Omaha daily bee., 1918-06-09


estate board, Wednesday.
Mr.. Chapman is chemist and'
metalurgist whose profession neces-
states great amount of travel. Years
ago he was at the head Of Chapman
& Co., wholesale grocers in Omaha.
and was a contemporary of the
pioneer wholesale houses of D. M.
Steel Il Co., and of the McCord,
Brady company.
when Omaha was young" said
he, II travelled across the continent
in company with J. M. Forbes, at
that time president of the Burlington.
He was man of great vision and in
a conversation ! asked him the ques-
ton which, in Is or 50 years, would
be the great continental cities. He
answered Philadelphia, New York,
Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit Omaha
San Francisco and Seattle.
Future of Omaha.
ut is my prophecy that in 10 years
Omaha will not only approximate the
present growth of Kansas City, but
will, at the end of that time, equal
what Kansas City will then be in
population, wealth. commercial and
industrial development.
Omaha has seven transcontinental
trunk lines as compared with Kansas
City's two. Omaha is in the center
of a district equi-distant from two
lateral lines, of the great wealth own
ing and wealth producing sections OF
the United States. 1t Is the center of
district bounded by Baltimore on
the south and Boston on the north,
forming a belt 400 miles wide and ex-
tending across the continent in which
IS per cent of the wealth Of the
United States is owned and>7S per
cent of the wealth of the country is
produced.
Omaha Is also the agricultural CEN
ter of the United States. Immediately
contiguous to the city is vast body
of soil made up of loose silt, of great
depth and partically inexhaustible,
ONLY two places in the world have this
quality of soil, the valley of the
Seine, in France, which has been
farmed intensively for 10 centuries,
and which produced the richest
peasantry OF the world, and the valley
of the Yang-tse-Kiang, in China,
which has fed countless thousands
through numberless ages and is still
unexhausted.
Wealth of Fire Clays.
AT our door is limitless wealth oi
the best pottery, brick and fire clays
in the world. In easy reach are the
great, ore fields of the mountains
which have already created here one
of the worlds largest smelters. ir
Omaha's territory are the Wyoming
oil fields, which in their infancy are
producing more oil than the Kansas
district. Omaha should be the ter
minus of pipe lines from this field
also the refining, distributing ant
financing center OF the Wyoming OF
industry. AZ 60
kansas City attained its prestige
by the development of the south.
west. 1t gained the momentum thai
caused it to pass Omaha from this
source. Omaha has, in the western
part of Nebraska, in both of the
Dakotas, in Wyoming, Colorado and
| Montana, a territory as rich in its
potentialities for wealth production
as Kansas City's southwest. This
territory is emerging from the raw
and Omaha is now feeling the quick
ening process of wealth creation there
Omaha has stable foundation in thu
wealth of western Iowa and eastern
4 Nebraska, both of which have beer
largely responsible for the stead,
growth of the city in the past.
| Inroads on Kansas City.
"Kansas City has now reached thu
point where inroads on her jobbinl
and industrial development are beinl
made by competing points in tn
territory where it-was once dominant
Fort Worth, Dallas and Houston
Tex; Fort Smith, Ark; Oklahom
City and Tulsa, Okla, Wichita
Topeka, Leavenworth and Atchison
Kan, and St. Joseph, Mo-, all ar
biting into the field where Kansa
CITY once stood supreme.
Omaha has only Sioux City Is
competitor in its district and con
ditions of topography, transportation
and population are such that Omah
will never suffer to the extent o
Kansas City, because Of division o
commercial and industrial activities.
:, "All Of the territory east of Denvel
all of Wyoming. all Of eastern Mon
tana, the two Dakotas, Nebraska an
, western Iowa is Omaha's logical trad,
financial and industrial domain. Thi
empire is now in process Of develop
ment, only the surface OF its wealt
creating possibilities being scratched
. "The next important step in tn
big business of Omaha is to build
pipe line to the Wyoming oil fields. :.
"A survey of Omaha, INDUSTRIAL
, suggests to me that it would be wis
for the commercial interests OF tn
city to appoint. field engineer who's
business would be to visit point
where there are factories producin
meritorious commodities, but whlc
are struggling under the handicaps
lack of local capital and advers
T location. Adopt the Seattle plan an
induce such concerns to locate.
Omaha and furnish them with half
/ Il I>I ~