The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-07
PE.LAND !. KEEPS UP H|S F|GHT ON DOHLING ISSUE
Claims $1O8,OOO Of Total Of $128,00O For Health
 Work For Salaries

| ty. who drew up the resolution ask ing that Dr. J. D. Bowling, city ant county health officer, be made tc submit a correct report of disburse-
 ments of the health department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1923
 Friday morning issued a statement
 declaring that the board had ful
 power to investi gate fully the dis bursements of the health department despite the fact that Dr. Bowling
 Jefferson county of disease.
 The statement then points out sew eral facts in connection with the fi- nancing of the health department and brings in the figures requires
 for carrying on the work of ridding
 Jefferson county of diseases.
 The statement was issued by MT
 Copeland following statement
 made that pr. Bowling had em-
 ployed Mrs. Lillian Bowling, Miss
 Zoe LaForge and Miss Elizabeth
 LaForge under the provisions of the
 had omitted their names from the
 report made to the board of reve-
 nue. The resolution claimed that Mrs. Bowling was paid S135, Miss Zoe LaForge s25 and Miss Elizabeth LaForge $50 per month out of the | I
 report of disbursements made by Dr
 Bowling did not show this.
 pr. Bowling states that the wom-
 en were paid out of tho government
 fund provided by the Shepherd
 Towner act, which provides for ma
 tegnity work by matching the coun-
 ty funds with g like amount of fed
 eral funds. He stated that he did
 not try to conceal this fact from
 the revenue board members and that
 if they had been interested in the
 matter they could have attended the meetings of the board of health and could have seen the records as to
 the matter of payment of the three
 women.
 Friday pr. Bowling stated that he had not received the resolutions passed by the board of revenue and
 that he would not make any move until these were sent to him.
 Copeland Statement.
 Following is tho statement issued Friday morning by W. B.. Copeland
 Since considerable publicity has been given recently to a resolution offered by the writer at a meeting of the board of revenue providing that said board request Dr. Bowling, the county health officer, to give the board an accounting of funds re- ceived and disbursed by him through the operation of the Shepherd Town CT act of Congress, the writer de- sires to make the following state ment where he wishes to show that contrary to Dr. Dowling's state ment appearing in the papers, the board of revenue is quite within its rights in making inquiries as to the expenditure of public funds.
 Tn March, 1922, the board of reve nue granted to pr. Bowling $4S,000 to be disbursed by him in the
 .1sI. Al, county. after much discussion the health officer agreed that this amount would be adequate, provided he should receive in addition to same approximately 5000 from the state health department, represent the Shepherd-Towner funds.
 Shortly after this Dr. Bowling began to make substantial increases in the salaries in his department, and, although he had solemnly agreed that S4S,000 would be entirely adequate for the years work, at the end of 1922 he had expended $70,000, or had exceeded his budget by approximately $22, 900 and had also expended in ad- dition to this amount approximately $5 ,000 of the Shepherd -Towner fund, which amount was derived from the health department at Montgomery by reason of the fact that Jefferson
  amount with the state treasurer.
 By examination of the state health department records it was as- certained some time ago that the amount available to the Jefferson health department from the -Towner fund in 1922 was s15,595.12, of which Bowling spent only $11,295.S4, preferring, evidently, to exceed his budget allotted by the board of revenue, and spent $S,O00 of Jefferson county taxpayers money and to draw the amount available or Jefferson county health work trough the Shepherd -Towner fund. n this connection it may be inter- ,sting to many people to learn that put of a total appropriation of ap- $12S,000 made by the ,ity of Birmingham and Jefferson county for health work in this city md county for 1922, more than S10S,- 100 was spent on salaries alone in he health department.
 interested In Health.
 The board of revenue is greatly lealth department. It desires to fos- CT and encourage the work of mak- ng this county as nearly free from disease as possible by the appro- )riation of funds in its charge; but there are many other departments lnd county aCtlNltleS tIdt must De provided for and the duty of the board is to make the cloth fit the pattern.
 As an instance of the board of revenues interest in health work l nay say that at the beginning Of he year 1923 the board initiated a policy of its own accord of appro- ,riating 50 cents per capita for the department of public health in this | .ounty outside the city of Birming- iam. Based on the government cen | us of 1920 this gave to pr. Bowling | ;66.00O for the year 1923, or $lS,O0O | nore more than that appropriated for | lis work in the preceding year. In | ess than five months Dr. Bowling | appeared before the board and stated | hat this amount would not be ade- uate and he desired to request an | additional appropriation. This re- uest was refused by a majority of | he board of revenue.
 It has been recently ascertained hat the amount available to pr. Bowling to be derived from the | -Towner funds at Montgom- ry is approximately s47,000 for 1923, f the health officer spends money to him from all sources in 923 a greater amount will be eX- ended in this city and county for edith work per capita than in any ther like community in the south, nd the amount expended per capita yill be exceeded by few. If any, like ized seats of population in the en- ire country, and S5 per cent of the axpayers money spent for health rotection will be disbursed In sala- ies.
 These, thereforeh are some of the eaSons that the writer wishes Dr. bowling to stay within his budget nd render an accounting when 1t is esired. w. B. COPELAND"
 ST. CLAIR OPTIMISTIC