The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-10
MANY NOT BUYING
 MONUMENTS HERE
Triplett Calls Attention to Insincerity in Buy at
 Home" Advice
Q the Edltor of The Age-uerald,

To the Editor or The Age-Herald
 I have recently noticed in the columns
 of the Birmingham daily papers articles
 referring to the propositions of Trade in
 Birmingham" It seems there has been a
 campaign started on this subject in which
 a great many of our most prominent
 business men are taking part. I wish to express myself upon this subject along
 my particular line of business. The mon-
 ument dealers of Birmingham have suf- fered for years for the lack or Birming- ham citizens patronage. For years some of us have been struggling for success
 and the only reason why we have not had
 great success is due to the fact that some
 of our most prominent citizens who are in the market for fine monumental art
 work are either of the opinion that they
 cannot buy this work in Birmingham, or
 they are disposed by some reason or other
 to buy from New York state or other out
 of-town firms. I wish to call your atten-
 tion to the fact that for the past six
 years our Birmingham cemeteries are be-
 ing beautified and our people are begin
 ming to appreciate fine and more mod
 ern class of monument work. In this
 same length of time there has been over
 $16,000 worth of monument work pur-
 cnaSeu mostly Dy tne members or IHt
 Chamber of Commerce and other strong
 advocates of Trade in Birmingham"
 wish to impress upon the peoplpe of Bir-
 mingham that there Is positively no ex-
 cuse whatever for their buying this class
 of work outside of Birmingham.
 In the last IS months there has been
 about $30000 worth of monument work
 erected in the Elmwood cemetery by
 certain New York state firm, and l am
 To o,I to clxn l.a1p
 that just in the last four months that one
 of thIs firms representatives has visited
 our city and either by their own influ-
 ence or through the influence of some Bir-
 mingham friends, have succeeded In se-
 curing four or five orders for large monu-
 ments from some of our most prominent
 citizens, some of which are prominent
 business men. These transactions
 amounted to several thousand dollars Some time ago saw in the office of the
 Elmwood Cemetery company large stack of advertising catalogs, showing cuts of monuments, which was published by this same firm and given to the Elmwood Gem etery company for the purpose of distri- button among prospective customers l cannot say whether or not these cata- logs were handed out by the members of the cemetery company, but I do say they were received there for that purpose. and I can say that this firm through some unknown influence is taking out of Br- mingham what justly belongs to the dealers of Birmingham and are not even paying license to our city for doing busi- ness here.
 I appeal to the Birmingham people. How long is this going to last? l wish to ask these business men who have pur- chased their work from this firm and who have shown some of the monument dealers of Birmingham but little or no consideration, do you conscientiously feel that you owe your success in business in Birmingham to such business transac- tions and do you not feel that you will lose in a business way from the many monument dealers who arc struggling for success in your city?
 When think of the conditions of this subject of trade in Birmingham in my particular line of business, with which. of course. am best acquainted, I ask myself, Is there no way that our pro- gressive Chamber of Commerce members can assist us to remedy these conditions; or will you continue to buy your monu- ment work away from Birmingham, and by so doing destroy the efforts of the Bir- mingham monument dealer by falling to practice what you preach?
 Allow me to say personally that re- gently one of my customers counter
 manded an order with a New York state firm and placed the order with me after being convinced that they could buy the same class of work with the same guar antee at less figure from a Birmingham dealer.
 It is very discouraging to the dealers here when we realize the Birmingham people arc being misled by these out -of- town dealers and made to believe that they can furnish a superior class of work and material than that furnished by Bir- mingham dealers. And at the same time are charging them higher price for the same class of goods
 l I trust that through the columns of the Birmingham daily papers the advocates of Trade in Birmingham will see themselves as other see them. Respectfully,
 F.. P. TRIPLETT. Birmingham. April 8, 1915