The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-15
MISS ETHEL ARMIES ANSWERS
 WALTER MOORE'S CRITICISM
By ETHEL ARMIES,

any treatment of any sort or any seri- ous contemplation7
 Are they anybody's business7
 What caused them?
 What cures them? Who cares a continental, anyway, whether they are cured or not?
 All these questions were the busi- ness of the Survey magazine. They treated Pittsburg in six volumes. They have treated Washington, D. C.. and other cities. They are nothing more nor less than interpretive studies" of American cities. Not undertaking, sem sationalism, partisanship-but simple clear. sincere diagnosis according to modern lights, for the ultimate good of Birmingham and the state of Ala bama.
 Shepherd Not Wolf , Mo- MT. Moore, the Survey folks did not come down in the night, like the | Assyrian, etc, and lambast us into king dom come; search for those private skele- tons and everything behind our lares and penates, and hold us up to the scorn of America df our private skeletons are as bad as all thatD
 Not at all! But simply in the full noon, they came marching, like the philoso- pher's good men:
 March we along, fifty score strong, Great hearted gentlemen singing this song:
 You hold by the right and you double
 your might
 So onward to Nottingham fresh for the fightl
 March we along" That is all 1t is, Mir. Moore the great march for progress; the battle of today against the enemies of today: disease, vice, crime, child labor, girl murder, in- justice and cruelty in every way, shape and form, the prayer to lift tragedy-or at any rate-to lessen it from human lives.
 Also it is the call to men and womer here to have the right sort of patriotism the right kind of public spirit for Sir. mingham.
 Have you met all of those young sur. vey men, MT. Moore? Their business is to get up facts-not "colored stuff as you call it. They are all scientifically trained men, university students, work men, social workers, broad guaged, intel. ligent and sympathetic. They have a pro- found and earnest love for that which Is clean and wholesome in life, for that which is beautiful, right and harmonious Constructive Criticism Their criticism while 1t cuts in many places, is made solely and entirely witl the eitys welfare in mind. Can any oi the material facts they set forth iron an absolutely disinterested viewpoint, bt denied?
 If the citizens of Birmingham would ex. press themselves freely and frankly ir the press. as to any doubtful points IT | this Survey it will stimulate inquiry. Never has there been such widespread public interest in a magazine as within the last few days there has been ir l this city in The Survey. How do the conditions of the Avondale cotton mil strike the public conscience of Birming- ham?
 John T. Mlner spoke of the evils and untoward conditions of his day. The grand jury of this county. and certain oi the newspapers cry shame upon the heads of citizens who let these things still be.
 The Survey steps along and points the way in dozens of suggestions. in the lines and between the lines. to bring order out | of the chaos here, to arouse a civic con science, to create the true public spirit For you know and l know these things are not. Read the pages again. MT Moore. Read the book from cover to cover, and the spirit in which it is writ. ten.
 Is that spirit not generous? | Is 1t not clean and wholesome after all in spite of some of the unelean facts and sewage matter it deals with? The | Servant in the House is come to Birming ham-thats all.
 Might we all not give thanks-blessing' instead of curses? For all the dark, i dark it is, this Survey brings down oi us. there are ten thousand stars. Person ally do not think. Mir. Moore. that | Is really dark. howeves but dawn in stead
 And do not we all need new sunris @ver Birmingham?
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