The St. Louis Republic., 1904-12-18

world. is losing its prestige. From a city
6: dynamic energies during the Worlds
s.;air period. 1t has iapsed into q center o:
comparative listlessncss- AS a populous
community Is making scarcely any prog
ross.
Scores o. :ts factories have abandoned
Il and sought more desirable locations
elsewhere. MANY OF its men Of wealth
have eSpatriatcd themselves from the
scene of their earlier successes. The ton
mage Of its river has dwindied pitifully.
Its real estate has not been IN healthy
demand since 1892 although in this par
ucular there are signs of Improvement
lately.
its Board OF Trade and other interests
are SO alarmed by its slump in grain trade
that the railroads have been appealed TO
for help. There are more For Rent"
signs displayed than ever before in the
history of the town.
Chicagoans have been their own most
consistent and aggressive knockers" II
II were worth while columns from Chi
cago newspapers might be reproduced
showing how prominent men and women
have advertised TO the woyld the city 5
reign OF crime; the ineflicienCy OF the mu-
nicipal government: the evils OF the court
system: the revenue-eatirg capacity OF
the various taxing bodies; the stupendous
losses by strikes and lockouts; the hide
BUSINESS OF dirt. dust anu smoke: the
wretched street-car service and the dilap-
idated river bridges.
These same ChicagOaus have now be-
come thoroughly alarmed over the result
OF their own wholesale Remuneration. They
looh with dlSInay upon corroborated fig-
ufes tenulng 10 show that the population
has increased only 45.,pu in the tour years
since the Federal census was taken.
The flight OF the factories and the pro-
spective flight OF many more have stirred
commercial circles 10 ,seIr depths. That
thousands OF persons have come 10 Chi
cago since lsr there Is not the slightest
doubt That other thousands, weary ot
the dust-laden. s!noke-SarElshed atmos-
piieEe. and dlscoura geu by many industrial
iIaraSSme;ltS. nave moved away. is equally
beyond question.
Aroused TO the city's obvious waning
prestige, the civic ami official leaders are
to-day making strenuous efforts To re-
store the old Chicago spirit, TO bring
back the exilcS, 10 establish d new regime
IL administrative affairs.
NEW CHARTER MOVEMENT
Most important OF the steps to this end
IS the movement for new charter. for
which campaign almost unparalleled
in the history of the State was carried on
previous to the November election.
Whether Roosevelt or Parker should be
elected was almost a secondary Cunside-a-
ton in the mind OF the average Chicago
an. On election he hung upon the figures
from down State with keen anNi,Iy to
know If tne electorate had empowered the
Legislature To establish d new city gov
e-ument for the metropolis. When lie
full returns had told thel- tale OF SuCc
cheer went UP from every throat AZ
The town.
1t is realized, however, that some .eg
more than u new charter j. needed To re
vitalize Chicago. and so e0p guests sat down
the other night at i banquet given By the
Chicago Commercial Association. The
whole purpose of the fete was 20 boom
the city, to lay plans for the concentra-
ton OF every available power in combat
ing the progress OF dry rot.
Buoyed to fine spiritual frenzy By
fancy dishes and costly wines, the speak
erS talked of the future in glowing peri
odS. What Chicago had been Chicago was
TO be again-this was the theme tnat at
once confessed the degeneration o. the
last few years and voiced the hope Tor the
coming years.
said Mayor Harrison at the banquet, "ieel
called upon to apologize for their cit:'-
That is certainly, NOT the spirit which
made Chicago what il was. The men
who made Chicago never felt Obliged to
defend it,
Recently the School Board took CEN
sus of the city. Three hundred enuine-a
tors were employed to make the count.
The board boasted and still declares that
its census was the most thorough. pains
taking and accurate ever taken by 1t. Its
agents had been particularly admon!shed
to enumerate every man. woman ano Child
In Chicago.
When the figures were cast up the grand
total was found to be 1.7l4IH. The Gov
erDment census OF 1900 gave the city
1,soS57s Inhabitants. The school census.
therefore. indicated that the increase In
four years had been 10 $50, or less than
400 q year. The school census showed
2aS.5l less than its own count four years
before.
On digesting this comparison certain cit
liens and the press set I'D great howl.
The census Of 1851 was denounced as no.
toriously incorrect and inadequate. The
praised the School Boards census OF q
0o1, ,5s5 IN 1900 as correct, although 1t
was 309 1a0 IN excess Of the Government
count Of the same year and 5000 above
the liberal estimate Of the city directory
publishers. these estimates being derived
by the always questionable multiple sys-
TEN.
To nullity the impression which the
School Board court had carried TO the out
side world. the Chicago Real Estate Board
set about making a computation ot ITS
own. 1t gathered what 1t called accurate
data On the number OF employees in the
factories of Chicago and by some rnathe-
matical cunning OF its own, which nopod!
else seems able to understand. u made out
that the present population is 2,S4,ooo. eS-
elusive OF those in the cemeteries. Here
was a magnificent showing-an increase
NO INCREASE SHOWN.
There was figrrative clapping OF hands
when this result was announced. but the
election, registration and vote came along
to spoil 1t all The registration showed
virtually no increase over the figures OF
four years ago, and that in the face OF
the fact that unprecedented effort had
been made to get out the voters 70 The
polling places 10 insure the success of the
new charter movement.
Thus in a measure the school census had
been corroborated, and the Chicago Com
merciai Association went TO work with
new energy 10 boost where previously
there had been knocking" Edward
TO come TO Chicago and size up the
city's industrial situation. In an incred-
iby short while Mr.. White had proved
worthy Of his hire by reporting that Chi
cago is turning out 10 per cent Of the en-
tire manufactured output of the country.
Using sorae sort OF ratio system quite as
iEezplicable as that Of the Rear Estate
Board, he discovered that there are 23.ns
distinct manufacturing concerns in town.
7. Mr.. White had translated his figures
Into matter OF population the result
would have been something more than
b.01.p0-a pretty good margin over the
Realty Boards figures.
The plain fact is that the ebb OF popu-
latioG IS playing the mischief with its
flow. The list Of factories presented else
where shows what has been going on in
Chicago in recent years. This list is very
far from being n complete story of the re-
movals from Chicago. II was obtained al
most entirely by correspondence with a
number Of cities and towns within a
radius of a hundred miles from Chicago.
a complete survey would show that over
p hundred factories. employing 2o.eOo men.
have abandoned the city most of them in
the last four years.
MOVEMENT STILL ON.