Newspaper Page Text
6
September, 1914
THE ATLANTIAN
back to the country where their precious bodies will be
safe. It would be no loss to the country if they had to
take pot-luck with the suffering European people.
The facts are, as to Europe, that an enormous major
ity of the people lead lives of strenuous labor, with ac
tual hunger often in the land, in order that the small
class, the favored few, may live in luxury, and occasion
ally, in the pursuit of an unholy ambition, feed the pov
erty-stricken peasants to the shambles.
No language is strong enough to characterize the con
duct of these unpatriotic Americans. If it were possible,
their citizenship ought to be taken away from them, and
they should be forced to rely on the protection of the
countries in which they spend their money. Probably
every newspaper editor in our country knows this to be
true. And yet, when the trouble came, our whole gov
ernmental machinery was turned loose, ships provided,
and two and a half million dollars appropriated to re
lieve and bring home these people who would not lift a
finger in defense of their country if it was in the last
stages of dissolution.
The United States of the World
Does the above title strike you as premature? If it
does, stop and do a little thinking, and you will see that
it is a prophecy of something not very remote, if civiliza
tion is to endure.
Citizens of the sociological, industrial and political con
ditions have known for years that present systems could
not endure. The separate governments and huge arma
ments have been constant incentives to warfare on a
scale so gigantic that the world had really no concep
tion of what it meant. The lust of power, the desire to
maintain themselves in place and privilege on the part
of the ruling classes; the greed of territory which has
permeated all classes; the allurement of a great and glo
rious nation instead of contentment with modest things
have all combined until the atmosphere could only be
cleared by a war so terrible that humanity would wake
up with its mind made up to have no more war.
The expected has happened, and great nations are now
engaged in what will prove a veritable Armageddon. But
after Armageddon, what? At this moment, it looks
like bankruptcy on the part of some of the leading na
tions of the world. It looks like an appalling loss of life.
It looks like a destruction of property values so incalcu
lable that the mind cannot grasp its magnitude. All that
spells reconstruction and reconstruction cannot come
along the old lines.
The students have known for some time that the socio
logical and industrial condition of the world is from
two to five hundred years ahead of the political and le
gal condition. This is due to the fact that the ruling
power has been in the hands of the soldiers and lawyers.
The soldiers and lawyers have served their day and must
go. With the inevitable reconstruction, the world will
dispense with these men who have been out of touch and
sympathy with the forward movement of the human
race, and who only thrive by maintaining arbitrary
power and out-worn precedents, which do not fit present-
day conditions.
The only remedy lies in the United States of the
World. The Hague Tribunal contains the germ; and
we must inevitably come to that point where there will
be a Supreme Council (in which every nation of the
world, small and great, will have its representative),
which will control boundary lines, which will dispense
with armaments, which will settle all international dis
putes, and which in the end will abolish all tai iffs and
bring the whole human race to recognize the oneness, of
humanity and the necessity of world-wide co-operation
in the place of cut-throat competition and bloody combi
nations. This is not a millennial dream. It is the pro
phecy of what will happen in the life-time of the pres
ent generation—or, within the life-time of the next gen
eration our present civilization will perish, as .it ought
to do if, with our present intelligence, we permit the in
sufferable conditions which oppress human life at pres
ent, to continue.
Thomas W. Hardwick, Senator
After a most arduous campaign and exciting strug
gle in the State Convention, Congressman Hardwick
has won the nomination for the short term United
States Senatorship.
For many years in the lower house of the Congress,
Mr. Hardwick has made a name for himself as a coura
geous, aggressive and resourceful member.. He is a
splendid campaigner and his latest success is not sur
prising to those who have watched his career.
He is classed as a Progressive Democrat( which means
that he will reinforce the senior Senator from Georgia
in giving a valiant support to the administration and
that he will acquit himself ably and creditably is at
tested by his past record.
Nat. E. Harris, Governor
Judge Nat E. Harris, of Macon, who has received the
Democratic nomination for Governor (which is equiva
lent to an election) will be the last Confederate veteran
to serve Georgia as Governor. Though well advanced
in years, Judge Harris is strong physically as well as
mentally. r
Eminently fair minded, of the strictest integrity, de
voted to his state and neople, he will discharge the du
ties of the high office of Governor not onlv with fidelity,
but with a loving zeal for the welfare af the state that
will endear him to the people.
His preferment is well merited bv a long life of devo
tion to dutv both nublic and private, and the state is
to he congratulated on the thnt her next Governor
will measure up to the most exacting standard.
Thomas S. Felder, Good Citizen
The Hon. Thomas S. Felder, of Macon, though de
feated in his aspirations as a candidate for the United
States Senate, will retire to private life, for the time
being, with the good will of all men who know how to
appreciate a clean political fighter.
Mr. Felder is yet a young man, of proven ability, and
his public career is.by no means ended.
In the late campaign he neither said nor did anything
for which he needs to apologize, and his magnanimous
stand taken, when he saw that his nomination was not
possible, gained for him the good will of an army of
new friends who will not forget.