The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-05

Author of Greater 
 regularly. He should lend the influence of his name to the organization. because he is bound to be beneficiary from it's efforts"
 Directory Committee Reports.
 It was reported that committees from the Board of Trade, Commercial club, Manufacturers association, Real Estate Dealers association and Br mingham postoffice met together in joint session last Friday, and agreed upon certain things which they de- mand that the Birmingham City Direc- tory for 1909 shall contain. sub committee consisting of R. w. Ewing from the Board of Trade, chairman; F. w. Dixon for the Commercial club, J. l.. Yancey for the Real Estate Dealers association, J. Rosenburger from the Manufacturers association and Post master J. R. Carter. was appointed tc take up with the directory publishers the matter as outlined and endeavor to procure the directory desired.
 As a result these vital points have been secured
 An addition to the alphabetical lists of names of all the men in the city and adjacent suburban territory the name of the wife of married man shall be added in every instance, after that of her husband
 B-That the business in which a man is engaged shall be given with the firm name placed after his name and his position of employment with that con- cern stated.
 However, it was not agreed by Polk & Co.,. that the business addresses of negroes should be given, and this was not insisted upon by your committee. C-That both the business address and the home address of individuals shall be given, and not one address only, where a person Is regularly em- ployed, as above.
 D-That the streets and avenues which are to appear in the new direc- tory be given as far as possible, count ing from the center of Birmingham out in the various directions. This is i'm portant now that we are entering upon the Greater Birmingham territory, to avoid repetition of numbers designa ting streets in the city proper and in the suburbs, and to avoid confusion owing to imperfect knowledge of the suburb streets. Abbreviations of the old suburban address, such as "Aydl" for Avondale, and "E. B'ham" for East Birmingham will also appear after the street or avenue address.
 E-That the scope of the territory covered by the directory be extended to embrace all of the immediate sub urbs of Birmin gham and the adjacent territory which are to be incorporated into Greater Birmingham, and that the ! street guide and classified business directory be likewise extended.
 F-That the alphabetical arrangement and classification be more accurately given, and that the price of the directory be not advanced above the former price of $5 per book.
 All of these features have been agreed to in writing by R. L. Polk & Co.,. as stated above, and about the only feature yet under discussion is the typographical form which the directory is to take. Last year the directory appeared in double column, with dash at the beginning of each line for a repeated name. The com mittee desired that every name beginning the line be spelled out in full, but the publishers claim that this would be very expensive and they prefer to ditto the repeated names Your committee has unanimously decided that if the publish CTS will use the single-column style, which will permit of a mans name, address, and business being given all on one line, straight across the page, the ditto marks might be used instead of the dash ditto mark, as there was no disposition on the part of the committee to cause the direc- | tory company any unnecessary expense. If the information can be fully and sat . isfactorily given in this way, they have decided that the use of the ditto marks instead of the dash mark for repeated names will be entirely satisfactory.
 It Is also conceded that an eight-point type may be used In the printing of the | tnna net ,f 1, t1..ft, tai i.l, will admit of the book getting into a smaller number of pages, and thus be less expensive to issue and not so bulky to handle
 As to the information desired by the real estate dealers, especially that the di- rectory show who are owners of homes and who are merely renters, as well as show who are renters. roomers, or board CTS, as Is at present the case, will say that the directory people claim that It is mpractcable to get this information, for the reason that m so many cases people living in houses which they rent claim to be the owners, and the informa- tion cannot be readily obtained as to who are the owners of homes. After dis cussing this matter the committee de- cided to accept this statement of the directory company and withdraw the de- mand for this feature in the new drec- tory.
 Your subcommittee therefore unani- mously recommend that the concessions; made be presented to the public and that we report same to our respective or ganzations and request for R. L. Polk X , O. the support and patronage of the va rious business interests of Greater Bir- mingham.
 In justice to the directory publishers, we would also respectfully request that each business house or corporation desig- nate some one thoroughly capable of giv. ing the correct information to give to the canvassers for the directory company full. accurate and complete informatio o1 tnelr employees, and we would also re- AHnDDurME