The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 23, 1903, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, ONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1903. LEADING PROMOTERS TAKE UP LIVE TOPIC OF TH ~ OF ORGANIZATIONS THAT AIM TO MAKE CALIFORN Experts of North and South Tell of Results. Many Facts Are Pre- sented for Con- sideration. EFFORTS tions Los d the ( t represent in ims the not to excee t shall in- within our so the world at large. said this latch string is ran APPRECIATED. reached the a e to the new h this paper has made, e is fully under- leading citi- California. E IS by authori- been done and 2 be hoped for. Sebit wol to give a panoramic ivance of the Stat s being made to detail. | written by ac- portrayal attention es be ties a fund of in- DIVERSITY AND YIELD. Wright Supplies Statistical Showing | of the State. Leslie's Weekly re- a California number f the signs of the interest taken Included in the matter Y California that was pub- » the journal mentioned was a £ Output te lished clever article by Hamilton Wright, who | d with the California Pro- iittee. One portion is as is conmect follows at the State from an indus- . the most notable fea- the wide diversity of ich is well known, but the in many variant pursuits. ation of 1,500,000, Califor- ia produced last 000,000 worth of fruits, both citrus and deciduous, exclusive of home consump- tion. Its gold production was $17,000,- 000, and the total value of all mineral ances exceeded $31.000,000. The of its da products was more » $18,000,000. The production of crude will this year, it is estimated, 0,000,000 rels. In 1902 Cali- 1 produced 00,000 _gallons of wine, or two-thirds the entire wine pro- duction of the United States, and re- turns from most of the wine producing districts indicate that the grape crop of 1903 will be 20 per cent greater than that of the previous year. e production of honey, raisins, oranges, garden seed, figs, etc., California leads. There are 72,000 farms in California, and more than 90 per cent of them are managed by owners and part owners. The value of export wheat and barley last year was $21.- 000.000. »oking tha petroley The most vital requirement of San Luis Obispo, so declares the San Luls Obispo Tribune, is the completion of the Port Harford breakwater. “Work,” this paper says, “has been pushed on the comstruction of this ar- tificial protection of San Luis Bay breakwater as fast as Government ap- propriations could be secured and al- ready great benefit has been derived. But the great undertaking is only fair- ly commenced and interest in it must not lag. An effort is to be made this winter to secure a much larger appro- priation and correspondence has just been started between the Board of Trade and our Congressional represent- ativés in regard to making a special effort at the coming session.” / hopes | s of California | In these will | supplied that can be | its | year more than $40,- | I | Vi EWS OF THE EXHIBITION HALLS AND HEADQUARTERS MA]NTAINED‘ TO FOSTER INTERESTS IN CALIFORNIA. " 4 ) By Manager Arthur R. Briggs. agency engaged in the up- | of the fruit interest of the State have, State, in stimulating | it ig believed, done more to stimulate of th | to her wealth and influence, and in en- make prominent mention of the work f this organi 1 would be complete or do justice to the men who have dur- ¢ State Board of Trade Labors Unceasingly and Adds to Wealth and Popuiation. 1 growth, and thereby adding | devélopment migration has been more | claim of overproduction than all other | fifteen | agencies combined. conspicuous during the last th; the ate Board of Trade. | istory of California that does not jod of its existen given ht and patient labor in the s effort to do something practical for the State. To those who have known the influence of the or- ganization and the work it hag done and have been contributors to it, any | published record at this time of what it has accomplished may seem almoat |a waste of time. And yet I am asked to tell, in a brief way, what the State Board of Trade has done and what it | has accomplished. MOTIVE FOR ACTION. { Under the need of the time for in- formation ‘in respect to California and the peculiar conditions then existing, the organization was meade in the year 1887 with the thought and confident hope that the commonwealth could o2 benefited by patriotic effort in dissemi- «ting carefully compiled information in respect to the resources and possi- bilities of the State. At that period the million point and the general in- dustrial condition was anything but satisfactory or immediately promising. One of the prominent features intro- duced into the work at its inception was the spirit of co-operation between the State Board and interior distriets, | fcr it was well and wisely conceived that the upbuilding of any part of the State would indirectly, at least, benant great valleys and rural districts would .turally stimulate commercial activ- ity in the cities. The work was theve- fore organized with San Francisco as the central point, with the various county organizations actively enlisted ani working in harmony with the | movement. ‘Puring all the years of its | existence this feature has been main- | tained and the spirit of co-operation and mutual interest has been encour- aged. From the first the State Board of Trade took a prominent part in the corsideration of all economic and com- | mercial matters, particularly such as | were closely related to the development | of California, and there is abundant evidence that the influence of the board wasJelt and recognized. In securing the kind of information interesting to and sought by the home- seeker much céare has always been ex- ercised and intimate relation with the various commercial bodies in the in- | terior of the State was found advanta- | gous and desirable. RESOURCES ADVERTISED. In addition to the publications pre- pared by the State board, which in many instances have come to be re- garded as standard authority on the subjects treated, the publication de- partment has year by year procured from the various counties a vast amount of printed matter, in the form of maps, folders and pamphlets, which have been distributed through various channels to parties seeking information in respect to the State. This matter comes to the board with the indorsement of the organization in the county from which it emanates and is therefore generally free from per- sonal interest. Much of this matter contains infor- mation of more than ordinary value and tends to localize the mind of the newcomer or homeseeker. With re- spect to the publications emanating di- rectly from the board, those treating the population had but barely reached | the whole, and that development in the and to demonstraté in times of depression the fallacy of the The annual reports of the State Board of Trade have become an au- thority on the fruit interests of the | State and are widely sought for| throughout the United States and in | foreign countries. The pamphlets is- sued on the fig, the olive and particu- larly on citrus fruit growing in the cen- tral and northern portions of the State, have had wide distribution with ex- cellent results. The noteworthy features of the sta- | tistics of the board, which are revised | and kept up year by vear, which ex- hibit the steady development of this industry, are the shipments of green fruit, dried fruit and canned fruits; the production and distribution of rais- ins, of wine and brandy, of prunes, figs, olives, of olive oils, etc., and of citrus fruits. These reports give the most intelli- gent information obtainable—in fact, the only reliable information by which comparisons of districts may be made and the development noted. Much thought has been given in the preparation of pamphlets and reports to the importance of extending the markets for our products. To encour- age the planting of trees and vines without giving due heed to the distri- bution of the products would manifest- ly have been short sighted, hence the market feature has been always kept prominently in view in considering the fruit industry of the State. The principle on which the board has worked is that any instrumentality which brings us nearer to the centers of a large population and consumption of products, or to the large distributing commercial centers, would promote growth in the varied industries and contribute to the prosperity of the State. In this particular channel the State board of Trade has been a potent factor in State development. A PERMANENT EXHIBIT. A feature of the State Board work which, it seems to me, has been under- valued, is the * permanent exhibit it maintains of our varied products. The State Board of Trade in this city and the Chamber of Commerce in Los An- geles have procured and permanently maintained, year by year, the most comprehensive exhibits of the agricul- tural, horticultural and viticultural, with a moderate exhibit of lumber, minerals and manufactured products, that have ever been known. These exhibits have been collected, prepared and maintained at great cost and infinite care and patience. They have been visited by hundreds of thou- sands of people, most of them from out- side the State, during the last ten years. Interest in them appears to in- crease rather than diminish. The ex- hibit room has been visited by at least 10,000 persons, on an average, each month since January 1st of this year. In this department there is provided a reading room, where, in addition to the printed matter kept for distribution, there is a library of scrap books rela- ting specifically to counties and indus- tries, with one book for each county and each industry. This is a feature of much interest to visitors and gives the kind of information that can be ob- tained from no other cource. ILLUSTRATES PRODUCTS. No one can form anything like a cor- rect estimate of the wonderful resour- ces and marvelous productiveness of the State without seeing and investi- gating for himself. The exhibits which have been maintained by the board during the period of its existence, since 1888, are object lessons which unfold to 3 > e THE spirit of co-operation is held by Arthur R. Briggs Cali to be potential in accom- plishing the best results for ifornia, and this opinion is based upon the experience of the State Board of Trade, which®was organized in 1887 and has been actively concerned for a long pe- riod in the work of attracting attention and inducing settlers who are desirable to come to this State. San Francisco has been the cen- tral rallying point for the country | north of Tehachapi and the inte- | rior has constantly maintained its | interest in that which was devised | for its betterment. The use of printers’ ink has been resorted to liberally to tell the world what advantages of soil and climate California has. Statistical and other reports on special topics, such as the State Board of Trade | have issued copiously, have fur- nished exact information. Frank Wiggins, secretary of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, details the ways that have been adopted to build up the great country south of Tehach- api and gives a brief history of the Los Angeles organization. The recapitulation of the various attractions that have been found feasible to draw the favorable comment of visitors is especially interesting. In addition to the encouragement of immigration to the southern counties, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce was largely instrumental in secur- ing the construction of the break- water at San Pedro, which in- volved getting an appropriation of $3,000,000 in the face of the deter- mined opposition of a great rail- road corporation. The points of contact that the California Promotion ‘Committee of San Francisco has with the world are very well outlined in a report that Rufus P. Jennings, the executive officer of the committee, has made to his associates. The Promotion Committee is younger in years of service than either the State Board of Trade or the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. The scope of its work is broad, e - & the newcomer some idea of the produc- tiveness and agricultural wealth of the State. These object lessons give to many people information that cannot be obtained in any other way except by personal observation and travel through the State. The State Board of Trade has never thought, nor does it now think, that the highesg function is to stimulate a large movement of people into the State, without reférence to their condition, unless intelligent direction is given newcomers after they are here, that they may in selecting future homes do 80 with judgment and wisdom and be- come contented and prosperous eitizens. In.this direction the State Board stands alone—so far as the central and northern parts of the State are con- cerned. Bare statistics do not give all the information required by the home- seeker; statistics are valuable and often important, but they need to be supported with general information in respect to conditions in the various dis- tricts of the State. MAKES G0OD RECORD. ‘What the State Board has accom- plished may be briefly summarized as follows: It has maintained a most complete and attractive exhibit of the products of tHe State for a period of fifteen years. It ‘has entertained upward of 100,000 visitors in the exhibit room each year for many years. It has published pamphlets on most of the principal fruit products of the State, which publications have been " Continued on Page 7, Column 1. Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce One of Greatest of Promotion The Los Angeles Chamber of Com- merce differs in general plan and scope from most institutions bearing the same or a similar name in other cities and the conditions by which it is sur- rounded are unlike those found else- where. The Los Angeles Chamber of Com- merce has a membership of 1350, a great showing for a city of 135,000 pop- ulation. The nearest approach to the record of the Los Angeles Chamber of | Commerce is made by Cleveland, which recently reported 1500 members in al, population of 400,000. Almost every )| class, profession and line of business | is represented in the list of members of the Los Angeles Chamber of Com- | merce. h SOURCE OF SUPPORT. The regular income of the Chamber | of Commerce i§ obtained from dues pald by each member of a dollar a| month and an initlation fee of $5. Whenever any enterprise of any spe- cial magnitude has to be undertaken | the citizens of Los Angeles come for- ward with subscriptions. The Chamber of Commerce is a busi- ness institution that devotes its ener- gles largely to the work of local devel- opment. It has no trading features, nor does it concern itself in any way with the individual commercial inter- ests of its members. The activity of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce { extends over a wide field, as may be seen from the following outline: General business interests—Questions of trade and transportation; inquiry into new commercial opportunities. Legislative matters—Appropriations needed; effects of tariff changes; in- quiry into proposed new laws. Publications — General descriptive pamphlets; collection of statisties; { pamphletg, bearing on special topics. Advertising the country—Circulation of printed matter; use of speclal de- vices. Exhibits and fairs—Citrus and agri- cultural displays in Los Angeles; the permanent display of the chamber; participation in State and internation- al fairs. Entertainment — To Congressional and legislative committee; to men of prominence; arranging for conventions. Manufacturing—Consideration of new opportunities; supplying Iinformation when desired. Development of commerce—Work for deep water harbor: work in the inter- est of the Nicaragua canal. Supplying information about the country—Answering letters of inquiry; issuing pamphlets of horticulture and other matters; supplying material to writers. Local public improvement — Parks, boulevards, farests, etc. CHAMBER ADVANCES. The foundation of the Los "Angeles Chamber of Commerce was laid at a meeting held on October 11, 1888, at- tended by twenty prominent citizens of Los Angeles. In January the chamber will move into its handsome new build- ing on Broadway, which it owns. It is a six-story building, 135x179 feet in di- mensions, the second and third floors beln.Elevoted to the purposes of the champer. The total cost of the land and ding will be $325,000. The permanent exhibit maintained by the Chamber of Commerce is ad- mitted by visitors to have no equal of its kind in the country. The main and gallery floors cover an area of about 20,000 square feet. In the exhibit hall is a great variety of the principal products of Southern California, especially fruits, dried, can- ned and crystallized. Some of these ex- hibits are worked into artistic and striking shapes. A collection of South- P Bodies. By Secretary Frank Wiggins. ern California Indian antiquities is de- clared by experts to be the finest in the country. There is also an interesting display from the old missions. A large, interesting and valuable col- | lection of mineral specimens is includ- ed in the exhibit of the chamber. The chamber has issued nearly 50 pamphlets descriptive of this tion and its resources, with a total circula- tion of over one million copies. Matter has been prepared for hundreds of Eastern magazines and newspapers. PROMOTES EXHIBITIONS. Besides maintaining a permanent ex- hibit of California products in its own quarters, which has been visited by over a milllon people, the chamber has bad charge of and participated in four local citrus fairs. The orange carnival in Chicago was visited by 100,000 peo- ple. Regular shipments of fruit were made to “California on Whee traveling exhibit visited by a million people. The Southern California e hibit in the World's Columbian Exposi- tion was admitted to be one of the fin- est state exhibits there, and was visited by an immense number of people. A fine Southern California display | were in attendance. | lications have been | have received E METHODS IA GREATER Object Lesson Is Fur- nished to the Interior. Current Notes of Prog- ress in the State. LS Rufus P. Jennings has made a report to the California Promotion Committee concerning the scope of its work has arranged excursions throughout interior of the State which enabled cursionists to see the resources of th country for themselves. It has erated with the California fruit grow to ure farm labor from the Eas Through its agency several bound pub- sued for the pur e State, whic notices on co-og pose of advertising t iber part of the daily press. An exhibit has been placed by the | committee in the Palace Hotel. Land owners have been requested by the committee to place some of their hold- | Fran | cities. ings on the market to enable settlers to purchase small farms on eas MANY PUBLICATIONS. Much literature has been distributed that has been suppiied by boards of trade and improvement clubs relative to various localities and industries this State. Articles innumerable have been prepared for the press and have been published. Arrangements have been made have the daily temperature of San L furnished to large Easter The committee has also been & conv gaged in the work of Indu tions to come to San Francis | some months advertisements were pub- lished by the committee in Eastern - i e i i | | H | b | | [ | | INTER(OR. N E N LOS ANGE, CH‘\MBER_EEF- SOMMERCE - scme magazines. Concerning this Mr. Jer nings reports “Commencing with September of last year and ending over a period of month advertisements w laced in a number of the leading East- | ern publications having an aggregate circulation of about 12,000,000, with the purpose of obtaining the names of those who might be induced to locate 7 California. The result of this adver- tising plan proved very successful, and the com ee now has on the names of 56,316 persons who ar ested in the State. The numt ing added to constantly. Many o luenced to come have been or will be i to California to live GREAT CORRESPONDENCE. correspondence has Mr. J zs reports co | A large een | maintained. | ering this “Thirty-two t ousand seven hundred and fifty-six letters were received the committee for the twelve months ending August 31, 1903, an average 2728 per month; and 66,959 letters w | sent out during the e average of per twelve months the commi 433,087 1 of literature, an average of 36,090 pieces per month. Se thou- sand six hundred and ninety-one vis- e distribu | itors registered at headquarters up to | August 31, an average of 641 per month.” The Promotion Committe maintains no exhibit, but_has very attractive of- fice | | on New Montgomery street, where ature is kept on hand relating to alifornia for distribution to the in- quiring public. The committee has frequently coun- seled with organizations of citizens in the interior concerning the promotion of California’s interests. Recently a | meeting was held In this city, at which | the subject of co-operation was brought to the front prominently. Leading men from the interior and from this ecity This conference was made in an artistic bullding at the | waq reported in full in The Call Midwinter Fair in ‘San Francsco. permanent exhi Chicago for two years which was visit- ed by half a million people. A most successful display of pregducts made by the Chamber of Commerce at the Pan American Exposition, in Buf- falo, in 1901, the secretary of the chamber remaining in Buffalo duriag the entire period of the exposition. Other exhibits have been made by the Chamber of Commerce at Hamburg, at Guatemala, at Atlanta, at Omaha, at the World’s Fair in Paris and at many other places. The chamber maintains a permanent exhibit in the Board of Trade rooms in San Francisco. ENTERTAINS NOTABLES. The T.os Angeles Chamber of Com- merce has had charge of the entertain- ment of many notable people and so- cieties during the fifteen years of its existence. The National Educational Association met in Los Angeles under the management of the Chamber of Commerce. Other notable meetings that have been promoted by the chamber have been the International Irrigation Con- gress of 1893, the National Editorial As- sociation of 300 newspaper editors, the Senate Committee on Commerce and on Arid Land, the Brotherhood of Rallroad Firemen, the Boston Fruit Dealers, the New England Grocers, the American Pomological Society, the American In- stitute of Mining Engineering and many others. The most notable achievement of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce was the securing of the construction of a breakwater at San Pedro, to cost nearly $3,000,000, in the face of the most determined opposition on the part of a great rallroad corporation and its friends. . The management of the affairs of the chamber is vested in a board of direc- tors, a body of twenty. Four members are chosen as officers by ballot of the members. These are the president, two vice presidents and the treasurer. Eleven are chosen by the members by ballot as chairmen of standing commit- tees. The board of directors meets regular- 1y once a week in the directors’ room of the chamber, five members constitut- ing & quorum. The attendance rarely falls below ten and frequently runs from fifteen to the entire board. No fee is allowed for attendance at the meetings, nor is there any fine for ab- sence, but on the bulletin hoard each director’s attendance is recorded. In the work of fostering, protecting A | Several | | | & s 1 -, 2. 2 2. .t . 0 bit was maintained in | @ iiRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRESEEQ and developing the orange-growing in- dustry of Southern California, which Was | hag now reached an aggregate of near- | 1y 20,000 cars annually, ths Los An- | geles Chamber of Commerce has been | specially active. years ago a veteran San Francisco man, who had just returned from an extensive tour through the East, declared, in a public interview, that Los Angeles was the best adver- tised city on the giobe, Chicago alone | excepted. That this is so is largely due to the activity of the Les Angeles Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce holds an annual banquet on Washington's birth- day, to which a few distinguished guests who are not members of the chamber are invited. At the banquet held last year 315 were present and let- ters of regret were read from a large number of distinguished peopie all over the country. A report of the proceedings of the or- ganization, together with the s at the annual banquat, app pamphlet, published each year use of members, entitleq “The Mem- bers’ Annual.” The letters of inquiry received at the Chamber of Commerce from all parts of the country run from ten tc a hun- dred daily. More than 150.000 such let- ters have been answered by the cham- ber. MILLION VISITORS. The seventh big register of the Chamber of Commerce has just been filled and a new one of equal size sub- stituted. These big volumes contain 4000 pages and weigh 400 pounds each, and there is room in each of them for 100,000 names. As a number of names were inscribed in smaller registers in the early days of the chamber this shows that more than a milliva of peo- ple have visited the exhibit room of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce since it was organized, and they have come from all parts of the earth. . —_————— When a man begins to go down hill he finds that the laws of gravitation and the encouragement of his friends help him along. SRS N S WHO FINALLY WINS PRETTY MADGE STAIR? SEE THE NEXT SUNDAY CALL. —_— A