The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-24

to heaven ana the other ulu not. llic Irishman in heaven called down to the one below and asked what he was d0- ing"
 ".Shoveling coal he replied
 "'How long do you have to work? he was asked.
 ".Oh. about two hours a day. was
 the reply.
 "Then the Irlshman below asked the
 man in heaven what he was doing" Shining the golden stairs was the
 reply.
 '',How long do you have to work ?
 asked Pat.
 "'About 28 hours a day" answered
 Mike. 'Ye see, we're shy O hands up here.
 Everyone can be a member of the Business Mems league and if we CO.,
 should be shy of hands, said MT. Ufford.
 The league then adjourned to the sixth floor, where, with the Jefferson | County Medical society as their guests, the members enjoyed the lunch which had been prepared by Chairman Par ker.
 Just how Birmingham's trade has been | increased over a million dollars in one | year and the future plans of the Busi- ness Mems league are told in the report of Secretary Frank P. Chaffee, which | was submitted at last nights annual | meeting of the league.
 | The report includes practically every action of the league during the year, | tells how the whole of the $11,OO0 was expended, and includes a complete state
 ment of the activities of the state fair. | In this report will be found the meat of | last nights meeting:
 Annual Report of Secretary Birmingham, Ala, January 23 1911, | The President and Members the Business Mems League, Birmingham, Ala: Gentlemen-In submitting this. the sec | ond annual report of your organization, | it should be gratifying to glance back ward over the years record. The volume | of business has been large in all lines 1 of trade. Much of the increase is from out of town. and large proportion of it | is directly traceabe to the work of the | league.
 The league is purely business mems
 movement. It was organzide primarily | for the betterment of your business, but I its work has indirectly benefited the en- | tire city A spirit of comradeship has | been engendered, merchants who former | y were wide apart are now together on
 many questions of business and public | welfare. This spirit of cooperation which the Business Mems league has pioiliutcu HdS tAlcHucQ tO oui tllbilt tili- | zenship, as is evidenced by the spontane-
 ous response to appeals for help in any | civic movement that has arisen during 1 the past year. While the league should not and does not claim all credit for this
 Birmingham spirit it feels that 1t ha. helped it. It is one of the best assets {
 city could have, the get-together. pull l together spirit of It's people. Our real work is focused on one sub I jept-ssrI'n hrinpy frad Id tp in pr
 ham, No side stepping, no favoritsm
 no axe grinding. no lowing to any par l ticular influence, but all for each and I each for all. and all for Birmingham s trade development. This has been the
 motive power that has prompted our every action.
 Occasionally the question is asked "Why is the Business Mems league main | tained as a separate organization from
 the other commercial bodies of our city?''
 The most cogent reason is because it is I kept up for a specific purpose and be- | cause a separate organization gives it power to focus on the very work for
 which 1t was created Nearly all our | members are also members of the Cham I Der of Commerce. Board of Trade and
 Merchants and Manufacturers associa-
 tion, and the most cordial cooperation exists between all of the bodies, all of which recognize that the Business Men s I league is doing a specific work in more thorough and practical way than it could
 be handled by the other organizations. 1 We know the work of the league has been beneficial to the retail trade inter- | ests of our city. We know it has brought | in thousands of out-of-town shoppers who now are regular visitors, and that | in doing this the trade territory of Bir- mingham has been steadily extended and continues to grow
 | It Is conservatively estimated that the | increase in our city's trade during the | past year that may be directly attributed to the work of the league is about $1 ,25O, | 900. This was secured at an approximate cost of less than 1 per cent. Without going too much into detail and | for the information of those members work, it might be stated that the league | goes out after trade in the same prac- | tical way that any up-to-date business house does We secure concessions from the railroads both as to schedule and | rates. We advertise Birmingham's ad- vantages as a trade center. We are con- | stantly adding to our mailing list names | of actual or prospective shoppers. This | list now embraces about 1900 names which we circularze regularly The | names of actual out-of-town shoppers are carefully card listed, the carde showing name, address and date and total amount | of trade done on each visit. These cards are classified by cities, counties and | towns. They aid us in distributing our | advertising. When our records show a l town from which we should get more 1 trade than we do. we look into the train | schedules. If they are wrong we try to | have them changed. If they are all right we throw more advertising into that sec | tion and begin to circularize 1t more thor oughly Should a shopper fail to come again within a reasonable time, we write | them a. personal letter asking why, and | offer to remedy, If possible any cause of dissatisfaction. We find that this phase | of the work is becoming steadily effec- | tive.
 Mailing List As before stated, our mailing list now embraces about 13,000 names of reputable white people residing throughout Bir- mingham's trade territory This list has | been printed in mimeograph form and l distributed to such merchants as desire | it. Supplements to the list, containing
 names of actual shoppers. are prepared and issued from time to time. Advertising The advertising campaign has been con- l tinued along aggressive lines. It is being conducted in such way as to arouse l as little antagonism as possible in the smaller towns of our territory, and with | the view of mpressing the fact that we do notss desire to draw from their local trade, 'but that we do want and intend | to get the bulk of the trade that has | been going out of the state to northern