The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-08-08
PROMISES THOROUGH
INSPECTION OF ALL
CONTRACTORS WORK
Should Plan Prove Imprac-
ticable, He Says, Other
Methods Will Be Tried.
Men Should Follow Ex-
ample of Women


give the proposed system of collecting the
fair trial and not to predict failure in
advance, Commissioner James Weatherly
urges cooperation of the citizens OF Biz
mingham in this matter. He says that
should the plan prove unavoidable or OPP
pressive, some other method will be tried
He states the garbage appropriation must
be cut, because the city has not the
money to spend for this purpose. He
promises, however that the new method
will be carefully supervised and that the
garbage will be removed and unhealthy
conditions prevented. Mr.. Weatherly hs S
given the subject much thought and in
the following interview sets out the sit
uation in detail:
Weatherly Asks Cooperation
THE determination of the city commits
sioners to keep the current expenses of
the city within its income at all hazards
has brought the entire community into
an attitude of rapt attention. At last
every man and woman in Birmingham
must sit up and take notice.
THE city has been spending approx
mately $1,250,000 a year. 1t has not col
lected exceeding 100000 year that could
be used for current expenses. 1t has de-
cided to cut out the extra $S50000 of ex-
penses. This means that every branch of
the city government must suffer, and
every citizen will feel the sting from
schools to garbage. The school term
must be shortened two months because
the city cannot pay the $4,000 needed to
run them those two months. Garbage col
lection must be cut out almost entirely
because the city hasn't the $4,000 year
to spend for the collection of garbage, and
the garbage must be removed entirely or
not at all. You cannot cut out only two
months of the garbage collection.
THE city must get somebody else to col
lect the garbage and collect the pay for
collecting the garbage from the house oc-
cupants. The city cannot tax the house
occupants directly to do this work itself,
because the law forbids the city assess
ing a special tax of this sort for TINS
work. The garbage must be collected.
The city cannot collect it at its own ex-
pense, and the city cannot collect the
garbage by a tax levied on the citizens.
Hence all that is left for the city to do in
such a desperate situation is to pass an
ordinance requiring each occupant VI
premises to keep those premises clean ana
free of garbage. This the house occupant
can do by burning the garbage or burylhs
it, or otherwise destroying it, and to some
extent by not creating so much garbage
as has been done in the past If this can
not be done, the city provides contractor
or contractors who will undertake TO re-
move the garbage for the citizens at
moderate price per house, any arrange
ment made by the citizen with the con-
tractor being purely voluntary on ms
part The collection of garbage In TINS
manner and the payment of expenses IN
this manner will be accomplished through
persua sion and educational means rather
than by force or the imposition OF nnes'
though an ordinance will be enacted with
a penalty attached providing for the I'M
position of a fine as last resort FOR 1ail-
ure after warning to keep premises SAM
tary, just as the removal of combustlpie
matter is now being enforced.
THE citizens are called upon TO 90
this much to help exc out the money
needed for the purpose of cleaning their
own back yards and keeping them IN
sanitary condition.
No Other Way Out
Some predict failure; some object
to the method; some object to nav
ing to pay for work that the city has
heretofore been doing without extra
charge All that needs to be SAID
is that this must be done for the
present. There is no way of avoiding
1t, and we are calling upon the citi-
zens in a collective and Individual
capacity, rich and poor, men and
women, black and white, to help the
city handle this problem until the
city's distress has been tided over.
The city, on it's side, promises to the
people that the new system of col
lecting the garbage shall be care
fully supervised; that the garbage
shall be reasonably well disposed OF
by the new method, and unhealthy
conditions prevented. We ask the
citizens not to predict failure in adj
vance; we ask them not to throw
obstacles in the way; we ask them to
make fair trial of the plan; we ask
them to make a fair, honest and rea-
sonabe cooperative effort, and try
the plan out Then II it should fail
or become unavoidable or oppressive,
then will be the time to call halt
and resort to some other method.
But the plan will not fail. Other
cities have their garbage collected In
this manner. What other cities have
done for years and years success
fully by this method of special con-