San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-22
suILoINe AND MANUFACTURES,

much capital as population. Mouths
to feed, bodies to be clothed and
sheltered, markets in these mouths
and bodies for all our products;
money flowing into all channels of
trade from all hives of industry; these
are the real sources of our prosperity
and therefore the real needs of our
city. Speculative capital has its
uses, but it also has its limitations
and these limitations are speedily
reached. Creative capital has its use
and an infinitely longer leash of its
usefulness. Cheap homes and at
tractive for our people are needed and
the enterprise that provides these is
a valuable factor in the sum total of
peoples prosperity. To provide such
homes beyond the probability or even
possibility of their requirement is not
wisdom. A wise provision for a PEG
ple's future need is necessary, but
provision beyond a possible
need for years to come is
wastage alike OF capital and
energy; and, only beneficial in that
1t gives, in preparing such homes,
employment to labor. San Antonio
h as not gone far enough in providing
cheap homes, and attractive for her
people; and more homes for men of
moderate means, ON terms of payment
that will accommodate those whose
means of purchase Is their daily saw
ings, are required. San Antonio has
laid out the ground upon which to
build all the homes that she can posi-
bly, occupy for quarter Of century
to come and possibly for century,
and it would be most wise to diver
atten ton and energy into the other
channel, the building channel. Res
licences without occupants are scarce;
business houses of all kinds are en-
quired for and none are to be had;
offices to rent are demanded-all
showing that the real need lies in the
direction of building. City lots with
out buildings upon them are poor
property, save for real estate dealers.
City lots with unoccupied buildings
upon them are worse property, be-
cause they represent just so much adj
ditional, unemployed capital. 1t should
be our aim in building up our city to
build in citizens; to create an indus
trial population whose wages shall
pay for these houses, of which we
have SO few, that we should build
upon these lots of which we have 30
many. But, while a city on paper.
a city of un built upon lots, is bad and
city of unoccupied dwellings is
worse, a city of unemployed people is
! worst of all. To the wsstage of cap
ital and labor must be added the
wastage of humanity itself. This city
wants an employed population. 1t
wants to increase that population and
increase it as rapidly as her wisest eff
forts can accomplish this, and in order
to do this she must increase the ave-
nues of employment. Every suburban
addition to this city has been valuable
to the city just in proportion to the
amount of labor it has supplied, the
wages it has paid and the money it
has expended in material for con-
structions of all kinds. The time
has come when labor must be other.
wise supplied. There is a limit to
the employment of labor, and it can
not be long supplied beyond the peri
Cd in which it is profitable to the
capital that co-operates with it. La
Dor must cease upon these sub
urban additions when such labor
cannot be profitably employed there,
and it cannot be so employed
longer than the sales of such property
continue, and such sales are necessa-
rily limited by the available pOpula-
ton to occupy the houses that shall
he built upon such properties. Some
creative industries must Of necessity
be organized and successfully opera
ted in order to furnish employment
for the additional population for
; whom these suburban additions are
: largely laid out. The work of prepar
: ing the ground has been euergetical
! ly carried on. Let the work of organ
izing industries for the employment