South Bend Today, August 01, 1914

              South Bend today
Official Publication South Bend Chamber of Commerce
VOL. I. AUGUST 1, 1914 NO. 2.
LAST YEAR’S BUILDING RECORD
PASSED
That there was nothing especially
unusual about the fact that the May
building permits showed a gain of
100% over May a year ago and that
June showed an increase of almost
50% over the same month last year,
is shown by the figures for the first
six months of 1914.
The total for the first half of the
.year was $¿>63,054.70, wicnrn $30,000
of the total amount of all permits
issued during the whole of 1913 and
$341,340.75 more than for the first
six months of that year.
July building permits so far issued
and which include one for $100,000
for additions to the Oliver Hotel, put
the total of permits this year over the
million mark and leave less than a
third of a million to be issued during
the remainder of the year to top the
record year of 1910, when the total
was over a million and a third.
Continued building activity means
steady employment for the outdoor
trades and is reflected in the healthy
tone of business.
OVERLAND DISTRIBUTING
AGENCY
E. A. Bennett, of Toledo, has come
to this city to have charge of the dis­tributing
agency of the Willys-Over-land
Automobile Co., which will have
the territory comprising the north­western
Indiana counties and a small
o<+,-vir» ’ -p
The fixtures and lease of the Seely
Auto Garage, on N. Michigan street,
have been secured and after some re­modeling
the place will be stocked
with Overland automobiles, the busi­ness
being carried on under the title
of the Overland South Bend Co. It will
also be an Overland service station.
That Mr. Bennett will prove a good
accession to the business community
is indicated by the fact that immedi­ately
following the closing of contract
for lease he came to the Chamber of
Commerce with a signed application
blank and a check for his first six
months dues. He wishes to become
thoroughly identified with the com­munity
and will take an active part in
all business movements as he has al­ways
done elsewhere.
The securing of this agency means
the bringing of several experts here
with their families and the conduct­ing
of a big advertising campaign
from here. Incidentally it is inter­esting
to note that the figures in the
July Today showing that South Bend
was literally the second city, played a
deciding part in getting this agency.
Willys Says No Depression
A London dispatch of July 10 says:
Instead of being “psychological” the
present business dej^f^ssion is purely
sentimental, John R. Willys, presi­dent
of the*Willys-Overland Automo­bile
Company, believes. That was his
characterization today of the business
outlook in America, given just before
he left for Carlsbad.
“In the next twelve months,” said
Willys, “we expect to turn out 75,000
automobiles. Last year we manufac­tured
45,000, and sold them all. It
is strange that all this sentimental
talk about business depression in­creases
so rapidly the demand for
good autompbiles, isn’t it? Business
is good for those who have good stuff.
The best shops and high class mater­ials
are continuing to win all along
the line. We expect to ship 7,500
automobiles to Europe next year. The
majority of the 75,000 cars we will
turn out will be $1,475 cars. We will
sell them all.”
PICKLF- SALTING STATION
The building of a large pickle salt­ing
station in this city, containing
twenty vats with a capacity of up­wards
of 500 barrels of pickles each,
by the Reid-Murdock Co. of Chicago,
has caused considerable interest to be
felt in this new industry. Stations
have been built at Lydick and Osce­ola,
added to which plants are already
in operation at Walkerton and Lake­ville,
making five in all for this district.
Contracts have been made with the
farmers which insure them $1 a bush­el
for “firsts” and 50c a bushel for
“seconds” for the cucumber crop and
as 75 bushels to the acre is a good
average crop, they should do well.
County Agent J. S. Bordner says the
soil of St. Joseph county is well
adapted for the crop.
BOOSTERS TRAVEL OVER THE
MICHIGAN ROAD
Probably the most enthusiastic
bunch of good roads boosters which
ever started out from South Bend was
the one which left the Oliver hotel
corner at 8 o’clock Saturday morning,
July 18, with the purpose of travers­ing
the “Michigan road” to Logans-port
where a similar party of boost­ers
was to be met from Indianapolis.
hhe party was headed by M. L.
Williams, secretary of the local Lin­coln
Highway association, Mayor F.
W. Keller, L. P. Hardy, Fred Dennis,
and was accompanied by F. A. Miller,
editor The South Bend Tribune, W.
H. Phelan, of the News-Times, Ex-
Mayor C. A. Bookwalter of Indian­apolis,
County Attorney Dan Pyle,
A. M. Russell, Ludwig Blake, J. D.
Russell, E. H. Potter, Dick Townsend,
Rev. H. M. Appleby, Sam Leeper, J.
L. Hayne, E. A. Stoll, D. W. Place,
E. T. Bonds, Carl May, Jack Bitzler,
H. G. Spaulding, secretary of the
Chamber of Commerce, Guy Carpen­ter
and M. L. Brummitt, of New Car­lisle.
Others joined the party at
Plymouth and Rochester.
The Indianapolis party was delayed
but two machines arriving before the
departure of the South Bend men for
home, W. S. Gilbreath, secretary of
the Hoosier Motor Club, Luke W.
Duffy, secretary of the state highway
commission, Maurice Judd, of the
Indianapolis News, M. E. Archer, A.
S. Blakely, Percy Collins and Annis
Burke comprising tne party.
Despite the fact that the tour over
this particular road was intended to
be sort of a “horrible example” to
those who made the trip, most of the
home comers made the trip in three
and a half to four hours, leaving
Logansport after 5 o’clock. The total
mileage of the trip was 132 miles.
The South Bend party made its
first stop at Lakeville for a short
time in the morning, proceeding on
through Lapaz and arriving at Ply­mouth
at 11. Here the first speeches
were made by Dan Pyle and Mayor
Bookwalter and a hastily summoned
band added to the spirit of the occa­sion.
The party then proceeded on
through Argos and on to Rochester,
where more speeches were made. No
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