The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-04-21

that had always been his, telling seA'
ii he came to Cairo ana saw what
the people Of this city had done
When ii was considered that the REQ
lie of Cairo had come into hole N
the ground, filed it up and built suea
4 city as this. ne felt that they were
ne real empire builders He ma
come however. on invitation Of lee
rotary Carey, 10 tell how the Con
nercial Club OF his city had accom-
plished so much: and 10 tell us, u
'dcssible. what our CLUB shotld 90
The Hannibal club had been in ahoa'
the same state as the Cairo eluh, "
some respects Its membership dhes
were 80 cen S a month, Yielding bare
IL enough to keep the organization
in existence. They decided they mus
have some money. that nothing couli
he. accomplished without money lAeg
weAsAto the big fellows In the Shy
ana inforased them hey must all SAD
scribe SO month for two years
the medium sized fellows were taxed
IS a month and the little fellows 81.
Tren they went to work and did
things. No such club could accomplish
anything without money, and without
a well paid secretary who could give
all his time to its affairs and pur
poses. They made it a point not 20
Kermit the club to be controlled ~
one man or set of men 100 long MN
blood was necessary-the officers
could not succeed themselves Inc
committees were carefully selected
and rot made too large Mark Twain
theory was followed, that working
committees should not consist 81
more than three men, and two OF
them should be dead
The result OF the work done by the
Commercial club of Hannibal WIS
that the city had grown more than
any city in the state; it had increased
the value OF its manufacturing pro
ducts. the number OF its wage earn
ers, its commerce, its population, hal
beautifed the city, had secured
municipal lighting plant that yielded
net revenue of 100000 year TO the
city. 1t had aroused public spirit TO
such an extent that many thousands
OF dollars were contributed by cl.t
zens to secure new manufacturing
plants. The me hod was go aftel
men who contemplated establishing
factories, or moving to a new loca
ton. Such were invited to the city
by a committee sent to them for the
purpose, and hey were shown its adj
yantages as business and manufac
turing point and as a residence city.
The club had taken up civic i'm
provement-the city beautiful. 1t hal
secured the services of an expert to
prepare plans paying him 800 fos
the service; and these plans were be
ing carried out. 1t was decided TO
plant shade trees in the streets. The
club made a contract for the supply.
ing trees for ten miles of streets
solicited citizens TO take them at
cost price, and in three days the ten
miles OF shade trees had been set
out Then it decided to have the
highways leading into the city set out
with fruit trees and in few days 40
miles of these highways were lined
with such trees.
But material improvement was no:
the only important and necessary
function Of commercial club. l.
must be a character builder; it must
develop stronger and better citizen
ship. The Hannibal club had done
effective work along this line of It's
mission. 1t decided 10 erect Y VI
G. A. building, for the benefit of the
youth Of the city, feeling that tn
boys OF today would be the men OF
tomorrow, In three days it raised
$4,000 to erect such a building and It
was one of the finest in the state.
Mr.. Meyers interspersed his stor,
with some humorous stories to illus
trate his points. and although he pro
fessed to be no speaker, he made one
OF the most interesting talks thu
Cairo club ever listened to.
Music was furnished by Diehl's
band, and the luncheon was set by
Frank Sebille.