Newspaper Page Text
November, 1914
THE. ATLANTIAN
3
The Atlantian
Box 118, Atlanta, Georgia
THE ATLANTIAN will rive free space to oil Secret Societies ami Labor
Orranlzatlons.
On the other hand, we put everybody on notice when THE ATLANTIAN
makes a statement —■•Ich we believe to be true, and sueli statement roes
uncontroverted, we atuall Insist tlint It is true.
Published Monthly hv The Atlantian Publishing Co. ivCySe
E. Walter Tripp, Editor.
Vol. 6. NOVEMBER No. 67.
Our Motto: “Pull for Atlanta, or Pull Out. ”
Editorial Etchings
m
Thanksgiving.
Nineteen hundred years ago the Pharisee thanked God
that he was not as other men. This prayer has come
down the ages as an example of the feeling of the self-
satisfied man who thought that compliance with the let
ter of the ritualistic or ceremonial law fulfilled the de
mands of real religion, and doubtless he was honest in
that belief. But in this year of grace, 1914, we of Amer
ica have a just cause for thanking God that we are not
as other men. Across the water, our fellow-men, com
prising three-quarters of the population of Europe, the
most highly cultivated of all the Continents, are engaged
in the bloodiest war of which history makes any record.
The smiling country-side is being devastated. Flourish
ing cities are being destroyed. The people wander up
and down, homeless and hungry, like lost spirits. Mul
tiplied thousands of the best blood of every one of the
countries engaged are giving their lives in this desperate
struggle which has carried mankind back to the dark
ages in fact, if not in spirit. From all this we are spared.
We feel the effects of war, as does every nation in the
world, but at least we are escaping its greatest horrors.
On our own borders, Mexico, after a brief respite, is
again in the throes of anarchy. Every nation of the
Soutl American continent is struggling, both as a nation
and as individuals, against threatened bankruptcy. What
ever the future may have in store, and whatever our
present ills may be, we have at least more to be thank
ful for than any other nation in the world. That we
have escaped these ills is not due to the fact that we are
better than other men, for we have not, even as the
Pharisee did, kept the letter of the law. It is not due to
the fact that we are wiser than other men—for it must
be confessed that, in the administration of our affairs,
we have not always shown a high degree of wisdom. It
is due chiefly to our favored position, which has enabled
us to build up a great and peaceful country without for
eign entanglement. How long we can occupy this posi
tion no man can say, but at least so far we have escaped
the crying evils which beset other nations, and which
have been so productive of a tremendous harvest of
evil
We thank God and take courage—not because we are
better and wiser than other men, but because we have
been spared so much, and the future looms up before us
more hopefully than any other nation in the world.
Fair Day’s Work for City Firemen
Attention has already been called in these columns to
the just claims of our City Firemen, and as these just
claims have not yet been recognized it is entirely fit that
attention should be again called to some of them. The
City Firemen, as we all know, have no recognized day’s
work. He runs home when he can, gets a little lay-off
occasionally, and for the rest of the time is on duty con
tinuously. The world is slowly waking up to the fact
that this is not fair play. We have put out policemen
on an eight-hour day, our City force being divided into'
three shifts of eight hours each. Why should not our
City Firemen be put upon a twelve-hour day—the force
being divided into two shifts of twelve hours each—even
then their service would be longer than men of other
occupations. The justification for a twelve-hour day is
found in the fact that they are not hard at work except
when called upon to do service at a fire, and there Is-
therefore not the strain upon them that there is upon
men in other occupations except when actively engaged
in fire fighting. One cannot reconcile it to a sense of
justice that one class of men in the community should
be kept continuously on duty. City Firemen have home
ties as well as other men, and at least a reasonable share
of their time should be given to home duties, for their
families are probably just as near and dear to them as
those of other men.
The Atlantian believes that when an abuse is recog
nized it is right to go after it and see if it can be correct
ed, and if it cannot be corrected after one try, then in
making another try—and so it proposes to keep on ham
mering at what it considers an abuse in this case until
amendment is brought about.
The Police Board.
The Police Board of Atlanta has presented, during the
present year, the phenomenon of an animal living a whole
year without a head. Early in the battle the members;
of the Board got into a gaudy row as to who should be
chairman of the Board. A deadlock ensued. No one
was willing to yield, and as a result of this the Board
has worried along through the year without a chairman.
It may be possible that the Board has done just as well
without one as it would have done with one. Upon that
point there may be a just cause for a division of opinion,,
but somehow it don’t look just right that our administra
tion of city affairs should be conducted in what looks like:
an unbusiness-like manner. Every business must have a
head if it is to prosper. Every city must have a head if '
it is to prosper, and for the Police Board to let their lit
tle personal feelings influence them to such an extent as
to carry on the city work for a year without a head looks,
as if they put their personal preferences before the real
interests of the city. If it is not getting into contempt
of court, we would like to suggest that they provide
against that condition of affairs by duly electing a chair
man to serve for 1915, and putting that department of
the city’s business in a workman-like shape.