The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-01
MERCHANTS TALK
 FOR CHEAP RATES Periodical Excursions Swell Bir- mingham's Retail Trade SHOULD BE SEMl-M0N THlY Cheap Rates Brought Thousands of People Who Visited Fair and Did
 Their shoppina-They
 Would Come Again.
SHOULD BE SEMl-MONTHLY

The merchants of Birmingham are go- ing to make an effort to induce the rail- roads to run periodical excursions to this city from towns within a radius of a hundred or one hundred and twenty-five miles. The interviews published in last Sundays Age-Herald regarding the con dition of the retail trade, demonstrated the fact that every branch of mercantile business was augmented by the great in- Aux of people who took advantage of the cheap railroad rates and came ostensibly to visit the fair and incidentally to do their fall trading.
 A reporter interviewed a number of prominent merchants and others yester- day with view of finding out their opin- ion of the value of cheap rates, and the prospect of inducing the railroad com panies to run excursions to Birmingham periodically. The following Is the gist of what was said:
 J. B. Gibson. secretary of the .Commer- cial club, thought that reduced rates on all railroads into Birmingham would be beneficial to the merchants and the city at large. Anything that would be the means of advertising the city could not help but give further impetus to making Birmingham the greatest town in the state.
 D. M. Drennen, president of the Mer- chants exchange, said that the exchange had already informally discussed this matter of excursions, and would probably act upon it at it's next meeting on No- vember g. MT Drennen thought 1t would meet with favor by the railroads, and hoped the Merchants exchange would ap- point committee to approach every com pany operating into Birmingham and in- duce the officials to make one-fare the round trip at least twice month.
 Roy Mccullough, secretary of the board of trade, said the board of trade had al- ready appointed committee on excur- sions, and that it would make a report at the meeting on Tuesday next. The com mittee is made up of the following mem- bers: M. V. Joseph, Herman Saks, Jacob Burger, Ferd Marx A. Hlrscn, D. M. Drennen and S. Klotz.
 Recognized Center.
 M V. Joseph of Loveman, Joseph x Loeb thought that Birmingham was the recognized commercial as well as indus trial center of the state. The fair. he said, demonstrated what cheap rates on the railroads would do. With proper ef- fort on the part of the merchants the railroad companies could be induced to give semi-monthly excursions from all points within a hundred miles, MT. Jo- seph claimed that such a movement would be beneficial alike to the railroads and Birmingham.
 Sol Caheen did not see any reason why the railroads should not favor Birming- ham the same as other cities. He said that Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis and other cities had excursions every week and that cheap rate to Birmingham every Friday would be very beneficial to the city.
 Louis Saks said that he was in favor of such excursion movement. Cheap rates would benefit the merchants and the city at large and ought tp be en- couraged.
 Suburban Trade Good.
 M. A. Myatt of Fowlkes & Myatt con tended that nothing could be more help full to the retail trade. City and suburban trade Is unusually brisk and the out of town people only need little encour- agement to bring them to Birmingham. He hoped the railroads would make cheap rates at reasonable but regular intervals.
 Sam Blach of J. Blach & Sons said cheap rates were necessary to bring out side people to Birmingham, and that if the citizens of towns along the different roads running into this city had the proper Inducements they would make Birmingham their regular trading center.
 S. Klotz of Klotz & Goldman said that everyone who had the interest of Bir- mingham at heart ought to do his part to encourage cheap rates to the city. If these rates could once be obtained 1t would be wonderfully beneficial.
 T. c. King said that cheap rates would be worth a great deal both to Birming- ham and those people who would take advantage of 1t. Lots of people came to the fair to do their fall trading be-