The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

 Oates will make a decisive step when his date as set few days ago expires. It will be humiliiating for this county to be advertised to the world as a city incap- able of providing a decent place for it's prisoners, and a place the burdens of which other and smaller counties have been forecast to bear.
 '1 cannot for the life of me under stand why the members of the board of revenue who were elected to handle our affairs in a businesslike way are hesitat- ing to execute the most obviously pro- gressive and humane and correct prob lem that has faced them since I have been old enough to appreciate business matters"
 Thinks Skyscraper Impractical J. H. Barr, president First National | bank: q am inclined to think the sky scraper plan for the county jail is i'm practical. The jail should be moved, and l believe it should be moved out of town where it will damage no property at all. ''The idea of the jail on top of sky | scraper Is good from some viewpoints and from others it is not. The objec- tions outweigh the good points in my esti- nation. For instance, I do not believe that there would be much of u demand | for the offices in the lower floor of an office building which had on top of it a | jail If we had the county jail on the | three top floors of the First National bank building. how long do you believe 1 we would keep our tenants on the floors | below?
 '"fhe coming and going of the pris- oners would be objectionable. Perhaps it | could be done by separate elevators and entrances, but anyhow it would be ob- jectionable. The very idea of having an office in the same building with the jail would prejudice tenants against the | I ialy he ty ought to go into the office building business in competition with citizens and corporations.
 "The jail should be moved that's sure. But it surely would be best to move 1t away entirely, out of the city
 Suggestions have been made I be- lieve. about having county offices and courtrooms in the floors of the building below the jail floors. That I think would be just as objectionable as for private offices"
 Suggestion Good One
 T. H. Motion: q indorse the propo- sition outlined by members of the board of revenue to build an eight or 10-story building on the present site and to arrange top floors for jail pur- poses. Such d building would remove a1i the objectionable features of the present structure and possibly all those of the adjacent property holders. It is | a logical proposition for the court house and jail to be adjoining or in the same building and I think the sug- gestion of a tall building a good one"
 Oppose Selling Property
 Col. Felix McLaughlin: "The county courthouse and jail were built before some of the property owners who are now demanding the removal of the jail acquired their property. I am opposed to separating the jail and courthouse or the county selling any of the court house property Build new jail with sufficient stories to accommodate the criminal courts of the county with the jail on top and I think the question will be solved for sometime to come
 Sunshine, Sanitation and Safety
 B. Asbury Thompson: T think 1t would be a grave mistake for the coun- ty to dispose of the present site of the county jail and build a new jail else where. I am firm in the opinion that the jail and courthouse should be to- gether, having had some practical ex- perience along these lines. The erection of a seven or eight-story building with a modern jail on top would, to my mind be ideal It would mean sunshine, san itation and safety for the prisoners.