Birmingham

ber'ming-ham, an English city. It is situated 112 miles northwest of London. It is at the geographical center of England. It lies at the edge of the coal and iron districts, and is one of the great manufacturing cities of the world. It had in 1908, 558, 357 people, rather more than our Pittsburg, which, in point of grime, smoke, and an industrial population, it strongly resembles. Cotton spinning and metal working are the leading lines of industry. Jewelry, silver, and plated ware, hooks and eyes, buttons, pins, screws, steel pens, nails, glassware, guns, ammunition, locomotives, steel rails, and implements are made in enormous quantities, not only for the British market, but for export to the colonies. Birmingham makes a greater variety of metal articles than any other city in the world.

Many of the problems of governing a workingmen's city have been studied here. The city owns its own gas and electric works. Water is brought from Wales, eighty miles distant. Public schools, with compulsory attendance, the tearing down of slum districts, sewerage, manual training schools, and public baths have been looked after with a degree of energy and an honesty of management that may well arouse the emulation of Americans accustomed to flatter themselves that theirs is a well governed country.

Birmingham is the leading hardware city of the world. It was an Anglo-Saxon town, and became an important industrial city even in the Middle Ages. Its great importance, however, dates from the seventeenth century, in the manufacture of swords and guns. As early as 1727 its hardware manufacturers are said to have employed 50,000 persons. By the end of the century it was known throughout the world. In the industrial revolution of the era of the eighteenth century it became a Liberal center, and in the nineteenth century a leader in reform and chartism. Evils, however, developed, and by 1873 Birmingham's municipal government was considered one of the worst in England.

In 1873 came a change. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain was elected mayor, and commenced an era of municipal activity. The sum of $10,000,000 was paid for the plant of two gas companies, a large price; yet the profits the first year were $170,000, and they have since doubled. The price, too, since 1875 has been reduced from 75c. to about 50c. per 1,000 feet. Since 1889 the employes have had the eight-hour day. In 1874 the city paid $6,750,000 for the existing waterworks of a private company, and since then the works have been extended, the daily supply doubled, and the cost to consumers much reduced. In 1875 Mr. Chamberlain laid before the council an Improvement Scheme, which has since been adopted, and whereby the city took forty-five acres of the most crowded and most unwholesome portions of the city, covered by 1,368 houses, condemned the whole district, and has opened in its place the finest public thorough-fare of the city, "Corporation Street," lined by fine business blocks. These buildings have not been sold, but leased for seventy-five years. The gross outlay April, 1904, was $8,650,000, but the yearly cost is lessening and the rentals are growing. In fifty years from the time of the investment the debt will all have been paid, and the city will own these structures in clear title. Mr. Chamberlain believes that Birmingham will be the richest municipal corporation in the kingdom. The investment already pays, since the death-rate of this district has been lowered, from 60 to 20 or 25 per 1,000. The city has developed a fine sewerage system and a large sewage farm, a wholesome and agreeable tract of land under high cultivation and with rich crops. Birmingham was the first city in England to establish municipal baths. The first was opened in 1851, at a cost of $120,000, and there are now four, besides swimming-baths, Turkish baths, etc. The city has laid and owns several lines of tramway, within the city limits, but leases them to private companies on favorable terms. It is calculated that in twenty-one years this will pay for the whole investment. As the city can borrow at 3 per cent, it is a profitable investment. The companies have to pay all bills for maintenance and repairs, and are minutely supervised as to the furnishing and lighting of the cars. The city owns her own markets, having bought them of the manorial lord in 1824, and they now yield some $50,000 a year profits. The city owns more than ten parks, for its population of 500,000. Its debt, which before Mr. Chamberlain became mayor was small, is now some $75,000,000, but it has assets of $80,000,000, and the taxes are almost exactly what they were.--Bliss, The Encyclopedia of Social Reform.

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