The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-07
NE \ RLY MILLION SA ' [ ] SHIPPERS If BIRMINGHAM
Good Results Traffic Associa- ton Shown at Meet
 ina

Among the facts brought out at the sixth annual meeting of the Birming- ham Traffic association yesterday were these:
 Saved to the membership of the association in the auditing of ex- pense bills, s230,412.
 Saved in the collection of claims for members, s664.453.
 Total saved members Tn auditing of expense bills and collecting of claims in the six years of the asso- ciation's existence, SS94,S56.
 Against this the association pre- scented this data:
 Averaging cost of maintaining the association per annum, S15,000-total for the period S90,000, which is only 10 per cent of the amount actually collected for the membership. The as sociation now has 300 members, all of whom are shippers, the member ship being confined to shippers.
 Besides saving the shippers sS94. S56, the association quoted 52l,000 rates and a large amount was col lected for the shippers in the repara- tions which were secured by the as- sociation for overcharges.
 "City's Greatest Asset"
 The president, F. Wilkinson, re- viewing these facts and other services of the association, said in his annual address: Bear in mind that this is only a resume of departmental work and does not take into consideration the broad score of the association's s activities In the way of rate align ments into and out of the district. This phase of our work has been so successful, is so well known and is of such magnitude that we feel no citi zen can doubt but that the Birming ham Traffic association is by far the greatest asset of our city"
 The sixth annual meeting took the form of a luncheon held in the Mary Beard Eat Shop in the Title Guaran- tee building Friday night at 6:30 o'clock.
 Costs Avoided.
 Mir. Wilkinson, Tn the course of his remarks, pointed out that investiSa- tion on his part had veloped tl\t it would have cost the individual mem. bers, for whose account 97 informal complaints were last year handled, attorneys fees at the rate of $100 per case, which would have amounted to $9,700.
 He further pointed out that the minimum retainer fee for the hand ling of formal complaints before tine interstate commerce commission would have averaged $1.000. and that it would have cost the Birmingham people at least $15,000 in attorneys fees to have handled the cases before the commission. This, he stated. would also apply with almol equal force to the cases before the public service commission.
 F. I. Thompson, president of The Age-Herald, was introduced by President Wilkinson, who referred to his membership on the United States shipping board and his ownership of three great Alabama newspapers the Mobile Register, the Mobile News Item and The Age-Herald. He said Birmingham welcomed MT. Thompson as 8 new and useful citizen. Warriors Potentialities. MT. Thompson spoke of the poten- tiality of the Warrior river in con nection with the port of Mobile, and made special reference to the saving of more than $1,000,000 last year in freight ratesh on cast iron pipe and steel products moving to the Pacific tasIon ea oas .nI 1t 9w Was eoh he aa1 ap preciation and realization of this fundamental potentiality in transpor- tation facilities enabled by the War rior and Mobile connection that mad been among the strong inducements leading him to invest in Birmingham and become a part of this community. Mr. Thompson touched also on the benefits of the merchant marine and what 1t means to Alabama.
 Nothing But Requests.
 Following Mir. Thompsons talk. the meeting was opened for general dis cussion. which, led by Dan Dimick, took the form of 100 per cent com mendation of the work done by the association and the personal service of Manager Bum, Secretary Charles E. Jones and the clerical and rate de- partment.