The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-02


 tax collector, did a land office business last month.
 In street tax and license fees MT. Mir Gambilrs office collected Sl7,S51. Of this amount the license fees amounted to 
 been adopted in various cities, in Mobile l and Atlanta, in Los Angeles, Memphis and eight or ten others.
 Early in December, 1904 after the ordinance was completed in its rough 1 form, and before it was introduced into | the council l submitted 1t to his honor, the Mayor to ascertain his views regard ing it. We went over it Together in the Mayors office in the presence of Charles | Eckerly and B. A. Pepperman, the Mayors secretary. The Mayor had his secretary read the ordinance paragraph by paragraph and suggested notifications at various portions of the ordinance. | These notifications corrections and all terations, as the case might be- were made by order of the Mayor in the hand writing of his secretary in the type written copy of the original draft of the | ordinance. This original draft l have here in my hand, and the interlneations in MT. Pepperman's handwriting may be seen by anyone who wishes to examine | the ordinance.
 Drennen's Suggestions.
 Tn section of the original draft the ordinance provided for a board of ex- aminers consisting of five members of whom one should be a master plumber or employing plumber Of not less than ten years experience as practical plum Der; one should be journeyman plumber of light experience, as journeyman plum | Der and the other three members of the | ohn na 10 n- spector, the city engineer and the secre- | tary of the Board of Health of this city. i, It provided also that the term of office | for the master plumber should be two years, and journeyman plumber one year, and it provided also that the Board or Health should appoint the master and journeyman plumber and their successors and the three members of the board should have power to act. The Mayor | objected to this section, and upon his suggestion it was decided to reduce the membership of the board from five to | three persons to substitute chief plumb ing inspector for chief sanitary inspector and then to strike out the city engineer and. the secretary of Board of Health | from the board.
 Opinions Differ.
 q said that I thought the board of health should control the proposed board of examiners. The Mayor insisted that | the board of examiners should be con- troled by the Mayor and Board of Alder men. The original draft provided that the master and journeymen plumbers should be appointed by the board of health The Mayor said that the power | of appointment should rest with the 1 Mayor He said that the ordinance would not pass if left in it's original form, and in order to obtain it's passage the sug- gestions made by the Mayor were ac- cepted and the ordinance was changed accordingly to conform with the Mayors s | suggestions.
 Forney Helped.
 | aInasmuch as I am not a lawyer and needed the advice and assistance of some one who was familiar with the prepa- ration of legal documents, I accordingly went to MT. Edward Smith city attor- | ney and showed him the plumbing ordi- nances of other cities, and asked him to | help me prepare plumbing ordnance that would meet the demands of Br- mingham. and MT. Smith explained that he would be glad to help me in any way he could. but that ne was so busy at that time that he could not take the matter up. I then consulted MT. John | Forney in his professional capacity, and | in his capacity as a lawyer he advised me and helped me regarding the legal phraseology and expression of the ordi- nance.
 ! His Responsibility.
 "In view of these facts it will be seen that the ordinance which certain per- sons have done me honor to call the l Barbour ordinance, originated primarily in an expressed pubic opinion. that it 1 was discussed by other members of the board as well as myself. that 1t was pre- sented to and considered by his honor. the Mayor. In spite of all this. however. l I desire to state here. that I assume full | responsibility for my share in the origin | and progress of this ordinance and l | leave 1t to the members of the board and st-minded men in this community to determine how large a share of that responsibility is rightfully mine.
 Step By Step.
 "The ordinance in revised form was in- | troduced by me December !. 1904, and re- | ferred to the judiciary committed of which I repeat l was not a member. At this point I desire to state that although l the ordinance had been in committee from l December to February 1. copies of the | ordinance had not been sent to all mem | bers of the board, and had not been dis | tributed to the general public. This board l thoroughly understands that 1t is not | the custom, and never has been the GUS tom, to introduce copies of ordinances in- | troduced here to the public at large. Dur ing my membership in this board I do not | recall a single case in which copies of any | ordinance have been given public dstrbu- l tion, and so I hardly think I should be | called upon to explain why this plumbing ordinance was not sent out to persons | who might be effected by it's passage | An Explanation.
 q am required to explain. however | why copies were not sent to members of | this board, as it is the custom to provide | such copies when requests are made by | members. When the ordinance was intro | duced and resolutions were passed pro- viding copies of the ordinance be made and distributed. I was expected to co. l operate with the city clerk in making these copies. At an earlier meeting of this | board assumed full responsibility of my