Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-28

DLUTARCH in his Lives of the Ten
i orators" wrote that when Demosthencs
asked what was the first part of oratory
he answered "Acton" and which was Sec
ond he replied, Action" and which was
third he still answered, Action"
30 great business was ever made greater
by the managers sitting back in their easy
chairs and wishing. The managers know
that the only way to get business is to hustle
for it and TO keep hustlng.
Those captains of industry who are COM
mandinE the great enterprises here which
they have built up from small beginnings,
arc continually on the job. No opportunity
to expand escapes them. They know in ad
vance where there is to be need for their
product. and they see to it that their goods
are there ready for the purchasers
Philadelphia has grown to its present size
and importance because of the alert enter
prise Of its citizens in pushing their own
business. All that is needed to make this the
city Of which We are dreaming is the cNcr-
else of the same active energy in concert
There is no lack of energy but there has
been lack of intcligently directed co-opera-
tion toward definite end.
The country is not aware Of the advan-
tages which this port offers for foreign trade.
Shippers in the interior. who would naturally
use Philadelphia. have sent their goods
abroad by way of New York because they
did not know that there a channel in
the Delaware deep enough to accommodate
the biggest ships. They supposed we did not
have more than 20 feet of water, when, as a
matter of fact there Is 81 feet practically all
tho way to the sea. If any private business
house here should learn that it had lost a
large order because a prospective customer
was afraid that it could not fill it in time the
managers of that enterprise would set about
disabusing the mind not only of the GUS
toner it lost. but of every other possible
customer in the country, until no one re-
maned in any doubt of the extent of its
facilities.
There are already encouraging signs that
the private business men have decided to
apply to- enlarging the trade of the port the
same kind of enterprise that has brought
success to them. The call which President
Bartol, of the BOursc, has sent out to the
presidents of seven directly allied exchanges
to meet him Monday to consider forming
a permanent committee to draw business
here is the latest exhibition of the new spirit
that pervades the city. The plan to show to
shippers. not only in Europe and the rest of
America but right here at home the ad-
vantages of using this port because of the
lower terminal charges because of the facil-
tiles for loading and unloading directly from
the cars to the ships and from the ships to
the cars. and because of the lack of conges-
ton, is exactly the kind of plan that any
one of the business men interested in the
movement would have devised if he wanted
to get more trade for himself. President
Bartol is likely to find that the men whom
he has invited to conference are ready to
cooperate with him most heartily.
The projects outlined before the local
chapter of the American Institute of Arch-
tects are part of the general plan for making
a greater Philadelphia 1t is as important
that the country understands the almost
lmitless opportunities for expansion here as
that it realizes that we already possess un-
rivaled piers on deep water and convenient
railroad terminals. When trade expands suf-
icienty the new piers along the river below
the mouth of the SGhuylkil can readily be
1900 or 1000 feet long. They should be as
large as that, for we should not he outdone
by Seattle with it's pier half mile long,
equipped with railroad tracks and travelling
cranes for handling the heaviest cargoes.
The extension of the city limits far
Chester is still long way off. but it is not
too early to be thinking about it, while we
are completing the Parkway, convention
hall, the art museum and the public library.
We are setting the stakes pretty far ahead.
but it is likely that If the momentum which
we are acquiring continues, we shall have
to take them up and reset them sooner than
most of MS expect.