The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-14

here untrammeled Tor years.
 J. R. McWane. vice president and treasurer of the American Cast Iron Pipe Co.,, said:
 "The interruptions insta1lment fur niture man, the loan shark. the shys- ter lawyer, the jewelry peddler, tho fake insurance man--all that class of fakirs-thrive in Birmingham. I do not know any city in the south where these evils are more extensive. There are always two classes of people, pro ducers and consumers. Of the consum- CTS there are always some who live off of the producers-who in fact are simply parasites.
 They suck the very life blood of the workers. Birmingham Is full of parasites
 "In an industry where you have from four to five hundred employees you come face to face every day with these evils.
 You cease to take specific account of them, but bear with them as best you can. A publicity campaign in the in terests of the whole people is absolute ly the only solution to the difficulty.
 "Business men and all workmen have suffered long enough.
 A Pretty Stiff Combine
 "A recent instance Is that of one of a young workman at our plant. He be- came entangled a few weeks ago with both the loan shark and the install ment man. He has an excellent young wife and very fine child, but when he was nearly bounded to death, in the effort to make things better he got into the hands of the gamblers, and left his little family. His home was on the verge of collapse. his wife and child about to starve when we became aware of all of the circumstances. We helped | lx alr ata1 i. trD I one of our best workmen, and good deal wiser for his experience"
 It is not only workmen and miners who are victims.
 Every reputable housekeeper in Bir- mingham," said Mrs. Solon Jacobs, can certainly bear up the statements made about the exhorbitant rates charged our negro servants by furniture men in Birinin gham. For years we have suf- fered. and they have suffered. No end of frauds and deceptions have been practiced."
 When the chief state mine inspector, c. H. Nesbitt was asked his opinion of the ways and means of selling furnl- ture here on the installment plan by interruptions dealers, he said:
 "The extortion plan you mean, don't call it installment plan. It Is outrag- eous There are some dealers in this QlSITlcl WHO nave Ddultt liio SoiiN AtA niture, I expect, all over Jefferson county, Shelby, Bibb and Tuscaloosa. And the same old beds and tables and chairs are still going the rounds.
 Could Sell the Blue Sky
 "rhe dealer is generally liable to get his money back in the first payment. They send their agents everywhere and some of them are so smooth tongued they can sell anything. Then a good many of the negroes and poor whites haven't got any too much sense and the first thing you know they get caught.
 ..These solicitors usually show up in the mining camps around pay. day and they clean up the camp, l can tell you that!
 There's one party who used to do everyone he ran across. l don't know whether he is still in the business now or not He got rich out of 1t, l know that. He was a typical shark dealer for you. He was tall and lean, with a sharp waxy face and eyes so close to- gether and deep set they looked like one eye glaring out at you
 He sure did love the sight of dol lar! He got plenty of them too, got them hook or crook. And as he saved about 99 and a4 cents out of each dol' lar, it didn't take him long to get bank account.
 He never fixed up his place. It was dark as a jail and full of the worst junk! You never saw such stuff hauled for years from one negro shack to another riclSety and old but sold for new over and over. His book keeping system was about three cen- turies behind the times. He is just specimen.
 i've seen dozens like him. Stay around mining camp-they will come"
 The one solution insofar as this evil in the mining camps Is concerned Is for those companies who are concerned about the welfare of their employees, to invest in a line of stock most desfr- able for camp use, and sell 1t through the company stores at prices that are within the reach of the miners earn ings To create demand for the right line of goods by displaying model rooms" is one of the first steps, for. so far, the demand for the right sort of stock does not exist. Furniture com- panies could cooperate with mining companies in this way.
 As for the correction of the evil in other quarters of Birmingham, 1t is frankly up to the citizens themselves and to the legitimate furniture firms. Up to the Best Furniture Men Just as it is up to the best element of lawyers and physicians here to clean the town of shysters and quacks for the sake of their own good name, as for the ethics of the profession. so is it up to the furniture men to change pub lie opinion by cleaning the trade.
 A general view of the situation talk en merely on the surface. reveals start ling facts. The public in Birmingham Is already well acquainted with the sit uation.
 Practically every business man in town has some specific instance of in- justice to relate and condemns the sys- tenn in about the strongest kings Eng lish there Is.
 Bessemer and Ensley have some of these ragged looking, sharp-e edged dark dealing firms, the pariahs of the furni- ture business.
 In the whole of Bessemer there are but five firms. which belong to the Re tail Furniture Mems association of Blr- mingham. In Ensley there are two in Vivian, three, and one in Pratt City In the association there are forty com panies listed and these comprise most of the first class. legitimate and square dealing firms-the representative fur niture firms of Birmingham, and they too, are ranged against the shark busi- ness wherever 1t shows its head. They are the firms which advertise most ex- tensively in the daily papers, and are well known in the district.
 A man who has been in the furniture business here for years and who has built up large and most successful trade, said In reference to the article in last Sunday's Age Herald.