corporations engaged in the iron regions in developing and mining the iron ores and for leases and contracts, amounts to $177,425. The total direct revenue which has come, therefore, into the treasury of the State from the development of the iron ores of the state reaches, at the close of 1894, the sum of $433,247. This does not include the revenue derivable from increase of other taxable property, such as new railroads and their earnings, or the other manufactures and industries that follow in the wake of the mining industry; nor does it include the substantial increase in population and in political power which is the secondary result of this development.

In conclusion, it is only necessary to call attention to the varied opportunities which still remain for the capitalist to further develop the northeastern part of the state. The first of these opportunities is the manufacture of this ore into pig iron, and the use of the pig iron in the construction of the many articles into which iron erters. At present this ore is freighted east, and the articles which the country needs in great quantities, made perhaps from the very iron which our ore produced, are freighted back again. The citizen of Minnesota pays the freight in both directions, in the former in the reduced profits at which our ores are sold, and in the second in the increased cost at which the manufactured articles are purchased. Gradually, of course, this anomaly will disappear by the establishment of manufactories at home. The sooner it disappears the sooner shall we reap the full benefits which we ought to enjoy from the existence of this ore within our borders.

The northeasterly part of Minnesota is abundantly supplied with available water power, and is covered with a forest which, with pine, consists also of much hardwood and poplar. The hardwoods consist of birch of two sorts and several varieties of oak. This combination of wood and water power will result, by and by, in the establishment of such manufactures as are now common in New England and in New York state.

If we should attempt to forecast the future, guided by this review of the natural resources of the northeastern part of the state, we would be led to expect, within less than a halfcentury, such a concentration of industry and of population in the region north and west of lake Superior as would make it the leading manufacturing portion of the state. If the rest of

the state shall make equally rapid growth, in those elements of strength for which they are now pre-eminent, Minnesota will be one of the leading States of the central portion of the Union, and her influence will be felt powerfully in the councils of the Nation.

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THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE MINNESOTA

HISTORICAL SOCIETY.*

BY THE PRESIDENT, HON. ALEX. RAMSEY.

Among the officials of the new Territory of Minnesota, appointed by the President and selected from the older states, there came Charles K. Smith, from Hamilton in the State of Ohio, as its Secretary.

Having, I imagine, been connected with the Historical Society of his native state, he saw the importance of early collecting the past and current history of the new region, and imbued, with his ideas on the subject, a number of the public men who were about here at that time. The Legislature, when it met in September, readily assented to the passage of a bill organizing the Historical Society of Minnesota. This was in 1849, and ever since that early date it has zealously collected and preserved the traditions, records, and publications, of the Territory and State.

Its beginning was modest, as you may well imagine, but it was in the charge of men who realized that it was not alone Minnesota's material growth which was to be considered, but the development of the intellectual life of the community as well. In this spirit they carried on their work, and although their encouragement was but slight in those early days, their labors have been among the strongest of the agencies which have built up the character of the state, and have secured to us the sympathy and interest of a large body of men, not only in this country but in foreign lands, who cherish the same aims as those which led to the establishment of this Society.

An address at the Annual Meeting of the Society, Jan. 13, 1896.