The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-06
Would Have to Advertise, They Say, Because Their
 Competitor Did
INSIST CONTRARY
 TO CITY BEAUTIFUL
Ad Club Passed First Resolution and Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade Have Followed-Pre-
 sent Petition to the Commission


 on street corners, bearing advertisements.
 fas brought forth a storm of protest. It seems that many of the merchants
 are against the proposition. All agree that the trash can in itself is thing
 much to he desired. The bone of con-
 tention is the advertisements. The Birmingham Ad club started the protests and the resolution of this ch,b
 has been seconded and indorsed by the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Mems League and the Board of Trade, all of which organizations have gone on record officially as opposed to the trash cans.
 Among the arguments given as to why they should not be permitted to appear upon the streets with the advertisements is that they are not entirely in accord with the city beautiful idea, although George Ward, father of the city beautiful, says this argument is a fallacy. It was pointed out yesterday that the city was not going to secure the revenue from
 the trash can advertising in the event the cans are placed on the streets, because the advertising Is to be placed in the hands of an expert and this expert 1t is who secures the revenue from cans.
 The merchants, too, say they object to being "held up' for advertising which is not of high order. The holdup comes in, they say, when the man selling ad- vertising on the cans might ask a nner- chant for an ad and, upon being refused. go to his competitor and secure an ad The Board of Trade trash can commit tee is securing signatures to a petition which is to be presented to the city com
 mission. asking that the matter of trash cans bearing advertisements be denied. It Is pointed cut that Birmingham Is a
 metropolitan city and that the appearance upon the streets of such cans Is not only
 unsightly, but gives the impression of rrovincialism.
 The merchants on First avenue, accord ing to Herman Saks. are solidly against the trash cans. MT. Saks is chairman
 of the committee to secure the signatnres-
 of First avenue merchants to the petition.
 He says he will turn in his petition to- day with the name Of every merchant on that avenue.
 T believe the merchants are all op- posed to the trash can with advertise
 ments upon it,, said MT. Saks. sTf the city is unable to buy the trash cans and must sell advertising upon them to pay for them, l, for one, would be willing
 to pay my part and buy the cans. leaving
 them blank. believe other merchants
 would also be willing to do so." J. D. Collins also said that he would
 be glad to pay his share towards buying
 the cans and leaving off the advertise ments. Tt is really a low kind of ad-
 vertising at best" said MT. Collins. T
 do not believe that the merchants desire
 to advertise on trash cans, but if they
 were put out for advertising purposes,
 one would almost be compelled to buy
 space on them. Suppose trash can We're
 placed near my shoe store with the ad-
 vertisement of another shoe house in the
 city? It would be almost necessary Tor
 me. too, to take space on the cans. l
 would be glad to chip in for my share
 of the money to buy the cans and present
 them to the city, rather than have cans containing advertising"
 Porter Objects
 H. J. Porter of the Porter Clothing com pany Is opposed to the advertising trash cans. T have no objection to the trash can in itself" said MT. Porter, ''but I do object to the advertising 1t is proposed to put upon it. It seems absurd to put out trash cans for the purpose of getting the merchants to advertise upon them. If any advertisement appears upon them, 1t should be one of the city of Birming- ham,"
 George A. Blinn of the Excelsior laun- dry is opposed to the trash cans. Said MT. Blinn: 'I think the cans look all right now, but they are easily defaced and the one at Second avenue and Twen- tieth street, which is sample is even now very dirty This is not in accord with city beautiful ideas. One of the strongest reasons why these cans should be put out is that they are an additional tax upon the merchants because compett- ton just forces a man to advertise upon them. When 1t comes to a pass where the merchants have to advertise on trash cans I think advertising is at a pretty low ebb."
 J. D. Rosenberger of the Birming-
 ham Trunk factory is chairman of the trash can committee. He said: "In the first place think the capacity of the can is entirely out of the question. And besides that it Is altogether against the ideas of city beautiful"
 H. D. Cullen said: "I am strenuous | ly opposed to the trash cans for ad- vertising purposes It lowers tfe stan dar1 of advertising, which the Ad club has been working for more than a year to elevate. It's value as an advertising
 medium is practically nothing because
 few people will pay any attention to