The San Francisco call., 1910-03-19

Only a few short years ago Oakland
celebrated its fftieth anniversary
celebrated it how? The local papers
printed a few lines stating that the
city was founded just so years previ-
ously. That was all. How few of the
businessmen or citizens generally
stopped to think what had been ac-
complishei in that so years? How few
compared the population of Oakland
then with many-yes, very many
cities in the east of twice or thrice its
age, or gave a second thought to the
progress that had been made in that
half century?
There are today in almost every state
on the Atlantic coast cities that were
incorporated half hundred years pre-
vious to Oakland ever being even
dreamed of, that today have not one
tenth the population OF this fair city.
1t is not so many years distant that
Oakland, like Brooklyn, was apparently
content to allow tourists to return to
their eastern homes and. in telling of
their trip TO the great and growing
west, refer to this city as the bed
room of San Francisco.
TOURISTS PRAISE CITY
But it was those very tourists who,
in telling of their visit to Oakland, ex-
pressed their individual ideas of the
city; of its climatic conditions, as COM
pared to other coast cities; spoke of the
fact that it was so situated that in
time it must of necessity become a
great manufacturing city, owing to its
location and the fact that 1t contained
manufacturing sites as level as the
broad prairies and bordering upon the
finest bay in the world; that the rail-
roads ended their journey in Oakland.
and tourist, traveller and freight alike
were obliged to transfer by ferry to
the metropolis of the state.
These stories of tourists, waited back
to this city, made some of her citi-
zens sit up and think and then to won
der-wonder why they had never
thought of Oakland as great CONNER
cial city.
INFECTED BY PROGRESS GERM
Then new arrivals began to register
at the Oakland hotels, and soon new
capital began to pour into the city
and large manufacturing concerns be-
gan TO take an interest in the city that
considered simply from its climatic
point of view. Factories began to To-
cate. and it was found that the output
of these factories could be marketed
throughout the world at less cost than
from almost any other coast city.
A new spirit pervaded the atmos-
phere and the germs of development
permeated the air and the Oaklander
who had been content to sit down and
allow the transient visitor TO do the
boosting for the city began to do a
little boosting himself.
The germ of progress got good
hold on him and he looked upon his
city in a different light from his GUS
tom of years gone by. He became in
fected and saw the great wave OF
progress thsnewas setting in, and soon
the large land owner began to sub
divide his large possessions and the
man who could and would willingly
buy small tract upon which to build
his home was at last afforded an op-
portunity to do so.
ENDLESS CHAIN OF BOOMERS
He purchased a lot, built in accord
ance with his plans and the size of his
pocket book and he in turn, being a
property owner, interested in his new
place of abode, satisfied as he had never
before been with himself, owning his
own little home, told of the advantages
of being citizen of Oakland and thus
induced friends to come and do like
wise.
These friends followed his example
and as the endless chain, each one
added to the population to the spirit
of progressiveness that pervaded the
air and an entirely new spirit was en-
gendered and has so grown during the
last few years that it is omnipresent.
The children who had heretofore been
obliged to play upon the streets of the
cities from which they moved to Oak
land, now had a large garden sur
rounding the house in which to enjoy