The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-28
N. T. Thomas Writes Again on Last Weeks Tragedy
 on Second Avenue
Noah T. Thomas in a second let


 have not made good" He replies at length to ]. Fl. Jobson's defense of | the city authorities. saying:
 To the Editor of The Age-H Herald:
 Tn yesterdays edition you publish a | letter from MT. J. II. Jobson, who
 scts as defender of any or all city | officials connected by the public with the disaster at the old Steele-Smith
 building. Without the formality of even a straw vote Mr Jobson ax |. | presses himself as representing the | sentiments of majority of Blrming | hams taxpayers and citizens when he censures the writer for a letter which | you published wherein I dared to crit
 icize the ability of MT. Frank Calf | ford in his handling of the rescue | work connected with the above catas- trophe, Mir. Jobson says further that | instead of eriticizing, any expert aI | vice or suggestions should have been l given Mir. Gafford at the time and that 1 he would have undoubtedly been glad | io accept them. Possibly if MT. Jobson 1 bad really looked into this matter be- fore writing his letter he would have l found out that MT. Gafford was ten- | dered good advice and valuable suG- gestions by many people and that he declined them all with regal disdain. It is to be regretted that my crit | cism of the city's efforts having been | I ublished I am unable to claim the title of expert. for the opinion of ex- perts, dealing. as rule. with only the | fine points of situation overlooked cy | the ordinary man, would have allevi- ated to a certain extent the public dis- grace to which we have been subject ed When, however the points in ques- 1 ton were such that they called for comment from the casual observer, any person will admit that something was vrong As stated. l do not claim to be an expert with this kind of work, but l do claim to possess ordinary intel ligence and many other qualifications enjoyed by the average citizen and in that capacity l not only repeat my crit icism of the city's performance but l wish to add that there were certain features of the work under MT Gaf- lords supervision which it would not be surprising to find practiced by semi barbarous people, but that do not look ell in a civilized community. Possibly. however Mr. Jobson in his role of defender can give plausible explan- ation of the code of ethics whereby city prisoners wearing shackles were rlaced at this work of rescuing the imprisoned and removing the mutil- ated bodies of the dead when hun dreds possibly thousands, of men were | fretting to rush it to finish com nent on this feature has already ap- | peared in your press, where one of | these unfortunates. hampered by his | chains, was caught beneath some | wreckage. Undoubtedly Mir Jobson nas not considered these various matters
 nor that II was necessary to lodge peo- | tests at the city hall before the l rhackles could be removed. A truly
 magnificent state of affairs.
 However, returning to Mr. Jobson's S | letter, the reader will find by pursu- | ing its text that we have with us l in Birmingham the man for whom Dio- genes sought in vain. MT. Jobson ad- nnts that he knew the walls of this
 | burned building were not safe. With 1 thoughtful care he does not burden us with the details of the tests he made | to determine this fact. He makes the | simple statement that he knew. He l does not say that he guessed or that
 he merely thought about 1t, but that | he knew beyond all doubt that they were unsafe. It was his intention to | do something about it. More than like | ly hc would have removed the old ruins | as mere incident to the daily rou- | tine of life, but harassed by the world
 ly care of business MT Jobson delayed | this important step, he neglected It l | found out about Mir. Jobsons secret, ! but does he attempet to conceal 1t: | He does not. MT. Jobson is evidently l an honest man. Entirely unsolicited he relieves the city authorities of any or | ell blame. He assumes their responsI- | bility and with generous impartial l ity he gathers under his confession all the other citizens of Birmingham. | lie. their self-appointed mouthpiece. | speaks for them; they are all guilty. It srieves me beyond all measure to | disagree with this noble gentleman l tut I will have to confess that l did | not know the walls were not safe. The | city employs many inspectors. engi- | neers and special experts of various | kinds to look after such questions as | have just arisen. Knowing that our building inspector is better informed | on the question of standing walls than | the average citizen, and that his opin- | ion is reinforced by that of expert ] builders, l have taken it for grante q | that the Steele-Smith building and many other structures which have | stood in like condition were perfectly saf and while l do not speak for others I presume that there are many | " ho have likewise taken this for grant | cd That some one in authority has | made a mistake is now self evident | fact, but because that mistake has be- | come d matter or common huOWleuBe C l do not presume to stand up and say. l q told you so;' neither do l feel that | the common citizens are to blame. It IS simply matter where those in author 1 ity have not made good.
 May I turn once more to MT. Job sons letter? We find that besides be- ing an honest man he Is also hero. We know that because he admits It, Hearing that these walls had fallen lrn hot ha pnlI10 have avert ed the disaster. what does he do? He closed his place of business for the express purpose of helping the rescue work He goes to the scene of the tragedy and takes risks which he him. self admits were as high as 50-50. Think of it. He admits his guilt in let ting this building stand and in repar- alton he takes these terrible risks Personally, when I was in this build ing did not think the risk much more than that of crossing a crowded down. town street at a period of heavy traf- fife, but I must have been mistaken Think of this noble sacrifice and then compare it with that of the profess sional firemen. MT. Jobson under the provocation of a guilty conscience took a risk of 50-50 while our firemen with TO incentive but wages and manhood, stand ready to take risks at any hour of the day or night that often run 1OO-0.
 MT. Jobson did say something very good. That this was a solemn mo- rnent and I agree with him, and would