USA > Maryland > The book of Maryland: men and institutions, a work for press reference > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
Coming to Baltimore in the sixties and having been a resident and worker here for more than a half century I have been a witness of or a participant in the movements that have produced the progressive city of 1920. I have seen Baltimore risc from a population of a quarter of a million to almost three-quarters of a million, its trade rise from a hundred millions to a round billion. its taxable basis increase from less than two hundred millions to over a billion, its foreign trade grow from a dozen millions to over four hundred millions, and its manufacturing output from fifty mil- lions to a billion, and with all these material advances has been the full fruition of a large and busy population in the arts and graces that make the City Beautiful, for with the best that statistics can show there is the further and better story of Baltimore's happy destiny as the home city of the Western Hemisphere and the capital of its most delightful society and hospitality. To all of these we may add its pre-eminence in education and medicine. No one can write the history of human progress during the past half century without mentioning Baltimore repeatedly in the narra- tive. This incomparable city has not only grown splendidly as a body. but has also contributed nobly to the great advances in all forms of culture. Its progress has been intellectual even more notably than it has been material.
From 1910 to 1920 Baltimore gained 34.46 per cent. and even allowing for the annexation of the suburbs it is reasonable that the unprecedented industrial growth now going on within the city limits will draw thousands of workers and their families to this city, and largely increase the gain of 175,431 made from 1910 to 1920. An idea of the safe and steady growth of Baltimore can be gathered from the following figures for the decennial years:
1790
13,503
1860
212,418
1800
26.514
1870
267,354
1810
46,555
1880
332,313
1820
62,738
1890
434,439
1830
80,620
1900
508,957
1840
102.313
1910
558,185
1850
169,054
1920
733,826
Page Tirenty Out
While Baltimore made a gain of more than a third in the ten years from 1910 to 1920 its standing in the new census is further down than in any previous census span. It stands eighth, the others being New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Boston, and eighth Baltimore. The new alignment was caused by Detroit's wonderful spurt in the making of automobiles and kindred things and by Cleveland's industrial expansion. Baltimore suffered by the loss of immigration during the six years preceding the taking of the new census, and yet it stood fourth among the big cities in the percentage of gain during the census period. No large city on the Atlantic seaboard equalled its rate of gain. Even Washington with its wartime boom did less. It is true that most of this gain came through annexation but this annexation was of population that has rightly belonged to Balti- more city for a full generation. It was of people who lived off the city and who were identified with it in every way except that they lived across a geographical line.
I was present at the first anniversary of the Pennsylvania Steel Company's coming to Sparrows Point, and at the dinner I sat near its genial president, Major Bent, and Wayne McVeagh, one of the wisest and most brilliant men of his day. Both of these told me that while the time might spread over years it was certain that great manufacturing would come to tidewater and that of all the tide- water locations none in America surpassed the Patapsco river. The millions they were investing then seemed tremendous to us, but think for a moment what has happened. Today the officers of this wonderful plant tell us they will spend $85,000,000 on improvements and enlargements and the amount does not even surprise us. In the yards at Sparrows Point two 20,000-ton ships are being built, the first of a fleet of ten to ply between Cuba and the Patapsco to carry Cuban ores to the Sparrows Point docks. Turn your mind back a bit. The first settlers came to Maryland in the Ark of two hundred tons and the Dove of fifty tons. Anchored in the Patapsco as these words are written are two hundred ships on any of which the Ark and Dove might be stored without the cargo space being missed. We have come to a new age and the great thing about Baltimore is that it has learned to think and act in tens of millions and billions.
In 1920 Baltimore's great project is the proposition to invest $50.000.000 in harbor improvement. It seems to me that this $50.000.000 port fund is a capital illustration of the mind of the new Baltimorc. Back of it lies the reason of the city's growth. In establishing a commercial point in the colony several sites were tried and finally the new Baltimore got its start on the Patapsco and grew around the head of the "basin": on January 12, 1730, the town of 60 acres was laid out west of Jones' Falls, and it developed with its commerce. The river channel and the 12 foot depth in the "basin" were ample for the ships of those early years, in fact for more than two centuries. and thus we have Baltimore rising comfortably on its natural facilities and becoming a port well known to the world. The goods of Europe and the products of Asia and South America were brought here and the tobacco, grains and other items of our agriculture were sent abroad. The days of the Balti- more clippers came, those graceful ships with all the sail that could be crowded on them, and of which it was said, "They start before the wind has time to reach their sails, and never allow it to come up with them." The clipper days were full of adventure and profit and Baltimore's name and fame were carried to the four corners of the globe. In the merchants and ship owners of these clipper days was the spirit of risk. They were keen sportsmen in world commerce and no port was too distant for their seeking. This spirit coursed in the blood of the city and became a potent influence in its life, so that Baltimoreans became known for their vivacity and their daring. Whether it be a horse race or a trip to the antipodes the Baltimorean was ever ready for a venture.
As ships grew in size and commerce changed Baltimoreans saw the need of deeper channels. They spent their money in dredging, piers, iceboats and other harbor improvements and then they sought and secured, along with other cities, help from the Government. The point here is that while Baltimore benefited by the Government aid it showed the spirit of self-help when some other places were depending wholly on appropriations from Washington. Only a few years ago Baltimore spent $10,000,000 on its municipally owned piers.
Thus Baltimore came to possess a large landlocked harbor dredged to 35 feet sufficient for the vast majority of ships afloat, and with a tidal range of only 14 inches. The many miles of shore line allowed unlimited development, and this development jumped by leaps and bounds during and following the Great War. In 1917 Baltimore's commerce rose to its highest figures, imports. $43 .- 972,790; exports, $374.033,121. Prior to the Great War Baltimore's overseas services numbered twelve lines serving fifteen foreign ports. Two years afterwards there are 40 lines, representing services operating to more than 80 foreign ports. During 1920 more than 200 ships at a time were
Page Tirenty-Tiro
anchored in the harbor and harbor approaches of Baltimore, these including huge cargo carrier -. Along with this new life on the water were coal piers, grain elevators and modern equipment by which the loading and unloading of ships could be done more expeditiously and economically in Baltimore than in any other port in the world. Compared with New York the turn around of a ship in Baltimore cost four thousand dollars less than in New York. Men interested in foreign trade organized and co-operated with the city and thus there came a harmonious and admirable policy for handling the whole harbor proposition and developing it systematically.
The result was the passage of an enabling act by the Maryland Legislature of 1920 whereby the city of Baltimore was empowered to spend $50,000,000 for port development. The scheme is an inspiration, for it is so planned that a great and vital investment will be made without taxing the citizens a penny. After ratification by the voters the expenditures are to be directed and the work is to be handled by a commission of leading citizens. The law states that the money shall not be spent "until the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, with the approval of the Board of Estimates, shall have entered into a binding contract, covering a period of not less than ten (10) years, secured to the satisfaction of said Board for the rental of the property so acquired, or to be acquired, improved or to be improved, at an annual rental charge equal to or greater than the sum of the annual interest on the expenditure for the acquisition, construction or improvement of the said property and the annual sinking or retirement fund charged thereon; and should the construction or improvement be upon or appurtenant to land or other property now owned by the city, the appraised value of such land or other property shall be included as a part of the cost of construction or improvement."
Nothing could better show the enterprise and courage of the modern Baltimore than this invest- ment of fifty million dollars and it is the finest possible assurance of Baltimore's great future as the safest and cheapest port of America-"Baltimore, the most Western of the Eastern ports, the most Northern of the Southern ports and the most Southern of the Northern ports." Being nearest Pittsburg. Buffalo and the West. Baltimore is the natural outlet for the products of the West and the natural distributing point for the products of the West Indies and South America. as well as one of the five great ports of the world for the commerce of all the nations.
Baltimore's new spirit was strikingly demonstrated anew in the overwhelming vote the people gave to the following loans in the elections of 1920: For public improvements, $26,000.000: for harbor development. a part of the $50.000.000 loan authorized by the legislature, $10,000,000; for increasing the water supply, $15.000.000; for a hospital for contagious diseases, $750,000.
I have given precedence to the port history and future of Baltimore because it is the factor that underlies Baltimore's rise as a great city. 1
For the same reason I call attention to the new life that is coming to Baltimore through the deepening and widening of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. After almost a century of arguinent and periodical agitation this dream is coming true. It is a profound satisfaction to me that I had part in the work. I was chairman of the commission appointed by President Roosevelt to report upon and appraise the property, my associates being Colonel Flagler, of the Army and Commander Chambers of the Navy, and Lynn R. Meekins, secretary. We gathered and placed before the public the remarkable statistics of the commerce of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and the possibilities that would follow the deepening of the 9-foot thirteen mile ditch into a sea level ship canal con- necting the two great bays and affording the saving of time and danger to ships in the trade of the world. It is not necessary to repeat all these figures here, but they mean millions added to Balti- more's commerce and the placing of this city on the great route of interior traffic that is to be built up along the Atlantic coast. When this canal was built over a century ago Maryland helped with its money. Now after all the years the canal will come to its destiny as a blessing to the main city of the State and to most of the people on the Chesapeake. The Government bought the canal at about the price we fixed and another generation will see the plan carried out. It means a full free channel to our interior commerce, the completion of the main link of the Atlantic waterways movement and the saving of over a hundred miles and a day of time to our European shipping. For all commodities this new canal will be useful and its value to the coal trade will be very large.
In coastwise trade Baltimore has regular services to eight Atlantic and four Pacific ports. It has a score of lines plying on the Chesapeake and its hundreds of miles of tributaries, bringing their richness and succulence to our incomparable markets. So. when we add all the elements and factors of Baltimore's commerce we understand how its water-borne trade reaches well toward- the
Page Twenty Three
billion mark and is mounting upward all the time. Better still, the outlook for the future is larger and finer than in any time of the port's history. With a port fully equipped to meet modern require- ments Baltimore will move to an unprecedented growth, for it is nearest to the centre of population of the United States, to the wheat and corn fields of the West, to the steel field of Pittsburg district and its railroad connections reach almost half of the manufactured goods of the country and it has an average freiglit rate to and from the Middle West of about sixty cents per net ton less than the rate to and from New York. These advantages are vital in the upbuilding of a city.
I have referred particularly to Sparrows Point because it was the largest enterprise to lead the movement of big manufacturing to tidewater and its establishment meant the combined and ripened judgment of the wisest and most powerful group of industrial captains in America. It aptly has been termed Baltimore's largest industry. Although it is not actually located on Baltimore territory it is so near that it is a large part of and a very potent influence in the life of the city. Do you realize what it is and what it means? It is the largest tidewater steel plant in America. It brings its own ores from its own mines in Cuba and other foreign countries in its own ships and its elec- trical equipment can unload a 10 000-ton ore boat in ten hours. Its storage yards hold 1,000.000 tons of ore and its grab buckets can pick up 17 tons of ore at once. Its 360 coke ovens consume 6,000 tons of coal a day and the daily by-products include 25,000,000 cubic feet of gas which sup- plies all of Baltimore city, 12,000 gallons of motor benzol fuel, 44,000 gallons of tar and 150,000 pounds of ammonia sulphate used in the making of fertilizers. Eight wonderful blast furnaces pro- duce daily 3,600 tons of pig iron. The electrical system represents 117,850 horse power. The steel making plants have a total capacity of 1,250,000 ingots annually. The rail mills turn out 35,000 tons of rails a month-and the Sparrows Point rail is found wherever a railroad exists. The plate mills produce 35.000 tons of plates per month. There are 24 tin plate mills producing 9,200 tons of tin plate per month-and it used to be said that Americans could not produce tin plate. Scores of splendid ships have been built at Sparrows Point; the plant has a capacity of 140,000 tons of shipping a year and practically 100 per cent. of the mills and machinery are fabricated within the plant itself. In the year 1920 ships of 20.000 tons capacity are being built. All this is tremendous and it is being enlarged at an expenditure that will mean practically all of a hundred million dollars.
Charles M. Schwab. the president. is on record as promising to make Sparrows Point the greatest steel plant in the world. It means not only more population for Baltimore and more wages to build homes and make wealth. but also the establishment of many other industries along the Patapsco. The Bethlehem Steel Company, which Mr. Schwab bought for $15,000,000, now repre- sents an investment close to a half billion dollars. From these huge sums and plans we get an idea of the way it does things, so when it plans to make Sparrows Point the greatest steel plant in the world it carries with it an assurance of enormous increase to Baltimore.
Many other enterprises spending millions and employing thousands line the Patapsco and dot the environs of Baltimore. There are excellent shipbuilding plants. For example, the Baltimore Dry Docks and Shipbuilding Company, covering an area of 60 acres under the shadow of Fort McHenry. Mr. Holden A. Evans, the president of this company, is one of the foremost shipbuilders of the United States. It has turned out more than a score of modern ships of very superior character and it has won a reputation for exceptional speed and promptness. The Barstow illustrates this. - The ship had been seriously damaged and bids for the repairs were asked, time being important. The Baltimore plant agreed to do the work in 65 days, the nearest competitor naming 130 days. The Baltimore plant delivered the ship in 64 days. It is not only the volume of work but the quality of work that has brought Baltimore to the front. Other plants which are well known and which have contributed their share to the making the new Baltimore grew almost by magic to meet the demands of the Great War and the needs that followed. Their owners and managers have become a large influence in the business and financial life of the city.
And yet, big as the big plants are and wonderful as they seem, they are only a part of the story of Baltimore's eminence as one of the leading manufacturing centres of the country. The Civic and Industrial Bureau of the Merchants and Manufacturers' Association has kindly supplied me with a detailed commodity list carefully prepared, these commodities being the products of Baltintore factories and each of them being on record in the Association's office for the information of buyers. The list comprises almost two thousand items, covering thousands of different articles, practically everything that is made, front a pin to a modern ship. You can equip a family, a home, or a farm, a store or a mill, or a fleet of ships straight from Baltimore factories. Now observe, please,
Page Twenty-Four
the economic value of such a circumstance. The number and variety of Baltimore factories are such that any serious interruption of its industrial life is never probable. It has the big enterprises but it is especially blessed with the moderate-sized plants that keep going. Thus we get to understand why Baltimore suffers less from strikes or lockouts than any other American city. The suspension of even a considerable part of Baltimore's working force is beyond the range of probability.
In Baltimore arc over 150,000 laborers engaged in manufacturing with an output of almost a billion dollars a year. In the number of manufacturing establishments Baltimore stands seventh in the major group of leading American industrial cities. It produces an enormous volume of clothing. millions of straw hats, millions of shirts, more canned goods than any other city, tinware fabrica- tions in great number, and is the largest manufacturer of fertilizers in the world. These are a few items of the many.
Fifty years ago Baltimore's jobbing and retail trade was from short distances, although good customers came on the coastwise ships and there were buyers from beyond the Alleganies. Today the wholesale trade takes up acres of floor space in modern warehouses and sends agents to every State of the Union and every country of the globe. Baltimore is doing a larger trade with the South than it ever did, although both the North and the West have tried their best to shake its hold. Further- more, Baltimore merchants have invaded the markets of the North and West and they are driving in deeper every year. It would be a hazard to even guess the total of this jobbing business but it is enormous.
In retail trade Baltimore has widened wonderfully within the past generation. The enterprise and reliability of the merchants, the freshness and dependability of their goods, the excellence of their service and the attractions of their stores have combined to give them success beyond expecta- tions. To Washington flock the representatives of the American people and the diplomats of the world. Every week scores of them run over to Baltimore to do their shopping. The ladies of the White House and the ladies of the embassies seek the attractions and bargains of the Baltimore stores. Shoppers from half the States come to Baltimore. Here again, figures would be only speculation but I am told that the value of the jobbing and retail trade of Baltimore is now well over a billion dollars a year.
Underlying all of the growth of the past fifty years has been the great work of the Baltimore financiers. Baltimore bank> have a history of safety. vision and help that is unique and it would fill a book. Not only do their figures run far into the millions and touch all the points of finance but they demonstrate that the finest asset of all is the character of the solid and farseeing men who guided the city's financial institutions to their present greatness.
Sixty per cent. of the homes of Baltimore are owned by their occupants. Every city calls itself a city of homes but I think the term can be applied to Baltimore with gratifying truthfulness. Naturally the Baltimore people are sociable and home-loving. All visitors have remarked upon that fact and the impressions they have carried away have been those of families happily sheltered. with abundance on their tables. Miles and miles of Baltimore streets are lined with attractive two-story houses and most of them are owned by the occupants. Baltimore is not only the home of homes but it is also the home of the Building Association. In the year 1920 there are six hundred of these associations in Baltimore, with capital resources said to be over $60,000,000. This form of associa- tion is usually a neighborhood affair in which a group of friends and neighbors make it possible for their friends and neighbors to purchase their homes and pay for them in weekly payments. usually covering a period of seven years. It brings a home within reach of every family that has a regular income or a regular worker and the good it has done has been inestimable.
In the home idea and the ownership of homes by the workers we find the cause of the excellence and reliability of the labor of Baltimore. The home owner hates a red flag or a strike. He is the type of citizen who makes a city of law and order and whose own investment is a sheet anchor of public security. A number of great industries which will give employment to more than twenty thousand persons are settling in Baltimore as I write these words and in almost every instance they have been drawn here by the peaceableness of the labor conditions. One of them, the head of a ten million dollar concern, said. "Nowhere in America, so far as I know, are the living conditions for every man, woman and child as comfortable and as inviting as those provided in Baltimore."
If one wishes a measure of Baltimore's ability to meet a great crisis and to emerge from it victoriously it can be found in the history following the year 1901 when the big fire devastated the
Page Twenty-Five
heart of Baltimore and destroyed property worth more than $125,000,000. The taxable basis of Baltimore in 1904 was $503,144,182. The taxable basis of Baltimore in 1920 is $1,086,349,852. Here is an increase of practically one hundred per cent. Fine as that is, it does not tell the full story. Baltimore's rise from its most prostrating disaster was cumulative, so that we find that the increase from 1919 to 1920 was $22,500,000 and this new growth in wealth and well-being is going on with larger speed as these words are written in the new census year.
I am sure that none of us will ever forget the fine spirit that kept us moving forward in the days of the fire and its aftermath. There was born a larger and more stimulating pride in our city, with a wider vision of its value and destiny. For more than a century Baltimore had been helping others. When misfortune visited a people or a community Baltimore was among the first to send aid. Baltimore dollars went to practically every State and city. It was particularly kind and generous to the South. Its donations embraced all forms of useful gifts, from cargoes of food to thousands of dollars. I can recall a score of funds we raised in the Baltimore American for the sufferers from fire, flood, earthquake and pestilence. This was good work and it was fitting that our big-hearted city should share its good fortune with those who had been visited by misfortune. So, when we had our fire, which to that moment was the most costly any American city had known, it was natural that other cities and States and some of the foreign lands should rush to our relief. They came in splendid spirit and abundance. Money, food, shelter, every form of aid was offered as swiftly as the wires could bring it. and these offers were accompanied by tributes that showed how Baltimore was beloved throughout the world. It was here the Baltimore people rose to a new heighth. They met through their representatives and boldly decided to stand on their own strength. Every offer of aid was declined with thanks and Baltimore went to work while the ruins were still burning. Nothing precisely like that ever happened before in the history of the world. It was not fully understood at first and some believed that Baltimore was a bit too proud. Here was a city with a loss equal to a fifth of its taxable basis. with its business section of many acres and scores of business blocks in ruins and yet it was refusing any help to make a new start and get on its feet. The fact was Baltimore never got off its feet. It did not lie down for a single fleeting minute. I know I was at work on plans for a new home for the Baltimore American before the fire was out and I know some of my neighbors were doing the same and we all felt the forward urge of each moving for a greater and better city and of all working in high enthusiasm for the success of our plans. I take pride in the fact that the American Building was the first big office building completed after the fire but I wish at the same time to pay tribute to my fellow-citizens who worked so zealously in the upbuilding from the ashes. The best thing Baltimore ever did was to decline the aid so gener- ously and unselfishly offered, for it created a new independence that made a finer people as well as a finer city.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.