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Francisco may be seen the Phoenix rising from its ashes, emblematic of the achievements of those sturdy pioneers, whom the men of to-day will justify and follow.

The task before us is the building of a great city, a city great in population, great in commerce, great in art, and great in its ideals of citizenship. Nor are we lacking in material. We have:

Location on the favored side of a great continent, facing the greatest ocean.

A land-locked harbor, where all the ships that sail the seas could find safe anchorage.

The logical meeting place between sail and rail on the commercial highway between the Occident and the Orient.

The future great port of call on the route to be opened up by the Panama Canal.

The commercial metropolis of a Western empire, whose natural resources, as yet but slightly developed, have no equal on the globe.

A climate at once mild and stimulating, calculated to develop man's best mental and physical energies.

A citizenship whose courage and capacity have successfully met the severest test that ever confronted mortal man.

With such material, who shall doubt our ability to accomplish the task that lies before us?

Our city has been sorely stricken, but the wound is not mortal-not even danIndeed, the blow that fell but gerous. served to arouse a determined people to united and heroic action. True, some millions of property have been consumed by fire, and the business portion of the city reduced to ruins, but already thousands of mechanics have begun the work of restoration, while industrial captains are working out, on bold, broad lines, a greater and a more powerful commercial

center.

No human power can prevent the future greatness of San Francisco. Its destiny is marked by every condition that leads to industrial and commercial supremacy. Nor can her progress be stayed by any human agency save lack of harmony among her Own people. United, the people of San Francisco will go forward with giant strides; divided and inharmonious, their progress will be seriously retarded.

We must now agree on the fundamentals, leaving our fads and our fancies for the after-days of luxurious discontent.

Civic pride is as essential to a city's growth as is industrial enterprise; honest Government and fair dealing are as essential in the building of a great city as is the development of commerce.

Never before was so stupendous a task thrust so suddenly upon a people; never before was such an opportunity presented to achieve such great, such lasting and such magnificent results.

If our recent calamity shall have resulted in creating here, in San Francisco, a spirit of civic and industrial harmony; if it shall have obliterated the noisy and obstructive "knocker," and relegated to oblivion the pettv factional jealousies that have so frequently stood in the way of the city's material development and progress, then mav we look forward to 4 career as unparalleled in its achievements as was our fire exceptional in its destructiveness.

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HE question of what San Francisco will be depends very largely upon the stamina of the citizens who constitute it. If the past of San Francisco is any guidance for the future. it will be safe to assume that the present adversities will bring out all that is strong in an unusually strong people. made so by the necessities of this situa tion, and former conditions.

It was inevitable that San Francisco should burn; most people recognized this. Now the most important question is that the City be re-organized and re-districted. Under the government of the new regime, it will have better and more uniform buildings; it will have improved avenues of access to its hills. It is a city of hills, and yet the grades heretofore have been so steep that the fire horses dropped dead in the late conflagration when endeavoring to ascend them.

There will probably be a great deal of

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discussion pro and con in regard to the broadening and improving of the streets and thoroughfares and the building of fire barriers. Some of the local officials have held that fire barriers were incompetent in retarding the fire, and yet the national authorities very positively state that unless fire barriers of a sufficient width be made, we will have to pay for the omission in the increased insurance rates every year.

San Francisco may be created the grandest city in the United States,probably in the world. Its commercial advantages are so radical and positive, and the earning power of its citizens as a consequence so great, that we can well afford to do things thoroughly, when we start to rebuild our city.

If, however, with no thought to the future, we decide to give all our energies to the accumulating of "filthy lucre" from whatever temporary and unstable existence resources, that, coming into

since the calamity, suggest themselves to us; if we are willing to accept narrow streets and insecure homes; be at the mercy of fire, with an inadequate water system;-probably we would make more money (for the time being and providing our investments were in the nature of bonds) than we would with the general good of the whole city and its people nearest our hearts. On the other hand, the average property owner and wage earner will secure more from the city in a rational and substantial way, on well thought-out lines, than he will on any plan of false economy which might suggest itself in these unpropitious times.

The danger in our present situation is the fact that we are impressed too vividly by existing circumstances, (thereby failing to calculate for the time to be,) and do not plan as we would if the future lay smoothly and distinctly before us, when we could grapple with it forcefully and understandingly.

I am reminded of the man who said in response to the urgency of his minister to pay his church dues, that "he could not because his landlord was pressing him." The minister replied that his obligation to the Lord was just as great, whereupon the man answered: "Yes, that's so, but He is not pressing me so hard!"

Personally, I have had more requests for investments from people who are non-residents of the city, since the fire, than I have had heretofore in a much longer time. I do not believe the intrinsic value of real estate will change very much. Real estate, naturally is not worth as much to-day without income, as it will be when it is producing income, but this is only a temporary state of affairs. My judgment is that real values will remain substantially as they were before the fire. Anouck fain.

To the westward there lies the water empire of 8,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean and its great bordering seas; on these the world's greatest commerce is rapidly developing."

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AN FRANCISCO has to eastward a land empire bordered only by the limits of the continent of North America. The choicest bit of this empire is the mountain locked valley of California, which has its only tide water outlet at Carquinez straits; it embraces 16,000 square miles of level land of the highest fertility and an almost frostless climate as in the latitudes of Southern Italy, Greece and Smyrna.

In addition, the wealth of mines, forests and foot hills covers 36,000 square miles of the slopes of the Sierras and Coast Ranges, all directly tributary to San Francisco.

To the westward there lies the water empire of 80,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean and its great bordering seas on these the world's greatest commerce is rapidly developing. San Francisco's future must therefore be commercial, the commercial supremacy of that ocean and its vast wealth. In her warehouses must be stored the products of the people of that vast territory to be distributed to the people of our own and adjoining countries; through her Golden Gate must go, if we have facilities therefor, the travel and trade between the United States and the Orient.

We have always attracted the traveler and the tourist; we may in time become beautiful. But, first of all, we must be commercial.

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MARSDEN MANSON, formerly chief engineer of the harbor of San Francisco, and President of the Board of Public Works. "The future of San Francisco depends upon the facilities we afford to commerce and manufactures *** In the spirit of men in earnest, we must provide every means for not only claiming, but holding, commercial supremacy."

To accomplish our purpose three factors play their parts, each important, but dependent and linked to the other: 1. The ship. 2. The car. 3. The warehouse, the wholesale store and the factory. These must be put in juxta position. The ship must land its cargo on the platform of the car or at the door of the warehouse. The carload must be delivered to the ship, to the warehouse, or to the factory, so that the raw material may be worked up and loaded from the packing room floor back into car or ship, as commerce demands.

We are about to enter into a period of railroad competition. The Northern Pacific Railroad is now under construction, and will, within two years, be actively engaged in transportation. We must prepare for its advent and the stimulus to trade and industries which it will bring.

The future of San Francisco, therefore, depends upon the facilities we afford to commerce and manufacturers. If, with short-sighted and selfish policy, we place barriers in the way of the ready and cheap transfer of freight and of the receipt or delivery of raw materials. and manufactures, commerce and its attendant industries will be driven elsewhere. Active and efficient rivals will provide the very facilities which we may deny. The balance between routes is too delicate for us to risk all by denying to these three great agencies the means of giving us the supremacy.

Our water front must first be put in shape to give better facilities than can be provided at any other point between Mexico and British Columbia. We must cease to prattle and bray about our "grand harbor" and "glorious climate," and in the spirit of men in earnest, provide every means for not only claiming, but holding, commercial supremacy.

The shore lines and deep water inside the Golden Gate to the remotest limits of navigation of our rivers, must be considered as a unit, and with the adjunct of competing rail lines traversing the continent, must be made subsequent to the ends of commerce and manufacturers.

There will then be no need of asking: "What is to be the future of San Francisco?" The question will be: "How far is San Francisco going to exceed all other

marts on the shores of the Pacific Ocean?" Mardin Manson.

"With the coming months will come an influx of money by millions of dollars."

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IME is a great physician. heals all wounds.

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The extent of

a disaster must not be measured by the instant damage, but by the ability to recuperate. Time has already begun the healing process, and while the people are still waiting for insurance settlements wonderful progress has been made in the matter of rebuilding San Francisco.

Twenty thousand men working on reconstruction within two months from the day the fire started means that a wonderful power is in operation. When it is remembered that after the Baltimore fire. where the area of devastation was not one-seventh of that which the fire swept over in San Francisco, it was eleven months before the work of removing the debris and of reconstruction really began, it will be seen that San Francisco has made a remarkable record of progress.

With the coming months will come an influx of money by millions of dollars. The payments of dividends by banks an other large financial corporations

and

the payment of insurance policies in large amounts will mean that the business men of San Francisco will have ample funds for the rebuilding of the city's commercial center. The twenty thousand men who were at work at the close of the eighth week after the fire will be double and probably trebled, and this of itself will mean an immense retail trade for the city.

The immediate housing of the men who are to do this vast amount of labor, together with their families, is one of the vital questions of the hour. In its solution we necessarily have additional labor in the construction of homes for the people. The plans of Mayor Schmitz in which it is proposed to have three districts, and provide homes to be paid for in installments, will go far toward solvin this problem. It is a practical and feasible plan which can be worked out

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