The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-10-18
FOR FACTORY AID
Plan VIII Be Launched at
Meeting Tonight.
Be 6 O'clock Dinner at Com
mercial Club Rooms.
MOST IMPORTANT MATTER
Secretary Kelley Says Every
Property Owner Should Help.
Means Much to City's Growth
and Prosperity.
MOST IMPORTANT MATTER

The factory aid plan developed by the
Commercial club for the purpose OF
Putting Topeka on the map as a manu-
featuring center will be launched this
evening at a $50 o'clock dinner. Two
hundred plates will be prepared for the
business men who are expected to at
teEd. Up to noon nearly one hundred
reservations had been made and they
were still coming in.
c. s. Elliott, chairman of the pro-
motion committee will preside over the
meeting, J. Will Kelley, secretary of the
Commercial club will explain the plan,
and w E Holmes, secretary of tho
Chamber of Commerce of Sioux City
Iowa, will tell how a similar plan has
worked in his city in the past fourteen
months.
THE Importance of the industrial
development of the city of Topeka IS
recognized by nearly every citizen VINO
las mad any opportunity to study con-
6itions,'' said Secretary Kelley today.
Topeka is a beautiful city in point
OF homes and civic Improvement, but i
city beautiful can only remain so as
long as her citizens are profitably and
happily employed In the past year
many people have been out of employ
rlent in Topeka, and the problem IS
to how to provide for their employ
Iaent is one of Importance.
The fact is known to everybody
that the man who earns his money in
industrial pursuits-the wage Garner
and the office man-SpendS all his
money in the community in which he
resides. He has not the necessary ex-
cess money to pay railroad fare to
other cities to buy necessities. and is
usually able to find what he wants in
the city in which he lives.
More factories mean more people
employed; and more people employed
means more money to spend with the
merchants, more to put into real es-
tate, and more to put into new homes.
The result is a larger community.
Certain lines of industrial develop
ment can be carried on profitably in
Topeka. The other day a local manu-
facturer went to a Missouri town and
there he told them that his factory
was located in Topeka. The purchas-
ing committee with which he was
dealing told him it would be better
for him were his business in Kansas
City, because it would be hard to con-
vince people that goods such as ne
Notwithstanding that the goods were
equal to any in that particular line
made in the United States.
The trouble was that Topeka had
never been recognized as a manufac-
turing town. These men were sur
prised to know that such an industry
could exist in Topeka. One half the
battle has been won when the town
from which a salesman halls is
manufacturing center of note.
"A furniture manufacturer from
Grand Rapids has only to say that
his furniture came from Grand Rap
Ids. Everybody knows that good fur
hiture is manufactured in Grand Rap
ids. The same is true of Detroit in
respect to autos, and Pittsburg in re-
gard to steel and iron products.
There is no reason why Topeka
can't become distinctive along certain
lines. Furniture, farm implements,
shoes, railroad supplies. crackers and
many other things could be manufac-
tured profitably as the market would
be available.
Responsibility for this proposition
should not be left alone to the men
on the avenue who have been burdened
for years for demands for financial
aid for various enterprises. The pro-
perty owners, who have benefited
through Topeka's advantages should
bear their share of the responsibility
and help build up Topeka industrially
All persons interested in the plan are
invited to attend the meeting this ev-
eniug. No demand for contributions
will be made