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EVENING LEDGER-PHIKADEUPHXA MONDAY, APBlU 26, 1915:
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WHAT THE CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE CAN DO
It should be recognized at the, outset that the
Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce great and in
valuable as it will be cannot do certain things.
It cannot "make Philadelphia known as the
world's greatest workshop."
It cannot get orders to keep our mills busy.
It cannot bring here a rush of new factories.
It cannot be a salesman or any sort of active
auxiliary to any man's own business.
But it can do things far more important things
which will make it easier to live and make money
here, and which will gradually bring about a bigger,
better known city.
Some of the things it can-do may be judged by
the experience of other cities.
In Boston, for example, the Chamber of Com
merce, with its 5000 members and its fund of $125,000
a year, has accomplished such things as these:
(1) Caused the creation of a special board for
developing the port, with an initial appropriation of
$9,000,000 for building docks and other facilities.
(2) Obtained several new steamship lines to
Europe, through the Panama Canal, etc.
(3) Helped to revise rules for steamboat inspec
tion, to obtain more aids to navigation, to get an
enlarged immigration station, a new custom house.
(4) Secured lower freight rates from the West
on grain, and represented New England effectively
in all matters of transportation, express rates, etc.
(5) Averted through v mediation two serious
strikes one of telephone employees and one of street
railway employees.
(6) Obtained legislation that was fair both to the
public and to business men for abating the smoke
nuisance, for the compensation of injured workmen
for preventing fire by better building laws.
(7) Influenced, after expert study, the extension
of streets and other matters of city planning.
(8) Brought about better terms for city con
tracts street lighting, garbage disposal, etc.
(9) Conducted important tours of business men
looking to better trade relations one through
Europe, one of 16,000 miles through South America.
(10) Held an exposition of industries.
(11) Brought to Boston the International Con
gress of Chambers of Commerce and many other
important conventions.
(12) Improved retail trade conditions by driving
out itinerant venders, reducing shop-lifting, encour
aging early Christmas shopping, etc.
(13) Installed clinics for employees in stores and
factories, fought the loan sharks, extended the
system of savings bank insurance for wage earners.
(14) Investigated charities and solicitors for
members finding 75 per cent of the cases in which
business men were asked to contribute to be un
worthy or fraudulent.
This is the sort of broad, constructive effort that
the enlarged Chamber of Commerce can apply to the
problems of Philadelphia.
Few of these activities directly affect the in
dividual business man, or directly advertise the city.
But all of them mean much to the business
man in improving the internal and external con
ditions which affect the growth of his own business.
The actual development of his own business is
up to hinu
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA
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