The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1910-12-29
BOARDS OF TRADE.
What They Have Done and May do
for a Municipality.

Bodies Have Become Vast Business
Builders" the Saturday Evening Post OF
December 5th printed very interesting
article by Isaac F. Marcosson. We
quote the opening paragraphs for the
benefit of our local board of trade and all
who are interested in work for the adj
vancement and prosperity of Belfast:
1t has not been so very long since the
average American merchant eased his
conscience with the belief that COMPETE
ton was the life of trade and went his
way alone, seldom seeing beyond the
confines of his counting room. When
the community grew he took it as mat
ter of course; when it stood still he laid
it to the politicians. Business was bust
ness. This civic apathy and trade aloof-
ness helped to create the ''boss" system,
throttled the growth of whole cities and
promoted real menace to progress.
Today all this is changed. There is
scarcely town without some kind of
commercial body that is both business
builder and civic awakener-it may be a
chamber of commerce, board of trade,
commercial club or a merchants asso-
citation. Through their combined work
new spirit Of sane and constructive
force has been created that is broaden
ing local vision everywhere and making
leaders of men who might have drudged
at their desks in obscurity all their lives.
Cooperation along lines of mutual inter-
est has succeeded selfish isolation; and
the merchant and citizen generally,
through well-knit organization, are re-
making and galvanizing ola communities,
establishing a new dignity and respect
for commerce and emphasizing the vast
value of getting together. Here is a
work that touches all people and aids all
interests. To explain it is to convey
full-hedged and helpful lesson In bust
ness science and good citizenship.
THE oLD-FAsHIoNED BOARD OF TRADE.
What might be called the chamber-of-
commerce idea is not particularly new.
Some of the institutions are very old and
one of them-the New York city body
has charter that bears the kingly i'm
print of British George. Originally
they were strictly boards of trade where
men gathered to barter in grain or pro-
visions. Then the marketplace took on
social side and business men got to
know each other. When the city needed
dill HIulStIy Tic ouDJeCC was ulSCuSSeu
here; thus was laid the beginning of
bnsiness-expansion machinery that now
reaches out to foreign lands. Likewise
and there was born the infant that is
This evolution was a long time coming
mercial bodies the fact that stands out
OF icfi &c fhn oh
in mood and method. The bodies of that
other day were long on dignity and short
on action. They took themselves with
ponderous and inefficient seriousness.
When board wanted a secretary the
members looked about for some worthy
incompetent who had failed in business
and who needed substituting. "Jones is
good fellow" they said, "and we have
got to take care of him. So they made
him secretary. The nearest that these
boards came to real business was to
maintain a grain-inspection bureau and a
traffic department. Questions of public
were solemnly discussed and
demanding reforms were
passed, but the fire of these resolutions
was permitted to die amid the dust of
The era of ineffectiveness in real COM
mercial bodies is gone. Instead, each
one is dynamo of energy, with every
a live wire. When secretary
is needed the best-trained and most en-
ergetic man available is chosen. He
must be executive, an organizer and a
worker. Instead of meaningless resolu-
lions there are initiative and result. So
potent has become the influence Of some
of these bodies that you can measure the
advance Of whole communities by the ca
pacity of their chambers of commerce or
kindred organizations.
Why have they succeeded? Simply |
because they have been organized and
developed long straight business lines
and not according to theories. The
chambers that are doing the most signifi-
cant work are the ones that regard their
city supremacy as commodity and who /
organize the publicity and distribution
of it just as shrewd merchant handles |
the selling of his wares. In brief, it is a
large and thrilling job of craftsmanship;
and you find, when you get down to the
last analysis, that every wide-awake as
is composite salesman. These
bodies have learned that, like human
being, a city cannot prosper until it is
clean, healthy and has adequate public
service. Hence civic publication ard
of public utilities have gone
hand in hand with business growth. Let
Us now see, in the concrete terms of
three typical organizations, how it is
done and what is done.
The article then goes on to tell how
Chicagoans got together. The writer
says: "You have only to turn to Chicago
to find, in the work of its Association of |
Commerce, an example Of the bene-
icent practice of the CAN for one-one
for all'' creed. Here, in our second larg-
est city, is an organization of four thou
sand men recruited from every activity,
and including rectors and rabbis, that
has worked out scheme of city recon-
struction that may be followed with cred
it and profit by any town, large or small"
To tell of the reforms brought about,
the business attracted and created, the
of better freight rates and bet
ter transportation facilities, is an inter-
esting story, but too long for repetition
here. AS coming nearer home our read
ers will be interested in
WHAT BOSTON is DOING.
In Boston the chamber has given big
impetus to the right business training Of
the boy and girl The retail trade board.