San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-06-02
SHORT STOPS.
What the People are Saying.
[ BY Col. JAS. P. NEwCOMB.


tBY Col. JAS. P. NEwCOMB.
What is it that keeps San Anto-
nio up, is becoming an interesting
query with all our thinking peo-
pie. We might dismiss the subject
by Jumping it all and saying that
it is our population and wealth,
bat what keeps up our population
and maintains our wealth is a
question that occurs at this point.
We are strictly community of
merchants, we can only exist upon
the patronage of our customers,
who in turn must draw their SUBJ
stance from some source OF wealth,
beyond our limits.
We are a community of consum-
ers, and when we reach the point
where we consume more than we
send abroad, when we begin to live
upon each other, times become
dali, money becomes scarce, bust
ness assumes stagnant condition.
Have we reached that point, and
is this the bottom cause Of our
troubles? | think not, notwith-
standing the fact that the loss of
millions in our wool and stock pro-
duction has brought us close up to
the crisis where even our most con-
sentative citizens have felt the
shock of the dull times and have
been eager to do something to ward
off impending dangers even large
subsidies to proposed railroads
have been promoted with eager
ness.
Railroads promote commerce,
open up new fields for industry,
quicken dead towns, make it easy
for people to travel to commercial
centers, and build up the waste
places.
Railroads open up new markets,
but at the same time our fifty
thousand people furnish a tempt.
ing market to other communities
and we would soon be drained of
our wealth if we had nothing to
exchange for the products we need,
and the railroads would be haul
ing our people away instead Of our
products and our merchandise.
Now, if we can save the money
we pay out for some of the simplest
necessities of life, we will increase
the margin upon the profits of our
merchandise; we will keep our
money at home.
l will cite one industry that
helps keep San Antonio up, as suf-
ficient illustration for this Short
Stops. Before our breweries were
established, it was estimated by
careful man, that San Antonio pur-
chased for the consumption and
trade of San Antonio over $35O,OOO
of st. Louis beer annually.
Beer is one of the necessities of
life in a large cosmopolitan COM
munity, especially this commun-
ity. When we were paying out
this large sum our city was small
er than it is now, and we were in
the,flourishing days of wool and
cattle, of railroad building, Of Mex
lean trade, and for our population
enjoyed exceptionally flush times.
What cared we il beer cost half
million and we had to charter ves-
sells to visit Bremen to get it, why
we would have it.
Fortunately ourgreat market for
beer induced our own capitalists
and capitalists from abroad to VEN
ture to put up breweries. Many
thought that the industry would
not be successful, because we did
not have the requisite material for
the production. An enterprising
brewer from Chicago visited our
city and shipped a barrel of our
river water to his brewery for trial;
upon this hung the fate of the
enterprise; the water was pro-
nounced excellent, and brewery
was started upon the modern en-
larged style. The present City
brewery is the outgrOwth from
this enterDrise The magnificent