The Frisco Employes' Magazine, February 1925
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VOL. I1 No. 5 FEBRUARY 1925 due to its superior features, clur:lbility and escellent timekeeping qualities is undoubtedly the nlost popular r;lilro;d watch nxtde. It is made throughout with selected ma- terial and is as fine as modern machinery and the skill of master watchnlakcrs cm make it. Adjusted to SIX positions, lie;~t,cold and isochronism. j cAsk for new descriptive circular p , ILLINOIS WATCH COMPANY SPRINGFIELD, ILL., U. S. A. \ \ 2Makers of fine watches for nrore Page 2 February, 1925 The Mount Vernon Car Manufacturing Co. Just comsleted. I -1 ~e&~e p a'i r shop, 500' x 150'. Capacity Fully equipped ulith 10,000 Freight Cars; Cranes, Electric 150,000 Wheels; Heaters, etc., enabl- 20,000 tons Forgings. ing us to ~orkin all kinds of weather. - ..- BUILDERS OF FREIGHT CARS MOUNT VERNON, ILLINOIS R. F. CARR, Memphis W. E. LOWRY, Hickory Flat, Miss. President Vice-Pres. and General Manager SPECIALIZING IN RAILROAD BUILDING MATERIAL 11 Strong as Ever for the "Frisco" GENERAL OFFICES P. 0. Box 1032 MEMPHIS, TENN. Phone Main 2312 A STREET SCENE IN WICHITA The Peerless Princess WICHITA of The Plains By W. E. HOLMES, Executive Secretary, Chamber of Conlmerce NE of the most important, and busiest, points on, west, which were driven here by the tens of thousands 0 the Frisco System is Wichita, whose early for shipment to Kansas City, Chicago and other mar- "boosters" dubbed her "The Peerless Princess of the kets. Like Abilene, Dodge City and other early cat- Plains." More recently, local newspapers have re- tle shipping points in Kansas, Wichita enjoyed a long ferred to her as "The Wheat Capital of the World." series of "hectic days," when thirst parlors were more Between the two, the stranger gets a fairly adequate numerous than "beauty shops" are now, and the fellow description of a modern city of 100,000 people, which without a "six-shooter" was only half dres.;ed. was incorporated as a village only 52 years ago, when As the "nester" gradually forced the cutting up of it was many miles from the nearkst railroad and was the great ranges into farms, and as the "ups and famed only as an Indian trading post. downs" of the cattle business practically compelled the Wichita's first railroad handed, principally, two early settlers to seek some other source of revenue, commodities-household goods and building materials there developed in Southern Kansas the largest area for the first settlers on the millions of acres of un- of hard winter wheat in the known world. And while dulating prairies in Southern Kansas, and cattle from still more diversified forms of agriculture are being the then almost unlimited ranges of the great South- urged, with especial reference to the return to the soil campaign was preceded by the most extensive core Feeds . (Poultry and Stock) Feed Grinders drilling operations ever known in this section. And Fertilizers while Wichita banks have been fairly flooded with Flour Fuel Tanks "lease money," it is confidently believed that this is Gasoline Gasoline Lamps and Lan- only a fraction of the wealth that will result from the terns extensive operations which promise to bring i~ forest Grain Graders Structural Iron of oil derricks to the very gates of the city. Lithographing It is particularly gratifying that it can be truth- Lubricating Oil Tanks and Pumps fully said that since the early eighties, Wichita has Machinery neither "enjoyed" nor "suffered" a "boom." Its High-power Gasoline Nan- tles growth has been logical, gradual and well balanced. Xonumental Work Its splendid railroad facilities, represented by the Gas Oil Ornamental Iron Work Frisco, Santa Fe, Rock Island, Midland Valley, Mis- Gasoline Pumps (Visible) souri Pacific, Orient and Arkansas Valley Interurban, Radiators Refinery Equipment have made it possible to build here a jobbing center of Builders' Sheet Metal no mean importance. Sheet Metal Products Silos Aside from the milling and packing interests before Stereotyping Machinery n~entioned,Wichita is fast developing as an industrial Tankage Tile center, its principal products being : Tractors OVER THE BRIDGE IN ' WICHITA A Scene of Rare Beauty and in the Heart of a Thriving Business Section Acetylene Equipment M'hile advantageous transportation facilities have Advertising Novelties Aeroplanes done much to make it possible for Wichita to become Alfalfa Feed an industrial center, local manufacturers attribute no Alfalfa Mill Machinery Automobile Accessories and small part of their success to the fact that they have Springs been able at all times to recruit a labor supply that is Batteries, Storage Brick, Face and Common unexcelled, being practically all white and 100 per Brooms cent American. Such successful men as Mr. lr. C. Butchers' Supplies Butter Coleman, founder of the great Coleman Lamp Corn- Cabinets pany, whose products are sold throughout the world, Caskets Castings, Iron, Aluminum, declare that no American cornmunity has more ideal Brass and Bronze labor conditions than Wichita. And this, in no small Concrete Mixers Cooperage part, they attribute to the fact that Wichita has kept cornices pace with its educational, recreational, church and so- Corrugated Culverts Cut Stone cial development. Embossing Dies The pride of Wichita's educational system is its Distillate and Fuel Oil Drilling Tools (Oil and Gas million-dollar high school, situated on the largest tract Well) of ground used exclusively for public school purposes Engravings and Etchings Farm Trailers in the United States-seventy acres, almost in the Fcbr-~ravy,1925 7%Z/T@~~,@PLO@S~&~CQZINE Page 7 heart of the city. Here also is located the Theodore fices, several of these churches having a "budget" ap- Roosevelt intermediate high school, costing $600,000, proximating $50,000 a year. with many acres devoted to well-planned athletic \Vichita also takes pride in the fact that it is con- fields, antl with about twenty acres devoted to practical sidered as a conspicuous example of the success of the agricultural demonstration work, for which the school manager-commission plan of n~unicipal government. system received federal aid ~~nderthe Smith-Leever Five leading citizens, men of wealth and influence, constitute the commission and draw a salary of $100 act. Wichita has four other intermediate high schools each, annually. The entire machinery and personnel of the finest and most modern type, and is now plan- of the city government, with the exception of the ning another great high school on the west side of the Park Department, are directly under and answerable Arkansas River, to care for that rapidly growing sec- to the city manager, who has no civil service commis- tion of the city. sion or other organization to use its influence to keep Wichita does not have to send its youngsters away in a job a man who has been found inconlpetent or from home to give them a first-class college education, undesirable for the place. for this opportunity is provided in Friends University No "story" of Wichita in a railroad magazine would (Quaker) and Fairmount College (Congregational). he complete without mention of its $2,500,000 Union It is entirely probable that the last-named institution Station, shared by the Frisco, Rock Island and Santa will soon become a ''municipal university," on the co- Fe, or its comprehensive system of elevated tracks, operative plan, giving young men and young women under which an enormous daily traffic moves without simultaneous education in industry and commerce, as danger or interruption. is being done at the University of Cincinnati and other institutions of that type. Wichita's other educational WICHITA AT A GLANCE institutions are Mt. Carinel Academy (Catholic), a I rapidly growing school whose enrollment represents \Vichita is in almost the geographical center of the every section of the Southwest; St. John's Academy United States. for Boys (Catholic), and two successful commercial It has an elevation of 1,183 feet above sea level, schools. Here also is located the only institution af where the farmer can plow twelve months in the year. its kind in the United States-The American Indian It was the thirty-ninth city in bank clearings in Institute, which is preparing a large number of out- 1923, and the sixty-third in post office receipts. standing young men for the ministry and other pro- It is the rail center of the largest hard winter wheat fessional pursuits. producing area in the world, Kansas alone producing Kothing in Wichita is a greater surprise to the more wheat of this variety than any five other states, average visitor than the n~agnitudeand beauty of its of which the Wichita Board of Trade handles about park system. Riverside Park, once the meeting place 22,000,000 bushels annually. of notable Indian councils, is located along the wind- Wichita's tax rate in 1925 will be 8.5 mills. ing Little Arkansas River, not far from its confluence \\'ichita's small bonded indebtedness was created for with the Big River, and several miles of splendid park development and bridge building. boating facilities have been provided through the erec- Wichita rarely sees any snow, and zero weather is tion of a small dam. Here also are located some of the son~ethingseldom experienced. Flowers bloom in Wich- finest tennis courts in the entire country, and the ita yards from March to November. "piece de resistanceJ' of the park system, the municipal While the average rainfall is 30 inches annually, swimming pool, shown in the accompanying illustra- the climate has proved greatly beneficial to persons suf- tion, offers an opportunity for recreation enjoyed not fering from malarial or pulmonary troubles, as well as only by Wichita, but by town and country people to those who were victims of rheumatisn~.