The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-11-20
Hays Man Represented on Board of
State Chamber of Commerce

Hays Man Represented on Board of
State Chamber of Commerce
The purpose of the Convention at
Wichita, last Thursday and Friday,
was fully accomplished with the or
ganization - a State Chamber of
Commerce which will form an import
ant connecting link between the many
individual associations over the State
and the strong National Association.
The Importance of this move to the
commerce of Kansas cannot be over
estimated, especially in the matter of
"Selling Kansas" to Kansans and out
siders. Cooperative publicity has al
ready been demonstrated by our local
chamber as having great effectiveness
and the same principle can be utilized
on a larger scale in the State Cham
Der. Mr.. c. G. Cochran of Hays, was
elected one of the Directors of this
newly formed organization, of which
Mr.. Harry L. Fox of Wichita, is
President, and VIM. Kennedy of Ell
dorado, Secretary. All the Directors
are successful business men from all
parts of the State.
On Thursday was held meeting of
Commercial Secretaries of Kansas, at
which meeting a State Association
was formed with R. W. Holcomb,
Sec'y Of the Hutchinson Chamber.
Chairman, and VIM. Kennedy, Sec'y
of the Eldorado Chamber, Secretary.
1t is proposed that this Association
shall meet every three months and at
each meeting elect a new chairman
and secretary to have charge of the
next meeting. This will give splendid
opportunity for interchange of ideas
and methods. They have also arrang-
ed to combine in an effort to bring
Carl Baer, the Farmer and the Mer-
chant" specialist of st. Louis, to Kan
sas to speak at various Chambers who
may indicate desire to have him, and
PROBATE the expense between them,
and to carry out this ideaNin bringing
other big men into the State to speak
at the clubs.
On Friday, business men from all
sections gathered in Wichiat, about
fifty in number, aside from those who
live in Wichita, and organized the
State Chamber as above. The
address by Major C. j. Masseck, To-
peka, on care We Asleep At the
Switch" was especially forcefuI and
pertinent. He said, eve shall never
be able to develop cooperation in bust
ness in the cities and towns of Kansas
and in the State of Kansas itself, I'M
til we understand the farmers of Kan
sas better and they understand us bet
ter. No matter how much commercial
organizations of the state may talk of
factories and other business enter
prises, it must not be forgotten that
the great industry of Kanass is and
will long continue to be agriculture.
1t is good business to encourage the
development Of what the state has be-
fore much effort is spent in the devel-
Jopment of anything else. There is
too much misunderstanding between |
the farmer and the merchant or other |
business men in town. These pre-
JUDGES are of long standing and are
firmly grounded, but they must be re-
moved for the best interest of the peo-
pie in town and country alike" He
also said that Kansas still has more
than 100000 acres of agricultural
land that has not been developed at
all, yet our papers are full of adver-
tlsements of farm lands in other parts
of the country that are no better than
Kansas, and some of them not as
good, and we sit still and twiddle our
thumbs, gamble in oil leases and
thank God that we live in Kansas"
"When you know the farmer for what
he ISL he said, land treat him as he
should be treated, you will find him
your best friend. With good roads
the merchants in the towns of Kansas
will have nothing to fear from mail
order houses, for I have seen illustra-
lions of this in many places"
The Board of Commerce of Wichita
entertained the visiting delegates at
the Hotel Lassen for luncheon Thurs
day and Friday, and for dinner at the
Wichita Club Thursday evening. A
full report will be given of the con-
vention by Miss Fliesbach at the next
Chamber of Commerce luncheon