The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-05-06
RIRMINGHAM'S MAYOR IN
MIDDLE OF FIRST TERM
BY ETHEL ARM ES.

1t was over in the city hall yesterday
afternoon, in the Mayors office.
whats up to Mayor to do?'
asked.
Everything" Secretary Pepperman
was laconic.
"Czar?"
Eyes, Car, If you wish to put 1t that
way, for he can just about do it, you see
"A Mayor has almost unlimited authority
in every direction If ne knows how to
exercise it.
HE can do much to make a town or
mar it. whatever he chooses. He can let
the reins fall slack and the town runs
itself any old way. It's bound to jog
along. you know, with or without
Mayor. Then, on the other hand, he can
tighten up and start up good, steady
pace.
But he's got to face things square and
look clear. He's got to shoulder RESPONSE
bilities and he's got to have a lot of nerve
and action to keep things moving the
way they ought to go. No, that isn't SO
hard to do if things once get into good
running order.
1.-The hard thing is TO get them started
right" The Mayor then came in.
"A number of municipal departments in
Birmingham you have made over and
reorganized since May year ago, haven't
you, Mr.. Ward?"
THE Board of Aldermen has" replied
Mr. Ward.
That is his way of putting it the while
he works in his shirt sleeves up to his
arm pits in papers, records, reports, COM
plants, requests, daily from morning
until midnight often; patient, energetic,
quiet, never failing in courtesy and kind
illness, in level-headed Judgment and COM
mon sense. The secret of any mans sue
cess or any mans art is just that at
base a fine good sense and that's what
distinguishes George Ward-inf1nite tact,
that, coupled with the other, that long
ago made him start hitching his wagon
to a star.
He now completes the first half of his
two-year term in office. The city has
been saved throughout the past twelve
months thousands of dollars by his
watchful care as chairman of the finance
committee over the treasury, both IN
spending and collecting the city's reve-
nue.; devastating fires have been pre-
vented by vigorous enforcement OF fire
laws; the streets have been cleaned and
rendered more efficient; the cemetery and
parks are responding to systematic atten-
ton: and, in short, every merchant,
householder and citizen generally has
been benefited to an incalculable extent
by the laws made and enforced by the
Ward administration. The matter Is self
evident
The saying, trite enough it is--a
prophet without honor among his own
that does not hold with Birmingham
Mayor. Firefiies can be seen in the dark,
and thus light of Wards achievements,
and he who runs can read.
From the first day George Ward took
the city's government in his hands he
steered for the clear open; trained his
guns with discernment and discrimina-
ton; advanced to the firing line with no
brass band aboard. but quiet. pointed
subtlys for action, and cleared for ac-
ton, with every man at his post of duty
alert-and he has kept on the firing line
every since, as everybody knows.
There is something of discipline in the
town--a control of a vicious element-that
is much remarked. and above all a pro-
gressive action Those twelve-inch guns
of this most efficient Mayors admins
tration don't fire foul of the mark. The
machinery Is working order. and. in
word, a catpain's in the coming tower.
Not overlapping facts, either or the sim
gle lOIa OIL ID TACT, ilOt lildl.
Here are a few of the facts
The citys fire department has been
doubled in men and equipment; three new
fire stations have been erected, new ap-
paratus installed and more discipline
from head to foot and the merchants
of the town saved $4,000 per year in
insurance; new era In the police de-
partment has been inaugurated, new
in as much as the ground 1t has been
put on has been plowed anew; the weeds
are cut down and an esprit de corps is
rampant.
Furthermore, disease has been warded
off from the city by the stringent laws:
the health of the city has been looked to
as it never was before. Four entirely
new offices have been created. those of
building Inspector. plumbing inspector,
electrical Inspector and fire inspector,
while the department of weights and
measures has been rehabilitated and put
into working order. The city has been
saved many dollars in the matter of
lights alone. the lamps at railroad cross
ings owned by corporations. heretofore
shelved off on the city put up to the
rightful owners for payment And this Is
but a small portion of the work achieved
by George Ward or. as he puts 1t, done
by the city"
A clean stream running through the
citys government has been purging Bir-
mingham these twelve months.
1.-The man who pins his destiny to this
city," Mayor Ward wrote in his annual
message to the Board of Aldermen, 'at-
taches himself to one whose progress Is
assured beyond checking; in whose pros
perity every man of energy, determine
ton and honesty can share; a city where
high principle has not yet been found in
compatible with the greatest business
success and whose morality, beauty and
utility go hand in hand:y
That Is what Ward wrote. Doubtless