Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-04
WASTED OPPORTUNITIES.
To the State Herald:

One of the prime causes for the slow ness of development in diversified manu- fractures throughout the south has been that the profit in producing the raw ma- terials has been so unsatisfactory to the farmer and miner that they have natur- ally been content and let well enough alone" For many years the price of raw cotton was such that the farmer did not complain, but as the price went down and the necessity arose for using every recourse at hand, cotton manufactures sprung up in the south and have been profitably operated with scarcely an ex- eeption-
 The same condition will eventually ob- tain in regard to iron. At present the ease with which we make the pig, and the profit thereon, is a qutetus to fur ther effort on the part of iron workers and not until we find the price again so low that it won't pay to make pig will the agitation again set in to make steel and start smaller manufactures of our product at home. In the writer's humble opinion 1t would have been better eventually for the Birmingham district if the revival of good times CD had not come for three years at least Then we would have been forced to steel making, and thus established not only our claim to enterprise. but brought about a condi- ton that nothing could undo. As it is now. so soon as there Is lull in the de- mand for iron and coal, Birmingham slides back into the same old rut, and the spasmodic improvement leaves us worse off than before. We were growing &C., customed to hard times and could have starved 1t out for a few years longer if in the end we forced a knowledge of the possibilities of our district upon our peo- pie who have money in iron industries, and thus compelled them to improve their opportunities.
 nf cto that might be utilized by united action of our people. Birmingham has an unen- viable reputation abroad and at home. too. for the ease with which life is taken and the immunity from punishment to the shedders of human blood. There is evidently different idea in the minds of many Jefferson county officials as to when a man should be shot, and opinions are evidently enter tained by many of the con- servators of the peace entirely at val riance with current notions obtained d it Is a very ridiculous proceeding for a man to run when accused of theft or run at all from an officer, or resist arrest, for 1t usually becomes a simple question of craftsmanship if he escapes killing. The justification-or rather the apology-for this course. should any one dare to enter a mild protest, Is, "Oh, but you don f know what sort of people we have to deal with in Jefferson county. There are Sd many convicts," etc. That explanation is unfair to our rising emigration socie- ties who want people to come here, be- cause they say i've are just as orderly as any other part of the United States j What we should do is to use the wasted opportunities and materials. If the kill ings must go on, and public sentiment is evidently in favor of them, let us put them to practical use. Let the county and police commissioners be empowered by the next legislature to appoint a sal aried officer whose duty 1t shall be to keep list of all killings (not mentioning the indifferent causes that may lead to them), but tabulate always the weight, age. color. distance. estimated speed Qf running). caiber and make of gun used.