394-
He
Hss
BANCROFT
LIBRARY
HOUSTON BUSINESS LEAGUE
HOUSTON, TEXAS
University of California Berkeley
NEW SPELLING USED
iiiu North from Maiu Street and Capitol Avenu
HOUSTON, TEXAS
INTRODUCTION.
X ORDER that the great volume of ques-
tions relativ to Houston and the adjacent
territory , known as the Gulf Coast Country
of Texas, may be redily anserd, the
HOUSTON BUSINESS LEAGUE has com-
piled this book. Every precaution has
been taken to gard against exaggerated
statements and misrepresentation. To the investi-
gator these facts and figures are frankly submitted.
You will lern here why Houston stands as the
greatest cotton center in the world, why she is supreme
as a shipping and distributing point, why she has
gron and expanded by leaps and bounds and why she
possesses a briter future than any other city in the
great Southwest, towards which the eyes of the nation
are now turnd as the section destind to become the
mightiest welth producing territory in this empire of
states.
A city long folloing the path of progress at a
quiet but stedfast pace, Houston has, in a few years,
undergon changes which have brot her into national
prominence, especially as a jobbing and general com-
mercial center. Houston's entire history has been
without "boom" characteristics; and these remarkable
changes have arisen from such a union of natural con-
ditions and circumstances as seldom exists. Alredy
the cotton center of the world, and being in tuch with
all the great trunk lines of the vast and groing South-
west, there was nothing needed to bring about large
city groth. save a denser settlement of the fertil lands
in the country of which Houston is the natural con-
centrating and distributing point. The discovery
of rich oil deposits in adjacent fields has given great
impetus to the business of Houston ,md the Coast
Country, which is now rapidly filling with new home-
seekers and business-seekers from every part of the
Union. The work of improving the Houston Ship
Channel, undertaken by the United States Govern-
ment at a cost of $4,000,000, will soor admit to our
furnaces, at much lower cost than heretofore, the coal
fuel available to ocean craft at many ports.
The energy and frendship of the great railway sys-
tems centering or ending in Houston, and other potent
agencies, hav helpt to* set before the world the welth
of the Coast Country to such an exten": that the tide
of immigration has now set strongly in this direction.
The erly groth of Houston was regarded by the
disheartening calamities of the Civil War, with the
long years of healing required to put her again on
good footing, under altogether changed conditions, by
replacing with a new generation of men those who
lost their lives and their hopes in battle ; but Houston
has wholly triumf t in her second grot'i , and has be-
come the largest and most firmly founded city of the
Southwest. Kept together thru her years of trial and
remaking by a helthy determination and conserva-
tism, which alone could win under the circumstances,
Houston is now in the day of her power a cosmopolitan
and enterprising modern city, dominated by a fortu-
nate combination of the Southern spirit and the tru
""' .
fa*
Government Work in the Ship Channel
Western spirit, which has made Texas the greatest
State of the entire South and Southwest. In the past
fifteen years particularly Houston has been blest by
the coming from all parts of the country North,
South, East and West of large numbers of vigorus
and loyal people; and the best elements of the old
and the new form a prosperus, confident and con-
genial whole. The writer of this, a man from the far
North, can unhesitatingly say that the newcomer is
not met here by any spirit of sectionalism, but finds
himself, if a good citizen, in an atmosfere of good
will and good cheer.
These conditions, together with other elements of
substantial strength and merit, some of which appear
in the following pages, cannot fail to impress those
who investigate Houston and her resources with the
fact that it is Houston's destiny to be and remain for
all time the transportation, manufacturing and jobbing
center of the Southwest.
The reader is referd to the various paragrafs upon
subsequent pages for information upon particular sub-
jects in which he may be interested.
As a Place of Residence.
Aside from the strong attraction offerd in the way of
business opportunities, Houston's many advantages
as a residence city hav greatly aided her groth. The
wide and leafy appearance of the place, the profusion
of flowers and fresh vegetables of all varieties thruout
the year, the mild winter climate, the almost ceaseless
Gulf breezes in summer, resulting in a temperature
and atmosferic condition in which sunstroke is un-
known, the modern street paving and the excellent
street car service, the many direct railway outlets to
all points of the compass, the number of beautiful
driveways extending far into the country, the un-
dWpri.T*
1 * j i<fc^
New Court House (Under Contract)
Cotton Exchange Bilding
usually good "shopping" facilities, the excellent fire
protection, and various other things of the kind, at
once appeal to the visitor and homeseeker as im-
portant items bearing upon the home question.
We shall, under appropriate hedings, mention the
churches, the public and private scools, libraries,
etc., things of prime importance in the make-up of a
residence city. The unequald advantages soon to be
offerd by the great Rice Institute for literary, artistic,
technical and industrial education and reserch, will
bring a large number of families and individual stu-
dents here for permanent residence and instruction.
No other city of the entire South will present an equal
attraction of this particular kind. Tre institution
will lend to Houston a tone and a direction in the
higher things of life such as no city can acquire except
from the possession of a great institution of lerning and
culture ; and we refer to it at greater length on another
page.
Population and Area.
WE DO NOT DEPEND ON SQUARE MESURE.
The United States census for 1890 gave Houston a
population of only 27,557. In 1900, with an area of
nine square miles, just one-fourth of the area of the
next largest city of the State, the census gave us 44,663.
Since the taking of that census the city limits hav
been extended, and the population has been very
greatly increast by the constant arrival of new resi-
dents. Based on the recognizd ratio of three persons
to each name included in the City Directory, in the
year 1907 Houston and the connected suburbs had a
population of over 103,000, and the population may
therefore be conservativly given at 100,000, including
the immediate and unseparated suburbs which are a
part of the daily life of Houston.
The new city limits embrace sixteen square miles,
or in all less than 44 per cent, of the area of San
Antonio. The Houston settelment, irrespectiv of the
and the many paralel and intersecting streets, the
territory is bilt up like a city for a mile and a quarter.
Five Houston Hotels
corporation, still extends far beyond' the new limits
mentiond; and westwardly, along Washington Road
To the east in the territory of the Harrisburg Road,
this is tru for a greater distance, but the settelment
is less compact. The average elevation is 54.1 feet
above the sea. Mean high tide is about 1.87 feet.
Commission Government.
HOUSTON'S MODEL CHARTER.
In July, 1905, Houston inaugurated her present
system of government, an electiv commission. A
mayor and four aldermen, or as they are most com-
monly designated, commissioners, are elected to seiv
for a term of two years. Upon the sholders of the
mayor rests largely the success or failure of his ad-
ministration. He is in reality made the head of the
affairs of the city, employing and discharging the men
who fill the varius departments, and even these de-
partments are not fixt, it lying within the discretion
of the mayor and commissioners to create such as are
needed or do away with those found needless. Houston
is operated in the same manner as is a great business
or private corporation. The commission system was
not resorted to until after serius debate and consid-
eration and was decided upon for the purpose of shield-
ing the city from mercenary politics and garanteeing
a business administration of city affairs. The prac-
tical test since the first of July, 1905, has demon-
strated that the pathway which Houston is blazing
for reform in municipal government in the United
States shud find many travelers in the future.
This electiv commission system is no infringement
upon suffrage rights. The ballot is as powerful under
the present charter as in the days when the profes-
sional politician wielded a markt influence. The
five officers named are the only ones made electivt
the mayor and four aldermen. Under the presen-
system a notable era of economy without niggardli,
ness has been usherd in. Tax collections have reacht
City Hall and Market House
Avenn of Oaks
an unprecedented figure, altho the rate has been
reduced ; the sinking fund is groing ; the water works
have been purchast by the city and a complete dupli-
cate set of machinery instald; municipal bonds and
interest are promptly paid ; the already excellent po-
lice force has improved ; the model fire department has
been perfected; surplus employes have been ousted;
a modern system of municipal accounting declared by
experts to be the safest and most perfec; yet devised,
instituted five years ago, has been cont:nud in force;
and all this without jar or friction or aut to disturb
the city's constant progres.
The new charter places in the hands of the people a
power so great that no commission would dare draw
upon themselves its full weight. The commissioners
and mayor can regulate the rates and charges of all
the public utilities, while the referendum places within
the hands of the voters the granting of important
franchises.
During the past year three miles of sanitary sewers
were bilt, eight miles of model vitrifiec brick pave-
ments laid, many miles of cement s dewalks put
down by property holders, four new school houses
erected, and the city park lands extended, besides
scores of minor improvements of like nature, all with-
out a bond issue, and with plenty of money left in the
tresury.
Houston's Material Progres.
In the recital of actual progres Houston has achievd
and as pointing certainly to the fairness of the as-
sertions here made, the actual figures, as shown by
the public records, are trustworthy evidence open to
the investigator.
In the year ending September 1, 1907, the real
estate changing hands in Harris County, according to
the records in the office of the County Clerk, amounted
to over 814.<)n2.;-'4;-'.(H). Fcr the same period in 1
the total was :-,'.). 410. 25 1.00.
The records in the office of the City Engineer of the
Some Fine Business Bildings
City of Houston show that permits for permanent im-
provements in the first eight months of 1907 represent a
valuation of $2,177,240.00, these valuations being
about one-third of the actual expenditures in bilding
improvements. The permits for repairs total
$411,003.00.
The vigorus groth of Houston is also shown by
the assest valuation of property within her limits for
the past ten years, which increast from $22,528,103.00
Transportation Facilities.
A GREAT DISTRIBUTING CENTER.
The advantages of Houston as a distributing center
are the foundations of -her commercial, financial and
manufacturing groth. Among the citios of the great
Central Southwest country she holds :n this respect
the leading place as to all classes of transportation
the handling of freight, passengers, mail traffic, ex-
I'jirt of the Gould Terminals
in 1898 to $51,000,000.00 in 1907, an increase of
nearly $9,000,000.00 over the preceding year.
The State and County valuations of all property in
Harris County, of which Houston is the county seat,
increast from $26,939,265.00 in 1895 to over
$61,000000.00 in 1907.
The tax rate for the City, County and State is $2.70
in all, taxable valuations averaging far belo actual
valuations, but under the newly enacted State law
valuations are hereafter to be in full, and there will
be a proportionate reduction in the rate of taxation.
press traffic, and of telegraf and telefone communica-
tion as well. Houston's unsurpast facilities in this
respect afford wholesalers, jobbers and manufacturers
all that they need to enable them to bild up business
of any size thruout the great and groing territory
tributary to Houston.
The great government improvement on the Hous-
ton Ship Channel insures us for all ~ime the loest
freight rates by rail and water ; and this is a matter
of controlling influence with a wideawake merchant
or manufacturer seeking a new location. Rates to
and from the eastern seaboard territory are especially
lo, and may be obtaind by inquiry of the Houston
Business League.
Houston's distributing facilities are constantly un-
de r going improvement and extension to keep pace
with the rapidly groing trade of the city. For in-
stance, the Gould interests have recently made an
investment of $750,000.00 in land and terminals along
Houston Ship Channel.
Houston's outlet to the sea is regarded by many as
her greatest asset of the future. It garantees loest
freight rates and makes of this city an inland port
second to none of the Gulf Coast ; and the day is near
when Houston will take first rank as a feeding point
for the vast Panama trade to open when that channel
Among the Small Craft
the Houston Ship Channel, on part of which hav been
erected magnificent railway bildings covering three
blocks of ground; and the Southern Pacific System,
centering in Houston, is constantly making extensiv
improvements in its magnificent terminal facilities,
as are also the Missouri, Kansas & Texas and Santa
Fe Systems. For further information on this subject
see the articles heded "Houston Ship Channel" and
"The Railroad Capital of the South."
links the Atlantic and Pacific. The National Congress,
realizing the importance_of the present water carrying
trade of this city, has appropriated one million dollars
and approved plans for three millions more for the
sole purpose of widening and deepening the outlet
from Houston to the Gulf of Mexico. Two-thirds
of this great public work hav alredy been done and
the remainder will be completed with as little delay
as the magnitude of the project will permit. An
immens quantity of the freight of the Trans-Miss-
issippi territory now passes thru Houston. This
territory, with which we may include the five states
north of the Ohio River, is the great producing section
of the United States, furnishing most of the grain
and meat products of the continent, the lumber of the
Central Southwest and the Northwest, the greatest
variety and volume of ores, the oil of Texas and the
Pacific slope, the fruit and wine from California and
other States, Texas cotton, corn, cane and rice, and
from the whole section an amount of minor products
so vast in the aggregate as to make the figures almost
incomprehensible.
The Gulf is the natural pathway from this great sec-
tion to the markets of the world, and Houston is the
most advantageus point of the territory for con-
centrating, distributing and manufacturing its pro-
ducts. The old east and west long-haul routes hav
been able to divert much freight from the natural
short down-haul routes, because of lack of adequate
and safe terminal and transferring facilities on the
Gulf. Now that the National Government has re-
sponded to the demands of this commerce, and we are
to hav a secure inland deep water harbor several miles
long, affording on each side of the channel unlimited
terminal sites for business of every kind, it will
not b'e r long until the bulk of the products of the We^t
can come thru Houston.
The amount of products of the Trans-Mississippi
country passing thru Houston is greatly increasing
every year. With these also come the Pacific im-
ports for the Central, Northern and Eastern sections
of the continent, Mexican freights in transit, and
every variety of manufactured goods, all in rapidly
growing quantity and valu.
A statement of the tonnage and valu of the freight
handeld on the ship channel covering the movement of
.commodities in and out of this port for the year
ending August 31, 1907, is as follows:
Tons
Cotton (459,548 bales) 126,375
Coal 6,750
Rice 24,608
Lumber and Shingles 82,500
Sand 161,535
Shell 30,000
Cord Wood 7,250
Brick 7,250
Hardware and Machinery 7,546
Grain and Feedstuffs . . 10,000
Groceries and Provisions 7,500
Oil and Gasolin 8,556
Beer and Ice 1 ,800
Oysters and Fish 1,500
Furniture 800
Roofing Paper 404
Steel Rails 500
Hay 300
Rope 711
Gravel 150
Slate 142
Miscellaneous. . . 475
Value
$26,538,897
37,125
1,063,065
1,050,000
161,535
45,000
35,375
36,250
754,600
200,000
375,000
385,000
126,000
45,000
800,000
43,632
11.500
3,000
9,243
150
1,492
475,000
This, tonnage exprest in pounds mea-is that 973,-
304,000 pounds, or 24,332 carloads of 110 tons each,
of freight were transported on Buffalo Playou during
the year ending August 31, 1907.
The channel traffic is -Already anything but an idle
dream, as the above figures indicate, ar d the period
of time that will elaps before great ocean going vessels
are anchord along the Houston wharvs is but brief.
The Railroad Capital of the South.
Houston has the most extensiv railrcad terminals
south of St. Louis. From the railroad standpoint
you reach Texas at Houston, and no Southwestern
railroad feels fully intrencht in the business of the
Southwest until it has terminals here. The roads
actually centering or ending at Houston "iave a length
of 10, 000 miles, and the connecting systems more than
31,000 miles. North, east, south and west, these rail
lines reach forth to the most f ertil agricultural secticns
Totals 486,652 $32,196,864
Carnegie Library
of Texas and the Southwest, and into the untild areas
most suited to cultivation and development. The
railways now pay out in Houston more than $7,000,-
000 annually in wages and salaries.
Here are some of the factors that hav already made
Houston rich and strong, and are making her ever
more so:
The Texas & Xew Orleans Railroad.
The Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antcnio Railway.
The Houston & Texas Central Railroad.
The Xew York, Texas & Mexican Railway.
The Texas Transportation Company.
The Galveston, Houston & Northern Railway.
The Houston East & West Texas Raihvay.
The San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway.
The Santa Fe System.
The Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway.
The Galveston, Houston & Henderson Railroad.
The International & Great Northern Railroad.
The Houston Tap & Brazoria Railroad.
The Houston, Oak Lawn & Magnolia Park Railroad.
The Houston Belt & Terminal Railway.
The Trinity & Brazos Valley Railway.
The Beaumont, Sour Lake & Western Railway.
The St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railroad.
These lines of railway alredy penetrate, as other
lines will soon do, sections of country containing a
variety of main products widely differing in feature
and development. Two of these are cotton and
lumber, which will be separately mentiond herein-
after.
Texas rice, sugar cane, sugar, corn, hay, cattle and
oil are other important commodities of the nearby
territory which are largely handeld. As a single item
country southwest of Houston, with its rice, sugar,
cotton, corn and oil.
The Cane Belt Railroad, one of the big Texas short
lines, now sends its business into Houston over the
tracks of an allied system, the Santa Fe, which has
itself within the past few months obtaind another
entrance into the city over the tracks of the Galveston,
Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway, and greatly in-
creast its terminal facilities here.
Great Mercantil and Industrial Concerns and Great Terminals
the product of a sugar mill seventeen miles out from
Houston is for an ordinary year 20,000 tons.
In addition to this vast network of railway lines
now pouring their immens business into Houston
in ever groing volume, the Gould interests, alredy
represented here by four lines in addition to the
Houston, Oak Lawn & Magnolia Park Railroad,
which is local, proposes to bild from Houston another
main feeder to connect with the main Louisiana line
of the Missouri Pacific System, and also has in con-
templation an important extension into the rich
Over one million dollars is now being expended by
the Houston Belt & Terminal Company and allied
interests in the construction of depot and terminal
facilities for these lines in this city, the work trans-
forming into a busy railroad scene a section of Greater
Houston heretofore used for residence only. This
great system has only recently (February, 1908) trans-
ferd to Houston its hed offices for the Southwest,
which strengthens Houston's unquestionable right to
the title at the beginning of this article, "The Railroad
Capital of Texas."
At the time of this writing there are rumors and
reports, more or less definit, of several new railway
enterprises of great importance to the Southwest, but
particularly so to Houston.- Not from any lack of
faith that these enterprises or similar ones will ere
long result in new lines of railway terminating in
Houston, but because the BUSINESSLEAGUE prefers to
state only facts provable, these new enterprises are
not here referd to in detail. Even* one of them
has for its foundation the existence of plenty of ter-
ritory and business to w*arrant the construction of a
railway, and, indeed, to absolutely assure it. within a
short time at all events, if any of the present plans fail.
Cotton Center of the World.
As Texas is by far the leading cotton state of the
entire country, so Houston is the leading cotton city.
the home of the natural fiber. During the year end-
ing August 31, 1907, the cotton receipts for the city
of Houston were 2,967.535 bales, or about one-fourth
of the entire crop of the United States, having a
valu of over S152.000.000, while the superior market
facilities of this cotton center forced competing mar-
kets to cut down the cost of handling chargd against
groers from $5.00 to $1.00 per bale.
The leading cotton merchants of the world now
maintain branches in Houston, the many agents and
employes of the cotton firms of the principal cotton
centers of America and Europe constituting a numerus
colony of wideawake business men of much impor-
tance to the city.
With such a foundation, Houston expects to be-
come the metropolis of the manufactured product, as
she is alredy of the raw material. Having cheap fuel,
she is now redy for the cotton mills. It is estimated
that the entire amount of money invested in Houston
in plants for the compression of cotton and for the
manufacture of cotton seed oil and cotton seed prod-
ucts is in excess of $2,000,000.
Central Fire Station
Electric Light and Power Plant
Houston's Lumber Interests.
The vast lumber industry, represented most largely
by the long-leaf pine of this State and of Western
Louisiana, is tributary to Houston more t'.ian to any
other city. Houston is fixedly the chief concentrat-
ing, distributing and supply point of thi^ industry.
the volume and valu of which may be realized when
it is stated that $19,000,000 worth of lumber is sold
by Houston concerns annually.
The recent past has wittiest a great increase in the
volume of lumber business and also in the number of
enterprises that handel lumber exclusivly. This is
due to the present high price and great cemand for
lumber.
Xearly all the biggest lumber manufacturing enter-
prises of the State hav headquarters here and their
banking business is also done here. There are few
large mills in East Texas in which Houston capital is
not interested.
The Texas forests include sixty-one kinds of timber
of commercial value; and this latter ft.ct, cupeld
with Houston's superiority as a distributing center,
is sufficient to warrant the statement that Houston
offers the best location in the entire Southwest for
wood-working plants of all kinds, such as factories for
the making of furniture, wagons, buggies^ handels,
household articles, etc.
Houston as a Manufacturing Center.
In the groth of her manufacturing industries during
the ten years ending with 1900, Houston led in volume
and proportion every other trade center in the South.
The United States census for 1900 shows 507 industries,
an increase of 141 per cent, over 1890, with an increase
erners, cost of materials used and valu of products.
The manufacturing and allied industries of Houston
pay annually over $6,000,000 in wages.
What has been said elsewhere in this booklet as to
railways and transportation is so good an argument
in favor of Houston, as a location for manufacturing
and distributing business of all kinds, that we desire
Cotton Scenes
of invested capital of 97 per cent; and since 1900, the
increase in capital, number of industries and number
of wage earners has been larger in proportion than
for ten years prior to the 1900 census. Ten years
erlier, as shown by the census tables, Dallas was in
this respect far ahed of Houston, then the second
manufacturing city in the State. Now Houston leads
every other city in the State considerably in capital
invested, number of establishments, number of wage
to again refer to those subjects all readers interested
in any business of such character, especially those
seeking new locations. There is absolutely no city
in the United States today offering better inducements
to manufacturers than Houston, and capitalists con-
templating embarking in business in a new field
should safegard their best interests by giving this city
a thoro- inspection.
The great increase in the manufacturing industries
of Houston in the last few years is due to cheap fuel,
cheap sites, unrivald shipping facilities and enormus
distributing territory. Hevily stimulated in popu-
lation by the groth of its supporting territory, the
groth of the city's business has been far beyond the
increase in population. Houston has markets that
will richly support many times the present number of
manufacturing enterprises.
There is a demand on the city for manufactures in
every line, but especially in the lighter and finer
articles, as well as in glass, crockery, pottery, cand
goods, woodenware, furniture, vehicles, farm ma-
chinery, clothing, dry goods in general, and more
especially cotton goods of all kinds. In all of these
lines the raw material is at hand to supply the de-
mand of the manufacturer.
Houston affords a wide range in the choice of sites
"for manufactories, with her numerus railroads and
marine shipping lines; and the recently charterd
Houston Belt & Terminal Railway Company unites
these and adds materially to the availability of loca-
tions. Manufacturers who desire information as to
cheap sites are invited to call at the office of theBusi-
The Rice Industry
A H i-\ > Hardware House
NESS LEAGUE, or to write to the Secretary, who will
be glad to furnish required data.
An index to this city's groth in trade and com-
mercial conditions is found in the charter record in
the office of the Secretary of State. That record for
the year ending August 31, 1907, shows 146 new en-
terprises were charterd in Houston between that
date and August 31, 1906, with a total capital stock
amounting to $14,836,375, while twenty -eight Hous-
ton corporations increast their capitalization $3,340,-
000. In this respect Houston leads all other Texas
cities.
Houston the Rice Center.
A RICH STAPLE.
As alredy shown, Houston has risen to first place
in the commerce of the Southwest. By reason of her
location and her union with so many lints of railway,
Houston taps directly all of the broad coast country
and its vast "hinterland" of fertil prairie. Altho the
industry is yet in its infancy, the cultivation of rice
has gon far beyond the experimental stage.
In 1895, when the cultivation of rice in Texas was
wholly an experiment, the crop of the State was
planted on 2,000 acres. The experience of rice farm-
ers since then has been so satisfactory that the acreage
has increast stedily and rapidly, and the Texas rice
crop of 1907 came from something over 250,000 acres.
There is a total canal mileage in the Houston rice
territory of 844 miles, in addition to the many large
farms that are supplied with abundance of water from
private wells.
The government statistics gave the Texas crop for
1906 as 2,107,134 bags, on approximately 230,000
acres. Conditions in 1907 were such that it was thot
the yield wud be short, but these conditions were
relievd, and it is safe to say that the yield off the
250,000 acres was at least equal to the yield off 230,000
acres in 1906, altho at this writing final figures are not
at hand. The highest price paid in 1906 for No. 1,
both Honduras and Japan, was about $3.90. During
the year 1905 the price went as high as $4.25 for first
grades. This was caused by a short production, due
to the decreast acreage.
The greater part of the Texas crop isnowhandeld by
the Houston market, and this will always be the case,
no matter what proportions the cultivation of rice
shall reach, because the unequald facilities here af-
forded must make and keep Houston the center of
distribution and sale for rice, as they hav alredy
done for cotton, lumber and other important products.
Houston's gross bank clearings as certified by the
Manager of the Houston Clearing House are set out
as follows:
1901 $ 466,426,159
1902 602,931,516
1903 696,928,866
1904 663,672,543
1905 763,757,337
1906 1,012,499,099
1907.... i 1,125,856,913
These institutions are not only redy to encourage
legitimate enterprises on the part of citizens now en-
gaged in business, but they are on the alert for some-
thing new to which they can lend financial assistance.
A New and Important Factory
Houston has four rice mills with a capacity of 4,500
bags per /lay, and the largest exclusiv rice elevator in
the rice belt.
Banks and Banking.
Houston's groth along all lines is reflected in her
banks, the certain barometers of trade and material
progres. The stability of these institutions is ada-
mantin. In the panic of 1907 this city did not witnes
the failure of a single one of her national or state in-
stitutions, and never for one moment did there exist
a feeling of uneasiness. Accommodations were but
little restricted thruoutthe trubelsome period, and the
day the New^York banks announced that their scare
was over there was shipt from Houston $200,000 in
gold from one of her State^banks, indicating the ample
protection afforded depositors.
The unusually strong lending capacity of Houston
banking institutions makes it as easy for reputable
merchants, manufacturers and other business men to
secure needed funds in Houston as in any city in
America.
In bildings and equipment the Houston banks are
at the front; the handsome structures occupied by
the First National and Commercial National and the
new home of the Houston Land & Trust Company
and Lumberman's National Bank exciting the admira-
tion of every visitor to the city.
In August, 1905, a new State banking law went into
effect. This law is at once liberal to and watchful of
the institutions founded under its provisions. It cre-
ates a^wider field than^that open to the National
banks ^and .makes available sources of revenu for
banking and trust companies heretofore denied.
Street Car
HOUSTON IS THE RAILROAD CAPITAL AND C
A Scene in the S
EARING HOUSE OF THE GREAT SOUTHWEST
Educational Advantages.
The public scool facilities of Houston are most ex-
cellent. There are thirty-four public scool bildings,
over 14,594 children of scolastic age, the largest scool
population in the State, and 228 teachers, occupying
214 rooms. Additions are rapidly provided, from
time to time, on account of the increasing demand
upon existing facilities. Adequate appropriation is
made in February of each year by the city for the
maintenance of the scools, and, in addition to this,
there is the per capita payment by the State of about
$5.00 annually. There are also in Houston thirty -four
the State, and of two excellent musical col' eges, Diehl's
Conservatory of Music and the Houston Conservatory
of Music ; besides which there are the nurses' training
scool of St. Joseph's Infirmary, the Barnett School,
and five modern business and commercial scools.
The Rice Institute, the greatest of our educational
establishments, is treated fully in the next article.
Texas has the largest permanent scooi fund in the
Union, being more than $50,000,000, including the
funds of the State University and the other State edu-
cational institutions, Of this approximately $34,000,-
000 are in Texas county and city bonds and land notes,
and the remainder chiefly in lands.
A SI 75.OOO Church
private educational institutions, mostly of small size,
but a number take high rank in the State and South.
St. Thomas College for young men and boys has but
recently completed a college bilding and dormitories,
involving an outlay of many ^thousands of dollars.
The Dominican Sisterhood has^ lately established St.
Agnes Academy, for the education of girls and young
women, with a magnificent college bilding occupying
a splendid site, broad grounds and ideal location.
Houston is also the home of the Texas Dental Col-
lege, the most complete and modern institution of the
kind in the South, and the only one of importance in
S20O.OOO Y. M. C. A. Bilding
Rice Polytechnic Institute.
Plans are now under consideration for the erly
construction of the William Marsh Rice Institute for
the advancement of Literature, Science and Art. On
December 29, 1907, Prof. Edgar Odell Lovett, of
Princeton University, who possesses an enviable rec-
ord among the country's educators, was selected as
the hed of this great institution. Under his direction
this important college will be organized. The Insti-
tute was founded in the year 1892 by the late William
Marsh Rice, of New York City, who endowd it with
A New Car Wheel Plant
(Houston has two great plants of this kind)
A Great New Steel Plant
(Showing: begrinninjr of additional construction)
his promissory note, payable at his deth,in the sum of
$200,000. Policing this he made during his life
additions to the endowment fund consisting of a tract
of six acres of land in the City of Houston, now worth
about $100,000; nearly 10,000 acres of pasture and
agricultural lands in Jones County, Texas, worth
about $10.00 per acre; the Rice Hotel property in the
center of the city, worth about $800,000, and two
bodies of hevy timber lands in Louisiana, aggregating
48,000 acres, worth about $3,000,000.
In addition to these gifts, which Mr. Rice, joined
by his wife, Elizabeth Baldwin Rice, made to the en-
dowment fund of the Rice Institute, his will bequeaths
tration; a museum of the materials of the arts,
sciences, trades and commerce, in their raw state, and
in their succesiv proceses and stages c f manufacture
and use; and a great laboratory for demonstration
and experiment in teaching and lectures. *\
Tuition will be free and open to all, non-sectarian
and non-partisan ; but residents of the C ity of Houston
will hav first right of entrance. Afte-'i Houston, res-
idents of any other part of the State of Texas'will be
admitted to the benefits and enjoyments of the in-
stitute.
The William M. Rice Institute, witl its very large
endowment fund, is easily the welthicst educational
A Part of a Great Car Wheel Manufactory
the bulk of his estate "unto the Wm. M. Rice Institute
for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art.
a corporation domiciled in the City of Houston, in
Harris County, Texas."
Putting all these gifts together, the endowment fund
will reach a sum in excess of $6,000,000 at present
valuations.
This institute is to be a polytechnic scool for males
and females, designd to giv instruction on the ap-
plications of science and art to the practical occupa-
tions of life. It will establish and maintain a free
library and reading room, and galleries of art; com-
plete collections of apparatus and models for illus-
institution, public or private, in the entire South. Its
important bearing upon the destinies of the city so
fortunate as to be its home will be appreciated by in-
telligent people everywhere.
Churches, Libraries, Societies and Clubs.
As to churches, all the important denominations
are represented; the bildings are creditable in arki-
tecture and ample in size, and propoi tionate to the
welth and population of the city. One of these
church edifices is the largest in the entire South, and
compares favorably with the most costly churches in
A Group of Good Apartment Bildings
the great cities of the North. The churches keep
pace always with the general groth of the city.
Houston has a magnificent public library, endowd
in part by Andrew Carnegie, others having made
liberal gifts for a Juvenil Library and a Western His-
torical Librarv.
The recently completed home of the Thalian Club
is one of the most beautiful club houses in the entire
South, reflecting the taste and culture of its mem-
bers.
At the corner of Fannin Street and McKinney
Avenue is the magnificent $200,000 Y. M. C. A. bild-
Elevator and Rice Mill Scenes
All of the important secret orders are here, with
large membership rolls; and there are many useful,
activ and interesting private clubs of every kind and
character, some of the latter having expensiv bildings
of their own.
ing, the funds for the construction of which were
raisd in a campain of but two weeks duration.
One of Houston's citizens, George H. Hermann,
has recently donated a block of ground and $50,000
for the erection of a Charity Hospital.
A New Oil Plant, Showing Shipping Facilities
A Group of Factories
The Houston Press.
_Houston has thirty -two newspapers and periodicals,
two of these being daily papers, sixteen weeklies, two
semi-weeklies, six monthlies and one semi-monthly.
Besides the papers devoted chiefly to general news
and comment, this list includes publications in the
interest of ethics, education, religion, general agri-
culture, the rice industry, the lumber, cotton and
kindred trades, medical science, sporting, truck groing
Main Street From Franklin Avenu
Some Fine Churches
and shipping, wit and humor and insurance. The
Houston Daily Post is the leading morning paper of
the State, and the Houston Daily Chronicle occupies
the same position among the evening papers.
Kew Government Bilding.
POSTOFFICE STATISTICS.
Houston's posto'rice is perhaps one of the surest
Some of the Finer Residences of
Houston
indices to her groth and progres. The following table
of postoffice receits for the past seven years, being
for the fiscal year ending June 30 in each case, is
worthy of careful reading:
1901 $118,180.93
1902 143,730.92
1903 168,514.78
1904 194,102.44
1905 210,456.34
1906 229,897 . 63
1907 292,114.35
In order to provide adequate facilities for the hand-
City Drainage and Sewerage.
We have a first-class modern systerr- for disposing
of the sewage, with forty-six miles of se.ver mains and
condits. The drainage, has been much improved in
the past few years, and further great improvements
will soon be undertaken. An inexausiible supply of
pure artesian water, suitable for all nanufacturing
and household uses, is easily obtainable in any part
of Houston at depths of from 500 to 1 ,000 feet, and
the water works system furnishes this thruout the
city. The surface of the ground upon which the city
stands has sufficient elevation to be craind at mod-
Scene at Sam Houston Park
ling of this rapidly j^roing business, Congress has ap-
propriated the sum of $400,000 for the construction
of a modern Federal bilding in this city. In addition
to the sum appropriated for the bilding, there was
appropriated $120,000 with which a block of ground
was purchast near the center of the city. Before this
issu of the League's booklet is exausted the govern-
ment will begin the erection of a splendid home for
the postoffice, as well as the offices of the collector of
this port, the United States District Court and all
Federal officers. Bids hav alredy been accepted and
the work is to be rusht, because of the crying need
for even the necessary room to accommodate the
postal business of this rapidly groing city.
erate expense, yet is sufficiently smooth to be well
suited to all kinds of local carrying, especially the
hauling of hevy merchandise, which, in a commercial
city, is of much importance.
Streets and Roads.
The city government has paved the entire main
business part of the city with asfalt or paving brick,
an aggregate of forty -four miles, and within the past
three years has expended over $325,000 in improve-
ments in the more important streets leading to every
section of the city. In addition to this, Harris County,
of which Houston is the center, has recently expended
about $700,000 in making permanent and first-class
country roadways leading from the city in all direc-
Some i>i the Public Scools
tions. The importance of this need not be pointed
out, as it will bejseen by all that these modern scien-
tific roads must be of unmesurd valu, alike to city
and county. An additional fund of $500,000 has
been pledgd to -be expended in furthering road and
bridge improvements^thruout the county, this special
bond issu having'just been voted, along with a bond
issu for $500,000 for the construction of a new county
court house to accommodate the three district courts,
the county court and the various county offices.
Climate and Health.
Many of our Northern frends who hav not spent a
summer in Texas think that our summers are op-
Infirmaries
presivly warm; but this is an error. The thermom-
eter has never been known to record a higher temper-
ature in this section of the country than it does in
many Northern cities every year.
A record kept for the last thirty years shows the
mean annual temperature to be 69 degrees; in July,
SO to 85 degrees; in January, 55 to 65 degrees; maxi-
mum, 95 to 100 degrees; minimum, 20 to 30 degrees
above zero.
The average rainfall is about the same as in Illinois
and Missouri. The prevailing winds are south and
southeasterly.
The average annual deth rate in Houston for the
past ten years has been about 15 per 1,000, which is
belo the average deth rate of cities of like popula-
tion.
There is no more helthful city in the United States
than Houston, the glorius Gulf breezes, the excellent
sewerage system, the semi-outdoor life and the general
sanitary conditions affording relief frorr diseases that
afflict many other places.
Draining the Gulf Coast Country.
Nineteen hundred and seven has seen the beginning
of a general movement to drain Texas Gulf Coast lands.
Operating under the law enacted by the Texas legis-
lature in the winter of 1906-7, the taxpayers are form-
ing local drainage districts and opening public drains
that will carry off the surplus rainfall of the winter
reason. This is a most excellent system, as districts
whe e such drains are needless are not required to pay
part of the expense, and it is wholly within the con-
trol of the different localities. Such drainage in every
case doubles or triples the market valu of the land.
This Gulf Coast land, as rich as any that lies out of
dcors, is capable of producing, when draind, winter
f r uit and garden truck as fine as any grown in Florida
or Southern California. Alredy a large and profit-
able business of this kind has been bilt up in the ter-
ritory tributary to Houston. Men are making a good
living and putting money in the bank with their
ernings from five and ten-acre farms. There is so
much land available, and so few people on it, thus far,
that land values are still lo. The opening of the year
1908, however, has witnest a tremendus inflo of
home-seekers eagerly examining and buying these
coast fruit and truck lands. Values ire rising, and
it is certain that here in the Houston country the ex-
perience of Southern California is rap dly to be re-
peated. Lands that are selling for from $10 to $20
an acre today will, without a dout, be made worth
s.~>()() an acre thru the development cf orange, fig,
lemon, grape-fruit and other orchards, and thru the
groth of the winter garden trucking business, inside
of ten years. What can be done ha^ been shown
beyond question by enterprising individuals during
the ten years last past. For example: R. H. Bush-
way bot 200 acres of raw land at Algo;,, twenty -nine
miles south of Houston on the Santa Fe, seven years
ago. He paid $22.50 an acre for it. He has made it
worth an average of $400 an acre, draining it and
planting fruits and flowers. Many others thruout the
Gulf Coast Country hav done as well. The drainage
law, opening a way by which draingae can be got at
lo cost and on easy terms, makes certain the de-
velopment of the whole region upon the same scale.
It is today the best opportunity for investment in
productiv lands on the whole American continent.
Houston, as the chief shipping center of this region, is
rapidly becoming a clearing house for a rich trade in
these products.
Street Railways.
Houston has an excellent and thoroly modern
electric street railway system, embracing fifteen routes
and covering over sixty-five miles of streets. In ad-
dition to rapid extension of lines much attention has
been given to betterment of equipment, and the double
Park and Driveway Scenes in
Houston
truck cars are the same as to be found in the large and
progressiv centers of the country. Tunnels and sub-
ways have been constructed, carrying the lines under
the more dangerus railroad crossings, and the Hous-
ton Electric Company has completed an elaborate
system of car sheds and barns with accompanying
repair shops, the outlay in that direction being more
than $80,000.
The No-Tsu-Oh Carnival.
Each recurring November witneses a festival in
Houston which is unique. It has no counterpart in
all the United States. It has
a tuch of the New Orleans
. Mardi Gras and of the once
popular street fair of the
Xorth, and yet is neither.
There has been formd what
is known as the No-Tsu-Oh
Carnival Association , with
abundant capital; and each
fall, under its supervision, an
entire week is given over to
fun and frolic upon the streets
of the city and within the in-
closure where most of the spe-
cial shows and amusement de-
vices are centerd. Crowds
throng the streets and engage
in confetti battles and pranks
that turn day and night into
one grand recess from every-
day cares. A gorgeus illumi-
nated night parade follows the
triumfal entry of the carnival
king into the city, and thru-
out the week fantastic pa-
geants and other demonstra-
tions of varius and unusual
character hold the attention of the populace and the
thousands of visitors who flock to the city to take
part in the jollity. The royal ball of King Nottoc,
monarch of the carnival, is a State society function
that for richness and splendor ranks with the notable
amusement events of the country.
Other Advantages.
There is sound reason for every step in advance
that the City of Houston has taken since her birth.
Our magnificent shipping facilities are but the out-
groth of the situation, which makes Houston the
logical distributing center of the great Southwest, the
key to land and sea. Here water commerce greeted
Pencil Factory Scenes
the railroad projector, and the resultart groth was
inevitable.
Surrounding Houston is a magnificent farming sec-
tion. First it was the ideal grazing country. It re-
mains such today, but, agricultural damands hav
demonstrated the great productivness of the soil, and
the plow is driving the herds before it. Rice, cotton,
sugar cane, oats, corn and potatoes are making the
farmer rich and Houston the center of thickly set-
teld and rapidly developing agricultural section. Di-
versification has been the cry of the experts to the
farmer and planter of the South, and diversification
finds its truest exposition in the splerdid farming
counties surrounding Houston
and thruout the Gulf Coast
Country. Truck : arming is an
industry of impDrtance, and
Houston is the market and
shipping center.
The last six years hav wit-
nest the development in Tex-
as of a series of oil fields that
hav taken the lead in all the
world in point o~ production ;
and these oil fields are supply-
ing Houston with the cheapest
of fuel for manufacturing pur-
poses. Texas recently pro-
duced the greatest yield of
crude oil ever credited to a
single state in a single year.
Houston is in the very heart
and center of the oil produc-
ing district, the great Humble
field being in Harris County
and but seventee n miles from
Houston; it is a. so the home
of most of the welthy oil op-
erators in this territory.
New lines of railway, the
rice and kindred agricultural industries, the govern-
ment harbor work, the concentration o:\ the lumber
industries, the incoming of welthy farriers and in-
vestors from every part of the country, new industrial
enterprises and many other important elements hav
enterd into the interesting tale of progres. Inflated
claims and unfair advertising hav not been resorted
to. The whole story is one of solid facts and legiti-
mate business that speak for themselves. These facts
hav for several years spoken so clearly that they hav
begotten in the minds of the people of Houston the
conviction that theirs is to become n great city.
This conviction is shared by the state at large and
by the Southwest generally, and is so fi-m and wide-
spred that it has become an asset of much importance
in the groth of the city.
Anyone desiring a copy of this pamflet can obtain one by addressing a letter to
HOUSTON BUSINESS LEAGUE,
HOUSTON, TEXAS.
W. H. COYLE & CO.. PHI:
