The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-03
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS
A flying trip to north Alabama.

In company with the Hon., Frank S
 White, Secretary T. P. Hay and wad,
 Wood, I visited Albany, Decatur, Athen.
 and Huntsville, four progressive cities ir
 the great Tennessee valley
 Albany has at last made her debut ir her own new name. When I went with Secretary of War Baker and his party en route to Muscle Shoals, one morning as we looked out of the Pullman, Director Otis Smith of the geological survey asked me the name of the place where we had been side-tracked for the night I an swered it was Albany" But, said he the sign on the depot reads New De catur." But I replied that the people by vote had recently changed its name Talk ing out his map he said, "All right, will now formally christen 1t Albany" and he wrote it down in pencil
 Albany has a live chamber of com merce and quite lot of business men had gathered for conference on food conservation. There, were several ad- dresses and number of short talks. The Birmingham committee was present to give and receive suggestions It was a getting together that will mean much for better relations between the two cities
 Mayor E. c. Payne, rightfully proud of what his people were doing in the way of gardening, showed us block after block under cultivation, the space between the sidewalks and the street in many places having been planted with variety of vegetables. The city parks had been turned over to the schcool children, and in many instances plats were being used by the shop men. We saw in a number of instances whole families out after 6 o'clock working their patches.
 l was startled by statement of Mayor Payne, who said that enough food, in the space of four days, was thrown into the trash cans of Albany to feed the whole city for one day. This he said he had gathered from making tour of the all leys and Investigating the matter for his own personal information.
 
 Driving us back to our hotel for sup per, as we were riding down one of the streets, he turned and said to me, You are in Decatur, while I am in Albany ' The street car track is the dividing line and he was motoring between the tracks. He was at the wheel and I was sitting next to him.
 At Decatur we spoke at night, >but as the meeting had not been sufficiently ad- vertised owing to the short notice they had of our coming, we were requested to come back on our way home and speak In the afternoon, which we did
 Decatur is solid town, backed by a rich farming section. We were consider ably amused by remark of one of De- catur's leading brokers and farmers. We over the river when he rode up on horse- back, carrying a sharpened blow. Said he: You fellows nearly scared me to death about the scarcity of food so I got lp early and am on my way to see that my corn gets another blowing" "
 l was surprised to see him ride on to he ferry and dismount and throw the ines over the horn of the saddle and walk away, leaving his fine mare un hitched. His attention being called to t, he replied: "Oh, she is ferry broke" This reminded me of an experience once lad. When my father-in-law, a Method st, learned that I was going to drive Spokane, a famous roadster that I had bought from him, through the country warned me to be sure and unhtch him n crossing ferries, and to also blindfold him. I thought it unnecessary and drove on to the first ferry I came to and he quietly walked over to the side and began to drink out of the river. I suppose he new owner was a Baptist and not afraid of water. Any way, that's how I ac- counted for it in telling my father-in- aw about how Spokane acted
 Yes, I am aware that in the Tenth we are warned against ,oveting sundry of our neighbours things, put as rivers are not specifically men, toned and may come under the prohibit ion of anything that is thy neigh ,or's." I am going to except the Ten lessee river, for I do want it and want t and want it bad not for selfish pur- poses but for what blessing it would ,e to Birmingham.
 It's a majestic stream. It's power and beauty make tremendous appeal. As l ,rossed it the other day could not help amenting the fact that commercially 1t vas so little used. It made me more certain that we need a river. One thing sure we can't get one by coveting 1t; our ,nly hope Is to adopt one, and so let's ,uit talking about it and appropriate the Warrior.
 Athens is a hustling little city. Not a ong while back started to Nashville, md tiredfout was sleeping when the train cached Athens. The noise and the lights woke me up and the white way fooled me. D half awake I began to gather up ny luggage to get out thinking I had cached Nashville. I do not blame Ath- sns for being proud of her new depot ind car sheds.
 Here we found Mayor Hines and a