Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

8 The Golden Age (SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS FORUM) Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Hge Publishing Company (Inc.) OFFICES: LOWNDES "BUILDING. ATLANTA, GA. Price: $2.00 a Year WILLIHMD. UPSHSJW, - - - - 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 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. Methodical Frenzy. Mr. Thomas Lawson is continuing his articles on “Frenzied Finance” in Everybodys Magazine. His work has aroused a great deal of interest and some say it has accomplished good. It has at least given the public a liberal educational course in the methods of Standard Oil, the New lork Life and other corporations. But we are now beginning to weary of these articles. Mr. Lawson’s style is good, he has personal magnetism, and after reading a few pages you feel like you have met him and if you were to meet him on the street would probably hail him cordially; and it is probable that what he tells is nothing more nor less than the truth. And yet, in view of the efforts he appears to be making for the public weal, he doesn’t seem to be accomplish ing as much as he should. The great body of the people are not standing with him as they might be expected to do. Why? Perhaps for the reason that while Mr. Lawson’s readers are interested in his revelations and believe that he is telling the truth, they cannot avoid the obvious fact that he is but turning State’s evidence, and that his busi ness at present is receiving gorgeous advertisement through these same articles. There is method in liis frenzy. Mr. Lawson is conducting a brokerage business. He admits to the public that he is entirely honest and asks to be employed as broker by all and sun dry. His brokerage business is steadily growing. His articles have advanced the subscription price of Everybodys’ Magazine from one dollar to one and a half; single copies from ten cents to fifteen cents. There are about six hundred thousand copies of the magazine sold. The net profit is about four hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Lawson owns half the stock, consequently his income from this source is two hundred thousand dollars. He says that he has a remedy for the evils of Wall Street and stock dealing as now conducted. It is a secret preparation—a kind of mystic oil of joy—and he promises it to us when she proper time arrives. He has it locked up in his trunk just now, but it will be forthcoming. The first requisite to getting on the waiting list for this invaluable pres cription is being a subscriber to Everybodys’. The next step toward getting your system in perfect readiness for treatment is to buy certain stocks controlled by Lawson. Men demand as their leaders those who live pro per lives and whose lives are and have been in har mony with their words and teachings. Mr. Law sop has but recently swum ashore from the pirate ship. It seems but yesterday when he was playing at comrades with Rogers, Rockefeller, and other pirates whom he is now trying to drive from the financial seas. This makes us hesitate to trust him with our all. He hates Rogers, Rockefeller et al and he wants revenge. There is no doubt of that—but in that very fact lies our dan ger. If we send him our proxies, if we appoint him our broker; if we buy his stocks, bow do we know but that if necessity demanded, he would sacrifice our interests to even up with his enemies? Mr. Lawson poses as a reformer, saint and sa vior. He proclaims it from the housetop and dins it into every ear. The badge of reformation and conversion has ever been humility. When a man makes capital of his turning to better things, the turning in ninety-nine cases out of ninety-nine is purely for the sake of said capital. Take Mr. Lawson’s case. He was with Rogers, et al., doing just as they did, just as bad as they were, until they froze him out. The only course open to him was the one he has adopted. Query:—lf he hadn’t been frozen out, would he not still be with them ? Another query:—What could possibly pay better than the plan he is following? Final query: —Do you suppose Lawson would do as he now does if it involved financial loss? In other words, which would he hold to longest, his principle or his money? Humanity has adopteed a standard whereby men’s motives are judged. Sometimes it is unjust and does great wrong to the true and honorable; most times it is the correct rule and arbiter. This rule holds that when a man puts principle above self and sticks to his principle at the cost of finan cial loss, he is to be trusted. But when the finger of his philanthropy points squarely down the road of financial betterment, we are all from Missouri and have to be shown several little things before we are convinced. Lawson made a lot of money before he disem barked from the Rogers pirate ship, and got away with some of it. When he assumed his saintship he held on to this money. Its taint was perhaps removed by his resolution not to do so again. We appreciate all that Mr. Lawson has accomplished—• but one thing does seem to puzzle as, and that is that everything he advises seems when worked out to have the same answer, viz:—buy my stocks; em ploy me as your broker; send me your proxy. We finally come to our point. Give Mr. Lawson credit for telling the truth; for helping the public in many ways; but let’s not confer the halo just yet. He is making good from a financial standpoint and is probably satisfied. His graft is paying. Let’s just be careful and not turn all holds loose for awhile. We might happen to get into his path of revenge upon his former partners, and in that event we would not endure appreciably longer than a snow-flake in Sheol. A Georgia Jury. Recently a crime was committed in Berrien County which horrified people of refinement. A drunken man of middle age, in beastly fury beat his aged father to death. There was no provocation. Indeed to a son with human sensibilities there could be no such thing as provocation from a decrepit father crowned with the snows of five and four score winters. Wolves will kill the old and defenseless of their number in times of hunger, but this parricide did not have the plea of starvation in his favor. He was more wolfish than the wolf. Perhaps he felt the care of his aged parents a burden. Justice-loving people, reading of this act of sav agery, felt glad that the penalty of capital punish ment is a part of the Georgia code. But behold the travesty! To be sure no lawyer in Nashville would suffer himself to be engaged as counsel for the defendant. But the names in the Berrien county jury box do not all belong to men of this stamp. A jury of twelve white citizens of Berrien County, af ter hearing the testimony of the old mother mak ing out an unmistakable case of wanton murder against her own son, returned a verdict of invol untary manslaughter. Indeed! This petit jury matches a certain grand jury once heard of. The Warwick of the county had slain an humble citi zen. The court met in solemn form and in impres sive way swore in a grand jury and laboriously charged them with their grave responsibilities. The august grand jury heard evidence in their guarded chamber for a week, and then unanimously returned a bill, indicting the noble offender with the crime of—discharging firearms on the Sabbath. The judge at Nashville, in sentencing the murder er to a term of three years in the penitentiary, Editor the Golden Age for April 5, 1906. very properly rebuked the jury by expressing his regret that he could not, under the law, sentence him to more adequate punishment. The unexpected verdict of this jury brings up the whole question of our jury system, and splen didly illustrates the too frequent miscarriages of justice. Trial by jury is more ancient than our codes or constitutions, is coeval with our common law, and as deeply revered, whatever its faults. We may quite safely say that trial by jury will never be abolished by Anglo-Saxon people. But it has its defects. Where can these be remedied? In the first place, our courts should more fre quently and more firmly censure from the bench z recalcitrant jurors. In the seventeenth century in England it was no uncommon thing for the judge to fine and imprison jurors for contempt when, in cases like this, they had the temerity to bring a verdict contrary to the law and the evidence. While such heroic treatment has not of late years been resorted to, it is said that the greater fidelity of English jurors to their oaths is due to a whole some recollection. One of the greatest perils to our jury system is the impatient desire of many of our most capable citizens to avoid jury duty. In our cities the tendency has grown until it is quite the fashion to see scores of busy business men disqualify them selves on quibbles and flimsy pretexts. This leaves the field more readily available to the eager grasp of the “professional juror.” To him it is an easy way to make money. He cares nothing for justice, his ambition is to hold favor with the practitioners. Suppose jury lists were revised by a committee of judges? Suppose that when juries returned ver dicts flagrantly at variance with law and evidence, their names were removed from the jury lists? Sup pose a man under suspense from jury duty for cause were ineligible to register for or vote in any state, county or national election? Educators and Philanthropists. The Conference for education in the South which will meet at Lexington, Kentucky, on Wednesday, May 2, will be the ninth annual gathering of these distinguished educators and philanthropists. They have come together in the beautiful fellowship of an unselfish motive and a wise and far-reaching purpose. Under the leadership of Robert C. Ogden, of New York, a great-hearted patriot and a wise or ganizer of men and movements, these excursions to the South have brought every year, many North ern men and women, who recognize the problems with which the South has wrestled since “the strife of brothers,” and who have been sincerely anxious to do a noble part in the solution of these prob lems. For the most part, they have been met by the people of the South in the spirit in which they have come, vital—and in many communities, transform ing has already been the result. Co-operation and organization; these watch words to progress and successful attainment, are sounded by this notable gathering, and the cause of Southern education is uplifted, regenerated and materially assisted thereby. The Last Step in Unionizing. A large body of ground in a Northern city has been purchased for use as a cemetery for members of labor unions. There are obvious reasons why such a provision should be made for union members who die pau pers, but why should the whole body of them draw apart from us just on general principles? If even death doesn’t disband them, where and when will we be free? The scheme is extended now from the cradle to the grave, and soon in our homes even, we may be confronted with the badge of an Infant’s Union on the bosoms of our young hope fuls. Perchance we will yet be familiar with this:— “Union for destroying the Santa Claus myth”— or “Society for the suppression of Parents.” Eheu! oh Temporal