Letter from Arthur Smith to President Herbert Hoover

DEArborn 9279 the 400 GREAT NORTHERN UTILITIES, INC. Suite 428, 10 South La Salle Street CHICAGO 8-17-30 His Honor President Hoover White House, Washington D.C. 264 Honorabl@ President. I noticed in this mornings paper your release of the road fund money in this locality where the drought has effected things the worst, to get work started at once to give employment to people that are out of work, which I feel is a big move at the present time. I have a number of cities under franchise to build gas plants in this vicinity, and am getting a number more, it is my intention to build a hundred plants in this vicinity if I can, and am trying my utmost to get the work started at once, while there is such a crying demand for the use of gas and so many people waiting to get something to do, as there W uld be as many as 60 to 80 men employed in each town or city where these plants are to be installed, and this work would last till away in to the winter, and in fact the first whole year it would mean a busy town or city where the plants were being installed, a.s several hundred stoves, meters, services etc would have to be installed in each town or city after the plant was finished . and not only giving these towns and cities work for the people living in them, it would also be adding an industry that would invite people to live in them as well a.s to invite factories to locate in them, I am in a market where it is almost impossible to get the financing, and am trying to get started by asking material men and builders to cooperate with me and build these plants and wait for their money 6 months giving the bankers time to get in to a market where the financing can be done, in this way I will be giving work to the unemployed at a time that it is mostly needed as wekl as getting the plant's built at a time that the cost of material and labor is low, and doing a thing that means something to the country and cities from a construction standpoint that leaves a valuable assett in these cities and towns, these plants are automatic in operation and low in construction cost, the gas is made from Butane and Propane oil, and a rate can be made in the small towns that is as low as in the large ones. If you have any suggestions to make in the financing of these plants in this market I would like to hear from you as your experience along this line is valuable, and it will mean a big thing to these unemployed people that you are trying to help. Address- 651 Belmont Ave Very Truly Yours Chicago Ills action / Guint Arthur J Smith Vice Pres, Eng &c Mgr, Great Northern Utilities Inc.