The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-11

available in this district. is a great step in the right direction, and should have the hearty support not only of every member of this club. but also of every member of this community. Respectfully submitted, R. w. EWING,
 Chairman Home Trade Committee, Cham
 ber of Commerce.
 February 10 1911.
 Civic Improvements
 The annual report of civic improve
 nents committee was as follows:
 MT. President and Gentlemen: The most important work which your com nittee on civic improvements has done
 turing the past year has been the agi- tation for park commission for the city of Birmingham to take charge of and de- yelop the parks We already have, and to lcquire other public parks which the city needs badly In the Ensley and Corey dis 'ricts and elsewhere. and also to connect up these parks with some boulevard sys- tenn Our contention has been that practically every city in America of over
 'C.Gc0 people has a park commission, and are now actively engaged in developing this feature of their municipal growth. "A bill has been prepared which we tbink will meet the approval of every body concerned, and Is now in the hands of MT. Walker Percy. and we hope will be introduced and put through by him when his commission bill is out of the way
 Tt is needless for me to go into any extended argument as to the necessity of developing our city parks. If we are going to meet the competition of other big cities in furnishing attractive recrea- ton grounds for our people, it is abso- lutely necessary for us to start work on them at once "During the past year the citizens liv- n Highland avenue. have spent over $5000 in develop ing and beautifying 1t, and have set an example to the citizens living around other parks of the city which we think will result in great good
 MT. John M. Caldwell and MT. Otto Marx have started similar movement for the Caldwell park on Highland ave- nue, and we think MT. Culpepper Exum and others living around Halls park will soon take up work in that locality. and when these three parks are finished Highland avenue will have an addition al claim for being one of the handsomest driveways In the country. MT. Fred M. Jackson, MT. T. H. John ston and Mir. Ted Joy are working on plan to get the new City park adjoining Lakeview school and St. Vincent's hos r!tal improved, as recreation space and playground.
 "The pioneers in this work of devel-
  pie living around them were Gen. Louis V. Clark and others living around Mag nolia park, and they now have that spot in very nice condition and are improving it continually.
 Artery Through County Your committee has done some work in securing right of ways for great boulevard from East Lake to West Lake. which would give great artery through the entire length of Jones val ley. We met with hearty encourage ment from a majority of the property owners. but there were just enough of them to block the enterprise and to show us that no committee organized as we are, without any power of con- demnation and with no legal status, can really accomplish much toward putting through a great movement of this kind MT. Charles A. Thatcher popularly known as the Good Roads Apostle" has also agitated this boul- evard. but I think he must have been impressed with the fact, as your com mittee has been. that the county Board of Revenue and the Board of Aldermen have so many demands made on them for other things that they haven't time or money to put in on designing and promoting any great boulevard and parkway system for the city of Bir- mingham.
 "The scope of work which a com mittee such as ours can do has been so broad that there are numerous fea- lures of civic improv ,ments which we have not even tried to touch upon, as for instance, a uniform system of trec planting for our streets, the keeping of telephone and other poles in the all leys as far as possible, the abatement of the bill board nuisance, and vari- ous ther problems of this kind. which, in most cities of the 90 lntry, are very live questions All these. however. will follow the establishment of our park commission.
 We wish to end this report with an appeal to the Chamber of Commerce, collectively and individually, to use their influence towards getting a park commission established If it is or ganized on similar lines to the sanitary commission, which built our great sewer system nearly 10 years ayo, it can accomplish a wonderful good. "Our people are divided on most civic problems. but we have never yet heard anyone object to the park commission, and If We let the matter die 1t will simply be question of our indifference. We hope that the new administration of the Chamber of Commerce will con- tinue this work and push 1t through to a successful conclusion. Respectfully submitted. HILL FERGUSON. Chairman" Farm Movement Committee The farm movement committee re- porte das follows: ITO the President and the Members of | the Chamber of Commerce:
 The farm movement and agricul- tural interests committee begs to re- port that since it's appointment it has endeavored to bring about the results for which 1t was created, viz: The bringing of a good class of settlers and homeseekers to the Birmingham dis trict and vicinity.
 The work implied in this may, mean a simple proposition to the average man who has not given the complex and difficult matter of immigration any thought or study. In truth more dif- ficult problem or more important work in the development of our district has never been undertaken by your body. | The very failure of the south so far to attract good class of people from the north and west and from Europe to settle in her great domain teeming with unexcelled and unlimited oppor- tunities for every kind of agricultural pursuits, can be ascribed to the fact that efforts in that direction have been spasmodic, of too short duration and without any system or perseverance Your committee then, after investi- gating the numerous efforts made by Icolonization societies, railroads, states and communities to increase the much needed agricultural population of the south and noting the ways and means adopted and the results obtained, set | to work to accomplish Its aims with the firm resolve to avoid the many mis- takes made by others and inaugurate a