davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
pHMADELPHIA,s REFORM

Although the purpose of the appoint ment of General Smedley Butler to dl- rect the police of Philadelphia was pop ularly regarded as the cleaning up of the liouor traffic in that city, it appears that the real purpose was to loosen the grasp upon Philadelphia of the political ring with its alliances with vice and the illicit liouor traffic. The liquor traffic, both legal and illegal, has always been the right arm of corrupt government. The same elements are appealed to under prohibition that were appealed to under license. It is true with Tammany; it is true with the Chicago ring, and it is true with the Philadelphia ring, now con siderably non est.
 The work of General Butler has been satisfactory both to the city administra- ton and to the public, if the opinion of the Ledger is accepted: "In view of the known antagonism which has been mani Tested in political quarters against Di- rector Butler and his rough-and-ready methods of carrying through his pro- gram to destroy the grip of politics upon the police, the public will approve warm ly the unqualified renewal of his pledges by Mayor Kendrick to stand firmly be- hind the general and to uphold his every endeavor to direct the work of the police without fear or favor" Mayor Kendrick is the reform mayor of Philadelphia, and there is every indication that his reform motives were sincere and not adopted merely for the sake of being elected to public office, as has been the case with so many officials elevated on reform tickets.
 Neither the mayor nor General Butler are reformers in theory. They are prac- tical reformers. They believe in mend ing conditions, and not in talking about conditions in general. The success of their efforts is to be measured directly
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
NOISES AND NERVES

A British physician warns against the increasing multiplicity of useless noises in urban centers because they impose heavy tax on the nervous system and are thus a factor in the public health. The warning comes home to the average city dweller who daily is unnecessarily sub iected to numerous auditory tortures. Trresponsibles in automobiles sound horns long and loud before dwellings Tn resi- dential districts, arousing nelghborhoods and creating public nuisance. Inere are innumerable abuses in the sounding of factory and locomotive whistles, while rumbling trucks in the business district add to the din, street cars grind around corners and clang their bells almost by habit. and deafening squeaks and squeals from many devices join in the bedlam.
 A large part of this noise could be stopped without loss or inconvenience in ordinary city life. Probably two-thirds of it is unnecessary. The situation will probably not get better until it reaches the point of unendurance; then perhaps relief measures may be seriously under taken. Meantime, those who suffer from this source may find some consolation in the fact that habit goes long way in this, as in many other evils. It IS sad that when clocks were first introduced many people would have none of them, believing that the constant ticking would be hard on the nerves. Human ears may be trained to indifference to constant sounds, however, to degree that silent clock attracts more notice than one that is ticking. Even dwellers along elevated street railways become so accustomed to the rumble that it's absence would be dis turbing.
 A characteristic of the human race is to become accustomed to almost any thing. A New Yorker sojourning for night in Philadelphia is said to have re- ouested the hotel clerk to start the band or have some other noise so that he could Yget to sleep. Humans are so constituted that they can adapt themselves to many things that at first seem unendurabie. Yet most people continue to hope that with better methods of keeping order in crowded centers of population there may be eventually some relief from the thou sand and one senseleAs noises.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
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Letter Fron, Huaband at Home to His Wife

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 Letter From a Husband at Home to His Wife Dear Emma You may not remember me very well, as it is such a long time since we have met. But am your husband, Thad- deus, and am hoping that may live to see you again some day.
 You left me and the family ever 4 so many years ago, saying you were going to New York to attend a convention to nominate somebody for the presidency or something and have never seen you since. I remem- Der clearly the morning you walked out the front door in the full bloom of young woman hood and I have a mental picture of you in those good old days of long ago. A lot of changes have taken place, Emma, since you took your delegates badge and went away. ,lW
 Susie, who was in the>sixth grade at gram mar school when you left, is married now and has two fine children, Etta, who was teething at the time, was married last Fri day night at the parsonage to Eddie Per kifs. Eddie was born the week after you left for the Democratic convention. He's nice boy. sf4
 Little Prentice, who was just learning to walk when the convention began, is now janitor of the boiler works here and has served two terms in the board of councilmen. He frequently speaks of his mother as do the other children.
 They don't remember you at all and are always asking me about you and if you have light or dark hair and what color your eyes are. The pity of it is, Emma, that I can't answer them, as don't remember myself. wish you would drop me 6 line and refresh my recollection.
 There is a new city hall here now and you'd never know Main street., Daniel Cooks boy, Lathrop, who used to deliver us our newspapers, is now mayor and has inn proved the city wonderfully, laying 200 miles of new sewers, 45 miles of new street pave ment, building new municipal electric light plant and erecting two steel bridges over Ep- perton creek since you went to that there convention. We are living in a new house. The one we were in when you went away was con demned on account of old age and had to be destroyed. Remember, I built it the last year I saw you!
 We'll Emma, I wish you would get out of politics and come back, as l am getting quite feeble and need a wife's care. l met some friends who remembered you the other day and they held out hope you might get back soon, but read how Bryan had started talking again and I knew it would be sev- eral years more at least before you would 1 get away.
 Abner Hemlock's wife (she was an alter nate to the convention) got home about a month ago and there was big celebration. She had changed so much that Abner didn t know her and is still doubtful. It is too bad she spent the best year of her life at a political meeting.
 Drop me line saying whether you ever intend to return to me or not, as will have to get housekeeper if you are not. Your long lost husband,
 OTIS GUHDROPPE.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
PASSING OF THE SILK HAT

At Princeton it is customary-even inev. itable--that the sophomores proclaim theil promotion to juniors by parading, each wear. ing silk hat. This picturesque event was by way of being wrecked this year, not as the flippant might suggest, because of the silk hats but for lack of them. There is no censns of silk hats, but apparently they are becoming extinct, unprotected by legis- lation and with, it seems, no claim on the sentiment of public opinion. Occasionally photographers at society weddings catch one. But in real, everyday life the silk hatsis seen no more and memory searches in vain for the time and reason of it's passing. It's shin ing nap and sleek gloss simply glided away into the past, unhonored and unsung. It does not remain even in Washington as a gen eral thing, for the ubiquitous felt has lent itself with time to senatorial dignity. Yet in its time the silk lid was thing of de- corum and pretension. It might grow old and in shape, but 50 long .aa the coat sleeve could wipe its surface into a similitude of brilliance it remained a silk hat, suitable in which to nominate a presi- dent or act as pall-bearer for a friend.- Detroit News.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
Your ChiId's Food
By H. ADDINdTON BRUCE

Edith Brown, aged nine, had developed a singular fondness for bacon. She insisted on having it for breakfast every day, clamored for it at other meals, and even pestered the cook at odd hours for snack of her fayorite food.
 Her parents, though puzzled to account for her extreme liking for bacon amiabiy acquiesced in it. The fact that she was willing to make-and at times did make an entire meal of bacon and toast and tea, troubled them not at all. To house visitor who remarked that such a diet was not ex- actly nourishing to a growing child, Edith's indulgent mother made response
 "Oh she gets plenty of other food in the course of the day.
 Actually, Edith did not get ''plenty of other food" And the foods that meant most for her nutrition she ate scarcely at all, pro- testing that she did not like them.
 So she continued to revel in bacon until. at the age of eleven, she caught cold then epidemic among the children of the school she attended.
 She did not throw it off with the readiness of most of the other children. In her case 1t rapidly became transformed from q mere cold to an extensive infection. First her throat was severely affected, then her ears were attacked. A serious operation and a long sojourn in a hospital interyened be- tween the catching of the cold and. Edith's return to school.
 Tn the hospital she was weaned from the bacon diet. Frankly the attending physician told her parents that faulty feeding had been chiefly responsible for their daughters grave Illness. Because she was under-nourished her resistivity to the germ invaders had been far below normal.
 At fifteen Edith eats more sensibly, but she still is quite evidently delicate. And, sad to tell, she is only one of a host of other girls-and boys--who have similarly been rendered delicate by foolish pampering of their food likes and dislikes.
 Overfond of some dainty-in most cases, a sweet food of some sOrt-they have been permitted to eat it to the impairment of their appetite for other foods. Or, declaring a prejudice against this or that essential, food-such as milk, or green vegetables they have not been obliged to habituate them selves <o eat what they do not want
 Truly it is a cruel kindness on the part of any parent to allow child to develop a finicky appetite. Inevitably this lays the foundation for future trouble, and usually trouble of no light sort.
 Not only does failure to give a child a we'll balanced diet result in interfering with that child's mental and physical growth and lower his or her resistance to disease in gen. eral. It may have the effect of directly sub jecting the child to some one of the so-called deficiency diseases, sinister maladies preva- lent to an extent few people suspect.
 Their seriousness, in fact. is such that some detailed account of them should be given. But this must reserve till another day, in continuance of the present discussion of diet and health. ,,-, .ss,e
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
ALABAMA STOOD UNITED

Nothing could be more hearty or chiv- alrous than the manner in which Oscar Underwood greeted Mir. Davis on his nomination. MT. Underwood was run ner-up in the final balloting and may very we'll have felt that Mir. Davis alone stood between him and the goal of his political ambitions. Yet MT. Under wood, as ever, measured up to the public estimate of his character, and was mag unanimous and without rancor at time when his personal disappointment must have been very keen. It is probable that Mir. Underwood's native inability to com promise with the principles to which he has throughout his life been com nitted was chiefly responsible for his failure to win the party nomination. He followed his life custom when he put his conscientious beliefs before consid- erations of his personal advancement. For that he receives the respect of his fellow-countrymen
 The people of Alabama regret that their distinguished candidate was not successful. But the people of Alabama know that there was no lack of stead fastness and loyalty in the delegation au- thorized to sustain the claims of MT. Underwood before the convention. From the start until the very end, when they were released by their candidate, did the twenty-four stand solid and unbl'eak- able phalanx for the choice of the voters of Alabama Like MT. Underwood, how ever, the people of Alabama accept the fortunes of war, or of politics, and now stand united for that ultimate goal, the Democratic victory at the polls next Mo- veruber
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
WHY WALSH DECLINED

Refusal of Senator Thomas J. Walsh to accept the vice presidential nomina- tion on the Democratic ticket is promised on the belief that he can render his country and his party a greater service by remaining in the senate. Undoubted- ly there is much to support MT. Walsh's view. In the first place, his recent achievements in turning up the record of corruption in high official position in Washington has been not only an emi- nent public service in behalf of the en- tire nation, but it has been of great benefit to the party by revealing fur ther reasons why the Republican party should no longer be continued in power. There is no doubt that he will rise to still more commanding influence in the senate, and that the nation is just begin ming to hear of this resolute senator from Montana. In the senate, in the event of Democratic victory, MT. Walsh will be able materially to forward the redemption of the party pledges and to further the policies of the administ1'a- tion. In the event that the victory goes to the other party, MT. Walsh will still remain as one of the chief custodians of the party welfare in lawmaking, and will exercise continually expanding in- fluence upon our government and our nropress,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
Watching The Pdrdde
By JOHN PILGRIM

There's a heavy, heavy, hanging over Young Mans head, and I'm glad of 1t. I'm grim about it. My dearest hopes, will only be realized if that fourteen.year-old young woman passes ten of the most dreadful months of her life at the school.
 'Her manners are absolutely atrocious, her mother mourns.
 Mans father and mother are kindly, con siderate, gentle people. Nan interrupts, con tradicts, screams, weeps, bouts. Her attitude is that she is not only ail-knowing, but that she is also all-pretty and all-superior. Her treatment of clerks, walters, and what she calls the common people" is insufferable And her parents are. helpless.
 "We cannot do anything with her" they admit, privately.
 The original trouble began when Nan was about three years old, and they fell. into the hands of one of the chiIdless nineompoops who preach the doctrine of self-expression.
 "Let Nan develop along her own lines, said this maiden person. Do not thwart her individuality"
 There is something in that, of course. The parent who would try to stamp child into a rigid form is not only foolish, but brutal But the child who does not learn discipline and respect for elders and courtesy will either have the necessity for these essentials stamp ed in under the worlds hooves later on, or will live a lonely and unhappy life. Not one of the men and women who made this coun' try great was spoiled, careless, impertinent child. Not one. Look up history to con- vince yourself.
 Therefore, Nan has been condemned to a so-called finishing school, where the defects in her manners will be corrected by iron hands-iron hands that are sometimes rein forced by leather slippers. The school has earned a reputation by the quality of young women it turns out. Yet every one was a Nan when she went in.
 Of course. that sort of training can only be had by the daughters of the rich. The poor parent must continue to depend on him. self.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
AN0THER F0RD POssIBILITY

Rubber is one of the few raw materials Ford still has to buy. He makes his OWL steel. glass, cloth and lumber, digs his own coal and produces many of his own chemicals, but till now has not, we believe, gone into the rubber business. The reason has been that Uncle Sam's limited output of the elas- tic material has been too small to tempt the flivver magnate. Our domestic rubber at pres ent consists of small quantities of guayule grown near the Mexican border in Texas.
 But Mir. Ford is not one to overlook in- dustrial bets, and a report from south Flor ida indicates a determination on the part of the Detroit manufacturer to free himself from the price and supply dictation of a foreign owned near-monopoly. At the cost of half a million dollars the magnate has purchased an eight-thousand-acre tract in Henry county, Florida, where, according to unofficial an- nouncements, a thorough test will be made of the rubber-grOwing capacities of the soil and climate.
 There appears to be no valid reason why the rich lands of alluvial Florida, in a lati- tude where freezes virtually are impossible, should not produce rubber. Whether this can be done profitably is the fact that Mir. Ford must determine, and on which, according to the Tampa report, he has been willing to gamble half q million as a first cost. Doubt less that will be but small part of the ulti- mate outlay.
 In any case, however, there is little prob ability that the automobile manufacturer will lose even if rubber culture fails him, because Florida land values are mounting rapidly and his land may be counted on to show fine profit within a few years. If he succeeds in growing profitable rubber, Florida will have Ford to thank for another great indus try, and Florida is accustomed to thanking multimillionaires.- Orleans Times-Pic- avune.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
MEN AND FISH

A report from Paris credits the carp, in a Fontainebleau pond, with having given hearty laughter to solemn prince of Abyssinia. That's only fair. The fish owe some amuse- ment to men, after all the centuries which men have furnished them with amusement. While many have fallen sacrifice to the Izaak Waltons of the past and present, the biggest and most desired of them have invariably slipped the hook and gone off with the bait. Every stream has it's trout veterans that ap- parently delight in teasing and tantalizing fishermen for the sheer pleasure of the game. Doubtless many of them almost crack their gills laughing at the devices and efforts of the anglers to catch them, and smile as they nibhle dainty tidbits that conceal hooks set for them. Certainly it is no more than fair that the fish should now and then give men a laugh.-Washingto Post
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
'sAs Ye So1t,''
ny DIR. rRAN1E CRANE

The most obstinate superstition men cling to is the belief that character controls events; that is to say, for instance, that if you work hard, are industrious and frugal you will be- come rich; that if you are pure and good you will be rewarded by fate with house, a COW and forty acres of land, or other ma terial equivalents; and that if you are honor able, upright and incorruptible, some day you will go to parliament or be prime min ister.
 Almost all popular novels are constructed on this theory of life; the hero wins the heroine, foils the villain, and comes into a snug legacy in the last chapter, because in the preceding chapter he has stuck to his morals and resisted temptation. On account of his immortality the villain is sent to the penitentiary, the madhouse, or the gallows.
 The public demand this. They will not ,tol- crate q tale where virtue is not rewarded and vice punished in tangible and marketable prizes and fines. .5
 Furthermore, many honest-minded adults are teaching children the same thing; that if they are good they will be lucky, for that is what it amounts to.
 Now the truth is that the only real value lies in making man Independent of events, superior to them To teach a soul that if he be honest and true he will eprosper," i" is to do him great wrong; for as often as not his swindling, shrewd competitor will triumph, and the good man, just because he will not lie, is reduced to poverty.
 How often we hear one exclaiming, "Why should this misfortune happen to me? Have I not tried to do right all my life? And now I am bankrupt, my children die, and am afflicted with rheumatism, while the wicked prospect"
 Whoever begins life on the theory that the CnO nf hfo Ens &n Ia because he is righteous, is in great danger of finishing his career with the sentiment of Jobs wife, Curse God and die"
 It ought to be clearly grasped that the re- ward of virtue is not money, fame, lands, nor any such things but Is wholly in such strength of character as shall enable one to be happy whether he gets these prizes or not Virtue is literally it's own reward. If it looks to any other reward it is not virtue but cum ming. If one is honest because honesty is the best policy he is not honest at all, he is shrewd.
 If you plant potatoes you gather potatoes, not wheat and if you SOW rye you do not reap barley. So if you practice justice, truth, reverence, purity and the like, your crop will be in kind, and you will become great-souled strong, loving and noble-minded. And to think that you will become rich, powerful or fa- nous as the result of your goodness, is to think something that in the end will make you doubt whether there is any God at all or any moral laws at all.4
 fisedseoworteaoietao shrdlu ct lshrdlu nunu
 Conformity, conventionalism, the morality of the Pharisee, does however, bring sue. cess; as Jesus said, 'Verily l say unto you, they have their reward" but virtue and real religion bring something far finer, they bring greatness and nobleness, and if these do not seem worth while to you then you cannot 60 much as see the kingdom of heayen'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11
APPLYING THE REMEDY

Federal Judge John F. Magee, recently sitting in Omaha, carried consternation into the camp of bootleggers by impos- ing forty-two jail sentences aggregating eighty-four years with fines totaling $1Os,0OO, as the work of one day. He had previously made a reputation for prompt and effective handling of cases involving violation of the prohibition laws at Minneapolis, and his presence at Omaha was requested to put the lid on in that city where prohibition violations had become admittedly bad.
 The Kansas City Star, commenting on the effectiveness of the methods adopted at Omaha, says that Eff, in addition to quick and heavy sentences and fines, the judge also follows a precedent. recently
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11


 made in another federal court, the way of bootlegger's would be made hard, in-
 deed, in his wake. The other precedent was refusal to release on appeal bonds those convicted of violating the prohibi-
 tion act unless, in the opinion of the court, a fair trial had not been had"
 As. a rule trials of prohibition cases are fair, often with odds in favor. of the accused because of difficulties in estab- fishing sufficient evidence to convict in face of shrewd methods by efficient att torneys on behalf of their clients. It is frequently demonstrated that the pro-
 hibition laws can be efficiently enforced when executive officials are determined
 to do their duty, and when the courts impose prison sentences and heavy fines, and refuse to release convicted offend CTS on appeal bonds under flimsy pleas
 The latter remedy will go far towards law enforcement. Bonds for bootleggers are too frequently ruse to escape just punishment, through forfeiture as an item of expected overhead.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-11

by the extent of hostility towards them on the part of the old ring. It is hoped that Philadelphia will be the first city to realize, however, that a spasm of re- form is no cure for the evil aimed at. The intention must persist permanently, and each election must see the choice of men who will carry through the public will withouhsSa break Otherwise, the ring will come back with greater yiru- lence than ever. If Philadelphia suc- ceeds there will be encouragement for other cities to make similar effort.