El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-12-04
TOMORROW NIGHT.

Tomorrow night the chamber OF
commerce will meet at the court house
for the purpose of effecting permanent
organization. Nearly two hundred
firms and individuals have signed
the membership roll pledging them
selves to pay the initiation fee and
monthly dues to carry on the work OF
the organization. An EXAMINATION OF
the signatures will show that nearly
every merchant and shipper 10 re-
presented on the list, as we'll as very
large number of progressive citizens
who cannot be SO classified. Perhaps
most important of .sll Is the election OF
q secretary.
1t is to be hoped that every signer OF
tho roll will be present In person at
the meeting or adequately represented
Some changes in the details of the or
Qanization will be discussed, per-
mapent chairman or president will be
elected. board of nine directors will
be chosen, and the members OF the
working committees designated.
This meeting, being the first formal
one, will be of the utmost Importance.
Indeed it may be said that the success
of the whole enterprise rests upon the
success of the first few weeks. For
two or three years the cry for some
sort OF effective organization among
the business men and other progress
sive citizens of the town has
been almost constant. While the
newspapers have done ,tive work in
crystalizing public sentiment on the
question, it must be admitted that
there has lain dormant in the minds OF
most of our citizens a real desire for
cooperation which only needed to be
aroused and intelligently directed in
order to make organized progress pos
sible.
The movement has all along had to
combat the stuboornest kind OF con-
servstism-that of sel6shness. It is
of course true that every business man
must look out for himself first, but that
end is often beet accomplished by
adopting g broader policy and working
for the general good. A-lot OF individ-
uals, each engaged in building up his
own business at the expense OF all
others, may succeed in building up q
town with considerable rapidity. Their
selfshness is likely to be largely Offset
BY the cleverness of their competitors,
and the result is perhaps a general
gain. But it may be set down that, given
these same men working in harmony
and with und engaged in
honest competition but invariably unit
ing when their common interests
might be involved, it will be found that
esoh individual will derive five times
the benefit from his ezertions that he
would derive if he we're ''agin' every
body" In every enterprise of moment
1t is organization that counts. Never
in the history of the world has an in
dividual succeeded in accomplishing
any great work without Organization.
Let there be heard not single word
of i'll tempered criticism of the newly
it has chance to show what it is going
to do. 1t comes with poor grace from
those who have signed the member
ship roll to begin even before orgeniza-
tion is effected, 10 lament lest the
scheme should prove uns lccessful. Let
every member enter upon the work
with q fixed determination that the
chamber of commerce must and shall
prosper and carry to completion the
various lines of action that have been
mapped out for it.
Hard, determined work must be
done. Committeeman must devote q
large part of their time to the work of
the association without any immediate
and tangible reward. There is work
to be done and no laggards are wanted.
Let every member of the chamber Of
commerce attend the meeting tomor-
row night and use every effort to have
the beet men put in the positions of
responsibility. And instead OF mag
nifying obstacles or whining when one
is encountered in the road, let US get
up q crowd and push each obstacle out
of the road as it looms up.