El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-11

What Two
Clubs Did.

$780, .$
The following articles, reprinted
from the Dallas News and the Globe
Democrat, are deeply suggestive.
At the recent annual meeting of the
Dallas Commercial Club
President Wakefield read his annual
| report as follows:
To the members of the Dallas Com
mercial club: Gentlemen-In pres
enting to you my report for the year
1 will only touch upon last years
work in q general way, asking you TO
look to the secretary's report for
more detailed record of the labors OF
| this club.
The year was opened by distinct
advantage for the club in the election
of your secretary. but during the fret
few months of the year q peculiar
situation was developed in that you
were blindly cropping for a head, ana
if any good effect resulted from your
| final choice it must be ascribed to the
charm of my being the third president
elected within the year, and not to my
| individual efforts, which, for lack OF
time, I could not give you in that
measure which your organization de-
served. You are, however, indebted
| to YOUR directory and the very few OF
your mem bers who assisted them for
very successful year, but you are more
| indebted to, and to be congratulated
upon, the better condition OF the times,
which this year gave US opportunities
for success that NO amount OF eHort eX-
pended to previous years could
achieve.
The club undertook very few of the
MANY hundreds of impracticable
schemes that were submitted to them,
but hope that the incoming directory
will avoid even the few mistakes in
this regard which your present board
has made. Stating our history briefly,
we have undertaken with considerable
success and through several channels,
the elimination of an undefnable, In
definite yet strong undercurrent OF dis
trust between the farmer and the mer-
chant. We have steadily decreased
this feeling and made OF Dallas q better
market of grain, produce and cotton.
The work of the cotton committees mas
been of incalculable benefit to all c1t1-
zens of Dallas. In the year before
this committee increased the receipts
of cotton in this city 100 per cent and
have added to that total this year over
80 per cent, we having received IL
this market for the year 1898 over 49,
900 bales of cotton, aggregatlng very
nearly 100000.
matters of legislation that were for or
against our business interests and have
indirectly achieved some success. Inc
club, you understand, Is nOn-political
in that it knows no party and has not
nor can it take any interest In pure
questions of policy, but in matters that
affect purely the business interests OF
this section it has rightly taken action:
One thought has overshadoWed all
others in the business of this club and
that is to advertise Dallas and its de-
sira bility as manufacturing and COM
mercial center, and many things that
have been undertaken with no direct
and immediate result have had the
effect of calling attention OF the world
to this metropolis OF Texas.
The club undertook a Fourth OF July
celebration which it carried to mag |
nificeut success, but as this Is an annual |
affair with us, It needs no further COM |
ment. We assisted in the celebration |
of Labor day, bringing q great many
people to the city, and through our in
strumentxlity the first few days OF the
the fair: that have heretofore shown
but a sparse attendance, made this year |
in many thousands of dollars OF gain to |
this worthy institution as we'll as to
the business men of Dallas. This re-
suit was brought about by democratic |
day and other special days, interest in |
which was worked up by this club, and |
by the more potent factor of more sat- |
isfactory railroad rates than have ever
before been obtained.
The meeting of the Shriners here in
June was q great advertisement Tor
Dallas and great credit is due some OF
the memb ers of the club who brought
1t about.
This club has distributed about TO-
600 'sBird's-eye Views of Dallas"
where thew would do the most good,
and in October last established the
for public library which is
now we'll under way under the charge
Of separate organization.
We were instrumental in getting
the second regiment mustered out at
this point.
We got the consent of the Trunk
officials to bring their pas
senger trains in in the morning and
out at night. We have awakened in
terest in the question of annexing ad-
Joining well-settled territories and,
although the citizens of Oak Cliff vot-
ed against annexation, we think our ef-
forts in this direction will some day
We are now in Communication with
svery organized body in the United
States, looking toward the bringing of
their national conventions to Dallas.
One of the most notable events coming
that of the banquet rendered to Gov
elect Sayers. From this and other
causes arose the movement toward the
of more cotton mills in
Dallas. This movement now rests in
The hands of a committee composed of