Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-10-28

! are not eager 70 De awake.
By way Of contrast with Philadel
/ phia, think Of Chicago. At one of oui
Rotary conventions, that in Cincin
natl. the delegates from Chicago in
/ viied the delegates from London, Eng
/ land, to visit their city why should
visit your city," said one of them
+ Haven't | seen New York and Wash
ington, and now Cincinnati; and ar,
not all your American cities very
much alike"
"Oh, gee whiz, old top, il you
haven't seen Chicago you haven't seen
half Of the United States. Gaugh.
teri. Why, we have a sign there
with five thousand six hundred elec.
trio bulbs in II, and when she flashes
on in the night and goes out again.
well 1t makes il bright as MONDAY in
one second and then after that it gets
Dlacker even than il does at night in
London"
"Fifty-six hundred bulbs in one
sign, Ny word Doesn't that make
the sign rather conspicuous" Laugh
teri.
The point is that Chicago is the
city where no one, certainly not you
and !, seems to want to go TO sleep.
Wonderful Growth.
But now Of Tulsa. We are in the
wonder city; we have named it such
ourselves. Laughter We are a
city Of extremely rapid growth; in
deed, ! have had to revise all my esti-
mates Of its present population every
day since have been here. laugh
teri. In 1900 we could have enumer-
ated them all without so much
trouble; then there were only thirteen
hundred ninety persons here, twenty
years ago. In 1910 there were eigh-
teen thousand; rate of growth which
ought TO have directed more attention
TO Tulsa than the rest of the world
was likely to give it. In 1915 the
enumeration of the federal census
shows 2s,240. In 1917 by the esti-
mate Of the federal census we have
69,7OO.
This is the 462nd city which my
partner in this work and / have
studied. We have never studied a
city whose rate of growth was so
rapid as this. These 1900 persons
are not yet affiliated with the great
unity to which ! have referred; that
is the first sign of the distinctive per-
sonality of Tulsa. But such affilia-
tion as exists in economic interests
has bound them together here in a
city which has passed so many other
cities of the United States in rate of
growth and its total population that
will not stop you TO read the list. Or
dinarily so great a number of people
would be divided into 400 families
but the number of families in Tulsa
this evening is unquestionably very
much larger than that; that is to say,
the city contains an entirely dispro-
portionate number of men who have
not yet removed their families to
Tulsa, of men who are not yet mar
ried. of very small families because
they have not yet had time to grow
Uaughter). Estimating the number
of your families at not less than 49,
900. this is an increase of the normal
number by more than twenty per
cent.
We reach the very interesting con-
clusion that there are not more than
three hundred incomes in the city of
three thousand dollars a year each, /
yet that conclusion, normal for every |
other city of America, would lead US
into very grave mistake in Tulsa. No
one knows how many incomes there |
are in Tulsa of three thousand dollars ,
a year because some of them do not .
stay put" a year. But what if the /
number of regular continuing incomes 1
in excess of that figure? Even ! am
not yet satisfied that | must accept
the estimate given to me that there
are five thousand five hundred such
incomes in your city. II that be the
case-and / don't know-we are con-
fronting study of the richest city
IN the world.
Cities in Sections.
The city is in, or was in, three main
sections. You must understand that I,
every city in the world is in sections.
Every great city in the world is di- 4
yided by river and one of the signs
that we are all human is that at one
.ime or another in the course of the
,ity's growth the people on one side
Of the river would rather do without
= hANSolliB Nlldl StG dllN NnluS eOOu nap !.
pen to the people on the other side Of
the river (Laughter). This has helped
the development of certain cities
which God in his wisdom intended
should be great. Pueblo in Colorado
is perhaps the best illustration. 1t
has every advantage Of location COW
cred in the five laws of transporta-
,ion relating to the growth of cities,
yet Denver has passed it very rapidly
because Denver, united as she used
to be, was more powerful than either
half of Pueblo by itself.
Yet, though in Tulsa we were not
divided so much in sentiment by the .
river, we have not yet been altogether .
as one on this side of the river, and
now and then in my study have
come upon buildings whose location .
could not be explained upon any pos
sible hypothesis excepting that people (
preferred to have il located badly (
rather than to have it go to another
part of town. The east side, the north .
side, and main Tulsa are now one, and !
with them is developed new side
across the river, the nearest approach,
south of the international boundary.
to Tonapah and the Klondike. As l
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