Atlanta Georgian and news. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1912, July 06, 1907, Image 4

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PIP THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. SATURDAY, JULY 6. 1S07. THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN ' (AND NEWS) JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES, Editor. F. L. SEELY, President. Published Every Afternoon. (Except Sunday) By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY. At 3 West Alabama St., Atlanta. Os; Subscription Rates! One Year «•» Six Months J.B0 Three Months •«, !•* r, r>p Month 4* Dr Carrier. Per Week 10 Telephones conneetlor ?U . depart* meets. Lon* distance terminals. Smith A Thompson, adrertlalnf rep* rpsentntlvea for all territory outside of Goorgln. t blrago Ofiflee Trlbnna Bnlldlng hew York Office Potter Building If yoq hare anr trouble getting TUB GEORGIAN AND NEW IT telephone the elrculatlon department and have lurarsurnn* «« T ' 1 ' pboD,,: It la desirable that all communlea- UbUIMJIAlt .’BHD KO liuuint IV 800 worda In length. It la Imperative that they be signed, as an evidence of good faith. Rejected man«ae|)pta will THE GEORGIAN AND NEWS prtnta no uncicjtn or obJecGonable advertla* log. Neither doe* It print trblaky or any liquor adi. OUR PLATFORM! TUB OEORGIAN AND NEWS atanda for Atlaiitn'a owns gas as low aa 60 cents, with a profit to tha city. This should ba done at once. THE GEORGIAN AND NEWS believes that If atreat railways can be operated successfully by European cities, as they art, thara la no good reason why tnty can not be so oper ated hera. But we do not believe thla enn be done now, and It may be some yeara before we are ready for ao big an undertaking. Still Atlanta should set Its face In that direction NOW. Persons leaving the city can have The Georgian and News mailed to them regularly by send' ing their order to The Goorgian office. Changes of address will be mado as often as desired. Tho corn crop, tays The Blrmlng- hnra Ago-Herald, Is growing over nlgbt almost beyond recognition. Tho only way to side-step the regti latlon 60-cont tip In New York Is to patronize tho beaneries. Now that the last Fourth of July cracker has popped, suppose we go to work making preparations for Christ mas. "Chilly Charlie" Fairbanks will now bo kept busy explaining to tho boys that there’s nothing In tit* story that cocktails were served at that dinner. Many people had never heard of Boise, Idaho, until that man Harry Orchard sprung his confession and pat tha town In the limelight. Judging from the reckless opera tions of tho "groon bug” In the Kan sas wheat fields. It must ba operating under a New Jersey charter.—Detroit News-Tribune. Secretary Taft Is beginning to real ize that there I* one qualification for sitting on tha lid and another for sprinting to tha perch.—Macon Tele graph. A man dumb for seven years hid his speech restored through dodging an automobile. Still, that style ot treatment is not likely to become pop ular. Colonel John D. Rockefeller has a big Job on his hands. It’s up to him to expisln away a One ot |]9,000,000. and the common people are wondering It be can do it The story that a Michigan 16-pound pickerel dragged two men from a boat and drowned them Is likely to excite a certain Texas Journal to assert that a Texas bass can wreck a battleship or scuttle an armored cruiser. A physician says the warning ot bacteriologists Is taken seriously end kissing Is on the decrease. "Moon shine,” declares Colons] VVatterson; “S mollycoddle who’d be bluffed by a germ theory never did have nerve enough to kiss a girt.”—Savannah News. Listen to The Richmond News- leader: "As long as remains the blank on Cabin Johns Bridge which tells of the chiselling out ot Jefferson Davis' name, the bridge will stand as a monument to Northern petty spite.' By the way. these New York fly cops are not so quick. That teller who got away with $66,000 In his grip was right In town all the time and wasn’t found until Friday afternoon, when his biding place was tipped off to the- pollce by a woman. Colonel Oravea la making It pretty bard for The Atlanta Journal to re main the Big Noise of the Hoke Smith administration.—Houston Posh Governor Hoke Smith is a big men, mentally, morally and physically, and any paper that does him Justice will < need to make a nolee, Mg or little. The Cost of Prohibition. John Temple Graves, editor of The Georgian, .la Oaent from tho state, and Is un able to give to tho readers of Tho Georgian any Oi\ct message on the question that Is before us. Wo take tho liberty of saying for him. that he Is heartily In accord with the stand that Tho Georgian takes today. Regardless of whether it is right to consider if moral reforms will cost money or property, the fact that those who are fighting to keep out prohibition are spreading fear in the hearts of our people lest we be ruined financially, makes it necessary to answer their fancy with facts: They claim that— 1. Values will be ruined. | 2. Taxes will bo higher. 3. Foreigners, and especially Germans, will not come here. * - 4. Our cities will not grow. We will take the latest government reports which have only been from the presses of the Department of Commerce and Labor a few months, and delivered to us six weeks ago. Then we will use for comparison the state of Kansas, to which our friends refer so often-as the horrible example. Kansas is an agricultu ral state—so is Georgia. They raise grain—we raise cotton. Kansas has about the same amount of manufacturing that we have. Kansas is one-fourth larger in size than Georgia. Its population is the same as our white population, 1,500,000 Bear in mind, please, that we do not claim that prohibition in Kansas has made its values what they are. We simply claim it has not ruined their values. All farms, improvements and buildings in Georgia are worth $183,000,000. In Kansas they are worth $643,000,000. The buildings alone on Georgia farms are worth $44,000,000—in Kansas $111,000,000. The value of all real property and improvements—not including any rail road, street railway, telegraph, telephone or private water works system nor pri vately owned electric light and power plants, and leaving out all property of every kind exempt from taxation in Georgia, is $517,000,000. In Kansas it is 1,067 mil lions. Georgia owns fifty-seven million dollars worth of live stock, while Kansas owns 228 millions. Georgia owns 156 millions of railroads—Kansas 356 N millions. The average value of all real property and improvements for the state of Kansas is $21.00 per acre, while in Georgia it is $15, notwithstanding there aro 15,000,000 acres more in Kansas than in Georgia. The per capita value of Kansas real property is $739, of Georgia $237-. Sup pose, for argument, wc give the wholo value to tho white population alone. Geor gia would then be less than $500 per capita, against $739 in Kansas. Enough of that—these arc facts in answer to hearsay. , 2. Taxes will be higher. Tho argument is used that if we have no liquor tax we will have nothing with which to run our schools. Let’s look at the state as a whole. Georgia has a state debt of 7 3-4 millions, on which it has to pay taxes, and levies for all schools a tax of 11-2 millions. Taxes in Kansas aro higher than the average in Georgia, and, as lias already been shown, the wealth has grown greater, and they have a state debt of but a little more than 1-2 million, against Georgia’s 7 3-4 millions, and they levy a school tax of $4,655,000 against our $1,500,000—over $3.00for our $1— a good excuse for more taxes, and Georgia could profit by levying them. The average tax per $100 in Kansas is just about double that of Georgia, and nearly nil of it is shown in the school expenditures, regardless of the fact that all must come from direct taxation. 3. Foreigners will not come. Germans must have beer. The population of Georgia is two and one-half millions. That of the two prohibition states, Maine and Kansas, 700,000 and one and one-half millions, re spectively. Kansas has one hundred and twenty-seven thousand foreign-bom citizens and Maine ninety-three thousand, while Georgia has twelve thousand. Kansas entertains forty thousand Germans and eleven thousand Irish* and thousands of Danes, Austrians and Poles. Georgia has 3,000 Germans. Kansas has more foreigners than any state of its size except Connecticut, Rhode Island nud Nebraska. No comment could strengthen these facts. 4. Our cities will not grow. Atlnnta grew 37 per cent from 1890 to 1900; Savannah 25 per cent; Augusta 18 per cent. Kansas City, Kali., grow 34 per cent; Portland, Maine, 37 per cent, and Topeka, Kan., 8 per cent, though Topeka grow over 100 per cent the 10 years previous and Kansas with a population equal only to our white population, has 365 cities to our 375. Most significant of all is the fact that Kansas, with this million less popu lation, levies in municipal taxes, four million dollars a year, while Georgia with more cities raises two and one-lmlf million. , We are about tired of Kansas now. We have pulled it pretty well to pieces. We are tired, too, of the worthless, factless arguments used by our friends who aro trying to make a oaso against prohibition. There is no reason to believe that beautiful poetic statement, “Grass will grow in our streets.” The Georgian is not convinced that Atlanta will be less desirable as a Southern headquarters for the many insurance companies and large Northern cor porations that fill our office buildings. The Georgian does not believe Atlanta will be less desirable as a railroad center and headquarters, when the biggest railroads in the world are making the use of liquor a bar to employment on their lines. The Georgian believes it is ab surd to think that the cotton mills will stay from our borders when their men can not got liquor as conveniently as they now do. The mills are getting closer to the cotton fields every day, and no power could stop the commercial advantage they reap by being nearer the source of supply. Those who make other claims have never studied the economics of cotton manufacture. The Georgian calls with all its might to every citizen of our state to arise and drive off the bugaboo that is being used to searo our people, aud putting aside all sentiment, all weeping, praying and singing, set yonr faces to give our cities and our state at least a faiy trial of what can but be a blessing to many if it succeeds at all, and what so great a man as Henry Grady says was an absolute success here twenty-two years ago, contradictory statements of men who were children at that time, and only tell us of hearsay, notwithstanding. Trial of Prohibition in Atlanta By J. L. D. HILLYER. I have teen utterly amazed at the statements that appear In an address published In The Georgian of the 4th, which comes from a meeting of ■ group ot wealthy citizens of Atlanta, who held a meeting at the Piedmont Hotel on Wednesday afternoon. These gentlemen aro lighting the propoeed state prohibition bill now pending. The most conspicuous fact that ap pears In the preamble and the resolu tions Is the utter want of Information that those gentlemen have on the sub ject of prohibition and Its effects on city prosperity. It Is useless to go Into their columns of generalizations to refute their statements. It Is only necessary to refer to their glaring mis. statements about Atlanta under the prohibition law. They sny that Fulton county tried prohibition for over two years. The faet is, prohibition In Fulton county lastod only about sixteen months. They say there was more crime and drunk enness and disorder tlinn ever before or simple denial. None lived at Jonesboro. I was frequently here. I know that precisely the te verse of all that stuff Is true. In the eummer of 1887 Henry Grady published an editorial In The Consti tution that was not denied by any body. It never has been denied. I read It at the time, and I knew that many of the facts stated were true, and I have verified many of them since. That editorial pointed out the condition of the city after twelve months of pro hibition. Many thousands of copies of that editorial have been published and circulated recently all over the atate by the Anti-Saloon League. If those gentlemen had been sufficiently Interested In this question, before now, to read that editorial of Grady's, they would have been better Informed. And unless they meant to speak falsely they would havo worded their address very differently. Tho editorial. shows that the school attendance was better than ever, that every line of business was better except the business of the police and criminal courts, and the liquor business. Grady said In one of hts speeches that during tho six teen months of prohibition only two homicides occurred In Atlanta during the prohibition period of elxteen months. At the time the speech was made I remembered both cases. One was the Eddleman case, that was on trial about the time that Grady spoke. The other wae a. case that occurred •ometlme earlier, the circumstances ot which I do not now remember. Many people will recall the fact that the Jury In Eddleman case acquitted him. 8ome people were so Incensed at that that a few days before the prohibition election In November, 1887, twelve effigies representing the membere of that Jury were hanged near the court house and then burned. That Incident will prompt the memories of the old people about those time*. When Grady made that speech nobody ohallwged It. It has never been contradicted. If It Is not true the docket of the supe rior court will show what other homi cides did occur In Fulton county with in those months of prohibition. From about July 16. 1886,’to November. 1887, those dockets will show all the other crimes of those months and the pre ceding years and the succeeding years. And they will show that Fulton county had fewer criminal cases of all sorts during that period than ever before or since. I can give story after story to Illus trate the better trade'eondlttons during those months. Shoo merchants sold moye shoes, es pecially on Saturday nights, than ever before or since. Meat men sold more meat on Saturday nights. More chil dren went to Sunday school. More grown people went to the churches, The schools were fuller and the pupils were better. Furniture men doubled crime ana uruus- tho,r nleB - Renting agents had less dirffie That period I troul)Ia wlth collecting, and more peo- stacef I puf In a F le bought their homes than ever had i of that Is true. I ° c £ - or ®- . Fulton county people did not aban don prohibition. Everybody who knows the history of that election knows that many hundreds of negroes were hauled Into town and voted against prohibition who were not res idents of Fulton county, but at that time we had no law to prevent their voting. ‘ And while there were esti mated to have been about 700 or more votes of that kind, the liquor majority was only a little more than 800. The majority of the citizens of Fulton county was opposed to the sale then, and It Is opposed to the sale now. The excellent gentlemen who com posed that meeting represented proba ble two-thirds ot the wealth of At lanta. But they represented a very small proportion of Its virtue and In telligence. The arguments they ad vanced have been met and answered, and tested and found to be false In numerable times, and that they should be promulgated now, shows that those who use them have been giving no at tention to the advancing power of pro. hlbltlon. They make an appeal to the prohibition legislators, and offer argu ments that those legislators know are utterly worthless. Absolutely the only weight that the document published by those gentlemen carries Is derived from the gold thst those men possees. It Is generally understood that tho present legislature Is not likely to be greatly affected by that argument. The wealth and selfishness ot a few In the cities has for years oppressed and enslaved the multitude of common people who were not organized and could not re sist the combined power of capital and the liquor trade. But we hope for bet ter things now. Capital need fear nothing except that that Is In barrels. The destruction of the liquor traffic never hurt any business except the liquor business. Foreign Exchange Letter» of Credit Circular Notes Payable in all parts of the world. Information gladly fur nished those who con template a trip abroad. 4 °/o On Yonr Savings Compounded Twice a year. MADD0X-RUCKER BANKING CO. Alabama and Broad Street*. Is the Saloon a Good Financial Policy ? By J. C. SOLOMON, 8TATE 8UPERI NTENDENT ANTI-8ALLON LEAGUE We would like to discuss this great prohibition question from a moral standpoint, but the antis doubtless re gard this feature of the question ns sickly sentimentality, or else they can’t meet the argument, or else they nfe color blind—haring a gold dollar In their eyes. We had hopes that a moth er's boy was worth saving, end that It was humanltarlanlsm to put forth an effort to redeem a poor drunken fa ther, but alaat these are not to be considered. Gentlemen Insist that we shall atand on the monetary platform and talk about gold and silver. Values are more Important than virtues, and money Is bigger than men. Surely this Is a humiliating confes slon, but If we must meet our fellow- cttlsens on this low plain, we will. So we will light It out on a financial basis. Does 4he dram shop pay? Does It bring business? That's the question. Well, let u* reason together. Alcohol Is a poison—a narcotic poison. So It Is In the most dangerous class, it heats the blood ar.d Inflames the brain. It maddens the man. It not only unfits him for society, making him a crimi nal, but It renders him Incapable of serving his family or his country. It leseana his wage earning capacity. It makes him a financial burden to the state. But you say we get a handsome rev enue. You are making not only a gen eration of spiritual and mental degen erates and miserable perverts, but financial weaklings. They are a bur den on the body politic and a constant menace to the social order. Now does It not stand to reason that no government can debauch Its citi zens and get the same brain and brawn power from them at from citizens "cool sober?" This country Is what Its cltlsene make It. The men and women are the assets of tho nation. Send fire aflam- lng through their blood, break down the brain cells, make debauchees of human beings and you rob the nation of Its proudest heritage and Its chief- est glory. You make both criminals and paupers, and In either event a heavy burden Is entailed upon the gov ernment, for the government must care for both classes. A greedy sow may as well undertake to stock a farm with well-bred swine by eating up the pigs as the govern ment to grow prosperous, honorablo and happy by debauching the people, and then robbing them of their brain apd their money. If Atlanta should drink her own blood and Georgia shoukl eat her own flesh, how long think you robust, bounding life could be maintained? This exact state of affairs obtains to day. ThlB Is particularly and sadly true on the part of our cities. Thero Is a decaying at tho top—and there Is a black spot In the heart—and there will be, as there has been, a disin tegration ot finances. You can not posalbly moke the people drink and at the same time moke them better wage earners, so It Inevitably follows that this government must be poorer In consequence of the dram shop. But they tell us tho whisky rove nues furnish tho school fund for Geor gia. They also tell us wo aro behind now with our teachers fl,(00,000. Now, why not multiply nur saloons—Just sow tho old state down with them? Put one on every corner. If they aro ao good and virtuous, and pay for tho ed ucatlon of our children. But the children are becoming more numerous In Georgia and tha saloons are being rapidly reduced. Something Is radically wrong. Either the saloons ought to be Increased or else we shotlld K t rid of so many children. Why not patriotic and furnish sufficient sa loons to educate all the poor little helpless children In Georgia, In the mansion as well as In the hut? For It doesn't matter, you know, If we make drunkards of the fathers If we can only educate the children! For every dol lar we spend to enlighten the youth of the country we spend seven to de grade the parents and darken the homes. Is this humane? Is It .wise? Dr. Swallow, once the prohibition party's candidate for president, ssld that for every dollar this government receives from liquor revenues, It pays out $18.60 towards ths prosecutions of Its criminals, the care of the paupers and the maintenance of the Insane, etc. How long would Atlanta's richest citi zen be able to keep out of the poor house with such miserable financiering? But they tell us prohibition won't prohibit. What about the sixteen months’ prohibition In Atlanta between 1885-7?, notwithstanding the fact the liquor gang had hired agents to de. bauch the city and to make tha law Inoperative, and notwithstanding the fact there was considerable drinking, and some crime to be sure. Yet in that remote day before prohibition sentiment was half so pronounced In Georgia as It Is today, prohibition did prohibit and was a Messing to the city. Ask every unbiased and reputable citizen. Consult tho records. Read the golden-mouth Grady In his splen did editorial In The Atlanta Constitu tion. Read that ringing declaration and coll the dead hero a liar If you dare. The Georgia Anti-Saloon League, No. 602 Lowndes Building, Atlanta, Qt, has 10,000 copies of this great editorial. Ask for one. Just In the wake of the Atlanta riot laat fall the lid was put on. and put on tight. For nine days and nights in this city prohibition reigned. It was sure enough prohibition. It was almost llks the millennium. The city was practi cally transformed. Consult Judge Broyles. Ask other court and city officials. Prohibition prohibits In Ocllln and Fitzgerald and Abbeville and Moultrie and Waycross and In every prohibition town In this state. Now watch Balnbridge grow, and Valdosta, Why Fitzgerald, so long cursed by saloons, was afraid she would die if she lost them, but to the contrary, her life was never so abundant, in less than a year her values have Increased over a million dollars. Now as to Maine, Kansas and North Dakota, very much lied against states, I have Incontrovertible facts touching their wonderful prosperity. Fewer criminals, moro empty Jnlls, less pau perism, more money In the savings banks, increased values In the farming lands—In a word there Is undoubted prosperity In every honorable line of Industry throughout these awfully slandered states. So get on the "band wagon," ye kickers and calamity howlers, and doubting Thomases! Get in tho pro. cession: lb) quick! The Kingdom's coming! Come now, for we are going to moke this old state dry. You hear? 80NQ OF THE FOURTH. (Grantjand Rice, in The Tennessean.) There, little Boy, don’t cry— You have blown off an ear, I know— And your eye lashes, too. With your two eyes of blue, Are things of the long ego— But It's all In tho gamo on the Fourth of July. So there, little Boy, don’t cry. There, little Buy, don't cry— 'Twss loaded—but you didn't know— Now your nose looks forlorn And your teeth are all gone— While your skull was caved In by the blow— But It's all In the game on the Fourth of July, So there, little Boy, don't cry. A8 TO PRE88 CENSOR8HIP. Representative Adkins, ot Doolsy. wishes to establish a press censorship In Georgia. He should know that there already exists such a censorship, and a better one than could be created by legislative enactment. It 1s public opln. Ion, and no newspaper daree to run counter to It. The unclean or un wholesome newspaper can not live In Georgia. This has been Illustrated on several occasions, with respect to which Mr. Adkins can Inform himself In ths city of Atlanta. The Journalistic bone- yard glistens with tho skeletons of periodicals that tried to fatten on sen sationalism, only to starve to death. Mr. Adkins can And much better employ ment for his talents than trying to cen sor the press.—Savannah News. JURY MAY INVESTIGATE AFFAIR8 IN CHATTANOOGA. Special to The Georgian, Chattanooga, Tcnn., July 6.—A grand Jury Investigation of the city affairs Is now threatened. Frank Steffner, a leading member of the Ninth Ward Business League, announces that at the next meeting ot the league, Monday night, he will Introduce a resolution catling upon the grand Jury to Inquire Into every department of the city gov ernment IIHIHIIIItNHtMHIlillMUMIHHIMHMIllllllll GRADY'S ESTIMATE OF HIS WORK FOR PROHIBITION In a card written on Nov. 27, 1887, the day after the election, when he knew that the bar rooms had won, Henry W. Grady declared: “When everything else I have said or done is forgotten, I want the words I have spoken for prohibition in Atlanta to be remembered. I am firm in the conviction— and from this convic tion I shall never be shaken—that Atlanta has prospered under her two years of prohibition as she never prospered before, and the experi ment of prohibition in a large city succeeded in Atlanta as no experiment under like obstruc tions ever succeeded before.”