The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-16
CAKE AND CORNBREAD
Instead of Giving People Pound Cake They Have Not Been Supplied With Sufficient Cornbread,
 He Thinks

member of the subcommittee, that the
 city was in the act of gratifying a pound
 cake appetite with corn bread pocket
 book"
 He contends that the departments of
 public welfare are necessities and not pound cake" which include the public
 schools, police and fire protection, street | work and other municipal needs He
 states the charge of incompetent comes | from minimizing people who have ex- pected the board of city commissioners to make one dollar do the work of two
 or three when Birmingham Is compared to other cities In an interview MT. Wood says:
 Disagrees With Smyer "I agree with the general view recently
 attributed to MT. E. J. Smyer that the city ought to live within its income, but I consider it singularly unfortunate that | in stating a general principle of this kind he should have intimated that the city was in the act of gratifying a pound- cake appetite with a corn-bread pocket book The implication here Is that the city has been spending money for things | that were unnecessary; for things that were luxuries; for pound cake, if you will I hope that Mir. Smyer was merely | facetious and that he did not have in mind the things that his words implied. "When we consider the pathetic need of l this city, the things the commissioners | have been doing, when we consider the great return, direct and indirect. which | they have brought to us: when we con | slider how poorly and pitifully the neces- sary departments of public welfare have | been supplied in many instances, 1t seems almost a tragedy to speak of them as in | the light of pound cake or luxuries "The commissioners on the direct ad- vice of the subcommittee on permanent relief of the committee of 100, of which | MT. Smyer was distinguished member,
 adopted a resolution demanding that ex- | penses be cut for the ensuing fiscal year within the income.
 They did this in face of the fact that the city has been running behind for | years and in face of the further fact | that 1t has recently been deprived or more l than Sl40,00O year in the loss of liquor | licenses together with many thousands | of dollars indirectly in tobacco licenses | that went with saloons and in the real
 and personal property taxes which were | incidental to that business. Still more re- gently the legislative recess finance com l mittee has announced it's intention to still 1 further reduce the revenues of the city by cutting into the sums paid by the public service corporations It Is esu- ! mated that this alone means further | reduction of over s50.000 a year, making
 a total net loss in the city's income equal, | if they will not exceed, $200,000 per an- num- and nothing in sight to make 1t up. | Now. some of the pound cake which | the city has been maintaining is nine-
 months school. This will have to be cut | to seven months, or less than the aver age of Toadvine Ashville and Pell City, | to say nothing of Jasper, Cullman and | Centrevjlle, will have longer school terms than will Birmingham. This Is
 pound cake of which we should rid our selves.
 And then there Is $2400 year We have been paying to stamp out the plague of tuberculosis. It should have | been s24000 a year. This Is some more
 of the pound cake that will have to go.
 Free Milk Depot Must Go | Again, there Is the free milk depot | for babies at $25 month, to say noth-
 ing of the Holy Innocents hospital and
 the other charitable work of the city. and these reductions do not make a
 dent In the surface of the city's prob l lem.
 | U
 streets must be omitted. The meat and
 milk inspection must be practically eiim | mated, both things vitally affecting the citys health. Money spent for garbage collection and disposal must be turned over to private hands to be done IT, l regularly, unsystematically, in many
 cases not at all, at the imminent peril
 of the lives and health of the people.
 This is part of the pound cake that has 1 to go.
 1 And then the fire department has to | be cut the police department is also l to be cut, and the street sprinllling and cleaning and the cleaning and repaifs | of sewers and street lighting, to say lnothing of the parks and playgrounds. These are all some more of the pound cake which must be eliminated. ana
 then the story is not half told. "The truth of the matter Is, the city commissioners have not been giving the people any pound cake; they have not i been giving the man adequate supply
 of corn bread.
 We cannot build city without
 schools and parks and playgrounds and | libraries and health and fire, police and street departments adequately main l tained and efficiently operated. One Is
 as much necessary another, and we
 are committing a crime, not only on l this generation, but against the unborn generations, as well, to stand with a 1 club and knock the city of Birming ham in the head when it Is trying to go l forward and call these common nee
 essities of life by the name of pound cake.
 Two Classes of People | "In a crisis such now confronts us there appears always two classes of people in the community ready with
 the quick words of criticism. One who
 suspect and who charge and insinuate graft, without looking into the matter | at all to see whether there Is basis for the accusation. Another, taking an
 equally superficial view, say the corr missioners are personally honest, but
 that they are incompetent.
 why are they incompetent? Because they have not been able to
 make one dollar in Birmingham do what | 1t takes two or three dollars to do in
 all the other cities in the United States Would any of the critics be more com petent if they were submitted like prob lems?
 l '"rhe city officials are neither incom- potent nor dishonest. They have made one dollar of municipal revenue go i further in Birmingham than any like city in America. They are highly com potent: they are absolutely honest; they
 deserve whole hearted support in this I .ssfe,