The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1949-12-01

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Raup's Camera Shop in the
Hotel Alexander building, be sure
and drop by and see it today The
display is put on by the Hagerstown
Circus Fans Association, and the fine
models of the various pieces of cir
Gus equipment were made by Car
roll l.. Baechtel, Jr., president of
the association.
Quite an interesting luncheon
meeting of the board of directors of
the Chamber of Commerce was held
on Monday.
The board voted unanimously to
hold special farm luncheon meet
ing at the Hotel Alexander on Feb
ruary 6, at which time members of
the Chamber and representatives of
various farm organizations of the
county will be addressed by Roger
Colbert, national secretary of the
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part of the Chamber of Commences
program to develop closer relation
ship with the farm interests of the
county.
The rest of the meeting was taken
up with very lively discussion re-
garding recent request of the
Chamber, that the sum of 81, 800 be
set up in the city's 1850 budget to
defray the cost of printing a picture
booklet describing Hagerstown, that
would be available to send to tour
lists and Others asking for informa-
ton about our city. Previous book
lets (ths last one was printed over
three YEARS ago and is now not only
out of date, but the copies are ex-
haustedD have always been financed
by the city as its part of civic duty
to encourage tourists and others to
visit Hagerstown.
Mayor Mills, who is also a mem
Der of the board of directors of the
Chamber, stated very plainly that
this item would not be approved by
the Mayor and Council, and that if
the Chamber of Commerce wanted
such booklet it should be paid for
out of the Chambers funds. The
healthy part of the discussion was
the fact that the various members
expressed their opinions quite fully
Cloth those approving the Mayors
statement and those opposed to it,.
Finally motion was put forward
that the Chamber withdraw it's bud
get request and, after being duly
seconded it was put to a vote and
was carried by a margin of one vote.
A far as l am concerned | feel
very strongly that the city has made
a mistake in refusing to pay for the
printing of the booklet in question,
and I think the Chambers made a
mistake in not standing by their
guns.
The Chamber of Commerce consists
of about 400 members who pay an
annual membership fee of $25, and it
is from these funds that the Cham
Der operates. When you consider
that the salaries of the employees
of the Chamber of Commerce, in
Guiding its manager and stenographic
help, amounts to some $4,000 year,
it is pretty readily seen that is would
be a physical impossibility for the
Chamber of Commerce to finance a
booklet that the city could be proud
of, unless the members of the board
of directors dug down in their own
pockets to pay for it.
In my opinion, any city admins
tration has civic duty to perform
apart from handling the various de-
partments of government, and while
everybody agrees that economy
should be practiced wherever pos
sible, l think it's false economy for
city administration to refuse a
small item like that, which can
bring many, many visitors to Ha-
gerstown and is one of the best
pieces of advertising material that
any city could put out
The united religious census which
will take place throughout the en-
tire county on Sunday afternoon, is
a magnificent example of the broth
erhood of man.
With the three faiths-Roman Ca
tho1ic, Jewish and Protestant
working side by side, thousands of
volunteer workers will make house
to house and farm to farm canvass
of the entire county on Sunday af-
ternoon to obtain a first-hand relig-
ious census.
To me one of the most amazing
things about this project is the fact
that during the two preliminary meet
ines that were held to work out the