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'F ebruary 1, 1929 · WILMETTE LIFE ~ · · ~ I No.ll of a Series on *Metropolitan Chicago -~tufty .Mt!r~ita'A Chicago Jw I ccmu -it ilo.fntf4t\on as weU CIS i'A bade imjlortmau-nd that itl C1 cLJ, Tdcativd, fttCIT. ew, iiOSrihility ofiJu.omiq the UJOrld'~ foranost mabof»olitcnt Leadiq -----·---·----· ~---==-======================:::!1 I cwtMritKs .,Ttdi:t littuft miUicm ~tio'A for Mebof»olitcm CJriccaco withi'A ca &ifetime. · · ) - CHICAGO'S COMMERCE WOULD PAY FOR THE PANAMA CANAL IN 11 DAYS! I ll NE HUNDR.ED YEARS ago, in 1828, what is now the business center of Chicago was fenced in as a pasture. Six years later a well was sunk, costing $95.50, that constituted the town's water works. The total tax levy that year was $48.90. In 1830 our popula- J tion was less than 100. Growth in Value All this was one hundred years ago. Who, at that time, could have forecast thjlt Chicago, by 1929, would be the world's fourth largest city with · commerce averaging a billion dolIars every month 1 of Metropolitan Chicagots Manufactured Products Twelve billion dollars a year! That is eight times as great as the total capitalization of all the national banks in the United States! A billion every month! No other industrial center has ever grown so large in so short a lifetime as that of Metropolitan Chicago. i § There are 'Very·definite reasons for this remarkable growth- reasons. supplied largely by nature before man ever set foot on this soil First there is our cen· tral location in what has become the world's wealthiest nation.Next there come the soil and climate that have made this section the richest, agriculturally, within that nation. ~::I:oroLJTAN -CHICAGO - Building the Panama ; ·§ ·i Olnal cost the United lS States Government tl · ft ~ S - · ! · ! 9 375 million dollars. It ~ J ~ ~- ~ ~ ~ ~ Then there are our vast would require only § § § § § · !:J · · · . resources of coal, iron elevendaysforthepro§§§ §§ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ceedsof Chicago's com- \ § § § § § r and other minerals. so vital to the welfare of merce to pay this entire .. industry. And lastly there follow the cost! Our twelve billion dollar yearly bu·.;i· important natural waterways, which have ness would payforthirty-two such proj&..:ts! been .augmented by the great railway sysBased upon latest United States Census tems that logically hav.e centered here. · ·Bureau surveys, the value of manufactures Who· in Civil War days could have in *Metropolitan Chicago [1927] approxivisioned the Metropolitan · Chicago of mated five billion dollars; the value of today? And who, today, can vision tbt_ wholesale sales reached nearly another Metropolitan Chicago of twenty-five, ten five billion [1926]; and the value of retail or even five years hence? sales exceeded two billion [1926]. . ~~ I i ·= Is i PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS Supplying Elt.ctrieit, and Gas to 6,000 square miles. including the Metropolitan .ATea into which Chic:Cieo is crowiq. ·Mctro,olitatL Chieca10 indudu the Cit, of Chieaco A'Ad the tenitor' withitl SO to 7S mi&u tif tJa~ Chiecaao Cu, Hall .)