The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-28


their business and personal property.
He stated that they would be Sreatly
benefited and would profit in the long
run. and cited the fire loss s.atisucs
of the country to prove his arguments.
He stated the fire loss per annnm was
50 for every man, woman and child in
the country.
Crawford on Credits
Jack Crawford of Jasper next took the
floor with Credits and Collections for
his topic Jack" told some stories and
then he got earnest and explained his
methods of credit and collection. he
said he never credited any man unless
he was personally satisfied the man de-
served credit and If he did not think
a man did deserve credit he never hes
itated to tell him why If the fellow
wanted to know. He stated he sold
800, 900 worth of goods yeSr and dld
not believe that he lost one half of one
per cent through bad collections and
accounts.
f. Wilkinson, president of the Jefferson
county excise commission. made one OF
the best speeches of the evening. Ills
subject was: Reciprocity Between Bir-
mingham and the Retail Merchants. Mr..
Wilkinson had the arguments and the
ability to present them. He showed the
folly of an Alabama merchant buying
goods from a jobber In another state;
he explained how the Alabama farmer
was in the habit of shipping his stock
north to be killed and then have the meat
sent back to him. He cited numerous
examples of such transactions which were
everyday occurances and he made
strong appeal to the merchants of Ala
bama to patronize jobbers of Alabama
and the farmers of Alabama to patronize
merchants of Alabama, not because OF
sentimental reasons, but because 1t was
common business sense and saves in dol
lars and cents.
Deal With Each Other
Il believe Birmingham and the mer-
chants of Alabama can be of great serv-
ice to each other" he said And the
secret of the whole thing is reciprocity.
deal with each other. the banking facili-
ties of a city are one of the first requisist
of a commercial center and l believe that
there is no city with better banking facili-
ties than this city has. The second great
est requisite is probably railroad facilities.
and | know there are few IL any cities
in the country which are better equipped
on this account to serve the retail mer-
chants of the surrounding territory" He
cited the many railroads that run out of
Birmingham In all directions and made
an eloquent plea for co-operation between
Agricultural and mineral ALA bama.''
Col. r. o. Smith, representing the Bir-
mingham clearing house, made good
speech From the Bankers Viewpoint" :"
He show1i the Importance of the bank
to the merchant and plead for closer and
more Intimate relations between the mer-
chant and his bank.
In the place of George Boyer of Gull
man, who was unable to attend. Judge F.
II. Reynolds of Clanton made delightful
extemporeanous speech on Selling" He
declared that the greatest enemy to COM
mercial business was the merchant him
self. He decried petty jealousies between
merchants in the same town and little
competition tricks. He stated that no
man could enforce up to date business
methods II his neighboring merchant
across the street was lax and did not do
the same thing; that all had to cooperate
Truth in Advertising
John Sparrow, president of the Birming-
ham Ad club. made snappy short talk
on Advertising" The keynote of his
speech was truth" in advertising. He
read a document recently adopted by the
National Association of Ad clubs in which
truth was placed as the beacon of all
against tricks and misleading statements
in their advertising in order to draw
trade from their competitors.
Norman johnson of Richmond. Va,
editor of the Merchants Journal and Com
merce and a prominent figure in mer-
chants organizations. was then intro
duced as the last speaker the commit
tees on nominations and bylaws having
been appointed In the meantime.
II am surprised" began M. johnson.
that the merchants Of Alabama and Biz