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The Golden Age
(SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS FORUM)
Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden LTge Publishing
Company (Inc.)
OFFICES: LOWNDES 'BUILDING. ATLANTA. GA.
Price: $2.00 a Year
WILLI MM D. UPSHMW, .... Editor
A. E. RAMSAUR, ... LTssociate Editor
W. E. UPSHA W, - - - - Business Manager
Entered at the Post Office tn 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.
We read with interest how cattle and hogs and
sheep are handled, as published in the reports of
the packing house investigations, but much to our
surprise not one word has been said about dogs. We
are beginning to suspect that the sausages are made
of beef and pork.
A recent news article had the headline “Kissed
his Wife; Hugged his Mother-in-law.” That was
startling enough to make any one read with inter
est. It was King Alfonso who did this—and we
must say he is beginning right. We are watching
the papers, breathless to learn if he does this every
day. A son-in-law like that will do to depend
upon.
Mr. Upton Sinclair told in his book, “The Jungle”
in the guise of fiction the conditions existing in
the packing houses, and the investigation now going
forward is proving the book to be nothing more nor
less than a matter of fact statement of things which
are really done by the packers. The greatest individ
ual benefit of the investigation will accrue to Mr.
Sinclair as his book is being advertised as no book
ever was before. “The Jungle” is the “Uncle
Tom’s Cabin” of the packing industry.
The appellate branch of the supreme court of
New York has ruled that the rule laid down by the
street railway companies of the city of New York
holding that passengers are not entitled to transfers
unless they ask for them upon paying their fare, is
illegal and incapable of enforcement. We will
welcome a ruling of this kind by our own courts.
In this city (Atlanta) if one omits to ask for a
transfer as be relinquishes Ins niekle, he cannot
thereafter obtain on?. Just why it should become
impossible to give the transfer after the car has
passed a certain corner, said corner being some
blocks away from the point of transfer, is hard to
conjecture. No reasons are given by the conduct
ors save that it is against the rules. Your money
has been paid, but you are refused the transfer.
You are in luck to get a transfer at all. There are
so many things to intervene and make it impossi
ble for the company to grant it. If you are wear
ing a green tie, or if you need a shave, or if At
lanta loses the game to Memphis, or if the con
ductor’s mother-in-law is visiting him, or if it is
Friday—there is no transfer.
Adieu, Prof. Bassett.
Mr. John Spencer Bassett has recently resigned
the chair of history in Trinity College, Durham, N.
C., to accept a similar position at Smith College,
Northampton, Mass. To convey an idea of how dis
tinguished Mr. Bassett is as a historian, it is only
necessary to recall his statement made two or three
years ago that with the sole exception of Robert E.
Lee, Booker Washington was the greatest man
the South had produced in a century.
The Golden Age for June 7, 1906.
Trinity College is to be congratulated on losing
Mr. Bassett and Smith has doubtless secured just
the man desired there. A contemplation of a man
who will make a statement like the one above, yields
more amusement than a copy of Puck. It would be
a sweet boon to have him constantly near for ex
amination during our hours of relaxation. A course
of observation of his mental processes—necessarily
microscopic—would yield much valuable informa
tion. It is no wonder that the people of Massa
chusetts now have an erroneous opinion of the peo
ple of the South and that they can never really
enter with understanding and sympathy into the
problems that confront us. A chair of history filled
to overflowing by a man whose massive mind is
capable of germinating such opinions will dissemi
nate deplorably false views of the South and its
people. Booker Washington is a notable man, and
is perhaps a wise leader of his race—but when
we find a man holding a chair in a college making
such a statement about him, we are perfectly re
signed to the parting. Mr. Bassett’s views will
please perhaps, in his new field, but not here. We
gladly say “adieu” not “an revoir.”
A Funny Idea.
That is a funny story that comes to us through
the Associated Press from Elkhart, Ind. It is to
the effect that some of the ultra ultras connected
with the Chautauqua there, either as customers or
directors, have caused the engagement of our own
Georgia Sam Jones to be annulled, and Senator
Ben Tillman chosen in his stead. Sam P. Jones
needs no defense on our part or anybody’s part as
for that. He is America’s glorious free lance, say
ing occasional things that do not please the most
fastidious, but living a life that does—while a
thousand gems drop from his fearless tongue “like
Orient pearls at random strung.” And withal, he
attracts and holds thousands from month to month
and year to year as few men in the world have ever
done.
But the funny thing is the substitution of Tillman
for Jones. Undoubtedly that crowd has never
heard the birilliant but careless wielder of the
pitchfork from the Land of the Palmetto. We are
not defending one man or berating another. Neither
would we detract from the distinguished ability of
the rugged Carolinian that has at last wrung un
willing recognition and respect from the Senate and
the Nation, but everybody who has heard Senator
Tillman’s platform lecture on the problem of the
races knows that General Sherman was hardly more
“careless about fire,” as Grady said, than Tillman
is careless about speech.
The famed, and possibly fabled, dignity of the
United States Senate does not receive any helpful
embellishments from Senator Tilman’s platform
manner and utterances—to say nothing of the hope
less and hurtful doctrines he preaches on the prob
lem so perplexing to all true patriots.
But when it comes to language—carelessness of
tongue and roughness,of speech, there is no dog-fall
between Ben Tillman and Sam Jones. Tillman can
easily fall on top. Sam Jones may caustically
“cuss out” the “cussers,” but if you fool with
Tillman he will “cuss” himself. And then Sam
Jones will mellow and melt hearts for good and for
God, but Tillman’s roughness seems to painfully
lack the saving grace of religion. Here’s to our
Hoosier cousins, with the hope that their “ultra
cult char” will have a wholesome effect on the ran
tankerous Tillman and lift him to the winsome level
of Georgia’s beloved Sam.
“Paternalism” and the Packers.
Although our government has sometimes assumed
varied paternalistic attitudes, there has never been
one which seems more worthy of entire commenda
tion than the recent action of the Chief Executive
in making a thorough investigation of packing house
methods. The only wonder is that some such inves
tigation had not been made long ago.
During the Spanish-American war when General
Nelson A. Miles brought forward his complaint of
the “embalmed beef” furnished to the soldiers,
the charges were sufficiently substantiated to have
warranted * an investigation at that time, but the
matter somehow blew over, possibly because of the
stress of other topics of political interest. Now,
however, the report of the special committee of in
vestigation appointed by the President results in
most fearful revelations of the packing house meth
ods; filth, adulteration and even actual poisons going
into the tins of canned meat with which the country
is filled and which is generally eaten everywhere.
If General Miles is correct in his belief that “3,000
United States soldiers lost their lives because of
adulterated, impure and poisonous meats,” then it
must follow that an almost incalculable number of
American citizens have fallen under the same weight
of wickedness on the part of the packers.
Naturally, denials from the big concerns engaged
in the canned beef business must follow this inves
tigation and its charges, but it is hoped that the
positive stand taken for the inspection of all canned
goods by experts, will be faithfully and fully car
ried out.
In this case there is certainly well grounded rea
son for the most rigid paternalistic methods and
even to a conservative Southern element, where there
must ever linger strong tendencies toward indepen
ent government, the attitude of Roosevelt in thus
protecting the mass of American citizens against the
introduction of actual poisons into their daily
food, must meet with support and approval.
Theodore Perry Shonts.
The question of the successful completion of a
canal across the Isthmus of Panama is one which has
agitated the commercial and political world of both
hemispheres, ever since the brilliant Frenchman
Count de Lesseps attempted to repeat on the Isth
mus of Panama the achievement which made for him
a world-wide reputation—the building of the Suez
Canal.
But conditions at Panama were infinitely more
difficult than on the African Isthmus and de Les
seps’ hand had lost its cunning and his brain its
power when he began his work on American soil.
The story of that dismal failure and the ruin that it
brought to thousands of individuals as well as the
humiliation to the French Government, is too well
known and too clearly remembered to need more
than a passing reference. Yet the fact that it is
still so vividly recalled by the nations of the world
makes another attempt to open this much needed
canal a matter of supreme moment to the people
in general but to those of the South in particular.
When it is considered that even now the Isthmian
Commission is using Southern products for the work
on the canal, and that these products are shipped,
say from New Orleans, first to New York and that
a distance of an unnecessary 800 miles is covered
before the point of delivery is reached, the impor
tance of the Canal to the South will be in some meas
ure appreciated. But just as the failure of the
former effort was directly attributable to Count
de Lesseps, so, we believe, the success of .the pres
ent gigantic undertaking will be due to Theodore
Perry Shonts, the choice of President Roosevelt for
this most important work.
Tn a notable address before the Atlanta Chamber
of Commerce Mr. Shonts expressed his views as to
the outcome of the Panama Canal as well as the
great good to accrue to the world from the open
ing of this important waterway.
Mr. Shonts is himself an engineering expert of
ability, a lawyer, a railroad man of experiene as
well as an able financier. Tn each branch of these
diverse professions he has met with unwavering
success, hut his personal inclinations being always
toward the engineering field he believes that his best
work will be done in that direction. His intelli
gent enthusiasm, his undoubted ability and his strong
personality convince us of the wisdom of giving
Mr. Shonts the most important and ambitious piece
of work under public consideration at this time.