Forty merchants who last week filed a petition with City Council seeking the repeal of an ordinance banning local sale and use of fireworks withdrew their petition as city officials prepared a public hearing upon it this morning.

Announcement of the withdrawal was made by Councilman Edgar Maitland as the public conference convened at 10 o’clock. It was repeated later during the meeting by W. Herbert Poff, who acted as spokesman for the merchants.

With the petition out of the way. Councilman Maitland expressed the desire to see a municipal display here on the Fourth of July with a program that would include band concerts and park entertainment.

The suggestion was promptly accepted and resulted in the immediate launching of public subscription campaign and the five councilmen made $10 contributions each.

With this start, Mayor George Harris asked the Williamsport Sun to accept and announce voluntary public subscription to fund the fireworks.

The mayor then read newspaper clippings, Associated Press dispatches of July 4 and 5, 1933 from Scranton and Wilkes-Barre and figures from Williamsport Hospital records. These items disclosed either a mounting toll from fireworks or a drastic slump in injuries in cities where their sale and use have been prohibited.

He had a letter from a Scranton newspaper that reported 80 injured persons and one death in 1927, the last year of unrestricted sale and use of fireworks in that city. The toll since 1928, the year in a prohibiting ordinance similar to the legislation here, became effective, totals 16 persons injured in six years and not more than six in any year.

The submitted local hospital records show these results for the last three years. 1931 – 44 injured, 1932 – 42 injured, 1933 – 63, 55 of them children.