The Right Way for

The White Way

Out of an experience dating back to the very beginning of modern street lighting, Union Metal Engineers are pointing out "the right way for the white way.

Union Metal leadership in street lighting systems is not an advertising boast but an engineering fact. It is based on our creative designing work with the country's leading engineers and architects on our installations in over 1,000 principal cities and lastly upon the exclusive Union Metal idea of a pressed metal standard stronger, safer-less costly and far more beautiful than the old fashioned cast iron post. The Union Metal Organization are not simply manufacturers. Our Engineers assist in the design and layout of entire systems.

FREE MANUAL "Ornamental Street Lighting."

The Union Metal Mfg. Co.

Largest and Oldest Manufacturers of Ornamental Lighting Standards

Canton, Ohio

furnishings and decorations for the houses built by the boys.

The younger children were given an opportunity to do their bit for the homeowning movement by pasting into scrap books cut-outs from magazines and books showing designs of interiors, furniture, etc. The books each contained twelve pages and had printed captions at the top for the various rooms of a house in their regular order. Prizes were awarded for the best books.

It should be stated that all the work involved in the various contests, except the actual building of the houses, was done at the homes of the pupils, for two reasons: First, to get the home folks interested, so that they would talk about house-building and home-decorating, and, second, in order not to break into the regular studies, because the children were likely to feel more interest in Tiny Town than in studying about why and when Caesar crossed the Rubicon.

Whether entirely due to the "Build Now" advertising and Tiny Town or not, Springfield is enjoying an unprecedented building boom. The Tiny Town idea is to be carried out next year on a larger scale, this time in the open. A ten-acre tract will probably be devoted to plotting and landscaping the Tiny Town of 1920.

LOUIS PLANK, Secretary, Springfield Chamber of Commerce.

$4,500,000 for a Memorial Auditorium and Other Public Improve

ments in Birmingham BIRMINGHAM, ALA.-On August 18 this city, by large majorities, voted to bond itself for $4,500,000 for a group of public improvements which will further substantiate its claim of being "the leading city of the South." The voters also made liberal provision for the support of one of the projects. In detail, the propositions as submitted to the people were as follows:

legal complications were discovered in the case of one of them, and in another the interest rate of 41⁄2 per cent on the bonds was too low to float them. It was necessary, therefore, to resubmit the proposals. Since the last time they were voted on, conditions have changed in some respects, and there was a genuine element of doubt as to whether they would carry.

The three last-named items were strictly new, tho there had been a popular demand in Birmingham for a long time for a publicly owned auditorium. Of these three issues, the greatest doubt existed as to whether that for a combined city hall and public library would carry.

While the five City Commissioners and a considerable group of the most influential men in the city were reasonably certain that the six propositions would be carried, there was enough doubt about the outcome to make it seem wise to conduct a systematic campaign in their behalf. This was thought especially desirable in order that the majorities might be emphatic, and, above all, because of the special interest in the auditorium project.

Several months ago the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce announced its intention to give Birmingham an auditorium which would be a fitting memorial of the war services of Jefferson County and the city. This promise struck such a popular note that steps were taken at once to appoint a committee of about forty men and women to develop and handle the plans, with the active assistance of the Chamber of Commerce.

At that time there was no suggestion of the additional propositions as they were submitted to the voters. When the City Commission brought forward the proposal of bond issues for schools, a new city hall and library, and fire department needs, an agreement was reached with the Auditorium Committee to include $500,000 for such a structure. Thereupon the Chamber of Commerce financed and the Auditorium Committee handled a regular campaign of publicity in behalf of the six proposals named above, giving them about equal attention. The campaign was directed by the American City Bureau, which had handled a few months previously a reorganization campaign for the Chamber of Com

merce.

Birmingham is thus assured of the erection of a group of needed new school buildings; a tax large enough to support the schools adequately; a new building in which to house its public library and municipal officers; stations and equipment which will make its fire department one of the best in the country; and an auditorium which will rank among the finest anywhere.

The auditorium has been a subject of special interest to the people of Birmingham from the beginning. Jefferson County and the city made wonderful records in war service in the provision of both men and money. Since the signing of the armistice, there has been a keen desire to erect a suitable memorial, and to the credit of these loyal people it ought to be widely known that no other form of memorial has ever had such popularity as one the people could use.

The Auditorium Committee announced some time ago that after the voters had approved of the bond issue for $500,000, it would make an effort to raise $250,000 more by popular subscription. This sum added to the $500,000 will provide a place of assembly such as no other city in the South can boast. The time set for this supplementary campaign is October, and there is no doubt that the money will be raised. C. E. JENKS, Acting Manager, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.

"Pigs Is Pigs" in La Crosse, Wis.

LA CROSSE, WIS.-Early this summer the La Crosse Chamber of Commerce held its second annual Pig Club dinner, which was the occasion of much happiness on the part of the twenty-two successful contestants for pigs among the boys and girls in the surrounding country. Besides the young people, the guests included their parents, their teachers and the members of the Merchants' Bureau of the Chamber of

Commerce who awarded the prizes. The accompanying picture was taken after dinner, and shows each prize-winner seated on a crate containing his or her pig.

The first of these contests was conducted in La Crosse County by the La Crosse Chamber of Commerce last year, and was very successful. The same course of procedure was adopted this year as last. Letters were sent out to the teachers in the eleven county school districts explaining the plan and asking entrants to apply for blanks and rules of the contest. Any boy or girl between the ages of ten and nineteen years was permitted to compete. It was desired to locate the boy or girl best adapted to handling a pure-bred pig, also those possessing the greatest interest in pigs and the most knowledge of good swine-raising methods. Each teacher, upon receipt of the application blanks for the contest, asked to enroll as many boys and girls in her district as possible, and to forward the enrollment cards, properly filled out, to the Secretary of the La Crosse Chamber of Commerce. Upon receipt of the filled-out blanks, the Secretary mailed to the teacher in each district a set of ten questions pertaining to pigs and pig-raising. Then the teachers had the pupils in their respective districts assemble at a certain time and answer the questions. The papers containing the answers were forwarded to the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, who turned them over to the committee that had been appointed to correct the papers. The scholars showing the best knowledge of pigs and pig-raising were selected from each township and these boys and girls formed the Pig Club.

Over 300 entered the contest in 1918 and eleven young people won prize pigs. This year the number of contestants was doubled and twenty-two boys and girls each won a full-blooded young porker. When the prize