The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-22
M E N, w o M FEN
 A N D T H l N G $

city Of the west, and has full right to be proud of it's position and ac- complishments.
 have taken a great interest in Chicago ever since the busting of the boom in Birmingham back in the early a0's when there was a general exodus from the Magic City. I was one of those who pulled up stakes and left
 Chicago lured me and I went out there to look over the city which has a great lake at it's very doors. It was the call of Clyde J. McCrary, who will be remembered by many old-timers as one of the past masters in the life insurance game. He had big chance in the Windy City and wanted me to share it with him.
 
 Arthur Crowder at the recent life insurance banquet at the Southern club introduced me as an ex-life in- surance writer. It's one of the few things I have never undertaken ia my adventurous career; but there was a modicum of truth in the in- reported that I had gone to Chicago to line up with Clyde. Had I done so I might have been a rich man. for he has made a wonderful suc- cess. There Is reason for my side- stepping the game. I never had suf- ficient gall.
 But this Is merely to tell how I got my first acquaintance with Chicago. I found Clyde installed in the great Monadanock building, which at that time was one of the seven wonders of the west for size. The worlds fair was just emerging and the city was alive with interest, but one day as I turned the corner one morning afc- CT leaving the office 8 wind cam, near sweeping me out into Lake Michigan and I knew then how the city had gotten its nickname of the Windy City"
 Without rime or reason 1t con- vinced me that Chicago was not the place for me, and I left on an after noon train for New York city. N might be truly said that 1t was a Chicago wind that blew me to Man haitian. But in the month or two that l spent in Chicago I found it to be diamond In the rough, and never for one moment doubted but that in the days to come 1t was go- ing to be able to give a good account of it's progress in every line of hu- man endeavor. for the men who were its makers had vision, and with it the will to dare.
 was not surprised to read that Chicago is the fourth city in popu- lation in the world and the second in the United States. This population is Chicago's achievement in ST years, an achievement which Is truly re- garded as one of the marvels oe civilization, and goes & long way to- wards upsetting all calculations of the prophets of the old world who taught for centuries that the growth of cities was 8 slow process.
 It is just 37 years older than Bir- mingham, the Magic City of the south, for Chicago was not incor- porated until 1887 and was all pas ture land beyond an area of two and half square miles; while to- day it's citizens live and work in about 200 square miles of territory and are crowded and the call is loud and urgent for more elbow room. To be little more explicit, 1t had In 1850 an area of 14 square miles, so you see it took it 13 years to get just little start in the way of ad- ditional territory.
 But more than this. the Chicago territory has one-sixth of the popu- lation of the United States, but 1t produces one-fifth of the crops, one- fifth of the manufacturers and one- seventh of the minerals. It is not only unique in size and wealth, but In the diversity of its resources, as nowhere else Is there such re- markable balance among agriculture, manufacturing, mining and com- merce. Tho city of Chicago Is but the evidence of the magnitude of the territory from which It draws it's living.
 Before a Greater Birmingham will be able to cash in on its dreams, 1t too must reach out and claim as its own much territory which Is now served by cities without the state. We have lived too long on mining and manufacturing. the time has come when our merchants must show the enterprise evidenced by the far reaching projects for marketing our coal, iron and steel by the captains of industry. We have the location and with the Warrior river and rail transportation we must work for the leadership in the wholesaling and jobbing of many lines of merchant disc. TO the north of us almost at our very doors Is the rich Tennessee valley, which Is being exploited largely by Tennesseans. We must get into this territory and make It our very own.
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