The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-05
SOME SEVERE STRUCTURES.

of administration in ones own town
 that we have lately read was
 contained in an address delivered
 in Birmingham last Sunday night
 by Alex T. London. Esq, to the B'nai
 B'rith Society of that city. The keynote of the address is contained in the words:
 See that every man gets Justice, is the chief duty of every model citizen"
 The address is too long for publication here, but some of the points made are worthy of more than passing notice. The speaker produced figures to show the large amounts received by the officials in the way of fines and costs. which he as- serted were, in general, only imposed on those who had not sufficient money or in- fiuence to clear themselves, stating that any man. provided he has 1rH4sztey and influence enough, and be- not negro, may with impunity violate any criminal statute, even<ro the extent of murdering his neignoor," and then adds:
 The inaleniable rights guaranteed by
 the constitution are cunningly taken aWay from those entitled to them. Take the streets of Birmingham, filled with poor creatures generally guilty of the smallest
 misdemeanors, and sentenced to work on the public streets in shackles, so as to in crease the amount of revenue and bru- talize our children. The official figures, as printed in the daily papers here, show | that more than 10000 persons were ar | rested in Birmingham during the past | twelve months, number so shockingly l large as to attract attention and inquiry | developed the fact that this iniquitous system had yielded in that period over
 s25, ,000 in money to the city treasurer and
 created a permanent nursery of crime. | And yet, with all those arrests, and with
 the fines and other punishments thus im- posed he continues:
 The lives of yourselves and your fam | lilies are unsafe on the public streets of | the town. Men shoot at will, and no pun | ishment is meted out, no correction had. | It is only some poor and helpless creature | so insignificant that even his name is | unknown to us, that is made the victim
 of the law against carrying concealed | weapons.
 | The Advertiser is not quoting these re-
 marks for the purpose of bringing any 1 charge against Birmingham or its off,
 cials, but as the deliberate utterances of
 one who deservedly stands high as a
 man, a citizen and as an attorney, and
 who would not publicly use such lan-
 guage unless he was fully fortified by facts. What remedy does MT. London propose? The sound and sensible one
 that it is the duty of the individual citi-
 zen to interest himself in public affairs,
 or, as he expresses it:
 Take part in public affairs for the right; you want no political preferment; you want no office but you do want security for your lives, your liberties and your property: you do want schools that are free; you do want libraries; you do want your taxes fairly and honestly admins tered for the benefit of the community and it is your manifest duty to take in- | terest in public affairs. not only vote, but
 see to it that every vote is counted as it
 is east
 Although the address was made to the | Hebrews, it applies equally to every citi-
 zen, of every faith and belief, and points
 out the only means by which our civil or political affairs can be lifted from the un- satisfactory condition of the present and l to have pure politics and to insure strict
 justice and impartiality in the execution of the laws. In a representative democ-
 racy like ours. the responsibility for good government and the blame for bad gev-
 ernment rests primarily on the individual
 citizen. There are plenty of good men in every community to insure honest politi- cal methods and to enforce equal and
 exact justice. The trouble lies in the fact that too many of the best people refuse to take any active interest in public affairs
 They remain passive until ticket is se- lected and then go out and vote for 1t, if they see prop-r, and consider that they
 have done all that is required of them
 places go unwhipped of justice while the poor and friendless are punished, yet make no effort to correct the evil. They
 see that now. as in the days of Gold smith, Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law" but they remain inac- tive. It is because the best citizens of a community fail to take active interest in public affairs thct such charges as those
 made by MT Lcndon can be sustained If all his indi m nts against Bi-mng- the fault lies at the door of the people who fail or refuse to demand and exact
 justice for all and to all.
 
 An idea of the value of franchises in