The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1920-01-22
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HAD
AN ENTHUSIASTIC MEETING
Dinner Was Served by Presbyterian
Ladies and Attendance About
100.-Everyone Talked.


The Chamber of Commerce dinner
last Thursday night was very en-
thusiastic affair, more than 100 be-
ing in attendance, among whom were
speakers from Wichita and Hutchin-
son.
The dinner was served by the la
dies of the Presbyterian church and
they did themselves proud. Not one
of those present had anything but
words Of praise for the efforts of
the ladies.
On account of the illness of his
wife, President Magruder could not
be present and w. E. Wilson occu-
pied the chair.
The first business of the meeting
was the report of Secretary Millman,
who told of the activities of the or
ganization for the past three months
He gave report of the work incident
to handling the coal situation and
most of those present were surprised
at the magnitude of the operation.
He also told of the handling of labor
and announced that jobs had been
secured for 2,426 men thru his office.
Mr.. Millman read a report pre-
pared by Mrs. Long and Mrs. Flood
in regard to the Woman's Club Ii
brary. According to the report the
library contains 1900 volumes and
there are 900 borrowers. The Ii
brary has gotten to the place where
the Club feels unable to keep up the
work and asked the Chamber of
Commerce for an expression as to
methods of meeting the needs of the
public. Owing to the great amount
of business before the meeting the
proposition was not acted upon.
However if Liberal is to have first
class library the Club will have to
have some assistance and we are of
the opinion that it will be forthcom-
ing.
P. A. Craig, chairman Of the men,
bership committee, reported that his
committee had not had time to do
anything in the way of increasing the
membership.
G. M. Light of the good roads COM
mittee told of the work that had been
done, mentioning that the Beaver
road had been put in first class shape.
]. G. Trindle, also of the good
roads committee, said that the roads
of the county were in good shape
considering the weather, but that he
did not have the statistics of what
had been done.
Frank G. Boles told of the meeting
at Dodge City at which the organiza.
tion to advertise the Southwest was
put in motion. He said there were
over 200 men in attendance, fifteen
counties being represented. He ex.
planned the proposition as being q
move to get this section before the
people Of other states and induce
more people to come here, and that
the meeting was principally composed
of business men and farmers and was
not real estate mems organization.
John IT. Grant Of the Hutchinson
Gazette followed Mr.. Boles. He is
an enthus astic booster for the ad-
vertising prcnosit.on and is spending
his time going over the territory
holding meetings to help put it
across. M. Grant said that every
dollar of the $4,000 fund would
be spent for space in magazines and
papers to advertise the country, and
explained thai none of the money
would go to the advertising company
except what was paid them by the
publications as 4 commission for
handling the business. He charac-
terized tn, movement as the biggest
thing the Southwest has ever under
taken.
F. o. Rindom was next on the pro-
gram to talk high school building.
He started his remarks by saying that
Liberal really needed larger build
ing right now. Mr.. Rindom quoted
statistics for the past twelve years,
showing that with the exception of
two years the number of students had
shown an increase. In 1909 there
were Sc students in the high school,
while 1919 showed 213 enrolled.
According to Mr.. Rindom there are
at this time ten teachers employed in
the high school, the courses have
been broadened until the present fa-
cilities permit of no further ad-
vancement. He said that school was
up to the required standard of Class
A schools with the exception of ap-
pliances and room. at is not a ques-
tion of whether or not we want to
build" said Mr.. Rindom, 1--WE must
build or stop where we are" Con-
tinuing he said: "People come to a
town for one of two purposes-be-
cause they can make more money or
because there are better school ia
cilities." During the discussion
which followed his talk Mr.. Rindom
said that we should at least build a
building large enough to handle the
number of pupils enrolled at the
time it was finished.
Mr.. Wagenkecht of Hutchinson
was present and gave an outline of
a school building. This was discussed
at length and the general opinion was
that his building was not adequate
that a more commodious building
should be erected. In faI. all the
talks made were along the line of
building for the future, and getting
a building that would take care of
the needs of the town for several
years to come.
In this connection E. D. Cooper
made a motion that the Chamber of
Commerce get back Of the school
Loo-J - -, orloaror +0 h.1ilI ~,