The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-05
SOME REFLECTION ON THE
 EXPULSION OF MATTHEW'S
Why the Building Inspector Must Suffer For Disaster
 Although His Error In Judgment Was Shared By Others of the Highest Ability
By RALPH N. SILVER
Matthews has been n,

Matthews has been made the goat The public cried for ''blood' ana the board of city commissioners has sac fificed the official head of Building In spector w. O. Matthews as the maa responsible for the steele-smith wall disaster. A
 Fer be it known that public senti- mentor what is believed. to be pub lie sentiment-no matter whether it is right or wrong win never be over looked by a politician. And the seis mosraph that would appear to be oper- ating in the offices of certain members of the city commission has again pro- duced official action by its gSrations in answer to the public pulse. Commissioners Weatherly and Lane have not yet made formal and official their opinions that Matthews should be dismissed on the evidence of the Steele Smith wall disaster probe. Why they did not take formal action by their majority votes at the commits sion meeting yesterday afternoon is unknown The matter came up but they stated they desired that it be postponed until Friday afternoon at 5 o'clock. It would seem entirely pos sible that the further performances of the public sentiment seismograph are to be watched in the meantime to see how the intended beheading is received If MT. Matthews were able to tap the wires somewhere and produce a change of seismic waves on the register there is no reason to doubt but what there would be a change of commissionistic opinion before Friday.
 The tendency of members of the com mission to play politics in the past six or eight months is slowly seeping into the public mind. There has prooablv been no registration on the official commission seismograph at the city' hall yet. Whether or not the Matthews execution will have any effect, of course, cannot be told, but there would be small surprise if the sensitive needle did not hum within the next few weeks as 1t records the seismic waves iron. an indignant public, whose fidelity IS as unstable as a woman's
 Politics is all right in it's place. but when an official as close to the public as city commissioner studiousiy keeps playing to the galleries" week in and week out and caps the climax when acting in a judicial capacity by
 
 of a subordinate against whom has been proven no more than there has been against Building Inspector Mat thews is playing, no doubt, with fascinating fire but most assuredly dangerous one.
 The disaster probe was a failure utterly. from beginning to end. In the enlightening opinion rendered by Com missoners Weatherly and Lane they clearly admit that nothing came of the probe. Their argument Is that Maj thews considered the wall safe. The wall fell. Therefore Matthews was wrong. Therefore Matthews should be dismissed.
 All this was Known a half second after the wall fell if anyone had stopped to think of it. None of it was brought out or proven at the prbhe. Why the wall fell. the two execution CTS admit they do not know and tho probe did not reveal. All they know is that Matthews thought it would not fall, that it did fall and that Mat thews' official head must pay the pen atty for his honest mistake in Judg- ment.
 In the Matthews case. contrary to others of the past few months there has been no occasion for a member of the commission to wait and see which
  practice which has come into vogue more or less of sitting on the fence. until it was seen through the official seismograph where public sentiment was going to settle, in this case was abandoned. It was perfectly natural that there should be a great wave of public indignation following the Stet le- Smith wall disaster Seldom and prob ably never has the public conscience O. And it was only natural that the pub And if wa sonly natural that the pub lie indignation should seek to fix re- spoDsibilty for the catastrophe on someone and make that person suffer in turn
 It was In response to this public ia- digration, duly recorded by the city hall seismograph. that the probe by the commission was held and it was in answer to this public indignation that Commissioner Weatherly, assisted by Judge Lane. is sacrificing Inspector Matthews.
 The public, in answer to whose de- mands the building inspector is sac rificed. knows nothing of the facts. It cares probably as little. It merely feels indignation that such disaster