Texarkana Host to Editors
•_
Twin City of Two States—Center of Wealth
and Industry
“Texarkana is ‘the ^gateway to the
Golden West,’ but it is my belief it al
go is the very center and heart of a
gectlon of golden opportunities,” re
marked one of the editors at the for
ty-fourth annual convention of the Ar
kansas Press Association in that city
the early part of this week, and this
belief seemed to prevail generally
among the editors, their wives and
their guests, who were given an op
portunity to judge for themselves as
to the exceptional opportunities which
are found in the Twin Cities.
“Opportunity knocks but once,” is
an old saying, but literally this does
not apply to Texarkana, inasmuch as
the opportunity is ever present there,
rather seelJM& the man than that the
man should seek it.
Following the Monday afternoon
business session of the press conven
tion, through the generosity of the au
tomobile owners of Texarkana—and
there are many generous ones among
them—the editors were taken on an
automobile ride over the Twin Cities,
shown the wonderful improvements
rnnHo since last the editors were
th© greatest city of its ‘size in the
entire South. As to the homes on
both sides of the state line, wealth Is
to be found in abundance.
As to banking facilities, few cities
are in a class with Texarkana. There
are six banks there, each of then'
sound as the rock of Gibraltar, and
the aggregate deposits amount to be
tween five and six million dollars
They nave ample reserve bank connec
tions.
The editorial party was taken on an
auto ride to many of the forty-nine
manufacturing establishments in Tex
arkana, and that the editors were sur
prised and amazed at their size and
the volume of annual output is putting
it mildly. These 49 manufacturing
plants turn out finished products tc
a number greater than one hundred
One of the greatest advantages ol
Texarkana as an industrial center is
the fact that the territory contiguous
furnishes an apparently inexhaustible
supply of wood and other fuel, sucl
as natural gas, oil and lignite. The
available timber supply can be safely
estimated at 1,500,000 acres, principal
ly of hardwoods, such_as hickory, oal£§>
L
.-L-<T
I
UltOAD STREET. LOOKING WEST.
The two large buildings are the State National Bank building and the
Texarkana National Bank building, which is the taller. Between them runs
State Line, dividing the two cities. The view extends west on Broad street
m to Texas.
there, told of the many wonderful Im
provements in the way of paving, in
creased water mains for better fire
protection, more fire houses, substan
tial business houses, etc, that are
about to be begun, and then were taken
on a tour of inspection to several
of the forty-nine manufacturing insti
tutions in the city.
Texarkana is situated in proximity
to four great states—Arkansas, Texas,
Oklahoma and Louisiana, t1ie dividing
hue of two of these states forms a
geographical division of the citv it
self, entailing the necessity of sepa
rate municipal governments, each
^ith its own mayor and city council,
Police department, etc., and each en
joying its own peculiar individualities
and growth, yet united in a common
cause the upbuilding of a greater
Texarkana. There is a commendable
commercial and social co-operation be
tween the two cities that augurs well
for the future.
Texarkana is rapidly forging to the
front, and there are five logical rean
8°ns, briefly summarized as follows:
Texarkana is a city of homes, a city
°f factories, a city of schools, a city
of churches and a city with ideal*,
heip are supplemental reasons with
°Ut nuir>ber why Texarkana is, and
1 exarkana will continue to ba
ash,# and gum—aTl 'within convenient
distance of the city.
The 49 factories employ approxi
mately 2,000 men. It is estimated
there are employed as wage earners
within the Twin Cities a total of 5,0u0
persons, entailing a monthly pay roll
of $250,000. The total value of the
j products from the Texarkana facto
ries in 1914 was $3,126,000, and the
present year bids fair to show an in
crease of almost 25 per cent over
ihose figures.
With its geographical location at
the corners of four states, Texarkana
is blessed with railroad facilities such
as no other city of like size in the
United States enjoys. Other cities
may have more carriers entering
them, but none with lines diverging
to a more resourceful territory. There
are nine separate lines entering Tex
arkana, affording ready shipping facil
ities in any direction and placing the
output of Texarkana factories and
farms in close and constant touch
with the marketing centers of the
world
Thus Texarkana, while actually the
gateway to the great Southwest, also
is virtually the gateway to the four
states, and as a result there can be
procured there a combination ol
freight rates, interstate or intrastate,
that makes for the shippers an easy
basis on wmcn ro get their goods
through this inland port of entry. It
is conservatively estimated an aver
age of 35,000 to 45,000 people daily
pass through this city in their travels
north or south or east or west.
Texarkana is a city of beautiful
and costl/ homes, of well kept lawns,
neatly cleaned streets, and of parks
vherever there happens to be a va
cant lot, most of which is due to the
Civic League, the members of which
are never idle. With the aid of the
Boy Scouts, and from subscription r
liberally made each month, the Civi<
League ladies keep a “white wing’
officer who attends to the task of
keeping the streets clean and the
parks in first-class condition.
Many improvements are about to
be undertaken in Texarkana. The
Texarkana Water Corporation is now
engaged in laying larger and addition
al water mains for better fire Drotec
tma, this work to cost $30,000; the
S’ Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern
Railway is preparing to pave four
b ocks along its right of way in the
v holesale district, a work which will
oust approximately $40,000; the en
tire Arkansas side of the city has
been included in a street paving dis
irict, and 52 blocks are to be paved,
guttered and otherwise improved at
*n estimated cost of between $300,
000 and $400,000. This wrnrk is to
start within the .next four to six
weeks, it was stated. Other improve
ments, either nowT under way or con
templated, include the double track
ing of their line to Fulton by the Iron
Mountain; the building of 60 miles
of improved highway from Texarkana
to the Red River crossing at Fulton;
another highway to the Louisiana
line, and in Bowie county, the Texas
side of the city, an expenditure of
more than $100,000 is to be made in
the building of public highways, so
that Texarkana will soon be the hub
of a perfect network of good roads.
Four national highways are to pass
through Texarkana.
One of the greatest advantages ac
cruing to Texarkana is the fact that
It is situated in the very center of
one of the greatest producing belts in
this entire section. The variety and
quantity of products cannot be ex
celled anywhere. The soils are gray
sandy loam, loam and clay, merging
into brown and black sandy loams,
and clay in the river bottoms. Fruits,
vegetables, garden truck of every
known variety, feed stuffs—all are
prolific producers in this soil. The
growing of grapes is an industry
which has had a wonderful progress
during recent years, and this luscious
fruit bids fair to become one of the
chief products of the soil in that sec
tion.
Farm lands in the vicinity of Tex
arkana range in value probably lower
than anywhere in the United States
in proportion to their productiveness.
The average value per acre in Miller
county is $14.13, with a yield of $22.04
per acre, while in Bowie county ths
average is torty cents per acre higher.
During their stay in Texarkana the
editors were very forcibly impressed
with the conviction that Texarkana is
on the map, commercially, financially
and socially, and that the Twin Cities
are well prepared to meet newcomers,
entertain them and hold them after
getting them there. The Texarkana
commercial organizations are working
industriously to make Texarkana
known to the world as one of the
premier cities of the great South by
reason of its natural environment and
the aggressiveness of its citizens in
dividually and collectively.
A very pleasing part of the editors’
meeting there was a reception and
organ recital tendered the guests in
the Congregational Church. Mrs. Co
zia Hynson Case, an organist whose
well-earned reputation is not confined
to the boundaries of Arkansas, Texas,
Oklahoma and Louisiana, . conducted
the recital on the echo organ, one of
the finest instruments ever introduced
in this section of the country, and the
second one in the entire South, the
only other one being at Dallas. Mr.
Edward Johnston, manager of the
Little Hock branch of the Western
Newspaper Union, sang several solo#
that added greatly to the occasion,
and the ladies of the first families of
the Twin Cities were in the receiving
line to bid the visitors welcome. The
recital was such as few cities could
present, and the visitors and their
wives were profuse in their expres
sions of appreciation.
Tuesday evening the magnificent
Texarkana Country Club was thrown
open to the editorial delegation, and
a dance and reception was enjoyed.
The banquet Monday night was one of
the greatest affairs of its kind ever
attempted by Texarkana, and was a
crowning success to the efforts of the
local newspaper men there. Hon. Lee
J. Roundtree, president of the Na
tional Editorial Association, wai
among the visitors, and made a brief
talk at the banquet, as well as at the
business sessions of the convention.
Another prominent visitor at the meet
ing was Walter B. Whitman, publisher
TEXARKANA CASKET FACTORY.
Birds-eye view of one of Texar
kana’s fifty industrial institutions. In
addition to the manufacture of caskets
and all kinds of undertakers’ supplies,
it produces the finest line of ornate
red cedar chests, which are in wide
demand. Its shipments cover several
states.
of Holland’s Magazine and president
of the Texas Press Association.
The citizens of Texarkana showered
themselves with laurel wreaths in
their entertainment of the Arkansas
editors, and each one wTho attended
this year’s meeting in Texarkana will
look forward to next year’s joint ses
sion there with the Texas Press As
sociation with a vast deal of pleasant
anticipation.
Fortunate Accident.
“That there least boy of mine, Bear
cat, takes after his maw’s mother,”
stated Mr. Gap Johnson of Rumpus
Ridge. “It’s a lucky thing that he
wasn’t born a two-headed boy, or he’d
shore battle himself to death.”—Kan
sas City Star.
First and Second Wives.
The second wife is usually happier
than the first because by that time
a man has got all his bachelor the
ories about “how to rule a woman”
and “how to make over a wife” out of
his system.—Exchange.
Feed For Sale
PRICES RIGHT
W. O. Barrentine
L. B. WINFREE, J. P.
CONVEYANCES