GIFT OF Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/chicagogreatinduOOplumrich 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 Ineham ,_. o^S^K^^'tr K fcrnftT^Ile Elizabeth ^estport Irt^^'^n Ijtgrencebuj' *^ 'oes ^ judlow Jrlaugc Ri^wood Walton kGle/daley^--^n31an«4i'ty , \C/iUia^feCovolai)d ">> y :iNNATI 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<« ■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 : T^ DDDDnfflD mDDDDDD {Illinois Centrol RR. MStRkS.St«M.Ry. C.CCeiStL.R)t Chicago ft Illinoi* Weftttrft Ry AT»srR> CNC090 k AHon R.R. [^Grond TrvnK System. CNcogo Union Transfer fty. Indiana Horbor Belt R.R. HANDLES INTCRCHANCE CARLOAD TRAFnC BETWEEN ATcNson.TopehakSonto Fe Ry Chicago, Burlmgton.iQuincy Rfl. Oicogo.MiiwouKee.fcStPouJ Rji .CNcogo Union Transfer R/ Chicogo ft Alton RR Grond TcunK System. Indiono HQTbOP Belt RR. Pittsburgh. Cineinno ti .CMcooo.k SttOk-isR/i Soo Line. TEAM TRACK FACILITIES. atthStft Western Avo. 2&fh St ft Fronciseo Sr 1st St fc Turner Ave 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. C0KNECTI0AJ5 fica«o BotliBtften tQulncy Ay. Aioa Ccntr&f RK. mUnd.Cincintui'H.Chieago It St. Loula By nneapolis.St Paul L S&ult Si«.MAri< R.7. ica^o IlUoois hWcciera R R. »t&4.St.'l>4«thAv« -fBcltR7.etChic»{e. l« OCSIONEO BY W. 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