The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-08-06


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purposes sought to be obtained by all
of the commissioners.
Work of Anclcnts.
Ancient peoples were wont upon oc-
casion, or without occasion, other than
vainglory, to rear mighty structures to
beautify a city or adorn a landscape, and
for no vulgar utilltarian purpose what
ever. Moderns, however opulent they may
be individually or nationally, erect build
ings only to subserve the ends of practi-
cal usefulness. Mortuary monuments they
build, and here and there a triumphal
column or arch But not even our own,
the wealthiest of nations, nor yet our
Lighthouses and Midases, thousand fold
perhaps, more opulent than their proto-
types at Tusculum, and of the ASS Ears,
indulge In edifices for ornamentation
merely. They rear no lofty detached port
icos or the like merely to gladden. the
artistic eye. They build primarily for
use Their structures are designed and
planned to conserve the uses to which
they are to be devoted. Architectural eff
fects in this unitarian age are of great
but secondary Importance. 1t Is only at
ter the uses for which the building is in
tended have been provided for as fully
and perfectly as possible that the archi-
tect undertakes to give to the exterior
are possible without impairment of its
adaptation to the ends of its construc-
ton. This, l understand, Is a maxim of
architecture. 1t is undoubtedly common
sense proposition. Surely Alabama has no
money to waste in mere OBSERVATIONS or
namentation. Surely the comparatively
small sum she has felt able to devote to
providing a house for the transaction of
she most important judicial business OF
rer people, should be applied to the build
ing of a house of the very best possible
adaptation to the carrying on OF that
great work, to the end that the causes
of the people-issues of law and fact upon
which their property liberty and lives
depend-may be properly heard and con-
sidered. and speedily and correctly de-
rided. In these matters all the people
are vitality interested. They are OF vastly
more Importance to them than the per-
spective of the building in which their
work is done.
Court Did lts Best.
It was upon these considerations that
the Judges, knowing, as the executive Oh
ticers did not know, what sort OF build
ing was necessary for the work of the SUI
preme court, conceived It to be their first
and highest duty to the state and its
people to select from the plans submitted
that one which best provided for the con-
yenient and therefore prompt and eff
cient transaction of the great govern
mental business which the constitution
and the laws assign to the supreme court.
In the performance of this duty we
acted not for ourselves in any personal
sense. but for the court and its work, for
those who should come after us to do
that work, for the bar of the state and for
Its people. 1t was sought to conserve not
the Individual convenience of the judges,
present or future, but the convenience
fha f.
hciency of the work; and not for the
present only, nor only for such OF the
future as may concern US personally, out
for an indefinite length of time, prob
ably for more years than are numbered
In the states history. The judges are not
here and will not be In the new building
for their personal pleasure, but to do the
governmental work devolved upon them;
their time while In that building will be-
long not to themselves but to the people,
and every moment of 1t which may be
lost because of or In overcoming incon-
venience and fnadaptation of construction
and arrangement of their workshop Is
time lost by the people, and not by the
Judges individually; and as each one of
them does more work than any other Of
fcer in the state government, and all OF
them have more work than can be fully
done, they as officials are especially en-
titled to. and the people are especially
interested
cessory and convenience of labor so that
the public business may promptly and
properly be transacted.
Upon examining and considering the
seven sets of plans submitted we found
that the plans of Mr.. Lockwood beyond
all question made the best provision for
the work of the supreme court, and OF its
Judges and officers, and of the bar, and
for the preservation of the library and its
use by the judges, by the profession and
by the public We found his arrangement
and construction to those ends appreciably
better even than those made by the ex-
cellent plan of Mr.. Milburn; conspicuously
better than those of Mr.. Hopson's plan.
which deserved the third prize so far as
these matters were concerned, and infin-
itely better than any of the four remain
ing plans. We found, what every lawyer
Will expect to find when he goes into the
new building. the reading room of the
library-its workshop-and it's book room
and the court room and the librarians
room on the same floor and accessible to
each other. so that books can be con-
veniently and without delaying the courts
work brought into court when needed In
arguments, 80 that counsel not. engaged
IN causes on argument can work on their
own cases or attend to their other con-
Germs in the library till the court re-
quires their presence, and so that the
marshal librarian can at once discharge
his dual duties. All these public rooms