The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-06

It takes 640000 billion of microbes To make cubic inch.
 This is many times more individual microbes than there are people in the world.
 And the actual number Of cubic inches of microbes there are in the world has never been accurately calculated.
 It has been established. however, that there are several millions per capita
 Practically all of them are dangerous. The air, the water and the land are seething with them. Billions of them have not yet been discovered and clas- sitied.
 We breathe, eat and absorb them ev- cry day. but the normal man Is able by virtue of his animal vitality and inherent constitution to counteract their effect and some of us are permitted to live In spite of such handicap.
 But the microbe gets us in the end He is persistent. In the end he succeeds. It is in fact a mere matter of choice with us which particular microbe takes us away. It is a question of how long
 
 But the microbe serves a good pur- pose in the world. 1 am glad he was discovered. He gives the scientists some thing to work on and the idle rich some thing to think about. Of course timid people get frightened at times but this serves to stimulate the heart action and clear the blood corpuscles
 
 Between the football and the base ball seasons and during the brief lull in politics the most popular question for public discussion seems to be the high cost of living.
 While some men in Birmingham are saving some money on small salaries there are others large salaries who find it impossible to keep in sight of their monthly expenses.
 Some people seem to have more and enjoy life. better on a small salary than But that is a matter of personal taste, environment or training. Individual tenn perament has something to do with 1t also
 But there is no disputing the fact that the actual cost of a decent living has advanced something like 30 or 40 per cent in the last two years and every endar you find an advance in prices some where
 All classes of economic philosophers are busy trying to explain the reason for these conditions. The democrats say it is the republican tariff, the republicans say 1t is lack of production and the ten dency of the democrats to oppose repub- lican progress, the socialist declares that it Is the concentration of wealth, the producer says you may search him and the Ultimate Consumer''-well, he is up tree and can say nothing.
 The producer declares that he is mak- ing no more profit than he did several years ago. Labor is higher as we'll as farm implements and all other supplies for which he must go into the market The milkmen of Montgomery have just announced an advance in the price of milk because feedstuff has gone up The man who raises the fsedstuff says his increased expense eats up the margin of advance that has been secured on the price of his produce; so there you are.
 The merchants declare that they are making less money than they did two years ago. The wholesale people de- clare that they are on the verge of bank ruptcy. The farmers are quitting the farm and moving to town to make a liv- ing; the business and professional man ir town paying high prices for everything he eats is swearing that if he just had small farm he would move to it and