The sun. (Wilmington, Del.) 1897-19??, 1898-03-02
Representative Gathering Confei
in the Interest ofthe City.
MERCHANTS LEAGUE PLANS
Addresses Made by Hon. Charles B.
lore and Others ON Stop-over
Privileges and Whining
ton Day.

About fifty Of the leading business
men of Wilmington attended the meet
ing at the Board Of Trade rooms las
evening and discussed the stop.oveI
privilege at length
Mayor Henry G. McLear called the
meeting to order, William Lawton wal
made chairman, Herbert N. Fell, secre
tary. Mr.. Lawton made u few briet
remarks in which he stated to the gentle
men present, that thcobject OF the meeting
was to further the cheap excursions and
Il fund should be raised for this purpose,
and also spoke OF the stopover privilege
and the reduction in excursion rates
which has been granted by the Pennsyl-
"anla lal|road from points south OF
Wilmington.
! This, in his opinion would be Of great
benefit to the merchants OF Wilmington,
and II convenience to the people visiting
here.
James Mcgary said he was favorable
! to the movement and anything that
could be suggested for the benefit Of the
merchants would receive his sup
port as we'll as OF all members present,
believing the proper way to get the blsi-
ness from points south Of Wilmington
| that had heretofore gone to PhiaGcl-
phla was to bring them here and enter
tain them in a way that would leave the
visitors with a good opinion Of our city
/ George IT, lloli,, chairman, also spoke
"f the stnp-"vrr privileges and reduced
rates that had been given to the people
down the peninsula tu Wilmington.
| This fOn was of Il great benefit to
them and in time would bring more pco-
| pie to WiImingtontlnn ever before. In
reference to the cheap excursions he said
the Pennsylvania Railroad had agreed
to run four cheap excursions from Del
mar t" Wilmington as an experiment. He
assured the gentlemen that not over one
cent per mile rate would he charged
| II these four eXculsio proved sue
ccssful more excursions would follow and
the branch roads would be taken in.
He also SAID that some OF the nrr-
chauls had concluded, as all induccment
to the visitors, to refund them their rail-
road fare where their purchase amounted
to Il fair amount, while Others would .lNe
Il reduction of ten perrni,, however.
WoiiIu be lt';'l cntircfy y to the option OF the
II & Hllt.
Mr. Mrgary stated that in his opinion
!, rate shoulu be had OF not over dollar
iur .lle ralIrl trip from Dover and Il pro-
pultlunlc rate from all her towns.
J. H. Slstr, Of the firm "i Harvey X
Sister, asked that as cheap IA rate as pos,
siblc be agreed upon and that very much
deIrnded upon the rate whe her the pu-
Die would visit here or not. lie sad
mat the merchants down the peninsula
were favorable to Wilmington ana would
be glad to visit Wilmington to learn
more of our wholesale ana retail estab-
Iishments us well us the beauties OF our
city.
". ID. Mullen said he would suggest
that a propurtonate rate the same us the
Pennsylvania Railroad give I" kehoboth,
Ocean City, for the weekly excursions
would make Il good rate for the cheap
excursions.
Hon. Charles b. Lore was called upon.
Whilst he said ile was not weii informed
ON the object OF the meeting he was
heartily IN favor Of anything tnat WouIu
Iclleii this city.
Tup business men Of Baltimore and
Philadelphia were at all times struggling
for the business that virtually passed
through our gateways to these respective
cities, and " linlington was really over
Swallowed by these cities.
He believed the two most important
facts to impress Oh the shopper. wat
that they WonId find Just as WuII stocked
stores IN Wilmington and that their
goods could bc bought 1T ju-t It's rras"n-
able prices as elsewhere.
lie cited Salisbury, Md., as Il town
having r,rg,r and better equipped stolvs,
especially III the hardware trade, than
amy he had ever vIsteu in Wilmington
and that all the stores III hat ,o"n were
wei, classified and compared tavorauiy
with some OF our larger cities. These It.
suits were brought about by the nIrr-
chants making sl ccial effort to p.c;lse he
people SO that they would buy i'll home
instead OF going to Baltimore, point
where they can reach by boat AZ Il very
cheap fare. lie also said that
the people # the peninsula would OF
course buy where they could buy the
cheapest, and it wouu be to the inter-
esls o, the business men to show these
people that such were the advilnIa ,cs
VD De pDtullici III W Ili'lleot'Il'
lie spoke in very high terms OF the
manufacturing establishments, saying
t.at for Il city of or size We cotllu n"'
De cxccllcd in variety and quality OF
articles manufactured lie was iav"r-
able to the project underway to benefit
our harbor Improvements, and that tine
merchants should get the people from
the two lower counties to come here and
teach them that Wilmington is their
sister city, and the place where they
should buy their goods, and also thai
we have all the advantages required to
accommodate them satisfactorily
Judge Lore stated tlat he could not
state any direct way to bring this about,
as the committee in charge of these ar
rangelncnts were better able to do this
than himself, and he felt perfectly sat
isfied to trust such an important matter
to the discretion of the committee.
Holstein Harvey said that the whole
sac grocery and hardware trade was
well worked down the peninsula by the
merchants Of this city and that they did
not consider the Philadelphia and BATH