Los Angeles herald., 1909-04-13
ALARM CLOCKS
WORK WONDERS
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEM
BEERS WAKE UP
Secretary Frank Virgins Declares
Fact Deplorable That Local Ex-
hlblt Is Not Attended by
"Home Towners"
nv oEoRaE HARRIS DoNoHun

Remarkable thing how 1t happens
that one can always get responsive
answer to a receptive proposition.
Yesterday, through the medium of
this column l declared my intention of
delving into some few of the hidden
mysteries of this town with which
even your oldest and most infirm in
habitants were unacquainted-and the
answer as you will discover today Is
receptive even to your most ardent
skepticist.
Without a doubt Los Angeles pos
sesses today a consecutive series of the
most thoroughly modern and up-to-
date element of natural resource ana
the odd part of 1t all is that so per
cent of your real wide awake citizens
are not aware that such a happy con-
dition OF affairs really exists in this
section of sunny Southern California.
AS for instance:
In the year 1888 A. D., there was or
ganized In this city a little associa-
ton of representative business men
which was known as the Los Angeles
chamber of commerce. The initial
membership of this concern amounted
to but sixty-eight active members
(and take it from me they were the
pioneers of this towns success)-and
yet today in the year of 1903, with the
same "A. d." that same chamber of
commerce has hustling membership
of more than $500 of the most enthusi-
astic men of the business world as its
representatives.
At the same time a new conner to
this town cannot help but wonder
some how it happens, that despite the
fact of all the natural advantages of
Los Angeles as city and Southern
California as productive climate, that
the real "home towners" know practtc-
ally nothing of the actual resources of
this section of the earth.
Yesterday afternoon | had the pleas
ure of meeting Mr.. Frank Virgins,
secretary of the chamber of commerce,
and during the thirty minutes / spent
in his company l discovered num-
Der of things with which the average
Angeleno is without a doubt abso-
lutely unfamiliar.
Really this is a fact.
Mr.. Virgins informed me that he
had been active secretary of the cham
Der of commerce since the year 1902
(the same A. D. prevails) and that at
the time of his initiation into the mys-
teries of chamber of commerce work
there were but 165 members to that
struggling organization. Mr.. Virgins,
following the natural order of events,
is considerably more mature now than
he was at the time he started in as
real chamber of commerce secretary,
and on the side yesterday he opined
that If he had things to do over again
he would have chosen a more appre-
ciative line of work as means of fit
ting through this bright Southern Cali
fornia atmosphere.
''When we started the chamber of
commerce in this city," said Mr.. Wig
gins, 1--WE were in debt-there were only
few of us-we all thought Los An
geles had the greatest future imagin-
able, we started with practically bor-
rowed collection of exhibits with which
the people from the surrounding coun-
ties were GOOD enough to equip us. but
today-today-we stand alone as the
one chamber of commerce in the United
States which has no affiliated connec-
ton, and we are proud of the fact that
all this has been due to the individual
and collective efforts of the representa-
tive business men of this city.
Look at what we have here today
the greatest and most interesting ex-
hibit of country progress ever pre-
scented to an intelligent gathering of
home lovers-and yet-strange and re-
markable as 1t may appear, we have
to depend almost entirely on the at
tendance of tourists in order to force
the knowledge that we really are a
progressive and up-to-date people be-
fore the home seekers of this coun-s
try"
Mr.. Virgins introduced me to Miss
Minerva Green, one of the young ladies
in charge of the floor exhibit, and in
her company / trailed through one OF
the most remarkable state exhibits it
has ever been my good fortune to see.
In the eastern country we all wait for
our much advertised and heralded state
fairs, where we daily around with a
bag of pop corn and a hunk of ginger
bread while we look with greedy eyes
at the marvellous products OF the good
old locality we are pleased to call our
home, but, as Miss Green remarked
yesterday, sit Is a most deplorable
fact that the people of Los Angeles
are not taking advantage of this Won
derful exemplification of the wonders
of our own country"
AS a matter of fact, despite the rea-
son that there are half a dozen lectures
given in the chamber of commerce
auditorium every day, only about s
per cent of those who put in an APP
pearance at this school of local learn
ing figure in the permanent population
of this county.
Just SO that you will know there is
such a thing as a chamber of COM
merce, where there can be found one
of the most remarkable and interesting
exhibits ever presented-even at a
worlds fair-let me suggest that you
take trip to No. 1913 South Broadway,
where, without more than ordinary diff
fculty, you will discover building
called the Chamber of Commerce-go
in and this is what you will find:
1850 a. ma lecture on Hollywood
and Yosemite county by Miss Clifford,
with stereopticon pictures.
1880 d. m.-Lecture on Los Angeles,
Santa Cruz and Tacoma counties by
Mrs Francis King Headley.
2 d. m.--Lecture on Stanislaus county
by Mr.. McCabe
2:30 D. m.--Lecture on Alameda
county by Mr.. Harry Lane.
b. m.-Lecture on Pomona county
by Mr.. Truitt.
$3.50 D. m.--Lectures on Hawaiian
islands and the commerce to be de-
rived therefrom by Mrs. Headley
All of these lectures are Illustrated,
and yet not six people in the town
know that all the time these are the
sort Of things the real pushers of this
city are trying to do for the advance
ment of the city of Los Angeles.
With $500 active and ambitious push
ers representing the chamber of COM
merce in this town it Is most re-
markable thing that the real home
towners are not alive to the possibili-
ties of this city-the answer is more
than apparent-the 1900 manufacturers
of Los Angeles are still blissfully wait
ing for some one to drop along and say,
"waken up"