The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-07
For Good of
 the Community

oXtenQlng the QOmaln III Wnlcn Brnllng- ham wholesalers do business.
 This column is to be their mouthpiece day in and day out consistently and cons tinuously until Birmingham has the trade that 1t should have and is the distributing point that it should be.
 A revelation to the citizens of Birming- ham if they would go about the places where these big merchants manufacture, convert, assemble and distribute. There is a real bigness about them and pre- cision of arrangement for getting in and letting out goods that has no superior.
 Freight rates have been so realigned that, although all rates are high, the rank discriminations that once worked against Birmingham in what is naturally her own field no longer exist. The field IS there for the taking if Birmingham makes a long and strong pull for it. The Age Herald and this column propose to sit on the same bench with the wholesalers and iobbers and manufacturers and do it's part in the propulsion of the ship of Bir- mingham.
 Birmingham is the nearby center of field of consumption second to none Un- der proper organization it's producers and distributors will supply all this want. With the right organization those wh0~ wish to sell to this tremendous purchasing power will locate in Birmingham, have their warehouses here and eventually their factories
 The seller will establish himself where the buyer is if the buyer insists that he be a local seller This district is an enormous buyer It can be just as large seller when the big buyers of the district say to those that sell them that their very de- cided and pronounced preference is for local sellers and goods carried in local warehouses.
 There is nothing difficult about it ex- cept in getting Birmingham aroused to action and consistently reminded of her basic strength to bring about ideal trading Z conditions until Trade at Home is the community s second nature These are the lines to which this newspaper and this column are going to heW.
 As the community spirit develops there is going to be more thought to the ad- vantages of trading at home and less of the fractional differences in price that so often deceive when delays and long-dis- tance avenues of complaint and rectifica- tion are also considered. The Birning- ham buyer is going to consider how many men and women obtain employment here as one of the elements entering into choice of those from whom he buys
 No man would willingly throw away dollar to save nickel, yet that is often done by the fellow who buys from the out side because he saves few pennies and loses local trade when factories from which he might have purchased have laid off their hands. These idle hands mean stock-worn goods finally sold at a loss to raise cash.
 Water will not rise above it's source. Communities will not rise above the fun- damental law of community life. That law is contribution to the community by every element in it. Those who do not contribute are drains on the community, weakening it and, in that weakening, they lose the sustaining strength of that on which they depend.
 The Age-Herald and this column have had much about this community business and the community seems to like it. The community wants to do the right thing,