The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-10
HEALTH OF CITY DEMANDS DEFEAT
 OF BOND ISSUES
Physician Urges Mothers to Insist on Getting Full Truth
 About Conditions
 in Birmingham

To the Editor of The Age-Herald: In all past public issues, have
 observed your display of fair play. 1 Your paper has manifested, always, a disposition to present both sides:
 therefore, without reluctance, I re-
 quest space for the presentation of | facts hitherto unmentioned in the | bond issue campaign now being waged. l am opposed to this lop-
 sided program now before the voters.
 I am al advocate of education and
 have a little daughter whom l hope
 to put through the public schools, but my first duty to her concerns a fundamental welfare on which the
 success of schools and libraries is built. namely: Public Health.
 Do the people of Birmingham kno'y
 that there are approximately 10 dairies supplying them. whose pro- perties are infested with human dis charges for weeks at a time, follow
 ing rains? Cows, under these con dltions, drink the water and disport themselves in it. their udders be- come contaminated and this material
 ia fed in the milk to our children
 Several dairymen in their efforts to
 safeguard their products and there- by discharge their obligation to GUS toners, have erected temporary bar
 riers separating their herds from streams and areas contaminated by contents of overflowing sanitary
 sewers. without assurance of being reimbursed by the city for expense incurred.
 l Typhoid and CoIitis
 | Stop, citizens. and ponder over the | high typhoid and colitis rate in our l city. Visit our cemeteries and see the pathetic little tombstones erected | to the folly of our own lack of vision. | Find a mother who does not enter | the summer months with haunted | dread of the demon colitis. Does the startling figure of $7.0o0, 900 proposed | by the bond issue and tax increase | offer relief?
 Do the people of Birmingham | know of the situation in certain parts | of Woodlawn and East Lake? AS your health officer. l have seen hu- man discharges floating under kitch- | ems, and have seen flies pass from | these to a baby's cup of milk! Re-
 pulsive. I know; but an unpainted {! fact Does the present hysterical | farce of finance offer protection to these little ones? It will take mill | liOHS lO TtlitNe ltiS SNil--idi ici .
 critical, malignant and vicious than
 the educational crisis(?) When will | follow the bond issue and tax levy | for this protection of our children
 To the mothers and newly initiat- ed In politics, many of whom are
 unacquainted with it's 57 varieties,
 misleading propaganda is being di-
 rected, making an appeal in the
 name of the little children. Is the
 cart not being placed before the
 horsess Don't grasp the shell and
 cast away the pearl, through your
 misdirected enthusiasm. Insist on | truth, and the whole truth, while
 sipshy sentiment and propaganda.
 bern of politics and selfishness are being passed out to you. We are
 all easily swayed by influence. es- l pecially when emanating from
 some apparently substantial source. ] Many of us follow the path of least
 resistance, and allow some one else | to do our thinking, and recently, l | have heard several good men and | women express favor for the top I heavy bond issue because some | prominent acquaintance endorsed it. 1 Would 1t not be worth while to in- 1 vestigate some of the affiliations of 1 our acquaintance? Is his property | subject only to mortgage tax Of 1 fifteen cents on the hundred? Does l he sell his wares to the city? VIII | he be involved in the conveyance l of vast properties through the ex- | penditure of this enormous sum? Is | he one of that class taking more | from his government than he puts l in?
 TubercuIOsis Handicap
 Another thing: for years the Anti- | Tuberculosis association has ap- | healed to vafeous boards for relief. | without response. I am informed
 that they will close in the near fu- I ture the doors of the sanitorium on Red Mountain and the great white l plague, unmuzzled, will be scattered 1 to the cour coriiers of the city. Is
 this a crisis? Will it necessitate
 another bond issue and tax levy for 1 it's relief--and it must be relieved? Citizens, where is the end?
 Without facilities for sewerage and drainage, city cannot expand though the dome of its auditorium | kiss the sky, and on the spires of l it's schools and halls are hung the | stars and moon. l have heard some l of my shrewd business friends de- | rlore the inadequate office space in l Birmingham, Irheard one. in whom 1 l have deep confidence, state re- l gently that Birmingham could not
 expand further without increased of < flee facilities. To him l say. we
 cannot grow further without In
 creased facilities for drainage. II
 Is a matter of public health record that further development of an,
 magnitude In the East Lake Wood
 lawn regions will bathe our streets
 in slime and scatter pestilence
 throughout the town. Pictures then
 too dreadful to view will cover our papers that will make the present
 '.shacks" purported to house ouI
 school children appear like Conar Doyle's vision of Heaven.
 Don't let them feed you meal diet alone In this bond issue. bu vote 1t down. and insist on . wei he Ia mead meal: and throuRh you