The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-11
NEEDS IN BIRMINGHAM
 FOR CHARITY HOSPITAL

ease. The medical profession has done It's full duty in the matter More than a year ago it expressed its opinion of what was required In unequieocal terms. that could leave no doubt in the minds of the people I was president of the board of health at that time, and had instituted an investigation which resulted as above.
 The neglect of our water supply is fraught with greater danger than the failure to provide safer measures at our railroad crossings, where accidents are occurring almost weekly. The suffering and loss of life are tenfold greater from the contaminated water.
 It Is a sad commentary on this com munity that the death rate is larger than any other city of its size in the United States, with one exception, according to a recent publication in a health journal.
 From the present indications filtration plants are to be contemplated only in the very very distant future It has been almost year since 1t was decided by the city that filtration would be required, and yet what has been done7 The medi- cal profession did it's duty-its full duty but 1t could not cope with the schemes of water companies Only this week I was attracted by large headlines in one of our city papers:
 Makes Proposition to Water Company Special Committee on Filtration Plants Holds Meeting-Time Limit Is Named North Birmingham Plant Must Be Fin ished Within Twelve Months and Cahaba Plant In Eighteen Months, or Free Water"
 And what followed-the plants were to be ready unless prevented by strikes riots, the act of God or the public en- emy'--or failing to do so, to pay a pen alty of furnishing free to the city water at the fire hydrants until the plants are completed. Now, is not this most redicu- loua and preposterous-tne idea of call ing this a penalty, when the company would prefer to furnish water free for the fire hydrants till the millennium rather than install and keep up these l filtration plants. Certainly the medical profession has not the sort of ability to make 1t equal to coping with the like of this The people need to be informed and at the next election the men should l be committed on an annual allowance for charity hospital and the city owner ship of the water supply or the better control of the present one
 It is notable that many of the greatest medical men of the south have moved to New York, and other northern cities to practle their profession This has been due largely to the fact that the fees in the south for professional services have been too small to adequately remunerate them for their services. However, with the south's great increase in wealth, this condition should not longer obtain. The public should be educated to know that an operation which involves the life of patient should be literally paid for man with S25,000 should pay at least $500 for such an operation. If worth s5o.o0O S1000 would be a reasonable fee if $500, 000 s250O to 5000 would be reasonable; for a millionaire from $5000 to $10,000 would not be large charge. I refer to this fact because Emmett, Thomas Simms, Wyeth and many others have given up the south on that acount Tn order to hold our men we must be more liberal in renumerating them. A couple of years ago very wealthy man in an adjoining state brought his wife to a surgeon in this city, after she had been repeatedly operated on unsuccessfully. The opera tion was very important one and the surgeon charged $2500 for the operation | in addition to the hospital expenses. He paid the charge but expressed the opin- ion that the fec was large. Yet he had expressed willingness to take his wife i to Europe. if necessary, to have her i cured
 The reverse of this experience was in the case of a gentleman of this city who | did not have one-fourth the money of l the one just referred to, yet after his l wife had undergone very serious opera ] tion and her life saved when a bill for 5000 was presented he not only promptly sent check for the amount but wrote a letter In which he said the bill was reasonable and that money could not pay the debt he owed for such services. l According to MT. Edmondson the popu- lation of the south is nearly 5.0O00OO less than the whole country forty years ago. l The total. wealth of the south Is S1600O,- 000,000-as much as the United States in l 1860. The value of our manuractories is now nearly equal to the whole country | then.
 l Says MT. Edmondson: 'Tn the natural | resources and advantages for the crea- | ton of wealth no other section of the world can equal the south' It has hard | ly commenced its real development. I've have been simply scratching on the ground to find what we have" It pro- | duces three-fourths of the worlds cotton | crop, and yet we have only 100000 spin dles out of total of 106,000,000 in America end Europe. We have more coal and iron than the north, and yet Pennsylvania smaller than Alabama, has $350 900, 900 more capital invested in manufacturing than the fifteen southern states. Tn the words of a distinguished Englishman, "It is to be the Gibraltar of the lights and fuels of the world. No limit can be set fO the pOtentialities of the snilth