Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

8 The Golden Age (SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS FORUM} Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Mge Publishing Company (Inc.) OFFICES: LOWNDES -BUILDING, ATLANTA, GA. Price: $2.00 a Year WILLI HMD. UPS HMW, .... Editor A. E. RAMSAUR, ... Associate Editor W. F. UPSHA W, - - - - -Business Manager H. R. BERNARD, . . . Sec’y and Treas. Entered at the Post Office in Atlanta, Ga„ as second-class matter. To the Public: The advertising columns of The Golden Age will have an editorial conscience. No advertisement will be accepted which we believe would be hurtful to either the person or the purse of our readers. The Undertow. 11. Sad enough is the sombre sight of thoughtless boys and girls swept from homes of listless training into a city's undertow of vice and crime. But when parents calmly push their own tender offspring into the swirling eddy of the dark, remorseless tide, an gels weep. Their hearts break. Our Savior said* 4 Suf fer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.” It has remained for Christian Atlanta twenty centuries af ter the promulgation of this edict of love to furnish an example of a man—that is a male person, white— for the paltry need of a few unholy dollars, delib erately casting his twelve-year-old boy into abso lutely certain hell. The Saturday afternoon newspapers told the story of a boy, whose limp and senseless body was found in a Marietta street coal yard. The officers who found him, believing that he had been wounded into in sensibility, hurried him to the hospital. He was drunk; absolutely drunk. Inquiry developed the fact that the boy was hired out by his father to a firm of Atlanta liquor dealers. His business was to fill bottles with liquor and fit corks to them. Thus for a little paltry pittance to the parent’s pocket, the lad was set to a loathsome labor, where deadly poi son was daily absorbed by his every tender pore, where reeking odors poured their foul stench into his sensitive nostrils, where unflagging temptation re morselessly held the cup to his youthful lips. Has Atlanta a conscience? Nearer still, has At lanta the instinct of self preservation? Reduce it to a cold question of dollars, if you wish. Is it not cheaper, Oh ye wise men, who guide the craft of state, to gather the unfortunate offspring of the crim inal and brutal under your care now and give them decent rearing, than to build jails and alms-houses and lunatic asylums for their occupancy a few years later? At least is it not economy to make and exe cute rigidly and incesssantly a few wholesome meas ures protecting unfortunate boys from the malicious current, rather than wait until its malicious under tow shall clutch them, nurture them in folly, hurl them into felony, and compel you to execute them for diabolical crime? The tide of sin from Satan’s shore daily ebbs and flows in human hearts; its hungry undertow greedily grips each victim. Sterling manhood, Oh splendid womanhood, the wail of the helpless is sounding in your ears. An issue vital to your future, your chil dren’s future demands action. What will you do with it? The Limit of Centralization. Human nature likes to deal with strong institu tions—up to a certain limit. In the beginning of most governments, absolute power was lodged in kings, but one by one, by force of arms, and by diplomacy, this power has been universally limited or destroyed. In the days of primacy and weakness a strong absolute monarchy was best, but strength, magnitude and development demand some measure of individualism. Men who are fortunate enough to gather together with ft fair fiegm of fcowty a good supply of thin The Golden Age for March 22,1906. world’s goods are held in high esteem—up to a cer tain point. When wealth centralizes in the grasp of an individual, or a group of individuals, until it becomes a. menace to the welfare of others, public esteem falls away, and crystalizes into implacable opposition. A few years ago, it frequently happened that small life insurance companies were taken .over by the larger companies, ami it appeared that ultimately this business might come to be centered in a few strong corporations. Now the inexorable limit beat able by public opinion has well nigh been reached in the case of the largest of these corporations. The Armstrong report—made by a committee of the New York legislature* after the most thorough, most impartial, most honest investigation ever given a subject of this magnitude—recommends a limit of $150,000,000 per annum of new business for any company. This demand for a limit comes straight from the heart of humanity. It comes as an ulti matum. The limit has been reached. Individualism demands that this splendid business shall not become too much centralized; that while it may grow with the prosperity of the country, it must be divided among a large number of disassociated corporations. Perhaps in a few years more, the power of public opinion will wax stronger, and while in America an income tax has been declared unconstitutional, the genius of virile, world-wide individualism will find away to curb the magnitude of private fortune. Looking to the weal of the individual millions, the resistless power of public opinion will fix a limit to the fortune of the individual few. “Thus far and no farther” is a law in humanity’s code as inexorable as the silent and solemn com mand of the mountain to the waves of the sea. The Closing of The Conference. The interest and attention of the people of Atlanta have been closely held for the past ten days, by the Bible Conference, which has just come to a close. Its influence, however, cannot yet be estimated, for a Conference of this sort deals with the subtle, elusive, mysterious but vital development of the spirit. The stimulating character of contact with great thinkers, profound Bible students and noted lecturers, is so far-reaching in its effect on indi viduals that even these individuals themselves can not fully estimate the personal gain until after the impressions received have been fully assimilated. Many there are who desire to understand more fully the force of Bible teachings and the profound wis dom of the Eternal Truths contained in the Book of books. But incidental to study alone is often lack ing, as is also, ability to do so adequately, so it is of deepest significance when the layman is enabled to receive at first hand the benefits desired from those who have given a life time to this very study. The advantages of a Bible Conference are many, and the thousands who daily attended the meetings tes tify to the deep need of just such an all-powerful influence in their lives. New lines of Church work were suggested, and defects in old methods were shown. Contact of a most inspiring kind was ex perienced, with persons from different cities, and the entire field of work covered was one which must be fertile in its ultimate results. A feature of the work was shown by the number of young people who were present as members of the Philathea and Baracca societies, and their unfailing interest in the proceedings was noted and generally commented on. It would be impossible to make specific mention of the distinguished speakers who, in turn, have held the platform of the Baptist Tabernacle in At lanta, but it is safe to assert that never in the re ligious history of the city has a more successful meeting been had, nor one whose every feature prom ises to result in greater good for a greater number. A Model Community. Wise people predict that the millenium will not break upon us all at once; that it will be detected perhaps in the form of a very small spot or speck, which will spread like measles. The first snot seems to have been discovered in Linden, Texas. That town h iqou to celebrate |t» fiftieth ftnnivewft ft is stated in a recent Texas paper that not one of its citizens has ever been arrested for, or accused of the commission of any crime. Its jail has never had an inmate, and its courthouse is used for school purposes. There are no bars and no gambling joints. No one carries concealed weapons. If true this is a remarkable community. A well known evangelist a few years ago, while preaching in a Georgia city* paid his respects to the municipal authorities, and said that if the city Were removed bodily to hell, the management of that coun try would have no desire to change the mayor and aidermen. No one offered a dissenting opinion, so the statement stood. An unkind thing like that could not be said of Linden. Things are very different there. All is peace and quiet, and a spirit of sweet fellow ship rests like an aureole upon the devoted city. No man lieth in wait for his fellow citizen with a loaded real estate proposition, or a spavined horse. There is no calaboose, no recorder’s court, no law yers and, perchance, no doctors. Gold brick sales are unknown and good rather than evil is spoken. “There no winter comes, nor e’er the wind blows harshly.” Experiments are now being undertaken to ascer tain if the citizens of that town will bear trans planting. If so, Linden grafts can be secured by other cities. “Why is a Poet?” The question, “Why is a Poet” has been for a long time unanswered, but the wherefore of that much maligned class is now discovered. They are use ful and valuable members of society and of the busi ness world. Get in a street car and your eyes will be forcibly held by the fresco of pure art and poetry running around the upper sides of the car. You can’t keep yourself from studying the suggestions offered you in delightful poetry as to when and where and why to buy certain products. Trying to stop reading them is similar to the effort to abstain from eat ing parched peanuts so long as you have one in your pocket. Suppose a modern city were to be buried as Pom peii was, and that after the lapse of hundreds of years the people of a new civilization in the progress of their excavations were to unerath a few street cars and gaze for the first time upon the advertise ments which confront us every time we ride. It is interesting to conjecture just how they would inter pret the meaning of a picture depicting the mad race of all manners and conditions of men to get some body’s ginger ale; how they would be saddened by the expression on the countenance of a man drink ing a certain blend of coffee; but beyond all, what reverence they would have for the character of good Dr. Brown, of Spotless Town! Probably some of the things we are discovering to-day in the cities exhumed by archaeologists, and interpreted to be pictorial histories of wars and the reign of kings and the like, were in their day noth ing but advertisements such as we have in our cars. Why is the poet ? For the street cars, of course. Even this Will Pass. One of Shakespeare’s characters who was in the midst of a run of hard luck that seemed to have no end, remarked to a friend that the last item on the trouble list seemed to be the limit; that the worst had been reached. It was replied that it was never the worst so long as it could be said “this is the worst. ’ ’ That was but poor consolation, viewed in one light. It was but an earlier form of the old lady’s saying; “It might be worse.” An Eastern monarch once called upon his wise jester, to formulate a motto that would have some consolation in it, no matter how gloomy the outlook happened to be. After reflection the jester said: “Even this will pass.” There is a bright side to everything. There is no better rule one can set for one’s self than that of looking on the bright side of the trials of life. Some times it is hard to find the brightness. The sun is always shining, but on occasions the cloud before it is so dense that only faith can pierce it. When trou bles and grief almost past enduring, come; when friends seem to have deserted us, and life itself is a failure; etop and think—times will change—EVEN THIS WILE PASS,