Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/629

MINNESOTA. is becoming relatively less important owing to the development of railroads, and the former is becoming rapidly more important with the industrial development of the North. The possibility of lake transportation has been largely responsible for the development of the State's mining industry, and Duluth has become one of the leading lake ports. It has immense shipments of ore, grain, and lumber. But few regions of the country are better supplied with railroads than are the southern and western parts of the State. Minneapolis-Saint Paul is the objective point of most of the great lines northwest of Chicago, and the transcontinental Great Northern and Northern Pacific cross the State from east to west. Among the lines which have a large mileage in the State are the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul; the Chicago and Northwestern; the Chicago, Saint Paul and Omaha; the Eastern Railway of Minnesota; and the Minnesota and Saint Louis. The total mileage increased from 1092 miles in 1870 to 5545 in 1890 and 6996 in 1900. The State has a railroad and warehouse commission which hears and passes judgment upon complaints, with due notice to carriers to arrange a tariff of freight in pursuance thereof. Upon refusal of the carriers to adopt such rates the commission publishes the same.

The first banking law of Minnesota was passed in 1858, at the first session of the Legislature; the law was amended in 1878, placing the banks under the control of the public examiner, who is ex-officio superintendent of banks. The law was amended and made more stringent in 1881, 1889, and 1895. Banking business in the State was very unprofitable at first, and all the State banks organized in 1858-68 were discontinued. In 1878 there were 17 banks, and in 1898 161 banks in operation. Savings banks are regulated by the law of 1879, which placed them under the jurisdiction of the Bank Commissioner. Trust companies were authorized in 1883, but are prohibited from doing a general banking business. In 1902 there were 128 national banks, with an aggregate capital of $13,323,000; surplus, $2,952,000; cash, etc., $6,984,000; loans, $65,646,000; and deposits, $65,797,000; 238 State banks with capital of $7,360,700; surplus, $1,236,055; cash, $3,220,534; loans, $38,100,783; and deposits, $41,283,240.

The Constitution of 1857 prohibited debts for public improvement, and prohibited any State debt above $250,000. But an amendment in 1858 enabled the State to issue $5,000,000 of 7 per cent. bonds to lend to the railroads of the State under guaranty of first mortgage bonds. Less than half of these bonds were sold, the railroads defaulted the interest on their mortgage bonds, and the State acquired their property by foreclosure. Nevertheless the State was unable to meet the interest payment, and in 1860 the debt on these bonds was repudiated. The obligations were resumed in 1881, when the old bonds were exchanged for new ones at the rate of 50 per cent. This gave the State a debt of $4,253,000, which was quickly reduced in the eighties, amounting to $2,154,000 in 1890 and $2,009,000 in 1901. The original constitutional prohibition of State debts is in force and no further extension of the debt is possible. The budget rose rapidly from less than a million in 1870 to more than five millions in 1890, and in 1901 the receipts amounted to $8,901,184, and disbursements to $6,900,841, leaving a balance of $2,000,343. The receipts included the permanent school fund, $1,258,127; the general school fund, $1,906,670; the general university fund, $429,479; and the revenue fund, $4,457,708.

The population of Minnesota by decades is as follows: 1850, 6077; 1860, 172,023; 1870, 439,706; 1880, 780,773; 1890, 1,301,826; 1900, 1,751,394. The rank of the State has risen every decade, standing nineteenth in 1900. The largest absolute gain was in the decade 1880-90. From 1890 to 1900 the increase amounted to 34.5