The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-20
REPORTER REPLIES ID REV. FAREWELL
Newspaper Men Have Done
 Much for Poor
A GRATUITOUS FLING
Rectors Remarks About Youthful Reporter. Out of Place Coming From the Pulpit-Pertinent
 Questions Are Asked
By RICHARD F. LussIER

By RICHARD F. LUSSlEH
 Are we going to lend our ears to the
 effusions Of youthful reporters who in all
 probability never did days work in
 their lives among the poor?"
 The above question was asked by the
 Rev. Middleton $. Barnwell. rector of the Cl,uIch of the Advent. of his congrega- ton yesterday morning in an attack rpon The Age-Herald and members of it's reportorial staff. Speaking of youthful reporters MT. Barnwell is under 30 years of age himself.
 AS the Rev. MT Barnwell saw fit to refer to articles printed in The Age Herald which did not reflect credit upon the Associated Charities and to leap to the defeLse of the association which The Age-Herald, edtorialy or otherwise, has never attacked. 1t might be well to ask him if he would have preached the ser | E,on he did yesterday morning if Mir. H. K. Nilner president of the Associated 1 Charities had been member-say of the First Presbyterian church. instead of the 1 Church of the Advent.
 But in answer to the question of Mir. Barnwell, regarding the work of report CTS and their experience among the poor, I it can be positively stated that report
 CTS of all the newspapers in Birmingham do great deal for the poor and unfortu- 1 nate.
 Misery Comes to Light | The writer has been police reporter of 1 The Age Herald for the past year. In that time all manner of life has come be- | fore him. In police circles, 1t is always | misery that comes to light. and d re porter with a great newspaper back of
 him can do and does do much It requires publicity to help the unfor- tunate-to call attention to their needs and reporter is in a position to give this publicity so that it will do the maximum of good.
 Instances of the good that reporters do for the poor and lowly of this city are cited for the yourthful Mir Barnwell; every time 8 reporter of The Age
 Herald exposes the plight of an un- I fortunate. the response from the public I is quick and helpful. MT. Barnwell how
 many pitiful cases of poor families have you presented from your pulpit? Or, are you fearful of shocking the sensibiities
 
 tails of the misery of existence of some
 people? can 1t be that the yoke of serv-
 ility to Mammon is on your neck? l MT. Barnwel, have you investigated the
 Anna Doyle Rochester case? Have you investigated the fact that the Associated Charities workers, in the office of Mrs
 Searight when Mrs Yother told her pa
 thetic tale, were hardly out of their teens? MT. Barnwell, do you know that
 Mrs. Rochester died that night? | A few more questions Do you know
 that Secretary McGrath boasts that he has figured to "a leaf of tea just what
 food it will take to save human being
 from starvation? And MT. Barnwell. in-
 stances can be cited where youthful
 workers of the Associated Charities have
 sent to elderly women sick unto death
 can of salmon. can of beans and a
 loaf of rye bread.
 Made no Attack 1 The writer made no attack on the As
 sociated Charities because he believes
 that the trouble is purely local f1e l thoroughly agrees with MT. Barnwell in what he says about scientific charity wfieh is borne out by facts in other I cities. 1 In the great centers of population oI the United States where there is misery
 in abundance, despite all efforts, charity must be scientific to do good. In Mem
 phis the Associated Charities has done wei; in Nashville, in Boston. in New
 York scientific charity has solved the 1 situation.
 1 It follows then that the trouble is not 1 with scientific charity, but with scien- tific charity as administered in Br- n,ingham.
 l The fling which Mir Barnwell takes al the writer in lfs remarks about "effu.
 sions of youthful reporters" is gratuitous discourteous, and I think out of place
 coming as 1t did from a minister of God clad in the robes of the church and l spoken from the pulpit. The columns oi The Age-Herald have been opened freel, | to MT. McGrath, MT. Miner or anyone else to comment upon the matter in any manner desired.
 l MT. Barnwell, does 1t not appear that
 you took advantage of your cloth and your position to discuss a matter of which you were imperfectly informed at the be-
 hest of outside influence?