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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 'Pear WILLIAM D. UPSHfXW, - - - - Editor A. E. RAMSAUR, - Associate Editor W. F. UPSHAW, - - - - 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. A Refreshing Exception. The Atlanta Georgian, the new evening paper, with John Temple Graves as editor, and F. L. See ly as publisher, is going to be unique among Ameri can dailies. It will exclude from its columns all kinds of liquor advertisements and other things un clean and questionable. True to its motto, “Wisdom, Truth, Moderation.” The Georgian will not commit the inconsistent un wisdom of declaring itself the friend of the home and the family, and then carry to the fireside flam ing advertisements of every day that despoiles the home and character which has wrought such havoc in this suffering world. This new daily will not ■write stirring editorials about the making and meaning of citizenship and then carry in the same columns a paid invitation to strike down that citi zenship in the sacred temple of its own building. This new daily will not deal in platitudes about the working ideals of our Christian civilization, and then flaunt into the face of the youth it would in spire, the purchased signboards that point that youth toward those golden gateways to eternal darkness—the actual hotbeds of anarchy on earth and the gleeful forerunners of the chaos and an archy of hell. “We are not mad, most noble Festus!” But we declare with emphasis shat truth recently ut tered by the New York Tribune: “The saloon has no rights.” No harshness now for the citizen who follows his legalized business of liquor selling; no unkind personalities for the owners and editors of papers that do advertise liquor; no singling out and cham pioning one newspaper as compared with another from the standpoint of general news and service. This is not an hour for personalities—it is an hour that calls for the crowning of Principle, and we rejoice in that principle in The Atlanta Geor gian which causes it to deliberately cast away thous ands of dollars every year for the sake of being true and pure and clean. Advertising liquor “for the money that’s in it” cannot be defended, and thousands of homes in Georgia, the South and the Nation will welcome this refreshing exception in daily journalism. The Child Labor Laws. During the past few years much attention has beeen given by the press and the people to the ques tion of child labor in the mills of the country with, perhaps, more especial reference to those in the South. The latter fact is due, chiefly, to the larger number of cotton mills in the southern part of the country and increased opportunities for the work of children in mills of that sort. It therefore seems more imperative that the subject be carefully con sidered, intelligently dealt with and wisely disposed of in the South first, with the hope that other local ities may be inspired to follow our good example. A careful consideration of the question from a moral point of -view inevitably leads to the con clusion that any situation conducive to an unnat ural physical condition and an arrested physical development acts in like manner on the moral sense—arrested development of the body leads to a similar state or condition of the mind or soul, and the recognition of this fact has led both home and foreign missionaries to devote much time and attention to the amelioration of physical ills, with the expectation that a moral advancement will fol low. It has been proven that this hope is justified by the results, hence we cannot but deprecate any form of life which tends to dwarf the physical well being—if for no other reason than because of its influence on the moral and mental state. Economic ends may be attained in many in stances by the use of additional mechanical devices in the mills which would obviate the need of the labor of little children and the attendant train of ills which this labor brings. Childhood is by right of its very helplessness, a. period of development and should be also a pe riod of physical relaxation—Nature’s laws demand it and any violation of these laws is to be deplored and discountenanced. One remedy which has not been given sufficient attention is the passage by the United States Gov ernment of compulsory educational laws which would, in almost every instance, prove the anti dote for the child labor question by starving out the “material” now used for this purpose, and thus giving to the children of the South as well as of the entire country, some of the rights and privi leges which should be their natural heritage. A Paternal Government. An investigating committee has found that there are four hundred carloads of publications issued from the Government printing office in Washing ton which cannot be given away or forced into cir culation, and that the Government is renting three buildings at a cost of $13,600.00 per year for the purpose of storing them. There are those who ob ject to this action on the part of the Government and complain as to the expense of storage; and re sent the fact that there is enough money expended in printing and storing every four years to build a battle ship. There seems to be a spirit of un kind criticism among our people. It is sad that we can’t have the battleship, and the Government deserves criticism—harsh criticism, for not build ing- us more, but consider the kindness manifested in the storage of these publications. Better to do without battleships always and pay this storage bill than to have these four hundred carloads of reading matter thrust upon us. Let’s keep the stuff stored at any expense. It is safer there. We can do without the ships—can even be reconciled to the fact that at the end of each quadrennial we should have a new ship and haven’t, soothed by the reflection that our paternal Government is hold ing ponded up there in Washington that flood of printed matter and that it will not be poured upon us. Cotton Futures Gambling. Five years ago, a certain capable lawyer living in a well known Georgia town, might well have been selected as the one citizen most likely to dis tinguish himself and reflect honor upon his comuni ty. He was thirty-five years of age, happily mar ried, and modestly boasted that he did not know the taste of whiskey nor tobacco. He owned his home, and some good farms, made a good income from his practice, published a county paper, and discharged efficiently the duties of county school commissioner. Having been a member of the State Senate, he had had his little fling in politics. As he had made a good record in the legislature, and retired with uncorrupted habits, one might have con cluded him staunch and safe. Big of body, he was likewise big of brain, and big-hearted. It seemed to give him pleasure to help the needy; he gave cordially to the support of his church. To-day that man is a fugitive from justice. Sev eral indictments charging embezzlement, cheating and swindling, forgery and other kindred crimes yawn as the open prison door on the docket book of his county. He dares not face the court where Editor The Golden Age for April 19, 1906. once his eloquence and his logic shared honors with the keenest criminal advocate in the state. A strong' man caught in the current of the under tow! He was a strong man; he was a good man; at the age of thirty-five he did not possess the ele ments even of villainy. He had been reared on a farm, and had wrought his way to prominence by sheer merit. He was worthy of all the confidence the people reposed in him. Then, whence his ruin? The bucket shop! The same insidious, strong right arm of the devil which is blasting more homes and blackening more souls in our South to-day, than the rum-shops. He knew this current was dangerous. Otheis embark ing weaker than he, he knew mrst faint, but surely with his experience, his legal learning, his sober life, he could trust himself to steer safely through treacherous shoals. Serene in his confidence, he be gan to play the game. When losses came larger than his own funds could cover, he could borrow from the trust hands in his hands and no one should ever know—if he won and replaced it. Then, lost again. The game grew desperate. To quit now meant poverty and some humiliation. The luck must turn; he felt the hour had struck to recoup his losses. Did he have “nerve” enough to act on his judgment? Yes, he had nerve; why throw away the golden, opportuni ties when only a few “conventionalities” stood be tween him and the money for the stake. Confident that his time to win had come, he gathered every dollar that he could borrow by process fair or foul, staked it on the game—and lost. Honor, reputa tion, character—all lost! Perhaps his eternal soul lost! There remained to him choice of only three courses. Suicide? The weakling’s refuge! He was young yet, and a mental colossus. No, he was no weakling; he would live. Surrender? The honest course, to be sure, but he could not make restitu tion, and without restitution, surrender meant long and weary years in prison, and a fag end of life beyond scarcely worth while. Flight ? Oh, yes,; if he fly far enough, and hide safely he might live as a free man, perhaps repent, succeed in business under a new name, and by and by return what he had stolen. He fled, may he repent, prosper and restore. But why speak of the sad case? There’s reason enough when one sees the increasing number of bucket-shops opening up in our cities and towns. Georgia needs state prohibition against the sale of liquor, but her need to crush bucket-shop gamb ling is greater. Photographing Ghosts. By the aid of photography some very remarkable investigations are being made in the realm of psy chic research. Prof. Chas. Richet, member of the French Academy, has succeeded in getting a fairly distinct photograph of a ghost or materialized spirit. Experiments conducted by other scientists seem to demonstrate that a spirit, a life substance, or at any rate, a something visible to the camera, leaves the body at the moment of death. Many startling claims as to demonstrations in this field are made by several eminent and entirely respecta ble scientists. This writer cannot say that he believes in ghosts, or that spirits can be photographed. Such a state ment would bring him into trouble at once. He recognizes what a ridiculous proposition it appears upon its face, and is also awake to the richness of this subject for funny editorial writing, but the camera’s testimony in the matter tends to convince. It cannot be hypnotized—and it is in every way more reliable than any human observation. For long a most successful trick of jugglers was to stand on a stage before a houseful of people, cause a rope to erect itself toward the ceiling, then climb to the top and disappear. Every individual who saw it believed it had actually happened that way. Fi nally the camera showed that it didn’t happen; that the audience was simply hypnotized, and saw what did not in point of fact occur. It is interesting to speculate upon the probable developments in psychic knowledge which bid fair to occur as the experiments continue.