THE OMAHA HKK: THURSO A V. Jl'XE 20. 102.
II . fflMv Mill I E '
1 MVf Jl H I
I::SfflCils"yF "iSJSS j"H F& street fifty yean ago. Iniet i a picture of Douglas street west of
1 11 w4 f'ta J--88 JCpJ W Bi Fifteenth street, taken in 1870. All one sees is the muddy streets and 'I 11"
V FP!!SiIZSi"'j Lr small frame structures typical of the prairie village that was Omaha.
Iftos SflT ' i53 V ' . Stt)jM M w Douglas street today is representative of Omaha's metarrlorphosis in
Ss'Q 4iito t?",s,- XSSS'wy half a century. Metropolitan indeed are the great stone and brick build-
wlpLf ''felpip'lg. CJ -Mk m 'nS t,iat m,,CO canvon ot tn" today. And from the walls of
"93pgK5Ss3 vlSL ' ' 'tJT 'mItm ''10 canyn cho and re-echo the hum and roar of hundreds of passing
ftssssasSS-52' T1 Lr 5 ' tr motor cars, carrying Omaha's bustling people on their business.
All photograph in this series donated
to the merchants of On-Mia by Louis R.
Boatwick. commercial photographer.
When cotton falls whole states are rocked by the
shock, and mill towns in New England are thrown
into desperate idleness. When steel is dethroned a gloom
blacker than the sooty clouds of prosperity settles over
Pittsburgh and Youngstown. When the "buying strike" is
called against the automobile, Detroit becomes worried
and Akron finds wholesale unemployment inevitable.
'At' such times Omaha feels a touch of pride, and
appreciates the true nature of her strength. The
Gibraltar of diversified agriculture and industry is a strong
hold of security for all of us in Omaha.
With its wholesalers, manufacturers, its jobbers
and retailers, Omaha rides on an even keel,
largely unaffected by the "ups and downs" of less for
tunate communities. A city of diversified industry, finan
cially secure at all times and a little more than ordinarily
prosperous most of the time, is the history of Omaha.
Doing their part to. stabilize commercial Omaha,
the retail merchants of this city have earned the
respect and admiration of those who have been in position
to appreciate the tremendous complications of the prob
lems which have daily confronted them.
Great losses have been taken without flinching.
The knife has been thrust into prices, and profit
has been held secondary to the vital need of maintaining
the steady flow of merchandise out of the stores of Omaha,
thus protecting the livelihood of tens of thousands who are
dependent on these stores for their income.
Nowhere in the country has the general level of
prosperity been maintained better than in Omaha.
Nowhere has more constructive merchandising been car
ried on. Nowhere has there been a firmer belief that the
duty of the merchant was to "carry on," at a time when
questionable tactics or unsteady faith might have pre
cipitated dire disaster.
Each day during the serious months that now
have been left behind, The Omaha Bee has carried
to the people of the Great Shopping District of Omaha the
news of values in Omaha stores news of greatest import,
for no news could have exerted a more powerful stabilizing
influence than the honest assurance of courageous adver
tisers that values were values, and that buying was the
course of prudent economy.
Facing the bright skies of bigger business and con
tinued prosperity, The Omaha Bee sees the retail
merchants of Omaha prepared to render a service of con
stantly growing value to this community. It is in the same
spirit that The Bee appreciates its growing responsibility
and opportunity of serving both state and city
This is the third of a series of advertisements on Omaha, "The Retail Market," dedicated
to the merchants of Omaha by The Omaha Morning Bee, THE EVENING BEE
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