The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-13
Regular Weekly Meeting of New Civic Association
 Held Last Night
VALLEY CANAL IS
 AGAIN LIVE ISSUE
Association Holds First Formal Meet. ing in New Temporary Quarters in the Jefferson Bank
 Building

At the regular weekly meeting of the
 Birmingham Civic Association, held last
 night. R. BlumbeIs. chairman of the or
 ganizations com 1ittee of commissaries,
 submitted a report which he stated rep
 resented the amount of money spent in
 the comnissaries of the Tennessee com
 pany during the past five months.
 "The total amount spent for necessi-
 ties," said Mir. Blumberg, was $1, ,073, ,7O4
 In addition to this there was approxi-
 usually term luxuries.
 According to our investigation the Ten nessee company commissaries do about 52 per cent of the entire commissary
 business of the Birmingham district. Here
 are some of the items of business done
 by this companys commissaries during
 the past five months:
 Flour and meal, s163,00O; meat and
 lard, sS4S, ,996; sugar. $46,s97; bread, $15,3s5; soap, $15o9e coffee. s5S,OOo; clothing, $4S,- 600; furniture. s17.0OO; shoes, $7s.s2o.s MT. Blumberg also submitted number of pay envelopes which he said were from the Republic Iron and Steel companys s .Sayreton division One which he read in detail showed the receiver of the en-
 velope had mined 8 tons of coal, amount ing to s18.9O. Various items were deduct ed from the envelope including commis- sary checks, $4, coal $250, blacksmithing % cents and a number of other items leaving the total cash received by the
 miner s7.20.
 He also submitted other envelopes and statements from employees .purporting to show how the checks received were dis
 counted at 80 and S5 per cent for cash. The report was received as information
 and the committee was authorized to continue it's work.
 Chief among the steps taken by the new civic body was the appointment of a committee to wait on Major Guthrie and Colonel Sanford. the government en- gineers who were in the city last night on the Valley creek canal matter. The
 committee was composed of Messrs.
 Shelby, Grace, White, Henderson and Harsh
 Upon their return to the meeting the committee reported that the engineers
 impressed upon them the importance of
 getting a commission made rate immed- lately covering the territory in question. This will be taken up at once by the standing committee of which G. R. Harsh is chairman.
 A committee with H. I. Ross as chair
 man was named to draft resolutions upon the death of Judge Zell Gaston. Judge Gaston was a member of the association and was the first man who paid dues in the new organization. A resolution was adopted on the Lock l 17 proposition which called attention of the government to this lock simply as a possible means of creating an emergency unit of 8 nitrate plant. Emphasis was placed upon the fact that no antagonism was intended toward the proposed perma- nent nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals. The president was also authorized to name a | committee of three to investigate fully the power possibilities of Lock F, and report back to the organization at a ! later meeting.
 l A fire insurance committee of three, with James H. Hard as chairman, was authorized.
 aggressive membership campaign and a ,, tee and associated workers will be held ! at the clubs present quarters tomor- l row night at o'clock
 Last nights meeting was held in the lassociation's new temporary quarters on i the two top floors of the Jefferson County | bank building. It is expected and hoped by the members that the quarters may become the permanent home of the as- I sociation.
 every Monday night at o'clock Regular meetings will be held here