The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-08-11
Cot Sleepers Remind Visit
Ors of the Great Boom
Days in Early
Birmingham
EFFORTS EXERTED
TO KEEP INITIATION
OF PRICES DOWN
Birmingham Can Be of
Much Assistance to Sister
City in Helping to Meet
the New Situation
By FRANK WILLIS BARNETT

BY FRANK WILLIS BARNETT
Admission, August 10 Especially -Annis-
ton is busy place.
I am sitting in a hotel as the rain
falls. looking out the window over the
roofs beyond the church steepie toward
the mountain.
dreary, it rains and the wind is never
weary" but war waits not on the ele-
ments. and hundreds of men, yes. thou
sands, with saw and hammer are building
shelter for our soldier boys
Already sprinkling of soldiers are here
in Admission. Mature officers well set up;
quick stepping, alert younger men with
straps on their shoulders, and clean
limbed bronze faced fellows in kahki
give life and color in the hotel lob
bes, cafes and on the streets.
And Admission is beginning to awake
to the fact that half hundred thousand
men dumped at her doors forces on her
attention not one. but scores of problems.
commercial, civic, social moral and re-
ligious that must be met.
Birmingham missed what Admission is
getting. 1t would have been no easy
thing for the Magic City to have cared
for the thousands of strangers who
flocked to its doors toJfnd Judgement in
hastily built cantonments.
Uncle Sam cares for the soldier boys,
but the trouble facing city is TO pro-
vide for the officers. their wives and fam
lilies and the horde OF visiting relatives of
the men and the army Of camp followers.
Now here is where Anniston's first great
worry is coming, and already committees
are beating the town to find out how
many rooms are available and the report
is that mighty few ca nbe had.
am at the Alabama, and it is overrun.
Men are sleeping on cots. There is an
awning over the front veranda and each
night it shelters number Of weary trav-
elers Sample rooms are turned into bed
rooms. Private homes are being opened
by friends to care for visiting acquain-
tances who are put to it to get public
accommodations
One of Birmingham s. big hotel men is
on the ground I won't give his name.
but he isn't here for his health. There
is also a prominent restaurant man who
is trying to buy out the lease Of big
concern to open cafe. number OF
local capitalists are figuring on putting
up a 10O-room hotel, and there are parties
negotiating for the Admission inn
I went before the Chamber of Com
merce to speak on "Birmingham's Inter
est in Camp Mcclellan" It's serious
proposition and we will have to help An
niston meet the situation, not in the way
of rivalry, but in neighborliness, and yet.
Of course profiting in a business while
aiding in a social way.
Any old Brminghamer who passed
through the boom days when men slept
in chairs in the lobbies of the old Will
son house. the Florence and the Metro
poltan can picture what Admission will
face when the wave of soldiers begins to
roll in.
Yes real estate is advancing. Some of
my old friends have been lucky and made
big profits on their deals. The tendency
is to discourage boom, but nobody can
stop the rising prices. Vacant lots on
Noble street will bring almost as much
rental on leases as they would have done
a year back with stores upon them.
Sure, there are promoters here. All
kinds of stock schemes are trying to get
floated and will If the sucker crop shows
up, as it usually does on the crest of
material wave of prosperity. But take 1t
from me. this beautiful city is here for
keeps. 1t has survived one boom and can