The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-08
MENINGITIS REPORT
 MADE IN BESSEMER
Dr. Waller Explains That He Does Not Advise
 Closing the Schools

1 Bessemer, April 7.-(Special )-The BeS
 semer city council met in regular session
 tonight in the city hall. the council cha m-
 Der being used by the managers and
 clerks in counting the votes of the pri-
 mary, and was called to order by Presi- dent George Ross
 l The waterworks committed to which was referred the petition of the citizens
 on the west side of Fifth ward, asking
 that they be given water, recommended
 that the Bessemer Watsrworks company
 sign up with these citizens. The report | Was adopted.
 i The waterworks committee to which 1 Was referred the instaldition of fire | plug on Seventh avenue and Twenty-ffth
 street. recommended that the fire plug be I installed without expense to the city. | City Physician George D. Waller was
 present and made a talk in regard to 1 the meningitis conditions in Bessemer.
 stating that there were IA cases among
 the negroes and two among the whites;
 that he had investigated 24 false rumors | bat there was no epidemic a present. He
 also said there had been sorne talk of l tipSiH6 lnt SCuoolS bNN lIldl ne tllu IOl
 think this advisable, although two phy-
 sicians had suggested it. as that would cause other towns in the state to think
 there was an epidemic and the state might 1 quarantine Bessemer.
 | pr. Waller stated that Professor Pow
 ell at Jonesboro said he had 90 pupils l present and 120 absent yesterday and that l he had received about 150 telephone calls
 from the mothers of school children rel
 alive to this matter. pr. Waller further
 stated that he had discussed the matter
 with the county health officer, who has
 gone through two epidemics of meningit- 1 is, and he did not think it advisable to
 close the schools as had been suggested by several.
 A letter from D. M. Ratliff complaining | Of the trash that accumulated at the | Clarendon school and the other city
 schools was read. Alderman Winters stat
 ed that several patrons of the Roberts school had complained of the sanitary
 conditions of the school
 Assistant City Tax Collector T. E. Pin
 ner petitioned the council to be allowed | to extend the time of paying street tax l e'itci way T. WilnOul tnb extra Dn g.,
 as so many men had been out of work
 on account of the shut-downs. The pe- | titon was granted.
 l The citizens in the neighborhood of Twelfth avenue and Twenty fifth street | asked that fire plug be placed on that | corner The matter wa, referred to the wnterworks committee to report back at
 the next meeting. Mayor Rutledge stat
 ed that A. w. Craig ~ne of the fire men. had resigned and that left a va
 cancy in the fire department. The mat ter of electing a successor to MT Craig was referred to the fire department com ihittee and chief of the ire department with power to act.
 As G. F. Goodwyn's term as mem-
 Der of the board of education has expired the matter of electing his successor was taken up. E. A. Dudley ana ]. D. Mar tin were nominated hait MT. Dudley was 1 elected to term of five years by a ycte of to ?. A resolution was intro
 duced by Alderman Honeycutt that the
 mayor and city clerk be authorized to borrow money to pay off the debt on the Jonesboro school. which amounted to $fS9O, with interest The resolution was adopted
 The matter of establishing sub-pound
 station at the residence of NJ. F. Bell
 All Owen avenue. and the appointing of
 Mir. Bell as assistant poundkeeper, was taken up and discussed. The matter was referred to the judiciary committee to re- port back at the next meeting.
 The United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry company begsn work on an ad-
 ditional pit yesterday, giving work to
 more men and making the output of the plant heavier The orders for pipe are still slow but show improvement over the past few weeks. It Is the general opin- | ion that soon there VII be orders for | pipe from many towns and cities that contemplate Improvements of the kind during 1914.
 The Birmingham Railway, Light and l Power company will commence work on Npril l3. on rearranging the street lights | of Bessemer. Many of the arc lights | on the streets and avenues will be re- | moved and tungsten lights placed on 1 every corner. The work will consume | 10 days or two weeks and will be rapid l ly pushed to completion. Under the new
 arrangement many corners that have | been in the dark will nave lights and
 the city will be better lighted than ever | in the past. The matter has been under consideration for several months but only
 recently have the plans been worked out