Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-07
COMMERCIAL MEN
ARE ORGANIZED
HOPE TO STOP UNPAID BILL
JUMPERS
Several Cities and Towns Have Rep
resentsIiv In New Association.
Elaborate Scheme for Protec.
tion Is Planned

Men who have penchant for moving
from one town to another and leaving
behind them a trail of unpaid bills are
likely to find this method of procedure
much more difficult to follow in the
future than it has been in the past. An
organization was effected in this city
yesterday, one of the principal objects
of which is to keep track of just that
class of persons and put the merchants
on their guard in the matter of extend
ing credit.
The secretaries Of commercial clubs
in several Southern California cities
and towns met in the rooms of the
Municipal league and organized the
Associated Secretaries of the CONNER
cial Organizations of Southern Cali
fornia. The objects of this association
as set forth in the constitution are "the
discussion of matters in which the sew
eral associations represented may be
mutually interested. One of these
objects is to keep what will amount to
blacklist of persons who fail to pay
their bills.
Officers Are Elected
Those present at the meeting were r.
Holtby Meyers of Redlands, N A. Ulm
of Santa Ana, A. j. Klunk of Orange,
Houghton of San Bernardino c. J.
Baker of San Bernardno. f. W. Dean
of Fullerton, A. B. Clark of Riverside,
A. D. Jordan of San Diego, j. f. Dehl
of Santa Barbara and T.. J. Zeehande-
laar of Los Angeles. r. Holtby Meyers
was elected president; G. M. Gidney of
Santa Barbara, vice president, and N.
A. Ulm, secretary. Mr.. Gidney was not
present at the meeting yesterday, but
1t was announced that he was greatly
interested in the movement and it was
decided to place him on the official list.
The executive committee is composed
of the three officers named. together
with A. NJ. Younglove and c. j. Baker.
The constitution provides that the
annual meeting of the organization
shall. be held on the second Tuesday in
June of each year, at which time the
reports of officers will be received and
the election held. All other meetings
are subject to the call of the president,
and will be held at such times and place
as he shall designate None of the Of
flcers is to receive anything in the way
of remuneration for his services.
To Organize More Clubs
This meeting was called at the re-
quest of Secretary Ulm of the Santa
Ana llle ODJ6Cl DSlllS W
widen the scope of the commercial
bodies in this part of the state and to
strengthen their position by providing
means for more effective cooperation.
The merchants in all the cities and
towns suffer to q considerable extent
from the practice of some of their GUS
toners moving to another town and
leaving their bills unpaid.
Heretofore it has been an exceedingly
difficult thing to trace such persons,
and usually the creditor has been com
PEELED to pocket his loss.
BY bringing the commercial organiza =
tions of these towns into closer touch
it is hoped to bring about an exchange
of information regarding such persons,
and in this way to keep track of them.
Each member of the new organization
will furniS iSh every other member with a
list of persons whose accounts remain
unpaid after certain time, and par
ticularly those who have left the city.
Each organization will endeavor to
cover it's own field so thoroughly that a
man whose credit has been exhausted
in one town will be unable to run up a
bill in any other
To make this work still more effective
efforts will be made to induce the mer-
chants of every important city and
town in Southern California to organize
a commercial club which shall be repre-
sented in. the association of secretaries.