UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-Cf-IAMPAIGN ILLINOIS MI8T0BICAL BUJ^VIIY 917.7352 Cop. 2. INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES SURVEY of METROPOLITAN PEORIA PEORIA, ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCE 307 First National Bank Building Acknowledgments History Geographic Location Population Markets for Local Manufacturing Production Power and Fuel Industrial Development Labor Market Water Supply Transportation Living Costs and Standards Construction and Real Estate VOLUME 1 '-^--/r .j^-<-^' / ~X / / VOLUME I Acknowledgements Page I History Page 1 Geographic Location Page 6 Page Population . 99 Markets for Locally Manufactured Products Page 102 Power and Fuel Page 117 Industrial Development Page 12 1 Labor Market Page 129 Water Supply Page 190 Transportation Facilities Page 246 Living Costs and Steuidards Page 329 Construction and Real Estate Page 331 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When it comes time to make proper acknowledgements to contributors to a com- munity study such as this^ it appears that most of the community participated in some way in its making. This is of course something of a testimonial to the community on its awareness of the problem at hand and the need for a solution. From its inception, the success of this survey has depended on the co-operaiion of a great number of individuals and the organizations they represent. The report was conceived by the Industrial Development Committee of the Peoria Association of Commerce early in 1954. The Association's President at that time was Mr. Wesley Heppard. The Committee was headed by Mr. George Wasem. Mr. Melvin Brown, the Manager of the Industrial Development Council has worked very closely with the authors throughout the study and provided inval- uable aid, both in pointing up information sources and securing local information. Many officials of business^ industry and government, have made generous con- tributions of time, information and ideas. The measure of their conlfributions is best indicated by the completeness of the various individual phases of the report. Although it IS impossible to personally acknowledge all participants in this work, there are a number of people who through making a direct written contribution, a review of one of the author s work, or by extending a helping hand far beyond the call of duty, require special recognition. Cooperating in the actual writing of the report was Mr. Lee Kraus of the Greater Peoria Sanitary District whose contribution is included in the chapter on Geo- graphic Location. The chapter on Electric Power and Fuels is taken from a re- port submitted by Mr. Harry Feltenstein of the Central Illinois Light Company, who, incidently, provided much else in the way of survey techniques and at times much needed moral support. Aid in reviewing and commenting on completed sec- tions of the survey were given by Mr. W. J. Kelly of Caterpillar Tractor Com- pany; Dr. Daniel Scheinman, a Peoria Labor Relations Consultant; Dr. Max Suter of the Illinois State Water Survey, Mr. Joseph Sudow, a Peoria attorney and Mr. Patrick Murphy, of the U. S. Corps of Engineers, Mr. Jacob Dumelle of the City Mahagerls staff has given invalual^le assistance on material concerning .the tity of Peoria, Messrs. Dale Freeburg and Frank Little, purchasing agents for Hoc al industrial companys contributed much to the design of a material procurement questionnaire used in the survey. Dr. J. H, Burgey of Bradley University's Geography Departnnent, helped considerably in the planning phase of the survey, as did Dr. W. G. Pinnell of the University of Indiana's School of Business. Miss Irene Morrow and Mr. Frank Chase Reference Librarians of the Bradley Uni- versity and the Peoria Public Libraries, respectively made the work of gather- , ing data much easier through their special efforts to locate and make available much material normally difficult to obtain. The actual survey team was composed of Bradley University faculty members and assistants. The problem was recognized as an inter -disciplinary one and the team members were chosen on this basis. Dr. Kalman Goldberg of the De- partment of Economics prepared the chapters on the Labor Force and Legis- lation. Dr. Duane Hill, now of the Department of Government at Omaha Univer- sity, wrote the chapter on Government. The remaining chapters were prepared by members of the Industrial Engineering Department, Mr. L. J. Fletcher, Jr. a staff member, Mr. John Price, a staff assistant; and myself. Appreciation for the typing and editing must go to a number of people: Miss Kay Fouts, who did the lions share, Mrs. Virginia Parrett, Miss Mary Kissel, and finally Mrs. Jenny Fletcher and my wife, Dolores, who together operated under the most adverse circumstances. The major portion of the drafting was done by Messrs. Walter Short and Arthur Dim of Bradley's Engineering staff. Finally, a repeat expression of deep gratitude to my wife, with whom I shared many a working midnight lamp this fall. Francis C, Mergen -II- INTRODUCTION Records of almost 100 years ago, show that Peorians even at that time demon- strated an active concern with the problem of urban development. Certainly one of the first Industrial Development surveys in the State of Illinois concerned the City of Peoria. It was prepared and published by the Peoria Transcript News- paper in 1859. The report has all the basic elements that continue to be regarded as necessary criteria for measuring comnnercialand industrial actlArity, popula- tion and employment types of industries, transportation facilities, civic devel- opment, etc. Although perhaps not completely objective in approach, an excerpt from the introduction to the "Descriptive Account of the City of Peoria" does provide an interesting commentary on the times and the factors of location that were felt most important them "The town is one of the healthiest in the west. It is not subject to epi- demics and the fever. Ague which prevents many eastern people from emigra- ting to a new country, is scarcely known here except in name. It can be asserted without exaggeration, no city in Illinois or in the entire west can present greater attraction in the way of nature scenery than Peoria . This is admitted on all hands, by strangers visiting Peoria and by the inhabitants of rival cities who admit no more than they are actually forced to do. Its advantage as a place of business and home may be gleaned from the following pages, " The conditions that motivated this present study are obviously neither unique in terms of time or location. An urban community owes its existence to the fact that it IS a center of the production and exchange of goods and services, A con- cern with the economic health of a city- -the dynamic forces that cause growth was important to early settlers. They are far more important in the complex economic structure today, and as a result of the advances in the science and art of industry as well as medicine, are less dependent on the physiological health of the location. The objectives of this study are little different than those of its predecessors. The first is to provide a documentary background for the promotion of desirable Industrial Development in the area. The second isto provide a compass for indicating the possible direction of this development. The emphasis in this survey has been in attempting to achieve its first objective. The compass is provided to be sure, but with the renninder that much more than a compass is needed to arrive at a destination. The first step must be made and --III-- - the succeeding sure and steady. This is to say that the study is more descriptive than analytic. The facts are here, their use as a compass is, in most cases, left to the reader. METHODS OF STUDY : A variety of sources have been tapped for the information included in this study. The major source of information was published material, principally that printed by various agencies of national, state and local govern- ments. Allied to this source was that of unpublished reports, charts, and mim- eographed materials. Considerable information was obtained through personal interviews. Finally, an important source of information was the replys torques tionaires designed specifically for this survey; one concerned with the labor force and the other with industrial purchases. The geographic area included within the study corresponded to that in the Bureau of Census' definition of the Peoria Standard Metropolitan Area. This includes the entire counties of both Peoria and Tazewell. There is some confusion resulting from different definitions of the term "Stan- dard Metropolitan Area" by the Bureau of Census' different departments. The "Standard Metropolitan Area" as used m the 1950 Census of Population is dfafinedl as: "A county or group of contiguous counties which contain at least one city of 50, 000 or more. In addition to the county containing such a city, contiguous counties are included in a Standard Metropolitan Area if according to certain criteria, they are essentially metropolitan in character and socially and econo- mically integrated with the central city." There are 168 urban areas in the United States which meet this test. The 1947 Census of Manufacturing superim- poses a minimum manufacturing employment requirement on this definition. A "standard Metropolitan Area" here is defined to be: "an area which includes at least one city of 50, 000 or more, the area as a whole must haveatotal population of at least 100,000, and employ at least 40,000 people in manufacturing industry." The criteria of integration with the area surrounding the county in which the city is located is the same as in the above definition. This definition is more res- trictive and there are but 53 areas in the nation that are classified as Standard Metropolitan Areas under this measure.