The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-22

clos .Fc. e ne lack of proper de- velo ntat gl t4a city along other lines, or ns sffs ,.sclose his own eyes, ,vha ahst ariitarb those who do ob Isers Tar- .ot a doubt that Bir- miiensal ;. es at the shrine of in dusfris I.ala )rns, a community, many y,.fsa - ant items of life. Is there nothing else to build up in the community besides industrial enterprises? Isn't there such a thing as general so- cial regeneration which will make for more happiness, more upriShtness and more justice? Oh. yes; some who may read this will say right here that we of this district are on about a par with the rest of the civilized world in regard to those three last named things. BN I do not think so. It seems to me that this district is, at this time. an agglomera- ton of purely selfish individuals, lacking almost entirely any community spirit, ex- cent when it comes to coaxng shy cap- italist to come here and establish a busi- ness which will run up real estate values in the locality in which it locates and create new Iavrolls for the laborers to sperd with the merchants. Those things are all right, but are we to be enterprisng ! onlv in that line? Does industrialism need | such ooaxing and such tender care from us, lest it depart or never come, while | all other desirable things for our citizens
  1 We cannot deny that we of this district l, are an unhomogeneous mass, probably | more so than any community in the | Tinted States That of itself gives rise | to all sorts of problems that cannot solve | themselves for the simple reason that | a man in one station of life does not, | without effort on his part, get the view point and seq the needs of those in other | stations This makes for injustice. And 1 1t seems to me-this is the view of a | young man-that common honesty, right eousness and justice are at a low ebb ! in this district. This last generalza- tion is based on individual cases of my | own observation, enough|to convince most people, if they knew them.
 | Is 1t not a severe arraignment of our | community that there has been no or ganized movement to improve housing and sanitary conditions of not only the ne- groes, but also of many of the white | people? People here seem to be perfect | ly willing 10 take the abject squalor or
 our poor people for granted Is 1t not
 stern rebule to our pretensions to modern- ness when about half the negroes who | get incarcerated in the county jail are ! afflicted with loathesome disease, many | having nauseatlng bodies, and practically l nothing is done toward the treatment or cure of this disease either while they | are in jail or when they are discharged? | conditions should be. And yet this dis
 ease germ can be driven from any human body, thanks to a recent famous discov- | erg, in the short space of 24 hours. And 1 yet this malignant disease, for which
 many famous doctors have said there | could be no cure, infests an enormous proportion of our population, and will be
 transfused into future generations. and yet we lnake no effort to enforce upon the ignorant cure even when they come directly under our notice in our jail, much
 less conduct a campaign of education and
 medication to eradicate it.
 And our infamous mal-administration of the criminal law due to the fee system. | We are doing a little talk now about
 criminal law reform, but I believe that
 most people of this district deep down in
 their hearts do not believe that the fee system Is so much to blame, many think
 ing that the anti-fee attitude Is merely
 invented as campaign thunder for politi-
 clans and would be ones.
 What I am going to say now has a
 somewhat broader application than mere iy to this district, but it certainly ap-
 phes here l refer to our personal rela-
 ions. Are we a courteous people?
 mean truly courteous Courtesy is de-
 fined as an act ofkkindness or of favor,
 performed with politeness. And southern
 CTS are supposed to be the embodiment of
 courtesy And yet, can you think of a
 day in your life when you have not seen
 some southern gentleman curse kick
 or otherwise abuse a negro, and have the
 approval of many spectators in the pro-
 cess who believe that such is Keeping the negro in his placer" And yet have seen
 these same men bow very gallantly and
 say pretty things to the ladies of their
 own and superior social station-most gal
 lantly to those of superior station. Have
 you not seen enough of this kind of thing
 to say that it is entirely too general,
 and that these actions are not confined te the mere boors of the community. And . there is one specimen of young manhood ! indigenous tc these parts. who, when h<