IFTY years ago, the straggling hamlets nestling among the magnificent

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that adorn the slopes from the Contra Costa hills to the bay marked the site upon which has grown a magnificent municipalitythe city of Oakland. Favored by nature as few cities are favored, with a superb outlook upon the gateway to the Orient, the portals of which open directly in front of this splendid city, Oakland stands to-day undisputed in her right to claim first rank among the important municipalities of the Pacific Coast.

Half a century and more has passed since the pioneers wended their way to the beautiful groves along the eastern bay shore, and there began the building of a great city. For many years the early Spanish settlers hereabouts had found an outlet along the San Antonio for their product. Remains of the old embarcadoro still stand in East Oakland, while survivors of those days before and during the gold times, still recount the stories of the Peraltas and the other Spanish dons who counted their cattle by thousands and their land by leagues. With a population of not less than 200,000, with an endowment of natural advantages unsurpassed, with a public school system unequaled, with facilities for commerce and manufactures, not better on the Coast, with climate as perfect as California climate can be, with business, social, religious and fraternal activities highly developed, these are some of the advantages which Oakland offers in its invitation to the world to come and be one with

offers such an outlook as this superb water park does for beauty of setting.

Oakland also possesses one of the best street railway systems in the United States, and it is being constantly improved. Two trans-continental railways find their terminii in Oakland, the Southern Pacific Company and the Santa Fe A third, the Western Pacific (the Gould system) has rails now laid in this city, and its trains will be in operation within two or three years. And it is far from unlikely that James J. Hill, the wizard of the Northwest, will also find an entrance here for his projected road to San Francisco Bay.

Oakland's banks, stable and strong, hold the splendid record of never a failure in their long. honorable careers.

Factories and warehouses, springing up as if by magic, are lining the harbor front. Four great ferry systems, three of the Southern Pacific, the fourth the Key Route, supply excement trans-bay service.

On the social side, we find the city one of the musical centers of the Coast. We find clubs and many other organizations devoted to the higher affairs of life. We find the churches of every denomination large and powerful factors for good in the community. We find a superior class of population, what might be termed a picked population, drawn to the city by the many attractions it offers, not only to the home seeker, but the investor, the merchant, the manufacturer, the artisan and the professional man. Well ordered in its civic life, wel sustained in its attitude toward all that makes for the comfort and best interests of its citizens, I do not hesitate to place the city of Oakland among the best communities of the country.

The city is progressive; it is forging ahead at a remarkable rate; it is fostering public improvements and is giving attention to, the needs of a rapidly developing municipality intelligently and broadly.

The city has two organizations of business men, the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants' Exchange, both of which, in their respective spheres, are actively and enthusiastically concerned in the welfare of the community.

Public work has taken on a new aspect, and private enterprise is forcing improvements at a rapid rate. Not only is the city taking on a new aspect, but there is a quickening of spirit throughout which makes for future develop

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ment as at no time in the city's history. Evidence of this is at every hand. Modern methods of dealing with such items as the improvement of public streets, the "undergrounding of overhead wires, the construction of public buildings. the handling of public affairs in general, are being employed. In short, a city in fact as well as in name, is springing forth to give evidence irrefutable of the character of those who are proud to say they are citizens of the city of Oakland.

NTIL very recent years the city of Oakland has been known only as a place of residence. It has been known and ridiculed as the bed-chamber of San Francisco. It has been said that Oakland was vaccinated for a city, but did not take, and all this, in the face of the fact that geographically considered Oakland may be considered the Queen City of the Pacific Coast. Situate on a gently rising plateau, reaching from the bay to the mountains, its natural beauty enhanced by every variety of landscape and natural coloring; blessed with the most perfect climate of California, is it at all strange that old Oakland was content to be a city of homes? Covering a territory sufficient for a population beyond the million mark, with an acre of ground instead of a twenty-five foot lot for nearly every inhabitant; a place where people loved rest and sunshine and flowers more than the hum of factories, or the screech of locomotives, or the creaking of trucks, is it strange that Oakland was so slow to realize its importance as a commercial center and as a railroad terminal? Was it strange that the first railroad to pass through Oakland took advantage of its great opportunities and attempted quickly to reach for everything in sight? Could the promoters be blamed for their foresight or criticised for their desire to control the great possibilities on the eastern side of the bay? A community

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half asleep made this situation easy for the invaders, and for many years it was generally understood that there was no room for more than one railroad in Oakland or on the east side of the bay. It was also industriously circulated that this community was inimical to railroads, as well as to all large industrial or quasi public corporations. In spite of the assertion "it could never be done," the Santa Fe Railroad gained an entrance without fuss, and cheaply, to the northern part of the city. Later the Western Pacific Railway (the greatest boom to the Pacific Coast that has happened since the days when the Central Pacific Railroad was built across the Sierras by its wise and sturdy founders), after a careful investigation of all the inducements offered for terminal sites on the Bay of San Francisco, selected this city as its terminal. That the Southern Pacific Company, with its millions invested on the east shore, is very much alive, and has been reluctant to divide the plum, is entirely natural. It is not to be supposed that these giant railroad corporations have overlooked a single feature of the natural strategic position of the city of Oakland. With a water front upon the great Bay of San Francisco sufficient in magnitude to provide for the commerce of the Pacific; with a perfectly landlocked harbor, reaching into the very heart of the community on the eastern shores of the

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It is necessary to answer personally his letter of inquiry and send several kinds of literature, never forgetting to say to the writer that if the literature does not contain all the information upon any subject he may desire that a simple request will furnish the requisite information. It is a follow-up proposition. case the first lot of literature does not bring any request, the next month, when a new lot comes from the printer, something additional is mailed. If the original writer has lost his interest or has decided to go elsewhere, or even to remain where he is, the literature is not lost. It still has an advertising value, for it may lie on the desk or table of the first party, and be seen by some friend, taken, read and the second party become interested in Oakland

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Alameda County. Just as a magazine is read by each member of the family and then is "borrowed" by a friend of the family, and thus another entirely new set of readers absorbs its contents, so does the literature sent out by a Chamber of Commerce reach unthought-of hands. When in the course of a twelve-month, upwards of four hundred thousand pieces of literature are mailed, calling attention to the advantages of a city or county, it is not optimistic to say that close to a million people read that literature, and become at least slightly acquainted with Alameda County and Oakland and their products, manufactures and possibilities. Even if but a score of those readers are sufficiently interested to write for additional information, and subsequently become residents of the city or county, every merchant and professional man in the county is benefited. There are all kinds of merchandise to be purchased, the home to be furnished, food for the members of the family, shoes and clothing for all, and it is not to be supposed that a year passes but what the services of the doctor and lawyer are needed. In the first

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Commerce, thence by replies to letters ceived, resulting in the parties coming to Oakland and talking with the officers of the Chamber of Commerce, and finally with the erection of the factory, often after local capitalists have taken stock in the enterprise, and thus given it added impetus and a stronger local interest. The Chamber of Commerce is but the reflection of the interest manifested by the citizens of a community in the community itself. It mirrors the civic pride and progressiveness of the community-ask the secretary of any Chamber of Commerce the number of members in that Chamber; then ask the population of the city or county, and as a thermometer registers truthfully the climatic conditions, just as truthfully will the membership in a Chamber of Commerce measure the civic pride and interest of her citizens in that section. In Oakland, with a population at the present time of two hundred thousand people, the membership is, in round figures, about one thousand, with additional members being elected at each meeting of the Board of Directors. But then the population has almost doubled in the past year, and so busy have the officers of the Chamber been in locating new-comers, manufactories and merchants that but little time has been left in which to make any attempt at securing new subscribers.

The permanent exhibit of the products of the county maintained in the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce is to the stranger an index of what can be accomplished and of the climatic conditions existing. When a stranger sees with his own eyes, without traveling through the entire county to learn of its products, what is the result of tilling the soil, he can and oft-times does make up his mind that he does not care to look farther for a place in which to locate with his family. He enthuses over the agricultural products, marvels at the

needs look no further for a location in which to settle. The exhibit should also contain samples of all the manufactured products of the county, as well as the agricultural, and thus a visit to the rooms be but the reflection of the possibilities and advantages of that county. With a first-class exhibit to back up his statements, the time of the secretary in convincing a new-comer that this is the section in which to locate is very materially lessened. The exhibit talks for itself, and saves the secretary anywhere from half an hour to an hour's talk with each new-comer or prospective settler. There is a duty every citizen owes to the local Chamber of Commerce, in addition to being a member thereof, and thus assisting in publishing and disseminating the literature to attract additional citizens, and that is, at all times when a stranger is visiting him, take him to the Chamber of Commerce, introduce him to the secretary, and ask questions concerning the productiveness and manufacturing importance of the section. There is not a man or woman in the entire community who cannot in some manner aid in the great work, and thus by interesting themselves in their own county and city, assist in interesting strangers. Hundreds of thousands of people in the Eastern States are to-day actually hungry for reliable information concerning California, and the best portion of the State in which to locate for their respective lines of trade, or peculiar fitness for certain lines, and if the specific conditions do not exist in one locality, the Chamber of Commerce or its representative should truthfully so state and refer the party to the one portion of the State that will prove satisfactory, for it is far better to have one satisfied family locate in any community and thus advertise to their Eastern friends that fact, than to have a score of unsatisfied individuals or families tinging their letters to the East with the stroke of the hammer. In brief, the Chamber of Commerce should be the Mecca sought by all newcomers for reliable information, and then, and then alone, is the work of the Chamber what it should be, a reflection of the conditions which prevail.

Every matter of importance to the city or

county, in which all classes are interested, should, and generally does have its inception in the Chamber of Commerce. There is the one place in which meetings of citizens are held to discuss matters for the common welfare of the locality. There the committees are appointed to do things, and see that things are done pro bono publico. Take, for instance, the late fire in San Francisco; it was at the Oakland Chamber of Commerce on April 19th that a meeting of citizens was called, and the Oakland Relief Committee formed. Through the efforts of this committee, over one hundred thousand refugees were sheltered and fed three days after the fire. Here it was that for months the usual work of the Chamber was substituted by the greater work of humanity. Here were the addresses of over three thousand business houses and professional men registered, that their former customers might find them. This list also proved of inestimable benefit in furnishing the Postmaster-General with these three thousand and over additional places of business, resulting in the additional force of the Oakland Post-office of over thirty additional men. The Oakland Chamber of Commerce was the prime factor in securing through our representatives in Congress the location of the U. S. Land Office in this city; also a sub-internal revenue office in the Federal Building, at which local importers, distillers and cigar manufacturers may pay their internal revenue taxes. Through the efforts of the Chamber several appropriations for the betterment of Oakland harbor have been secured, the last appropriation being for three hundred and fifty thousand dollars to obtain which the Chamber of Commerce sent a committee to Washington. The committees of the Chamber worked hard and successfully to secure the entrance into Oakland of the Santa Fe and the Western Pacific railroads, and is at all times ready to assist other transcontinental lines to locate their terminals in this city. The lighting of Broadway, Washington and Twelfth streets with electroliers, now about to be erected, was the work of the Chamber of Commerce. At the present time there are no less than a score of new enterprises considering Oakland as the city in which