The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-12-14
There shall your swords and Iances arbitrate the swelling difference.
 --Kinu Richard II.
Er0m Boston to BIrmInnhanl.

From Boston to Birmingham.
 The Independent calls attention to the latest investigations of the de- pertinent of labor in cities having over 80.O00 population. These inyesti- gations are made and published every year Some of these findings are not complimentary to our own town. but id is best to know just where we stand in order that remedy against present ratings may be found. 5 For example, the arrests in Bir- minglam per 1000 population were last year 255a rate not approached in any other American city. The nearest approaches are Atlanta, whore 172 per 1000 population were arrested last year; Butte, IA; Norfolk, 143; , and Mobile 197 per 1000 population. On the other hand, in York, Pa, there 5 were but 10 arrests last year per 1000 population; in Reading, B; in Fort Wayne, 15; in Milwaukee and Quincy, IT; in Grand Rapids, 20 Now, will any one tell us why, if Grand Rapids, a city larger than Birmingham, can preserve order by arresting annually but 20 out of each 1000, the arrests in this town must be ,255? Chief of Pc lice Austin, and the legislature of Ala bama should consider this question.
 Perhaps a portion of the answer may be found in the figures showing the per capita expenditures for schools This city itself spends but 64 cents per capita, the lowest allowance named in the entire list. But the statement does not include state ap- propriations, and is therefore not com prehensive, but at the best Birming- ham, Norfolk, Montgomery, Memphis and Richmond are represented by com paratively lean fgures-figures much below those of Springfield, Mass, or Hartford, or Denver. The Independ- ent then says, in conclusion:
 Tn order to obtain tic foremost amt hindmost cities in the United States from the tables we have adopted the following method. It might not suit the editor of the Bulletin de rInstitut International de Statistique, but it is, nevertheless, the one with the fewest objections. The five cities mentioned first in the tables are, counting in order, credited respectively with plus B. plus 1, plus B. plus g. plus 1, while the five cities mentioned last arc credited with minus 5. minus f. minus B. minus ?, minus 1. Every time "a city occurs in a table, it's equivavent O. numeral is set down. and the sum total of all the numerals equals Its final rank. Thus, McKeesport. Pa, record is minus ,, minus 5, plus 5, minus 1. minus 1. The following table shows the five highest cities and the five lowest by the above methods:
 Highest-Boston plus 16, New York plus 14 Newton plus 1s. Springfield Mass. plus 10. Yonkers plus 9.
 Lowest-Birmingham minus F, Butte, Galveston and Lancaster minus f. Taun- ton minus 8. Joliet and Norfolk minus 2, Chattanooga, Albany and Sioux city mi- nus 6.
 We. therefore, proclaim Boston the first, foremost and best city in the United States of America, while Birmingham. Ala. proudly holds the highest negative honors.
 This sweeping arithmetical con demnation leaves out of view the pe- culiar circumstances of Birmingham its numerous suburbs, it's released con victs and it's cosmopolitanism. And yet the department of labor has no prejudices or animosities to serve, and as long as the ratio of arrests in this town exceeds all records, we must be content to accept negative honors." :"