The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-09
PILLSBURY MILLS
 ASK FOR RECEIVER
APPRECIATION OF
 CITY BEAUTIFUL
MAYOR WARDS CAMPAIGN IS AT TRACTING WIDE ATTENTION IN OTHER sEcTIoNs-MANY LET TIERS OF COMMUNICATION.

The campaign for the City beautiful which is being waged so industriously by the Mayors office Is attracting wide attention. The manner in which the Idea has spread over the south has sur prlsed even its most ardent support ers and from far distant points come words of encouragement. The Nation al Association of Municipalities has written for a complete review of the plan being pursued, Western towns are taking notice and Mayor Ward Is being commended on all sides.
 Particularly interesting is an edi- torial printed by the Ira adesman. Chattanooga journal printed so close to Birmingham in her rival city. Here it is in full as 1t appeared In the num- Der dated August l;
 Hon. George B. Ward, mayor of Bir- mingham, Ala, has inaugurated a movement for that city that is some- what out of the ordinary for public of flcials in the south. but which pos sesses so much of intrinsic merit that 1t Is worthy of being initiated by every other mayor in this section.i
 Mayor Ward, in his official capacity, has started a plan for making Birming ham a City Beautiful and this Is done not as a fad or mere sentiment, but from the standpoint of enhancing the property values of the city and thus making it a movement that will pay as an investment. He Is organizing what Is called Block clubs, composed of citizens living in a given city block, and these have certain definite aims and objects entrusted to them which give a systematic supervision over that block for improvement purposes.
 "A number of pamphlets have been gotten out at the suggestion and un- der the supervision of the mayor which contain the rules for guiding each club in it's work, while concise arguments and notices are presented that clearly show how property interests are really given a higher money value through painting and fixing them up along at traotive lines.
 ''It is not often that busy man of affairs takes up matters of this char acter, 1t being too often deemed be- meath his attention and something to be left to the care of the ladies or hired servants. Like the head of the old time south ern plantation who thought the flower garden only waste of val uable land that should be put into money crops and so gradually given to his better half who proceeded to add untold attractions to the home by that means, 1t is now thought by the aver age business man as something for the ladies to attend to this city beautiful idea, and yet Mayor Ward is giving 1t very careful and very thorough atten- tion and Birmingham is certain to reap rich return from his labors.
 There is perhaps more in Birming- ham to give scope for such work than in the majority of southern cities, since it is all of comparatively recent con struction and free from those old land marks of unsightly tumble-down negro tenements bequeathed from ante-ber lum days, still 1t has many old negro houses that were built in the earlier days of the city for rental purposes that are disgrace to any city of mod ern pretentions, and these should all disappear before the efforts of a City Beautiful club.
 Nothing so grates upon the eye that has been trained to attractive surround ings as that self-same class of build ings that are found in every southern city, but there is no earthly reason why they should thus exist, an eye-sore tc tn visitor and a menace to the health of the locality where they are, to say nothing of the depreciation that fol- lows in the value of all adjacent prop erty.
 "A system of inspection can be put in force in every city that will obliga the owners of such buildings to keen the same neatly painted and repaired or subject to be torn down by the city for health preservation and property protection.
 The cities of the south need more mayors of the calibre possessed by tue Mayor of Birmingham as shown in his City Beautiful work. It is a movement that will pay viewed as an investment simply, but from other considera tions 1t is one that will prove exceedingly valu- able and which should never be neg lected anywhere"