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New York Chamber America's Oldest
Chamber Os Commerce Service:
A Story Os Continuing Progress
The Chamber of Com
merce of today is the result
of a long evolution from the
trading areas of the an
cient cities of
Mesopotamia to the
regulatory bodies of
French Merchants to the
community booster of the
early twentieth century to
the present organization.
From Mesopotamia 6,000
years ago until 1976, there
has been an evolution in
the purposes and functions
of Chambers of Commerce
'Sor organization of
businessmen. The first
modern chamber came
into being in Marseilles,
France in 1599. The first
permanent organization
was established in 1616 and
called the General
Chamber of Commerce.
These French chambers
are small representative
bodies chosen by the
businessmen of the
community to supervise
the "public" aspects of
commercial activities in
their vicinity.
Some Chambers of
Commerce in Europe
follow the French concept
and others are independent
similar to the American
Chambers.
The American Version
The New York Chamber
of Commerce, the oldest
Historic HHJ Notes
The Perry Board of
statistics and Information
was Organized in
February 1885 for the
purpose of advertising
Houston County to attract
parties in the North and
elsewhere to Perry. Those
who joined paid $1 as a
"primary expense fund."
*.The first record of a
session of the Superior
Court of Houston County is
dated May 27, 1822 and is
found in Minute Book A of
Superior Court 1822-27.
Great preparations for
the Houston College Fair
on Nov. 19 and 20, 1884
enlisted the efforts of
nearly everyone in town,
The Home Journal of that
CONT. FROM PREVIOUS PAGE \
Gunn To Nunn
Georgia's
List Os
Senators
Wilson Lumpkin, December 13, 1837 to March 4, 1841.
John M. Berrien, March 4, 1841 to May 28, 1852
(resigned).
Robert M. Charlton, June 11,1852 to March 4,1853.
Robert Toombs, March 4, 1853 to February 4,1861.
Georgia had no U.S. Senator from 1861 to February 1,
1871 as the state was seceded from the union to join the
Confederate States.
Joshua Hill, seated after Reconstruction and served
to March 4, 1873.
John B. Gordon, March 4, 1873 to March 15, 1880
(resigned to raise money to build Ga. Pacific
Railroad).
Joseph E. Brown, March 26, 1880 to March 4, 1891
(appointed and then elected).
John B. Gordon, March 4,1891 to March 4, 1897.
Alex S. Clay, March 4, 1897 to November 13, 1910
(died).
Joseph M. Terrell, December 6,1910 to March 4, 1911
(died).
Hoke Smith, November 15,1911 to March 4,1921.
Thomas E. Watson, March 4, 1921 to September 26,
1922 when died.
Mrs. Rebecca Latimer Felton, October 22, 1922 to
November 22, 1922 (appointed - first woman to serve in
Senate).
Walter F. George, November 22, 1922 to January 3,
1957 (retired after more than 34 years service).
Herman Eugene Talmadge, January 3, 1957 (present
Senator).
volunteer organization of
businessmen in the world,
has been functioning since
1768. The New York
Chamber of Commerce
operated under a charter
by King George of
England. In the very first
session of the New York
Legislature following the
end of the Revolutionary
War, the charter of the
New York Chamber of
Commerce was renewed.
The Charter application
was for an organization to
function as "The Chamber
of Commerce of New
York." The state
legislature in its new
dignity, amended the
charter application and
inserted the words "state
of" before New York, and
although it functions as a
local business
organization, it still bears
the corporate name "The
Chamber of Commerce of
the State of New York." It
is for that reason that New
York'-s State Chamber is
known as "The Empire
State Chamber of Com
merce."
Five years after the start
of the New York Chamber
in 1768, the Charleston,
South Carolina, Chamber
was formed. By 1801,
chambers had been
organized in New Haven
date reported.
The population of
Houston County in 1829,
eight years after it was
established, was 1,773,
according to Sherwood's
Georgia Gazeteer.
In 1886, The Home
Journal reported that 111
counties in Georgia had
"prohibition wholly or in
part."
In 1829, Perry was the
only Post Office in Houston
County. By 1849, there
were nine post offices
including Perry and
Hayneville which are still
in Houston. The others are
now in Peach County or
nonexistent.
and Philadelphia, and by
1817 there were Chambers
of Commerce in 40 major
American cities. The
number of local chambers
of commerce in existence
could be a debatable
question. A rough count
shows about 5,000
organizations using the
name. Os the 5,000 about
2,700 are affiliated with the
National Chamber (1972).
There are 46 state and
regional Chambers of
Commerce, including the
four regional groups in
Texas. The Ohio Chamber
of Commerce is the oldest
state chamber, organized
in 1892, "in an effort to
unify the businessmen of
Ohio in order to develop a
sensible system of taxation
to meet the needs of the
state without imposing a
higher than necessary
burden on business." The
Ohio Chamber offers an
example of responsible
unselfish action by
business organizations. It
was responsible for the
enactment of the first
Home Building flourishes with the beginning
of Savings and Loan Associations
Visitors to 4276 Orchard Street, Philadelphia,
S3r2l find this house is now an official historical
■ monument because of the way in which it was
A purchased. It was the first house in this country
iW *5- . —AS financed by a Savings Association. It was pur-
II r* W" ..IT _ chased in 1832 for $375. The money was borrowed
Iff 4 '■— —-- “L:rr-' ~ - \ from Oxford Provident Building Association.
Ik That association was formed by a group of 37
ZA mai • \ men in 1831 to provide funds to buy or build
|MBfl I ~tr homes. By 1888 there were an estimated 3500
SB nnn |j ! |p:9k« ; S Associations operating and that number has
Pnip H grown steadliy. •
111 j t jijjr h
- * vi
V MALCOLM REESE
\JT / PRESIDENT, SECURITY FEDERAL SAVINGS
<i A /
v f \ / s
\ j i \ j
/ <y Security Federal Savings made its first home loan in 1936 on a
house located at 905 Northside Drive, Perry. We are proud of the
growth from our humble beginning of $3,800 to present assets of
$13,000,000. With seven Middle Georgia offices, we’re celebrating
our 40th year promoting thrift and home ownership in the 1832
tradition.
Child Labor Law in the
nation.
The National Chamber
Until 1912, the chamber
of commerce movement
had little or no
cohesiveness. In that year,
at the request of President
William Howard Taft, a
group of businessmen mei
in Washington to organize
what later became tne
Chamber of commerce of
the United States. The
president, in addressing
the organizing conference,
told businessmen that
government needed such
an organization through
which government could
obtain the views of
business on important
pending legislation.
The Evolution
The modern chamber of
commerce is an amalgam
of several types of business
organizations.
One of the three basic
types is the Trading
Organization. Members
met together and traded
with one another, hence
the name, "Board of
Trade." Those were the
predecessors of the
various commodity ex
changes that existed in
numerous regional trading
centers but currently are
limited to major
metropolitan trading
areas. The best known
example is the Chicago
Board of Trade.
Another basic root of
today's Chamber was the
Town Booster
organization. Businessmen
learned that in order to
grow it was necessary to
build better cities. This
was particularly true in
new sections of the country
seeking industry, trade,
roads, tourism and
population. The men
behind the booster
organizations knew that
industrial and commercial
growth must be
economically justified, and
that civic facilities and
activities must go hand in
hand with growth. These
booster groups became
chambers of commerce.
Another root
organization was the
Protective Organization.
As this country grew,
businessmen were sub
jected to an increasing
number of government
regulations and
harassment from political
appointees, a trend that
reached a new level with
the New Deal.
From 1915 to 1930, the
nation experienced a
missionary zeal, the high
point in the town booster
development. Subdivisions
were extended, municipal
facilities were expanded,
speculation in land was
extensive.
This was the period of
greatest growth of
business organizations in
the United States:
Chambers of Commerce,
associations of commerce,
boards of trade and similar
business-civic oriented
organizations.
Program Chambers
When the stock market
boom went bust in 1929, so
did land values and the
financial stability of the
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL THURS., JULY 1,1 fft.
cities. Now businessmen
took a new look at taxes
and the promotion of
development they had
been doing. This tax
consciousness, and the
advent of the New Deal In
1933, brought new direction
and programs to chambers
of commerce. Govern
mental affairs at all levels
became major items. The
chamber became the In
terpreter of government to
business and conversely of
business to government as
President Taft had en
visioned on the national
level. In this field of ac
tivity, the chamber of
commerce is still
assuming growing
responsibilities and
achieving increasing
usefulness.
In the 1960'5, chambers
of commerce became
interested in an ever
widening scope of affairs.
The community
development and the
governmental affairs
functions and concerns
remained, but a new term
became necessary to
defind a new side to these
concerns. The term:
"socio-economic."
Business, and thus the
business organizations,
became interested in job
development for the hard
core unemployed, housing,
welfare, education and
similar subjects of com
munity-wide concern.
Appropriate new
programs were developed
and in the process a new
working relationship with
government.
Concern with the en
vironment, the growing
welfare problem, demands
for a redistribution of tax
resources, and the
knowledge that an
educated and Informed
public provides business
with better markets, all
have emphasized the
importance of good cor
porate citizenship. As the
Chamber of Commerce
movement entered the
70's, It was charged with
and assumed leadership in
this citizenship trend.
Programs are more and
more of public interest,
although the organizations
have not lost sight of their
original and basic purpose
which was to promote and
protect the Interest of
commerce and industry.
What the new trends and
new areas Interest mean is
that the well-being of
business and the com
munity and the people are
all entwined. In short, one
popular expression is
"what is good for the
community is good for
business."
No doubt changing times
will bring more changes,
as the Chamber of Com
merce adjusts to new
needs, adapts to new
conditions and adopts new
goals...ever the single
voluntary vehicle for
business to make its
collective contribution to
the wellbeing of the
community and itself.