A thumb-nail history of the city of Houston, Texas, from its founding in 1836 to the year 1912 Page: 163

THE CITY OF HOUSTON, TEXAS 163
director of publicity. There are of course a great
many business men heads of committees and good
workers too, but the gentlemen named are the real
workers and the ones who accomplish things.
The average citizen does not know how much
good has been accomplished for Houston by the
Chamber of Commerce, nor how much good is being
planned for the future. It is a working body and it
does not confine its labors to union hours, of an
eight hour day, but puts in every waking hour of
the entire twenty-four. A vast amount of valuable
information has been collected, and preserved in
such form as to be immediatey available.
Houston is today the home of vast commercial
and manufacturing enterprises, most of them having
come here during the last six or eight years. It
is, for instance, the largest lumber market in the
Southwest and one of the largest in the world.
That does not mean that there are extensive mills
and manufacturing plants here, but it does mean
that about all the lumber made in Texas is con-.
trolled and handled by Houston firms, which are
the greatest in the South. There are over 250
great sawmills in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas
controlled and represented through offices located
here.
The following are the big Houston firms with the
capacity of their plants:
Kirby Lumber Company, manufacturers, 400,000,000
feet.