The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-08
Birmingham's Problems


 lie questions in common with older com munities. Lack of market gardens has run LID the cost of living. The railroads have split the young city in two, with a broad belt of hindersome, smoking tracks Some of its industrial suburbs are well planned with slightly landscape gardening and attractive homes, others stupid rows of drag company houses. There is a pressing need for larger water supply. The aldermanic form of city government was tried and broke down. Alleys threaten tl nucleus of a slGm. Far too many people die of tuber- culosis. The county fee system clogs the administration of justice. The con vict lease system persists and chain gangs in stripes clank by as they sweep the streets. Education is not compul- sory Alabama is backward in child labor legislation.
 "These are some of the factors which a group of trained men and women will discuss in The Survey for January 6
 The Articles
 How Birminbham Came To Be, by Miss Ethel Armes, author of 'The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama. An ac- count of the city's natural wealth and it's development by a group of rugged industrial pioneers-the southern captains of industry and the work they wrought as full of adventure and conquest as the story of a hundred sea captains.
 ''The City and It's Future, by Graham Romeyn Taylor of the Survey staff. Civic factors and forces at time when Bir- mingham can master many of the diffi- culties which hang like millstones round the necks of older industrial cities. The new commission form of government, the industrial suburbs. the plans to bring in German truck farmers
 ''The Birmingham Workman, by John A. Fitch of the Survey staff The labor force of the one steel center in America where the source of raw material-ore, limestone coal-lie under the very caves of the mills. ShiftingNnegro labor, irreS- ularity of employment overwork, com pany, commissaries, the conflict between negro and white labor, the conflict be- tween labor unions and employers, the marked advances in safeguarding human life in the newer mills-all these add rich color to the situation.
 Sanitary Conditions and Needs. By Morris Knowles, C. D. The first round ed presentation of the sanitary prob iems of a big industrial district-the primary elements of water and waste and other factors in sanitary engineer ing as distinct from public health regu- lation. Mr Knowles built the big fl- ration plant for Pittsburg and has re- gently been engaged by the Birming- ham Coal Operators association to make a sanitary survey of all the min ing camps of the state.
 'Conservation of Health. By w. NJ. McGrath, secretary of the Birmingham Associated Charities. Birmingham be- iieves it has no housing problem. but MT. McGrath finds threatening alleys, One out of five whites and one ont of three negroes in Birmingham dies of tuberculosis A movement Is afoot for a sanatorium but the big work of the tuberculosis movement-the educa- ton of the people, especially the colored people-is still to be done.
 eThe Conservation of Childhood. By A. J. McKelway, secretary for the southern states of the national child ia bor committee, who is probably the best informed man in the country on the needs of southern children. He dis Ieusses the lack of compulsory educa- ton. the inadequacy of the negro schools, the newly inaugurated indus trial training, the new juvenile court, the Childrens Aid society, the backward position of Alabama in child labor leg lslation, the beginnings of movement to get at the problem of infant nor lality.
 .'Crime By Shelby M. Harrison of the staff of The Survey. The county fee system inherited from village days fails to measure up to standards of law and order in a city. While the city was so hard up at one time that it had to dis charge all the employees of the park de- partment the sheriff is said to receive yearly fees mounting up to forty or fifty thousand dollars. The court clerk also has fees. The entrenched convict lease ssytem means a fee each for the deputy who arrests a man. the sheriff who holds him. the court officers who handle the case, the companies who employ the con victs. the overseers of the work gangs and the state and county which sell the labor of their citizens.
 '.It all makes a stirring tale of stir ring ttOWn'