The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-07-08

Such voting is wrong-it Is wrong in toto. Every man should endorse principles, rather than men in national politics, but every voter should be an independent in civic politics. He should always vote for the most honest and capable candidates in municipal affairs, no matter to what state or national political faith those candidates belong
 But in order to solve the civic prob lem alright we must do more than sep arate national politics from municipal affairs. We must In our city politics have the right kind of leaders We must prevail upon the most respected citizens of the different cities to offer themselves as candidates for the different municipal offices. The kind of men who are willing to accept the gubernatorial and the con- gressional and presidential offices are the same kind who should be willing to be elected to the mayoralty or to the alder manic. chairs in our city governments.
 Make It an Honor.
 "Oh." but you say, "our prominent men in professional and business life cannot afford to take the humble positions of city government. The financial returns are so inadequate that they do not feel called upon to neglect their stores or offices for such petty emoluments." Nonsense, my friend, nonsensei The question of financial returns should have nothing to do with our offering the city positions to our most prominent citizens. We should look upon our city govern ments the same as they do in England or Scotland or Australia or New Zealand There the people no matter how wealthy, or prominent they may be, feel 1t an honor to be called an alderman of Glas- gow, or Edinburgh, or London or Mel bourne. or Sydney. For years Lord Rose bery and the Earl of Covington and John Burns, the labor leader, worked side by side in the London county council. Even in the smallest towns of those countries you can find the most prominent citizens of all political parties working side by side as aldermen The simple fact Is we want that spirit that says: When duty calls to the municipal halls, then it is not wrong to go for the greatest of men, no matter whether he be merchant prince or legal authority As soon as some of our prominent business and professional men are willing to make pecuniary sac rifce to serve in the municipal offices. then these positions will be sought after by our prominent men. as the congress ional and senatorial and gubernatorial conventions now call to the front almost
 
 erence.
 But there is still another reason be- sides honor and fame why our most prominent citizens should be prevailed upon to assume the municipal burdens of official life. If a man will not serve his city at a financial sacrifice, then, in truth, he will not in all probability serve his city faithfully even if he had to make no financial sacrifices The simple fact
 
 civic life, has never been able to flnan- cially reward its true servants adequate ly. Do you not, believe that Webster and Clay and Calhoun and Washington and Hamilton and Robert R. Livingston and Judges Story and Marshall and Samuel J. Randall could have made five, ten-aye, twenty--ttmes more money if they had never entered public life? Do you be- lieve that our soldiers who died for the defense of their native land were ever adequately paid for spilling their life's blood? The other day I was reading an account of the mortality of the Fifth New Hampshire infantry at the battle of Fredericksburg. In one charge 1t lost 1S6 men out of muster of 300. In that one. charge, every. one of the color guard was shot dead. Then Captain Perry ran forward and lifted the fallen colors. and lie almost instantly was a corpse Then another soldier, Captain Murray. rushed forward and grasped the flag, and he was shot dead. Then Captain. Moore en- tered that ,haiistorm of bullets for the precious flag, and he. too dropped dead. Then four or five private soldiers met like fate and bit the blood soaked earth. Then Lieutenant Nettleton, just as brave as the rest, made dash for the precious flag and bore it to the rear.
 Do you- mean to tell me that those men financially were adequately paid for shedding their life's blood? Why. some of those men could have, been making their thousands of dollars at home if they had not enlisted in the Union army. Yet some of those soldiers for a mere pittance of $16 a month were ready to lay down their lives for their country's defense Now, I want to ask you this question: Are all the heroes of this nation dead? Nay. I believe men and women are just as ready to make sac rifices for their country now in these times of peace as they were in 1861 and 1872 and TIC And l furthermore believe that the most prominent citizens of our largest cities will serve us in municipal offices if we only go after them and call them In these civic problems which we have to solve let us divorce municipal politics from national politics. Then, in the next place let us nominate Tor our city officers not the professional office seekers but let us go to our best mer- chants and lawyers and physicians and say: Men, come and serve us. Come and make our cities names honorable in the sight of men," And as Americans, north, east, south and west. will quickly their services fin times of war. so I believe these prominent merchants and lawyers and doctors-aye, and min