The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-06-24
100000
NEEDED
HOUSING
Colonel Bare Gives Out De-
tails OF Careful Study Of
Birmingham And Bessemer
Over Long Period OF Time
MOST FAMILIES HERE PAY
RENTAL OF SIS MONTH
City Limits Should Include
100000 Inhabitants in
1910, According To Figures
Compiled BY H. NJ. Keys


Compiled BY H. NJ. Keys
POPULATION of Birmingham and Bes-
semer. with their suburbs. viii reach
Ss1, 900 in 1880 and $4,000 in 1910,
according to careful surveys by tele-
phone engineers, planning expansion
programs for the Southern Bell Tele-
phone and Telegraph company. Col,
Walter e. Bare. Alabama manager of
the company, stated Saturday
Adequate housing of this in
creased population demands a build
ing program of s10,000,0O0 annually
during the next ten years, meaning
that Birmingham must spend twice
as much each of the next ten years
for building operations, residence
and business according to this sur
vey.
Discusses Survey.
There is perhaps no business en-
terprise or organization in Birming-
ham," said Colonel Bare. which
keeps in closer touch with the de-
matter of present and prospective
increases in population and changes
in the class of population and in
their purchasing power, than the
telephone company.
In the various rapidly growing
cities In our southern states 1t is
necessary to determine long in ad-
vance what will be the telephone
needs. New cable routes, aerial and
underground, must be planned; old
ones reinforced; new exchanges must
be provided, involving the purchase
of land and the erection of buildings
of suitable size and type at the most
economical situation, the wire CEN
ter; apparatus and equipment, much
of 1t a special type which requires
time to engineer and manufacture,
must be made in advance for secur-
Ing the necessary capital to finance
these improvements.
Telephone stuS & Q o
Tho demand for additional tele-
phone facilities and service is but
the reflection OF growth in popula-
ton. In order to provide the neces-
sary telephone facilities in the most
orderly and economical way to meet
the ever increasing demands of the
public for additional facilities and
services. it is the practice of the
telephone company to make surveys
or studies of all the principal cities
in the nine states in which it op
under way and each one is revised
about every five years. These
studies. which go most carefully into
all of the factors affecting the pros
pective growth OF each city, forecast
the growth and development in
business and population for five. 10
or 25-year periods. They are made
by engineering and commercial eX-
perts. some of whom spend their
entire time and activity in this
work. All of the data obtained in
these studies Is kept on file and
"a 81 a q N y
telephone plan for each city which
shows the most economical number.
size and arrangement of central Of
flee districts to serve the community
at future dates, and also complete
underground conduit and cable plan.
This data is used by the engineer
ing and plant forces in the prepare
ton of plans for future require
ments.
These studies are called CONNER
cial surveys and they are the meas
ure of the needs of each community
for telephone service. based upon the
pros pective future growth in popula-.
ton and the community's commercial
and industrial developments. The
measuring of this need is a most i'm
portant problem necessitating these
detailed studies for each city, as
upon the data thus obtained is based
the investment of the many millions
of dollars now invested in telephone
plants"
The latest survey of Birmingham.
Colonel Bare stated, was made under
the direction of H. NJ. Keys, com
mercial survey engineer of the south
ern group of Bell companies, and
urbs and also Bessemer and its sub
urbs.
How Service Is Made.
Asked how the telephone company's
analysis were made, Colonel Bare
said:
las a basis for the study house
count. or census of the city was
taken, which required several months
work by large trained force, the
results of which were tabulated, di-
gested and analysed by the special
lists who are continuously making
these studies in various parts of the
country
"A complete house count was made
for this entire area. This count
showed in each block the families
classified from a telephone service
purchasing standpoint, upon the
basis of the rental .alue of the house
in which each lived; and the busi-
ness firms were classified according
to the kind of business In which
each were engaged. 1t also showed
which families and firms had tele-
phone service with a complete rec
ord of such service. All vacant
property and land was also recorded.
and wherever information could be
obtained through any local source as
to prospective development of any
of this vacant property, the same
was likewise recorded
O o 0
Si5 Rental Predominates.
In the classification OF families by
rental, the largest percentage in
nearly all cities in the southeastern
states are found to live in houses
that rent for SIS month or less.
and it was explained that this class
makes up the bulk of the popula-
tion. The next largest group are
the families that pay from S25 to
$40, and the least number are the
class that pay SIS and upward.
Twenty years from now Birming-
ham will be we'll over the half mil
lion mark said Colonel Bare. That
Is the territory included in what we
call the study area which embraces
Birmingham and Bessemer and their
environs This study area includes
1897 square miles. In 1910 Blr-
mingham should be q city of about
CONTINUED On Page Three)