San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-04
s800,000,00.0
IN PRODUCTS {
BY 1854 s.
Leel Sees Big Future for
Plants and Employment
for 100000. 4
Bye. C. LEEL
(seeretary, San Antonio Manufacturers
Aaaoriaffou-N

inc next oV years as tney nave during
the past three decades, then by the
year 1854 this city will have an an
nual output Of manufactured products
amounting to $S00,0O0,0O0.
This will place us where St. Louis
now stands, and considerably greater
from a manufacturing viewpoir. tte:
either Pittsburgh. Kansas City, Gin
clnnati, Buffalo, Boston, Baltimore or
Akron. Of course this does not mean
that San Antonio will catch up with
these cities within the next 30 years.
because they also will have advanced
enormously by that time. but it does
mean that at the end of the next three
decades San Antonio industrially will
be where those cities now are. At
that time we will employ more than
100000 people in our approximately
200 factories.
FACTORIES INCREASE.
During the last 30 years the num-
Der of San Antonio's factories has
increased from 135 to 800. The num-
Der of their employees has advanced
from 1900 to 1900, while the annual
output of manufactured products of
this city's industries has grown from
S3,JOO,OOO to approximately $75,000,-
900. This shows phenomenal growth.
Southwest Texas has plentiful
supply Of labor, also gas. oil. coal.
transportation, climate and soil, rea-
sonable legislation, low cost of heat
ing and clothing, animal and vegetable
raw materials, iron and other metals.
minerals. water, markets, every asset
that could be desired by industries,
but the thorough utilization of these
advantages is in its infancy. Many
of Us, especially those with money.
are doubtlessly "asleep at the switch"
Factories and farms are the back
bone of a territory. The real gauge
and wealth of a community is its
ability to produce goods in its factories
and products on its farm lands.
USE OWN MATERIALS.
We must use more of our own raw
materials in our manufactures, and
must gradually replace the raw mate
rial our factories are now forced to
buy from other states by raw mate
rails we must develop, or mine, or
produce right here in Southwest Texas.
We must use Texas grown hides to
make our saddles and boots instead
of leather tanned in other distant
states, which is shipped into Texas,
the greatest leather growing section in
the world with the possible exception
of the Argentine. This clearly demon
strates the opportunities for capital
to establish modern tanneries here.
Southwest Texas grown wool and mo-
hair should be used in Southwest
Texas mills to manufacture our cloth
ing, instead of being shipped to Bos-
time wool grown near San Antonio
travels 1000 miles before San Anton
ians buy it in some form of clothing.
whereas it should only have travelled
one hundred miles at most.
Here we are in Southwest Texas,
underlaid with almost innumerable
different classifications of the finest
grades OF metals and minerals, and
yet we are using practically none of
them in our manufactures, except in
the making of our cement. clay prod
ucts, textiles and a few other branches
of manufacture.
COTTON PRODUCTS.
We have during the past ten years
remedied this condition so far as cot
ton is concerned. Our cotton mills
are making a splendid assortment OF
fine and coarse goods. Raw cotton
goes In at the back door of these mills,
and after passing through numerous
bewildering processes. comes out in
the shape of wonderfully colored and
patterned goods. Much of these tex
tiles in bolts are then shipped to our
San Antonio factories, whose thou
sands of employees manufacture them
into various articles of wear. which
are shipped as finished products to
New York and other centers for dis
tribution all over the United States.
This is a form of export, though not
foreign, and means much eastern gold
and capital for San Antonio and the
great Southwest.
So in order to derive most benefit
from our prolific resources, we should
where possible use Texas grown. Texas
produced and Texas manufactured
goods throughout, in other words from
the Sleeps back or the cotton fields.
TO our own backs, without first send
ing this raw material on an expen.
sive 1000 mile return railroad journey.
1t is ridiculous and illogical to pay
for our clothing to take a trip round
the world before we buy it, thus add
ing much to the final cost. We have
only ourselves to blame for this con-
dition. We must be more enterpris-
ing, must encourage the establishment
Of more factories and the bringing
into Southwest Texas of more outside
money, and above all we must invest
our own money in our own indus
tries.
WHAT s. A. NEEDS.
What San Antonio needs is an ex-
perienced industrial commissioner, a
man capable of handling big things,
whose expenses would be paid by a
fund to be raised from those men most
interested in the industrial develop
ment and growth of the community.
This commissioner should spend six
months making a careful scientific sur
vey and study of the almost unlimited
possibilities Of the San Antonio terri
tory, tabulating all the new factories
which could most logically be operat-
ed hers, and which. with proper man.
agement. could not fail to be success
full. This man should then spend the
balance OF the year visiting eastern
factories who should become interested.
Local business men today are CO.
operating more than ever before in the
constructive development and up-build-
ing Of the San Antonio territory. The