davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
THE DICK TEST

suggest strongly that both possibilities have been made actualities. Also they indicate that the Dick test provides a valuable aid for making a differential diagnosis in the many cases where it is doubtful whether scarlet fever really is present.
 Susceptibility is shown by slight redness and swelling at the spot where the skin test is made. Persons who are naturally immune against scarlet fever or have already had 1t, do not give this reaction. And, in the course of scarlet fever itself, the positive reaction soon gives way to a negative one. In a re- cent interesting report, Dr. Abraham Hingher of New York City, notes: ,~, .&N
 "The application of the Dick test in Athql early stage of scarlet fever showed positiX reaction in each one of Al patients test The reactions rapidly became less strong positive, and were found negative from tn seventh to the tenth day of'the disease"
 When immunization is found necessary great caution has to be exercised in the mat ter of toxin dosage else unpleasant symptoms are liable ts show themselves.
 These include nausea, vomiting, fevers rash, and general feelings of illness, persist ing perhaps for forty-eight hours. To avoid them it ie recommended that immunization be effected gradually. The dosage deemed prop CT for children is smaller than that for adults, who according to the Dicks, require three in iections of toxin at five-day intervals, with rising dosage equivalent to from 300 skin test doses to 1000 skin test doses. Immunization is accepted as established when the skin test reaction becomes quite negative. This, it is stated, usually occurs within week after the third injection of im- munizing toxin has been made. .
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
CASH VALUE OF THE INDIVIDUAL

profits. The figures are interesting as show ing, even if it be but on an assumed basis, rule for estimating losses in accidents and by sickness. In the conservation of life and limb the figures would show enormous losses to the country for lives unnecessarily destroyed or lost.
 Some years ago the Rock Island railway handed to each employee a card on which was shown his salary or wages for the year and the capital value, the income being capitalized at per cent. The plan was to try to induce employees to strive for larger earnings by be- coming more proficient. The road was seek ing for men who had the largest capital value, as there is ever an abundance of cheap help available The need all over the world is for developed ability, larger earning power, con- sequently larger capitalized value. The man who earns $3,O00 per year, capitalized at per cent, would have a capital value Of $5O'- Oo0 but if he can push his earning power higher he can add enormously to his capital value and importance. Both the English and the Rock Island figures are of importance be- cause they help develop interest in conserva- tion and development both of which the world needs very much at all times
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
THE COMMUNITY CHEST.

Support of the Community Chest is a duty no less than practical necessity. In its mission of mercy it accomplishes two definite purposes-the relief of suf- fering where such relief is needed, and the relief of those who contribute to it.. For years the haphazard and unsystem- atic charity dispensed in Birmingham, with all it's good intentions, fell far short of the service intended. Much of the com munity's generosity was not only wasted upon those who had no worthy claim to it, but did no little to discourage self-help by encouraging many beneficiaries to rely upon it and neglect to do for them selves. Thus many worthy cases of charity were deprived of aid, while many other people capable of providing for their own needs absorbed charity funds.
 The Community Chest system, which has been in operation for a year, has proved the value of the application of business and common sense to the ad- ministration of charity. It is operated on the budget plan. A careful survey is made of the various worthy institutions and their needs. A careful accounting of expenses is kept; there is economy in the cost of distribution, and the funds are distributed where they will do the most good. Under the plan each organi- zation knows what it can depend on dur ing the year, and can figure intelllgently on its expenditures accordingly.
 Another benefit of the Community Chest system is that it economies the time of business people and prevents much annoyance to citizens from those frequent solicitations for help that characterized the former unsystematic methods of collecting and distributing community charity. The average busi- ness man, and few others, for that mat ter, has little time to investigate appeals for help. This is done by practical and experienced persons making a business of distributing charity. Every contrlbu- tor to the general fund can rely on intel ligent handling of the fund, and can feel that it is placed where it will do the most good.
 Birmingham has been blessed with prosperity far beyond the average. There are many people in Birmingham who are prepared to give generously to this worthy cause, now that they are assured that the funds will be distributed at the lowest possible cost and will do the maximum of good. There are various charities wholly worthy of liberal support. Under the Community Chest system there is every reason to expect liberal response to SO worthy cause. Birmingham will do its duty on this annual drive for funds by cheerfully contributing what is needed to relieve the suffering of those who otherwise would fare but ill.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16

Production on Transvaal gold mines broke all previous monthly records in May, when the output reached 809,003 ounces. It now appears that the July output exceeds even that of May by 20,434 ounces. The present years total promises to go above $220,000,000.
 The fertility of these gold mines exceeds that of any other mines of the kind known to the world. The peak of production from the California gold discoveries of 1S49 was reached and passed within ten years Aus tralia's notability as a gold producer lasted hardly five years. Alaska tells much the same story. But the Transvaal mines began to attract attention around 1896, when the Bryan presidential campaign shook tn United States over the issue of gold scarcity
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
Brief Nature Studies
By J. OTIS SWIFT

OOMING down the trail from high ledges covered with rock tripe, past dells where
 polypody clings to precipices and Christ mas ferns stand green above carpets of old gold birch and oxblood oak leaves, to the val leys in Palisades Interstate Park where old farm houses still stand, the flora changes from checkerberry, club moss, pipsissewa and red dening hepatica to homely herbs that once grew in gardens about the weathered build ings.
 By the spring stands peppermint and spearmint gone doggedly to seed to spread their kind. Where the path ran up to the back door is a root of catnip, broken down now by the intoxicated rolling of stray feline living under the ram-shackled barn. Pennyroyal and bee-balm stand among rocks in the orchard, and by the garden gate is tansy, cure-all of our lace-capped grand mothers.
 Grandma sleeps under the grass in the lit tie Gods Acre. Grandpa rests beside her. Their children are scattered, their grand children return with hiking clubs, but the sweet, homely, useful hints stay on.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
(By Addington Bruce.)


 Just as the Dick test has marked an enor- nous forward stride in the conquest of diph- theria, so does the Dick test promise virtual mastery of that other scourge of childhood scarlet fever.
 The Dick test, named after the two Ameri- can physicians, Dr. George F. Dick and Dr. Gladys H. Dick who devised it, is primarily a measure for determining an individuals s susceptibility to scarlet fever. Secondarily, it affords basis for artificial immunization against the disease. s..t.s
 It is a resultant of experiments by the two Dicks intended to ascertain if possible the specific cause of scarlet fever.
 Though this was shrouded in mystery, there had long been a suspicion that, like diphtheria, scarlet fever might be essentially a disease originating from toxin produced by some germ localized in the throat. The experiments by the Dicks bore out this sus- picion, the offending germ being identified with a member of the streptocoecus family, that malign group of micro-organisms out ranking all other germs as a cause of disease and death.
 With the cause ascertained, two possibilities then presented themselves.
 One was the possibility that, by applying 6 minute qantity of this particular toxin to an abrasion in the skin, there. might be re- action indicative of the individuals immunity against or susceptibility to scarlet fever. The other was the possibility of developing Sc rum for artificial immunizing of the suscep tible.
 Reports by the Dicks themselves and by investigators who have followed their lead
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
MORE THAN WINNING A PRIZE

That Coosa county high school boy who was awarded trip to Chicago with all expenses paid, and the seventy-five other Coosa county boys who produced bale of cotton each on an acre, have ac- complished much more for their section and for many other sections of the state than the winning of prizes. They have demonstrated that the quality and quan- tity per acre of cotton raised under lm- proved methods of planting, fertilizin1g and working the crop may be greatly extended and the profit correspondingly Increased.
 There has been much written and said against the one-crop system which wide Iy prevails in this state. Much advice has been sound and practical. Success lies not only in diversification but also in increasing the quality and production per acre. The reason for failure by many farmers of Alabama is not that they confined their efforts to one crop, but that they failed to adopt the proper methods for increasing their margin ot profit, and have drifted along with very much larger per unit cost and smaller production per acre than would have prevailed by improved farming methods.
 Insofar as these boys have impressed adult farmers with the advantages and benefits of the improved methods they have rendered a great service to their section. They are in the ranks of those who make two blades of grass grow where one grew before. They have both learned and taught valuable les son which should bear fruit in the fu- ture What the agriculture of this state needs is a reliable practice of increasing the yield and quality of crops. There is much valuable land in Alabama which will produce more than double what 1t is producing with very little additional cost under modern methods of farming: All credit to the Coosa county boys ana others who have demonstrated this prln- ciple in a practical way.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16

them are worn out and thus their sug- gestion amounts in effect to a proposition that we get off the sea five years from now instead of today, while it tends also to prevent any action by Congress which would put our merchant ships :n the for eign trade of the United States on basis which would permit them to live there. Equalization, not annihilation, IS what our merchant shipping needs.
 There is grave warning in MT. Plum mer's discussion of the manner in which foreign interests seek to control our commerce and our very markets by a boring-from-within process. The Ship ping Board has had unmistakable evil dence of this purpose and has resolutely fought it. The battle is not yet over, as long as the fate of the merchant marine is in doubt, for, says MT. Hummer:
 Andrew Jackson vetoed the second United States Bank charter because of foreign stockholders in that institution. Prior to the World War, foreign bankers financed the cotton crops of this coun-
 try; and they failed you in your time of need. The United States has made 1t
 possible for your home financiers to give your producers extended credits, enabling
 them to market their crops at the most
 advantageous times. Therefore, let me
 ask which is better for you-to have r your crops at the mercy of foreign fi-
 nanciers, who have no local interest in
 you and who may have competitive for
 eign interests or to have your financial
 operations in the hands of men who are
 with you and of you? The same prin-
 ciples that apply to crop financing apply
 to international transportation. You
 must not permit it to fall into the con-
 trol of foreigners.
 If MT. Hummer has succeeded in any degree in arousing American public opinion to the importance of our mer chant marine and the magnitude of the danger threatening it, he has appealed te the only ultimate resort and support o1 the defenders of American rights on the high seas.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
Watching The Parade
SENSIBLE father sat next to m
By JOHN PILGRIM

A SENSIBLE father sat next to me in A the smoking car this morning. Like as not he'll wind up by producing a sensible son. Things like that often happen. "So they fired George out of college" said he to his seat-mate.
 Evidently he did not feel that the firing of George was apt to bend that young man Nor did he regard the sin for which George had been fired as one which would leave black mark behind. So far as my earnest eavesdropping could gather, George had been the sort of young fool that young fools often are.
 "So said to him." said the father, 'Geor- ge, you get a job. Then next year you go back to college.'"
 It appears that George had come home ex- pecting to find his parents lying prostrate with grief. After the row was over, George had rather planned to spend year in idle ness, But that part of the fun was out.
 "He didn't like it very we'll" said the father with a chuckle. But l talked to him like one business man to another;
 "I'm willing to stake you to college; l told him, because that is an investment. But not to a year of 1oafing."
 So George got a job, and because they live in the country and have only one car Dad gets up in the morning and catches the 6 51 along with George. He is always at his desk now by z :45 a. m., he said. By noon his business is cleared up and he plays golf. And George likes it, too. Dad thinks he may have trouble getting George to go back to college
 "The best part of it." said he, lis that we have become such good pals"
 Wise man.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16

list" How many thousands of books there must be in Birmingham which are not used and probably never will be un- less they are sent to some such school as the one on Sand Mountain, where the young people and old would devour them with eagerness. The letter of MT. Haines gives shipping directions and as- surance that the Crossville Library will gladly pay transportation charges" This appeal ought to start scores and even hundreds of books on their way to this appreciative community, and this school that is struggling to gratify the thirst for knowledge on the part of its pupils and their parents.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
GOLD MINES THAT DON'T PETER OUT

and an progressively appreciating gold money standard. The output from these mines began to make itself felt upon the gold money volume of the world and it's commodity prices very few years later. But after nearly thirty years these mines are still making new high records in production.
 It is a fact of profound import to world whose monetary conditions are so com- nletely upset as they have been by the World war It will make it easier for the great na- tions which have lost their old gold standard footing to get back onto it again. But whether they elect to try or not, the low commodity prices of Bryan campaign times are evidently gone not to return yet while.- New York World
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
By THOMAS R. MARSHALL,

Former Vice. e-President of the United States.
 The budget is all right so long as it does not budge, but there can be no assurance against its budging so long as the congress continues to have unlimited power lin the matter of appropriations. In this respect the budget lacks permanent stability, albeit it probably will remain put so long as the execu- tive and legislative branches of the govern. men., particularly the legislative branch, feel that the people are satisfied with its workings.
 Economy in public expenditures deserves all the laudation it receives, and 1t is a good thing to keep the people informed of savings that are made through strict compliance with the estimates of rigid budget, but this is not a cure for the real evil of over gov ernment, to which may be charged our ex- cessive expenditures of today. The evil is too deep rooted to be disturbed by mere scratch ing of the surface.
 Much of the real estate of America today is being so taxed by state and nation that the profits from it are being absorbed by the taxes on it. If public expenditures shall con tinue to increase, thereby making necessary still increased taxation, we may expect at no remote day in the future the absorption of all income from real estate, particularly from farm land. When this comes true, well then may be asked-who owns the farms of Ameri- ca? Not where the legal titles to the land rests, hasten to point out, for public rec ords will continue to disclose individual ownership, but who in actuality is the owner if not the government?
 I may call my farm worth $100 an acre. It may be assessed for taxation at that rate. may walk over it, declare myself to be the owner of it; show it with pride and endeavor to sell it, but if in one way or another the government takes from me all that my farm yields in income, it belongs to the government ill every essential particular.
 Yet the basis of American life rests upon the right to hold and possess private property, and such is the preponderance of the people who do have title to the real estate of the country that no one need hope by direct at tack upon the right of private ownership to overthrow it and to socialize the industries and property of the United States. But indi- rect attacks upon principles are more formida- ble than frontal attacks. That which would be repudiated by the American people if di- rectly presented to them may be made to ap- pear acceptable unless serious thought is given to taxation.
 Appropriations are, of course, the basis of the subject. Taxes increase as government lordship increases. High taxes are chiefly the result of too much government. Con- missions, board, departments of government, governmental interference with private busi- ness, supervision of industry, experimentation all cost money; all require appropriations i; all bring increased taxes.
 Back of the budget system, whether national
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16

Laboratories are expensive to run. North Dakota is finding this out. The Townley movement, with its cocksure remedies of state socialism for every economic i'll. turned North Dakota into laboratory. But its grandiose projects have nearly all proved failures. And now North Dakota faces the payment of the bill. A million dollars in taxes must be levied to meet the principal and interest on bonds issued to run the Bank of North Dakota, the State Flour Mill and Elevator, and the real estate operations.
 The Nonpartisan League eyangels of state socialism assured the people of eNorth Da-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
THE BUDGET AND THE GOVERNMENT

or state, turks the evil of unnecessary off cials held to be necessary because of unnece sary government interference in private an corporate affairs and unnecessary exper mentation in government along lines though to be good for an individual, group, class section. As matter of fact, artificial regt lation rarely regulates. The best regulator the business life of the world is competitio9 and this is a natural regulator, not created b. legislative bodies.
 We thought we had to have public servic& commissions in the various states to regulat utilities. We were unwilling to limit thu power of corporations when applications to their charters were received and unwilling td trust to competition to protect us asains' exorbitant rates Now we find these public| service commissions authorizing monopolies, ! which are charging more for service than the| people ever before were called upon to pay When a state commission here or there makt1 an effort to preserve the rights of the peop the United States courts declare that the ratlS| proposed by the commission are confiscatory I Yet we spend millions of dollars each yedr in a futile and unnecessary effort to regulate our utilities. This expenditure is factor in the burden of taxation that rests upon the people.
 The end is not yet in sight. We are taxing farm lands out of any valuable owner ship to those who hold the titles; we are en-, abling the rich to avoid taxation through tax ! exempt securities; we are not satisfied, ~ parently, with only one official to every AZ or 15 of our population; we proclaim. still further duties for the government to take on in order to relieve citizens of duties distinc- lively their own and yet we talk about re- duction in taxes. Just now we are hearing that the state should take over the business of insuring it's citizens against injury in au- tomobile accidents, the insurance to be com pulsory. As every automobile would have to be insured, we would have the spectacle of responsible citizens paying fees in order tol provide fund for the insurance of automq piles belonging to joyriders, bootleggers az other irresponsible persons.
 Not directly, but indirectly; not vi
 knowledge and consent of the peo1
 because so many of us are blind to
 going on, we are moving toward so mud
 ernment control of private business and vate property that specialization of practl
 all of America that is worth the having be ultimately expected. Now is good -tl' indeed. a necessary time-for the citizen a official who believes that the basic princip of the republic is the right to own and co1 trol private property to scrutinize every pro posal involving an appropriation in order tt determine whether it is an expenditure of req public interest If this shall be done we shall have less government and lower taxes. Un- less it is done we may expect to approach a situation where the citizen may own the rlnd of the lemon, but the government will have all the juice
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
THE NORTH DAKOTA LABORATO

kota that these fine projects would pay their own way, and at'the same time lend the peo- pie into the promised Canaan of prosperity. But none of them has paid-none of them ever will pay. Now the bill must be paid and the taxing power must be used to reach into the pockets of all North Dakota to secure the wherewithal to pay it.
 The old time-tested plan of American indi- vidualism is the right way to run mills and elevators and banks. Yet the league gospel iS Still being preached, not only in North pa- kota, but in Minnesota and all through this
 region. Minneapolis Journal.S
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16

It is announced that Ramsay MacDon- aid, former British premier, will visit America soon. The interesting part ot the announcement is that he will not un- dertake to explain just how the recent election happened.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
A PLACE FOR SURPLUS BOOKS.

In the Forum of the People today ap- pears a letter from MT. Ernest E. Haines of Crossville, Alabama, telling about how a school on the top of Sand Noun tain is trying to provide itself with a Library. It is moving to think of com munity so hungry for books that "the few books which we have are in constant use and most of them have waiting
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16

Lawyers of Miami, Florida, are asking for fifteen-story courthouse, which re. calls that justice in nearly every part of this country needs to be put on a higher plane.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16

It is estimated that Spain has six hun dred thousand titled persons, yet no spe- cial complaints of unemployment have come from that country.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16

Those who are urging an extra session of Congress are respectfully requested to give business chance to catch up before the obstructive process is resumed.