The age-herald., 1902-03-10
Pick Out Certain Wrongs.

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 In the crusade begun by MT. London for county and city reform it is best to pick out certain wrongs and try to right them rather than denounce in discrimin- ately.
 In county affairs the bill passed by the last legislat ure for the relief of H. B. Gray increasing his salary $1O00 Should be repealed. The old salary was considered enough both before and after the election and there was no reason for taxing the county an additional S1000 Which we suppose Is about the sum MT. Gray pays the assistant for running the office.
 Another bill needing repeal is the one creating the county auditor. Made the system of commissioners court none Is needed. The bill creating the office was prepared by MT. Camp for Camps own interest with a larger salary attached than $1S0O which amount had to be agreed to in a hurry to get the scheme through. In big Jefferson county with dozens of accountants the equal of MT Camp then was not an applicant for the office be- cause 1t was known that none would be considered.
 The clerk of the Board of Revenue should be one of the board with a small additional salary attacned TOT clerical work as it was at one time and may be now in Montgomery county. The Pro- bate Judge should be eliminated from the board. Five thousand dollars could be saved the county and not single mt DiUertiOp from county to state offices I would say that the law authorizing the office of keeper of the archives needs Killing The office was created solely to give Captain Bank heads son-in-law a job. Just now that department is exploiting the life and times of J. w. Sanford by one J. w. Du- Bose. Governor Sanford was a fine, Christian gentleman but furnished no in cidents at all for a state memoir, ex- cept DuBoses insatiate desire to con- sume paper. When the seventeenth cen tury proposition of Mayor Drennen was made to build a new city hall tused ad- visedly) with markets and stores com bined he stated that enough revenue would be derived from the markets to pay interest on the bonds. Well the pur- veyors of state vegetables declined to be robbed by the anything for revenue" plan and the Mayor said a few days ago
 
 nex CT expected much revenue from the market, and the market place will be vacant.
 Anyone who has travelled beyond Blount Springs knows that the city hall should have been built strictly for city busi- ness. Markets stores or fire companies do not belong therein. The later would be objectionable on account of the noise In Anniston the new S75,000 courthouse is much handsomer; better fitted for off cial work than our big. unsghtly bulk costing very much more. The Inferior Criminal court a legitimate tenant of the city hall was not provided with an entrance until the jude pointed out the defect and just today, Chief of Police Austin complains of short quarters Mark it though, there will be plenty of fine commodious rooms marked private" in which no city work will be done. I was very much relieved when the saloonkeep- CT got off the Board of Aldermen for I was expecting scramble for the corner store.
 Just think of the welcome we could have given the President of he should come on market day with the Mayors hucksters and their twenty differen lan- guages and as many stinks from decayed vegetables to be mixed up with the re- ccption at the new city hall. Birming- ham business men, unaccustomed to kicking looked on in wonder at the crim- inal negligence of the architect build CT and city engineer in allowing the wood roof and tower to go on the building A mass meeting of citizens to tear it off and replace with iron would be the proper meeting now.
 One pertinent question. why were bids ranging around s12,O0O from responsible jail builders for changing the old city prison reflected when Stockmar (an AL derman) was not the lowest and in six ty days was given the job at S1SooO.
 GEO. H. ROGERS