Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-22
BANNER YEAR
Of PROSPERITY
IN Los ANGELES
Civic Association Gets
Annual Report
Statements Made by President Of Mer-
chants and Manufacturers Asso-
citation Show Wonderful
Growth of City

The annual meeting Of the Merchants
and Manufacturers association was
held at the office i'm the Wilcox build
ing, Second and Spring streets, yester-
day. The election of directors OF the
association was held and the following
were elected without opposition: a. Is.
Bauer G. G. Desmond, NJ. A. Eambur-
ger, John Kahn, George NJ. Munger
Jr., G. II. Plummcr, A. w. Redman.
According to the annual report of the
treasurer, Perry w. Weidner, the asso-
citation Is in good financial condition.
The annual report of f. j. Zeehe-
landaar the secretary. shows the or
ganization now has nearly six hundred
prominent business firms on its mem
bership list and it is probable many
more will be added in the near future.
The annual report of j. M. Schneider,
the president, was also read. MI.
Schneider said
Gentlemen: When my predecessor
Niles Pease, in his annual report last
year, stated that 1905 was the banner
year in the commercial annals of Los
Angeles we believed with him that we
had then reached the climax, at least
for some years to come; but the year
1906 has surpassed our most sangulne
expectations. The past twelve months
have given the most absolute evidences
of our material welfare, and Los An
geleS has grown and prospered in Il
measure unprecedented in the history
of older cities and has outclassed in
volume of business, increase of popu-
lation and solid development many
cities in the United States.
The Retail Trade
A conservative estimate of the in
crease of the retail business during
the late holiday season is placed at 40
nf ia retail
who had prepared for a more extensive
hiloday trade found that they had un-
derestimated the increase of popula-
ton and the wealth within our city,
and many have wondered since looking
over their balance sheets where the
people and the money cam from. In
all lines Of the retail trade the great
demand for expensive articles proved
that our population has greatly pros
pered throughout the year Although
the holiday shopping commenced
earlier than the previous season, the
trade remained undisturbed until the
close of the stores at Christmas eve;
and this condition was simply an in
dev to the volume of business done
throughout the year.
That our merchants have an abid
ing faith in the stability of our growth
and realize that the increase of our
population is normal and not the re-
suit of spontaneous desire of the
people of the United States to locate
. here is evidenced by the construction
of large buildings to accommodate the
greater demands of the retail trade.
During the present year one depart
ment store will have erected its own
home, with a capacity of over 100000
square feet of floor space and 100 front
feet of show window space. the latter
being the largest in the United States.
In addition three new department
stores will open their doors and
great many of the established business
firms will move either into larger quar-
ters or will have additions constructed
to their present locations.
To the tourists and visitors and
even to some of our permanent resi-
dents. such expansion is considered
not entirely in accordance with con-
SerVative business methods, but those
who recognize and realize the glorious
future that lies before us, greater ia
cilities for handling the ever-increas-
ing demands are believed to be abso-
lutely necessary to the requirements
in the conduct of a successful and
rapidly growing business. Our cosmo-
politan population demands up-to-date
stores and we are responding to pub
lie opinion.
The Jobbing Trade
The Wholesale iohbing trade shows
the same satisfactory progress as that
made in the retail lines. During the
past year the Jobbing houses in all
channels report an increase in the
volume of business of about 80 per cent.
The reason for this enormous and grati-
flying showing is found in the increased
population i'm the country tributary 10
Los Angeles, and also ON account of the