Springfield High School - Capitoline Yearbook (Springfield, IL)

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Administration N ADDITION to being the seat of government and a point of great historical importance, Springfield is an important center of trade and industry. Over 116 industries of diversified char- acter provide an ideal employment situation and are advantageous to the established concerns and to the commercial activity of the community. The conditions have produced an excellent. supply of la- bor adaptable to and experienced in nearly every type of manufacturing. More than sixty-one hun- dred people are wage-earners in the industries of Springfield, exclusive of the coalmines. The largest industry in Springfield centers around the mining of coal. Springfield is in the heart of a great coal producing area. Approxi- mately six million tons of good quality bituminous coal are mined annually in Sangamon County from about thirty active mines. Unskilled labor finds work in this industry. Over four thousand men are employed and are paid annually nearly ten mil- lions of dollars of the fuel trade receipts. Much of the coal is sent to northern Illinois and to other attractive markets. Realizing the benefits of the coal industry, the merchants and business men of Springfield have organized into various commercial clubs and asso- ciations, part of whose purposes are to foster and improve the coal industry. Prominent among these are the Chamber of Commerce and the Retail Mer- chants Association. The former has a membership of over 2000 business and professional men of the community. Its executives are sincerely appre- ciative of coal resources in Springfield, and their efforts are centered on the promotion of coal min- ing and the employment of coal miners. Only re- cently a strenuous campaign was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce with the slogan Buy Illi- nois Coal. This is but one example of the bearing of coal to the industrial progress of Springfield. Springfield is in the heart of a great valley. One fifth of the national buying power, or twenty million purchasers are within 300 miles of Spring- field. Within a radius of 50 miles, about 150 towns and villages look to Springfield as their trading and retail center. And, with the gradual west- ward movement of the economic center of the nation, Springfield with its proximity to the center of popu- lation, seems sure to be in line for the location.

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