The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-09-01
HUNDREDS OF MERCHANTS OF ALABAMA
 ARE MADE MEMBERS OF TRAFFIC BUREAU
Organization Will Represent All Merchants Who Attend State Convention When It Again Appears Before Public Service Commission

fife bureau, a division of the Bir- mingham Chamber of Commerce, ap- pears before the Alabama public service commission, it will not only be as representative of the 300 Bir- mingham shippers now affiliated with that body, but it will also be the representative of the hundreds of Alabama merchants who attended the Alabama Merchants convention in this city this week.
 At the business meeting of the convention yesterday morning. the convention unanimously and with ring of earnest enthusiasm adopted the resolution of the transportation committee urgin gthe merchants who had attended the convention to be- come members of the traffic depart ment of the chamber so as to come within reach of it's services.
 Birmingham traffic bureau will
 henceforth speak as the mouth-
 piece of northern Alabama mer-
 cnntiIe interests, which will
 serve to offset what is under
 stood to have been an argument
 sometimes presented by the de-
 fendant carriers that only the
 cities with traffic bureaus were
 interested fin the various pleas
 for lower rates, rate alignments
 and the like.
 The merchants also pledged them
 lsNfa | matters of transportation and freight rates.
 The text of the resolution adopted is as follows:
 Not Heretofore Represented.
 we find, after investigation, that in the many hearings before the in- terstate commerce commission as well as the Alabama public service commission, that the smaller cites or communities in the state of Ala bama are not represented, and in fact the entire burden of maintaining an equitably aligned basis of rates has fallen to the lot of principally the cities of Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma and Mobile. It Is true in those cities are traffic organizations with experienced officials in charge and that the said cities will, to large extent, continue to handle in the f-;- ture as in the past the bulk of these matters d likewise accept a larger part of the responsibility at tached thereto.
 Tt has been to represent all in your committee that these organ ization are handicapped to consid- erable extent in the handling of the aforesaid matters for the reason they have no authority to represent 11a- 11, hoe suggested, and the committee so rec ommends, that for the purpose of handling matters of the kind men toned, that authority be delegated to the Birmingham Chamber of Com merce to represent all of the smaller localities in the northern part of the state; that Montgomery and Selma be delegated similar authority for the middle division of the state. while Mobile be asked to look after the southern division of the state.
 If the organizations represented in the aforesaid mentioned towns are given this authority, 1t increases their prestige at the hearings of the interstate commerce commission also the Alabama public serivce commits sion and therefore insures the more successful handling of traffic mat ters. It is understood that there will be no expense incidental to the smaller localities in their respective divisions of the state. and further. that tn esmaller localities will be given the same relative aligned basis of rates as are accorded the larger communities.
 Lack The Facilities.
 Tt has been brought to the atten- tion of this committee that the mer- chants in the smaller localities do not have the facilities whereby they can have their expense bills checked, also their claims filed and collected. At present a large number are hay ing this work done by private organ nations located in Chicago. New York and other far distant cities. The cost of this service is generally on 50 per cent basis of the amount of over charges discovered. which, In some instances amounts to a large sum of money.
 Arrangements have been made through the Birmingham Traffic as- sociation, which is department Of the Birmingham Chamber of Com merce. whereby any merchant, who Is a member of the Alabama Merchants association, can. on the payment of annual dues in the amount of s25 per year. employ the said Birmingham Traffic association to audit at regu- lar intervals. all of the expense bills of interested merchants, file and col feet their claims and there will be no expense incidental to this service other than the $25 per year.
 For illustration: It has been brought to the attention of the com mitee the fact that certain mer chant joined the Traffic association and paid $25 and sent his expense bills to be checked. The said Traffic association discovered errors amount ing to more than $960. This amount was refunded, and if the said mem- Der had this work done on a 50 per cent basis, he would have paid $4s0 for the recovery of the $960 whereas 1t only cost him s25 in, that. he was a member of the Birmingham Traf- fic association.
 Alabama Merchants association write the general manager, o. L. Bum, at Birmingham, Ala, and ap- ply for a membership in the organ ization on fee of s25 per year. which fee has been reduced to that amount for only the members of the said Alabama Retail Merchants asso- citation.
 Urge Greater Interest.
 Your committee would further recommend that the members of the Alabama Merchants association give more attention. in the future than in the past to transportation matters as whole because it is plainly obvious that if each locality does not have relatively aligned basis of rates to and from that point. it places the merchant doing business therein at decided disadvantage as compared with similar merchants doing bus mess in other communities where the rates are relatively aligned. All complaints as to rates to and from localities where the members of this organization are doing business should be taken up direct with MT. O. l.. Bum, general manager of the