The age-herald., 1902-04-06
Residence Section as Nell as
 Business Should be Relieved COMMITTEES DISCUSS II
Another Meeting to Be Held Monday, When Some Recommendations to Council Will Probably
 Be Made.

The finance committee and the street committee of the Board of Aldermen met in Mayor Drennen's office yesterday and discussed the question of how to provide ways and means of laying the dust this summer. The joint committees and the Mayor fully discussed the matter, and de- cided to purchase one additional street sweeper, which Is absolutely necessary. Mayor Drennen was given authority to make this purchase The question of pur- chasing additional sweepers and sprink- lers was carried over to an adjourned meeting, which will be held Monday aft ernoon at 4 o'clock.
 There was no divergence of opinion at the meeting as to the adyisabiiity of sprinkling the streets. but some of the committee thought that attending the funeral of the dust devil was more in the nature of a luxury, which the financial condition of the city did not justify while others thought that it was absolutely necessary at any price to keep the dust down.
 Mayor Favors Sprinkling.
 Mayor Drennen is in favor of the city sprinkling the streets in thorough man. ner and has investigated the cost of the apparatus and the cost of running 1t. He made a report to the last meeting of the City Council on this subject. He es- inmates that sufficient new equipment can be obtained at cost of 5000, and that the cost of operation will be about $500 a month.
 The merchants of Birmingham are unanimously in favor of street sprinkling in sufficient quantity to lay the dust. They do not object to the cost and say that the city should do the work and that it should be done thoroughly, both resi- dence and business streets alike.
 Merchants Say Go Ahead.
 Following are the opinions of some of the city's leading merchants:
 MT. M. V. Joseph: I think every busi- ness man in the city would favor. the proposition to lay the dust. Birmingham, from its geographical location, Is an es- pecially windy city, and as the city drains quickly after a rain, the dust is seldom laid for any long period. We are paying now for street sprinkling, but to make it effective think the whole city should be sprinkled = residence streets as well as the business center. We would not ob- ject to a small tax for this purpose. It would save us much money in the end, as the dust damages our stock to a large ex- tent, though it would be impossible to tell the exact damage.
 MT. Simon Klotz: I am in favor of the city doing the street sprinkling and think it should be general. It is useless to sprinkle half a block, for Instance, if the other half is not sprinkled. This Is the trouble with the sprinkling in Birming- ham. A few streets are sprinkled by pri- vate parties, for which the merchants pay, but the sprinkling is not general enough. There are so many streets not sprinkled that the dust from these covers the entire city. The dirty condition of our streets makes an unfavorable im- pression on strangers. Birmingham has the reputation of being a smoky town, and on that account ought to be particu- larly clean in its streets. The dust dam ages our business. Many people will not buy a straw hat on account of the dust ard smcke.
 Not Thoroughly Done.
 MT. Otto Marx: I think the city should sprinkle it's streets, by all means. We are paying two or three dollars a month now for street sprinklipg, but this is not ef- fective. The cart comes along two or three times day, but in summer the wa ter dries up in less than half an hour. We
 
 sprinkling for we would be more than repaid for 1t. In our business, to sell goods you have to show them, and many of our finer goods we can't show on &C., count of the dust. In nearly all large cities the sprinkling is done by the city. and residence streets, as we'll as business streets should be prinkled. The latter streets in some cities are watered from a large trolley tank, which is run on the car tracks at an early hour in the morning. As nearly every business street has car tracks on it, this sprinkling can be done in this manner in thorough and at the same time economical way.
 MT. Louis Saks: The dust is a great drawback to the city. It not only dam- ages the property of ths merchants but 1t produces bad impression on strangers We would not object to paying a small tax for street sprinkling. We would not object to paying two of three dollars a month for sprinkling in fact we are pay ing two or three dollars month now for sprinkling which does not amount to much. The whole city ought to be sprinkled. It does no good to sprinkle two or three blocks if the rest of