The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-31
For Good of the
 Community

the car Of CrOeSuS.
 Unprecedented retail trade records were marked up in 1918 and in 1919. None expected 1920 to reproduce them. But it was more than done. It was done / sanely, thoughtfully, serenely and eco nomically.
 Retail merchants agree that 1920 as a whole has run far ahead of 1919 in vol ume of business and that the holiday trade made an especially pronounced ln- crease. Not one half the buster about spending, but more spent more people spending, more goods sold The dollar of December, 1920, bought 50 per cent more than the dollar of 1919, yet the re- turns in dollars and cents were greater. And they did this without going into savings accounts. Savings deposits in- creased even during the holidays The ! people had come to the close of 1920 with a reserve that was not eaten into. There was not enough of industrial slack in this community to disturb it's financial struc- ture or reduce the pecuniary status of the average citizen.
 The tremendous Christmas buying was done with less trouble to merchants and more expressed satisfaction on the part of the purchaser than in 1919. This steady stream of trading went on oiled hinges without a creak Men and women were sane.
 This means that Birmingham has gone through adjustment, has found herself and is headed to another splendid year. Every basic industry has trimmed it's sails. Prices have gotten to levels where men may plan and build and move forward
 NToxo o4 n nn11 ccl/I that the other fellow trim first. All have trimmed. The entire craft is in good order
 There is a reason other than the pros perity of the people of Birmingham for this automatic yeafly increase in retail business. It lies in t.le extension of t k mingham's retail trade territory. That in turn, is due to the character of Birming- ham stores and the manner in which they are operated. Birmingham merchants have not grown hard on the money they have made. On the contrary, 1t has made them jealous of their mercantile prestige and determined that it shall not suffer.
 The merchants of Birmingham have developed the pride that marked the burghers of Amsterdam, Lege and Brus- sels and enabled them to stand by and back of the stadtholder William in his re sistance of the tyranny of Spain. They compete with one another only in an eff fort to operate the best-conducted store carrying the incest goods at most satisfac- tory prices.
 Those who have come south and north on the Louisville and Nashville, the South ern and the A. G. S.. and east and west on the Frisco, the Central, the A.. B. and A. and the Seaboard to trade in Birning- ham have gone home and given pleasing reports of their treatment. They have been willing messengers of Birmingham and tens of thousands have come to Bir- mingham and are coming by more tens of thousands all the time to trade here.
 It is pleasing to realize that the city is going to lift some of the license paid by the Birmingham merchants It is not much, not what the weight of the tax bur- dens which they have borne would justify, but it is at least recognition of these { sturdy community supports.
 Not a bad thing at all, but mighty good one, was the organization during the year of the Ala bama Retail Merchants association. That time was ripe for it is attested by membership already embracing several thousand Alabama merchants
 It is good to know that these important ele-