The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-14
IN HOTEL HOBBIES
As to Foundation

|
 said Lewis D. Cady of Chicago. Mem phis is the only city of any importance
 east of the Mississippi river whose cen
 sus population has not been announced.
 l have seen two or three advance mo-
 tiees in the Associated Press about that
 city think 1t was last Friday that
 a statement was sent out from Wash
 ington to the effest that the population
 of Memphis would be announced the
 following day.
 | '1t is we'll Known fact that Mem phis will make showing in the census far below the local estimate published in various statistical tables I was in Memphis early in the year and the pop ulation claim was then 100000 That would have been an increase of nearly 100 per cent over 1900; but I understand now that the census will show considerably less than 150. .O00 and there has been some talk of less than 132, 32,6S5-Birmingham census population.
 Memphis is highly prosperous town. I have known the city 20 years or more, and in that period it has grown stead | fly. If its population is less than 132,000, 1 or even less than 140,000 there must have | been good deal of padding in 1900, when it was credited with a population of 102ooo. Padding hurts a city, just as cheating in any direction hurts; and as several ambitious cities were padded for the census of 1s1o the bureau will be all the more careful in 1920 to check up and verify all enumeration that looks sus- l picious.
 1 "No matter what may be the census population of Memphis this time, any one who visits that city can see that 1t is one of the most progressive in the en- tire south. It certainly looks like a big city; and my guess would have been 150,o00 to 175,0O0.
 I Many of the cities in the 100,000-class have grown rapidly but Birmingham Is far ahead of all of them. It is the best advertised city in the south. It is favor ably discussed in Chicago and in the east, where I spent about half of my time Tn | travelling on trains I hear great deal | of talk about Birmingham"
 Not a Good Politician "I read in the Hotel Lobbies column | Friday a discussion of ex-President
 
 der the caption, Ambition That Over | leaped Itself.' and I have Just been struck with letter In the New York Sun of last Saturday in which the | writer expresses views exactly the same as those I refer to which appeared in | The Herald the day before," said vman-
 "The person quoted by The Age Herald started out by saying that MT | Roosevelt had often been spoken of as a shrewd politician, but that his re- cent conduct had proved him to be anything but a politician; that if on his return from abroad, he had acted in a dignihed manner, as other ex- Presidents have acted, he would have | been wanted for President again, or words to that effect.
 q had been an ardent admirer of | MT. Roosevelt ever since he was gov ernor of New York, and although I always vote the democratic ticket, I was not sorry to see him elected in 1 1904 Indeed, I was delighted. But MT. Roosevelts recent harangues have dis gusted me. I could stand some of his rough talk but when he got into the habit of calling3 men who disagreed with him liars and crooks he reached the limit and lost friends by the thous- ands.
 Here Is the way the man writing to The Sun puts 1t: MT. Roosevelt has had credit for being an astute and skilful politician. This campaign has given a staggering blow to his prestige. Good judgment would have led him on his return from Africa, after expressing hearty good wishes for the President and appreciation of all he had done in forwarding the policies he had handed on to him, to hold himself wholly aloot from political activity, or, if he found that impossible, to take decorous part in the politics of New York, with an assurance that could not be withdrawn that he would not again be candidate for the presidency. Nor could there have been a greater political blunder than to bring forward at the time, con fusing the Issues and weakening his position, his wholly irrelevant and alarming new nationalism. With unsur- passed egotism and assurance he e1- bowed aside the head of his party, | forced his own authority to direct upon 1t, injected into the campaign unau- thorized and abhorrent issues, and with loud boasts of certain victory led 1t to unprecedented but inevitable defeat. "'It would be too much to say of a man of MT. Roosevelt's unquestioned ability, great activity and influence with the populace, that he Is perma- nently down and out; but 1t Is cer- tain that he has permanently alienated the quiet, conservative. thinking, order ly contingent of the American people, and that if he comes into political prominence again it will be as the lead- CT of the radical and socialistic ele- ments of the country, whose class feel ing and unreasoning discontent he has done so much to foment and encour- age'"
 Pig Iron Market
 "The pig iron trade Is unquestionably stronger than it was last month. but not until the railroads come into the market for steel rails and other equipment on a