The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-14

from the city In the report the con dition of the club was shown to be excellent Some of the bonded in debtedness was retired during the past year. Before the meeting adjourned there was a discussion as GO the pro- priety of increasing the dues from $36 per year to $50 and the sentiment seemed to be that inasmuch as the club was giving more now for the money than any club of a similar character in the south the proposed increase was entirely appropriate.
 The meeting was attended by large number of the club members and after the balloting for the officers several speeches were made felicitating Major Tutwiler upon his election and predict ing great things for the Country club during his administration. Talks were made by Culpepper Exum, Webb W. Crawford, Erskine Ramsay, Frank H. Crockard, A. H. Ford, smith Cullom, Jr., and others.
 The inaugural speech of Major Tut wiler was as follows
 T know you do not expect me to make a speech, and l have too great regard for you to inflict you with one. 1 cannot refrain, however, from telling you how greatly l appreciate the honor of being elected your president for the ensuing year. l feel that so much has been accomplished by my predecessor that very little has been left for me to do, except to carry out what he has begun. This l shall endeavor to do to the hest of my ability. The new sys- tenn of keeping accounts which was inaugurated on the first of this month by the American Audit company, meets with my most hearty approval. It has been eminently successful where tried in other clubs and I see no reason why d. hnfn plnh has become so large that it is abso- lutely necessary for us to keep in close" touch with our expenditures and re- ceipts and by so doing l believe we can save money for you. 1 hope every member of the club will help us to make it a success. even if it does seem to involve a little red tape.
 "The officers of the club were elected to attend to it's business; We have no right. therefore to neglect 1t; while some of us receive no salaries we obli- gate ourselves to do the work of our respective offices when we accept the position. The club expects it of us and we should not disappoint it.
 "On account of our increased expense and the falling off in membership fees the board of governors has decided to recom- mend that you increase the dues to $50 per year, l am sure, though, that the members will not object to this as they Arealze how much more we get for our money than they do at other clubs, where
 in many cases they pay more.
 The outgoing administration has done much for the improvement of the club house and grounds for all of which we are thankful. When 1 think though of that additional $l6.0OO debt we have to take care of I cannot but think of the Thanksgiving meeting a certain minister had. He called on number of the con- gregation and asked each to tell what he had to thank the Lord for; one said he had made fine crops. another that he had sold many goods and had money in the bank and another that he had recovered from a long spell of sickness and was now in perfect health, then the preacher looked around and spied Brother John son on one of the back benches and asked Brother Johnson now tell us what the Lord has done for you Brother Johnson had been in a ,raifroad wreck and had lost an eye and one leg and had one arm broken, but with the aid of his crutches he got up and said, Well he has might nigh runt me Now, I hate to say II for I do not want to throw cold water on this joyous occasion. but Brother Badham hy leaving this debt for me to pay has well nigh ruint me.
 But to be serious, 1t was necessary to make the expenditures. We are a much larger club than we were few years ago, these Improvements were needed and we are amply able to pay for them.
 we have a first mortgage of sS000, 5000 due June 12th of each year. and a second of s12.500, due May 15, 1913, and floating debt of s16000. making a total of S36,500, while our assets amount to more than ,000. We must issue a blanket mort
 gage to cover this or as Mir. Badham sug- gests, issue stock, say $500. and sell to the members in slo0 shares and require each new member to buy a share
 ''I think we should give vote of thanks to our tournament committee consisting Of R. H. Baugh. George c. Oliver and W. P. Ward, who had entire charge of our recent tournament ,They did great deal of work and the universal opinion of