The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-03-24
TOWN OF TULSA
ROtarian Enthusiasm Over the
Oklahoma City.
Fred VOiland, President Topeka
Rotary Club, Voices 1t.

Fred Voiland, president OIL the ~
peka Rotary club which visited Iulsd'
Oklahoma, last week on the "ccaslop
of the District Convention OF the NJ
tary clubs of Kansas, Missouri an"
Oklahoma voices his representative
enthusiasm in the following interVle"
which he gives the State Jom nal;
-.Applied to Tulsa the word DOOM
town is but a weak and supine eplthet:
rrbere is no word or combination OF
words in the English language aue
ouately descriptive of TINS Nohtei .i u
city 1t IS the oil certer OF tne Moi ~.
Last year the Tulsa field OF ram i
the fields contiguous TO us p him
from the bowels of the earth one nun
dred and thirty million barrels OF
crude oil. You can estimate the
amount of money this put III circu u
ton. The present price Is Sl''V
barrel. -. ..,.,,,,
fieures-and eight in some instances
in Tulsa. A banker told me last
week the statement from the u,sd
cIeari.tg house showed individual de-
posits subject to check in all the banks
collectively amounting to $5I,OOo,oou-
There : over $500, 900 invested IN
the oil Industry around the town, and
almost over night they moved lHe oli
center of the world from PlttspurG TO
the sand-swept city on the banks OIL
The Arkansas. 1t was some job, but
Tulsa is some ;own. They have lew
4. companies there.
when YOU pick up the telephone
directory AID perIse the Os you can
read thru six pages without exhaust
inc tive supply More than four hum
bred oil concerns headquarter there,
and more are coming. Oil is not
business; it is a game, ana no faro
layout of old ever turnlShed tne
thrills to be found i'm petroleum NOT
oil
phantom and elusive product. There
are many former rich men there, now
on the seamy side, but The oil gambler
is good loser, whatever other weak
nesses he may have.
.sFifteen years ago Tulsa had n pop
ulation OF two hundred. today con-
servative estimate places the NUMBER
OF people a severity thousand IhlnSs
that happened three months ago are
ancient history, and the man who
takes a months vacation comes back
to fird he scarcely knows the town.
An interested spectator in two days
recently counted three hundred and
twenty-five buildings in the course or
construction. They have twenty-three
sky scra pers ir various stages of COM
pletiou, and everywhere the horizon
is dotted with immense office build
ings, church spires and public struc-
lures. Strange as it may seem, they
have few hotels and the thousands of
and night are glad to find any sort of
mmCdatiOn.
The street car system is the poor
est ina gina BILE It almost marks back
to the days of horse cars, and dis
penses such service one would expect
to find in city Of 10000 inhabitants
One of the city officials told me they
had 14O miles OF paved streets and
the poorest water on earth. They
have municipal opera house capable
: NoA n
a modern stage ana drop curtain on
which are no advertisements. Plen-
tiful as oil IS in this section, you cam
not find oiled roe DIS in any direction
from the town, and one rides in n per-
petual cloud of dust after leaving paw
ed streets. The automobile is the oil
mans first aid. Mere than 1000 Ii
censes have been issued this year to
automobile owners, and the Ford car
is almost unknown.
They knew how to spend money in
Tulsa, too. John Cosden, an indie
pendent oil magnate is a tennis en-
thusiast ard plays on a court for
which he paid $4,000. There are
hundl eds of houses costing from $780,
600 to S25O,0OO. They have some idea
of landscape down there, also, for not
withdrawing much of this wealth is
newly-acquireG, the city is being laid
out on the boulevard plan and with
restricted residential areas. st Johns
Hospital semi-public institution
needed $780, 900 last week, and the
boosters set four days in which to
raise it. They had 100000 at the
end of the second day ana finished it
on the third
Every c;lurch in the city is out of
debt. and more than one and one-half
million dollars was raised last year for
public institutions. In the last stages
of construction, Tulsa IS waiting with
expectancy to OCCUPY a new high
school costing 100000. and which, il
is said, IS already inadequate to care
for pre- sent demands. They have
some pretty big men, and strangely
enough they are IN other occupa lions
than the oil business For instance
two life insurance salesmen last veal
sold 100000 worth Of life policies
and for the first time in history
brought the Million Dollar Club hon.