The Princeton union., 1910-09-01
SCIENTIFIC BOOM
BUILDS BIG CITY
Prospective Oklahoma Ca apita|
Has $4,000 Population.
IS BUT q YEARS OF AGE,

Chamber of Commerce, Which Keeps
Tab on Towns Resources, Secured
Big Packing Plant by Bonus, Then
Cleared That by Plating and Selling
Adjacent Town Lots.
The city Of Oklahoma is only twenty
one years old. In 1889 it was an open
field. Now it has 10000 people, well
paved streets, steel skyscrapers and
thriving business, with all the hustle
and prosperity of growing city.
Month by month the people who see
the bank clearings as they are pub
ished have wondered at the progress
of this town. It is one Of the two that
have run Atlanta a close race in the
ratio Of business increase. What was
the cause Of it? Who did it?
These questions were answered at
the recent convention Of the southern
commercial secretaries, where A. w.
McKeand, secretary of the Oklahoma
chamber of commerce, told Of it's work.
1t has 1892 members and embraces in
its operations almost every function
of civic organization, including even
the work of the associated charities.
Keeps Tab on Town.
The secretary has twenty assistants,
each in charge of a department. The
chamber conducts a credit clearing
house for the wholesale trade with
$4,000 names on it's reference books
and runs a similar bureau for the re-
tail trade.
The recent announcement that Okla
homa City had secured two Of the
largest packing house plants in the
world has caused the city builders of
the whole country to sit up and take
notice. Mr.. McKeand told how they
did it, and the incident shows the Won
derful spirit that makes the western
towns grow at such a wonderful rate.
The president and secretary of the
Oklahoma chamber Of commerce, after
preliminary negotiations with a big
Chicago packing firm and a careful
study of the town by that firm, reached
an agreement one night, and the next
day money was raised to carry out the
plan.
Ihe chamber of commerce agreed
to pay 100000 for the establishment
there of a plant that would employ
1900 men, one-half this sum to be paid
on completion Of the plant and the re-
ma1nder when it had been in operation
a year at full capacity. The Oklaho-
mans also bought 500 acres of land
contiguous to the plant and proposed
to sell lots.
At 10 o'clock the next morning a
meeting was CALLED at the chamber of
commerce to raise the money Sub
scriptions started at $4,000 and $780,
600 and ran down to $1,000 In a little
while enough money was subscribed
to pay for the 100000 bonus and the
land
City Clears Its Bonus.
The work went ahead, the packers
made good. and the land was cut into
lots and sold for a profit large enough
to pay the 100000 bonus and about
II per cent over. This trade has been
duplicated with another big plant, and
the same land scheme is worked there.
Oklahoma City had built up rapidly
without enough factories. It had steel
skyscraper Office buildings. but not
enough producing industries, so the
people went after them. determined to
get them at any cost. They studied
the situation, chose the kind Of indus
try best suited to the town and the
surrounding country and went after it
in big way.
These Oklahoma people are in ear
nest all the time Their methods are
businesslike and broad minded As
an illustrat ton Of their way OF doing
things they will make a tour Of the
south with a hundred of their leading
citizens next winter, stopping a day at
each city and studying it's institutions.
At each point they divide into COM
mittees to collect information on vari-
Gus subjects. such as schools, indus,