The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-19

they are connected and should be paid for their services in the same way. This city and county are peculiarly fortu- nate in this respect, having so many men of affairs who have demonstrated their ability to successfully conduct large operations and handle large sums of money. Such men as T. H. Aldrich, w. H. Kettig. A. H. Ford. w. H. Has, singer, E. NJ Tutwiler and many others, who, I feel sure, are public spirited enough to meet at stated times and give the county the benefit of their knowledge and experience.
 The county sewer demonstrated the wisdom of having such a commission. These gentlemen should choose the chief engineer for the county upon civil service rules strictly. The office of county engineer should never be allowed to be brought into politics or become elective. for we often see men who are very expert in gett ng votes fall far sh ort of filling the office to which they are elected. The chief en- gineer should be paid a..salary com mensurate with the ability and ser vices required; say $3000 per annum, and should be man with a technical education and sufficient experience to make him practical He should be al- lowed to choose his own assistants when such are needed and should se- lect them from among the graduates of our state engineering institutions. and these young men should be paid, say $75 per month for their services. These salaries are. 1 think. adequate to secure good service for the county and are rot excessive.
 If the chief enoineer has to have an auto, let him furnish it himself. The board of commissioners of. course, would have to be elected. but as no salary wo,-' he attached the profes- sional officeseeker would not need the job any more than the job would need him.
 The board should have the handling of all money expended on the roads
 rublic Improvements In the county and the purchase of all mate rial used for such purposes. The chief engineer should employ all foremen or others engaged In carrying out his plans and instructions. As l have said, the money to pay for material, salaries, etc., should come from the liquor traf- fc Prohibition. of course. has proved a fiat failure In Birmingham as far as stopping the sale of liquor is con- cerned. Whisky is being sold every day in open defiance of the law and though the tigers may be blind they are by no means lacking in cunning. They manage to surround their lairs with some k1nu or dn dlDlOSpHeI6 tHdl while 1t completely abfuscates and be- wilders the poor minion of the law, the aforesaid lairs are brought out in bold relief and tempting accessibility to all others Enough time has been lost and also enough revenue to the city and county sin trying out the prohibition laws and as the open saloon will not ever again be tolerated in Birming- ham. in my opinion, the dispensary must come.
 The revenue thus earned should be divided between the city and county and the county's share should go to keeping up the public roads. l believe the plan as outlined would be to the best interest of every citizen of the county. Take the county convicts out of the coal mines and put them on the public roads under the supervision of a competent and well organized en- gineering corps in conjunction with q board of public works or commission. Keep this work out of politics. Get the dispensary to handle the liquor prob lem and apply the revenue coming to the county from this source to the public road fund. Captain Mflner had the county convicts to use In building the public roads and he built good ones. There can be no litter place to use the county convicts than upon the county roads and no contractor can do better work than a competent engineer can have done with labor over which he has entire control. In this way I think we can have as good system of public highways in our county as exists in any county Tn the union, and without a million dollar bond Issue too. Citizens of Jefferson county, think 1t ever Res1ectfully.
 WILLIAM M. GIVEN.
 Birmin gham February IS, 1911.