The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-22
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Must Have an Auditorium

To the Editor of The Age-Herald;
 We must have that auditorium. New schools are important. the Warrior river should be utilized. but Birmingham needs ; more than all else, at this time an audi torium Why is Paris famous? What makes Washington a great city? Why has Los Angeles gone forward by leaps ana bounds? Business advantages, no doubt. but not especially. Paris is the city or beauty, a city of lovely boulevards, mag nifcent buildings, gay people. We know there must be business transacted there'
 but we don't hear of it. The beautiful, the artistic. the gay, is what we go to see when we visit Paris. Washington, no doubt, has business houses. but it's ap- peal to us does not lie there. It IS the heart of governmental and artistic CT forts, the city beautiful, the city cul- tured, the city of intellectual attrac- tions. And Los Angeles, tke city of the angels, is there great steel plant there? Perhaps so, but we don't hear of it. But we do hear of it's fine climate, its beau- tiful streets and lovely homes
 And Birmingham, shall we always allow it to be just an iron and steoi city? Shall we not endeavor from now on to empei- fish it with beautiful buildings and parks and always lovely homes? I think so. Make Birmingham attractive place to live in and it will grow whether iron IS S15 a ton or $10, and what are the requisites of livableness in city? Here are the most important ones outside Of the business end of it: Law and order must be kept This is imperative. Good schools and plenty of them must be pro vided Also churches. theatres; good, | live, clean newspapers; beautiful streets; parks well kept and ample: good hotels | and place to hold conventions and other gatherings, I These are all necessary before city 1 will appeal to a man who has family to raise I care not whether the man be rich or poor, lawyer or mechanic, | he wants all the things I have named above in the town he picks out to live | in We have the schools, the pretty homes, the churches, law and order. Why not have the place for conventions? Why not have the auditorium? Conventions are the very life of modern city. Peo- | pei love to get together to meet old friends of years gone by, to make new friends, to see the sights of city not their own. People love to see things l they are not used to. I remember some | item ago, farmer from the Cahaba river region took dinner in my home. He
 was asked to have some turnip salad, of which our family is fond. "No, said he. | 'I gifts plenty of that at my house. I'll
 take a piece of steak if you just as | soon'
 With cheap railroad transportation, such
 as is allowed for conventions the city
 I that can offer the most advantages for
 conventions is the city that gets them.
 | That's plain, but do we realize what 10
 l big conventions a year would mean to
 l a city? Think of the money spent. the
 hustle 1t would give to the town, the tre-
 nendous amount of advertising people
 would give the place We have got to
 have that auditorium We are marking
 ti,~on in, ad m uf
 And this brings to my mind subject
 which must be before many of our citi-
 zens at this lovely time of the year. Per
 haps we are wrong in thinking that the
 chief asset of this city is it's iron and
 coal fields Chief or not there has grown
 up in my mind quietly in the way that
 nature usually works the conclusion that
 this con munity's chief asset is it's beau
 II tiful surroundings. A ''city built upon her
 J seven hills was Rome, and from her
 throne of beauty rule the world" Did
 ever city have such a lovely place to
 grow in as this our Birmingham? In
 | whatever direction one travels loveliness
 spreads before us. And now that the
 1 South Highlands is moving easily to the II crest of Red Mountain and into lovely
 Shades valley, and even to that gem o1
 this district for homes, Shades mountain
 how beautiful is the position. Chatta-
 nooga alone of all our southern cities car
 approach Birmingham in the splendid
 and peaceful and lovely effect of it's nat ural surroundings. I mention this fact to show that we should work with nature
 and provide the beautiful and the friend ly in our city building as well as tho smoke and noise of factories. Hence tho auditorium. We need it. It's the stone that is missing in our city structure. Lett have it.
 | Why not have a mass meeting of citi zens of both sexes and all denomina l tions' to consider the best way to gt l about getting this auditorium? Let! have some orators there and some busi ness men there. Let the Chamber O l Commerce or the city commission cal this meeting at once
 CHARLES F. WHITE. Birmingham. April 21. 1s1s