Verhovayak Lapja, 1955 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1955 / Verhovay Journal

PAGE 12

Verhovay Journal

January 19, 1955.

Verhovay members will like Chicago 12th Annual Bowling Tournament May 28-29,1955

There is something different about Chicago. Its friendliness rings with sincerity. The stiffness which no frequently mars a visit to a strange city is totally lacking. No matter where you hail from you will find your own kind of folks. That’s why this year it will be host to more than 12 v2 million visitors and why for more than a generation it has held undisputed preeminence as leading convention city of the nation

What gives Chieago its great pulling power is its well rounded combination of talking points. Not only is it ideally located as the nation's foremost center in all forms of transportation, but it is also a hub of major commerce and industry. Accentuating these advantages, no other large big city is as close to the country’s geographical and population centers. More people from more points in the country can travel to Chicago at less cost and in lower time than to any other host city.

All this plus Chicago’s capacity to satisfy practically every visitor desire tell why it is such a popular meeting spot. You never need to worry about what you can do in the spare times between convention sessions. That also accounts for the rapidly growing number of family groups you will find accompanying delegates to Chicago gatherings. There are few more attractive places for a real holiday.

If it’s a good time you want Chicago will take care of you in a big way. No other metropolis is as sports crazy or fun loving. Whenever you arrive there is almost certain to be some headline athletic event on schedule. The night clubs and “hot” music spots seem to be going full blast all the time. And, if it’s higherbrowed entertainment jföu are seeking, where else can you enjoy such a varied and top-rated group of museums, galleries and cultural institutions ?

Another of Chicago’s best known lures, particularly with the sex that runs the country’s households, are its world reputed stores. From all over millions come annually for the sole purpose of shopping in the wondrous mercantile palaces on State Street, fittingly called by many the real “Main Street of the Nation.” Sharing this enticement are the scores of dazzling specialty shops stretching southward along beautiful Michigan Boulevard from where it overlooks Lake Michigan and Grant Park, just east of the famed downtown Loop, to the even more imposing and more recently glorified “Magnificent Mile” that leads into the fabled Gold Coast district. All in all, in Chicago and its nearby suburbs there are 78 flourishing and distinct retail shopping districts.

Annual retail volume of the city’s 43,500 outlets is in keeping with its dynamic pace, ranging around the $5,000,000,000 level. Of this, some 10 percent is handled by the downtown stores which serve more than half a million customers daily.

With its city population of 3,675, 000 and its metropolitan family of

5,500,000 Chicago must be content to rank as America’s second largest metropolis, but there are few other communities that boast more“firsts.”

Industrially Chicago bows to no other city in the 'history of civilization in range of products or immensity of output. From the more than 13, 000 manufacturing plants in the

city and nearby suburbs pour annually better than $12,000,000,000 in wares that range from the tiniest and most delicate of laboratory instruments to mammoth machines and railroad trains. In many respects it is this variety of productive activity that has protected Chicago’s economy in good times and bad. Where other “one-industry” cities have felt the pinch in days of depression, Chicago has always been able to keep on going even if on a curtailed basis.

There seems no limit to Chicago’s eventual industrial magnitude. Since 1940 investments in new manufacturing plants in the metropolitan area have exceeded $3,000,000,000, with building of others still progressing at top speed.

In wholesaling and distribution, too, Chicago is a standout. Sales by its 10,500 firms have been averaging about $15,500,000,000 a year. In order of dollar sales, the leading lines of this wholesale business are groceries, farm products, automotive equipment, machinery, paper, electrical goods, drugs, lumber, tobacco products, dry goods and hardware.

With all of its opportunities Chicago gives employment to some 2 million workers, of whom about one-third are women. The durable goods industries, notably machinery, iron and steel, and metal working, account for about one out of every five payrollers.

In any recital of Chicago’s superlatives, its long held position as greatest food market of the universe merits headline mention. The meat processed in a single year at the Chicago Union Stock Yards alone could feed the entire U.S. for two months. Through its chutes annually are driven 2,000,000 cattle. 4,000,000 hogs, 1,500,000 sheep and 250,000 calves.

This is paralleled in other food activities. The Chicago Board of Trade, largest grain market in the world, handles 18 billion dollars in grain contracts yearly. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange also has. no peer, with annual futures contracts averaging 1.J billion dollars in butter, eggs, potatoes, onions and apples. •

That Chicago reports more post office income than any other city is attributable in major degree to its dominance in the mail order business. Operating base for the largest companies in the field — Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, Spiegels and Alden’s — Chicago figures in 90 per cent of the nation’s mail order transactions. Among the regular customers of its four giant catalogue sales organizations are 40,000,000 American families.

Another of the newer “firsts” claimed by Chicago is leadership in steel production. Where Pittsburgh held the crown for generations, the capacity of the Chicago region miils has been expanding constantly, latest reports showing thorn with close to 20 per cent of the country’s total ingot capacity.

Such progress in steel as well as in other major productive lines, is to be expected. Chicago’s location as northerly terminus for the barges of the extensive inland waterway system, extending to New Orleans on the south and backing up its port facilities on the far reaching steamship routes of the Great Lakes, brings it fuel, ore, limestone and

other basic commodities at economical transportation rates.

Taking only the lake-borne traffic cleared last year through the Chicago Harbor District — 45,000,000 tons — the Illinois metropolis equalled the traffic handled by the Panama Canal. Added to this was the

18.000. 000 tons that passed through the Chicago and Calumet Rivers.

In more recent years crude oil and natural gas, both piped from the Gulf States and from downstate Illinois, have added to this advantage. More than 500,000 barrels of crude oil pours into Chicago refineries and other consuming institutions daily.

Impressive as may seem Chicago’s utilization of its water traffic facilities, they are comparably insignificant compared to the way it overshadows its competitors in land transportation.

Chicago’s 212.8 square miles are literally crisscrossed by the tracks of 22 ■ big-name trunk railroads. Every day 1,700 trains arrive or depart — one every 48 seconds. Counting only incoming passengers, the daily record averages more than

300.000 commuters and 56,000 through train arrivals.

Midway Airport, one of the city’s municipally owned fields, is the busiest in the U.S. With 15 major or feeder lines, planes arrive or depart about every two minutes. Yearly passenger traffic, breaking one record after another, is close to the

5.000. 000 mark, requiring close to

375.000 plane movements.

A focal point in the country’s hardroad network, Chicago enjoys unsurpassed through bus and motor carrier services. Into the downtown bus terminals roll great fleets of rubber tired coaches bringing travelers from the most remote crossroad hamlets. The same highways are used by the more than 500 freight handling companies that operate some 12,000 motor trucks into and out of the city. These carriers maintain regularly scheduled daily x'outes to 24,000 communities from coast to coast.

In so-called financial affairs Chicago is second only to New York. Two of its banks are among the country’s ten largest and four others are not far behind. Likewise, the Midwest Stock Exchange becomes an increasingly mlore Substantial factor.in keeping the economic wheels of the nation humming.

One of Chicago’s proudest assets is its leadership in higher education as well as its accomplishments in research. From all sections of the globe thousands of students, and particularly post graduate scholars, come to Chicago, Northwestern, Loyola and DePaul Universities, Illinois Institute of 'Technology and its many other institutions of higher learning.

It was at the University of Chicago that the first successful experiments in atomic reaction were achieved. The first reactor for producing electric power was another Chicago contribution. And in - the field of modern building, Chicago gave mankind its first steel girder skyscraper.

Those who know the history of the modernization of America’s cities are familiar with the famous Chicago Plan. This foresighted' system for big metropolitan development has been copied throughout the world.

Among more recent Chicago contributions to civilization have been its outstanding leadership in medicine and surgery and the almost overnight creation of its spectacular, mile-square Medical Center with its scores of towering hospital, medical

schools and research laboratories.

All this is supplemented by its 1,200 industrial research institutions, its 200 technical schools, its unusually fine public and private libraries, like the John Crerar Library, larger', libi-ary in the world devoted exclusively to science and technology, and the Argoné National Laboratory out in the western suburbs, which rates as the nation’s center for devising industrial utilization for the boundless possibilities of atomic energy.

Indicative of Chicago’s growing influence on the economic life of the country is the growing tendency of more and more prominent corporations to make the city the headquarters for their national am} worldwide operations. Chicago has ended the day when the brains of American business were concentrated on the eastern seaboard.

Chicago’s acknowledged preeminence as busiest convention city on the map dates back almost a century. Since the day in 1860 when Abraham Lincoln won his first nomination in Chicago’s historic Wigwam, more presidential candidates of all major political faiths have been nominated in Chicago than in all other, cities combined.

This position as most popular meeting place in the convention field is not confined to political confabs. It extends to all other types of organizations. Year after year more fraternal, industrial, commercial, professional, social and religious bodies hold their national and regional gettogethers in Chicago than anywhere else. The same situation applies to major trade shows and expositions. In the past decade Chicago has annually entertained an average of more than 1,000 meetings and trade shows, almost 50 per cent more than its nearest competitor. These great assemblies, aside from the city’s ever growing tourist and business traveler traffic, have meant at least ia million heartily welcomed additions/ yearly to Chicago’s guest list. In all this activity the energetic Chicago Convention Bureau is the principal motivating agency.

Secret of it all is Chicago’s unparalleled ability to provide the visitor with the utmost in comforts and other essential accomodations. In the downtown area alone there are more than 17,000 first class hotel rooms, enoqgh to handle any convention, no matter what its size, and then some.

Yes, no matter what your expectation, you’ll find Chicago the last word in hospitality!

Members of our association should make immediate plans to take in the Verhovay National Ten Pin Bowling- Tournament and the Verhovay National Fellowship Days. If you liked New York City in 1954, YOU WILL LOVE CHICAGO in 1955.

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