Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-12
MILWAUKEE, GAINS
SINCE PROHIBITION
City Demonstrates Its Pros
perity Was Not Due to
Brewing Industry.
BY JOHN F. SINCLAIR.
al nisnatcb Ia The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
MILWAUKEE, Wis, August ~
| Thousands of people throughout the
United States still wonder what keeps
Milwaukee going since prohibition be-
came a law. For a number Of years its
most important advertised product was
beer. When this was prohibited those
who objected to prohibition sympa-
thized with Milwaukee and others
prophesied its doom.
But Milwaukee has continued to
grow, showing an increase in popula-,
ton every year the census was taken.
When Lincoln was inaugurated PreSi-
dent, Milwaukee had 5000 people. BY
! 1870 the number had increased to H.
| 600. Ten years later it was $4,000. BY
1910 the figure had reached $4,000.
In 1915 it wss 423,000. About this time
came prohibition, yet in 1920 the pop
ulation showed 457,0O0, while today it
is estimated at $4,000.
AS matter of fact, the beer business
| never was very large, even in its most
prosperous days. There were seven
other industries in the city whose vol
ume always remained ahead Of the
beer industry.
Today Milwaukee boasts Of being the
worlds most diversified industrial city.
Her 1000 industrial plants turn out
| products valued at more than 81 ,000,-
100000. Her pay roll for her $4,000
industrial employees now reaches more
than $200,000,000 a year and the cap
ital investment in these plants has gone
above $500,000,000.
Because of the diversification of her
factories and the type of people who
have dominated her business and
finance for three generations, Milwau-
kee has never had bread line or a
serious panic. She has never had a real
boom or a bad depression. She has
had to slow down at times, although
her natural tendencies are not to move
very rapidly in any direction unless
substantial backing has already been
secured. She has made steady progress
both in agriculture and industry since
the time when Abraham Lincoln made
the principal address at the State fair
in Milwaukee in 1858.
In certain industries this German
American city leads the world. In the
manufacture of silk hosiery, automobile
parts, work shoes, heavy pumping ma
chinery, large gas engines, saw mill
machinery. cement machinery, hydro
electric units, electrical control appa-
ratus. rock crushers, wheelbarrows.
trunks, boat motors and motor cycles
she stands at the top.
This record should be enough for
any one city. but Milwaukee IS second
in several other and very important
ones, such as soaps, packed meat. knit
goods, candy. food products, drugs,
chemicals, millinery, textiles, wood and
pulp products.
The Milwaukee Of a generation ago
contained the names of Pabst, Schlitz.
Blatz and Uihlein, specializing in the
brewery lines: that of Vogel, Pfister and
Gallun in the tannery and shoe bust
ness, and the name Of Falk in the metal
trades.
These names still mean much in the
financial and business activities Of the
city. But other names must be added
to this already well known list.
The name Of Bruno Nordberg, presl-
dent of the Nordberg Corporation.
builders of powerful engines and other
machinery, is one to be reckoned with
in Wisconsin. Mr.. Eordberg is Of the
second generation, comparatively
young man, whose business interests are
becoming very widely extended.
The Seaman brothers, Harold and
Irving. the active heads of the Seaman
Body Corporation. sole builders of Nash
bodies. employ several thousand people
in their shops and are powerful bust
ness influence in the city.
Then. another leader who has come
to the front is Phil Koehring, president
of the National Equipment Co.'S man
whose rise in the business world in re-
cent years has been phenomenal.
DR.. Charles E. Albright, the largest
insurance underwater in the United
States and associated with the North
western Life Insurance Co., is another
name which was not heard Of 20 years
ago.
And then there is L. R. Smith, presi-
dent of the A. o. Smith Corporation
and graduate Of the University Of Wis
consin. Mr.. Smith has probably ac-
complished as much in recent years in
the field of modern industry as any man
in the United States.
(Copyright, 1929. by North American News
paper Aliance.)