Fact Sheets re St. Paul, Minnesota

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA TRUMAN (703 alt., 271, 606 pop.) ANDREW "NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS LIBRARY SERVICE" Capital of Minnesota GOVERNMENT People: When immigrants by the thousands and tens of thousands poured into Minnesota, it was the Germans and Irish who stayed in St. Paul to make up the main body of the population. To them is due much of the credit for the city's culture, its love of music, its fondness for politics, and for the dominant position of the Roman Catholic religion. Among the Germans were physicians trained in what were then the best scientific schools in the world, and they contributed largely to the city's high standards of medical practice. Germans too were responsible for the early establishment of music clubs and have played a generous part in the city's widespread interest in every phase of that art as evidenced by its enthusiastic support of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and its own Civic Opera Association. To Germans, again, St. Paul owes its breweries. The professional men among the Irish here as elsewhere turned largely to the law and politics. The Scandinavians came to St. Paul later, and in fewer numbers than to Minneapolis, and thus played a relatively small part in determining the permanent color of the city. As in Minneapolis, numerous small foreign groups recall their national customs in occasional festivals, and here the International Institute sponsored by the Y.W.C.A. has done much to promote civic interest in its foreign-born and to preserve Old World cultural traditions for the younger generation. Although St. Paul is pre-eminently a Catholic city, its 248 churches represent 28 denominations with 19 additional classed as undenominational. Several of the Catholic churches hold services in English and in German, French, Bohemian, Italian, and Polish. The Rumanians, Russians, and Syrians have their own buildings in which the service is that of the Greek Orthodox Church. Industry and Government: The railroad's influence began to be felt in the late sixties, and by the seventies the railroads had materially reduced river traffic. But by that time St. Paul, with 62 jobbing firms and a wholesale grocery larger than any in Chicago, was absorbed in its dream of becoming the great railroad center of freight transfer and distribution for all of northwest America, and had every confidence in Jim Hill's plans to make it the capital of an empire. Most persons who know the Northwest regard St. Paul as a definitely conservative city, and it cannot be denied that it occasionally displays a complacency doubtless engendered by railroading and banking -- both conservative businesses -- and by its distinction as the seat of govern- ment. Yet it has shown a far greater disposition toward experiment than most Midwestern cities. It was the first city of its class to adopt successfully the commission form of government; in its courthouse and Women's City Club