The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-13
BOWIE URGES ALL CITIZENS ID OPEN
 HOMES ID GUESTS
Semi Centennial Head Says Hotels Cannot Furnish Suf- ficient Room for the
 Celebration Crowds

Only the lack of enough hotels to accommodate the crowds assured for the semi-centennial and the visit of the President now remains to threaten the success of Birming- hams big birthday party during the week of October 24-29, according to Sydney J. Bowie, general chairman of the celebration.
 "The people of Birmingham must become aroused at once to the serious situation confronting us in regard to caring for the many thousands of vis- itors who are coming here for the l week." said Chairman Bowie last night. All the hotels and regular boarding houses in the city can care for only small part of the people who are coming and 1t will be abso- lutely necessary for everyone in Bir- mingham to open their homes and take in some extra roomers during the week.
 The people of Birmingham have never failed in their hospitality and l know they will not this time. But lllS lliIS IS very lillilN anu tACl v hS vast amount of detail work which has to be done before we will be ready to care for these visitors. We do not ask the people to entertain these visitors free of cost. They are perfectly willing to pay and expect to pay. But as the hotels and board ing houses can care for only q small part of them, we must get some rooms in not less than 5000 homes to care for these visitors
 5.O00 Rooms Needed
 "The matter of whether meals will be furnished or not is optional with each householder. If meals are not furnished, the visitors can eat at restaurants and cafes. But we cant have any of these people remain in the city over night and not have \ place to sleep. We must have more than 5000 rooms at once in order to be prepared to handle the large crowds that will be here.
 Even if the home is crowded 1t Is patriotic duty for members or the family to double up during that week or for the two or three days when the crowds are greatest and take in two or three roomers to help relieve the situation. We want to know the name, address and phone number or every person WnO can Ldhe one or more roomers during the week, the number of rooms they can sup- ply, number of beds, price for each, whether private bath or bath conven- tent, whether meals can be supplied and price for meals.
 Housing Committee
 This information should be sent without delay to the housing commit tee of the Chamber of Commerce. We would prefer that it be written and mailed or sent to the Chamber or Comm cree to the committee, but 1T this Is impossible, or if there is any question that is desired to be asked. the person may phone to the commit tee at Main 1878.
 "Those who have worked to make the semi i-centennial a, success and who are now assured of large crowds, must rely upon the public-spirited citizens of Birmingham to come to the relief by taking these visitors into their homes. It is necessary that this information be in hand at the earliest possible moment so that we may prepare card indexes and have all information ready for the infor- nation booths to be opened at the Terminal and Louisville and Nash vile stations and downtown. Let eV- cry family take at least one or two roomers for the week and the prop lem will be solved"