Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-19
WILL GE1.,I0GETHER
Business Interests in Chicago
to CO. operate.
CAUCUS TO BE HELD
IN w41cH THE WEST
ERN METROPOLIS LEADS.
Advantage of the New Subway for
Handling Freight and Relieving
the Present Congestion.
CAUCUS TO BE HELD
BY VIM. E. CURTIS.

BY VIM. E. CURTIS.
Written for The Evening Star and the Chicago
- Record Herald
Chicago is modest. but ambitious. She Is
greater than any other city In many re-
spects, and wants to be greater in more.
She has had her ups and downs. Her pop
uIat(on was exterminated once. and q mon
ument down on Prairie avenue marko the
scene OF the massacre. The business Sec
ton has been wiped out by fire twice. and
memorials to commemorate those disasters
rise from every street corner. Notwith-
standing those setbacks. Chicago has pushed
ahead more rapidly than any other city in
the history Of mankind, and is now famous.
l. Because her harbors float a greater
tonnage than any other port in the world.
Neither London, nor Liverpool, nor Ham
burg. nor New York equal it. In 1903 1871
vessels entered and cleared. with an aggre-
gate tonnage of 1897 $50,
2 Her commerce by water surpasses that
of New York. Boston, Philadelphia and Bal
timore combined. In 1903 the receipts of
grain were 276,OOO,OOO bushels and Of corn
nearly 1OO,0OO.O0O bushels.
3. She is the greatest of railway centers.
whether measured by freight or passenger
traffic. by earnings or by the mileage of the
roads which focus there. She is the termi-
nus of thirty-two railway lines. operating
65OO0 miles of main track, or about 30 per
cent of the total mileage of the entire coun-
try. Every day 800 trains enter and leave
Chicago, including 1888 express trains. In
1903 the gross earnings Of the members of
the Chicago Railroad Association amounted
to $661 100000. an increase of about 81 per
cent during the last ten years. Within the
corporate limits are 1924 miles of track
and 6,937 sidetracks. The roads belonging
to the association employ more than $4,000
men.
f. Chicago is the greatest cattle market
in the world. During 1908 1922. 055 live
animals valued at $29o, PIT .814. were re-
ceived, being the equivalent of 31O,117 car
loads.
s. Chicago has the largest packing
houses in the world and handles three
fourths of the meat products of the United
States.
g. Chicago is the, largest grain market,
with twenty public elevators and sixty-two
private elevators, haying,fa combined ca
pacity of more than 60,00O,0OO bushels
Z. Chicago does the biggest mail trading
s. The largest trade in ready-made
clothing
o. The largest trade in mems furnishing
goods
TO- She is the largest hardware market
in the world.
IL. She has the biggest hardware store.
with fifteen acres Of floor space.
IL. She has the richest merchant In the
world, and he has made his money on the
spot. s.- .,t.g
Ii. Chicago is the biggest furniture mar
ket and sells one-third more furniture and
household goods than any other city.
IA. She has the largest and finest retail
department store in the world
Is. "a She has the finest wholesale dry
goods establishment in the world. 1tss
16. The show windows in her retail sec
ton are unsurpassed for size or taste or
gorgeousness of display.
II. Chicago has the greatest telephone
system in existence: one company with in
vestments of s140OO.eO0 and $4,000 SUBJ
scribers.
IS. She is the largest producer Of tele-
phones and other electric supplies, the total
output in 1903 being s18,500,O0O in manu-
features and more than 100000 In the
jobbing trade
ID. Chicago is the biggest market for
agricultural machinery.
20. She has the worst street car system
in the world.
81. She has the worst pavements and
the shabbiest streets of any city outside of
China, except Constantinople.
% She has nearly 5000 miles Of I'M
g. She has the darkest and dingiest city
hall in existence.
"a She has the slowest- growing federal
building. which will be outgrown before 1t
is finished.
% She has more Germans than any city
except Berlin and Hamburg; more Bo-
hemians than any city except Prague; more
Irish than any city except Dublin; more
Scandinavians than any city except Stock
holm, and more Jews than can be found in
Palestine.
Where Chicago is Not First.
In finance Chicago stands fourth among
the great cities of the world. being led by
London, New York and Paris only-which
is especially remarkable when the relative
ages of those cities considered. In 1903
the deposits in national and state banks
were 5000, 600, 900 and in savings banks $780,
1000.
Chicago is the third city In manufactures.
being surpassed by London and New York
only. The percentage of increase Is far
greater than III either of those cities, the
capital having advanced from $170O00.OO0
to $500. 100000 in twenty years. She has
pay roll amounting to $165.0OO000 year.
and it bears more than 100000 names.
These are only a few of the points in
which Chicago excels, and 1T has all been
accomplished practically by competition
rather than cooperation; by individual en-
terprise rather than united efforts My
friend W. F. Hypes of Marshall Field &
Co. calls Chicago the storm center of price
competition" More than in any other city,
every man has been struggling for himself,
and the mercantile and industrial interests
have been working separately, each on his
own lines; while in New York and Phila-
delphia there has been close and effective
team work by the combination of mutual
interests Philadelphia has illustrated more
clearly than any other city the advantages
of cooperation In trade, and has had the
most effective organization of merchants,
manufacturers and other citizens. Nothing
in New York or Chicago will compare with
her bourse and hen commercial museum
They have not only systematized and SIM
plified buying and selling at home, but have
been valuable advertsers.ta
An association of jobbers and wholesalers
in New York, for seUerai years. has been
taking trade right out from under Chicago,
and by corporation of diversified interests,
has succeeded in offering inducements to
merchants throughout the Mississippi val
ley to pass by that city and buy their goods
In New York. The merchants of Chicago
have been so busyethatJtthey have not
realized what serious inroads have thus
been made on their trade until lately, but
now they are waking up in self-defense,
and a movement hastbeens inaugurated to
make that city the greatest mercantile CEN
Proposed Co-Operationo of Interests.
caucus of TOO merchants has been call
ed to meet in the banquet hall of the Audi
forum Hotel, on the evening of November
%. to discuss the ways and means of ac
complishing that purpose, and they mean
business. There will be something to eat
and drink first. then Mayor Harrison. A.
M Compton. George F. Stone and Rev. r.