The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-03-27
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

city is not great merely because OF
it's wealth, it's trade, it's towering build
ings. it's elegant homes it's commodious
churches, it's spacious theatres, its wide
avenues. its attractive parks. 1t may
have all these and yet lack the one
thing which makes it truly great-a citi-
zenship imbued with civic pride, social
righteousness and public spirit.
Birmingham has all the physical re-
quirements for great city. For years
it has been known as The Magic City,"
Its growth and prosperity has been a
marvel, but it has only been in the
last year that it has truly found itself
and gotten name as city with soul
city which lives nof for itself alone,
but a city which gets it's greatest joy
in service.
Oh, all along we have had public spir-
tied men and women, but the great ma
iority were busy about their own sell
fish interests and gave no time or
thought to the public good, and then
the war broke and as it's needs began
to develop, more people began to see
that it was not right to go about their
business as usual, and the circle of citi-
zens who were ready to help in any
worthy enterprise began to grow larger
until now it takes in the entire. citizen
ship.
/ we'll remember the time that you could
hardly get half-dozen men to come to
lunch, no matter how urgent or merito-
rious the object might be. Business men
had not yet learned that they owed some
thing to the public. and were failing in
their duty and not rising to their high
privileges If they were willing to "eat
their bread alone" This was the dawn
ing Of social consciousness
To give a concrete instance, 1 recall
when the question of buying lot or
purchasing a building for state Baptist
headquarters and moving the state board
from Montgomery to Birmingham one of
| the main objections urged against the
change was that in busy Birmingham it
| would be impossible to get board which
would take the time to attend the meet
ings and transact the necessary business.
There We're. of course, other causes, but
this had it's influence in preventing Bir-
mingham from landing it.
Now, + am not going to take up the
question of why we failed to land GER
tain government enterprises which would
have been great things for the city, but
il Il, AN open secret that 1t was because
of conflicting interests and woeful
lack of team play. That we failed may
/ have been blessing IN disguise. for 1t
at least brought US to our senses that the
dog in the manger' policy was suicidal.
|
| /. however, rather choose to look upon
it as an evolution in the minds of the
people for higher ideal. The cry was
to go out and get something for Bir-
mingham, and we had not yet learned the
art of pulling together. and we failed
and for awhile we were tempted to make
wry faces at Washington. and to criticize
the administration for not giving us a
+, plum or two when they were being
/ showered on sister cities. Many were
| inclined to- sulk.
4 But thank God it was but a tempo
rary reaction caused by disappointment
Then there crept into our thinking a
new conception pitched on a loftier plain.
Iii place of thinking what can we gel
from Uncle Sam, we began at first tim
idly to whisper among ourselves what
can we give him to help win the war
!Itwasn't long before we got holder, and
the cry went up. let's get into the fight
and do our part. We had been put to the
acid test. and demonstrated to the world
that Birmingham was pure gold.
1t took us quite awhile to find our
selves. BUT we put the Liberty Loan over