The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-11-22
Get Gil in 3 DAYS
Chamber of Commerce Mem
bership Campaign Aggressive.
Big Pep Meeting of Workers
Held Today at NOOn.s

Commerce campaigners showed that
the three days on the membership
battle line had netted Gil new mem
bers, not including a host of renewals
| promised before the week is out The
feature of the meeting was the show
ing that the larger firms of the city
had doubled and tripled their sub
scriptions of last year. A rainy day
! did not dampen the campaign ardor
and the board in the dining room
| showed that 149 new memb erS had
signed the three year membership con-
| tract
Frank p MacLennan was introduce
| ed as one of the speakers of the noon
| hour. He said in part:
1T seems to me that the prime
| duty of the Chamber of Commerce is
to make this a sunshine city; sun
| shine in our hearts and our visions
| today it is sunshiny weather because
| we're together. 1t is our duty to make
this city a good place in which to live
and to do business; to bottle up gloom
and uncork joy; to put down pes
simism and open optimism.
1T is not so much our object to
give bonuses, or lands or financial in
| ducements to factories to come here
which may not in the end prove profit
able. but to give our citizens vision;
to create a civic spirit If we make
| our homes and plae of business, fac
tories and industries will come to us.
Far be it from me to take advan-
tage of my presenc here to advertise
| the Kansas Reserve State bank; but
| here is an institution. just three weeks
| old, which has gathered $3.50, 600 in
cash, paid up capitai and surplus, and
| in addition has deposits now already
exceeding $350.0OO, not counting city
! or county funds. The new bank is
/
ness of this city and make it a better
place in which to do banking l am
sure that at the end of year this will
be shown to be absolutely true. We
are demonstrating that bank can
pay 3 per cent on city and county
moneys and make money by loaning
it at 6 per cent. We are satisfied to
double the interest we pay. These
statements about the new bank are, of
course, strictly confidential-in the
family. We have brought Mr. KathS
and his family here from Hutchinson
where he left a good job; we have
made Earl Akers of Stafford per-
manent citizen; we have brought peo-
pie from Clay Center and elsewhere;
we have brought in new capital and
new deposits that would not otherwise
have come here. The point l want to
make is, that the new bank did not
ask the Chamber of Commerce for
any bonus; it came here because the
people who established it believed To-
peka was a good place to live in and
to do business in and has promise OF
greater things.
when Mr. Eitelmann came here he
introduced new methods in the Kresse
business. Every man who comes into
town can show the older people IN
the same calling new ideas; they profit
by them Mr.. Eitelmann has built up
a good business and has attracted new
trade, so much so that his neighbor,
the F. w. Woolworth Company, is now
increasing it's floor space by adding
another room.
"A few months ago, Mr.. Yoder came
here and re-opened a mill which had
been empty, whose wheels were idle,
and is now running night and day,
| bringing in new money and new bus
mess; not because the Chamber of
Commerce gave him any bonus, and it
did not give him any, but because he
thought Topeka was the right place in
which to live and do business. He has
| become one of the Invest members of
this greater organization.
THE same is true of Mr.. PeIIetier.
He came here with new capital;
brought new people here to become
citizens; is building up a bigger bus
mess; is attracting more people here,
and yet 1 am confident he is not in
juring the business of Crosby Bros,
or Warren NJ. Crosby company, Pax
ton & Paxton or other similar con-
| GERMS He is bringing more people to
Topeka to trade here and the other
stores will get their share of the new
! trade and will show larger business
and earnings by reason of his coming"
| Lucius Wilson, chief of the Ameri-
can City bureau, and Sol BerkSon, gave
| further evidence that the introduction
of new business and new business men
made business better for all. Both
| also emphasized Mr.. MacLennan's
statement that by making Topeka a
better town to live in and do business
! in, new business will be attracted to
/ Topeka as by magnet. All three
| speakers opposed the idea of the Civ
ing of bonuses to secure new fac
| tories. Wilson cited the disastrous re-
! suits of the factory fund idea in
! Davenport-IOwa, and advocated the
| cooperative system of the factories of
| WilliamSport, Pa, which by pooling
their interests in the buying of coal
and raw products are rapidly making
| the Pennsylvania town formidable
| business center. The incubator
buildings of Toledo. Ohio, were also
| mentioned by Wilson as one solution
The incubator buildings offer free
| floor space to budding factories until
they are firmly upon their own finan-
| cial feet.
II would rather live in Topeka any
old time than in Kansas City" stated
Sol Berkson, proprietor of stores in
both places. And it is that reputation,
which properly fostered, means in
/ creased business for the state capital"
| Berkson described the steady better
ment and potency of the Commercial
! club from the old days when Charles
K. Holiday was president and proph-
esied from its steady increase of of
ficiency a bright future for Topeka
and the c. of c.
E. H. Crosby was granted by ac-
clamation today, the title of strong
army Crosby by reason of his SUE
cessful get-'em -alive-or-dead mem
bership tactics.
| Following is the team record to
| date:
Major EiteIman's Division.
Capt. w. C. King Observation-Disclosures. s
Gait. X. r. Baer Observation-Disclosures. :,
| Capt. s L. Courtney 10