The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-02

in the realm of political construction Chi cago has been as barren as stretch of alkali desert under a blazing sun. Blu. look at little Galveston, a Few years since stricken by one of the worst disas- ters in history; yet setting out, with d courage that tempest and ocean combined could not daunt, not only to build a city impregnable in face Of the wrath of na- ture but also to fashion city govern ment on new principles, where honesty and efficiency might come into their own. The one gr,at contribution to the prac- tical art of city government made by the United States since the birth of the nation came out of the far south.
 What has Chicago done for Cook coup- ty, except to debauch its politics? The H. linois metropolis might we'll take leaf out of the book of Fort Worth Tex. which has so stimulated the good road. enthusiasm of Tarrant county that that Jurisdiction has within two years invested $20Oo.00Q in improved highways, expended. not according to the methods of pork barrel politics, So we'll comprehended in Cook county, but under the personal su- pervision, with full responsibility, of one of the most eminent highway engineers in America.
 Chicago brides herself on her achieve ments in literature. Atlanta. one-twen- tieth her size, has given the nation Joel Chandler Harris. Henry Grady and Frank stanton. Can Chicago equal that honor roll? Chicago is a musical center. Yet Chicago's opera company has collapsed in ruins. while Atlanta continues to give to opera a patronage unmatched in the United States, population for population.
 The Tribune sneers at the hill men" of the south. Does it not know that these ''hill men' stepped out in front of the grape shot in the civil war to fight for freedom? Does 1t know that nowhere in the United tSates are personal morals higher and gracious hospitality to tho stranger more universal than in the hills of the south? Has 1t followed the pro- gross of Missouri communities peopled by this same stock. and the records of tho young people who have gone out of theso hills to the universities of the land, and then to honorable places in the nations life?
 Did the anarchist outrages of a quarter century ago prove Chicago a nest of an- archsts outside of the pale of civiliza- ton and beyond all hope?
 Chicago has, In one sole respect, shown herself quick to respond to the growth and improvement of the south. That is in the realm of trade. Chicago Is acutely conscious of the value of southern dollars, anxious to conserve trade relations with the region whose ''rotten industrial condi- tions and rotten social ideas illit- eracy, blantant self-righteousness. cruelty and violence are so far unworthy of the city of Lorimer, Hinky- Dink, Bath-House John and the rest of Chicagos municipa. saints. But Chicago serves notice to the world through her press that her commer- cial relations with the south carry with them no hint of good neighborliness, of appreciation of great men and great movements, of knowledge of the harvest of the fields of civic effort, education, so- cial advance, literature and art. in which the south has labored.
 Chicagos relations with the south arc on revenue basis only.