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8 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.