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THE ATLANTIAN
No Man Need Be Afraid,
if He is Honest
— Woodrow Wilson
Some corporation papers are very much afraid that a reform
national administration will “injure business.” The horse thief,
the road agent and the manipulator of the shell game are all of the
same opinion, and believe strongly that laws regarding their respec
tive arts and trades, are an “injury to business.”
The honest, level-headed business man is not afraid of an honest
and just national administration, and would thank heaven for an
administration that would interfere with the predatory millionaire
thieves and scoundrels who have had their hands in the pockets of
the people for many long years.
A long suffering public would hail the day when such business
men will have their business interfered with.
If the enforcement of “equal rights to all, and special privileges
to none,” will interfere with the business of the man who is making
his millions by means of rascally rebates; or the Trust fiend who,
by means of special laws secured by bribery, holds up the people
like a highwayman, then heaven speed the day when their business
is interfered with.
The so-called “prosperity of past Republican administrations
has been the prosperity of tariff robbers who have their hands in
the pockets of every man, woman, and child in this vast country;
of the Standard Oil rebaters who by crushing out opposition make
their millions out of the necessities of the poor; and the monopolists
of the common necessaries of life, who, knowing that the people are
obliged to eat or starve, take advantage of their hunger to raise the
price of food stuffs. These are the people who have prospered under
Republican administration, while the great masses of the people
have footed the bill for their prosperity.
In heaven’s name let us have an administration that will in
terfere with the business (?) of these rascally oppressors, and that
will give the honest man a fair and open chance. All that a reform
administration would aim to do would be to give the people a fair
deal with “equal rights to all and special privileges to none.” But
that is just what these Republican millionaires don’t want the peo
ple to have. They love their special privileges.
Pres. Wilson says no man need be afraid, if he is honest.—Ex.
Who Pays the Bills
There was a good deal of conservation talk during the campaign,
but not much was said on the subject of stopping a yearly waste of
three or four or five hundred million dollars caused by politics.
Some time ago Senator Aldrich, who knew as much about the
Federal Government as anybody, startled the country by declaring
that the Government was wasting three hundred million dollars a
year. Later, President Taft appointed an Economy and Efficiency
Commission to study the subject. Recently the nble chairman of
the commission, after extensive inquiry, asserted that Senator Al
drich’s statement was by no means so wide of the mark as many
people had supposed. By ten years’ persistent effort to establish
businesslike methods at Washington, something like the sum named
might, he thinks, be saved.
Now three hundred millions is approximately a third of the
Federal Government’s gross revenue, and there is every reason to
assume that State and city governments on the whole are as wasteful
as Uncle Sam. There is no late official summary of the gross revenue
collected yearly by the various State and minor governments, but it
has been estimated at approximately two thousand million dollars.
If you add a thousand millions for the Federal Government and
take thirty per cent, of the total, you have the staggering sum of
nine hundred million dollars, and the still more staggering sugges
tion that we waste in politics considerably more than the total vahr j
of the wheat crop. Cut that figure in half, . 1 .vj”. hp ; y^ £*\
annual waste more than sufficient to support all the public schools
in the United States.
And this waste is almost wholly due to politics in government.
Efficiency commissions from now to the end of time will never stop
it until the running of the Government is regarded as a business,
with the tenure of office and promotions dependent solely upon
merit.—Exchange.
How to Pay Our Debts
A Yale professor, without giving the basis upon which he makes
his computations, says a baby a year old owes seventy-five dollars
for support and upkeep, and that a child of fifteen is in debt two
thousand dollars. This, we take it, is theoretically speaking. As
a matter of fact the youngsters more than pay their own way every
day.
They have strange and subtle ways of doing this, but as a rule
the medium employed is just the kind of currency most acceptable
to those to whom the debt is due. And it is just the easiest way in
the world in which to pay. If older people but knew this there
would be fewer cases in the bankruptcy court where domestic en
tanglements are heaped into the mill and writs of separation or
divorce ground out. There would be fewer linefence and stock tres
pass law suits, and fewer neighbors who do not speak when they
meet.
Nothing so quickly or so easily pays a debt as a smile or a kind
word. The money men owe to others or that others owe to them
is not what causes premature gray hairs and furrows in their brows.
It is the unforgotten and unforgiven injury we have suffered or
inflicted. Self-pity and self-condemnation are burdens none of us
can afford to carry. And why should we try to bear them at all?
It is so easiy to destroy both. The children know how it is done,
and do it. Let us take a lesson from their experience and never
forget it.
It doesn’t cost a cent to smile, and a kind word, if sincere, is
the easiest one in the language to speak.
Comment on the Recent
Mayor’s Election
Whether or not this expectation has been realized in full, we
cannot say. Meanwhile it is good to observe that the victory was
so overwhelming that there remains no doubt as to what happened.
Mr. Woodward rejoices over the triumph of his cause and grace
fully dons the yoke of responsibility, and there you are. It is a
fine thing, boys, a very fine thing. We now know—what we had
all along supposed—that the people of Atlanta are still capable of
settling great questions affecting their city and themselves de
cisively.
Now, of course, it is up to Mr. Woodward. He carried out his
policies as Mayor, and will, of course, put it into effect to the limit
of his capabilities. That is as it should be, that means resumption
of sober, prudent city government and the making of such laws
that can be defended because they will have to be.
The enthusiast call it the beginning of a new r era, and we guess
it is. Anyhow, it is a revival of the old and splendid spirit of
Democratic government in fine and vigorous form. Common sense,
true progress, have really supplanted greed on the one hand and
“slush” on the other. All good people can now take a fresh hold.
Their confidence has been restored, their faith renewed, their
future for some time to come fully assured. Lift up your hearts,
one and all, and let’s help to make this incoming administration
of all. It’s God’s country, and you know it really is.
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