The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-14


 tvote Commissioner Barber cannot be surpassed.
 T rise to explain my vote in few 1 words, MT. President" he would be- gin, for it needs explanation. I called on 5000 homes during my campaign. promised nothing. The police depart ment is the most efficient body of men within the control of the city. l have paid a heavy license on my drug store for years,' etc.
 Tn the commission conferences he mentioned he was about to be run over by a steam roller when outvoted. Ii made a column story. He said there was , conspiracy to initiate the price of ga asoline An afternoon contemporary issued an extra He uttered the thought that the city should own all the cleo ltric and gas plants. Reams of pub licity followed. In fact all of his thoughts were screamed to the public through the medium of the press. Moth ing escaped. It was: Commissioner Barber believes eating with a fork sanitary" or MT. Barber wants an investigation, and "Arlie Barber visits dance halls at night" or q Wil empty jails,' says Barber" and I abhor news paper publicity admits Commissioner Barber"
 IN EN Eh 0EAIND + OONl
 On the other hand Commissioners Truss and Hornady, also two new com CTS on the board, were working their heads trying to make things go, and their names never got in the papers, except as honorary pallbearers in the mortuary columns. Incidentally Com missioners Ward and Weatherly were also in the shade.
 Commissioner Hornady is doing what experts recognize as the greatest work now being done by any city official. He is enforcing the sanitary laws and seeing that the public schools are op- erated as they should. In fact he is so busy on the job that he has no time to give vent to snappy epigrams or virile platitudes And thus he attracts no at tention. And John is a former newspa- per man. and good one, too
 UP TO THEIR NECKS
 Commissioner Truss is in the same fix. Without money to operate his de- partment he yet manages to clean the streets and make repairs at certain places and keep complaints at a mini- mum He also is too busy to have thoughts, or to say the bright things at the conferences.
 Commissioners Weatherly and Ward are up to their heads in work on financ- ing the city out of it's present rut and naturally cannot think of sensational statement to make when the reporters are present, which leaves the field clear for MT. Barber, the friend of the space filler.
 But now MT. Barber's colleagues are aroused. They are whispering amongst themselves They say What is the use of working our heads off and not get ting any credit for it? We shall also speak out in meeting' And they did.
 The first one was Commissioner Hor- nady, who said he would like to regu- late the price of ice and milk This item was incorporated in a long interview with MT. Barber. In one of the after noon papers MT. Barber was actually credited with the idea Commissioner Hornady also mentioned the city should buy its own school books. He secured a stick of copy from two of the papers on this.
 At the last conference Commissioner Truss raved about the lack of funds in his department, and said many things of tremendous importance, but the re- porters laughed amiably and said that MT. Truss was good old boy and meant well-and incidentally forgot to write anything about him in the hurry to get in all the Barber interviews.
 ISSUE WRITTEN STATEMENT
 Commissioners Ward and Weatherly issued a written statement that the city is not contemplating the purchase of the Tidewater railroad and MT. Bar Der managed to get in his statement in the headlines that if MT. Ward issued a statement it was all right, but that he had favored buying the lines during his campaign and favored it now
 In other words you simply cannot down 8 good press agent Commissioner Barber is a genius. He knows what to say-and says it always when the re- porters are about. If they are not about