The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-28
TALK BY CRANE.
Tells Rotary Members How to
Beautify City.
No City Ever Stands Still, Lee
.turer Says,

Ross Crane, of the extension de-
partment OF, the Chicago Art Institute.
and Noel v Wood, president of the
Wood Motors company, Of Topeka.
were the principal speakers on the
program of the Topeka Rotary club,
which met today noon at the Chamber
of Commerce.
Crane spoke on city Improvement
and invited all members of the club
to attend his lecture this evening at
The high school auditorium.
No City Stands Still.
ss1yo city in any country ever stands
still" said Crane in opening his re-
marks They either go backward or
forward. There is no reason why To-
peka cannot be made the best city in
The United States in which to raise a
boy or girl. The Inauguration of a city
plan, however. is vitality necessary to
Topeka. All cities except Washington,
ID. c.. Just happened-grew up by
accident, without any plan whatso-
ever. This defect can be remedled'
however In Peoria, Ill, where we
recently introduced a city planning
scheme. it was Necessary to tear down
four blocks of business buildings to
make room for civic center Zen
Years ago the cost of buud1ng thdl
Now the cost will be approximate ely
S75O,OOO That. however, is not the
fault of anyone. City planning was
in its infancy at that time.
"A city plan for Topekais necessary
not only to make your city more peau-
tifuI. but for economic and Industrial
reasons. With your state capitol as
center. and the principal buildings To-
Gated around it. your parks. play
grounds. boulevards should be laid out
Immediately.
hundred more houses. That is sit
uation that should be Immediately
remedied. The first requisite of a
good citizen is home ownership. 1
have a plan by which every citizen
may begin within a year to build MS
own home. TfAss project will state at
the Friday night meeting IN the audi
torium."
Grape closed his talk with an invita-
ton 10 all members to attend the free
meeting Friday night and learn more
about the construction of city beau
tiful and efficient.
Talk on Business Conditions.
Noel V. Wood. of the Wood Motors
company, gave. a. ten minute talk on
business conditions, as related to the
motor car industry.
1.-The pulse of finance is probably
more keenly felt in the motor car in
dustry than in any other line of bust
ness today" said Wood.
when someone termed passenger
cars pleasure cars back in the days
when automobiles first came into gem
eraI use. the general public accepted
the it. but not for very long, Now
we consider motor cars just as essen
tial as electric lights. telephones and
other modern necessities.
Must GO After Business.
1r5o,e oIyar
the transom at the Wood company,
with a check attached and an order
TO roll 'er out. We have to go out
and sell the cars-and unless we sell
them, they are not bought. Another
indication of the good times is the
fact that we are not selling as many
cars to the fellow who just gotta raise,
but to the conservative, thoughtful
buyers.
ITO me, business is healthier than
it was last year, AMI people are buying
more carefully. They want to know
what they are buying and consequent
" they buy pfover cars from proven
concern. 'Wild-catting' in autos is a
thing of the past. They are buying
however and to prove that, my COM
pany sold more cars last month than
at any time since 1 came to Topeka
years ago.
Sell More Automobiles.
''son. people may think that be-
cause we are selling more cars we are
receiving less money on the payments.
Let me say that the payments on cars
we have sold on time are being made
more promptly than they have been
at any time within year.
"Another thing that is of interest
and also the subject of much discus
sion is the price of cars. The steel
corporation announces a reduction on
motor car steel that amounts to $500
ton. When you remember that a
completed car weighs from $500 to
$500 pounds, you can easily see that
the reduction does not materially eff
feet the production cost. Things look