Newspaper Page Text
December, 1915
THE ATLANTIAN
5
Hon. Howard Thompson
Our present United States Marshal, Hon. Howard
Thompson, is winning much credit for the able discharge
of his duties.
Backed up by the authorities in Washington, he is
making strenuous efforts to abate the liquor traffic car
ried on by the “moonshiners”, and makes almost daily
captures of the wily fellows who will risk prison sen
tences in preference to honest labor.
A lawyer by profession, well equipped mentally for
any service, his office is conducted in most orderly and
efficient fashion, and when his successor qualifies, be
the day near, or distant, he will find no arrearages of
neglected work.
The Collectors of Internal
Revenue
Are holding large and successful meetings all over the
state in the interest of the enforcement of the Harrison
Narcotic Law.
Since this law has been in effect the decrease in sales
of harmful narcotic drugs has been fully 90 per cent.
Fully 98 per cent of the medical men of the state are
co-operating with the officials, and the remaining 2 per
cent, are giving a vast amount of trouble.
It is but an illustration of the amount of trouble
which an insignificant minority can make when to a
natural hatred of law is added the lust of gain.
Few of the people not themselves addicted to the use
of these deadly drugs were aware of the extent of the
evil, and many intelligent persons could not see the
necessity for the law when it was passed.
Now, that the extent of the traffic has been shown,
and the enormous damage it was doing, all good citi
zens are heartily in favor of the law and its rigid en
forcement.
It looks now as if in a comparatively brief time the
trade will be reduced to the strictly legitimate point,
and another step will have been taken in ridding our
nation of degenerates and the victims of degenerates.
The President’s Message
The message read to the Congress at the opening of
the session, it may be truthfully said, met with more
general approval than any presidential message deliv
ered in many years. Whatever may be one’s feelings
towards President Wilson, he will not deny his ability to
express himself in fluent, well chosen and often forcible
English.
The recent message is easily his strongest state paper.
It expressed clearly the sentiment of the general public,
though there be many who would have put sections of it
in more lurid language than the President used. His
excoriation of the curs who have come to our country
to better their condition, who have prospered here, and
who now show the blackest disloyalty, met with the cor
dial approval of every truly loyal American. His advo
cacy of preparedness but voiced the general feeling of
the people who think, and whose business it will be to
save this country from outside foes, inside traitors and
silly pacifists.
There may be, and doubtless will be, a wide differ
ence of opinion among us when it comes to adjusting the
financial end of the preparedness campaign, but that
will be worked out, and a start will be made in the right
direction.
The President pitched his message on a high note;
there was not a hint of partisanship in it, and the coun
try will not have any high opinion of any man in the Con
gress who undertakes to inject party spirit into the
measures which must be proposed in order to serve the
essential needs so plainly indicated by the President.
That President Wilson has strengthened himself with
the country by his clear and explicit statements must be
admitted even by his political opponents.
Advertising, Honest and Other
Representative Adamson, of Georgia, has drafted an
amendment of the interstate commerce laws that is at
least interesting. Its large and admirable purpose, as
it laboriously announces, is to prevent the making, utter
ing, using, or circulating, by means of anything printed,
false statements as to the character, quality, quantity,
or value of any sort of goods offered for sale. In other
words, Mr. Adamson purposes to penalize dishonest ad
vertising.
He will have the approval of all honest people, but one
notices that he felt obliged, as has everybody else who
undertook the same task, to recognize the fact that an
advertisement may be unintentionally inaccurate and de
ceptive, and therefore be added to his bill the saving
clause, “with Intention to cheat and defraud.”
Probably that addition was justifiable, or even neces
sary, to avoid inflicting cruel hardships, but its effect will
be to leave the advertising situation just about where
it is now 7 . The proving of intention, always a difficult
task, is often an impossible one, and a law thus qualified
has never terrified any except the most timid of de-
luders.
Until every advertiser can be held responsible for all
his statements, regardless of his motives and his knowl
edge, only the ordinary legal processes can be applied to
the business of advertising. Theoretically that ought to
be done, but practically the seller will be allowed for
some time to come a certain twilight zone in which his
natural enthusiasm can operate.
Peace On Earth, Good Will
Among Men
Christmas “peace and good will is not the proposal of
a truce among people w T ho are usually at odds. It is an
annual accentuation of the belief that peace shall be some
day permanently welcome among men. Some of the older
philosophers used to maintain, like the Englishman Hob
bes, that the natural state of mankind is one of “mutual