Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-09-26
ON VERGE OF NEW ERA

| perity such as that which mark
ed the decade Immediately following
the adoption of the first public i'm
provement loan.
That is the concensus of opinion of
all those who have been close to the
development of the new hotel project
The thought is not their own. Those
who have been interviewing busi-
ness and professional people for the
purpose of procuring their co-opera-
tion in making the hotel truly
community enterprise have been i'm
pressed by it at every turn. The con-
viction of the community is that the
erection of the proposed hotel Will
mark another great forward move
ment In the life of the city.
Everywhere may be seen signs Of
this confidence in the future of the
town. Merchants and businessmen in
general are translating their faith
into deeds. Throughout the business
district, old store fronts have been
torn out and interiors remodeled and
enlarged, and many other such
changes are planned. The downtown
business district is being rapidly ex-
tended. Merchants whose business
places are congested and impossible
of enlargement are looking about for
new locations. The Pennsylvania rail-
road is erecting a new freight station
and yards and the Philadelphia and
Reading is increasing its yard track
age to Rutherford and at Steelton.
The Cumberland Valley railroad is
spending upward of a million dollars
on a new bridge and double tracks
from the yards at Lemoyne to those
of this city. The Bethlehem Steel
Plant, at Steelton, is being enlarged
at an expenditure of more millions
than the whole plant was worth a
few years back. The Harrisburg
Railways company is purchasing new
cars for increased travel. The Valley
Railways company has extended it's
transfer system and has plans not yet
publicly announced for materially i'm
proving its service. Handsome homes
are being erected and the city is be-
ing rapidly extended in all directions.
These are but a few of the high
points, touched upon at random.
But the people do not propose to
stop here. They are going to erect
series of new High and Junior High
schools to meet the needs of the rap
idly growing town. They are urging
upon council the development of the
Susquehanna River Basin at this point
so that Harrisburg will have facil-
tiles for boating, fishing. bathing and
swimming second to no interior sum-
mer resort in the land. They are join
ing in support of the new hotel move
ment In a manner that will bring to-
gether in this enterprise the capital
and influence of practically every in
dividual, businesshouse and financial
institution in the city. Nothing like
this cooperative effort is recorded
in the history of the city, and few
communities can boast of anything
approaching 1t in civic spirit.
All this means that the people of
the city believe in it, that they have
confidence in its growth and that they
have that broad vision of future
possibilities without which no COM
munity. large or small, has ever gone
much beyond the point of mere popu-
lation. Harrisburg has grown and
prospered wonderfully in the past
| fifteen years, but the coming fifteen
year period beyond all doubt will
witness a development far more re-
markable than that upon which we
now look back with so much pride
and satisfaction.
The watchword is onward and the
people are responding eagerly.
| AFTER THE WAR