El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-12-18
CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE
War Opened, On the Pre-
MUM Stamp Scheme
STRONGLY CONDEMN led
Report On the Charter AndEResignd
ton OF Secretary Ennis.

| At the meeting of the board OF direL-
tors of the Chant her of Commerce in
the rooms of the Ell Paso Club on Sa-
turday afternoon the opening gun of
what promises to be a war on the pre-
| MUM stamp scheme was fired. @. E.
Kelly, of Kelly & Pollard, j. M. Ciux.
ton, manager OF the Pioneer Grocery
Company, and J. 2. Watson appeared
before the board. Mr.. Kelly asked for
PERM ssion 10 speak and said that all
| the druggists in The city are complain
| ing of W hat he called 1.-The trading stamp
nuisance" The druggists, he said
have agreed to discontinue the use of
the stamps, ''as they do not believe in
giving per cent of their business to
non-producing parasite tb at has fasten
ed itself upon the community and dem
anding that we support it by giving it
percentage of our busin ess."
Mr.. Cluxton followed in much The
same strain. He said: THE premium
stamps are disorganizer of legitimate
business. In Los Angeles they caused
such a war among the retailers that
the wholesalers were forced to take a
hand in ii and refuse credit to any re-
tail dealer who handled stamps. The
stamp scheme is simply daylight rob-
berry,"
Mr.. Watson said: "The grocery bust
ness is run upon very narrow margin
and We can not afford to give honest
measure aud honest goods and give 5
per cent to these stamp men. The
stamps bring no busineas to Ell Paso
and they simply rob the business men,"
After considerable discussion it was
decided that the preside mt of the cham
Der appoint committee to Interview
all of the merchants for the purpose of
inducing them to discontinue the use
of premium stamps.
Attorney w. II. Burgess, who ha d
been asked by President Prudential
of commerce, reported that he had
done so, and real il to the directors.
The charter was accepted and the
treasurer was authorized to send $35 to
Austin to have the charter officially
granted. Mr.. Burgess said he did not
know whether or not the secretary of
state would issue a charter to such an
organization without any capital stock
or not. He thought however, that he
would. In case he does't 500 shares of
IS each can be issued, such shares to
constitute the initiation fee of 50 and
the first quarters dues, So.
Secretary Q. j. Ennis presented his
resignation and G. M. hurry presented
a petition, asking that he be elected
secretary in case Mr.. Ennis resiena-
tion was accepted. Mr.. Ennis said that
tne uuUleS Oh secFetaTy WOulO lake
more time from his business than he
could afford. Many of the directors
spoke highly of Mr.. Ennis ability and |
6tness for the place and regretted his |
decision. Mr.. Krakauer and Mr.. Mar
sinez suggested Mat he withhold his |
until the board had an OPP
portun;ty to look around for a suitable |
and Mr.. Ennis agreed to con-
tinue in his Office until next month.
The question of permanent quarters |
was discussed and the directors hope |
to be able to find suitable place by |
next month.
No more meetings of the board will |
be held, probably, before the holidays.
The next NJ Getting Of the cham Der will |
be held on the second Tuesday in Jan
nary, which is the second of the
nOnth