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Show "ORUHIW WILL FIGHT FOR RIGHTS Want Changes In Laws to Permit Them to Exercise Exer-cise Franchises. ACCOMPLISH MUCH FOX TRAVELERS' COMFORT Short Hotel Sheet and the Roller Towel Soon Will Be Mere Relics. BY FREDERIC J. HABKHT. Philadelphia la today the neeeg for a boat of commercial traveler who have come from every eection of the United Statea and Canada to attend the annual convention of the American Traveler! ' Protective aaaociation, a beneficial organisation for the purpose of protecting the interest! of traveling salesmen and other traveler!. The " drummen " of the eta tee lying between the Boeky mountain! and the Cascade! are alio gathering today in Ogden, Utah, for the annual convention in that diitriet of the United Commercial Commer-cial Travelers. The " 1 rn m m ' f) nrffiniTitinn, Af the country include a much larger number num-ber of men than ia generally known, and there is no trade or profession more misunderstood. However much inclined to eivie duty and domestic life a man may be. the fact that he ia continually con-tinually upon the road hinders him from taking any active part in the welfare of the community which he calls home, as it alio prevehta him from daily intercourse inter-course with his family. Comparatively few traveling men are able t vote, consequently they have no- voiee regarding re-garding the affairs of the town in which thev may claim residence or own property. prop-erty. One of the matters to which the attention at-tention of the members of the T. P. A. convention will be called is an attempt to securre the passage of legislation in all the statea permitting a traveling man to vote in his own town without requiring him to register some time in advance, as the present laws demsnd. A bill making a provision for the late registration of traveling men ia already before the Missouri legiilature. It ' said that in that one atate mora than 10.000 traveling men were deprived of their righto aa citizena laat year because be-cause their business did aot permit thenr to b at home in tim to register . the required period before election day. Maay trarshsg salsa a aia-patriwrie enough to mske some sacrifice to enable them to be at home for election day if they were permitted to vote. But to most of them It would be impossible to make an earlier, trip to secure a registration. regis-tration. Could Vote on Mondays. The commercial travelers are also anxious to have election day changed from Tuesday to Monday, as many ot tbem, although able to spend ftunday with their families, are compelled to leave home early Monday morning. The fact that election day is on Tuesday involves in-volves either the Ions of their votes or the loss of a full day 'a time, which very often cannot be arranged. The members of the Travelera' Protective Pro-tective association. Individually and as a body, object atrongly to anv proposed parcels' post legislation. The trnvel-inr trnvel-inr salesmen claim that the advantage this system might bring to the rural fanner is mora than offset by tha injury in-jury it doe to village trad. As the different state organisations of com mercial travelers nave almost unanimously unani-mously meted upon this matter during th past year some active measures of opposition probably will be taken by the national) convention in Philadelphia. Philadel-phia. Total Membership 1,000,000. There are a large number of commercial com-mercial travelers' organizations in the United States anft Canada, and their total memberihip is said to approximate approxi-mate a million. While organized nri-marily nri-marily for the benefit of traveling salesmen, sales-men, most of these organizations have a beneficial or insurance department to which all white males are eligible. In this way, ideas which the progressive drummer brings up before his own society so-ciety receive Ihe support of men who are perma m en Uv located, but at the same time interested in commercial The interest of th traveling salesman sales-man and tha local merchant both center cen-ter in trad increase, so a movement like that of the parcels' post may affect af-fect both. Then interests assert that while th fanner would reap the benefit bene-fit of securing goods at city prices for a nominal postage, thus avoiding Deary freight and express charges, toe local merchant loses sales beeanse, having paid th freight, he cannot compete with tha prieea of the eitr, and that when tbe merchant loses Bales the commercial com-mercial traveler loses futurs orders. Of course, the advocate of tha parcels' par-cels' poet deny these assertions in to to. Win War Into raror. These various organizations for commercial com-mercial travelera have don much to raise tha ataading of their profession or calling. A quarter of a century ago the word " drummer" often carried a stigma. Tha mew agagd ia sueh work were supposed to be a set of die sipated rowdies, totally unfit for recognition rec-ognition in polite society. Women, in particular, were taught to avoid them. Aa a aailor ia credited with a wife ia every port, ao a drummer waa supposed to hav sweetheart ia every towa, and wellbred maidena were taught to die-eounteaaae die-eounteaaae all his advances. Now, however, commercial travelers ar roc ngnired aa .men of ability aad good standing, aad there ia a circle of ao-eistv ao-eistv aot freely opeaed to th " knights of tb grip.'.' Krom the immoral sacrilegious scoffer scof-fer of tha traditional anecdote th drummer haa developed ia maay instance, in-stance, into aa active, wideawake, religions re-ligions maa. whose attendance ia welcomed wel-comed by tha cbnrcbe of - whatever tow Jic may Und himself ia. Vasy f (Coatiaued oa peg .) a bill miking it a misdemeanor for any hotel proprietor to keep a towel ia ths washroom for use indiscriminately by all classes of people will be presented to the legislature of that stabs at it next session.- In a number of western cities the abolition of tbe roller towel has been brought about the agreement of traveling trav-eling salesmen to boycott the hotels in which it is in use. The substitution of individual psper towels In the public washrooms of hotels will soon become universal. funis Tables on Hotel Man. Last year the proprietor of a California Cali-fornia hotel charged a traveling' salesman sales-man (4 a day for a room he wag supposed sup-posed to have for 2, because at that time a convention in the town Dade an extra demand upon the hotels. Tbe salesman promptly put himself in touch with some real estate agents and purchased pur-chased the hotel outright. By noon the following day the hotel proprietor was notified that the , boose had changed ownership and th rent would be doubled at th expiration of thirty days. For. some time the drummer turned a deaf ear to the pleadings of ths hotel man. but finally a compromise compro-mise was reached by which the hotel man wa compelled to pay only a slight advanc in rent, with the distinct proviso pro-viso that in th future traveling men should always be given accommodations accommoda-tions at their regular discount, no matter how great the demand for DRUMMERS WILL FIGHT (Continued from page 1.) traveling salesmen are members of th Y. M. C. A. and this organisation make a special provision for their comfort ia most of the cities. ' " "Oideons" ao Example. ' A religion association composed entirely en-tirely of commercial traveler i called "The fiinenma T hikkAl.k 1.. rooms. This hotel is still owned by this traveler, who gives it rigid inspection each time hi duties take him to thst cisy, and it is now a better paying investment than ever before. . uiuwufc ill laiupuin. is; "Not to preach, but to persuade oth 1 er to live riijht." ; Their practical object is a distribo , tion of Bible. "Th Gideons" assoeU-l : tion is now twelve year old and it membership appTezimates 7000. During 1 th mat year it ha distributed 5000 . Bible, placing them ia the rooms of ' hotel ia variou part of th country, aad giving them to any persons likely i to read them. All religion denomination denomina-tion respect "Th Gideons," and the opportunity for good work given the , member of thia organization covers a broader field thaa that of . any Church worker located ia on city. The commercial travelers are a jolly lot and have many semi -secret organization organ-ization which are social, beneficial and protective in scope. Borne of these have unique asm and their officers havs grandiloquent title that appeal etrong-ly etrong-ly to th risibilities of the member. ,7Th Imperial Guild of the Ancient end Mysterion Order of Bagman of Bagdad," "Th Most Worthy and Ex alted Army of Soldiers of the Grip," "The Roysl United Fellowship of Promoter Pro-moter of Commerce" are a few of th name which th traveling men roll from their toagnee for th benefit of their smoking room andienee. Ben-It to Traveling- Pnhile. Th increase of the number of com raercial traveler haa had aa appreciable apprecia-ble effect upon many railroad provision provis-ion which apply to th entire traveling travel-ing public. It i said thst th Bailees Baile-es book sad it reduced rate would never have been eeeured but for th influence of th drummer, and these men are still at work trying to seen re rates that are uniform, absolutely interchangeable in-terchangeable mileage books, better service and better train schedule and msny ether advantage which will benefit ben-efit all classes of travelers. Mad Hotel ghaata Long. Th traveling men also bar done mor than any other class of people to raise the standard of hotels, espscisllv ia th smsller town. Th sanitary movement for longer sheets on hotel bed wu originsted by th traveling maa of th country, and th Oklahoma law requiring sheets to be of "suffl- eient length to enable them to be turaed down at the top, thua protecting protect-ing the sleeper from coming in contact with a blanket or comfort used by another an-other person, ' ' is th beginning of a reform which th drummers hop to ax-tend ax-tend te every state ia the anion. The gentlemen also object to short beds, bad spring, hard mattresses, unclean un-clean bedding and similar hardships oft inflicted npoa traveler by penu riou hotel managers. The Influence of the various organizations of commercial traveler enable them to bring about a degree of reform ia these mstters which eould not b Mcurad by any other class of people. The roller towel ia tbe eooatry hotel is on of th latest vils to recsive the attention of the drummer, and through hi influesre th abolition of thi abomination is already in ight. The slsts board of health la Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania has conferred with a committee of traveling men npoa this subiect.' end |