Exposition of 1903.
FREE CITY OF THE WEST
T HERE is no feature of community life that holds forth more importance than that of the common government. In this regard, St. Louis is at once unique and interesting. It is an independent muni- cipality, sometimes termed the Free City of the West.
In an era of intermingling judiciaries and executive functions, St. Louis is peculiarly untrammeled by any of the elaborate technicalities that go to confuse the corporate entities of most cities with the workings of county affairs. The Mound City has its own judiciary, its own legislature and its own executive, re-enforced by an ample constabulary and all those elements that belong to and are necessary for the maintenance of law, order and security. Indeed, St. Louis is unus- ually fortunate in its method of municipal government. The city administration is modeled after the best plan of government in the world-that of the United States. There are three divisions of authority : the legislative, judicial and executive. The first named is vested in
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IN A NUTSHELL.
two houses-fashioned after the national Congress- and the executive. The lower House is composed of Delegates, the apportionment of whom is fixed at one for each ward. The upper chamber or City Council is composed of twelve councilmen chosen from the city at large. The judicial authority is exercised by circuit, criminal, correctional, police and justice courts, the territorial jurisdictions of which are co-ex- tensive with the city limits. The executive authority is vested in the mayor, who serves for four years, as do also the Councilmen, while the Delegates are chosen biennially.
St. Louis has its own shrievalty, its own coroner, its own assessor, its own collector, its own constables and all of those offices which in other cities are com- pelled to divide their attentions between county and municipal matters. Beside these there are located in St. Louis the headquarters of the United States Circuit Court for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, the United States District Court, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals and the St. Louis Court of Appeals. The position of the city and its importance as the metropo- lis of the state have caused the headquarters of various officials to be established here instead of at the state capital. Among these offices headquartered in St. Louis are those of the State Board of Health, the In- spector of Oil's, the State Grain Inspection Depart- ment, the Excise Commissioner, the Barbers' Examin- ing Board, the Department of Beer Inspection, the Fish Commissioner, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Tobacco Inspector and the Butterine Inspector.
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FREE CITY OF THE WEST.
No community is desirable for residence purposes unless it offers those safeguards for peace and security which every householder demands from a well regu- lated government. In these features of municipal life, St. Louis is peculiarly fortunate. Its police depart- ment has for decades enjoyed a reputation ominous to evil-doers and gratifying to law-abiders. Its detective department has run down the culprits in some of the most mysterious cases contained in criminal annals. The annual expenditure for the police force approxi- mates $1,265,000, representing the salaries of 850 regular patrolmen, 250 probationary patrolmen, twelve captains, twelve lieutenants, thirty-five turnkeys, ten patrol wagon drivers, 100 sergeants and twenty-five detectives, beside the chief and assistants chief of po- lice, chief and assistant chief of detectives, and the superintendent of the Bertillon system. The depart- ment was reorganized under a state law on August 21, 1899.
Every public need and convenience has been pro- vided for, and St. Louis has a water supply double in capacity to the present consumption. The source of this supply is in the Mississippi River. The water- works became municipal property in 1835. The water is drawn chiefly from the river at the Chain of Rocks, at the extreme northern limit of the city. From the settling basins it flows by gravity to a system of reservoirs, whence it is pumped through standpipes and the distributing conduits to the main reservoir. The main conduit is seven miles long, with a carrying capacity of 100,000,000 gallons per day. There are
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IN A NUTSHELL.
additional pumps for high-service needs. There are more than 4,000 water-meters in the city and fully 500 fire hydrants.
Ranking among the best fire departments in the world is St. Louis' corps of flame-fighters. Indeed, the Mound City's fire department service has won the encomiums of officials the world over. Its best com- mendation is found in its surpassingly effective record and in the low fire insurance rates that are granted on St. Louis buildings. The municipal fire department embraces thirty-nine engine companies, twelve hook and ladder companies and two water towers. Its sys- tem of control is sedulously maintained on a basis of merit so regulated as to procure the best possible re- sults. Every appliance that modern ingenuity can suggest to facilitate the work of the fire-fighters has been added to the department, among the valuable adjuncts of which is a telegraph signal service that en- ables the transmission of alarms with the certain accu- racy of infallible mechanism and with the marvelous rapidity of electricity. In addition, there is the Sal- vage Corps, maintained by the local underwriters for the purpose of minimizing property losses. This en- ergetic brigade works with the fire laddies, but not to extinguish the flames. Dashing into burning struc- tures, its members exert themselves to protect goods from damage by water. Tarpaulin sheets are thrown over the more valuable contents of buildings, while as- bestos spreads are employed wherever they are avail- able. Altogether, St. Louis' fire department is a model organization.
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FREE CITY OF THE WEST.
However amply St. Louis be provided with govern- mental agencies for the security of the community, its correctional and eleemosynary institutions are no less generous in proportions and capacities. In addition to the municipal establishments, there are scores of charitable concerns, instituted and operated by organ- izations of every character and purpose. In addition to the City and Female Hospitals, the municipality numbers among its institutions the Quarantine and Small-pox Hospital, the Insane Asylum, the City Poor- house, the Workhouse and the House of Refuge. Among these the Female Hospital stands out as an un- usual eleemosynary establishment, conducted, as it is, exclusively for women.
Asylums, convents, hospitals, dispensaries, havens of refuge for unfortunates, homes for orphans, and shel- tering abodes for all manners and kinds of frailer per- sons-deaf, dumb, blind, crippled and destitute-are distributed throughout the city to the number of more than 150. Nearly all of these are conducted by or- ganizations solely intended for charitable purposes. Others form adjuncts to societies with more material aims, but all serve the one end of aiding and caring for the unfortunate. The fact that there is very little actual poverty in St. Louis is explained by the sys- tematic work done by the Provident Association, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the Hebrew Relief Society, three great charitable organizations conducted respectively by the Protestants, Catholics and Hebrews.
A FINANCIAL FORTRESS.
P EACE hath Her victories no less renowned than War." In reckoning the world's military resources, no asset stands forth with a show of more intrinsic importance than Britain's possession of Gibraltar: That rock-ribbed, rock-boweled, rock- rooted fortress gives to England a strength of leverage that, in the light of war values, is possessed by no holding of any other power.
What Gibraltar is to Britain's political puissance, St. Louis is to America's financial solidity. The art and ingenuity which have improved the strength of the natural fortress that frowns above the Straits of Gibral- tar, can scarcely deserve a moiety of the credit due the integrity, energy, enterprise and well-tempered con- servatism which have established in the world's great- est republic its financial Gibraltar. The battlemented structure is a sinister monument to War's horrors ; the great city, no less a factor of national strength, is a smiling promise of beneficent resource. A whole world
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A FINANCIAL FORTRESS.
shudders at the ugly menace of the fortress' guns ; a happy people count with conscious pride the vast ele- ments of progress and prosperity that are garnered in the bustling thoroughfares of the great city. The Gib- raltar of the Rocks is the world's greatest concentra- tion of destructive agencies ; the Financial Gibraltar of the Western Plains is the world's greatest concen- tration of constructive capacities.
In everything that pertains to finances, St. Louis can be fully described only with superlative terms. Statisticians assert that the per capita wealth of the Mound City is the largest of any municipality in the world. This would mean that in real and personal property it is the wealthiest community that the sun brightens. With a population of 600,000, it has an assessed valuation of $380,779,280. The rate of as- sessment is 60 per cent of the real value, giving the city a wealth, fairly estimated, of about $700,000,000.
But it is not only in the holdings of real and personal estates that St. Louisans find the firmest anchorage for the financial superiority of their city. The solidity of its institutions, the world-noted integrity of its busi- ness men and the commercial confidence that its name inspires throughout the country win St. Louis' pre- eminence. Monetary panics may rock and shake the money centers of other sections ; failure and re- verse may paralyze the trade of other cities ; financial syncope may come to the mercantile life of other places ; but amid the crashing of values and the tum- bling of prices, St. Louis has always presented, will al- ways present, the firm front of an unimpaired credit.
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No better instance of this could be given than by the records of the money stress that perturbed the United States during the early part of the decade just ended. Despite the gloom and hysterià that pervaded business circles from one end of the nation to the other, and even communicated their distressful influ- ences to the financial activities of Europe, the progress of the Mound City continued. Arrested in a measure, of course, by the stoppage of trade throughout the im- mense industrial and agricultural area of which it is the hub, the severest shocks were not sufficient to to- tally suspend the city's onward march.
The percentage of failures was smaller and the de- preciation of values less extensive in St. Louis than in any other of the American business centers. And when the revival did come, and forges flashed again with the fires of renewed industry, and the nation ex- ulted in a new era of prosperity, it was St. Louis that bounded to the forefront of commercial expansion. It was she who rode the crest of the onsweeping current of business rehabilitation, while the strength of her in- vestments and the support of her patronage bore on to restored solvency and success her vast tributary sec- tions.
Capitalists of other cities and other countries have marveled at the stability of St. Louis' resources and, marveling, sought the reason. Their answer is con- tained in the balance of her business men and the equi- poise of her financiers. With a conservatism that is a contrast beside fogyism, they are always ready to fos-
UNION STATION.
IS HOTHA
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A FINANCIAL FORTRESS.
ter new enterprises and engage in new ventures. Nov- elty does not deter them ; all they require is that the investment be legitimate and reasonably safe.
"Gilt-edge " is the description given St. Louis se- curities in every exchange and bourse of the world. The public and private credit of the city has come to constitute a financial maxim. It is the index to the sources of the community's money strength. St. Louis has for generations stood in the lexicon of finances for soundness. A merchant in the remotest corner of the trade world is predisposed in favor of a credit transac- tion with a dealer whose environment bespeaks integ- rity. For this reason, it has been easy for St. Louis capitalists and wholesalers to reach out for the custom, concessions and business of the furthest regions. St. Louis capital has flowed through the channels of de- velopment into South America, Africa, Asia, and even far-off Australasia.
It is no wonder, then, that the enormous task of financing a World's Fair, the disbursements in connec- tion with which are practically certain to reach the tremendous aggregate of $50,000,000, is confidently intrusted to the business leaders of such a city. As the name, St. Louis, attached to any asset, is a certain warrant of worth, so the fact that St. Louis is to devote its energies and genius to the Louisiana Purchase Cen- tennial Exposition is a guaranty of the success of that enterprise.
At the end of the fiscal year 1899-1900 the out- standing bonded debt of the municipality of St. Louis
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IN A NUTSHELL,
amounted to $18,916,278.30, beside $189,315.59 ad- vanced out of the treasury in anticipation of the rev- enue for the sinking fund for the year 1900-1901, giv- ing a total indedtedness of $19,105,593.89. The re- duction of the debt during the year amounted to $397,- 790.92. The annual interest charges on the munici- pality's debt outstanding amount to only $778,409.28, or an average of 4. 115 per cent.
In the presence of these figures it is instructive to recall that an issue of St. Louis 32 per cent bonds, un- der date of June 1, 1898, was sold at $1,045.42 per $1,000 bond.
The total taxes in St. Louis amount to $1.95 on the $ 100 on a basis of a 60 per cent valuation. On a cash valuation, this would mean $11. 70 per $1,000. These figures indicate that St. Louis, as a municipal corpora- tion, will have little difficulty in floating the $5,000,- 000 bond issue projected in connection with and for the advancement of the coming World's Fair.
THE SINEWS OF TRADE.
A S THE meteorologic table indicates the climate of a section, so the banks and trust companies of St. Louis point out the financial strength of the city. The solidity of the community's business interests is reflected by the conservatism of the institu- tions which handle them.
The financial institutions of the city began the year 1901 under conditions most auspicious, and the Clear- ing House records day by day and week by week have told a story of most gratifying growth. A marked feature of the development has been the increase of the number of trust companies and the augmentation of the resources of these great enterprises. Looking back from the beginning of the year, Mr. T. A. Stoddart, Manager of the St. Louis Clearing House, reviews the financial record of 1900 most interestingly. " Bank clearings from the opening to the closing of the year," he says, " were larger than those of the previous year.
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IN A NUTSHELL.
The total clearings for 1900 were $1,688,849,494, ex- ceeding by $50.501,291 those of 1899, which was the largest previous year on record. In the past year $1,985,500 was paid in dividends to stockholders by the banks and trust companies of St. Louis, of which $474,000 was paid by the twelve State banks, $934,000 by the seven National banks, and $577,500 by four trust companies. In 1899 the amount paid in dividends by these same institutions was $1,478,000, making the increase for the year $507,500."
Since Mr. Stoddart reviewed the past year's record, four new trust companies have been added to the list, making seven great institutions, and all of them are in a flourishing condition.
The coming of the trust companies may be said to have marked the beginning of a new era in the mone- tary history of the metropolis of the great Mississippi Valley, and the influence of these great industries has come to be almost national.
The nineteen Clearing House Association banks and their $16,900,000 of capital are as follows: National Bank of Commerce, $5,000,000 ; Boatmen's Bank, $2,000,000 ; State National Bank, $2,000,000 ; Mer- chants-Laclede National Bank, $1,400,000 ; Third Na- tional Bank, $ 1,000,000; Continental National Bank, $1,000,000 ; Mechanics' Bank, $1,000,000 ; Fourth National Bank, $1,000,000; Franklin Bank, $600,- 000 ; American Exchange Bank, $500,000; German Savings Institution, $250,000 ; Northwestern Savings Bank, $200,000 ; International Bank, $200,000 ; South
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