Evening star., 1925-07-07
CHICAGO AGRICULTURAL MART 4
MAY BE FORERUNNER OF OTHERS
Bankers Planning to Aid in Establishment OF Buying
and Selling Centers for Main Industries.
Farmers Expect Great Benefits.
BY FREDERIC. WILLIAM VILE

BY FREDERIC. WILLIAM VILE.
STAFF Correspondent of The Star.
T. CHICAGO July 4.-Calvin Cool,
idge told the American farmer last
Winter that "the lions share" of the
work of reha abilitating agriculture
must be done by the farmer himself.
The bucolic brother Is about to take
the hint, and on a gigantic scale.
Plans are approaching completion for
the erection in Chicago of the Amer
ican Agricultural Mart" 1t Is to be
a vast temple of the farming in
dustry. rising on the banks of, the
Chicago River in the midst of other
towering temples of business, for 1t
is to be essentially a commercial en-
terprise. The scheme carries out
still another suggestion which Presi
dent Coolidge made to the farmers.
1t Is highly and distinctly co-opera-
tive in nature. Chicago has become
community of gigantic enterprises
-gigantic in concept and construc-
ton. The American Agricultural
Mart will be no exception to the rule
Flanking the murky river on its
southern side, just where magnifi-
cent Michigan boulevard crosses to
the north, the mart will occupy a
full city block. 1t will be at least
16 stories in height and surmounted
by symbolical tower destined to
add still another picturesquely mon
umental feature to Chicago's sky
line. The purpose of the mart. as its
name indicates, Is primarily that of
market place for the farm and the
farmer. 1t is to serve them in their
dual capacity of buyers and sellers.
Nothing that is not directly concern
ed with agriculture will have place
beneath it's capaoious roox. IN every
conceivable direction the mart will
serve the needs of the tiller of the
soil and of those who cater to them.
So comprehensive in scope is the
whole project that to listen to the
enthusiasm of it's sponsors is to
imagine that the troubles of the
American farmer soon will vanish,
never to return.
VIII Cost S35, 200, 900.
The American Agricultural Mart.
which is to cost. according to present
plans, something like $35, 900 900, is
to be open and ready for business
not later than the year 1890. Financ-
ing arrangements are assured. Pre-
liminary construction work will be-
gin as soon as titles to a few plots
of required land along the river front
can be cleared. The mart will have
as next-door neighbors the two most
striking buildings in Chicago-the
glittering white Wrigley pile and the
massive Tribune Tower, which are
just across the water. The site for
the mart has been chosen because
Of the unique transportation facili-
ties at hand. Dockage and wharfs,
already in use, win be the mart's
water frontage, with the harbor Of
Chicago and the open waters of Lake
Michigan less than half a mile away.
On its land side the mart will have
direct access to the lines of the IIli-
nois Central Railroad and it's inter
locking connections South and West.
Some day it will be possible for a
wheat grower to ship his produce
from his own fields by rail to the
mart. sell 1t there and ship it to
Europe virtually in one operation.
1t was the late Henry P. Dawson,
wartime chairman of the American
Red Cross and Morgan bank partner,
who gave birth to the underlying
idea of the Agricultural Mart. It's
forerunner is the American Furniture
Mart, opened here last year for the
same general purposes-namely, to
provide a basic industry with ways
and means for facilitating intercourse
between seller and buyer. 1t was
Davison's theory that all American
business some day would take such
trend. He saw kindred industries
and interests consolidating and CO.
operating for common good. He said
he couldn't see why selling and buy
ing factors, also bound by a COM
munity of interest, shouldn't get
together" in as close and compact a
form as feasible.
Plan Many Marts.
The young Chicago bankers who
launched the Furniture Mart concede
that they were specifically inspired by
Davison's dream. The Agricultural
Mart is merely their next step in
working 1t out. They have far-reach-
ing plans for other industries besides
furniture and agriculture. Some day
they expect to dot Chicago with marts
for automobiles, clothing. radio, print
ing, the building trades. and a variety
of key businesses now conducted, as
between buyer and seller, on more or
less topsy-turvy lines.
The farm people of the country
have given the Agricultural Mart their
unqualified blessing. They believe 1t
is going to take them a long way
toward the agricultural millennium,
even though it doesn't actually bring
1t about. When Secretary Jardine was
in Chicago in June and asked for
his opinion Of the scheme, he said:
Fine" He promised to boost 1t to
the full extent of the Department of
Agriculture's ability. The great farm
cooperative societies pledge their sup
port. The American Farm Bureau
Federation, the National Grange and
the other big organizations which
safeguard the general interests of
agriculture greet the enterprise as a
boon of immeasurable value to the
whole farming industry. The farm
press, tremendous factor in Ameri-
can agriculture, welcomes the scheme
In unStinted terms. Practically all Of
these interests-the motive power be-
hind the farm movement in the United
States-will be concentrated at the
mart and actually housed within It,.
There will thus be a Capitalization of
these forces. such as has never before
been attempted, and a unification of
effort that may be of great influence
upon agricultural development, espe-
cially in a legislative sense.
Demand Balanced Tariff"
The Coolidge doctrine of self-help by
and for the farmer is as much the
handspring of the project as the Davi-
son idea from which 1t originally
sprang. When the mart is a going
concern, couple of years hence, the
American farmer will be in position