The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-01-05
Voice Of the People.
The Travellers, view % M mt, mn,

The TrnSclcrs' View of the Hotel Dill
Editor of The Times Dispatch
Slr,-Will you kindly give me space
m your valuable paper to explain Il
nose interested a few facts concerns
ing the proposed hotel bin that vii
be presented to the Legislature hi.
month?
The Virginia Travellers Association
Is an organization composed of tray.
| cling men engaged in selling goods or
the road all the year, and who have
10 contend with hardships of bad
hotel service. This bill was drawn ,I
by committee who are familiar with
all the good and bad features OF trav.
this profession could find any objec.
| tons to 1t. 1t Is TO be regretted tina,
the Travellers Protective Association
taiied TO lndorse this bill. but as the
Virginia Travellers Association is a
separate and distinct organization and
has the Endorsement OF a ma iority OF
travellers OF this State we feel ca
pable of continuing our fight for what
we believe to be just and right to all.
If II. l.. HARDWOOD, secretary and
Association, was i travelling man, /
feel sure he would see this bill from
another point of view and would find
that his statement that 30 per cent. of
the boarding houses of the State would
pc clos ed would be q great big mistake.
for any one familiar with conditions
knows that only a small per cent. or
boarding houses cater to transient
guests. and the only houses that would
be closed is a class Of Objectionable
that are in the business for profit
only, and this would be a godsend to
the commercial traveller, for 1t would
put out of business class of compe-
ttion that divides the patronage to
ctor hardly makes living.
The travelling man is not q kicker
and is not hard to please, but when
we pay from So to $3.50 per day we do
think thin we are entitled TO clean sheets
sufficiently large to cover the blank
cts or quilts that may have been
breathed on only an hour befores by.
sufferer from tuberculosis. We also
think we should have some protection
in case of fire. When we are shown
to a room on the third or fourth floor
we would like to know that there is
near at hand some way by which we
could make an escape. II necessary.
AS to the hotel inspector why should
ands. Of travelling men in the State of
Virginia, and the families depending on
them. Are they not worthy of at
least q small protection? Think OF
the millions of dollars of business done
through US every year, and the many
hotels throughout our State. Arc
they supported by the regular boarder
or by the commercial travellers? And
yet we have to sleep sometimes in
dirty beds and eat what Is sent from
an unsanitary Kitchen In unsanitary
vessels, and no redress, and why all
the travelling men arc not heirs to
every disease known to modern science
seems providentiai. IT the cities deem
1t necessary to have inspectors for
everything, then why should there not
be general State inspector to visit
all hotels, which are practically the
home of thousands of travelling men?
In conclusion I Will say feel sure
that the better class hotels OF our
State would welcome this bill, for they
are doing now all we ask. It is not
this class OF hotel that needs legisla-
ton. u. Il. WETZI1L,
First Vice-President Virginia Travel
erS' Association.
Richmond, January 3.