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CHICAGO
THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL
CENTER OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
An Area with an Annual Tonnage of
Twenty-two Billion Tons
By
George E. Plumbe, A. B., LL. D,
Statistician The Chicago Association of Commence
Published by
THE CIVIC-INDUSTRIAL COMMITTEE OF THE
CHICAGO ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCE
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
1912
}^ H-
COPTBIGHT, 1918
BT
THE CHICAGO ASSOCIATION
OF COMMERCE
AU Rights Reserved
THE CHICAGO ASSOCIATION
OF COMMERCE
1912
OFFICERS
EUGENE U. KIMBARK, President
HOWARD ELTING JAMES S. AGAR
Vice-Pres. for Inter-State Div. Vice-Pres. for Foreign Trade Div.
WILLIAM W. BUCHANAN ROBERT E. KENYON
Vice-Pres. fnr Civic-Industrial Div. General Secretary
WILLIAM REISS FRANK R. McMULLIN
Vice-Pres. for Local Div. General Treasurer
OFFICIAL STAFF
GENERAL DEPARTMENT
HUBERT F. MILLER WILLIAM HUDSON HARPER
Business Manager Editor Chicago Commerce
TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT
H. C. BARLOW
Traffic Director
CIVIC-INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT
W. R. HUMPHREY GEO. E. PLUMBE
Industrial Comnussioner Statistician
LOCAL DEPARTMENT
GEORGE M. SPANGLER, Jr.
Mans^er Bureau of Conventions
F. C. ENRIGHT
Representative, Cassilla de Corrento, 1779, Buenos Aires, Argentina
242491
THE CHICAGO ASSOCIATION
OF COMMERCE
CIVIC INDUSTRIAL COMMITTEE
1911
ALBERT R. BARNES, Chairman HENRY B. FAVILL, M. D.
EDWIN S. CONWAY WILLIAM G. HIBBARD, JR.
HENRY R. BALDWIN ROBERT SCHUTTLER HOTZ
WILLIAM A. BOND DARIUS MILLER
WILLIAM W. BUCHANAN CHARLES D. RICHARDS
T. E. DONNELLEY JAMES H. VAN VLISSINGEN
JOHN M. EWEN CHARLES H. WACKER
W. R. HUMPHREY, Industrial Commissioner
GEORGE E. PLUMBE, Statistician
CIVIC INDUSTRIAL COMMITTEE
1912
WM. W. BUCHANAN, Chairman
ALBERT R. BARNES HENRY B. FAVILL, M. D.
HENRY R. BALDWIN WILLIAM G. HIBBARD, JR.
WILLIAM A. BOND ROBERT S. HOTZ
WM. H. BUSH DARIUS MILLER
EDWIN S. CONWAY JAMES A. PATTEN
T. E. DONNELLEY CHAS. D. RICHARDS
W. F. DUMMER J. H. VAN VLISSINGEN
W. R. HUMPHREY, Industrial Commissioner
GEORGE E. PLUMBE, Statistician
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
I. Chicago,
II. Chicago,
III. Chicago,
IV. Chicago,
V. Chicago,
VI. Chicago,
VII. Chicago,
VIII. Chicago,
IX. Chicago,
X. Chicago,
XI. Chicago,
XII. Chicago,
XIII. Chicago,
XIV. Chicago,
XV. Chicago,
XVI. Chicago,
Page
Its Location and Growth ... 9
Its Climate and Health . . . .17
As a Central Market . . . .29
Its Supply of Raw Material .41
Its Industrial Expansion . . .49
Its Industrial Districts . . . .61
Its Transportation Facilities . . .65
Its Intramural Transit .77
Its Business Utilities . .85
Its Association of Commerce . . .97
Its Labor Supply . . . .101
Its Wage Earners and their Wages .109
As a City of Homes . . .115
Its Economical Living . . . .123
Its Ethical and Educational Advantages 129
Its Plan for a New Citv . . . .137
INDEX TO MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway System (Santa Fe)
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad System
Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal R. R.
Belt Railway of Chicago ....
Big Four (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Ry.)
Chesapeake & Ohio Lines.
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R.
Chicago Great Western R. R.
Chicago, Indiana & Southern R. R.
Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Ry. (Monon) .
Chicago Junction Ry. ....
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry.
Chicago Outer Belt Line (Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Ry.)
Chicago River & Indiana R. R. .
Chicago River & Indiana R. R. Boat House
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway System (Rock Island
Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Ry..
Chicago Union Transfer Ry.
Chicago, West Pullman & Southern R. R.
Chicago & Alton R. R. .
Chicago & Eastern Illinois R. R.
Chicago & IlHnois Western R. R.
Chicago & North Western Ry. . . - .
Chicago & North Western Ry. Passenger Station
Chicago & Western Indiana R. R.
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Ry. (Big Four)
District Map of Chicago ....
Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Ry. (Chicago Outer Belt Line)
Erie R. R.
Grand Trunk Ry. ....
Illinois Central R. R. .
Illinois Northern Ry. ....
Illinois Tunnel Co. . . • .
Indiana Harbor Belt R. R.
Isotherms of 40, 50 and 60 degrees
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Ry. (Terminal)
Manufacturers Junction Ry.
Manufacturing Zone of Chicago . . . ,
Michigan Central R. R. (Terminal)
Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Ry. (Soo Line)
Monon (Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Ry.) .
New York, Chicago & St. Louis R. R. (Nickle Plate)
Nickle Plate (New York, Chicago & St. Louis R. R.)
Pennsylvania Railroad System
Pere Marquette R. R. .
Rock Island Lines (Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry.)
Santa Fe (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry.)
Soo Line (Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Ry.)
Wabash R. R. .
Lines)
Page
14
22
24
27
86
30
34
38
42
46
50
54
90
50
opposite 120
58
62
66
70
74
76
80
82
opposite 12
27
86
144
90
92
98
102
106
94
110
18
opposite 134
114
143
opposite 135
118
46
124
124
128
130
58
14
118
138
PREAMBLE
THIS volume is an enlarged, corrected
and amended edition of a similar
publication issued two years ago by
the Civic Industrial Committee of the
Chicago Association of Commerce.
As far as possible it includes the latest
data relating to manufacturing in Chicago
which will be fully embodied in the reports
of the Thirteenth Census, which was taken
subsequently to the publication of the
former volume.
In the departments of trade, commerce,
finance, navigation, transportation effi-
ciency and other subjects, the statistics are
brought down to the present year. There
is no exaggeration, the simple facts being
sufficiently marvelous.
Chicago has made rapid advances in
every department of its activities, as well
as in growth in population, in the past two
years. Its supremacy as the great indus-
trial, commercial and financial center of
the Mississippi valley — an area exceeding
in extent five times that of both France and
Germany — is assured beyond all question.
G. E. P.
ITS LOCATION AND GROWTH
Chicago— Its Location and Growth
The story is told that during the presidency of General Wash-
ington he held a consultation with General Wayne, commanding
the Army of the United States, for considering the best means for
affording the settlers protection against Indian raids and the fron-
tier from incursions by the British by way of Canada and the
Great Lakes. While examining the map the president placed his
finger at the mouth of Chicago river and said : "There will eventu-
ally be the centre of population, commerce and trade of the conti-
nent." Whether or not this story is authentic, it is a fact that
this point was selected by him and General Wayne as the site of
the fort which was erected in 1803 during Jefferson's administra-
tion, while General Dearborn was Secretary of War, burned in
1812, rebuilt in 1816, and was occupied as a military post until
1837, the year Chicago was incorporated as a city. Early explorers
like Nicolet, in 1634, and Joliet and Marquette, some forty years
later, had the foresight to comprehend the natural advantages
that clustered ab^ut the mouth of the sluggish stream^^and the
importance of their development as a highway of commerce, bj^.
tween the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. Thaf
Washington knew of, and was influenced by, the reports of the
early explorers can hardly be questioned.
In 1809, when Illinois was organized as a territory, its northern
boundary was projected due west from the southern extremity of
Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river, which line crossed the Des
Plaines river near Lockport and put the mouth of the Chicago
river within the limits of Wisconsin. When, however, the terri-
tory of Illinois applied for admission to the Union as a State,
Nathaniel Pope, who was the territorial delegate in Congress from
Illinois, persuaded Congress to shift the northern boundary of the
State to its present location, in order that Illinois should have a
coast line on Lake Michigan, and also that the great water route
from the lake to the Mississippi, which had even then been pro-
posed and made the subject of congressional legislation, should be
included within the confines of a single State. This argument re-
sulted in the location of the northern boundary as it exists at pres-
ent, Un spite of violent and belligerent protest and opposition of
Wisconsin.
,)
10 CHICAGO:
r^ There is nothing anomalous in the fact that in every civilized
country on the globe, Chicago, as a city, is regarded as the marveL
of the century. That a municipality not yet 75 years of age should
have oustripped in~growth of population; in the massiveness and
solidity of its commercial buildings; in the extent and variety of
its industrial development ; in the number and stability of its finan-
cial institutions; in the magnitude and high standing of its schools,
colleges and universities; in the matchless reach of its railway
facilities ; in the importance of its trade and commerce ; in the beauty
and extent of its parks and boulevards; in the abundance of every
natural product that makes living a comfort and delight ; in the resolute
and energetic character of its inhabitants which enabled them to
recover from the disastrous conflagrations of 1839, 1849, 1857, and
that of 1871, which swept away $200,000,000 worth of property; that
Chicago should have accomplished all of this, and, within the lifetime
of many of its citizens, become the fourth in size of the world's
civilized cities, surpassing many of those that have been, for centuries
the commercial and financial centers of the world's trade, industries
\ and wealth — this makes Chicago the marvel of all the ages.
And yet Chicago is only in its infahcy= ^s gre atness is beyond
fhe power of anticipation.
There was no chance or fortunate circumstance that determined the
location of a great city near the southern extremity of Lake Michigan.
The power that created the chain of the Great Lakes and made the
Mississippi Valley, covering the vast expanse of territory between
the Allegheny and Rocky Mountains, with 16,000 miles of navigable
internal water courses, designated the center of that region as the site
of a great metropolis. The location of the city was one that no person
of reasonable judgment would have selected for such an occupancy.
With bluff shores along the lake for miles North of the city, Chicago
was placed in a sedgy marsh, the chief products of which were chills
and fevers, avoided even by the nomadic bands of Potto wattomies
who pitched their tepees on the elevation west of the mouth of the
estuary that is now the Chicago river.
The French voyagers, Joliet, La Salle and Marquette, 240 years
ago read the prophecy which time has since verified, and each year
following their day the necessity for a metropolis where Chicago
«now stands has been emphasized. Chicago_is the product of necessity
having for its basis the needs of a developing continent. In response
f| to that exigency Chicago has grown in spite of obstacles and calamities
[ such as no city on the globe has been forced to contend against.
ITS LOCATION AND GROWTH. 11
The voluntary movement of the people has been invariably gov-
erned by natural laws. They have moved from East to West and
very rarely departing from the isothermal lines of their places of
nativity. The tide of emigration has been retarded here and deflected
there, as the result of easily discovered causes, but the advance of
people in their evolution towards civilization has been towards the
setting sun. The trend of population in the United States for one
and a half centuries has closely followed these laws of racial move-
ments.
In 1790 when the first census of the United States was taken the
center of population was a point twenty-three miles East of Balti-
more, but with each succeeding enumeration this point has moved
steadily westerly at an average rate of forty-eight miles for each
decade until the last census (1910) it reached a point in the western
part of the city of Bloomington in Monroe County, Indiana. The
tenacity with which this center of population has held fast to the thirty-
ninth parallel of latitude is remarkable. Since 1790 it has varied
not to exceed twenty-one miles from that line. This movement of
population is almost unerringly towards the central point of the conti-
nental area of the country, which is in Northern Kansas, ten miles
North of Smith Center, county seat of Smith County, fifty-one miles
North and 657 miles West of the present center of population^ which \
is almost forty miles East and 190 miles Southeasterly from Chicago. ^
The completion of the Erie Canal, for the 387 miles between Buffalo
and Troy, in 1826, very greatly stimulated the Western movement
of an agrarian population from the rugged hills of New England and
Pennsylvania to the fertile prairies of Illinois ; the movement naturally
taking the waterways as presenting the course of least resistance. ^
This concourse was made up of English, Celts and Teutons, with
a sprinkling of Scandinavians, which made the best material in the
world out of which to form a state or municipal government.
The crops grown on these prairies demanded an outlet to the
Atlantic Seaboard, the only possible market for the products of the
West and the only section from which the sturdy settlers could 1
procure the fabrics, wares and provisions which they were unable to i
produce at home. No one influence contributed so greatly to the
development of the West and its growth of population as the invention
of agricultural machinery, which not only increased the volume of
farm products, but relieved a large number of the people to enter
the many gainful pursuits which were demanded by the rapidly
increasing population. For centuries wheat had been the principal
>
12 CHICAGO:
article of food and during all these years the only means of planting
the grain was by hand sowing, the means of harvesting the crop was
the straight knife, the reaping hook and the cradle, and the implement
for separating the berry from the stalk was the flail. A century
ago it required over 90 per cent of the population to raise the food
for the people. Progress was at a standstill. A people cannot build
cities, canals and railroads so long as nearly all their energies and
time are demanded for digging from the soil barely enough food
to sustain life, nor would it require railroads and canals to transport
the small yields of grain to a market. But the harvesters invented in
1831 and first manufactured in Chicago in 1841 in which year two
reapers were sold, and seven were disposed of the year following.
The invention of the gang plow, the threshing machine, the grain
drill and seeder, the manure spreader and others soon followed. The
result is that today there are^jnanufactured in Chicago annually
360,000 reapers and other labor-saving appliances in proportion, so
that now only 33 per cent of the population is required to do what a
century ago demanded the labor of over 90 per cent of the people.
The labor now required to raise a bushel of wheat, reduced to time,
is about ten minutes. These improved methods of agriculture did
more to stimulate immigration to the west, to necessitate the con-
struction of railroads and canals for the movement of the products
of the soil and to the erection of industrial establishments than any
or all causes combined. Among other facilities for transportation,
the Illinois and Michigan Canal, from Chicago to Peru, was built at
a cost of $6,507,681 and opened for traffic April 10th, 1848. As to
the value of this canal Mr. Brainerd, Canal Commissioner of the
State, reported in 1885, that during the 37 years that it had then been
in operation it had saved the people of Illinois $180,000,000 in freight
charges alone.
Moses Kirkland in his "History of Chicago," page 1 19, says : "At
the beginning of that year (1848) Chicago had neither railroads nor
canal nor any other means of communication with the outer world
than by wheeled vehicles and vessels on Lake Michigan. ... It
could boast of no sewers nor were there any sidewalks except a few
planks here and there, nor paved streets. The streets were merely
graded to the middle, like country roads, and in bad weather, were
impassable. A mud hole deeper than usual would be marked by sign-
boards with the significant notice thereon, 'No bottom here, the
shortest road to China.* There was no gas, and water continued to
be supplied from carts by the bucketful. There were no omnibuses,
I
s.
6
ITS LOCATION AND GROWTH. 13
cabs, nor horse cars, nor cars of any kind, much less telegraph and
telephones. Wabash Avenue, between Adams and Jackson Streets,
was regarded as out of town, where wolves were occasionally seen
prowling about."
The era of railroad construction in the West immediately followed
this increased population and the multiplication of industrial enter-
prises. The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was opened to Elgin
in January, 1850; to Belvidere, December 3rd, 1852, and to Freeport
in 1853. The Chicago and Burlington Railroad was opened to Burling-
ton, Iowa, in 1855, and to Quincy, 111., in 1856. The first road to enter
Chicago from the East was the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
in February, 1852, and the Michigan Central Railroad in May of the
same year. Next came the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, which
was completed to Joliet in 1853 and to Rock Island in 1854. In \
rapid succession came the Chicago and Alton, the Chicago and Mil-
waukee, and the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago.
The manufacturing industries in Chicago in 1848 were still in
their infancy and the value of the entire product in 1850 was returned
at $3,562,583 on an invested capital of $1,086,025. During the next
six years the value had expanded to $15,513,063 on a capital of
$7,759,400, while the number of employes increased from 2,081 to
10,573. The panic of 1857 was disastrous to Chicago and no improve-
ment was shown until 1860, when under the stimulus of the war the
growth was phenomenal. y
In 1910 the industrial development of Chicago had so enlarged/
that the establishments numbered 9,656, capitalized as $971,841,000; \
employing 293,977 wage earners who received in wages $174,112,000,
and turned out as finished product goods valued at $1,281,171,000./
The wage earners in Chicago's industrial plants in 1910 exceeded the |
total population of either Jersey City, N. J.; Kansas City, Mo.; j
Louisville, Ky.; Indianapolis, Ind. ; St. Paul, Minn.; Seattle, Wash.; j
Denver, Colo. ; Portland, Ore. ; Providence, R. I., or Rochester, N. Y.
If we add to this the number of those engaged in the various trades —
carpenters, masons, blacksmiths and the like — clerks in public and
private offices and stores, railroad employes and the vast army of
day and common laborers, some idea may be acquired of the present
industrial activity of this city.
The following table shows the growth of the city in population.
In 1823 Chicago is described as "a village in Pike County containing
/
14
CHICAGO :
ITS LOCATION AND GROWTH.
15
12 or 15 houses, and about 60 or 75 inhabitants." The first govern-
ment census was taken in 1840, which gives the earliest official data
as to population.
1835* 3,297
1840 4,470
1850 : 29,963
1860 109,260
1870 298,977
*State Census.
tEstimated.
1880 503,185
1890 1,099,850
1900 1,689,575
1910 2,185,283
1912 t2,284,378
Building operations have not fallen behind in increase of popula-
tion. The following table shows the number of buildings, the frontage
and cost of construction for each year since 1900 :
Year
Number of Buildings
Feet Frontage
Cost
1900
3,554
100,056
$19,100,050
1901
6,035
170,644
34,911,770
1902
6,074
186,609
48,070,395
1903
6,135
174,932
33,645,025
1904
7,132
203,785
44,596,090
1905
8,337
243,485
63,455,020
1906
10,447
276,770
64,298,335
1907
9,338
253,993
59,065,080
1908
10,771
291,655
68,204,080
1909
11,241
310,351
90,509,580
1910
11,409
327,250
96,932,700
1911
11,106
299,032
105,269,700
Y
16
CHICAGO :
BUILDINGS ERECTED IN 1910 AND 1911— KIND,
NUMBER AND VALUATION
1910
1911
Kind of Building
No.
Valuation
No.
Valuation
Residences
Flats
Stores
Factories
Warehouses
Office Buildings
Churches
Theatres
Schools
Stations and depots. .
Hospitals
Hotels
Garages
Miscellaneous
3,075
4,362
1,327
157
98
45
32
42
35
10
6
5
23
2,192
$ 8,379,300
34,372,500
6,599,700
5,816,000
4,951,000
16,461,500
1,058,500
1,091,500
3,354,000
256,500
277,000
330,000
356,000
13,629,200
2,989
4,599
1,093
143
74
48
29
65
20
7
7
13
34
1,985
S 8,535,500
36,401,000
7,593,000
6,487,000
3,669,000
23,101,000
742,500
1,261,500
2,400,000
138,000
702,000
4,190,000
350,000
9,699,200
Total
11,409
96,932,700
11,106
$105,269,700
ITS CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 17
//.
Chicago— Its Climate and Health
Climate is the principal determinating factor that directs and con-
trols trade and commerce, because of its close relation to public
health and mortality. Climate and weather are by no means syn-
onymous terms. Climate "is the combined average result of varied
conditions of atmosphere as regards temperature and moisture,"
while weather denotes "the purely local and temporary conditions of
temperature and moisture at any given place and time." Both trade
and commerce have invariably followed the line of equable tempera-
ture. Isotherms, or lines drawn across a continent through places
having the same average mean temperature, vary greatly as compared
with parallels of latitude. For instance, a line drawn through places
having a winter, or January, mean temperature of 40 degrees passes
from Behring Sea through Alaska and the southern section of British
Columbia, entering the United States near Medicine Hat, and is
deflected so as to pass through Duluth, Sault Ste. Marie, Georgian
Bay and Montreal to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The line of 50 i _
degrees, or average annual mean temperature, — ^the line of equable ; i/^tpi^u
climate — starts at Puget Sound, is deflected to the South by the ^^^y.^^'
Cascade Mountains and Sierra Nevada range, which turns the warm/ i/'^l^,
currents of the Pacific southerly; passes through New Mexico, south / J
of Santa Fe ; makes a sharp detour around the southern extremity /
of the Sierra Nevada range to the north nearly to Denver, thence (
east through Omaha, Davenport, La Salle (just south of Chicago) I
to Toledo thence almost due east, reaching Long Island Sound midway '
between New York and New Haven; thence following the Atlantic :
Gulf Stream, to the British Isles, across France, Germany, Austria /
and Asia to Northern Japan.
It is interesting to note the influence of the warm currents of the
Pacific and Atlantic oceans upon the climaie of the continents. The
current that flows from the Southern Pacific north is deflected to the
east by the Aleutian Islands to the Alaskan coast, the result being
that the average mean temperature of Sitka, Alaska, is exactly that
of St. Paul, Minn. On the Atlantic coast the Gulf stream gives the
British Isles the same climate that Massachusetts enjoys, although they
are due east of the barren coast of Labrador. Without that stream
those islands would be ice bound eight months of the year and incapa-
ble of being the abode of a civilized people.
18
CHICAGO
ITS CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 19
It is true that man can make his home in any zone, but the regions
of low temperature are either uninhabited or sparsely settled like
Labrador, while those of low temperature are not so densely populated
as the temperate zones. The climatic conditions in New England,
situated between the low temperature of Northern Canada and the
warmer area south of the Ohio river and Chesapeake Bay, was a
recognized power in stimulating the early economic development of
the thirteen colonies which prepared them for the conflict that resulted
in the political autonomy of the United States.
Climatic conditions also produce vast differences in national char-
acter. The people of Southern China are more irresponsible and
inconstant than their brothers in Northern China; the Southern Rus-
sian is more flippant than the same race further north; the same
distinction is noticeable between the people of Northern and Southern
Germany, and between the Italians of the Alpine slope and those in
Southern Italy. In our own country the people of the Northern
states are more energetic and progressive than those of the milder
sections of the South, and even workmen going from the North to
the South soon experience the depressing effect of short, mild Winters
and long, hot Summers. The iron and steel industries located at .
Birmingham, Ala., find that these climatic conditions reduce the)
efficiency of their skilled labor, which is mainly imported from the 1
Northern states.
That Chicago is located on the line of equable temperature, where \
extremes are less frequent, rain fall ample and where all varieties of ',
industry can be carried on with the minimum of disturbance from
climatic influences, is the prime factor in its astonishing development j
as the industrial and commercial center of the country.
It is the line along which the leading markets of the world are\
located. It is also the region where the death rate is lowest, where 1
pestilence is less frequent and where the soil gives the greatest variety j
of products. In the United States all the area having a population of I
from 45 to 90 per square mile is located along this line and east of the /
95th Meridian, while west of that parallel such density is attained ;
only in isolated and small spots, like the vicinity of Portland, Oregon, j
and San Francisco, California, with a small area at Denver, Colorado. /
Most of the manufacturing in the United States is carried on in the \
northern half of the section east of the 90th Meridian, and north of '
the 37th degree of north latitude, which is due chiefly to larger popu- -
lation, great variety of food products grown, the profusion of raw \
materials and uniform fertility of soil, with adequate rain fall and an j
20 CHICAGO:
equable temperature. South of that line industrial enterprise has
been principally confined to the manufacture of home grown products,
like sugar, from the sugar cane, turpentine, lumber and semi-tropical
fruits and vegetables, until in recent years, the people of that section
have, with considerable success, encouraged the spinning and weaving
of cotton fabrics and the working of their coal and iron mines.
Industrial enterprises have otherwise very generally remained sta-
tionary while in the north they have moved westward and increased
with the population.
A few years ago more than one-half of the implements used in
agriculture in the United States, were made in New York and Ohio,
but the movement of population to the West and the resultant
growth of agricultural development therein have carried this industry
westerly with such progress that today nearly one-half of the farming
implements produced in the entire country are made in the state of
Illinois. They can be made cheaper here than in the East and the
saving in transportation to meet the demand nearer the center of
population is an important item in establishing the price to the con-
sumer for such machinery and implements.
Another influence that has stimulated the growth of manufacturing
in the West is the natural tendency of immigration from Northern
Europe to come to this section on landing in the country. Races
are governed in their migrations by exactly the same laws that control
the distribution of plants and rarely is either found far north or south
of the climatic zone in which they originated. Only about five per cent
of the population of the United States are located oflf their native
isotherm. A New Englander, Swede or Norwegian is about as rarely
to be found in Texas as is a Carolinian, Frenchman or Spaniard is to
be met in Minnesota or North Dakota. Hence the colonists from
Northern Central Europe have come directly West. The Swedes,
Norwegians, Germans, English, Scotch, Irish, and all the like have set-
tled in the North Mississippi Valley rather than at the South. This
natural movement has been encouraged by the fact that the ports of
entry for commerce between the United States and Europe are along
the North Atlantic coast. The inlets upon which these ports were
located, between Maine and Virginia, and particularly in Massachu-
setts, New York, Delaware and Chesapeake Bay, being the best har-
bors and nearest to foreign markets, have controlled not only the
movements of goods and merchandise of various kinds, but also the
transit of passengers between the two continents. This has given
the West the best, most vigorous and laborious foreign population.
ITS CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 21
which came to America for homes, and has accomplished a vast deal
in accelerating the industrial growth of the West.
While it is an established fact that climate and a temperature that
is not subject to violent and sudden changes, are most conducive to
public health and low rate of mortality, the study of the relations
between the two have considerably changed and modified the con-
clusions formerly regarded as scientifically establishted. The old
theory held that the weather of the year was made up of several
distinct climates, differing from each other according to temperature
and moisture and their relations to each other, might be divided into
six distinct climates, characterized respectively by cold, cold and
dryness, dryness with heat, heat, heat with moisture, and cold with
moisture. The mortality from all causes and in all ages shows a
large excess above the average from the middle of November to the
middle of April, from which it falls to the minimum in the end of
May; then it slowly rises, and, on the third week in July it suddenly
shoots up to almost as high as the winter maximum of the year, at
which it remains till the second week in August, falling thence as
rapidly as it rose, to a second minimum in October.
The deductions from this theory was that cold and moist v^eather
is attended with a high death rate from rheumatism, heart diseases,
diphtheria, measles; cold weather, from bronchitis and pneumonia;
cold and dry weather, from brain diseases, whooping cough and con-
vulsions; warm and dry weather, from suicide and small pox; hot
weather, from bowel disorders ; and warm moist weather, from scarlet
and typhoid fevers.
The study of sanitary conditions, mode of living and the use of
uncontaminated water for domestic purposes and pure air in dwellings,
has very greatly modified preconceived opinions. In a general way it
may be regarded as established, that the indirect effects of hot and
cold weather are much more important factors in the death rate than
the direct effects. For instance, the impure-air diseases, pneumonia,
bronchitis, tuberculosis and influenza, are much more active in cold
weather than in warm weather — not directly caused by the cold, but
rather indirectly, by reason of people shutting themselves up in their
houses and work-places, sacrificing necessary ventilation to the main-
tenance of a comfortable temperature. The breathing of vitiated air
means the lowering of one's disease-resisting powers. The practice
of breathing bad air is much more general in winter than at any other
season of the year, therefore, our physical conditions are then the
lowest and the death rates from air-borne diseases are then the high-
est. Then, in hot weather, the diarrheal diseases kill more people,
CHICAGO :
ITS CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 23
chiefly babies, than any other cause of death— not directly, but indi-
rectly through the effects of the heat upon the babies' food. Aside
from these two important groups of disease we have made no extended
studies of the relationship between the prevalence of certain diseases
and meteorologic conditions.
There are local conditions in Chicago that contribute in a very \
marked degree to the salubrity of the city by modifying its extremes \
of temperature in both the summer and winter months. Immediately )
east of the city is Lake Michigan, having an area of 22,450 square (
miles, on the shore of which the city is located. This immense body y
of water is without current except as the flow of the water is influ-
enced by the winds. In the summer the warm breezes are tempered
in their passage over the cooler waters of the lake and the local tem-
perature is thus so modified that a day with the mercury above 90 .
degrees is a rarity. During the fall months the waters of the lake j
give to the atmosphere the heat that they have absorbed during ther-^
summer which affords the city a long and warm autumn, a degree
of temperature much like the Indian Summer of New England, which
frequently continues until the latter part of December. Cold and
blustering days will intervene between October and Christmas but
rarely for more than two or three in succession. This shortens the
period of physical disorders, of which rheumatism and bronchitis are
types and which are peculiar to the autumnal and winter months of
some other sections of the country. At this season of the year the
rain falls are minimum, the precipitation for the last 38 years showing
that most rain falls in the months of May, June, July and August
and the least in October, November, December and February, the
average for the year being 33.70 inches, which is by no means exces-
sive. This condition keeps the air cool in summer and dry in winter.
To this local modification of the climate is due the fact that while
at some manufacturing centers, in such industries as develop high
degrees of heat, like furnaces and foundries, labor has frequently to
be for a time suspended during the heated term, yet it is never neces-
sary to do so in this city. It is never too warm in this city to carry
on any kind of labor. At the same time it is rare indeed that out
of door labors have to be discontinued because of the low temperature.
In the conservation of the public health it became imperative
that some other disposition of the sewage of the city should be made
than discharging it into the lake, the only source of water supply
for domestic purposes. The Sanitary District was organized in 1889,
and contains at present an area of 358 square miles, with a population
of fully two and a half millions of people. The trustees were author-
ized to open a canal to carry the waters of the Chicago river into the
Desplaines to be discharged into the Mississippi, This canal was
opened across the divide, 28 miles to Lockport, and varies in width
^
CHICAGO
ITS CLIMATE AND HEALTH.
25
from 162 to 290 feet with a minimum depth of 22 feet and has a
flow of 300,000 cubic feet of water per minute. It was completed in
January, 1900, and has cost about $66,000,000. This canal entirely
reverses the current of the Chicago river, making it an outlet for the
lake instead of a feeder, and discharging the sewage of the city into
the Gulf of Mexico instead of emptying it into Lake Michigan from
which the city takes its domestic water supply. The effect of this
improvement was almost instantaneous and miraculous. Typhoid
fever, smallpox and all diseases occasioned by polluted and impure
water became, as compared with former conditions, almost a rarity
which more than anything else has tended to make Chicago the city
with the lowest death rate of any important municipality on the conti-
nent.
It is not unnatural that, with favorable climatic conditions and the
efforts that have been made so successfully to eliminate the subtile
dangers to public health that result from defective sewerage and
impure water, the death rate in Chicago should be lower than that
of other large cities, both foreign and domestic, which have a more
variable climate and are not provided with the modern sanitary
expedients that are the safeguards of public health. As to American
municipalities the latest and most reliable statistics upon public health,
and the rate of mortality, that are attainable are those given by the
government, which show the death rate per 1,000 of population in
American cities having a population of 350,000 or more, for the four
years between 1908 and 1911, as follows:
y
City
190S
1909
1910
1911*
Chicago
New York
14.6
16.3
17.3
14.7
18.3
19.
17.3
13.3
15.3
15.5
13.7
18.
12.7
22.3
19.1
14.7
16.
16.4
15.8
16.8
18.7
15.8
12.9
15.2
15.
14.
16.5
13.7
20.2
19.
15.1
16.
17.4
15.8
17.2
19.2
17.9
14.3
16.3
15.1
15.9
17.4
13.8
21.3
19.6
14.5
15.1
Philadelphia
16.5
St. Louis
Boston
15.7
17.1
Baltimore
18.4
Pittsburgh
14.9
Cleveland
13.7
Buffalo
14.5
San Prancisco
Detroit
15.3
Cincinnati
16.4
Milwaukee
New Orleans
Washington
*Data for years 1908, 1909 and 1910 are from Census Bulletin 109. That for
1911 from local reports as far as obtainable.
26
CHICAGO;
It is worthy of note that in no part of the north temperate zone
have originated any of those epidemics like cholera, the bubonic
plague, sleeping sickness, pellagra, yellow fever, or other plagues that
have proved so destructive of human life and demanded the most
drastic sanitary measures to check or exclude them. They have
almost invariably originated in either higher or lower latitudes. Chi-
cago, because of its equitable climate, its exemptions at all seasons
of the year from extremes of temperature, has acquired a justly earned
reputation as a "Summer Resort." The report of the Government
Weather Bureau in this city fully justifies any claims in that direction
which may be made. The following table shows the extremes of
temperature in Chicago each year during the last forty, between 1871
and 1911 inclusive, from which it appears that only once in that
time has the thermometer registered over 100 degrees and only in six
winters has a record been made below zero. During that period the
highest monthly mean temperature was 77.4 degrees and the lowest
was 12 degrees.
Month
Maxi-
Mini-
Highest
Lowest
mum
Year
Day
mum
Year
Day
monthly
mean
Year
monthly
mean
65
1876b
1
-20
1897t
25
39.8
1880
12.0
63
1880*
26
-21
1899
9
39.0
1882
14.6
81
1910
27
-12
1873
4
48.6
1910
28.9
88
1899
29
17
1875§
17
53.4
1896
38.8
94
1895a
31
27
1875
2
65.9
1911
51.4
98
1872c
19
40
1894t
6
72.4
1911
61.2
103
1901
21
50
18730
19
77.4
1901
67.0
98
1874t
11
47
1887
26
76.3
1900
67.6
98
1899
5
32
1899
30
70.6
1908
59.8
87
1897
15
14
1887
25
61.4
1900
46.2
75
1888
1
- 2
1872
29
48.5
1909
31.6
68
1875
31
-23
1872
24
43.4
1877
18.4
Year
January
February...
March
April
May
June
July
August
September.
October . . .
November .
December. .
1893
1875
1877
1874
1882
1903
1891
1890
1888
1895
1880 j
1872
♦Also in 1876, 10th day. fAlso in 1881, 4th day; 1887, 10th day; 1896, 8th day.
tAlso in 1875, 9th day. §Also in 1881, 1st day; 1879, 3rd day. t Also in 1875,
22d day. ^Also in 1895, 9th day. jAlso in 1872. bAlso in 1909, 23rd day.
aAlso in 1911, 26th day. cAlso in 1911, 9th day.
During the last 40 years the average mean temperature has not
exceeded 50 degrees nor been below 45 degrees, while the rain fall
has not exceeded 43.22 inches, nor been below 26.14 inches. -^
These facts and conditions explain why the mortality per 1,000 \
of population is so low, being in 1910 15.14, having declined very j
steadily and almost uniformly from 27.64 in 1872. This is due chiefly \
to the diminution of deaths from what are called preventable diseases,
which include diphtheria, diarrheal diseases, malarial fevers, measles,
pneumonia, scarlet fever, smallpox, tuberculosis, typhoid and typhus \
10,
ITS CLIMATE AND HEALTH.
27
MAP OP
THE BELT R'Y CO. OF CHICAGO
SHOWING CONNECTIONS
? 1 1
D-^^
ST. P. 4S. S.
P (A. T. 4 $. F
F 1. H.B.
G C. U. T.
M G. T.
[P. C.C. AST. L.
I —■{ PEP.E MARQUETTE
IWABASH
fc.&E.I.
1 Jesie
''~^C. I.*. U.
LWABASH
TN. Y. C. &ST. L.
I. C. (SOUTH)
C. i.&L.
C. &.O.
ERIE
.WABASH
P. F. W. &C.
L. S. ». M. 9,
~.&o.
C. R. I. A P.
E. J. &E.
L. M.C. F.T. CO.
C. 8. U
c.t.a.
lew. p. &s.
M-^MICH. CENT.
N C. &E. I.
SZZCT.
28 CHICAGO:
fevers, whooping cough and some others, which declined from about
21. in 1866 to a fraction over 6.50 in 1909. In what man has been
able to do towards making Chicago the most salubrious large city in
this country he has been assisted by natural causes, the chief of which
is the proximity of Lake Michigan, the breezes across which are
tempered in the Summer by their passage over the cooler waters of
the lake and moderated in the Winter by the warmth accumulated by
the water during the Summer months.
The subject of public health is one that is of vital importance, not
only to the manufacturer, who seeks a healthful climate in which to
reside with his family, but also to him as an employer of labor. ,
Epidemics are practically unknown, and while other cities are waging /
a constant warfare against zymotic disorders, occasioned by con-
taminated water and evaporation from unsewered soil, Chicago's
exemption, by reason of millions of dollars expended for sewerage
and to secure pure water for domestic purposes in the conservation
of public health, is something of which the city is proud and of which
it has reason to be boastful.
Children will contract measles, mumps and other ailments to which
they are specially subject, but the closing of any one of our public
schools on account of the prevalence of such outbreaks is almost
unknown.
An employer of labor who is practically exempt from sickness
among his employes has an asset in business that is of great value
even if it does not have an entry on the credit side of his ledger.
When the shops of other cities are closed because of epidemics fronj
any cause, it is a source of great satisfaction to the business man of
Chicago that he is uniformly exempt from such misfortunes and is
located in the healthiest large market on the globe. ^
AS A CENTRAL MARKET. 29
Chicago— As a Central Market
The geographical center of the continental portion of the United
States is latitude 39° 55' N., and the longitude 98° 50' W., the point
being ten miles north of Smith Center, the county seat of Smith
County, in Northern Kansas. The center of population is latitude
39° 10' 12" N. and longitude 86° 32' 20" W., in the city of Blooming-
ton, Monroe County, Indiana. The former point is therefore approx-
imately 675 miles west and 51 miles north of the latter, with Chicago
located a little north of the center of population.
The movement of the population of the country has been significant
of its development, increase in wealth, trade and commerce. While
the movement of the center of population westward has been due to
the settlement of the West, its movement north and south has closely
corresponded with the acquisition of new territory. Thus the annex-
ation of Louisiana caused a slight southward movement between 1800
and 1810, rather more than offsetting the increase of population in
the North.
In the next decade the settlement of Mississippi, -Alabama and
Eastern Georgia again pulled it a little southward. Its most decided
southward movement was between 1820 and 1830, due to the annex-
ation of Florida and the great extension of settlement in Alabama,
Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. From 1830 to 1840 rapid settle-
ment in the prairie states and in Southern Michigan and Wisconsin
turned the tide northward, but in the next decade the annexation of
Texas brought a change to the southward.
In 1860 another slight northward movement was recorded and in
1870 a more decided movement in the same direction of 13.3 miles
was shown. In 1880 the census showed a decided movement south-
ward in consequence of the partial recovery of the South and the bet-
ter enumeration of the negroes.
In 1890 foreign immigration and rapid settlement of the West
almost exactly offset the southward movement of the preceding decade.
In 1900 the settlement of Oklahoma, Indian Territory and Texas
is shown to have more than counterbalanced the increase in Northern
population to the extent of a southward movement of about three
miles.
During the last decade the increase in population of New York,
Pennsylvania and other Northern states almost exactly balanced the
30
CHICAGO :
AS A CENTRAL MARKET. 31
increase in Texas, Oklahoma and Southern California. The west-
ward movement was largely due to the great increase in population
of the Pacific states, which was given the greater weight in changing
the center by their greater distance from it. Thus the combined
population of San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Sacramento —
906,016 — had as great influence on the center of population as that
of Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore combined — 2,778,078.
The necessity for markets is fixed by the inexorable laws of trade
and commerce and these are determined by movements of population, j
the development of agriculture and the industrial growth of the terri- ■ /
tory. In the early history of the country, when its population was \ \
confined to a narrow fringe along the Atlantic seaboard, Philadelphia
was the principal market of the entire country from Savannah to
Boston. The development of manufacturing in the New England
states was a magnet strong enough to attract trade in that direction,
northerly, and New York early became the larger mafket. The
maritime advantages of New York over Philadelphia made the former
city the center of the coastwise trade of the new nation.
New York soon became the financial center of the country and the
southern cotton grower bought his goods where he sold his staples.
The one branch of business greatly assisted in the growth of the other.
With the development and prosperity pf the West the idea of
going 1,000 miles to a market was not to be thought of and locail
interests, while they did not change the direction of commerce, did
demand a market nearer home where commodities could be exchanged
for the products of the soil.
There are several factors that fix the locus of a general market, the ^
more important being, proximity to raw materials, means of transpor- ;
tation, favorable climate, population, financial resources, availability
of power, abundance of labor and accessibility. Population furnishes j
the consumers and producers; products of labor supply the commodi- '
ties to be bought and sold ; financial resources provide the medium of
exchange between seller and buyer and accessibility enables both the
buyer and seller to reach the market and the producer to place the .
results of his industry where they can be inspected and offered for \
sale. In proportion to the dominance of these essentials the market |
will be great or small. '
The expansion of population in this country implies of itself, a
greater and stronger degree of concentration among the inhabitants
which means, also, contraction within a smaller compass of manu-
facturing and this essential in determining the modern markets of
32 CHICAGO
the world. This musV be the case, invariably, because increase of
population and concentration of industries always stimulates the
enlargement of factories; the introduction of more complicated and
costly machinery; improved facilities in handling and transporting
manufactured products, all of which tend to lessen the cost of manu-
facturing. This attracts capital, improves and multiplies means of
transportation, encourages trade and determines the location of a
permanent market.
This condition is still more influential in its effect upon the char-
acter of the market itself. As the market grows there is a demand
for more complicated machinery, more highly skilled labor and a
wider range of manufactured goods.
This is very closely the condition of circumstances that materially \
contributed to the making of Chicago the great central market it has
now become. Take the manufacturing of iron and steel. With the
demand of a rapidly growing population at the West came the impera-
tive demand for the construction of railways. The blast furnaces
made steel from which Bessemer steel rails were rolled, the Bessemer
plants gave way to the open-hearth process, which turned out a better
product. Then the car wheel industry located its works near the
smelters and, as steel was demanded for structural purposes, that
industry became common and steel bridge works followed.
But it is not necessary to trace the evolutions of the steel indus-
try down to nuts and bolts, wire nails and horseshoes in order to
further illustrate how from natural causes a great market has its
inception and growth.
The fact must not be overlooked that a manufacturing center and \
market cannot be located otherwise than in a metropolis. The assem-
""bling ol raw materials for the use of industrial plants demands not
only the convenience of lines of transportation for their conveyance, <
but also the great volume of labor required for their manipulation j
and the capital necessary for the carrying on of the various branches
of business involved. The greater the variety of industrial enter- ■
prises, the greater must be the concentration of the three essentials-^
above mentioned.
Another very important factor that enters into the question of \
locating industries and the creation of market facilities is the pro- {
duction and distribution of the necessary power for the propelling (
of machinery. This incident,' of growth has been very radically j
changed within the last decade by the progress of invention that has I
made commercially available sources of power that were previously \
AS A CENTRAL MARKET. 33
merely speculative. This has chiefly been the adaptation of electricity
to the propulsion of machinery, and in probably no other direction
has greater progress been made in the useful arts within the last
twelve or fifteen years than by the employment of electric currents
for the motive power of mills, factories and other industrial enter- ,
prises. J
For many years water power was the only energy applicable to
the movement of machinery and the streams of the New England and
other eastern sections of the country were, on that account, the great
starting points of manufacturing progress and wealth in the Atlantic
seaboard section of the country. A little later steam power, in a
great measure, supplanted the water wheel and manufacturing enter-
prises were established in localities separated from running streams.
Later still electricity was made available as a propelling power and,
since the invention of appliances by which electric power can be
transmitted without appreciable loss for hundreds of miles, it has
added greatly to the present value of limited water powers because
of their efficiency for the operation of electric generators. Electricity
as an instrument of commerce has another, and perhaps not secondary,
value in that it both centralizes and distributes the means for the
conveyance of intelligence, which is especially important in conducting'"
and dispatching the business of a great market. These are the tele-
graph and the telephone. By the telephone nearly every farmer of
any state can be advised daily, and often hourly, of the exact condi-
tion of the market in which he sells his products. This regulates
the movement of produce and stocks in such a way that a glut is pre-
vented and receipts are controlled, conducing to a steady market and
adjusting the supply to the demand.
It is a singular fact that climate is one of the strong ' influences
that affects the location of a great market, none of .importance being
located south of 30 or north of 50 degrees of north latitude, only
one being north of the northern limit, which is due entirely to the
warm currents of the Gulf streams which modify the climate of
England. This is because labor is most effective and productive,
rainfall is more uniform, the soil is more fertile and products more
varied in that zone than in any other north of the Equator. The nat-
ural tendency is thus to preserve the equilibrium between supply and
demand, whether it be of labor or food. A glance at the map of
the world shows the tendency of centralization in the world's markets.
In the middle ages, when the most valuable commerce was between
eastern Asia and Europe, Genoa and Venice were the world's prin-
cipal markets.
34
CHICAGO :
<
vv
N\ ^
z
\'^>
<
'*A
^■1
3
z
\i
4
o
'■■i
g
/
AS A CENTRAL MARKET. 35
But as the movement of trade tended northward, Flanders and
Holland became its center, and Rotterdam and Antwerp controlled
the trade of Europe. The next movement of commerce was north-
west, and London and Liverpool became the dominant commercial
and financial centers of the continent. On our own continent the
movement of commerce has been more modern, but the laws govern-
ing it are no less inviolable than in Europe.
The improvement of our waterways cannot nullify the laws which
govern commerce and trade, but will accelerate their operation. The
great markets of the world are lo.cated along the waterways, and if
there should be an increase in the capacity or utility of these avenues
of trade it will only enhance the importance and encourage the develop-
ment of the great markets to which they are tributary and which they
will serve.
It has been facetiously asked why the great rivers flowed past the
great cities. It is plain enough why there are great cities along the
coast lines of countries where harbor facilities are to be found in the
form of bays and inlets. But in the interior of a continent commer-
cial cities always seek locations wherever land and water transporta-
tion meet. This in America occurs near the head of the Great Lakes,
as at Chicago and Duluth; it occurs at the head of river navigation,
as at Pittsburgh and St. Paul. These cities also arise where several
rivers and river valleys converge, and near falls and rapids which
impede navigation, as at Louisville and Detroit, and where great
bends occur in an important stream, or river valley, as at Kansas City
and Cincinnati, and sometimes they are found where lines of trans-
portation converge at a river bank, as at Omaha. The important part
that water transportation plays in the location of commercial cities
may be judged from the fact that of the twenty large cities in the
United States nine are located at tide water, five on the chain of the
Great Lakes, five on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and one on the
Potomac. On the Great Lakes the waters, while encouraging urban
growth, act as a bar against the provinces on the northern shores,
which has contributed in a measure to the rapid growth of Chicago,
Duluth, Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo. But speaking generally and
broadly, it has not been altogether the site nor the location that has
made the American city. Two other influences have been dominant,
which are, on the one hand, the currents of trade that, while they
have always been beyond human control, have not been independent
of human influence; and, on the other hand, the ability and wisdom
of the population, large or small, to recognize both natural and arti-
ficial advantages and to make all that was possible out of their oppor-
tunities.
36
CHICAGO
/
What do the promises of history mean, or indicate, in their appli-
cation to Chicago ?
No large city in the United States is situated so near to both the
center of area and population as is Chicago. It is estimated that
within a night's ride of Chicago there is a population of more than
50,000,000 people, or nearly one-half of the entire inhabitants of the
country. They are a highly cultivated, energetic, prosperous people
iwho possess nearly one-third of the wealth of the country and produce
a very large proportion of the food products of the United States.
rOver the railroads, connecting them immediately with Chicago, are
operated more than 1,500 railway passenger trains daily, all of which
enter the various railway stations located within the business district
of the city. The territory within this radius reaches from Omaha in
the West to Pittsburgh in the East, and from Minneapolis and St. Paul
in the North to Nashville in the South, and contains more than twenty
large cities with smaller markets, all of which are tributary to the
Great Central Market of Chicago. All merchandise is, more or less,
sensitive to freight charges and cost of conveyance is an important
factor in the maintenance of a market. Business interests demand
^that goods be purchased where they can be bought the cheapest,
and freight charges are included by the retailer in the cost of hisj
stock. He will, therefore, buy in the market nearest him, other con-
ditions being equal. The unequaled transportation facilities of Chi-
cago have been discussed in another chapter of this volume, and it
is only necessary to recall that subject to show why the wholesale
trade of this city is increasing with such marvelous rapidity. The
following table from Dun's Review of January 6th, 1912, a recognized
authority, show the growth of the wholesale trade and manufacturing
of Chicago since 1902:
^
Year
Wholesale Trade
Manufactiired Products
Totals
1902
$1,298,200,000
$1,195,460,000
$2,493,660,000
1903
1,442,437,000
1,226,901,000
2,669,338,000
1904
1,550,270,000
1,280,000,000
2,830,270,000
1905
1,767,304,000
1,420,800,000
3,188,104,000
1906
1,855,600,000
1,491,840,000
3,347,440,000
1907
1,911,268,000
1,525,000,000
3,436,268,000
1908
1,825,263,000
1,410,625,000
3,285,888,000
1909
1,916,526,150
1,495,262,500
3,411,788,650
1910
1,549,091,000
1,549,091,000
3,503,951,000
1911
1,905,989,000
1,487,128,325
3,393,117,325
AS A CENTRAL MARKET.
37
The decreases were caused by the business depression which began
in the autumn of 1907 and which had a restrictive influence on manu-
facturing generally throughout the entire country, as well as in
Chicago.
There is no disputing the fact that "Chicago is the Live Stock
Market of the World," a position it has held for many years. Other
markets have been established which do a large business, like
Omaha, Kansas City, Sioux City, but Chicago is the more important.
The following is a statement of the receipts and valuations at the
Union Stock Yards during the year 1911 :
Number of Head
Kind
Valuation
2,931,831
521,512
7,103,360
5,736,244
104,545
Cattle
Calves
Hogs
Sheep
Horses
$180,206,174
5,788,785
110,037,446
24,634,185
18,818,100
16,397,492
Total
$339,484,690
The transportation of this stock required 252,712 cars. The total
shipment from Chicago for the year was: Cattle, 1,216,552; calves,
27,951; hogs, 1,526,722; sheep, 1,283,423; horses, 89,924, making a
total of 4,144,572, or 82,622 cars. During the forty-six years since
the Union Stock Yards were established in Chicago the total receipts
of stock of all kinds have been 479,381,801 head, valued at $8,921,813,-
953. There are few cities in the world the total business of which
has been in excess of that of this single branch of Chicago's trade and
commerce.
The general and vigorous growth of manufacturing in Chicago for
a series of years is a better indication of the development of indus-
trial enterprises than can be indicated by the progress in a single;
period, large as it may be. Between 1900 and 1904 the increase in
the product of manufactures of Illinois was 25 per cent, and between
1905 and 1910 it was 36 per cent. The gain in Chicago between
1900 and 1905 was 20 per cent, and between 1905 and 1910 it was 34 >
per cent. It should not be forgotten that many of the largest indus-
trial institutions in the state are owned and operated by Chicago cor- /
porations and firms.
S8
CHICAGO :
Chicasro Great Western Railroad
AS A CENTRAL MARKET.
39
The following table shows the principal commodities received in
1909 and 1911:
Commodity
1909
1911
Wheat, bushels
Com, bushels
Oats, bushels
Rye, bushels
Flour, barrels
Butter, pounds
Eesfs, cases
26,985,112
90,894,920
87,884,238
1,426,350
8,526,207
316,546,835
4,557,906
6,566,736
13,630,000
2,584,512
150,636,892
91,695,097
83,098,982
37,118,100
108,550,500
94,099,800
1,790,200
5,859,396
334,932,400
4,707,385
5,391,663
15,500,000
2,134,567
166,130,800
71,810,800
104,075,600
Iron Ore, tons
Coal, tons
Lumber, thousand feet
Hides, pounds
Wool, pounds
Cheese
The decrease in receipts of wheat and flour is due chiefly to the
falling off in exports on foreign demand. The increase in wheat pro-
duction has not kept pace with the demand upon the wheat fields,
increment of population having caused an increase in consumption
which Is supplied by local markets. Undoubtedly the advance in prices
has caused unusual economy on the part of consumers, which will
be shown in general market reports.
Bank clearances are regarded as a very safe indication of the
amount of business transacted in any of the markets of the country.
The following table shows the bank clearances for the twelve months
of 1911 and 1910, with the percentage of increase in each of the cities
estimated in the eensus bulletin to contain a population of 300,000
or over : f
40
CHICAGO :
1911
1910
Increase or
Decrease
$92,372,812,735
$97,274,500,093
—5.
13,925,709,802
13,939,689,984
—0.1
7,691,842,937
7,689,664,084
+0.03
3,859,681,136
3,727,949,379
+3.5
8,339,718,582
8,299,320,162
+0.5
1,767,682,328
1,626,676,299
+8.7
2,520,285,913
2,587,325,785
—2.6
1,012,557,805
1,000,857,953
+ 1.2
516,876,771
502,826,696
+2.8
2,427,075,543
2,323,772,876
+4.4
968,647,059
924,835,008
+4.5
1,277,555,300
1,251,797,050
+2.1
696,732,779
658,002,572
+5.9
1,013,907,623
978,491,235
+2.7
369,167,396
365,656,582
+0.1
New York
Chicago. ......
Philadelphia. .
St. Lotiis
Boston
Baltimore . . . .
Pittsburgh
Cleveland . . . .
Buffalo
San Francisco
Detroit
• Cincinnati . . . .
Milwaukee. . .
New Orleans.
Washington. .
A still closer indication of business progress is shown in the postal
statistics of the cities of New York and Chicago in 1910 and 1911.
The receipts indicate the growth in population and the money orders
show the increase in business that rarely goes through the banks.
The gain in receipts of the Chicago office for the year shows, if com-
pared with the total receipts of some of the offices included in the
list, about how large a city Chicago is adding to itself each year. In
its money order business Chicago outranks every other city in the
United States.
Pncfnffipp
Receipts 1911
Gain Over 1910
Domestic Money Orders 1911
Amount Issued
Amount Paid
New York
Chicago
$24,190,109.65
20,317,374.57
$1,073,654.13
1,294,054.13
$14,339,500.72
11,933,117.09
$59,675,454.06
96,505,881.72
Comparisons with the oth^r large cities in the United States sig-
nify little, as the next largest city to Chicago is Philadelphia, the
receipts of which postoffice are about one-third of that of Chicago.
In 1905 the Federal building, containing the postoffice, was com-
pleted at a cost of $4,757,000. The structure is 311 by 386 feet,
eight stories high, with a dome section of eight additional stories, the
total height being 297 feet. An appropriation has been made by Con-
gress for a block of ground and a building to be erected to relieve
the congestion of business in the present structure.
ITS SUPPLY OF RAW MATERIALS. 41
JV,
Chicago— Its Supply of Raw Materials
( "Theoretically, the prime factors of the industrial problem are raw
K materials, power, transportation, markets and labor, and no commu-
j nity can thrive as a manufacturing center which does not possess at
least three of these factors." With its boundless resources of this
character, the West has not kept pace with the East in the develop-
ment of its industries until very recently, and this has been due
largely to the conservative force of invested capital. The industrial
development of the country began in New England. That section
of the country was illy adapted to successful agriculture commen-
surate with its growing demands, while it did possess abundant water
power, with a population accustomed to labor and admirably fitted
to industrial pursuits. The southern Atlantic states, with slave labor,
but without natural power for propelling of machinery, could supply
the spindles of New England with cotton, and these two conditions
offered inducements for the founding of the infant textile indus-
tries of the New England states, which were eagerly seized and put
into active operation. New England grew rich and prosperous from
the weaving of cotton fabrics, for which there was no limit so far as
demand was concerned. The prosperity of the western agricultural
area was New England's opportunity.
The opening of the coal and iron ore fields of Pennsylvania fur-
nished employment for the capital of the Middle States, and the build-
ing of railways east of the Alleghenies kept eastern capital so well
employed at home as to place an embargo upon its investment in
western industrial pursuits.
For more than half a century the West was simply a tributary to
the East, and lavishly did it pour its gold — the products of the farms —
into the eastern markets. The building of railroads in the West was
the first demand for the opening of eastern money bags that met with
anything like favorable response. Western development grew in im- /*
portance and magnitude. With such financial encouragement the
commercial center of the country began its slow western movement,
which stimulated a surprising growth along industrial lines through \
the northern portion of the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and \
Southern Michigan. The increasing importance of Chicago naturally ]
made her the center of this new movement. The conservative power /
of invested capital was broken and the West gave abundant promise -^
that sooner or later it would become the nation's workshop.
42
CHICAGO
ITS SUPPLY OF RAW MATERIALS. 43
It has been said that the demand for, and use of, iron is the best
measure of the nation's prosperity, a declaration that has ample veri-
fication in the United States, and especially in the West. The dis-
covery in 1844 and the opening of the immense deposits of rich iroiii
ore in the Vermilion, Gogebec, Menominee, Marquette and Mesabe
ranges, within easy reach of Lake Superior, afforded new possibilities
for manufacturing enterprises. These deposits all lie within a radius
of from 350 to 900 miles of Chicago, while to the south of the city
are 40,000 square miles of the best deposits of bituminous coal on the,
continent.
The production of iron ore in the Lake Superior region for the
year 1911 was: Mesabd Range, 22,093,532 tons; Guyana Range,
147,431 tons; Vermillion Range, 1,088,930 tons; Marquette Range,
2,833,116 tons; Menominee Range, 3,911,174 tons; Gogebec Range,
2,603,318 tons, and miscellaneous, 115,629 tons, making a total of
32,793,130 tons, or about 8,890,000 tons less than in 1909. The totaH
product of iron ore in the United States annually is about 50,000,000 , Q^
tons, of which the Lake Superior region usually yields about four-
fifths. -. ■
Following the discovery of this ore there was an effort to estab-
lish steel mills at the head of Lake Superior. There was an abun-
dance of iron ore, coal in profusion could be had from Pennsylvania,
and it was cheaper to ship the coal to the ore than the ore to the coal.
But the effort failed. What was the difficulty? The first obstruction
was ,the absence of a local market to create a demand for and the
use of the product of the furnaces. That market was all at the East,
and what could be saved by not shipping the ore and manufacturing
the iron at home was, in a measure, counterbalanced by the necessity
of transporting the finished products to the East. Surrounding indus-
trial plants are, almost invariably, a cordon of industries that draw
their material from the parent plant. Adjacent to great iron indus-
tries there will grow up a collection of collateral interests, such as
factories for making machinery, large foundries and mills of various
kinds using the pig iron for the manufacture of iron implements of "
all kinds, from wire nails to steamship plates. The effort to establish
iron furnaces near the ore beds utterly failed. Of this Lake Supe-
rior ore, 5,391,653 tons was, in 1911, shipped to the manufacturing
district of Chicago, where it was made into steel rails, structural and
every other variety of mercantile iron, which has found a ready and
active market almost at the doors of the blast furnaces. Chicago has
outdistanced all other sections of the country in the number and size
44 • CHICAGO :
tt
of the new iron mills of various kinds now in progress of erection
within its limits or contiguous thereto. The iron and steel interests
have already outgrown Pittsburgh and the southern extremity of Lake
Michigan has been selected by the demands of trade and commerce
for the future development of the industry. The completion of iron
mills now in progress of construction at or near Chicago will result
■ in an output of over 12,000,000 tons annually.
Chicago is the largest lumber market in the country. It is a great
market not only because of the large quantities of lumber received,
but because of the very large variety in the kinds of woods which
make up the stocks of the local yards. According to the reports of
the American Lumberman, the total receipts of lumber for the year
1911 were 2,134,567,000 feet and 481,193,000 shingles. The ship-
ments of lumber aggregated 803,923,000 feet, most of it to eastern
\ points, the difference (1,330,644,000 feet) showing the domestic con-.
\ t sumption. These facts explain why Chicago .is the largest furniture
I market in the country, while for pianos, organs, carriages, and oth€:r
I industries demanding both fine and rough, or common, lumber, it is
• not equaled on the continent.
As to the uses to -which much of this lumber is put in the city of
Chicago, the following table compiled from a recent government
report on the wood working industries of this city indicates (in board
measure) the immense quantity of the eighty-four different varieties
of foreign and domestic woods that enter^ into the industries of
Chicago :
Cars 245,745,500
% Boxes and crating 273,844,000
vSash, doors, etc 167,072,840
Farm machinery 88,181,000
Furniture 52,918,750
Pianos and organs 36,913,500
Store, office and bar fixtures 15,748,500
\ Cooperage 10,600,000
SButter tubs 22,000,000
'V^Picture and fancy mouldings. 39,943,250
. Wagons 11,590,000-
Tanks 7,810,000
% Hardwood flooring, etc 24,730,000
Sewing machine parts 600,000
>> Baskets and fruit packages 2,750,000
Chairs 16,262,000
ITS SUPPLY OF RAW MATERIALS. 45
^ Mantels and cabinet work 13,545,000
Handles 450,000
Miscellaneous 5,466,000
Laundry machines and accessories 3,057,000
Tables 7,612,520
Couch frames 5,166,000
School, lodge and church furniture 6,527,000
Electrical apparatus ; 7,510,000
Coffins and caskets 5,436,000
Buggies and light vehicles 1,505,830 -^
Parlor furniture frames 5,932,660
Refrigerators 4,354,000
^ Screens, window and door 4,850,000
Signs and billboards 5,510,000
Toilet accessories 4,625,000
Greenhouses and conservatories 4,967,000
Ladders 2,154,000
Machine parts 428,000 --
Trunks and sample cases 2,320,000
Sporting goods 449,000
Cigar boxes 1,821,350
Meat blocks 300,000
V Stairs '..,, 1,834,000
Barber shop furniture 1,547,000
Boats ■ 545,000
Novelties and toys 290,000
Musical instruments 615,420
Willow and rattan goods (given in pounds)
Total 1,116,855,120
Of the total amount of wood used in all industries in Illinois, 62.2
per cent is used in Chicago, eighty-four different varieties of wood
being made use of in these diverse manufacturing establishments.
About equal in importance to iron and lumber is coal. In fact,
without lumber, coal and iron ore would lose much of their value.
Illinois ranks third among the states in its output of bituminous coal,
the product being about 51,000,000 tons annually, from a coal area of
about 40,000 square miles, and reaching from the Ohio river north to
within forty or fifty miles of the city limits. Illinois, with Iowa,
Indiana and Ohio, mine in the aggregate considerably over 101,000,000
tons annually.
CHICAGO
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Ijtgrencebuj'
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judlow
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\C/iUia^feCovolai)d ">> y
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i'Sardi
WEST BADEN SPRINCS^*|^'3fe^^V<■^T f off \ Sh,
m^^-
>.y ^TX^°4&^^_^^^.^^excrv._^^ Corinth
Richmond
Georgetown
e View Peebl^
llsburg
ritlen^nj rlI>e^ossviI^^^^^^
I'c clpalrfiouth / Garrison
n 51 \ AjohnsoD Jc
* '*B4>rrA/ \ C*"^
B.,\r>_.„„K JHuntingLuit, ' n,^^
Fi\Biauioh # * Corydon .Ic
Mt. "VeAon^
UoionuJ^^. Hender
MorgAelSy ^^„,
|«.o^^ \vo« ''^®'"^ ^"'
'»^° bTingi
C*
LAWRCltlCCBURI
ardstownVc Ne«iny
i»~isU)WD Dioorofiold ''•'^Vrf^icholi
Springfiel'l
^!Sto^l"^ " "'^•*»J*banoS
}T^j)e<" _B., Uodgenville*^^*«ii,„__panviUefl ^^
DANVILtC JC.'
jg^ n villa ^ > — ~j|y<!eDtral ^fSonora ^ _^^
^iden^ ■^»-^'^^'!^ gyMunfordviUs / t^Janction City'
Ft. EstiU Je.
Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway (Monon)
ITS SUPPLY OF RAW MATERIALS. 47
This coal, while of the very best quality, is valued at about $1.10
per ton at the mines. The coal, of which about 14,000,000 tons are
consumed in Chicago annually, costs from $1.50 to $2.00 per ton deliv-^ "
ered, depending on quality, cost of transportation, amount contracted
for and some other minor charges. Notwithstanding the proximity
of the western coal fields to Chicago, there is considerable coal (mostly
anthracite) and coke used in this city, brought from eastern mines
and ovens.
Coke plays a very important part in the manufacture of iron and
steel. Much of the coke used in Chicago is from the eastern ovens,
the product of the ovens here being about 3,420,000 tons annually.
Copper is annually becoming of greater importance and value in )
the industrial progress of the entire country. The world's output in f
1910 was 1,086,249,983 pounds, of which the United States produced /
985,402,482 pounds, or over 72 per cent of the total. The states hav- )
ing the largest product in the order of volume are Montana, Arizona, )
Michigan, Utah and Nevada, which yield more than two-thirds of j
the total. Michigan is in close touch with Chicago by water, while \
each of the other copper producing areas are connected by rail with (
this city. Between four and five thousand tons of copper are received /
in (Hiicago annually by lake transportation, where it is manufactured j
into various articles of which copper and brass form an important \
feature. /
The lead and zinc that come to this market are from the Joplin '
district, comprised of portions of Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas,
the state of Illinois, and the state of Wisconsin, all of which districts
are directly tributary to Chicago. The product metal from these
districts in 1910 was 647,229 tons, as reported, of which 369,164 tons
was lead and 278,065 tons was zinc.
The use of cement in the construction of large buildings, espe-
cially those which are to be used for manufacturing purposes, was
within the last decade so universal as to give that material an import-
ance second only to steel and lumber. Chicago has become the log-
ical market for the cement product of the three states of Illinois,
Indiana and Michigan, which is about 13,000,000 barrels annually, or
about one-fourth the entire product of the country. In this market
it is possible to concentrate half a million barrels of cement within
forty-eight hours after the demand occurs. This means that Chicago
controls the cement market of the Middle West. In fact, it may be
truthfully said that because of its central location its superior advan-
tages of both rail and water transportation, this city covers a wider
CHICAGO :
field both in the collection and distribution of cement than any other
American market. Chicago cement entered into the construction of
the Union railway station at Washington, as well as in the rebuilding
of San Francisco. In this connection the following extract from the
Daily Consular and Trade Reports, issued by the government, is of
interest: "Winnipeg has just concluded a contract to buy 25,000 bar-
rels of cement from the United States for delivery during 1912. This
move on the part of the city council was entirely unexpected. Since
the merging of all the cement interests of Canada under the head of
the Canada Cement Co., it has been generally believed that this great
corporation would absolutely control the sale of cement in the
Dominion.
When the city asked for tenders, it was found that a cement com--
pany of Chicago was the lowest bidder at 71.43 cents per 100 pounds,
including sacks, and 60 cents exclusive of sacks. The bid of the
Canada Cement Co. was 72.65 cents per 100 pounds, including sacks,
and 61.22 cents, exclusive of sacks. The city will save $3,500 after
paying a duty of 51^ cents per barrel. In forwarding this bid the
Chicago company agreed that in case there is a reduction in duty or
any revision in freight rates, the city will be given the benefit of the
reduction."
It is impossible in the space at command to give in detail the
products classed as raw material which are consumed in industrial
activities of this city. But we enumerate a few only of the more
prominent that are the products of territory immediately tributary to
Chicago. There are petroleum, salt, leather, cotton, wool, building
stone, brick, marble, gravel, sand, lime and some others of lesser
importance. No city, domestic or foreign, can claim a larger or
richer endowment of natural wealth than Chicago.
ITS INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION. 49
Chicago — Its Industrial Expansion
There are no qualities that so plainly indicate the business abili-
ties of the people of a country, or any section of it, as the ingenuity,
energy and thrift of those who inhabit it. While merchandizing and
banking always indicate, to some extent, the prosperity and business
qualities of the citizens of a state or a city, the manufacturer must
be not only a financier, but also a salesman; he must provide the
means for creating his products, as well as possess the capacity to
dispose of them at a remunerative profit. In addition to these, he
must be endowed with a creative quality of mind, which is not essen-
tial in financial or commercial operations. He must originate some-
thing to meet a public want or demand, which neither the banker or
merchant is required to do. The people which have made the most
rapid advancement, not only in the increase of their wealth, but also
in civilization, education and refinement, are those which contribute
most largely of the manufactured products which are demanded to
meet the universal requirements of the world's population. In those
attainments what people can claim precedence over the United States,
Great Britain, Germany and France, among which the world's work-
shops are located ?
What is true of nations as a whole is equally true of the different
sections of each, corhpared one with another. This is illustrated in
the past history of our own country. Before 1860 the South raised
its own cotton, but sent it to New England to be woven into cloth,
which the Southerner bought back. There was no manufacturing
south of Mason & Dixon's line, and the people were poor, colleges
were few and small, and progress was slow, while New England
grew rich and prosperous. Now the South is making its own cotton
fabrics, smelting its own ores, building up its own industries, diversi-
fying its agriculture, enlarging its colleges to universities, and becom-
ing rich and progressive. The song of the shuttle and the trip ham-
mer has awakened the South to a new life that is full of energy and
activity.
What is the story of Chicago? In 1825 the only machinery here
was the water cart that peddled drinking water, by the pailful, to the
thirsty pioneer and the pestle and mortar in which he pounded his
coffee and pepper. Emigrants came to Chicago from the East and
passed on to the West because there was nothing for them to do on
50
CHICAGO :
The Chicag[o Junction Railway r~
u
The Chicago River & Indiana —
Railroad
SHOWING RAa AND WATER CONNECTIONS AND
The Central Manufacturing
District
ITS INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION.
51
the shore of the lake. These were the pioneers who settled the coun-
ties of Will, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Winnebago. The early mechan-
ics in Chicago were the blacksmith and the shoemaker.
But those who passed through Chicago, as well as those who
remained, could not long depend upon the steamboat, with its limita-
tions to open water in the lakes, and the ox carts as the only means
of reaching markets and for the conveyance of manufactured neces-
sities of life therefrom. The result was that local industries for sup-
plying the people with food and building materials were among the
first to be established in Chicago. It was entirely natural that one
of the first, if not the very first, industrial enterprise to be located
here was a slaughtering and meat packing plant, the market prices
for its product being from three to five cents a pound. About the
same time (1823) a blacksmith shop was opened, a foundry in 1835,
and a stove manufactory in 1846.
Prior to the govjernment census of 185 the statistics of manu-
facturing in Chicago were not separated from those of the county of
Cook, and it is therefore impossible to say just how important a part
the city took in the aggregates credited to the county. The follow-
ing table shows the growth of manufacturing interests for each cen-
sus between 1850 and 1910, both inclusive. The early enumerations
are seriously defective in manufacturing data, the census being
devoted, especially in the West, to statistics of population, agriculture,
education, religion, and industrial occupations of the citizens.
I
r
Num-
ber
of
Indus-
tries
Capital
Cost of Raw
Material
Number of
Wage Earners
Value of
Product
1850
* ' 467
1,440
3,518
9,977
19,203
8,159
9,656
$ 1,068,025
5,420,725
30,372,276
68,831,885
359,739,598
534,000,689
637,443,474
971,841,000
$ 2,562,583
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1905
1910
$ 6,591,445
60,332,188
179,194,925
409,498,027
538,401,562
589,913,993
793,470,000
5,453
31,105
70,391
190,621
262,621
241,984
293,977
11,944,229
92,518,742
248,995,848
664,567,923
888,945,311
955,036,277
1,281,171,000
It will be observed that the number of industries reported in 1890
and 1900 are abnormally large, which is due to the fact that some
small establishments, like cigar manufactures, bakeries, and some
others of similar character were dropped in succeeding enumerations,
as were also different and separated small shops owned by one cor-
poration or firm, which in later censuses have been reported in the
62 CHICAGO :
aggregate as one establishment. The rule now followed is to include
under the term "establishments" all the factories, mills or plants
which are located within the same city, under a common ownership
or control and for which one set of books is kept.
The following table shows the comparative growth of manufac-
turing in Chicago, by selected industries having an annual output of
$500,000 or over, under the censuses of 1890, 1905 and 1910, the sta-
tistics being brought down to December 31st of the year:
Automobiles 1909 $ 3,940,000
1904 354,000
1899
Bags, other than paper 1909 965,000
1904 809,000
1899 547,000
Baking powders and yeast. . . 1909 7,009,000
1904 3,890,000
1899 3,336,000
Belting and hose leather 1909 2,188,000
1904 1,055,000
1899 1,361,000
Boots and shoes 1909 9,858,000
1904 6,559,000
1899 6,814,000
Boxes, cigar 1909 541,000
1904 478,000
1899 399,000
Boxes, fancy and paper 1909 5,044,000
1904 2,825,000
1899 2,923,000
Brass and bronze products. . . 1909 5,131,000
1904 3,195,000
1899 2,703,000
Bread and bakery products. . . 1909 26,908,000
1904 20,654,000
1899 12,763,000
Brick and tile 1909 1,172,000
1904 1,573,000
1899 434,000
Brooms and brushes .• 1909 1,560,000
1904 1,048,000
1899 865,000
ITS INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION. 63
Canning and preserving 1909 $ 3,824,000
1904 3,882,000
1899 3,545,000
Carriages and wagons 1909 5,203,000
1904 4,076,000
1899 3,036,000
Cars, steam roads 1909 18,359,000
1904 11,172,000
1899 8,185,000
Cars, street 1909 2,758,000
1904 1,110,000
1899 1,076,000
Cars, other 1909 20,812,000
1904 23,799,000
1899 19,108,000
Chemicals .1909 1,149,000
1904 1,724,000
1899 1,382,000
Clothing, men's 1909 86,996,000
1904 45,626,000
1899 37,847,000
Clothing women^s '. . . . 1909 15,677,000
1904 11,637,000
1899 9,208,000
Coffee and spices, roasted and
ground 1909 : 19,599,000
1904 15,563,000
1899 12,612,000
Coffins and burial cases 1909 1,838,000
1904 1,297,000
1899 1,005,000
Confectionery 1909 11,222,000
1904 6,550,000
1899 5,718,000
Cooperage, etc 1909 3,368,000
1904 3,406,000
1899 2,912,000
Copper, tin and sheet iron
products 1909 12,242,000
1904 8,137,000
1899...... 8,725,000
54
CHICAGO:
ITS INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION. 55
Corsets 1909 $ 1,779,000
1904 559,000
1899 395,000
Cutlery and tools 1909 1,895,000
1904 946,000
1899 278,000
Electrical machinery 1909 20,669,000
1904 16,292,000
1899 11,358,000
Fancy articles not specified. . 1909 1,289,000
1904 1,664,000
1899 791,000
Foundry and machine shop
products 1909 89,669,000
1904 68,491,000
1899 57,721,000
Fur goods 1909 1,903,000
1904 1,421,000
1899 2,319,000
Furnishing goods, men's 1909 6,122,000
1904 3,503,000
1899 3,334,000
Furniture 1909 20,512,000
1904 17,622,000
1899 12,519,000
Gas and electric fixtures 1909 4,683,000
1904 2,485,000
1899 1,630,000
Gloves and mittens, leather. . . 1909 2,181,000
1904 1,511,000
1899 2,240,000
Grease and tallow 1909 4,948,000
1904 2,303,000
1899 1,922,000
Hats and caps, other than felt,
straw and wool 1909 1,046,000
1904 1,027,000
1899 952,000
Hosiery and knit goods 1909 1,477,000
1904 1,309,000
1899 647,000
56 CHICAGO:
Ink, manufactured
.1909
.$ 569,000
1904
349,000
1899
Iron and steel
.1909
. . 45,984,000
1904
24,840,000
1899
.1909
Jewelry
2,635,000
1904
1,746,000
1899
1,606,000
Leather goods
.1909
5,861,000
1904
5,023,000
'
1899
3,858,000
Leather, tanned
.1909
13,244,000
1904
9,420,000
1899
6,979,000
Liquors, malt
.1909
19,512,000
1904
16,983,000
1899
14,957,000
Lumber and timber products
..1909
32,709,000
1904
19,808,000
1899
11,536,000
Marble and stonework
.1909
3,930,000
1904
3,356,000
1899
2,061,000
Mattresses and spring beds . .
.1909
2,377,000
1904
1,753,000
1899
1,488,000
Models and patterns
.1909
678,000
1904
494,000
1899
342,000
Musical instruments and ma-
terials not specified
.1909
614,000
-
1904
663,000
1899
507,000
Musical instruments, pianos
and organs
.1909
11,487,000
1904
8,488,000
1899
6,802,000
Paints and varnish
.1909
18,942,000
1904
12,665,000
1899
8,096,000
ITS INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION. 57
Patent medicines 1909 $ 10,360,000
1904 11,942,000
1899 5,912,000
Photographic apparatus 1909 740,000
1904 802,000
1899 494,000
Photo engraving 1909 2,156,000
1904 1,324,000
1899 1,061,000
Printing and publishing 1909 74,211,000
1904 53,033,000
1899 36,238,000
Slaughtering and packing. . . . 1909. ..... 325,062,000
1904 270,549,000
1899 257,250,000
Smelting and refining (not
ores) 1909 2,574,000
1904 1,140,000
1899 278,000
Soap 1909 19,939,000
1904 13,770,000
1899 9,065,000
Stereotyping and electrotyp-
ing 1909 1,282,000
1904 1,165,000
1899 673,000
Stoves and furnaces 1909 3,183,000
1904 2,138,000
1899
Surgical appliances 1909 2,075,000
1904 1,004,000
1899 513,000
Tobacco manufactured 1909 16,633,000
1904 11,017,000
1899 8,174,000
Type founding 1909 1,248,000
1904 1,168,000
1899 1,257,000
All industries 1909 1,281,171,000
1904 955,036,000
1899 797,879,000
68
CHICAGO :
ITS INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION.
59
Large as these figures may appear, they by no means represent the
total industries in which Chicago is interested. Manufacturing plants
owned and operated by Chicago manufacturing concerns, the products
of which are marketed in this city, are very widely scattered not only
through the county of Cook, but also through neighboring states, and
these are credited, by the census, to the place, town or city in which
such plants are located. There are Chicago-owned tanneries in Wis-
consin, furniture manufactories, and iron and steel mills in Indiana,
Michigan and Iowa; ladies' wearing apparel in various cities of this
state; laces, cotton cloth and woolen goods in Illinois; agricultural
implements outside the city limits; saw mills, wagon and carriage
stock manufactories in numerous localities in other states, and various
equally important factories and mills are to be found at frequent
intervals within the radius of a night's ride from Chicago.
The following table of manufactures from the census of 1905
shows the importance, as an industrial area, of the territory within a
few hours' ride of this city, and explains why it is the center of indus-
trial activity of the United States:
United States
Area Within a
Night's Ride of
Chicago
Per Cent
Area Forms
of United
States
Number of establishments.
Value of products
Cost of materials used. . . .
Salaries and wages
Miscellaneous and expenses
Value added by manu-
facture (products less
cost of material)
Employes —
Number of salaried
officials and clerks . . .
Average number of wage
earners employed dur-
ing the vear
216,262
$14,802,147,000
8,503,950,000
3,186,302,000
1,455,019,000
6,298,197,000
519,751
5,470,321
71,493
$4,674,100,506
2,697,739,141
892,619,914
519,958,754
1,975,363,365
180,064
1,436,606
33.5
31.6
31.8
28.0
36.3
31.2
34.6
26.2
60
CHICAGO:
CHICAGO'S MANUFACTURES— FROM CENSUS OF 1910
Year
No.
Pro-
prietors
Salaried
Employes
Wage Earners
Total
Paid Wages
1899
1904
1909
7668
8159
9656
7^269 *
8,156
32,406
40,276
54,821
221,191
241,984
293,977
$108,727,000
136,405,000
174,112,000
Year
Capital
Cost of Material
Value of Product
Value Added by
Manufacture
1899
1904
1909
$511,249,000
637,743,000
971,841,000
$502,222,000
589,914,000
793,470,000
$797,879,000
955,036,000
1,281,171,000
$295,657,000
365,122,000
487,701,000
ITS INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS. 61
VI.
Chicago— Its Industrial Districts
In nearly every progressive town and city of the United States
there is being waged an energetic campaign to secure the location of
industrial enterprises. In a large majority of these cases very little
consideration is given to the prerequisites absolutely essential to the
profitable operation of the industries sought. Questions of trans-
portation, of raw materials, of labor supply, of cost of living, and
many others are overlooked entirely or are not given the considera-
tion they deserve. Educational advantages, home requirements, and
religious conditions are seldom mentioned, unless the place is large
enough to be endowed with these evidences of a cultivated society, in
which esthetic tastes have already been developed and are supplied
with whatever the people desire and appreciate.
In the struggle of ambitious communities it is too often forgotten
that it is not enough to induce either more factories to locate within
their limits or to increase the local production of more merchandise.
An attendant and imperative duty is to make such provision that the
increased production of manufactured goods shall not conduce to,
or encourage, such a congestion of population within an area already
overcrowded as will tend to the detriment of the public welfare, the
protection of which is of infinitely more importance than the mere
increase of trade and commerce, desirable as that may be. In a
word, the desire to locate industries should not be strong enough to
defeat or limit the social growth of the community.
Factories should be erected only in localities set apart for their
occupancy, but yet made accessible by the means of transportation
required in the carrying on of the business for which they are con-
structed and for the convenience of the employes upon which the
industries depend for labor. Industrial establishments should be
strictly excluded from the residential sections of the town, as well as
from its mercantile quarter. They should not be permitted to locate
where they would be endangered by fire, nor where they themselves
would be a menace by fire to other near-by buildings of any character.
In some of the modern American cities this subject has been wisely
met. The securing of a new industry may be a credit to any city,
but it is so only when the site of the industry, the character of the
buildings and the conduct of the business engaged in, contribute to
the welfare of the community as a whole.
62
CHICAGO :
M O
MAP or THC
Chicago, Terre Haute & Soutfieastem
Railway
"SOUTHEASTERN LINE"
ITS INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS. 63
In the early history of the city of Chicago, when its importance as
an industrial center first began to attract the attention of local opera-
tors, the demand for manufactured products was almost entirely local
or, at most, required to supply the territory immediately adjacent to
the river. Land was cheap and sites were small. The advent of the
railroads and the settlement of the prairies North and West of the
city widened the market for Chicago's products and this demand
necessitated enlarged manufacturing facilities.
The city also rapidly increased in population which enhanced the
price of real estate in and near the heart of the city. The land was
required for homes and stores. Gradually the shops and factories
were crowded out, and, as a rule, they sought locations along the lines
of the railroads. But here another difficulty was encountered. A
manufacturer located on a line running east, in case he wished to ship
his goods west or south, was compelled to transport his products by
means of drays, frequently long distances, to a road reaching the
consignee and this was enormously expensive. In fact it has been
estimated that more money was annually expended for trucking in
Chicago that was received by some of the largest railway systems
having terminals in the city. The trucking conditions worked as
disastrously in the receiving of goods, wares and merchandise as
in their outgoing. This difficulty could only be met by the building
of what is now known as the belt lines, which connect all the roads
with each other, greatly facilitating and cheapening the movement
of freight, reducing the necessity for drayage to a minimum.
But these belt railroads, or switching tracks, of which there are
twQlve, have had a very important influence on the growth of the
entire city. They have resulted in the creation of manufacturing dis-
tricts in which industries have sought locations, outside of the resi-
dence quarters of the city, where their buildings are not menaced by
fire nor do they threaten dwellings with destruction, ample provisions
against local fires having been made. These districts are situated in
localities that are not inviting for residences of proprietors or for the
homes of the employes and, therefore, they do not tend to congestion
of the districts with population of any description. The various iines
of street cars, or electric roads, run to nearly, if not quite all, of
these districts furnishing employes cheap and easy means of travel
between their homes and places of employment.
There are in all eighteen of these manufacturing districts scattered
about in every division of the city, and adjacent territory, and all are
so located that they are easily supplied with power to any required
64 CHICAGO
extent. The management of these tracts varies greatly. As a rule
they are owned by associations, some of which sell sites outright;
others rent the land for a term of years, the lessee erecting his own
buildings; while others will lease the land and erect the buildings
with privilege of purchase at a stipulated period and valuation.
There is no city ordinance regulating the location of manufactur-
ing establishments nor is any seeker for a location obliged to select
a site in any of these districts, but the advantages of doing so are so
great that a prospective purchaser will naturally see the expediency
of locating upon some one of them. Should a company or corporation
require a larger tract than any of the manufacturing districts can
offer him, there is no difficulty in making such a purchase as is evi-
denced by the fact that quite recently an Eastern corporation pur-
chased a plat of 370 acres outside of a district upon which to erect
its works. The extent of a purchase in any section of the Manufac-
turing Zone of Chicago is limited only by the volume of the capital
it is proposed to invest in the plant.
ITS TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 65
VIL
Chicago— Its Transportation Facilities
Lord Bacon uttered a great truth when he said, "There are three
things which make a nation great and prosperous; a fertile soil, busy-
workshops and easy transportation for men and goods from place
to place." Hon J. E. Ransdell, member of congress, gave his endorse-
ment of that truth when he said, "The question of transportation is
the most important one before the civilized world. The nation which
solves it quickest is bound to win in the race for commercial
supremacy." More to the direct point is the statement made in the
Government report on the Isthmian Canal: "Whatever affects the
transportation facilities of the Central West touches its economic life
at the very center." Neither nations nor cities can ignore the question
of transportation if growth and commercial supremacy are the ends
to be sought. These assertions are all based on the lines of national
progress since the vast improvements occasioned by improved water-
ways and the construction of railroads have lent such a stimulus to
the movement of merchandise of all varieties to the markets of the
world.
Within the last half century the industrial character of the United
States has been radically changed and modified. In its colonial days
the people were devoted almost exclusively to agricultural pursuits,
looking to England for such manufactured products as they required.
Following the revolutionary war, and the securing of their independ-
ence, national pride stimulated the people to supply their own require-
ments for manufactured goods from domestic industries. The prog-
ress made was comparatively slow because with the rude agricultural
implements employed in the raising and harvesting of crops it required
almost 90 per cent of the male population to raise the necessaries of
life. The sowing of wheat, which constituted the main article of
food, the reaping of it with the old-fashioned cradle, and the thresh-
ing of it with a flail, required a very large percentage of the popula-
tion to furnish food.
With the invention of the gang plow, the mower and reaper, the
threshing machine and other agricultural implements the number of
persons required to produce food dropped gradually to thirty-three
per cent, releasing a' very large number to enter the gainful pursuits
and manufacturing began to assume importance and to supply many
of the goods and merchandise that had previously been imported from
CHICAGO :
Chicago Union
Transfer Raibvay Co.
Clearing Yards
General Office
1730 Tribune Building
Chicago, 111.
. Mi^MI; * Oil. tiTiiii n .
ITS TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 67
foreign countries. Cities sprang up along the streams and rivers where
water-power was available. Gradually the character of the population
was changed from agriculturists to handicraftsmen and mechanics,
streams were improved, canals were dug for the conveyance of freight
and railroads were built to furnish more general and rapid distribution
of both the products of the mills and factories as well as of the field.
In those early days New England was the chief source of supply
for manufactured goods, but with the growth of population the indus-
trial center of the country followed the trend of population to the
West. The manufacturing center of the country, based upon the gross
valuation of manufactured products, has moved to the West with
less rapidity than has the center of population and has pursued a
course considerably north of that taken by immigration. In 1890 the
industrial center of the country was seven or eight miles southwest of
Canton, Ohio. In the next decade it had moved west about 75 miles
to a point three miles south of Loudonville, in that state. It has not
changed its course or the rapidity of its advance and is now in the
vicinity of Marion, Ohio, rather north of that place.
Theoretically the industrial growth of a country is governed by
the location of its natural resources and its natural lines of transporta-
tion.
The volume of the agricultural products of the territory adjacent \
to Chicago, and the natural outlet for them by way of the Great Lakes, |
created the necessity for a city of supplies at the southern extremity
of Lake Michigan. The opening of the Erie Canal, i n 1826^ was the i
only requisite necessary to insure the large and rapid growth of Chi-
cago, and to that waterway Chicago is chiefly indebted for its present
position. But it required seven days to reach the Atlantic Seaboard
and besides there remained a period each year of practically three
months when this route was blocked by ice. Fortunately the era of «
railroad construction began when Chicago had assumed a commercial
importance that made her the objective point for railway lines either j
east or west. The East demanded the wheat and corn from the prairies ^
of Illinois and Iowa, and the West required the products of the East-
ern mills, factories and forges and willingly ''paid the freight" both
ways as she has done ever since and is doing today. It was not the \
railroads that made Chicago, although they were important factors in i
its growth, but it was rather Chicago that made the railroads the
great trunk lines they have in later years become.
The great impetus in railroad construction dates from about 1846,
at which time the mileage of railroads then in operation was 4,930
CHICAGO;
miles, practically all of it being in the New England and middle states.
There is now in operation in the country practically 240,000 miles of
railroad, of which the following twenty-seven railways, making thirty-
two main trunk lines, have terminals in Chicago. The aggregate
mileage of these roads is 85,009.43 miles.
A. T. & S. Fe Ry. Co 7,613.08
Baltimore & Ohio R. R 4,433.02
Chicago & Western Indiana R. R 50.00
Chicago & Alton R. R 1,025.61
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R 9,074.14
Chesapeake & Ohio R. R. of Indiana 2,241.60
Chicago & Eastern Illinois R. R 1,275.38
Chicago Great Western R. R 1,492.16
Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Ry 616.00
Chicago, Indiana & Southern R. R. Co 358.00
Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Ry 2,058.74
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry 7,511.56
Chicago & Northwestern Ry 7,761.90
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry 7,551.16
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Ry. . 2,010.44
Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Ry 326.00
Erie R. R 1,995.40
Grand Trunk Ry 4,711.00
Illinois Central R. R 4,755.25
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Ry 1,719.26
Michigan Central R. R 1,804.77
Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Ry . . 3,769.64
New York, Chicago & St. Louis R. R 561.59
Pennsylvania R. R. Co 3,978.30
Pere Marquette R. R 2,333.20
P. C. C. & St. L. Ry. (Pan Handle) 1,467.63
Wabash R. R 2,514.60
85,009.43
There seems to be some difference of opinion, even among railway
officials, as to what constitutes a "main trunk line" of railroad. While
we have twenty-seven different railroad corporations they reach widely
separated terminals east and west, north and south. The Financial
Chronicle in its Railway and Industrial Section of July 29, 1911, in
speaking of one of Chicago's belt roads, says that it connects "with all
the thirty-two main trunk lines entering Chicago." A railroad with
ITS TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES.
one line reaching from Chicago to St. Paul, another to Galveston,
another to New Mexico and another to Denver, although converging
at and using the same track into Chicago, might properly be said to
be made up of several main trunk lines.
Some of these railway corporations have branches, which serve
as feeders, connecting with the main line, and this main line, with
its feeders, or branches, make up what is known as a railway system.
With the more or less remote terminals of these systems, Chicago is
connected only by the main or trunk line which has its terminal in
this city. For instance, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad
has a main, or trunk, line 9,074 miles in length. It also has branches
with an aggregate mileage of 2,705 miles, forming a railway system of
11,779 miles.
The names and mileage of the railway systems having terminals
in Chicago are :
Miles.
A. T. & S. Fe 10,600.53
Baltimore & Ohio 5,568.97
Chesapeake & Ohio 2,594.10
Chicago & Northwestern 9,845.35
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 11,779.11
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 9,737.55
Erie 2,567.08
Grand Trunk 5,247.00
Illinois Central 8,247.82
New York Central 13,341.74
Pennsylvania 11,198.62
Rock Island 8,157.86
St. Louis & San Francisco (Frisco) 7,524.67
Wabash 3,085.10
109,495.50
Chicago terminals reach every section of the United States, and
one or more through passenger and freight trains pass daily between
Chicago and Portland, Oregon, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
El Paso, Galveston, New Orleans, Mobile, Jacksonville, Baltimore,
Newport, Va., Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Portland, Me.,
Quebec, Montreal, Duluth, Winnipeg and intermediate points.
There is no city on the earth that has so vast a range of territory
with which it is brought into daily contract as Chicago and, when
the distribution of its manufactories and commercial establishments are
Id
CHICAGO :
I
o
CO
I
i
i
I
<
c/tyy.x./eh^
><« ■JDDQ/
ITS TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 71
concerned no other center can reach so large a number of both con-
sumers and producers as can the City of Chicago.
Another large feature of this situation is that no railroad or railway i
system runs a train through this city — all trains stop here, and are made
up here for the journey or shipments beyond. Chicago is the abso-
lute terminal of every railroad train that enters it. This gives Cfiicag^''^
shipping facilities that have no equal anywhere in the world.
Besides these large systems there are thirteen belt or transfer lines
used in the exchange of freight from one road to another, and from
and to shippers.
BELT OR TRANSFER RAILROADS.
Miles.
1. Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal R.R.. 289.00
2. Belt Railway of Chicago 101.44
3. Chicago Junction Railway 203.00
4. Chicago River & Indiana R. R 50.00
5. Chicago Union Transfer Railway 100.00
6. Chicago, West Pullman & Southern R. R. . 10.00
7. Chicago & Calumet River Ry 12.00
8. Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Ry 198.53
9. Indiana Harbor Belt R. R 108.60
10. Illinois Northern Ry 12.00
11. Manufacturers Junction Ry 3.03
12. Chicago Short Line 17.80
13. Chicago & Illinois Western 54.00
1,159.40
This makes the total railroad mileage of Chicago 86,168.83 miles
A tentative switching arrangement is in effect within the switching
limits of Chicago, the purpose of which is to equalize rates on traffic
moving in and out of the city.
This arrangement is reciprocal by agreement between the railroads
under the terms of which carriers apply Chicago rates on all carload
traffic to and from all industries, warehouses and elevators having
private sidings regardless of where located, provided only that such
location is within the Chicago district and charges amount to $15,00
per car or more. This application of Chicago rates is provided for
by the line bringing the traffic into or taking the traffic out of the city
absorbing such connecting line switching charges as may be necessary
to make delivery to or receive from industry, warehouse or elevator
from or to which traffic moves. In other words, irrespective of what
72 CHICAGO
part of the Chicago switching district an industry is located in, the
Chicago rates apply and switching charges are paid out of its earnings
by the line hauling the traffic.
The above is the general plan. There are, of course, exceptions
and included in the arrangement are certain other agreements among
the railroads as to charges to be assessed for performing switching
service, etc.
Significant as this array of facts regarding Chicago's transporta-
tion facilities, it does not take into account the additional advantages
given by water transportation on the Great Lakes. From the port of
Chicago the seventeen steamship lines send their vessels to all points
between Buffalo and Duluth. These are the Anchor Line; Benton
Transit Co. ; Canada Atlantic Transit Co. ; Chicago & Duluth Transpor-
tation Co. ; Chicago & South Haven Steamship Co. ; Chicago, Racine &
Milwaukee Line; Crawford Transportation Co.; Erie & Western
Transportation Co.; Goodrich Transit Co.; Graham & Morton Trans-
portation Co. ; Hill Steamboat Line ; Indiana Transportation Co. ; Lud-
ington Transportation Co.; Michigan, Indiana & Illinois Line; North-
ern Michigan Transportation Co.; Northern Steamship Co.; Western
Transit Co.
The volume of the passenger traffic by these lines has been rapidly
increasing within the last decade. From data given out by the depart-
ment of Commerce and Labor it appears that during the season of
1911 the number of passengers carried on the Great Lakes, west of
Toledo and Detroit, was 12,601,097, nearly all of whom were tourists.
Commenting upon this rather surprising evidence of the growing
popularity of the Great Lakes with Summer Tourists a Boston paper
says: "A remarkable thing is that the Great Lakes seem to attract
this patronage naturally. Except as a side issue, little is done to
promote lake travel. This may be said with full regard for the fact
that some handsome passenger vessels ply between the larger cities
and Summer resorts, and without losing sight of the fact that excur-
sions out of large cities are numerous during the months of pleasant
sailing. But even these draw by their own attractive force."
The extent of this lake commerce is shown by the year's business
at the port of Chicago for 1911, which was as follows : Arrivals, 5,924;
registered tonnage, 7,935,969; clearances, 5,954; registered tonnage,
8,021,036. Arrivals and clearances, 11,878; registered tonnage,
15,957,008. The cargo tonnage in 1909 was 10,379,759, and in 1910,
11,527,631. The principal receipts in 1911 were: Hard coal, 969,231
tons; soft coal, 560,093 tons; salt, 209,134 tons; iron ore, 4,086,276
ITS TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 73
tons; lumber, 280,195 tons; posts, 168,264; railroad ties, 726,050;
sugar, 81,828 tons; wheat, 641,883 bushels; merchandise, 781,206 tons.
The principal shipments were: Flour, 2,837,725 barrels; wheat,
14,508,973 bushels; corn, 47,964,539 bushels; oats, 10,759,852 bushels;
oil, 643,179 barrels; merchandise, 461,845 tons; oil cake, 10,002 tons;
manufactured iron 60,015 tons.
The rapid increase of the lake commerce has demonstrated the'
necessity for enlarged facilities in handling freight and passengers
during the navigation period. When a 200-foot freighter was about
the limit of the lake steamers, short turns in the river, bridges and
the like were not a menace to navigating the river. But now with
freighters over 600 feet in length, and carrying 18,000 tons of freight,
shallow water, bridges and short curves in the branches of the Chicago
river have been menaces to the business of the port. It has been decided
to build an outer harbor for the receipt and transshipment of freight
and passengers.
Four outer harbor sites along Chicago's lake front were established
by the City Council in November, 1911, the ordinances providing for
the following districts:
No. 1. From the mouth of Chicago river north to Chicago Ave-
nue and extending one mile into Lake Michigan.
No. 2. From the mouth of Chicago river south to Randolph
Street and extending one mile into the lake.
No. 3. From the south end of Grant Park south to Thirty-first
Street and extending one mile into the lake.
No. 4. All of the Calumet river within this city and all of Lake
Calumet.
Another ordinance was presented at the same time providing for
a fifth district along the south shore, through which vessels will have
to pass before entering the inner harbor designated as District No. 4.
Preliminary plans for the harbor have been prepared by the engineer-
ing corps of the city and the harbor will be constructed. These har-
bors will be for the handling of passengers and package freight, an
industrial harbor for heavy freight, like coal, lumber, iron ore and
the like will be provided elsewhere. With these necessary improve-
ments completed Chicago will have the finest inland harbor in the
world.
Another project which will add greatly to the importance of Chi-
cago's commerce will be the completion of the Lakes-to-the-Gulf Deep
Waterway, which is certain to be constructed. The Middle West, of
74
CHICAGO :
ITS TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 75
which Chicago is the commercial center, is the greatest freight pro-^
ducing region in the world, its annual tonnage being estimated at I
22,000,000,000 tons. It is 4,000 miles in width from east to west and'
about 2,000 miles in length from north to south. It has 54 navigable
waterways having a mileage of 13,869 miles. Upon the opening of
the Panama Canal this vast area, as large as Germany and France
combined, must be depended upon to furnish the larger portion of
the tonnage for that artificial water course. \
It is impossible to estimate, with any degree of accuracy, the great
advantages that will accrue to Chicago from the increase of its trans-
portation facilities by the completion of the Lak^s-to-the-Gulf Deep ^
Waterway. While the entire Middle West is gridironed with railroads,
all of which are directly tributary to this city, nothing is required so
much as some means that will equalize the rates of transportation
throughout the entire Mississippi Valley and which will, at the same
time, prevent the congestion of traffic at terminal points, which is now^
of very frequent occurrence. Rapid as has been the construction of*^.
railways in the West the roads have not kept pace with the enormous \
industrial and agricultural development in this section of the United
States and the result has been that business has been badly crippled
by the inadequacy of far-reaching transportation. Valuable and impor-
tant as the railroads are in this movement of property and persons,
they cannot meet the growing requirements of the business interests
because of the vast outlay required and the time demanded for such
expansion of facilities even if the money to complete it was in hand.
If existing transportation facilities have been the chief factors in the
building of this city, what would be the effect of adding to the present
highways of commerce 16,000 miles of waterways which the improve-
ment of the navigable streams in the Middle West would give Chi-
cago ? The completion of the Lakes-to-the-Gulf Deep Waterway would
bring tide water to the shores of Lake Michigan and by utilizing the ^
iron, coal and lumber so easily assembled there, would enable Chicago
to compete with the Clyde in the industry of building steel ships for
both commercial and naval purposes. This is far less of a dream now
than Chicago itself was fifty years ago.
It is not necessary to speculate in the results to Chicago as an indus-
trial and commercial center which will follow the completion of the
Panama Canal. Keen observers, like James J. Hill, are making large
investment in preparation for that event. The trade of the Orient
will mean to the Pacific coast what European commerce has meant to
the Atlantic seaboard, and Mr. Hill gives it as his conviction that
"When the Pacific coast states shall have a population of 20,000,000,
I as they will, then Chicago will be the largest city in the World."
76
CHICAGO :
.^^^^.o,
GULF
O F
^^ E X ^j: c
Tir^n j __
X
CHICAGO
& EASTERN ILLINOIS
RAILROAD
AND CON NECTl ON S
1-17-'12 POOLE/ BROACH jffA^O^^^^^^
ITS INTRAMURAL TRANSPORTATION. 77
vm.
Chicago— Its Intramural Transportation
Rapid transit within the limits of a city is as important as within
the boundaries of a state or a nation. In fact it is more so because
it is more frequently used and by a larger number of people than are
such lines between adjacent cities or states. The cost of such convey-
ance also enters more largely into the daily expenditures of the indi-
vidual and thus more closely touch the daily expenditures of the family.
It is not necessary that such lines of conveyance should connect the
limits with the business, or commercial, center, important as that may
be, but it is essential that they should connect the homes of the laboring
population with the industrial districts where they are employed.
There should be ample facilities for what may be called "cross town"
conveyance, which connect the industrial districts with the homes of
the working classes employed therein. This not only enables the
manufacturers to secure a steady supply of operatives, but makes it
possible to secure temporary additional workmen if his business
requires such extra help. In addition to this, his works, be they large
or small, should also be in close touch with the financial and commercial
center of the city. In either case the means of transit furnished to the
people by the various lines of communication between different sec-
tions of the city has a very important bearing on the ease and dispatch
with which business can be transacted.
There is no section of the city, however remote from the loop dis-
trict, which is the business center of Chicago, that is not easily and
expeditiously reached by some one of the surface or elevated lines of
railway, nearly all of which extend to the suburbs adjacent to, and
beyond, the city limits. More than thirty cities, towns and villages,
outside of the city limits, can be reached any hour of the day or night
by some one of the means of conveyance that are in operation, at very
reasonable rates of fare. The cost of such conveyance is not appre-
ciated by persons not familiar with the conditions in Chicago. Not
long ago a party of strangers were occupying the smoking compartment
of a west-bound passenger train. One of the party was a New Yorker
and he was astonishing his companions by telling how far a person
could ride in his home city on the street cars for a nickel. In the party
was a Chicago resident, and after hearing the New Yorker's story,
he said: "That is nothing. In Chicago I can ride more than twenty-
five miles for a nickel." The New Yorker was nonplused, and rising
78 CHICAGO
from his seat, extended his hand and said: "Shake; I am glad to meet
the president of the Ananias Club," and left the compartment. The
truth is that the Chicagoan considerably understated the actual facts.
By the system of transfers in vogue in Chicago, it is easily possible
to ride more than twenty-five miles for a single fare of five cents.
In fact a person can journey from Howard Avenue, the northern limits
of Chicago, to Blue Island, a distance of twenty-eight miles, for a single
fare of five cents.
So far as rapidity of transit is concerned the elevated roads are
entitled to first consideration. There are four of these systems in
operation which reach the remote sections of each division of the city,
all passing around the "loop" in the center of the wholesale, retail and
financial districts of the city. This loop is double tracked and is
approximately a m.ile in length and half a mile in width. Each of the
elevated roads runs its trains around this loop, the intervals between
them from two minutes apart during the "rush hours" (from 4:30
to 6 :30 in the evening and from 6 :30 to 8 :30 in the morning) and at
longer intervals at other hours of the day and night. As the trains
run upon an elevated structure they are not delayed by street conges-
tions. The fare is five cents to the end of the line, except on one of
them, reaching Evanston (a distance of twelve miles), the fare is ten
cents. During the rush hours express trains are run, which stop only
at principal stations, thus reducing the time between the loop and
extreme points on the lines.
The Northwestern elevated has a mileage of 18.14 miles, extend-
ing from Evanston, on the lake shore north of the city, with a line to
Ravenswood. During the "rush hours" trains move at intervals of
two and four minutes and after midnight once in thirty-five minutes.
The South Side elevated, with its branches, has a mileage of 16.24
miles, with branches to Jackson Park, Kenwood, Englewood and the
Union Stock Yards. Trains move at intervals of three to twenty
minutes, according to the hour of the day.
The Metropolitan elevated has a mileage of 22.39 miles and reaches
each of the great west side parks — Garfield, Douglas, Humboldt and
Logan Square — moving its trains at intervals of from three to thirty
minutes.
The Chicago & Oak Park elevated, with a mileage of 10.40 miles,
reaching Garfield Park and Oak Park, with trains at intervals from
two to forty minutes, according to the demands of the traffic.
On each of these roads the trackage is approximately double the
mileage.
ITS INTRAMURAL TRANSPORTATION. 79
These four roads, with the Union Loop, have a mileage of 69.19
miles and are capitalized at $95,000,000.
The service to the public is singularly good, although at the "rush
hours" the cars are over-crowded, but they are large, clean, well
ventilated and comfortably warm in the winter months.
The surface, or trolley lines reach each section of the south, north
and west divisions of the city, a territory twenty-six miles long and
nine miles in width. The lines are controlled by two companies, the
Chicago Railways Company and the Chicago City Railway Company,
having an aggregate mileage of nearly 915 miles, valued at $125,-
000,000.
From the "loop" something like twenty main trunk lines of these
surface roads radiate, most of them taking cars of one or more con-
necting sub-trunk lines which are dropped off at junction points and
proceed to their destination. The interchange of transfers between
crossing lines is very general. As a single instance of the value of
these transfers the case may be cited where a person can ride from
Seventy-ninth Street, in the south division of the city, to the extreme
limits of the north division, a distance of 19>^ miles, for a single fare
of five cents, and on some lines it is possible to ride a still longer dis-
tance, as from the north limits to Maywood, nearly four miles west of
the city limits, a distance of over twenty-three miles.
Besides these means of conveyance, steam railroads operate trains
during the day between nearby suburban villages and their passenger
stations in the business center. Four of these roads run 850 trains
daily in this service, and, as will be seen by the following table, carry
a very large number of passengers, at commutation rates, that are very
near those of the elevated and surface roads.
The following table shows the number of passengers carried by
these various lines of transportation in 1911 :
Chicago City Railway Co 338,566,525
Chicago Railways Co 488,490,104
Calumet & South Chicago 26,729,060
Northwestern "L" 44,471,566
Metropolitan "L" 56,125,075
South Side "L" 40,751,028
Chicago & Oak Park "L" 16,346,278
Suburban Steam Roads 47,465,718
Total for the year 1,058,945,354
or an average of 2,901,220 each day of the year.
80
CHICAGO
5 «^ 1 ^J-
ITS INTRAMURAL TRANSPORTATION.- 81
In addition to the passenger traffic of these various lines, there are
five electric interurban roads, as follows, with their mileage; The
Aurora, Elgin & Chicago, 67 miles; the Chicago & Joliet, 30 miles;
the Chicago & Southern, 72 miles; the Chicago, Lake Shore & South
Bend, 90 miles; and the Chicago & Milwaukee, 90 miles. Only one
of these, the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago, runs to the loop district, the
others connecting with elevated or surface roads, by which passengers
are conveyed to the business center. These important lines connect
forty-five cities, besides a large number of growing towns and villages,
with Chicago. The number of passengers carried by these interurban
lines is not available and it is probable that a large fraction of them is
included in the number carried by the surface and elevated roads with
which they connect.
Everyone who is familiar with the foreign population of this
country understands that it is gregarious, the different races, very
generally, forming communities by themselves, and Chicago is no
exception to that rule. Every manufacturer has learned by experience
that one race is better adapted to the work he has to have done than
any other. The question of local transportation is therefore an impor-
tant one for him because, with practically unrestricted facilities for the
conveyance for his employes, he is always within easy reach of the
people he employs, especially at such times as the exigencies of his
business require additional operatives for short periods. The traction
and elevated lines leave no section of the city unsupplied and if the
employer knows where the kind of labor he seeks is concentrated, he
has no difficulty in reaching and securing it. The English, Scotch and
Irish are very well distributed throughout the city, but the Germans
are numerous in the 24th, 26th and 27th wards ; the Poles in the 16th
and 29th, the Swedes in the 25th and 26th, the Russians in the 9th,
10th, 15th, 19th and 20th, the Bohemians in the 10th, 12th, 29th and
34th chiefly, the Italians in the 17th, 19th and 22nd, and the Nor-
wegians in the 15th, 28th and 35th wards.
More important than these last mentioned, as directly affecting the
comforts of the people, are the numerous steamers on the lake that
give daily excursions in the summer months reaching to ports on the
west shore of Michigan. That state abounds in lakes and summer
resorts of great beauty, at which thousands of Chicago people spend
the months of July and August. As a rule, the exodus to Michigan
and Wisconsin resorts begins with the close of the public schools.
The families live in neat cottages on the shores of some lake and the
children "run wild" through the summer. The head of the family
CHICAGO:
ITS INTRAMURAL TRANSPORTATION. 83
can leave the city on some Friday evening steamer and be with his
family Saturday and Sunday, and returning Sunday night, can be in
his office Monday morning at his usual hour. Twelve lines of these
lake steamers have their home port at Chicago, and serve to make this
city one of the most delightful summer cities in the country. The
economy with which homes can be maintained in these near-by sum-
mer resorts is due to the low rates of fare on the lake steamers, the
cheapness of family supplies in both Michigan and Wisconsin, and
the very short distance one has to travel to reach them.
Abundant means of transportation, at reasonable cost, both to the
city limits and the adjacent country, is highly prized by those who
reside here as well as by those who make Chicago their headquarters
while visiting the resorts with which it is in close touch.
Convenient and necessary as are the public utilities for the convey-
ance of passengers to various parts of the city they cannot take the
place of the private carriage or automobile for the use of those whose
means permit them to employ the more expensive methods of transfer-
ence. But the vehicle, whatever it may be, has its use limited by
street conditions.
The problems of street improvement in Chicago have been many
but they have not been serious. The level surface of the territory has
made thorough drainage imperative, but perfect sewage has not been
difficult in any way, other than the financing of the work. The land
area within the city limits embraces 114,932 acres, in which there are
4,303 miles of streets. Of this aggregate, 1,628 miles have been
paved and improved, leaving 2,675 miles of what may be called
"country roads."
By far the greater portion of the unimproved streets are in the
extreme southwestern and northwestern sections of the city, where
the land, if used for any purpose, is devoted to agriculture. In the
populated sections of the city the streets are, almost universally,
improved or paved with asphaltum, macadam, or brick, while splendid
highways lead to all the surrounding cities, like Milwaukee, Madison,
Indianapolis, Detroit, Springfield, Des Moines, St. Paul and inter-
mediate towns.
To show how well Chicago has done in the matter of providing
excellent highways for pleasure riding or teaming it may be said
that we have more than 300 more miles of improved and paved streets
than has Philadelphia; twice as many as St. Louis; more than three
times as many as Boston or Baltimore; nearly four times as many
84 CHICAGO :
as Pittsburgh, and more than five times as many as Washington (this
data is taken from Census Bulletin Number 105).
The use that pleasure seekers make of our paved streets is shown
by the fact that there are more than 10,000 automobiles owned in
Chicago and suburbs, and no more delightful trip can be anywhere
taken by carriage than from Jackson Park, through Douglas, Garfield
and Humboldt parks, to Lincoln Park, a distance of about thirty miles,
every foot of which is over a wide, well-shaded and paved boulevard.
The importance of improved streets in the transportation of goods
and merchandise, as well as for pleasure, cannot be exaggerated. The
cost of drayage is reduced to a minimum by the aid of level and
improved streets. We have no hills to climb and there is no freight
terminal station located on any railroad that is not accessible at all
times of the year by a road that is dry and smooth.
ITS BUSINESS UTILITIES. 85
IX,
Chicago— Its Business Utilities
Given an adequate market, the chief factor in the successful con-
duct of business operations is the economy with which they can be
carried on. The expenses of conducting commercial and industrial
enterprises may be classified under two general heads, viz. : first, fixed
charges, like overhead expenses; superintendence; officers' salaries;
compensation paid clerks; taxes; insurance; general wear and tear;
repairs; and, second, such general manufacturing expenses as labor
and materials. The former go into the account for general expenses
while the latter are figured in the cost of the product.
But there are other conditions beside capital and ability that are
essential to the highest success of industrial and commercial enter-
prises, important as those may be to business prosperity. As a rule
these utilities are a public asset and wholly beyond the control of the
individual or corporation. They may be either natural or created by
the insistent demands of the people who constitute the majority of
the population of a metropolis, but they serve as an important, if not
as a dominating, factor in the commercial advancement of a city, and
also have a weighty influence on the success with which business
enterprises may be conducted. These are banking facilities; good
streets and roads; fire and police protection; postal, telegraph and
telephone service; educational advantages; library conveniences; the
religious and moral status of the community ; recreation privileges and
many other factors that influence commercial life. These all depend
upon the general character and intelligence of the people, but they
must be taken into account in seeking a location for home or business
as well as the more material adjuncts that pertain solely to trade and
commerce. These adjuncts of business and the domestic life of the
citizens are discussed in other sections of this volume.
In the fixed charges, one important item that materially affects
expenses is the cost of living, which is discussed in another section of
this volume under a special heading. The general manufacturing
expenses are influenced by a very large number of conditions, which
are beyond the control of the manufacturer. Upon the subject of raw
material, reference is made to a preceding section of this volume, in
which that subject is elaborated upon. The effect of abundant raw
material is shown in the cost of erecting building plants, which is
approximately twenty per cent less in Chicago than in cities where
such products are less abundant.
CHICAGO :
ITS BUSINESS UTILITIES. 87
For the creation of power, heat and light, coal is the principal
material used whether the plant is operated by steam or electric
energy. There are in Illinois 102 counties of which 55, or more than
one-half, are within the bituminous coal area of the state and produce
that commodity for commercial purposes. These counties have 933
mines, yielding about 50,000,000 tons annually. They ship mine run,
lump, egg, nut, pea and slack product, the average value of which, at
the mine, is $1,037 per ton, varying from $1,296 to $0,336 per ton. The
best qualities of this coal delivered in Chicago varies in price from
$1.40 to $2.00 a ton; coal of equal value selling, in Atlantic seaboard
cities, at from $3.00 to $3.50 a ton. This advantage possessed by Chi-
cago is of vast importance in manufacturing, whether the plant is
operated by steam or electric power. Some of our electric power
plants use thousands of tons daily of coal in the driving of dynamos,
and cheap coal results, materially, in economical electric power and
light. One Chicago electric company has two electric power plants
which have a combined capacity of 360,000 horse-power, which con-
sume two and one-half tons of coal and evaporate seventeen tons of
water each minute. Another has four generating stations which cover
145 acres of ground. It has 120,000 customers. The connected load,
as expressed in the equivalent of 16-candle-power incandescent lamps,
is 8,144,000.
Electric power is cheaper in Chicago than in any other American
city. As an illustration of its low cost, it may be said that the power
for the Joliet penitentiary was recently contracted for at one cent per
kilowatt hour. The power is sold on a sliding scale and any consumer
can purchase it at that price, or even less, provided the consumption
justifies so low a rate.
The subject of taxation is one which cannot be ignored in estimat-
ing the cost of doing business. It is a little difficult to give the amount
of taxes levied upon a given quantity of property because all cities do
not use the same basis for assessment. Some levy taxes upon a full
cash valuation ; others upon one-third, and others still, upon one-fifth.
In some cities street improvements are paid for out of the general
fund while in others they are provided for by the levying of special
assessments, according to benefits received, upon abutting or adjacent
property. This last condition does not relieve the property owner for
in one case he pays the expense out of his own pocket directly, while in
the other, he pays it into the city treasury as a portion of his taxes.
The Census Bureau, in September, 1908, issued a bulletin (the
latest official report upon this subject) entitled "Statistics of Cities
CHICAGO :
Having a Population of over 30,000 in 1906," on page 281 of which is
given rates of taxes per $1,000. The following table shows that the
rate in the fifteen cities of the United States that are credited, in the
bulletin, with a population of 300,000 or over :
Rate of tax
City Per $1,000
New York $13.59
Chicago 8.06
Philadelphia 14.55
St. Louis 8.70
Boston 14.92
Baltimore 18.78
Cleveland 16.31
Buffalo 14.64
Pittsburgh 14.55
San Francisco 4.88
Detroit 15.46
Cincinnati 10.75
Milwaukee 9.35
New Orleans 16.50
Washington 10.26
In Chicago the cost of street improvements is paid by special
assessment and not out of the general treasury. This is the case of
some others of the listed cities. At the time these statistics were com-
piled, San Francisco had not reached its normal condition since the
disaster of that year.
The following table shows the taxes levied during 1907, 1908, 1909,
1910 and 1911, in the different towns making up the city of Chicago
per $1,000.
West Chicago .
South Chicago,
North Chicago
Hyde Park. . . .
Lake
Lake View . . . .
Jefferson
1907
1908
1909
1910
$7.70
$7.98
$4.91
$4.95
7.20
7.52
4.47
4.64
7.57
7.84
4.84
4.88
7.20
7.52
4.47
4.64
7.20
7.52
4.47
4.64
7.71
8.00
5.05
5.01
6.48
6.74
4.03
4.13
1911
$5.39
5.06
5.21
5.06
5.06
5.01
4.13
ITS BUSINESS UTILITIES.
In 1907 and 1908 property was assessed at one-fifth its cash value
but the state law was changed that year requiring the levy to be made
in future on one-third of the cash value. The reason why one section
of the city has a higher rate than another is due to the different sums
expended on parks. This park tax varied from forty-four cents to
$1.26 in the different towns. With $500,000 or $1,000 (more or less)
invested in a manufacturing plant any one can estimate the amount
he would save in taxes alone if his establishment was located in Chi-
cago rather than in any of the cities included in the foregoing list.
One reason for the comparatively low rate of taxation in Chicago
is the small gross debt of the city, the small debt per capita and the
very light interest tax per capita. The following table gives the sta-
tistics issued by the Census Bureau:
City
Gross Debt
Debt
Per Capita
Interest
Per Capita
New York . . .
Chicago
Philadelphia. .
St. Louis. . . .
Boston
Baltimore. . . .
Pittsburgh . . .
Cleveland. . . .
Buffalo
San Francisco
Detroit
Cincinnati. . .
Milwaukee. . .
New Orleans.
Washington . .
$798,679,054
84,449,874
74,387,488
18,640,951
105,092,706
48,070,933
42,813,778
32,844,514
22,464,303
4,922,983
12,250,942
50,516,043
10,656,231
28,188,326
14,296,893
$189
40
50
28
172
85
80
69
58
Not
33
145
33
88
45
01
07
73
17
52
67
55
02
09
comp
34
53
04
46
74
$4.58
1.28
1.33
1.20
6.68
2.15
2.39
2.39
1.83
uted
0.86
3
1
2
1
96
08
63
54
The indebtedness of the city of Chicago was, on the 2nd day of
January, 1912, as follows, officially reported.
Bonds (general) $24,941,000.00
Bonds (Water) 3,273,000.00
Judgments 1,395.87
Accrued interest (corporate) 140,833.10
Water fund debt 1,214,153.73
$29,570,382.70
Less sinking funds 2,740,734.98
Total debt, January 2nd, 1912 $26,829,647.72
90
CHICAGO
^ EASTERN ^
jiijBlllli^
ITS BUSINESS UTILITIES. 91
This does not include $3,155,000 bonds, for building bridges to
replace old ones, voted by the people in 1911, but not yet issued. In
1911 the city paid for interest on its bonded debt $1,285,741. The
unexercised borrowing power of the city under state law, is $19,-
619,062.48.
The expenses incident to drayage make a heavy demand upon both
manufacturer and merchant. There is more freight transported upon
drays in Chicago than in any other American city, a recent magazine
writer putting the tonnage so carried in Philadelphia and Boston at
65,000 tons each daily; in New York about 75,000 tons, and in Chi-
cago about 100,000 tons. The writer says ''figure the millions upon mil-
lions that are spent each year by the merchants and manufacturers
for this service, the thousands of men to whom they give employ-
ment and the millions of dollars that are tied up in horses, trucks,
harnesses and stables, and the total is almost inconceivable." Not long
ago an investigator in this city made a careful estimate of the amount
expended annually by the business men of this city for the transfer
of their goods through the streets of Chicago and found that it aggre-
gated a sum larger than that received annually by one of our largest
trunk lines of railway for the transportation of freight over its entire
system.
But so far as Chicago is concerned, this heavy drain upon business
is being rapidly eliminated. There has been constructed in the city
more than 60 miles of tunnels, underlying the entire down-town dis-
trict, and connecting the wholesale business houses and manufactories
within that area with every railway freight station in the business
center. In other cities the subways are for the transportation of
passengers, leaving the streets to the drays, but in Chicago the tunnel
is for the conveyance of freight, ashes, coal, etc., reserving the surface
for the people. Most of the 60 miles of these tunnels are six feet
wide and seven and a half feet high, the roof forming an arch. There
are however, what are known as trunk tunnels, which are about twelve
feet high and from ten to fourteen feet wide. In fixing the size of the
tunnels the city council took into consideration that they must be made
high and wide enough for a man to work in comfortably, and with
not only ample space for the suspension of the telephone wires from
the roof and side walls, but also space for the future growth of the
system. It was stipulated that the tunnels were to be about forty feat
under ground, and this plan has been followed, thus bringing the tops-
of the tunnels about thirty-three feet below the street level. The
tunnels go under the Chicago River in twelve places and at such
CHICAGO
ITS BUSINESS UTILITIES. 93
crossings they are about 60 feet below the surface of the stream. By
placing the tunnels at this depth below the street level, the sewers,
water and other pipes, which fill up a city's streets, were all avoided,
and there was also left ample room above the tops of the tunnels for
the construction of a subway system for the street car traffic of the
city in case it was ever determined to build one. The Tunnel Com-
pany cannot carry passengers through its bores, under its franchise,
but transports freight, inbound and outbound, delivers coal and removes
ashes and other debris and rubbish. The cars, operated by electricity
entirely, have a capacity of three tons each and are drawn to the
elevators directly underneath the establishment to be served, where
they are loaded or unloaded as may be desired.
This tunnel system is of benefit to business in two principal ways :
first, it relieves the merchants and manufacturers of all cost of dray-
age, the railroads, to which the goods are delivered or from which
they are received, paying the company such charge, which is small in
comparison with the expense of drayage with horses, and the con-
venience and economy to the railroads themselves; second, it enables
jobbers and producers to carry on their business for the entire twenty-
four hours of the day, instead of eight or ten hours, as formerly. The
old system was to pack goods in the afternoon and leave them for
delivery at the freight stations the day following. Under the tunnel
system, a car is, late in the afternoon, placed in the basement; the
boxes or bales are lowered to the tracks, forty feet beneath the side-
walk; transferred to the railway car at the freight station and, before
nightfall, the goods are on their way to their destination.
Another means for the economical handling and exchange of
freight, both from shippers and from one railroad or station to another,
is the various belt lines of railroads which intersect the tracks of the
roads centering at Chicago and collect and distribute in-coming freight
among the various terminals at which it is to be delivered to the con-
signee, or out-going freight to the terminal of the road over which it
is to be conveyed to its destination. This arrangement saves not only
a vast amount of drayage expense, but time in the expeditious handling
of freight of all kinds, especially that class known as L. C. L. (less
than carload lots).
In the chapter on transportation facilities in this volume will be
found a list of these belt lines, or switching roads, while interspersed
in the pages of the book are maps of these roads, or tracks, showing
with which railroad lines, and at what points, they connect.
94
CHICAGO
« , K J • " < K , i , J « t
i ! I 1 i i 1 I i ; ; ; i
fflrnflfflfflffl
ITS BUSINESS UTILITIES.
No city or market in the world has the facilities for handling the
out-of-town business as expeditiously and economically as it is done in
Chicago. /
Banking facilities are one of the prime essentials to a great mar-
ket and industrial center. There is no pretense that, in this particular,
Chicago has advantages over every other American city of equal size,
but it is confidently asserted that no city has better or stronger bank-
ing conveniences to meet successfully all demands of honest and
legitimate business that may be made, than are possessed by Chicago.
There are in this city, besides private bankers' institutions, sixty-three
banks of which thirteen are national and fifty are state corporations.
The standing of these banks December 5, 1911, was as follows:
Deposits
Loans
Resources
National
$443,102,882
491,126,347
$303,017,688
313,237,418
$ 534,399,132
567,653,465
State
Total
$934,229,229
$616,255,106
$1,102,052,597
For protection against fire, no city in the country has more ample
provision. No leading fire, or life, insurance company, that does an
agency business, is without a Chicago office, and rates do not differ
materially from those required in many other sections of the United
States. The city fire department is one of the strongest in the country.
It has a force of 1,879 men, 117 engine companies, 34 hook and ladder
companies, 733 horses, 4 fire boats, 1 water tower, 126 fire engines,
151 hose wagons and carriages, 43 hook and ladder trucks, 43 chemical
extinguishers, 189 portable pumps, with various other appliances for
for the protection of property against loss or damage by fire.
In all the essentials required for the safe and successful manage-
ment of industrial or commercial operations, there is no city on this
continent that can claim precedence over Chicago. It it is not the
intention, in dealing with this subject, to enumerate inconsequental
details in the matter of advantages, but to show natural conditions
and supplemented instrumentalities that are most important in success-
fully conducting business operations. Possessing these, minor advan-
tages take care of themselves.
96 CHICAGO
The volume of business and its conditions are indicated more
clearly by the bank clearings than in any other manner and the follow-
ing table shows the growth of such transactions.
1883 $2,517,371,581 1898 $5,517,335,476
1884 2,259,680,391 1899 6,612,313,611
1885 2,318,579,003 1900 6,799,535,589
1886 2,604,762,912 1901 7,756,372,455
1887 2,969,216,210 1902 8,394,872,135
1888 3,163,774,462 1903 8,755,553,649
1889 3,379,925,188 1904 8,989,983,764
1890 4,093,145,904 1905 10,191,765,732
1891 4,456,885,203 1906 11,047,311,894
1892 5,135,771,187 1907 12,087,647,870
1893 4,676,196,969 1908 11,853,814,943
1894 4,315,440,476 1909 13,781,843,612
1895 4,614,979,203 1910 13,939,689,984
1896 4,413,054,108 1911 13,925,709,802
1897 4,575,693,340
THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCE. 97
Chicago — The Association of Commerce
The growth of commercial, mdustrial or improvement organiza-
tions in this country is one of the curiosities of urban development.
There are, indeed, few cities, however small, which do not have local
organizations that are devoted to the encouragement of the business
of the community and the increase of its population. These associa-
tions have been instrumental not only in the stimulation of business
of all kinds, but in the fostering of civic pride, the promotion of educa-
tional facilities, but also the promotion of every agency that had for
its purpose the betterment of the moral, social and intellectual con-
ditions of the community as a whole.
One of the very earliest of these organizations had its inception
in this city and from this germ has grown the Chicago Association
of Commerce, which has become one of the largest and most ener-
getic guilds in the United States, if not in the world. Some decade
and a half ago, The National Association of Merchants and Travelers,
which was the initial society of a like character, was formed in Chi-
cago, its purpose being the encouragement of trade excursions of
business men in the territory adjacent to the city to come to Chicago
to make their purchases of goods and merchandise. The idea was
seized upon by various cities, both east and west, similar associations
were multiplied, and, while the trade of Chicago was, to some extent,
increased, it did not keep pace with the growing importance of the
city as a commercial and financial center. The means employed were
too spasmodic and ephemeral to produce any lasting, or even growing,
commercial pre-eminence of the city which was at all commensurate
with its natural advantages, its transportation facilities, and its grow-
ing industrial enterprises.
Efficient as the National Association of Merchants and Travelers
had originally been, it soon outlived its usefulness, and there remained
no unity of business interests that could act authoritatively on behalf
not only of Chicago's commercial, but also its civic, sanitary and social
interests as well.
Near the close of 1904 the name of the National Association of
Merchants and Travelers was changed to the Chicago Commercial
Association, which was later altered to the present appellation. A
thorough reorganization was effected, an efficient and resourceful
corps of officers was chosen, with the usual board of vice-presidents,
CHICAGO
THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCE. 99
directors, executive and twenty other committees. Under the new
management the Association rapidly increased in numbers, starting
with 93. The following table shows the growth in membership since
December, 1904 :
December, 1904 93 December, 1908 2,700
December, 1905 1,002 December, 1909 3,000
December, 1906 1,283 December, 1910 3,850
December, 1907 1,376 December, 1911 4,118
It must be borne in mind that the membership is given by firms
and not by individuals, and as the individuals composing a firm average
four persons to each, it makes the individual membership of the Asso-
ciation approximately 16,000. The system employed by the Associa-
tion in carrying on its work embraces a comprehensive grouping of all
its forces into four grand divisions, viz.: the Interstate, the Civic
Industrial, the Foreign Trade and the Local Divisions. These are
co-ordinately arranged into seventy-eight trade subdivisions, each of
which is under the direction of a chairman and four committeemen,
appointed by each subdivision, approved by the Executive Committee,
and which constitute the members of the Ways and Means Com-
mittee, which is the active working force of the Association, composed
of 390 members, representing every branch of trade, commerce and
industry in the city. This committee has a session on each Wednes-
day at a luncheon, to which all members of the Association are
admitted, and at which is discussed various questions relating to the
active work of the Association in all its departments. This is the
Association's forum, at which the attendance varies from 200 to 300
members, addressed by speakers of recognized ability from various
sections of the country and occasionally by invited guests from abroad.
To the interstate division is committed all subjects relating to, or
involving, the commercial interests of the city and its importance as
the great central market of the country. The civic industrial division
has for its definite purpose the maintenance and development of indus-
trial enterprises within the city's manufacturing zone, as well as the
improvement of civic conditions within the municipality. The for-
eign trade division seeks the fullest possible advancement of Chicago's
trade through the establishment and maintenance of reciprocal com-
mercial relations with foreign countries and by the establishment in
foreign marts of agencies for the introduction of Chicago-made prod-
ucts. The local division is engaged in the organization of public
100 CHICAGO
sentiment for the promotion of the municipal welfare, the enforce-
ment of constitutional guarantees of property rights and individual
liberty, based upon the idea that citizenship is both a personal liability
and a public responsibility. One feature of the local division is its
convention bureau, which brings to Chicago annually conventions of
deliberating bodies to the number of over 300, represented by an
aggregate of approximately 400,000 delegates.
The creed of the organization is tersely expressed in a few words,
as follows: "The Chicago Association of Commerce aims to promote
the greater development of Chicago's commerce at home — abroad; a
supreme respect for law and order leading to a higher standard of
municipal character through the organization of all concerned into an
aggressive force."
The division whose business brings it most closely in touch with
the widespread industries of the United States and with those manu-
facturers who are seeking sites either for branch or main plants, is
the civic industrial, between whom the correspondence is carried on.
The information given such parties is voluminous and varied, reach-
ing every section of the country. Its printed matter goes to every
large commercial body in the country, into public, college and uni-
versity libraries and to American consuls in Europe. How far reach-
ing and influential this work may be cannot be accurately estimated,
because the division closes no deals, for when it has carried negotia-
tions to the point of giving whatever information is required by
prospective seekers for locations, the cases are turned over to the
members of the division dealing in industrial sites and property and
negotiations are continued direct between them.
ITS LABOR SUPPLY. 101
XI.
Chicago— Its Labor Supply
It is no more disastrous to the success of a manufacturing enter-
prise for the proprietor to locate his estabHshment in a place where
the supply of the chief raw material he uses is limited to his bare
necessities, than it is to select a situation where there is such an insuf-
ficiency of labor as to enable him to meet no more than his ordinary
requirements. In either case a temporary or permanent increase in
the demand for his product so cripples him that he is unable to take
advantage of the enlargement of his business or to compete with a
manufacturer who, under more favorable conditions, is placing on the
active market an article which may be inferior to his own.
There is no principle better settled in the distribution of population
than that labor of all kinds, skilled as well as common, will gravitate
to industrial centers, and this is more pronounced when the laborers
are of foreign birth than with those who are native born citizens of
the country. The foreigner comes here for no other purpose than to
seek permanent employment at living wages, while, as a very general
rule, the native, after a few years, becomes an employer of labor him-
self, wins his way to a salaried position or is a skilled operative in
his chosen occupation. The majority of foreign born working men
are unskilled laborers, and it is this class that fills the greater number
of industrial plants in this country.
Thus it is that the basis of industrial progress is the cheap laborer
who performs the patient, tireless and low-paid toil which is in great-
est demand, even in this era when complicated and automatic machin-
ery is so largely depended upon in every department of industrial
enterprise. In fact, it is this very kind of machinery that creates the
large demand for unskilled labor and attracts such to manufacturing
centers.
Antedating the industrial activity which is now characteristic of
this city, Chicago was the great center to and from which agricultural
products tended for distribution. Land was both cheap and enor-
mously productive, and the products of the soil met with a constant
demand at remunerative prices. To this condition northern Illinois,
Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota are indebted for the Swedish and
Norwegian farmers, who now form a very large proportion of their
agricultural population. They were thrifty, intelligent and inured to a
102
CHICAGO
Map of the Illinois Central Railroad Showing Proposed "Chicago Beautiful" Plan
ITS LABOR SUPPLY. 103
life of exacting labor. They had large families and were not com-
pelled to depend upon hired labor in their vocation. Their prosperity
became known in their former homes and they were followed by kins-
men and acquaintances, each new arrival adding to the necessity for,
and growth of manufacturing centers and these, in turn, emphasized
the requirement for skilled and common labor in the shops and mills.
This vast population, remaining unassimilated, and serving always as
a magnet to draw still others of their race from their mother country,
and who retained the manners, customs and habits of their native
lands, has given the West, and especially its cities, the most cosmo-
politan population to be found anywhere on the globe. There are in
these states townships today in which the English language is spoken
neither in the home, stores, schools or churches, and yet those necessi-
ties of modern civilization are of the very best.
Immigration from Sweden, Norway and Germany has declined
somewhat in late years, as has also that from the United Kingdom and
France, but the influx has been largely increased from Italy, Russia
and Hungary. There has, however, been a decline in the total of
immigration since 1907, when it reached the highest point, 1,285,349,
to 1911, when it had fallen to 878,587. The tendency of foreign
immigration is now to the cities, and it is generally of persons not
skilled in any of the useful arts or domestic agriculture, and of such
labor Chicago has an inexhaustible supply. At the school census in
1908 Chicago had a foreign born population of 728,257, and the
nationalities which are most commonly associated with the severe toil
of unskilled daily labor are the Italians, Bohemians, Poles and
Russians.
These are the foreigners who are practically never assimilated with
other populations, native or alien born. They have no knowledge of
our language, laws, customs or modes of life. They live in communi-
ties each by themselves, and probably 75 per cent of the adult males
are laborers with pick and shovel, in lumber yards or doing the heavy
labor about mills and manufactories. But, on the other hand, they are
the best unskilled laborers to be found anywhere. They are robust,
live frugally, dress economically, occupy small cottages or apartments
in localities where rent is low, and they toil willingly for a wage that
no American would consider and which most foreigners would refuse.
With this great laboring population, numbering approximately 800,000
people, which thoroughly understands every class of employment for
which they offer themselves, the manufacturer has an army of common
laborers from which to draw for all the unskilled labor he may require.
104 CHICAGO :
But hard as the life of these toilers may seem to an American,
from his point of view, they are vastly better off, and have more of
the comforts of life here than they ever had or could have at home.
As compared with other cities, Chicago has few crowded tenement
quarters, and the laboring man here has, as a rule, more of home life
and its comforts than can be found in other large cities. While we
have our crowded spots, the laborer has more room, more light and
better air than is usually possessed by people of his class elsewhere.
The cottages occupied by these laborers are small, but the lots upon
which they stand are large enough to give the tenant, or owner, space
for a good sized garden in the rear, as well as a bit of lawn in front,
and it is not at all uncommon to see a very productive kitchen garden
connected with these 'homes which produces a very considerable quan-
tity of food for the family. Rents vary from $4.00 to $8.00 a month
for apartments, in the sections of the city occupied by these working
men, and few pay either more or less. From a report made by the
City Homes Association "of a canvass of 420 apartments in a West
Side district of the city, it appears only one Italian family was found
paying more than $10.00 a month rent, and only 26 families paying
less than $4.00. The average rent paid by the Italians was a little
under $5.00 a month for three-room apartments. The Jewish laborers
paid a little more than $8.00 a month rent, the Poles $5.66 and the
Bohemians $5.93 a month for four rooms."
Next to rental, the great necessity is for water. Meter rates for
city water, which for purity is without an equal, is 62y2 cents per
1,000 cubic feet. An ordinary family, in a seven-room house, with
bath, closet and laundry, will consume about 22 cents' worth of water
per month. With these laboring people the rent and the water absorb
not to exceed one-sixth the income of the head of the family.
The educational department of the city government makes a per-
sistent and very successful effort to keep the children of these foreign
laborers constantly in school. The compulsory education law is rig-
idly enforced by truant officers, and the number of children who
escape school up to and including the eighth grade are very few, as
compared with the total. There is no section of the city that is not
provided with school facilities of all kinds which are tuition free for
all pupils. While all foreigners of the laboring classes are not alike,
the large majority of those in this city do not fail to appreciate the
advantages the public provides that the children may attain a higher
position in life than the parents themselves have reached, or than the
children could ever hope to attain in their fatherland.
ITS LABOR SUPPLY. 105
All these benefits make the common laborer contented with his con-
dition, satisfied with his wage, and industrious in his lowly calling.
With skilled labor the conditions are much the same. The growth
of industrial enterprises, as shown in preceding pages, gives him con-
stant employment at remunerative wages. It is rare that a satisfied
artisan is a discontented one. The skilled laborers in Chicago, besides
the Americans, the English, Scotch, Irish, Swedes, Norwegians, Cana-
dians, and Swiss, who speak our language, are interested in public
affairs and among them are many of the very best of our citizens.
They live well, have comfortable homes, and are staunch supporters
of our schools, churches and public societies. This class forms the
"governor" on the machinery that holds in check the efforts of the
more radical in the advocacy of labor disturbances. A very large pro-
portion of this class own their own homes. With its 190 square
miles of city territory, suitable locations for homes are not beyond
the means of the average industrious mechanic, while building mate-
rials are comparatively cheap. A well-housed, well-paid and well-
clad skilled workman is not one who "quarrels with his job." The
wages of this class are, on the average, lower than are paid them in
some American cities, and this is caused by the lower cost of necessa-
ries of life, especially food. Chicago is the center of the food pro-
ducing area of the country, and it is apparent that food products
received here are not compelled to bear the burdens of long trans-
portation, as is the case in markets more remote from the points of
production.
The working man in Chicago can have more luxuries on his table
than anywhere outside of the agricultural and productive center of the
country. The choice cuts of beef and other meats are high here, as
they are at the East or South, but good, wholesome meat, that is not
demanded in other great markets, is abundant and at reasonable prices.
Butter, milk, poultry and eggs are produced in abundance within fifty
miles of the city limits and the cost of delivery is far from excessive.
As affecting the food supply of Chicago, it should be remembered
that the County of Cook, in which the city is located, is one of the
most important agricultural counties in the state. A "farm" is any
tract of land of three or more acres used for agricultural purposes.
The number of farms in the county in 1910 was 3,100, comprising
20,679 acres, which produced in that year 2,137,823 bushels of corn,
2,210,823 bushels of oats, and contained, among other stock, 31,955
cows and 331,658 poultry*. This enumeration does not include the
immense number of gardens which supply the people of the city with
106
CHICAGO :
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HANDLES INTCRCHANCE CARLOAD TRAFnC
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FREIGHT HANDLED AT MCCORMICK STATION FOR ALL RAILROADS.
ITS LABOR SUPPLY. 107
vegetables, most of which is vended from wagons through the resi-
dence streets of the city. The vehicles of these itinerant venders of
vegetables of various kinds play a most important part in the food
supply of the city during the summer and autumnal months and sup-
ply the place of city markets.
Chicago is the largest fruit market both in the variety and quantity
of products in the United States, and much of the fruit, like berries,
cherries, peaches, apples and grapes, is produced in the immediate
vicinity of the city, while the tropical and sub-tropical fruits are always
abundant in the city markets. Choice fruits are not luxuries in this
city.
While these advantages are important in their bearing in making
the workman contented, there is another element that has a still
stronger influence upon him. There is no subject that is more fre-
quently discussed by students in sociology than the constant and
increasing tendency of young men to leave the country and come to
the cities. This is shown by the enumeration of the population at
each decennial census. In 1870 the urban population of the United a
States, that is, population in cities of 8,000 or over, was 20.9 per cent |
of the total; in 1880 it was 22.6 per cent; in 1890 it was 29.2 per cent, \
and in 1900 it was 33.1 per cent. In 1900 the total population was
75,468,039, of which 24,992,199 resided in the cities. This shows itself
in this way : manufacturers in small towns and cities, with every acces-
sory for profitable business, find they cannot keep in their employ
their best operatives. The small city or rural village is without the
attractions and diversions that are abundant in a metropolis. With
its parks, theatres, entertainments of various kinds, and the attrac-
tions always to be found in the swing of city life, the young man is
drawn from the country to the large centers of population. The
larger wage he receives in the city is an additional attraction, for he
does not stop to consider that all his pleasures make a serious drain
upon his larger income.
If the workman is a foreigner he is drawn to the city by the fact
that there are more of his own people there than in the country, and )
he is anxious to add to the pleasure he will have in associations that
will connect him with his old home.
This desire for the atmosphere of cosmopolitan life, while it is
unquestionably injurious to the country, is an asset of great value to
the manufacturer located in a city. It gives him an ample number of
both skilled and common workmen in his regular business, and in case
of an emergency, when he may desire to increase his operating force,
108 CHICAGO :
either temporarily or permanently, he has an unfailing supply upon
which to draw. His work need never be delayed or crippled because
of a failure to secure competent operatives.
The result of this is that the laboring foreigner is not a "floater."
He remains a permanent resident of the city. He becomes, by reason
of steady employment at remunerative wages, a house owner, his chil-
dren, through the agency of the public schools, soon become thor-
oughly Americanized in language, customs and associations. Of the
second generation a few speak the language of their parents, and
fewer still follow the menial occupations of their fathers. New
arrivals maintain the quota of unskilled labor and the supply always
equals the demand.
ITS WAGE EARNERS AND THEIR WAGES. 109
XH,
Chicago— Its Wage Earners and their Wages
"The laborer is worthy of his hire." Poorly paid labor is the most
expensive, and, conversely, the highest paid is the most efficient service
in the world of industry. Except in rare instances when the labor to
be performed requires some peculiar mental qualifications or technical
education, the compensation for work executed is regulated chiefly
upon the cost of living, and this, of course, is greatly influenced by
the market conditions at the locality where the labor is performed.
The degree of hazard, like work on tall steel structures ; or the menace
to health, like glass blowing, will enable workmen to secure a com-
pensation above the value of the actual work performed, as measured
by hours, but these are exceptional occupations, and so far as wages
are concerned are "a law unto themselves."
It is true also that wages are, to some degree, controlled by trades
union, but such modifications as they ask for are all based upon the
cost of living within the district over which any particular union may
exercise its influence. During the late winter and early spring months
of the last year, the demands for an increase of wages were universal
throughout the entire United States, but in all cases the requests for
an advance of wages was based upon the abnormally high cost of
nearly every commodity that entered into the family expense account.
Whatever may have been the causes for the admitted increase in the
cost of living, such increased cost may be regarded as temporary, and
there is little doubt but that the movement towards lower prices, which
is already noticeable, will soon reach the normal standard.
In a recent government report on the cost of living, the quantity of
food consumed annually by the average family of five persons is given
as follows (omitting fractions) : Fresh beef, 394 pounds ; flour, 680
pounds; potatoes, 14 bushels; eggs, 85 dozen; butter, 117 pounds;
sugar, 268 pounds. There is no one of these commodities that is more
costly in the Chicago market than in that of any large city, and most
of them are here perceptibly lower. While the difference in price
per item is small, it amounts to a very considerable sum to the wage
worker for the entire year. Such a saving would be in Chicago $43.00
as against Boston ; $26.00 as against Detroit ; $58.00 as against Pitts-
burgh and $51.00 as against New York.
These figures are for an ordinary family, but it is a notable fact
that with the hundreds of thousands of unskilled working men, the
no
CHICAGO :
ITS WAGE EARNERS AND THEIR WAGES. Ill
vast majority of whom are of foreign birth, most of the food used is
such as they are accustomed to consume in their native land, and can
be purchased at a much less cost than the average food consumed by
the American wage worker.
In the outskirts of the city there are large areas of vacant property
which are wholly unoccupied, and the use of this land is given in small
tracts to working people for cultivation without cost and is tilled by
the family of the beneficiary. In this way very many furnish their
tables with all the garden vegetables and potatoes consumed by the
ordinary family. There are hundreds of acres of vegetables gardens
within the city limits, the products of which are marketed from
wagons on the streets at prices very much below those asked for simi-
lar articles at the grocery stores or in the general market places.
Very many of the skilled artisans of the city own homes and live
in the suburbs, all of which are easily accessible by street car lines, the
elevated roads, the interurban electric, or the steam railroads which
run, morning and evening, many trains to accommodate those living
beyond the city limits. Within twelve miles of the center of the city
there are nine large villages or cities which have frequent trains over
some one of the many transportation lines, the fare being rarely in
excess of five cents and in very few cases over ten cents. Of these
villages more than 75 per cent of the adult male population have their
work shops or places of business within the city limits. In those sub-
urbs rents are, as a rule, very considerably lower than they are in the
city, while prices for lots for residences are within the reach of every
skilled working man with any idea of frugality. All these villages
have education facilities fully equal to those provided for pupils in the
city schools.
The price of labor is kept within the bounds of fairness and reason
by three principal causes. The first is the economy of living occa-
sioned by the lower cost of food; the second is the natural effect of
competition between workmen that always exists where labor is abun-
dant; the third is the large number of working men and laborers who
go into the country for work in the months when there is the least
demand for labor in the city and return when there is the heaviest
city demand for workmen of all classes. This last class is made up
of sailors on the lakes during the busy season, farm hands and the
large number of employes at the hundreds of summer resorts about
Chicago. The wage earning population of the city, which embraces
those who work in and about manufacturing plants, of which there are
over 9,000, is variously estimated at about 250,000, while the unskilled
112 CHICAGO:
labor population is estimated at about 500,000. With such resources
to draw from, the employer is never short of operatives at a wage
fair to both parties.
But it may be asked wliy it is, if labor conditions are so satisfactory
in Chicago, that it has so many labor troubles in the form of strikes
and lockouts? The answer is plain and direct. Chicago has fewer
labor disturbances and disputes than any city of the first class in the
country.
It is true that within the last fifteen or twenty years there have
been several spectacular strikes in this city, of which glaring and
sensational reports were given in the local press, and still more lurid
accounts put on the wires for publication in newspapers in other sec-
tions of the country. But with these exceptions, Chicago has been
remarkably exempt from disastrous industrial convulsions that were
strictly local in character. In common with the country in general,
this city has been the victim of labor troubles, like the strike of the
railway employes in 1888, which extended from February to August
in that year, and involved nearly all the railroad systems of the United
States. A similar convulsion was the so-called Pullman strike of
1894, which reached to the Pacific Coast.
The period of greatest unrest in the labor world extended through
the twenty years between 1880 and 1900, during which time Chicago
\ had, all told, 1,737 strikes of all kinds, as against 5,000 in New York,
or an average of eighty-seven a year here, as against 250 for the same
period in New York.
Since 1900 labor troubles have not been important. The teamsters'
strike in May, 1903, attracted considerable attention, but it affected
few concerns and was made vastly more of than it deserved. A stran-
ger in the city might have noticed that some trucks and drays had
a policeman occupying a seat with the driver, but that is all. There
were cases of individual violence, but otherwise the city was orderly.
In July of that year the freight handlers struck, involving some 9,000
men. The strike lasted seven days. In November the employes of
the City Railway Company became dissatisfied and quit work. In
1905 a sensational strike of the teamsters employed by one of the firms
of the city received much more publicity than it merited. It lasted
for a week or more and was attended with some violence, but it con-
cerned and affected only the firm engaged in the dispute.
The last of these spectacular disturbances was the garment work-
ers' strike, which began September 22, 1910, and continued until Feb-
ruary 3, 1911, in which 45,000 strikers were involved, 250 firms being
ITS WAGE EARNERS AND THEIR WAGES. 113
concerned. The feature most prominent in the dispute was the open
shop, to which the employes objected. The strike was finally settled
by the employes returning to work, the open shop policy of the
employers being maintained. The loss in wages by the strikers is esti-
mated at $3,000,000. There have also been some disputes between
unions as to which one was entitled to perform the labor in hand, but
these differences have existed everywhere and involved workmen uni-
versally in needless hair-splitting disputes. The zeal of the newspapers
for sensational reports has given more importance to these labor con-
troveries than they were entitled to receive.
In a city with 10,000 manufacturing establishments there will be
differences of opinion between an employer and his employes, but
the latter have learned that a strike is not only exceedingly disastrous
to themselves, but also is a poor expedient even as a last resort. The
employers have found that the better way is to meet their men with
a spirit of fairness. Experience has been an excellent teacher, and both
sides have profited by their schooling, expensive as it has been in some
cases to each. Commonality of interest appeals to both sides as the
best corrective for real or fancied grievances. Fairness leads to com-
promise and compromise leads to peace and prosperity for all parties.
Success in business depends, in a great degree, upon steady employ-
ment.
Notwithstanding the fact that Chicago is, by no means, exempt
from either working men who are radical and dictatorial, or from
employers who are unjust and penurious, yet these two extremes con-
stitute a small proportion of employes and employers. There is here
an enlightened general sentiment which forms a public opinion that is
respected by every class of labor and business. It is the balance wheel
that preserves peace and is a strong element in the prosperity of
Chicago. (Census of 1905.)
Wage Eearners. Wages.
New York* 464,716 $248,128,259
Chicago 241,984 136„404,096
Philadelphia 228,899 107,640,307
St. Louis 82,093 42,642,358
Boston 59,160 31,873,185
Baltimore 65,224 25,633,550
Pittsburgh 56,229 31,540,678
Cleveland 64,095 33,471,513
Buffalo 43,567 21,621,762
San Francisco 38,429 25,015,427
Detroit 48,879 22,786,576
Cincinnati 58,584 27,389,569
Milwaukee 43,540 20,910,009
New Orleans 17,631 7,444,474
Washington 6,299 3,658,370
*Includes Brooklyn.
114
CHICAGO
MANUFACTURERS JUNCTION
RAILWAY
AND CONNECTIONS.
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L.e.L.FRErCHT HANDLED AT HAWTHORNE STATION FOR ALL RAILROADS.
GENERAL OFFICES, 500 South Clinton Street, Chicago, III.
LOCAL OFFICES, 25th Street and 48th Avenue, Hawthorne, lU.
d
AS A CITY OF HOMES. 115
XIII,
Chicago— As a City of Homes
The home life of a people is a better indication of urban character
than can be found in their national prosperity or advancement. It is
the basis upon which rests the moral, educational and artistic growth
of the citizen, and the broader the foundation the more secure is the
social structure.
A home is something more than a place where a man eats and
sleeps. If he has a family growing up about him, it may be doubted
whether the surroundings of his domicile and those features of city
life which contribute to his enjoyment and pleasures are not as vital
in the development of a higher life as the roof above his head, or the
food upon the table of his family. It is universally so regarded, and
no inconsiderable sums of money are annually paid out of every
city treasury for expenditures under the classification of "recrea-
tion." As an evidence of the high regard in which rational diver-
sion is held in American cities of 50,000 population and over, it may
be cited that while education costs on the average $1.53 per capita,
there is expended $0.48 per capita for pastime, or nearly one-third as
much for schools.
Under "recreation" may be classed parks, boulevards, public con-
servatories, children's playgrounds, band concerts, and other expedi-
ents that make life enjoyable to the great masses of people which
make up a city's population. There is no city of the first class
(300,000 or over) that expends more money, per capita, for public
recreation than the city of Chicago. Of those ranking next below
Chicago, which expends $1.22 per capita for this purpose, are Cleve-
land, $0.89; New York, $0.56, and Detroit, $0.51. During the year
1908, however, Chicago expends for health conservation and sanita-
tion $1.43 per capita, while New York expended the same year for
those objects $0.83 per capita.
The park system of Chicago is one of the most elaborate and wisely
planned of any similar public improvement certainly in this country.
The parks and boulevards are so arranged as to place one or more
of these recreation grounds in each of those localities where the resi-
dent population can reach them most expeditiously, and which are,
at the same time, most accessible to the center, or congested, sec-
tions of the city. The park areas are divided into systems as follows :
South Park system, 2,494.74 acres; West Park system, 1,035.43
116 CHICAGO :
acres, and Lincoln Park system, 699.94 acres; other small parks and
squares, 143.56 acres; unimproved, 54.83 acres, making a total of
4,428.50 acres. In addition to these is the North Shore Park district,
which, while it has as yet no parks, has four miles of boulevards,
including Sheridan Road, Ashland Avenue and Pratt Boulevards or
drives.
The South Park system embraces Jackson Park (542.89 acres),
Washington Park (371 acres), Marquette Park (322.68 acres). Grant
Park (205.14 acres), McKinley Park (74.88 acres), Gage Park (20
acres), Sherman Park, (60.60 acres), Ogden Park (60.56 acres),
Palmer Park (40.48 acres), Hamilton Park (29.95 acres), Bessemer
Park (22.88 acres), Calumet Park (66.19 acres), with eleven other
small parks and squares containing from 20.19 to 7 acres each.
The West Park system includes Humboldt Park (205.86 acres),
Garfield Park (187.53 acres), Douglas Park (181.99 acres). Union
Park (17.37 acres), with ten smaller parks having areas of from 1.13
acres to 10 acres each. Another large park is to be made on the large
■wooded tract west of Central Avenue and South of Adams Street.
The Lincoln Park system takes in Lincoln Park (552 acres), with
four small parks varying in area from 1.73 to 9 acres each. These
systems are connected by wide boulevards, paved with asphaltum, and
vary in width from 66 feet to 200 feet, generally with a park area in
the center, and lined with shade trees. The total length of these
boulevards and drives is about 65 miles.
The parks are beautifully wooded with walks, drives, bodies of
water for boating, flower gardens and picnic grounds. One of them
(Lincoln Park) has one of the largest zoological collections in the
country, with elephants, buffaloes, bears of many kinds, lions, tigers,
seals, prairie dogs, and many rare and interesting foreign and domestic
animals and birds. At Garfield Park is the largest conservatory in
the country, filled with tropical plants and trees of innumerable
variety. Some of the parks have golf links, baseball grounds, tennis
courts and other facilities for recreation and games. They are all
adorned with statuary and other objects of interest and instruction.
The absence of "Keep off the grass" signs are so rare as to be the
subject of comment with strangers.
In one respect Chicago is unrivaled by any city in the world, and
that is the number and extent of small parks, or children's play-
grounds. There are between sixty and seventy of these public neigh-
borhood centers of recreation, of which thirty are small parks and
squares, fourteen are playgrounds, seventeen are small parks and
AS A CITY OF HOMES. 117
playgrounds combined and three are bathing beaches. At the neigh-
borhood centers are commodious buildings of concrete with rooms
set apart where women can congregate, hold their club or other
meetings, or visit, as they see fit.
No one is so poor as to be excluded from the occupancy and use of
these centers, nor so rich as not to recognize their full value in fur-
nishing relief from the hard conditions of living in the congested
quarters of the city.
The children's playgrounds are inclosed with iron fences, from
which children cannot escape. They have sand piles, swings, athletic
paraphernalia of all kinds, wading pools, and other features for the
entertainment of children. They are under the care of public attend-
ants who look after and care for the children, big or little, who may
be delivered there by their parents. A woman who goes out to service
for a day can leave her children at the nearest playground, certain
that she will find them there, safe and sound, when she comes for
them. At two of the fourteen playgrounds in the year 1910 there
were 2,969,197 boys and girls who, but for them, would have been
in the streets, alleys or some vacant lot, under little or no public or
parental control.
The number of people at the bathing beaches averages about half
a million each season. Chicago was the first city in America to pro-
vide free public baths for its people. It has now fifteen of these in-
stitutions, maintained at public expense, which any citizen can use at
pleasure. Certain days are set apart respectively for men and women,
boys and girls, who are furnished free with bathing suits, soap,
towels, with lockers for the safe keeping of their clothing. The large
swimming pools are an attraction for men of means, who have bath-
rooms in their homes, as well as for the poor who have not. Every-
thing about these public bathing places is scrupulously clean, they are
always in the best sanitary condition, and are patronized by hundreds
of thousands of people annually, by no means of the poorer classes
exclusively. These public baths have been established at an expense
to the city of $290,940 and are open the entire year. The cost of
maintaining these parks, playgrounds, bathing beaches and free baths
is about $4,250,000 annually.
While these municipal parks, playgrounds, beaches and baths are
all open and free to the public at seasonable hours, Chicago has a
number of amusement parks, owned and managed by individuals,
which are enclosed, and to which a small admission fee, usually ten
cents, is charged. The principal feature of these grounds is the
lis
CHICAGO
^ AS A CITY OF HOMES. 119
band concerts given by the best known and most popular organizations
in the country. For those who do not care for the music there are
roller coasters, shoot the chutes, scenic railway, shooting galleries and
shows of various kinds, for each of which a charge is made for admis-
sion from five to twenty-five cents. As a rule, these amusement parks
have fine restaurants which are visited by many of the best people of
the cky. They are generally free from rowdyism and are well pat-
ronized by those who seek an afternoon or evening of simple fun.
But Chicago abounds in many attractions of a higher order than
any of the foregoing, important as those may be, for the numerous
class that constitutes the larger portion of the population of a great
metropolis. There are few recreations that are adapted to every
one's tastes. Chicago for many years was the butt of ridicule by
those cities which were large, rich and prosperous when Chicago was
nothing more than a collection of shacks and log huts sprawled over
a marsh. But the city grew and broadened in refinement, as well as
in trade and commerce until, in this year of grace, no city in the
United States ranks above Chicago as an educational, artistic, musical
and literary center. It has won recognition from its former critics,
and the few slurs now cast at us are evidences of jealousy and envy,
rather than of superior culture or refinement. A New York maga-
zine in a recent issue contained an article on Chicago which said:
"Long a popular subject for the humorist of the Eastern States, as
well as those of Europe, was the supposed lack of culture and educa-
tion of Chicago. As a matter of fact, whatever may have been her
earlier shortcomings in this regard, Chicago today puts New York,
Boston and Philadelphia fairly to the blush."
The World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 was the awakening of
the city to a full appreciation of the aesthetic side of life, and since
then its progress has been rapid and marked. The first evidence of
this vigilance was the organization of the Thomas Orchestra, which
resulted in the erection of Orchestra Hall by popular subscriptions
amounting to $900,000.00. The hall seats 2,577 people, and is the
finest concert and recital hall in the country. The orchestra is com-
posed of eighty-seven musicians and is second to none in the high
professional standard and character of its members. The orchestra
season continues for twenty-eight weeks, two concerts being given
each week. In addition to this, there are several musical societies
which have more than a national reputation for rendering classical
music, among which are the Apollo Musical Club, the Mendelssohn,
the German Mannerchor, and the Irish Choral Society. Musical
120 CHICAGO :
schools and colleges are numerous and of a high rank, Chicago hav-
ing the largest musical college in the world.
In the arts of painting and sculpture, Chicago recognizes no supe-
rior in America. The Art Institute was an outgrowth of the Colum-
bian Exposition, although as a school of art and design it had been
in existence since 1866. The building, costing nearly $1,000,000,
stands near the business center of the city in Grant Park and is filled
with paintings and statuary from the best masters and curios without
number. It is open to visitors every day, Wednesday, Saturday and
Sunday being free to anyone who wishes to visit it ; the admission fee
for other days being twenty-five cents. As evidence of public appre-
ciation, it may be said that during the last ten years the number of
visitors annually has exceeded that of any art museum in the United
States, and for the last few years over 700,000 persons have visited
it annually. Neither the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, nor the Philadelphia Academy can
claim nearly so many guests. There is a fine art school connected
with the institute, both of which are self-sustaining.
Of theatres Chicago has between thirty-five and forty, of which
some thirty are strictly high class, giving attractions of superior char-
acter. In all their appointments they are the equals of the best of
those of any American city.
That Chicago is now the library center of the country cannot be
doubted, since it is the headquarters of the American Library Asso-
ciation, which was removed from Boston in 1910. This was made
necessary from the fact that the West is now the center of library
activity of the continent, and to meet the requirements of the asso-
ciation a change was necessary. When a transfer was demanded New
York and Washington were strong competitors, and Boston sought
to retain it, but Chicago was practically the unanimous choice of the
committee. This brings to Chicago librarians from all parts of the
civilized world annually.
Nothing contributes more, even if somewhat indirectly, to the
comforts of living than paved and well sewered streets. Chicago's
critics often hold up their hands in holy horror because of our "dirty
streets." It may be admitted that some of our streets are littered, but
"a workman is known by his chips." Where manufacturing is carried
on to the extent in which it now is in this city, there will be highways
that are not so clean as the boulevards and residence streets, but for
pleasure driving, there are few cities which are so free from waste
and debris as Chicago's avenues and drives, nor are there any, except
AS A CITY OF HOMES.
121
in the limits districts, that are more free from water and mud. The
following table shows the miles of paved streets and sewers in the
five leading American cities with which a comparison can be made,
and speaks well for Chicago :
City
New York* .
Chicago
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Boston
Miles of
Improved Streets
1,908.1
1,730.51
1,307.6
712.0
506.2
Sewers
1,834.2
1,724.2
1,103.4
639.2
729.3
*Includes Brooklyn.
Pure water and an abundance of it are essential to a sanitary and
pleasant home. Lake Michigan, which forms for eighteen and one-
half miles the eastern boundary of the city, is one of the purest bodies
of water on the globe. It has always furnished the domestic water
supply of the city from the settlement of the town to January
2, 1900, the lake was also the repository of the city's sewage. Pres-
ervation of the public health demanded another outlet for the sewers.
At an expense of about $66,000,000 a canal was cut, 24 feet deep and
160 feet wide for 32 miles, across the divide between Lake Michigan
and the Desplaines river, by which the flow of the Chicago river was
reversed and turned from the lake into the Desplaines, finding its ulti-
mate outlet in the Gulf of Mexico.
The effect of this improvement on the public health was pro-
nounced and almost instantaneous. The latest statistics of the annual
death rate, in comparison with that data of ten years ago, show how
important a factor pure water is in the health of a great city. In 1911
the death rate of the city was 14.5 per 1,000 of population, which is
the lowest rate of any city of first class magnitude in the world. This
rate has been reached by the prevention of those diseases which are
superinduced by contaminated drinking water. The amount of water
consumed by the two and one-half million people in the city is about
436,000,000 gallons per diem, and improvements are now being made
which will give double that quantity daily. The cost to the family
for an unfailing supply daily is nominal— about the expense neces-
sary to keep a well pump in good order.
122 CHICAGO:
Miles of
Water Mains.
New York 2,091.9
Chicago 2,073.2
Philadelphia 1,529.6
St. Louis 813.0
Boston 743.6
A movement was inaugurated early in the spring of 1910 that will
do much to add to the attractiveness of home life in Chicago, and
this was the setting of shade trees along those streets that were with-
out them and replacing the old trees which had either died or by
neglect had ceased to be ornamental. The plan, under the direction
of a competent forester, at once became popular and several thou-
sand trees, principally elms, have been transplanted and properly
cared for. The elm is perfectly adapted to our soil and climate, grows
rapidly, and by continuing the work thus begun for a very few years,
Chicago will have no rivals in the beauty of its well-shaded streets.
In many other ways the popular idea of a more beautiful city is
showing itself in adornments that contribute directly to the refine-
ment and pleasures of domestic life.
These are a few of the necessities of a pleasant home and enjoy-
able, sanitary life which are to be found in Chicago. Many important
features have been passed over. The level streets, abundant shade
trees, alluring short trips to numberless near-by summer resorts, com-
paratively low cost of elegant homes, social pleasures unsurpassed
by any municipality in Christendom, and open markets of endless
variety are a few of the charms that even the casual visitor will notice.
Chicago is called "The Garden City" because of its many homelike
allurements.
ITS ECONOMICAL LIVING. m
XIV.
Chicago — Its Economical Living
In another division of this volume some mention has been made as
to the cost of living in this city, but it had reference only to its effect
upon the price paid for labor.
While the statements made in that section hold good in all cases,
with rich as well as those of moderate means, the sum paid for neces-
saries of life are not so important a factor with the former as with
the latter class. It does not require an argument to prove that the
nearer one is to the point of production, the less his necessities will
cost him, since about 70 per cent of the total cost of living is expended
for transportation. The less the transportation, the less the cost to the
consumer.
The well-to-do citizen, using a greater variety of products than his
employe and, possibly, either a better quality or a larger quantity,
has, by his proximity to the point of production, an equal advantage
with him in the lesser amount paid for transportation. He also gets
the benefit of larger purchases, since a peck of potatoes costs more in
proportion to quantity than a bushel.
The proposition will not be disputed that the Middle West is the
granary of the United States, if not the principal one of the world.
This fact is demonstrated by the census reports of the Government
which show that the Middle West has not only 57 per cent of the
improved farms of the United States, but has also 58 per cent of the
live stock and produces 49 per cent of the farm produce. So far as
food products are concerned, that section has 56 per cent of the
poultry, produces 54 per cent of the butter, 45 per cent of the cheese,
7?t per cent of the corn, 67 per cent of the wheat, 52 per cent of the
potatoes, and 21 per cent of the orchard products of the country.
Besides these, it furnishes practically all of the meat that is used in
the country and more than half of the flour.
Chicago has no markets for the sale of family food supplies that
compare in plans and methods with those in many of our large Ameri-
can cities. First, because the resident population is so very widely
scattered over a large area, and second, because vegetable products
are largely vended by the owners of truck gardens which are located
near the limits on three sides of the city. To some extent this variety
of food is peddled on the street from wagons owned principally by
foreigners, mostly Greeks.
124
CHICAGO :
ITS ECONOMICAL LIVING. m
There is, however, one market, or rather street, where fruits,
vegetables, butter, eggs and the like are sold, which is one of the "show
places" of the city, and is fully as interesting and far more surprising
than the famous French Market of New Orleans. This is South
Water Street, which lies along the main stream of the Chicago river
and extends from Central Court to Lake Street, a distance of ten
blocks, of which six are given up to the purposes of a market. Both
sides of the street are lined with brick or stone buildings, which are
occupied by 300 or more commission, jobbing and wholesale concerns,
dealing in almost every variety of farm products, from veal to eggs,
and in fruits of endless diversity, both domestic, foreign and tropical —
magnificent pineapples, fourteen days from Honolulu, oranges from
California and Florida, and bananas from Central America, with
apples from Washington, Oregon and Michigan, and peaches and
grapes from everywhere.
The sidewalks are filled so completely with boxes, crates, barrels
and baskets that passers must go in single file and crowd in between
the barrels to permit the passage of persons going in an opposite direc-
tion. Backed up to these walks are teams as thick as they can stand,
and it is not uncommon that between 18,000 and 20,000 teams, receiv-
ing or delivering purchases, have been counted in the street at the
busy hours. As a rule, the goods, in boxes, crates, baskets and barrels
are delivered to the consignee in the rear of his store and by him to
the purchaser at the front, or street, entrance. In the middle of the
street there is barely space for the passage of a single horse and
wagon.
One item shows the immensity of the business done in this com-
paratively narrow and contracted space. Statistics show that the
eggs alone handled in a year amount to 2,598,000 cases, or 935,280,000
eggs, the total annual volume of this trade alone being $25,000,000 or
$30,000,000. The apple business will reach 1,000,000 barrels, the
California oranges 2,200 carloads, Florida oranges and grape fruit
700 carloads of about 300 boxes to the car; bananas, 4,000 carloads of
450 branches each; potatoes from Colorado, Michigan and Wisconsin
are mixed with barrels of grapes from Italy, tomatoes from Texas
and strawberries from Tennessee.
With all the hurry, bustle and activity, a single individual, either
man or woman, can make small purchases there as easily and expedi-
tiously as in the country store.
The West Side market at Haymarket Square is an altogether dif-
ferent place. Provision is made for it by widening West Randolph
126 CHICAGO
Street between Jefferson and North Halsted Streets, so as to give
ample space for farm wagons to occupy the middle of the street with-
out interfering with the street car tracks. The market is uncovered
and produce, garden truck ahiiost exclusively, is sold from the wagons.
In the forenoon the space is occupied by wagons, which are usually
emptied by noon, when the owners return to their farms and gardens.
Excellent vegetables, like potatoes, onions, squash, beets, and the like,
can be purchased here as reasonably as in the average country village.
Another market similar, though not so large, is known as the Dayton
Street market, located on the North Side, at Dayton and Blackhawk
Streets, a block south of North Avenue and a block west of Halsted
Street.
In wearing apparel Chicago is second to no market in the country.
It is the largest place of traffic for fine shoes, for both men and
women, most of which are made in the city. In fact, it is the superla-
tive excellence of this product that has built up for this city its large
trade in such goods. There are no cheap shoes made in Chicago. In
clothing there is no market in the country that excels the Chicago
production either for quality or volume. To the laboring man it is
important if he can save a couple of dollars on a suit of clothes, a
dollar on his overcoat and fifty cents on a pair of shoes, for he pur-
chases exactly what he requires. But it is of equal importance to a
man who requires a finer and more dressy outfit if he can purchase
precisely what he demands at a saving of from $10.00 to $25.00. In
men's garments the value of manufactured goods made in this city
in 1911 is estimated as follows: Clothing, $58,100,000, and the variety
classed as tailor to the trade, $27,135,000.
In ladies' wear the advantages of Chicago's market is possibly
more marked. In dry goods and millinery, Chicago holds a place sec-
ond to no city on American soil, while its department stores are
unequaled anywhere in their size, number or stocks. The manufac-
tures of millinery goods during last year are estimated at $18,500,000
(not including wholesale trade), while the product of cloaks and furs
very nearly equals it. It is not claimed that Chicago has lines of
goods in any of these departments of trade that cannot be matched in
any one of a dozen other cities of the country, but it is asserted that
no city can rival our own in the lower prices at which such goods
are retailed. The statement that Chicago is the largest open market
in the country will hardly be questioned anywhere.
In household furniture this city is unequaled both as a market or
a manufacturing center. Last year's estimates put the manufactures
ITS ECONOMICAL LIVING. 127
of these goods at $42,300,000, and the value of the wholesale trade at
considerable of an advance. In discussing the subject of raw mate-
rials it was shown that Chicago holds the lead of all domestic lumber
markets, and this has an important bearing upon the cost of home
building. With the abundance of lime, cement (most of which is
produced here), brick and stone, the cost of building a home is from
20 to 35 per cent less than in most other cities, large or small, of the
country.
The price of land for residences is regarded, especially by people
from the East, as surprisingly low. Choice building lots in some of
the most attractive residence sections of the city, provided with gas,
electricity, water, sewers, paved streets and cement walks, within
twenty or thirty minutes' ride by elevated road from the business
center, or loop district, and located within two or three blocks of
schools, churches, stores and markets, can be bought at from $50 to
$100 per front foot.
Attractive homes can be rented in these localities at prices vary-
ing from $25 to $75 a month or at higher rates if one is disposed to
expend something extra for a larger and more showy residence.
Along the boulevards or fronting the parks, or in ultra- fashionable
quarters, he can accommodate the most plethoric pocketbook. But
good homes, with every essential of refinement, comfort and conve-
nience, can be secured either by purchase or rental at an extremely
moderate outlay.
128
CHICAGO :
ITS ETHICAL AND EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES. 129
XV.
Chicago— Its Ethical and Educational
Advantages
The moral and intellectual status of any people in any community
is measured with more unerring accuracy by the religious and edu-
cational advantages they possess than by any other known standard.
Great cities are invariably the nerve centers of the state or country in
which they are located. They attract and retain the best men and the
most infamous, the finest churches, schools and universities, and the
lowest dens of infamy and ignorance, hospitals and asylums for the
physically distressed, and hovels where pain and suffering are the
common lot of men. The conflict between these diametric elements for
municipal control is constant and often bitter. The ascendency of one
or the other is shown by the character of the local government and
the power of those institutions which stand for the betterment of the
people.
Chicago differs in few respects from other great cities. In fact, it
has some disadvantages not common to many American cities. It is at
the "crossing of the ways" between the Atlantic and Pacific Coast
cities, as well as between those on the northern frontier and the Mex-
ican Gulf. The result is that Chicago has a larger floating population
with which to contend than any other city in the country. And yet the
percentage of crime here is less than most of those municipalities of
the same rank in this country. It is less, in proportion to population
in Chicago than in Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland, New York,
New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and a number of other im-
portant cities. These calculations are based on the number of crimes
against persons and property (statutory offenses) omitting violations
of city ordinances because there is no uniformity in municipal re-
strictions; acts being a violation of an ordinance in one city may not
be such in another.
Whatever one may think of churches in general, there is no dis-
puting the proposition that, both directly and indirectly, they constitute
the strongest moral force in any community. Their influence bears
not only upon the citizen as an individual, but also on the citizens col-
lectively, as the chief instrument for securing good government,
civic righteousness, or right mindedness, which is the only source of
good government.
130
CHICAGO
ITS ETHICAL AND EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES. 131
There are in Chicago ten non-partisan organizations which have
for their fundamental idea not only good government, but also the se-
lection of candidates for official positions who command the respect
of the voters for their honesty, ability and character, and the high
standing of the common council of the city furnishes abundant evi-
dence of the effective work done by some of these organizations in
maintaining the high reputation of our municipal legislative body.
This is admitted in every city in the country. It is true a bad man
will occasionally break into every city in the country. It is true a bad
man will break into the city council and retain for years his position,
but of the seventy aldermen composing the Common Council of Chi-
cago all the "gray wolves" can be counted on a man's fingers.
"Offenses will come, but woe unto that man by whom they come" at
the succeeding election.
Chicago is very greatly indebted to its churches and their influ-
ences in every department of its activities. When it is known that Chi-
cago has 1,077 churches, the aggregate of effort exercised along moral
if not sectarian lines, can be well understood. If there be added to
these the thirty-three church societies, such as clubs, ministerial and
general organizations, which work outside of the church itself, we have
a force for moral development of the community that is worthy of
attention. The churches maintain about twenty hospitals, which in
their appointments and capacity rank with the best public institutions
of similar character in the city or state.
Next to the moral influence as a factor in good government, al-
though less direct, is the system of public schools, maintained by the
city at an annual outlay of over $12,000,000. To the citizen there are
few things that are regarded as more important than the education
facilities offered him for the schooling and training of his children.
In fact few public utilities are more seriously considered by a person
seeking a home than the educational advantages that are offered him.
If he be an employer of labor the instruction of the children of his
employes is of nearly as much importance to him as the training of
his own.
The number of the public schools of the city is 267, with 407 build-
ings, with 6,226 teachers who are paid over $7,000,000 for the school
year, and who train over 300,000 pupils. Beside a Normal College
and three practice schools for the training of teachers, there are a
parental school, John Worthy School for truant boys, sixteen high
schools, 246 elementary schools, three manual training schools, be-
sides 167 institutions in which manual training is taught, and 172 in
132 CHICAGO :
which household arts are taught, and 136 have kindergartens, while
fifty-six have gymnasiums. There are three centers for the blind,
twelve for the deaf and two for crippled children. These supply ed-
ucational discipline for the children who come from homes of people
who can spare them from other duties. But there is a very large
class which requires the assistance of their children in the mainte-
nance of the family. For such there are evening schools, open two
hours for five evenings each week and continue for eighteen weeks,
and in these are 19,988 boys and girls. In addition to all this there
are vacation schools, for five weeks in July and August, at which
the attendance is about 6,000. Any child over 14 years of age is per-
mitted to attend the evening schools and may graduate as from the
high schools upon passing the required examinations. There may be
cities which have a more comprehensive system of public instruction
than Chicago, but if so, it is not recorded. In addition to these there
are a large number of parochial schools and educational institutions,
besides business, law and medical schools, which have 2,691 teachers
and 94,538 pupils.
The result of these numerous public instrumentalities is that the
last school census of Chicago, taken in 1910, shows that of the children
under 21 and over 12 years of age in the city, the number of those
who could neither read nor write was 401, and the causes of such
illiteracy were: Indigence, ill health, mental weakness, mutes, idiotic
and insane, and other causes. Since more than one-half of these
children in the public schools are of foreign birth or parentage, this
exhibit is surprising, as it indicates the avidity with which the offspring
of our foreign population seize upon the educational advantages of-
fered them and also why it is that they are so readily and easily as-
similated with the native population of the country.
One effect of the large number of institutions for primary educa-
tion of the young is invariably to encourage the establishment and
endowment of colleges and universities for a higher and broader
academic training of students and such result has been most significant
in this city.
While the public schools in their number, teaching force, pupils,
etc., rank with the highest, in point of population, our higher institu-
tions of learning place the city far in advance of any other city in the
country, keeping in mind, of course, that Brooklyn, with a population
of 1,743,556 is included in the statistics of New York, which has a
population of 3,023,372.
The following table shows the number of colleges and universities
in the cities named, with the number of students therein, the children
ITS ETHICAL AND EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES.
133
of school age and the number of pupils in the public, private and
night schools :
From the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for the
year 1910.
New York . . . .
Chicago
Philadelphia. .
St. Louis
Boston
Baltimore
Pittsburgh. . . .
Cleveland
Buffalo
San Francisco.
Detroit
Cincinnati . . . .
Milwaukee
New Orleans . .
Washington. . .
C
and
U
Students
12,938
14,450
7,792
2,671
6,7G9
1,392
1,486
1,816
400
412
299
1,945
1,098
2,541
4.290
Children
of School
Age
1,518,192a
647,612
c
195,966
115,527
c
94,510
74,729
103,249
81,334
115,966
104,338
Pupils In
*Public
Schools
586,673
243,471
154,709
67,908
90,891
55,011
44,650
58,514
47,250
34,383
43,052
35,639
37,572
29,095
44,627
a Private
Schools
115,617
103,255
50,000
30,000
18,082
25,000
c
26,569
23,846
10,030
20,079
18,200
24,182
30,000
6,000
6 Night
Schools
109,656
19,988
9,852
7,634
19,856
9,024
3,654
7,660
7,874
7,057
3,938
5,635
1,697
4,635
4,274
* Average daily attendance.
a Largely estimated.
6 Not in day schools.
c No data.
Unquestionably at the head of our higher institutions of learning
is the University of Chicago, which was organized in 1892, and now
has a corps of teachers numbering 334, with 6,681 students in at-
tendance. The campus embraces 95 acres, which cost $4,217,000,
and contains 31 buildings, arranged on the plan of the English uni-
versities. These buildings cost approximately $5,000,000, and several
more are to be added, including the Harper Memorial Library build-
ing, which will cost $800,000. The University has a productive fund
amounting to $15,070,903, and received in 1908 from tuition benefac-
tions and incidental charges, $1,899,755. The institution is co-educa-
tional, and in the vicinity of the campus are a large number of homes
of well-to-do people who have come to Chicago to give their chil-
dren the advantages of the education furnished by the University,
while in the various departments may be found students from nearly
every state in the Union, as well as from a number of foreign countries.
The Northwestern University is entitled to recognition for its
work in making Chicago the educational center of the middle west.
While its campus and classical departments are located two miles
north of the limits of the city, its university departments are within
134 CHICAGO:
the municipal area. The university was chartered in 1851, and was
opened for students in 1855, since which time it has become the
largest and most widely known of any of the educational institutions
in America under the control of the Methodist Episcopal denomina-
tion. It has 4,850 students, with a united faculty of 358 instructors.
Its productive funds amount to $3,013,616; its endowment funds,
$4,277,773, with an income of $1,070,052. The property of the Uni-
versity is valued at $9,038,640.
It is co-educational in its work. The University campus is located
on the shore of Lake Michigan, having an area of about seventy-five
acres. Upon it are the College of Liberal Arts; the College of Engi-
neering; Garrett Biblical Institute; the Academy and the School of
Oratory. The school of music and the women's dormitories, three
in number, are situated near the campus. The medical school and
the schools of law, pharmacy, dentistry and commerce are in the large
University building at the corner of Lake and Dearborn streets in the
city of Chicago. The University has a large gymnasium and every
other requisite for a complete and prosperous educational institution.
The Armour Institute of Technology, one of the widely known
scientific schools of the United States, has sixty-one instructors and
1,405 students, representing thirty states and twelve foreign countries.
Its departments are mechanical, electric, civil and chemical engineer-
ing; for further protection engineering and architecture. It is essen-
tially a college of engineering, providing courses in all branches of
that and kindred sciences. Special courses are offered in evening
classes, which are open to men and boys who are employed during the
day. It also has six weeks' summer courses.
Lewis Institute is in the west and most populous division of the
city, located at West Madison and Robey streets. It is a polytechnic
college of the highest rank, teaching mechanical engineering, mechan-
ical arts, liberal arts and domestic economy. It has approximately
2,000 students.
Loyola University is a well known school under the direction of
the Roman Catholic Church. With it is connected a law school, one
of philosophy and social science, a medical college, a college of phar-
macy and a school of engineering.
For the student of natural history there is no institution in the
world where such investigation can be carried on in a wider field or
with a larger collection of subjects, than at the Field Columbian Mu-
seum in this city. This museum is an outgrowth of the World's Co-
lumbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, and occupies the Fine
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ITS ETHICAL AND EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES. 135
Arts building at Jackson Park, a structure which for its size and classic
beauty was one of the most admired structures at the park. The
building is Greek in style of architecture and covers nine acres of
ground fronting the lagoon.
The institution was founded by Marshall Field, whose first dona-
tion to it was $1,000,000, which was followed by another of $430,000,
which was augmented later by other donations amounting to $500,-
000. Upon the death of Mr. Field he gave the institution a further
sum of $8,000,000 with which to erect a suitable building for the care
of the exhibits, as the Fine Arts building was not erected with any
idea of permanency and is fast falling into decay. When the new
building is completed next year the city of Chicago has pledged
$100,000 annually for its maintenance and the carrying forward of
the purposes of the founder.
The museum is divided into four distinct departments of natural
history, anthropology, botany, geology and zoology, specimens in each
of which have been collected from every quarter of the globe, many
of them being arranged in glass cases for the convenience of sight-
seers and students. Two courses of free lectures are given at the
museum each year by experts in the various departments of learning
covered by its exhibits.
In the departments of ethnology of North America, mineralogy of
the world and botany, the museum is marvelously rich and without a
rival. As to the number of specimens, it is impossible to give an esti-
mate, as they run into the millions. The museum has a library of
more than 50,000 titles, which are at the service of students and in-
structors from whatever country they may come, who are at all times
admitted free of charge. The museum is open to sight-seers free on
Saturdays and Sundays of each week, but upon other days an ad-
mission fee of 25 cents is charged.
It is hardly necessary to go into full details regarding special
schools. The School of Art, at the Art Institute, is one of the most
celebrated in the country. In addition to this there are six law
schools, five theological seminaries, eight medical colleges, three dental
schools, two schools of pharmacy, two veterinary colleges, twenty-
two business colleges, besides other technical educational institutes.
Closely allied with institutions of learning, general and specific,
are libraries and other facilities for gathering information.
There are in this city more than 100 libraries, of a more or less
public nature, of which some sixty-five are, under various restrictions,
136 CHICAGO:
open to the public. Some of them are open to the public without lim-
itation, while others may be consulted by the observance of special
rules governing the use of books. These public and semi-public col-
lections contain more than 1,463,000 bound volumes. In popularity
the Public Library of the city is the most notable of all its collections.
It had its origin in the donation of a large number of valuable books
by H. B. M. Queen Victoria immediately following the disastrous
conflagration of 1871, which has been supplemented by extensive
additions made by the city. The building in which the library is
housed is near the business center of the city and is universally rec-
ognized as being one of the finest and most artistic for its purposes in
the country, being frequently compared by strangers with the Congres-
sional Library building in Washington. It is a massive structure,
built of blue limestone, in 1897, and is Roman classic in style of archi-
tecture, costing $2,125,000. It contains 110,000 square feet of floor
space and contains over 350,000 bound volumes and over 63,000
unbound pamphlets. It is especially rich in works on art, history,
biography, travel and the sciences. Nineteen branches and 109
delivery stations of the library are very generally distributed through-
out the city and persons in the residence sections can apply to these
branches or distributing centers for books and have them delivered
near their own doors the same day. In this way more than 775,000
volumes are circulated annually. Any resident of the city, or one
residing in the suburbs but doing business in the city, can draw books
free of charge. The Chicago Public Library has the largest circula-
tion of books of any single library in the United States with one
exception.
This list does not include many specific collections of books in cir-
culating (for which a fee is charged), club, seminary, law school, trav-
eling, private school, settlement, hospital, government department, rail-
way and private libraries.
To the man with children to educate, from the kindergarten
through any of the higher branches of study, including history, the
arts, sciences or learned professions, there is no place, certainly on
the American continent, where these branches are taught or studied
with greater facility than in Chicago.
ITS PLAN FOR A NEW CITY. 137
XVI,
Chicago — Its Plan for a New City
By CHARLES H. WACKER
Chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission
The idea of creating a plan to govern the future growth of the
city in an orderly, systematic way to make Chicago a real metropoli-
tan city, and enable her to retain her position among the great cities
of the world, was an outcome of the World's Columbian Exposition,
held in Chicago in 1893. Credit for first giving publicity to this idea is
due to Mr. Franklin Mac Veagh, now Secretary of the National Treas-
ury, who in 1901 suggested it to the Commercial Club of Chicago. At
almost the same time the Merchants' Club of Chicago became inter-
ested in the subject through Mr. Charles D. Norton, its president,
and Mr. Frederic A. Delano. Work on the plan was formally under-
taken by this club in 1903, and was well under way when the two
clubs were merged in 1907 under the name of the former.
The ten objects of the Chicago Plan, in detail, are as follows:
First: To direct the future growth of our city in an orderly,
symmetrical and systematic way, so that Chicago may attain a metro-
politan character, and may retain her position among the great cities
of the world.
Second : To educate the people upon the importance of city plan-
ning and demonstrate to them that city planning is basic for and co-re-
lated with better conditions, both hygienic and aesthetic.
Third: To adopt a scientifically and carefully elaborated plan,
which is not to be changed in its essentials. It is obvious that hygienic
measures must keep pace with the increasing erudition resulting from
scientific research, and that prospective growth must take cognizance
of such expedient hygienic and philanthropic advantages and necessi-
ties as changing conditions may demand in the future.
Fourth : To provide a plan for the whole people, and particularly
for those who cannot afford to go elsewhere in search of recreation.
Fifth : To reclaim for the people the beautiful shores of Lake
Michigan, and provide more convenient and direct transportation
thereto, and in this way make our city more healthful, pleasant and
attractive.
Sixth: To rearrange the streets and highways where that is
demanded by intolerable conditions of congestion or inconvenience.
138
CHICAGO
ITS PLAN FOR A NEW CITY.
Seventh: To provide, along proper lines, for the growth of the
city, park areas, small parks, playgrounds, bathing beaches, recreation
piers and boulevards.
Eighth: To capitalize our luxuries, our conveniences and our
attractiveness.
Ninth: To convince the people that delay will make the execu-
tion of many of the important and now feasible features impossible,
the practical impracticable, the possible unattainable, and the econom-
ical extravagant.
Tenth: To convince the people that aside from its aesthetic and
hygienic value, the development of our city, symmetrically and along
well-placed lines, will prove an actual commercial asset of incalculable
value to every citizen, be he rich or poor, and that we cannot longer
afford to grow in the present haphazard, disorderly and wasteful
manner.
In 1907 the first Plan Committee of the Commercial Club was
organized with Mr. Charles D. Norton as chairman and Mr. Charles
H. Wacker as vice-chairman. In 1909 Mr. Norton resigned and Mr.
Charles H. Wacker succeeded him as chairman, which office he in
turn vacated when he received his appointment from the Mayor of
Chicago as permanent chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission.
Daniel H. Burnham, world-renowned architect, took charge of the
details of the plan, and assisted by Mr. Edward H. Bennett, produced
all the charts, maps and drawings necessary for carrying out the
remodeling and development of the city. In 1908 these, together with
an explanatory narrative written by Mr. Charles Moore, correspond-
ing member of the American Institute of Architects, were arranged in
a magnificent volume published by the Commercial Club.
The central idea out of which the Chicago Plan has grown is: If
Chicago is to become the greatest and most attractive city of this
continent, its development and improvement should be guided along
certain definite and prearranged lines, to the end that the necessary
expenditures for public improvements from year to year may serve
not only the purpose of the moment, but also the needs of the future.
The plan is not a scheme for expending millions of dollars either now
or in the near future, but it is rather a comprehensive suggestion of
what may be accomplished in the course of years — it may be fifty, it
may be a hundred — by spending in conformity with a well-defined plan
the money which must be spent from time to time on permanent public
improvements. Paris has been made the world's most beautiful city
140 CHICAGO:
because she has followed for more than fifty years the policy of mak-
ing public improvements in conformity with a clearly defined plan.
The Chicago Plan is in conflict with no other plan or project for the
industrial or commercial development of Chicago.
The first constructive work of the Chicago Plan Committee is to
establish several circuits of existing thoroughfares and to improve
them so that traffic can move freely and directly throughout the center
of the city. The first circuit is the quadrangle formed by Twelfth
Street on the south, Halsted Street on the v/est, Chicago Avenue on
the north and Michigan Avenue on the east. These four streets are
destined to bear the heaviest traffic of any streets in Chicago.
Twelfth Street from Ashland Avenue to State Street is at pres-
ent 66 feet wide between building lines, 39 feet wide between side-
walk curbs, and only 9 feet and 9 inches wide between the street car
step and the curb. From State Street to Michigan Avenue the blocks
are only fifty feet wide. The necessity for the improvement of this
street lies in the fact that it is the only thoroughfare between Har-
rison Street and Eighteenth Street connecting the West Side with the
downtown district. The actual heart of the population of the city
today is a little north of the corner of Twelfth and Halsted Streets.
Traffic and the growth of the city are gradually moving in a south-
westerly direction. Adequate provision must be made for a suitable
outlet from that district to the present business center of the city.
It is proposed to make the street 108 feet wide from Ashland
Avenue to Canal Street, taking a 42-foot strip oflf from the lots on the
south side of the street. It is to be widened to 118 feet from Canal
Street to Michigan Avenue. It is not intended to boulevard the
street, but to make it a clean, wide business thoroughfare, with a
double, rapid transit surface street car line down the center. On
November 16, 1909, the Executive Committee of the Chicago Plan
Commission appointed a special Twelfth Street Committee, whose
mission it was to investigate and report on the entire matter. On
January 19, 1910, the Executive Committee received and adopted the
report.
On the 11th of April, 1911, the City Council adopted an ordinance
for widening Twelfth Street, the bridge across the river to conform to
the width of the street. The Sanitary District will pay one-half the
cost of the new bridge and the city will pay the other half, in accord-
ance with the action of the City Council, which recently passed the
necessary ordinance without a single negative vote. The city's half
ITS PLAN FOR A NEW CITY. 141
of the cost was included in the bond issue carried at the recent
election.
In accordance with an action of the City Council July 10, 1911,
the chairman of the Commission submitted a report to that body on
September 25th covering the Commission's ideas for the treatment of
the lake shore, relating to the creation of a large additional park space
along the city's water front by the utilization of Chicago's vast amount
of waste and excavated material. In it is shown the folly of the city
in spending $60,000,000 in constructing the Drainage Canal for the
purpose of purifying the waters of Lake Michigan and then allowing
these waters to be again polluted by the dumping therein of the city's
offal.
It was also shown how much could be saved in the expense of dis-
posing of this waste material, and at the same time build land of
incalculable value to the city and with little or no cost to the taxpay-
ers. The park area of Chicago is today entirely out of proportion to
the population of the city and is therefore inadequate. For health
and good order there should be one acre of park space for each 100
people. Our present average for the entire city is about 780 persons
to the acre, and in the congested sections there are nearly 5,000 per-
sons to each acre of park space. Figured on a basis of density of
population, Chicago today occupies the thirty-seventh place among
American cities, while thirty years ago it occupied second place. Only
by the development of the lake front can Chicago acquire adequate
park space. If the greatly needed additional park area can so be
created and practically at no cost, why should not this work be begun
at once ?
On July 6, 1911, the Executive Committee of the Plan Commis-
sion unanimously adopted Plan No. 3 for the completion of the "boule-
vard link." This provides for a two-level street from building line
to building line, to extend from Randolph Street to Ohio Street.
Michigan Avenue is to be widened from 66 to 134 feet, 64 feet to
be taken from the east side of Michigan avenue from Randolph
Street north to the river, terminating in a plaza approximately 250
feet wide. North of the river the plan provides for the widening of
Pine Street to 146 feet by taking the necessary land from the west
side of the street, from Chicago Avenue to the river, terminating in a
plaza approximately 250 feet wide on the north side of the river.
The grade of the street from Randolph to Lake Street is to be 2.7
per cent, from Ohio to Indiana 3 per cent, and the distance between
these two points is to be practically level, with a double-deck bridge
142 CHICAGO
over the river. Approaches to lower deck for teaming to be 2.5 per
cent south of the river and 3 per cent north of the river, instead of
approximately 5 per cent as at present. For the new street the plan
provides, south of the river, for an east sidewalk 25 feet wide, road
75 feet wide and west sidewalk 30 feet wide. North of the river
there will be a central parkway 26 feet wide and two roadways, each
32j^ feet wide, with sidewalks 25 feet wide. Stairways to be placed
for access to the upper street at river abutments north and south and
at Indiana, Illinois, South Water and Lake Streets. This plan was
approved and submitted for ratification at a meeting held July 10,
1911, and was unanimously adopted. There was a public hearing by
the Board of Local Improvements, held July 12, 1911, at which time
the Board ordered an estimate to be made on Plan No. 3.
In 1911 the work of the Chicago Plan Commission, aided by the
continued active support of the Commercial Club, received material
advancement. The support of the Hon. Carter H. Harrison, Mayor,
and the City Council, following the administration of his predecessor,
established the work of the Chicago Plan Commission upon a non-
partisan and non-political foundation
The City Council, under Mayor Busse's administration, created
the Plan Commission and started the work in the passage of an ordi-
nance for the widening and improvement of Twelfth Street from
Ashland to Michigan Avenue.
The Harrison administration, recognizing the city's great need for
an improved through east and west artery between Harrison and
Eighteenth Streets, immediately took over the contemplated Twelfth
Street improvement, upon which work had not been started, with a
determination to carry it through successfully and in a manner satis-
factory to all the people.
Thus the Plan of Chicago originated, and thus it is being car-
ried out.
ITS PLAN FOR A NEW CITY.
143
Manufacturing Zone of Chicago.
CIVIC-IN&USTRIAL DIVISION
tl tk«
CHKAOO ASSOCIATION OP COMMEKCE
More than $60,000,000 is being annually expended
in industrial enterprises within this manufac-
turing district.
The death rate of Chicago is lower than any
American city having 200.000 or more- in-
habitants.
Being the center of the food supply of the country,
the cost of living is correspondingly low.
No hills to make the transference of freight un-
usually burdensome.
Unlimited water and electric power at exceptionally
low rates.
Longest electric subway freight railway in the world.
Rate of taxation far below the average of American
cities.
Sidetrack facilities are easily and
secured.
lly
The manufacturing zone is large and sites
are abundant.
Street car facilities are unequaled by any
city of the United States.
Banking resources are larger, in pro-
portion to population, than in
any other city of the country.
Best transportation facilities of
any city in the world; 40
freight handling railroads,
river and canals.
Nearer to every variety of raw
material than any other city
in the United Sutes.
No extremes of temperature
ever cause a temporary sus-
pension of indoor labor.
Annual value of manu-
factured products,
$1,250,000,000.
Center of population of
the United States.
Labor abundant and
conditions stable.
For additional or special information relative to Chicago or the Manufactiiring
Zone of Chicago, write W. R. Humphrey, Industrial Commissioner, the Chicago
Association of Commerce, 10 South La Salle St., Chicago.
144
CHICAGO.
DISTRTCT MJtI>
OCSIONEO BY
W. H.HUJyrPHHE^
INOUaTRIAL COMMISSIONKIf
A copy of the above map, size 15| x 12 inches, may be secured, free of charge,
on application to the Chicago Association of Commerce, 10 South La Salle Street,
Chicago.
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