Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-07-15
CLEVELAND
LOOKS AHEAD
Bv Frederic J. HaSkin
~ LEvELAND, Ohio, July 10
Cleveland is city of mu-
- nicipal foresight. 1t believes

CleVeland is city OF mu-
in looking on the optimistic
side of life and seeing things not as
they are, but as they will be in the
future.
Thus when the recent census fig
ures were published, showing Detroit
to be leading Cleveland by several
hundred thousand population, Cleve-
land merely shrugged it's dignified
shoulders, cleared it's throat signifi-
cantly, and said: wait and see
This remark is typical of Cleve-
lands attitude toward most of it's
shortcomings. Not that it has more
than other cities, but it gives one
the impression of just having discov-
cred them. Everything in Cleveland
is just in the. process of being sur
veyed or has just been surveyed, and
as it will be several years before the
recommendations resulting from
these surveys are acted upon, Cleve-
land naturally looks to the future for
perfection. In fact, many of the citi-
Zens of Cleveland have looked in this
direction SO often that they have
come to take the future Cleveland
for granted.
- For instance, one of the things that
Cleveland likes to boast about is it's
famous group plan of public build
ings. This group, as everyone will
tell you, includes the Union Pas
senger Station, the City Hall. the Lii
brary building, the Federal building,
the Municipal auditorium and the
County Building, extending in neat
and orderly plan from the fringe of
the business district to the shore Of
Lake Erie. Well, so much has been
said and written concerning this daz-
zling feature of the city that a few
arrived from Belgium for the sole
purpose of inspecting it. With some
reluctance. small delegation from
the chamber of commerce led the
Belgian gentleman down the street
and showed him the city hall the
skeleton of what is some day to be
the auditorium.
But the library and the station?"
inquired the city planning expert,
the beauties Of Cleveland.
I'VE regret to say" explained the
delegation. that they are still in the
form of blue print"
Since this incident occurred, the
bond issue for fifteen million dol
lars which was to be raised in order
to build the station has been rejected
by the people Of Cleveland in favor
of a large number Of new hospital
beds, and the group plan appears to
be farther from completion than
as reality by Cleveland.
Of course, this municipal futurism
Is better understood when you con-
slider that Clevelands slogan is
Tell the World About Cleveland"
Unfortunately, in order to make the
thing interesting to tell, so Cleveland
cannot be blamed If it turns to the
future and uses it's imagination.
Cleveland's past is not Of the ro-
mantle or lurid variety which the
world prefers to read about. 1t was
quietly and peacefully founded by
man named Moses Cleveland, who
was head surveyor for the Connecti-
cut Land company, which acquired
most of northern Ohio at the price of
forty cents an acre. We are told
worth 100000, but we don't know
which acre is referred to.
The influence Of the early Con-
necticut Puritans still predominates
Cleveland, which continues to take
In the outlying farming districts,
moreover, there are villages which,
to all appearances, might have been
brought along by the Connecticut
Land company in its Journey west
Tard 70 so hi id toda they with
A City Of Dignity
However, it was the Standard Oil
company and not Connecticut which
made Cleveland what it is today, al
though neither the Standard Oil
viii ADMIT h0f it, The op oe c of the
former tell you that it was the com
p1etion of the Ohio Canal connecting
Lake Erie with the Ohio river as
early as 1843 which started Cleve-
industrial city. but the people, of
Cleveland will tell you that they had
the elemc. Of success in them from
the very beginning.
Be that as it may, Cleveland to-
day. is ponderous and dignified. as
Rockefeller family, and Just trifle
heavy. II does heavy things. 1t
builds steel ! ships along its lake
front; It manufactures machinery,
and assemblies automobile parts. 1t
also leads the world in the produc-
trial. variety-bolts, wire goods, steel
forgings, hardware, job printers
presses, gray iron castings, tele-
scopes, plumbers fixtures and vac
uum sweepers. It also turns out
more women's ready-made clothing
than any other city, with the excep-
ton Of New York.
But Cleveland's greatest pride Is
its success as host to innumerable
conventions. AS meeting nlace, as
the chamber of commerce so truly
says. Cleveland calls louder to you
than any city Of its size in the coup-
try. Nothing p1eases Cleveland-es-
pecially the hotels and retailers of
Cleveland-more than to have a
whole association of haymakers, or
or lawyers or homeopathic physi-
clans descend upon 1t five or six
hundred strong.
Nowhere is the badge Of member
ship more admired or respected No
ties been assembled as a lure to the
converting public. We forget what
the seating capacity of all the hotel
Hobbies, halls and auditoriums is, but
it is quite astonishing. And 1t may
be added with all due fairness to
Cleveland, that it's hotels are excep-
tionally, acknowledgements, in fact, the
most attractive feature of the city.
Besides which, Cleveland possesses
unique amusement facilities for con-
vening visitors within easy walking
One Of these is a shooting gallery
of the good old type found at sum-
mer resorts. where the person who
hits the bull's-eye three times in
succession is rewarded with a pair
Of socks Of the thirty-five-cent va
held in a moving. picture theater.
which consists of everything from
a mournful calliope and a blood
sweating behemoth to a pink lemon
ade and peanut stand.
Add to these attractions a large
assortment of cafeterias and the lar
gest collection of dairy lunch rooms
ever assembled in captivity and you
will understand why Cleveland con-
siders itself an ideal convention city.
How the National Democratic and
National Republican parties ever
came to choose San Francisco and
Chicago for their convention sites
this year when they could have met
in Cleveland is quite bevond the COM
prehension of Cleveland's leading cit
liens. However, both parties will be
given another chance; for with it's
eye as ever on the future, Cleveland
has already extended a cordial in
vitation to each party to hold its ma
tional convention In Cleveland when