Background
Mr. Howard S. Moy is a native of Kwangtung Province, China.
Mr. Howard S. Moy is a native of Kwangtung Province, China.
Mr. Howard S. Moy went to America in 1898 and received most of his education there.
Mr. Howard S. Moy traveled in Europe in 1906 with Kang Yu-wei and then returned to China where he acted as English secretary for the Jun Wah Mining Company of Kwangsi Province. After his return to America he and his father became interested in a chain of restaurants and cafes in Chicago and they became proprietors of several enterprises of this kind, the chief one being the King Joy Loof Chicago which was established fifteen years ago largely through the efforts of Mr. Kang Yu-wei.
It was in banking, however, that Mr. Moy became identified with the larger business interests of the Chicago district. He was assistant manager of the foreign department of the Great Lakes Trust Company of Chicago, an institution which was organized in 1919. This was the first bank to be organized in America that catered to Chinese investors in the United States and did a great deal to induce the Chinese merchants of America to make investments in America rather than send their surplus funds back of China. The bank had connections in China and was developing an ambitious banking scheme for both China and New York City. The president of the bank was Harry H. Me|rrick, fomerly of Armour and Company, and president of the Mississippi Valley Association and former president of .the Chicago Association of Commerce. Mr. Merrick was one of the leading business men of the Central Western part of America and was an important factor in the development of American trade in China.
Mr. Moy was one of the organizers of the Chinese Industrial and Commercial Association of Chicago - an organization which includes the leading Chinese business men of that section. It iwas affiliate with the Chicago Association of Commerce. There were approximately 5,000 Chinese in the Chicago district and they weresaid to own more than 20,000,000 worth of real estate, chiefly business property in the city of Chicago. They were actively working to make Chicago the center of Chinese- American trade and were an active factor in encouraging the American manufacturers in the Chicago and Mississippi Valley territory to extend their selling organizations to China. Mr. Moy’s father Moy Wah June was president of the Chicago Chinese organization since its founding early in 1919.