The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-16
For the Good of
 the Community
WTHAT is the relation between home
 W owning and police protection?>


 campaign inaugurated here few days ago, one of the industrial leaders of Bir- mingham said that there was an intimate relation between home-owning and police protection.
 He cited a conversation had sometime previous with skilled workmen who, al- though able to buy home on the easy pay ment plan, had continued to rent from year to year. Asked why he did not buy home this skilled workman answered:
 T make good wages and the wages paid my class of workmen in Birmingham are higher than the average for other south ern cities. Ihave not bought home for the reason that in the localities where I could afford to own home there is no police protection, and in the localities where l could afford to own home there is no police protection, and in the localities where there is police protection cannot afford to pay the price demanded for a dwelling suitable to my and my family's needs
 Tn my trade it is frequently necessary for me to be absent from the city for vary ing periods of from few days to several weeks at time When am away my wife and small children are alone.
 If we lived in sparcely settled con- munity where policemen are rarely, If ever seen, my wife would be afraid to stay at home alone with the children at night, and Iwould not be satisfied to leave them there alone"
 And that explains why this skilled work man who earns, under present wage sched- ules S6 or S7 day when working, does not own his home Others would probably make the same explanation if questioned. According to statistics, about one-third of the heads of families in American cities own their own homes. In Birmingham the percentage is much less, though no ac- curate information on this point is pres ently available.
 The low percentage of home owners in Birmingham is not altogether due to lack of police protection, though that may, and probably does, have something to do with it. The large negro population here, about 37 per cent of the total, accounts for a con- siderable per cent of the renters. Very few negroes own their own homes, prob ably nc+ more than five per cent
 The skilled workmen quoted above gave other reasons than lack of police protec- tion in sections where he could afford to purchase home, among them inadequate schools, lack of parks, playgrounds and public amusement places, indifferent pr no welfare work and very cheap and poorly constructed dwellings that are within the reach of the average working1nan.
 
 If this particular workman is correct in his diagnosis of conditions there is a more or less intimate relation between home owning and police protection, and not only that, but Birmingham needs better class of moderate priced houses in fairly well settled communities
 Spreading over more than 30,OO0 acres it would not be practicable to station pa troinan in every block within the city limits. It would take to many.
 The fact that the city is unable to assign apatrolman to every block is very strong argument for mounted police. Other cities, some with less population than Birming- ham have mounted police They can, cover several times as much territory as a patrol
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