The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-29
Albert R. Rogers Places Proposition Before Civic
 Chamber Directors
COMMITTEE TO
 CONFER WITH HIM
Says Back to the Farm" Is All Rage in New England, Which Is Look ing to South for the
 Farms

wants to buy something, he says, h. stead of sell As an opener, he extended to Alabama in general and Birmingham in particu- lar about 30 minutes after he got here, an official invitation to attend the Bos- ton Domestic Science and Pure Food exposition to be held in Boston this fall, October 531. Albert R. Rogers, probably better known as Uncle Bert" for under that title he claims only two million kids, is an official representative of the ex- position, sent out to invite three par ticular states and one foreign country to take part in the Boston exposition. The foreign county is Cuba and the three states are Louisiana, Georgia and Alabama.
 Why these three state should be paid this particular honor was the first ques- tion MT. Rogers had to answer. He did so He says that the people of Boston and neighboring New England towns
 and cities have money they want to in- vest. In the last year or two a move ment or sentiment has developed on the line of 'back to the farm" In New England and neighboring states there
 are no longer any farms to go back to. Therefore these people want to come
 down" to the farms in the south. Be- fore they do they want Alabama, Geo. gia and Louisiana, which they consider the three main agricultural states of | the south, to come to this pure food | exposition and show them what we've got" Hence the invitation.
 Has Been to Cuba
 | After they had decided upon this plan | they saw it was too late to extend of- | ficial invitations to the three states I through their respective legislatures. Therefore they picked out the three main cities in each state and through those cities MT. Rogers is extending the invitations. He first went to Cuba
 and secured the whole hearted indorse-
 ment of that republic, From there he 1 came to New Orleans, from New Or 1 leans here, and from here he will go to Atlanta to extend the invitation to Georgia He got into town yesterday
 and went straight to the Chamber of Commerce, where he accidently found the chamber board of directors in spe- cial session. He secured permission to place the proposition before them then and there and they were much taken with the idea. They appointed com mittee to confer with Mr. Rogers and
 decide upon what is to be done.
 The committee is composed of W. P.
 Redd. chairman of the farm movement committee; w. H. Kettig, chairman of the manufacturers committee, and T. A. Weller, chairman of the industrial ex- cursion committee. The Pure Food Show and Domestic Science exposition, Mr.. Rogers says,
 will be the largest exposition of its kind ever given in the world. It will be held in the Mechanics building,
 Huntington avenue, Boston, which is said to be the largest permanent con- vention building in America, having over 262, ,000 square feet of floor space.
 The exposition is given by the Boston Retail Grocers association, the Massa- chusetts State Retail Grocers' and Pro- vision Dealers association in conjunction with the Massachusetts State Federation of Womsn's Clubs, which is composed Of 57. .246 women. Food manufacturers from all parts of the country will have great exhibits, but the three southern states
 mentioned and the nation of Cuba will
 have individual exhibits along agricul- tural lines, providing MT. Rogers invita- tions are accepted, which they no doubt will be.
 No More Mining Schemes
 Mr. Rogers claims 100000 kids, and to ! them is known Uncle Bert on ac- count of his famous educated horse. "Jm l Key" which has travelled all over the United States and wherever MT. Rogers l took him he organized a boys club. This.
 however, is incidental. MT. Rogers says
 that for the past number of years Boston
 has been the dumping ground for mining schemes. Anybody who had hole in the ground, he says, could draw up a pros pectus and come to Boston and sell stock. Now that has changed" he says. You
 couldn't sell mining stock or shares in | Boston if you could prove the mine shafts were of solid gold. The -to-the-farm ! movement has started all over New Eng | land. and those people want some farms
 to go back to. They want some lands in which to invest their money. All the | available farms in New England have been gobbled up and the country is thick ly settled. The place those people are
 now going to spend their money will be if the farms of Georgia. Alabama and Louisiana if you people down here simply let them know it's here. The space at ! the exposition will not be charged for for
 these three states except small amount to pay expenses. The cost outside of the
 actual preparing of your exhibits and your
 advertising work during the exposition would be comparatively little.
 As result. if our people invest in your farms. great commercial inter- course will be developed between the two
 sections Our big merchants and manu- lecturers will advertise and push their products into these states"
 Attract Frisco Tourists Incidentally, MT. Rogers advises the Chamber of Commerce t6 get busy on the San Francisco travel next year. He says | every man, woman and child that can scrape together the money to carry the lit-
 tie special savings accounts up in the eastern and northern states are going to
 go to the exposition in 1915. Those people should be routed through Birmingham coming or going. and by extensive adver- Using now he says New Orleans. Birming- ham and such towns could easily have thousands of tourists pouring through here all next year.
 A feature of the pure food exposition at Boston will be the 'Westfield standard of foods This has become famous pure food standard, and Is generally ad- mitted as perfect. No exhibitor will be allowed to show his products who does not by actual test come up to this stand ard. MT. Rogers expects to leave for Att lanta and then for home today.
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