The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-08
Chance to Help the Girls

O11Ct11NO OO 4
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 Will you give space in your valuable
 paper to the following article and thereby aid the women connected with this
 school in making it known to the people
 of this community that girls need care as
 well as boys.
 A PARODY
 Every now and then there comes to
 every community the opportunity to do big thing in vital compelling manner.
 Then 1t is up to the community to do
 that thing in big or little way, accord ing to whether the spirit of its people is small and mean, or abroad and great. Such opportunity has been present with the people of Birmingham and Jeff ferson county for nearly five years. How
 about it, men of Birmingham? Will you do this thing in the big, broad, Birming ham way? Or will you be mean and nig-
 gardly and fail to visualize your duty and force the effort to do something for the girls to drag through another long series of years. Nearly five miserable years have passed fraught with difficulties and
 disappontments which have had most discouraging effect to say nothing about the large number of young girls who might have been saved, but were lost for lack of accommodation. This is addressed l to the Men of Birmingham" advisedly. l The women are in line already. They have been in line for many years. They
 have made it possible for this opportunity l to come to you. Here's the opportunity: Birmingham has many great worthy institutions, but none of them rank
 higher in purpose and results than the State Training School for Girls, when To-
 ca ton and equipment are taken into con-
 sideration. This is the sister school to
 the Industrial School for Boys, the sisters
 being in the one and brothers in the other.
 | The most widely known feature of this
 school for girls is it's utter lack of even the most modest equipment for accom- 1 plishing anything like the work that should be done or, in fact any of the necessary equipment that goes to make | life endurable to young people or mere 1 children such as we have with us
 1 This band of girls is in sore need of
 everything in the way of more room, bet 1 ter equipment, better facilities to enable | them to live up to even the common de- cencies of life. A few thousand dollars l will turn the trick.
 | These girls have been invited to take | part in exercises at different times and places but could not accept for lack of l proper clothing and transportation. When they go outside of the institution should
 they not be so arrayed as to be a pride 1 to themselves, their city and their state? | Or shall they go shabby? There's your opportunity, men of Birmingham. These l girls will prove to be rebuke to you some day if you fail them now. The splen- did women who have fostered and en- couraged and toiled for the school are just now making desperate efforts to have something done to help the girls,
 and have no intention of ceasing their efforts until a radical change is made. The only thing that we plead for Is that this thing be done in humanitarian sort of way, remembering that there are girls in the world as well as boys. women as we'll as men, mothers as we'll as fathers, and it takes all working to- gether for the good of all to form a good commonwealth.
 If this money could be had and had quickly, just to show the fine women back of the movement that Birmingham ap-
 preciaes their splendid service to the state how fine 1t would be, but above and beyond all just show those long suffer- ing girls at East Lake that Birmingham appreciates them and that this com
  good, efficient wives and mothers and in the near future enfranchised citizens.
 The funds that should be raised through the efforts Of loyal, great-hearted men
 would be devoted to obtaining more room
 more land, better equipment, so that Ala
 bama need not be ashamed to have this institution visited by people from other
 states No more worthy cause will be offered this year. The people at work in hat is | Is good one and doing noble work in transforming these neglected. wayward girls into good women, and if it is true that "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that moves the world" then here is the opportunity for the men of Birmingham to take a chance in the great work and show their appreciation | in something more substantial than words It seems cheap and sordid to refer to the commercial value of an institution that is molding character, but just figure for yourself how much it will mean to
 have in your midst scores of bright-eyed,
 efficient girls who have been snatched as
 brands from the burning fire from the depths of illiteracy and bad environment and to know that it was your gener- osty and keen sense of justice that had helped on the good work We would take a great deal of pleasure in announcing in any possible way that this had been the result of the activities of the philan- thropic men of Jefferson county, and that it was giving us the chance to have more room. more land. and an equipment that would enable us to train our girls along those lines 50 vigorously advocated by those people who are Investigating the high cost of living. namely, getting a greater part of our living from the soil That would be a wonderful start and would show the great spirit that actuates the business men of Birmingham and Jefferson county.
 Now. Mr. Editor, have been utilizing a certain amount of another persons thunder, but it seemed So applicable to our case that could not resist the trcli- na ton just at this time a do most sincerely hope that the h1&8 will get the musical instruments and U-