Newspaper Page Text
THE ATLANTIAN
0lj? Atlmttian
Published Monthly by E. WALTER TRIPP
Box 118, Atlanta, Georgia
THE ATLANTIAN will give free space to all Secret Societies and Labor Or
ganizations.
On the other hand, we put every body on notice when THE AT LANTIAN makes
a statement which we believe to be true, and such statement goes uncontroverted, we
shall insist that it is true.
Pablished Monthly by The Atlantian Publishing Co.
VOL. 4
MARCH
No. 38
Our Motto: “Pull for Atlanta, or Pull
Out.”
m
Fill! av*iq1 lii hitc
Luiioridi Eiicnmys
The Common Welfare
We live in a day of “business efficiency.” Our newspapers are
full of suggestions along that line, and accompanying that idea has
arisen the cry of “constructive policies.”
Thoughtful observers will have noted that in all the cry for busi
ness efficiency, and constructive policies, only the material side of
things is stressed. When the great newspapers write double leaded
editorials along the line of constructive policies, it is always the ma
terial that is preached. More factories, bigger pay-rolls, a bigger
city, enhancement of land values, et cetera.
The cry is never for a better city, for a more righteous people, as
judging from our daily journals we do not need these things.
Now the law of life is growth, and one must concede that the de
mand for growth has a sound basis, but this fact must not be over
looked; the gourd vine which will run all over the garden in a few
months lives but one season, while the sturdy oak which stands for
centuries takes an hundred years, or more, to attain full size. A
forced growth by extraordinary effort, as in hot house work, always
results in getting plants susceptible to disease and of short life.
We Americans have become possessed of a frantic mania for big
ness, and must “do it now.”
We overlook the fact that this forced growth is likely to be danger
ous if we overlook the vital fact that all plants which arrive at a quick,
maturity by a forcing process are of short life. The moral side of
our civic life may be compared to the roots of the oak—they not
only support the tree and give it steadiness, but they insure it long
life. A purely material civilization, built without reference to moral!
ties, spells, not evolution, but revolution.
Our men of business, our great journals, our chambers of com
merce, our great financiers, have become so one-sided that they can
not take, or do not take, that larger view which is essential if we are
to have a permanent civilization. The Bible says, and there is no
more forcible statement in that forcible Book, “What doth it profit
a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” That
statement can he applied to cities as well as individuals—for illustra
tion, what would it profit Atlanta to be another New York, with all
of New York’s problems?
Would it not lie better to base our efforts upon justice, upon mercy,
upon kindness, upon integrity—in short, upon what we call the Ten
Commandments, and then get all the folks we can, who will travel
with us, on that platform. This does not necessarily mean the mil-
lenium. Anyone who will take the Ten Commandments, and study
them carefully, will see that they lay down a moral code which any
man can live up to. Why did the Jewish nation perish? Never in
the world was there a people so gifted in the making of money—but
the nation perished. Ask yourself why, and see if it did not lie in
the fact that they overlooked righteousness. The law is just as inex
orable today as it was in the days of Solomon, David and the Macca
bees. We may ignore the law, but we will pay the penalty. It does not
make any difference what our attitude to the law may be, outside of
keeping it, we are going to pay the penalty. Ignorance of the law
will not avail, hostility to the law will not avail. The only thing that
will avail is obedience to the law, and the city which puts the making
of money, the enhancement of real estate values, more factories, big
ger pay-rolls—having in their train a long line of so-called necessary
evils—that city which does these things, and either ignores or dis
obeys the moral law, will become a city of barbarians, however much
they may know, and will perish from the earth as Nineveh, and Baby
lon, and Persepolis, and Byzantium, and Memphis have perished.
Mighty Atlanta, with its multitudes of people and its vast volume
of business, acquired by the processes of bald materialism, will pre
sent the same sort of interest to the archaeologist of five hundred years
hence that the ruins of Baalbec do to the archaeologist of today. What
then? The heading of this article presents the answer, “The Com
mon Welfare.” Take that into your minds, and canvass it from
every angle—and the longer you think about it, the bigger it will get;
and when once you have got down to a clear perception of what the
common welfare means; and once the people of Atlanta have arrived
at that point where they want to build up the city with the common
welfare as the guiding idea, then Atlanta will grow along the lines
of such permanence that neither the waves of revolution nor the
aeons of time will cast it down.
John R. Wilkinson
John II. Wilkinson, who has been Ordinary of Fulton county for
more than ten years, is a candidate for re-election.
John Wilkinson is an American of the Americans, his people hav
ing been among the early colonists. Several of his ancestors in this
country date from 1650 and 1660.
His father, Major Uriel Wilkinson, was one of the most useful
Georgians of his day.
After years of mercantile experience and other years as clerk of
the City Council, Mr. Wilkinson was finally elected Ordinary, and
has now given many years of excellent service in that responsible
position. Judge Wilkinson has perhaps as many personal friends as
any man in Fulton county—possessed of a kindly temperament, he
has never spared himself in the service of the public, and has always
stood ready to do anything within his power to help a constituent.
His hobby is Masonry, and in Masonry he has got all there is to
get, from Blue Lodge to Temple and Shrine and Scottish-rite Ma
sonary up to the thirty-third degree. He has had it all. He has
served that great fraternity in many capacities, and has an ac
quaintance nation-wide, gathered from his attendance upon the
Grand Lodges and his official position in the supreme bodies of
t he order.
In the present contest, Judge Wilkinson lias opposition—the only
basis of which is that he has had it long enough. No man has ever
been bold enough to charge him with any dereliction of duty, and
usually he has been re-elected without opposition.
The Mayoralty
We are beginning to hear the rumblings in the town of the political
earthquakes which always precede a municipal election. Several gen
tlemen have intimated, more or less clearly, that they feel entirely
competent to fill the office of mayor. A much larger number, who feel
themselves to be even more competent, and who would like to fill the
aforesaid office, are holding themselves in reserve, in the hope that the
gentlemen now out in the open may come to disaster, which will profit
them.
It is going to be a rather interesting discussion this year. Municipal
ownership of public utilities is going to figure to some extent, because
Atlanta has finally waked up to the fact that this is a live question.
It may be possible that some changes in the form of our municipal
administration may come up for discussion. Naturally, there will
be more or less criticisms of the administration, as there always is.
•So far as the matter has developed, there is a cautious feeling abroad,
and the masses are not committing themselves rashly or recklessly to
any man. It begins to look ns if the various aspirants for this posi
tion will have to follow Teddy’s illustrious example and get into the
ring. Incidentally, it may be said that our people can not too care
fully consider the qualifications of men who want to be mayor; our
city government is a matter of vital concern to every man who lives
within the corporate limits, and to many who live outside. It is a
vital matter, therefore, that we choose a man who is not afraid of a
new idea, merely because it is new, who does not worship an old thing
because it is old, and who does not advocate a new thing merely be
cause he has the Atlantian temper and is always seeking some new
thing.
A clean, capable man of good sense—of liberal temper—and of pro
gressive ideas, is needed. We have plenty of them, but it may prove
t he part of wisdom to call one of them out, rather than to select those
the part of wisdom to call one of them out, rather than to select one
of those who have called themselves.