Newspaper Page Text
December, 1919
THE ATLANTIAN
5
dime increase in wages the excuse for another dollar in
crease in price but so long as we seem unable to head them
off we must pay the price of our own incompetence. Cer
tainly we cannot expect the workers to suffer, for that
would simply mean that the profit makers would increase
prices without excuse.
The present methods will in due time bring retribu
tion on all of us, but if we persist in dancing we must
pay the fiddler. The one comfort we can get from the
present anomalous condition is that at least some part of
our people who do the hard work of the country will be
getting a decent wage while the cyclone is forming. After
it comes and while we are cleaning up the wreckage, it
may dawn upon us that posibly we might have prevented
the storm. However, it is not sure we will see it even
then, for you cannot bank on the hindsight of the man who
has no foresight.
The Presidential Outlook
There isn’t any. It is all what an Englishman would
call a “bloody mix up.”
A new labor party has blossomed out with a platform
so radical that it must have singed the whiskers of the
scribes who wrote it.
In the North a noisy element is damming the Repub
licans for being disloyal to labor. In the South many iron
clad Democrats are forswearing their party allegiance
because of dissatisfaction with the party record.
Discontent is the prevailing note. Meanwhile the
leaders of the two old parties are calmly proceeding with
their plans confident that the malcontents will fall into
line when the bands begin to play and the torch light
processions to parade. Receptive gentlemen are numer
ous. Among the Republicans,, Senator Poindexter is an
announced candidate, Senator Hiram Johnson is receptive.
General Leonard Wood is being boomed in lively fashion.
Senator Lodge is liable at any moment to dye his
whiskers and thus create the impression of youthful
% igor. Governor Coolidge would propably accept a nomi
nation with prompt decision. Governor Lowden would
not dodge if he saw it coming his way. Senator Harding
is not likely to take to the woods to escape a nomination.
If the Republicans are as rich in votes as receptive
candidates their man is already elected, but we don’t know
as much about the votes as we do about the candidates.
The Democratic line is a thin one. McAdoo, Palmer,
Glass, Champ Clark and a few others have been men
tioned, including the rotund and somewhat passe, Wm. J.
Bryan.
That busines will take west Peachtree out as far as
North Avenue in a comparatively short time is a foregone
conclusion.
If the property owners will now get together, widen
it to 80 feet and then get a White Way made out to North
Avenue, it will become one of the most attractive of our
business streets.
The business district of Atlanta has been too small
and congested for several years.
Atlanta is one of the phenominal cities of the world,
in the volume of business done and yet a number of cities
doing a smaller business have a larger business district.
Our present congestion is not wholesome. Business
extension out Hunter and Mitchell to the Capitol; out
Jroyor and Central Avenue to Trinity; out Ivy to Peach
tree: out West Peachtree to North Avenue, with a greater
improvement of Decatur, Edgewood Avenue, Auburn Ave
nue and Marietta, would give us a business district more
in consonance with the city’s growth and would give new
comers a really accurate picture of the situation as it is.
We are too congested.
We hail, therefore, the West Peachtree movement
with enthusiasm and trust it will be pushed,
The Sugar Scandal
According to statistical data given out, Cuba, Hawaii
and the United States have produced 300,000 more tons
of sugar this year than last.
We were in the midst of a mighty war last year, and
we had 300,000 tons less sugar to handle than this year
and yet our people bought sugar in 1918 for 40 per cent
to 50 per cent of the price they are now paying.
We are told that there is a great scarcity and the
American people are rapidly coming to the opinion that
it is a manipulated scarcity.
They are also rapidly coming to the belief that the
Government is giving its sympathy to the sellers rather
than the consumers.
With sugar at 25 cents the pound, gingham at 35
cents the yard, with shoes at $15 the pair, not in depre
ciated currency, but in money backed by gold, our govern
ment is unable to find any profiteering though the prices
themselves prove it.
Another instance—the committee at Washington re
ported that ordinary soft coal cost the operator on board
cars at the mine $2.15 the ton, but a few days ago the
writer had to pay the dealer in Atlanta $9.75 for a ton of
coal. Somebody was making an excessive profit on that
coal.
West Peachtree Whiteway
Business having stretched out Peachtree to Ponce de
leon Avenue, it dawned on some that the vody was getting
pretty long and slim and it might be well to fatten it a
little. Thus the onslaught began on West Peachtree. .
Very much of the business done now is clearly on a
profiteering basis. Federal tax returns will prove that
cotton mills have been making 100 to 400 per cent on
capital stock. If that is not profiteering, what is ? Cuban
sugar is being sold in Cuba at 6 cents or thereabouts; it
reaches the Atlanta consumer at 25 cents. The food con
trollers at Washington allow the Louisiana producers 17