The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-13
LETTERS TO EDITOR
George B. Ward
Editor of The ACe-Perald

10 the Edltor of The Age-Eerald:
| We had a mayor here once who was a
live wire. He went at the business as
Systematically and as thoroughly as
though he were carving turkey for a
family of 15. lie was competent, restless
urtiring, energetic and welded to his
work. He never lodged responsibilities or
| sidetracked an issue: he looked for weak
points and loose screws and found them.
he never rested until he had strengthened
them' nghtened the screws, stopped the
| leaks and LANDED the bacon" His single
purpose was the welfare of the city and
he allowed no environments, difficulties.
interests or other considerations to swerve
him from the path he had cut out. eM
cleaned this town UP to the Queens taste.
taking his first shot at the Rabbits Foot
saloon then going all the way down the
iihe until he got the ladies of the city in
| terested in ''city beautiful movement.
which was we'll organized and doing ex
celient work up TO the time he was rem
dered powerless
lie was heavily handicapped however,
ana set to work to have the city ordi-
nances codified as our laws were in such
| shape that it vas difficult to find them
He also found that there was no record
OF the city's contracts, and he had ALI
THESE unearthed, assembled and comniled
IN Intelligent book form for ready refer
ence' These two pieces of work are a
monument to his administration. re
saved the city world of money by en-
forcing contracts which we did moi know
IL
interest and hand in every detail of the
ci'y' ne Kept IN close touch with the per-
sonnet not only the heads of departments
put all minor employees as well; he had
regular and periodical reports from them.
called them into consultations and
| worked up the esprit de CORPS, to a bigh
point of efficiency. He finally had a svs-
| tenn of municipal accounts established
from the lack of which we had been suf-
iering badly He was Johnny on the
Spot at all times, when he wasn't digging
| IN his office he was covering ground In
his little Buick machine keeping I'm W h
| the boys whose work was on the outside
ne Kept all this up until 1t really began
TO look as though Birmingham would soon
| be out of the hole. After having accom-
plished all this and gotten the working
machinery in groove he thought he
| Nouiu tdhe d nttle rest and sailed for a
short trip to Europe.
Ihls mayor was so persistent in the
discharge of his duties that he naturallv
tread on good many toes and made
some enemies. 1t ranked the board of
aldermen no little that. in defiance of all
precedents, this officious young mayor
sEculd arrogate to himself such preroga-
tiNes, to their almost complete extinguish-
nent, so they determined on a plan to clip
MS wings and resolved during his absence
to put it into execution. Awaiting them
selves of an act Of the legislature enacted
Tor the relief Of the city of Huntsville
they changed the form OF Birmingham's S
municipal government which altered the
status of the mayor from that of a re-
! sronsible autocrat to that of a knot on a
dogs tail.
When this mayor got back from Europe
and saw the game that had been worked
on him he got plum VIGOROUS Words
could not express his establishment, and
| he used language which was "real ungen-
| tlemanly." But he wouldn't admit HIM
SELF licked" and we had that memora bic
board meeting to which the apepllation
rough house would be mild term. That
mayor was finally COZ Ned to bow and
submit to the ma5o1B IN law, as iin-
ally interpreted oy the st.t me court and
he ended his term as an onlooker shorn
OF all authority.
i served as city treasurer under six
mayors. and four years under this one. 1t