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8 The Golden Age (SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS FORUN) Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Hge Publishing Company (Inc.) OFFICES: LOWNDES “BUILDING, ATLANTA, GA. Price: $2.00 a Year WILLIHM D. UPSHIXW, .... Editor A. E. RAMS AUK, - Associate Editor 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. Mr. F. L. Seely. The recent return of Mr. F. L. Seely to Atlanta, after an absence and illness of several weeks, has caused many expressions of genuine rejoicing among his wide circle of friends, and especially among the staff and employees of Mr. Seely’s paper, The At lanta. Georgian. The Golden Age covets the priv ilege of obeying the sacred injunction: “Rejoice with them that do rejoice.” Frederick L. Seely deserves everlasting honor from his fellowmen for being the unselfish projector of a great daily paper with ideals high and columns clean—flowing like a pure gulf stream through daily journalism and blessing wherever it touches. Great New Tabernacle. The announcement that Dr. L. G. Broughton’s great church, the Baptist Tabernacle, will meet the demands of its wonderful growth by erecting a mam moth institutional church building with an audito rium seating seven thousand people, has caused a refreshing sensation in Atlanta and will be wel come news in religious circles throughout the na tion. A little more than eight years ago, Dr. Broughton came to Atlanta as pastor of the Third Baptist Church, and on the first Sunday in March seven years ago he preached his first sermon in the plain wooden tabernacle seating three thousand. Later it was veneered with brick and enlarged to a capac ity of over four thousand, and now comes the nec essity for larger quarters, and at a cost of $52,000 the lot has been secured on which to erect a build ing costing $300,000, large enough to be a home for the different benevolent institutions of the Taber nacle, take care of the thousands that flock to hear Dr. Broughton from Sunday to Sunday, and at the same time accommodate the great conventions which have so long been shut out of Atlanta for lack of an auditorium. This will be more than the Tremont Temple of the South—for it will hold more people and do more benevolent work. And it is indeed refreshing to contemplate that through it all and over it all the vital influence of a definite and saving Gospel will be thrown. Humanity owes a debt of grati tude to our conquering Christianity for the bless ings that have come to Atlanta, the South and the nation through the commanding genius and the in spiring leadership iof 'this consecrated man of God. From a Preacher. I have just read “A Citizen’s Protest,” in The Golden Age of June 21st, and just felt that I must write (not to tell you how much I appreciate it, for I can never do that), but to let you know that"l do appreciate it some. It is the best thing I have ever seen from your pen on a purely moral issue. It is worth many times the price of the paper. * * * Never hesitate to put such things into its pages. Now you know that I am conservative and I in sist that these are conservative statements. Macon, Ga. R. O. Martin. Non-Partisan—lmpartial—Fearless. These words, carefully weighed and deliberately chosen, describe the attitude which I had mapped out for The Golden Age on every phase of civic righteousness and every moral question in any way affecting the public welfare. I had thought to edit a paper, not only to inspire and safeguard our youthful and formative citizen ship, but to help our full-grown and active citizen ship to find and walk in the path of Duty toward ev ery element that makes or mars our Christian civili zation. Non-Partisan—so far as political affiliation is concerned—free to commend the moral right and condemn the immoral wrong in any party organi zation; Impartial, in discussing public men—deal ing not in personalities and personal preferences among candidates for office, but standing for Prin ciples above every personal or party consideration; Fearless, in the advocacy of these principles— “speaking the Truth in love” as Paul says, but speaking it “though the stars tumble down!” This was my ideal—this is my ideal now, and an ideal lower than this would be unworthy that part of the paper’s motto, “Power in the Life—Purity in the State.” This much said, the editorial “We,” it seems, is not direct enough for present purposes and hence this personal state ment. The publication of “A Citizen’s Protest” in the issue of June 21st, has caused grave anxiety on the part of some of my friends, while from others there has come a refreshing plenitude of hearty commen dation. Never mind that the head-lines and many other lines in that “Protest” declared it to be “A non partisan discussion of a great moral issue,” the fear has been expressed in letters, both signed and anonymous, that I have made a tremendous mistake to publish anything discussing or attacking the at titude of one of the candidates for governor to ward his bar-room, whose proceeds are made white and right in the eyes of many good people because used to buy books for poor children. I deeply appreciate the beautiful spirit of the letters from my friends, but they must allow me to remind them that I have not discriminated between gubernato rial candidates. “A Citizen’s Protest,” after all, dealt not so much with the candidate and his attitude, as it did with the attitude of the “shouting multitude” toward this candidate’s attitude. But listen: To prove that there has been no unjust discrimination against one candidate and in favor of another in discussing a great moral issue, note well this con vincing fact: In The Golden Age of May 10th, I published a “double-header” editorial entitled “The People’s Ultimatum to the Liquor Dailies, ’’ in which I said the strongest things I knew how to say about the practice of advertising liquor, condemning, I well knew, the course of two prominent candidates for governor; and I took special care to say in that protest “or advertise whiskey in your newspaper,” so I would condemn the wrong in both candidates alike. The papers of both these men have been es pecially kind to me, one of the editors being a per sonal friend. I was discussing the birth and atti tude of The Atlanta Georgian, a great daily paper that does not advertise liquor. This new daily was discussed, not as a newspaper, but as a brave ex emplification of a principle to which The Golden Age is sacredly pledged. In writing that editorial I suffered in heart, know ing that it would cause pain to editorial friends here and there. I knew, too, that it might be used against the editor candidates for governor, but I could not afford to wait until the “dog days” of August had passed to utter a moral truth that ought to be spoken straight from the shoulder, campaign or no campaign! In that editorial I wrote these words concerning the sale of space in ilquor dailies: “Then you de liberately sell for money the right to do wrong. You had not thought of it that way? But your space is to your paper what your life-blood is to your body—what your virtue is to your character; Editor The Golden Age for July 12, 1906. and yet you bargain for gain the red blood of your being, you barter for gold the white purity of your virtue! Your space for sale indeed! All right. Then, sell it to a lewd house. As bright men are allowed the privilege of describing the ‘attractive qualities’ of certain brands of liquor for your read ers, so, then, sell a page of your sacred space where harlots may hold high carnival as they fling their blandishments before your sons! If your space is for sale, then sell it to a gambling den. Let the owners of American Monte Carlos, large or small, depict for the unwary on the page they buy from you, the ‘thrill’ and ‘excitement,’ and ‘possibilities’ of the gambling table—but hide, oh! hide the hor ror and the hell they bring! ! !” Now, that is what I wrote six weeks before “A Citizen’s Protest,” and if those words do not con demn the wrong on the part of two editor candidates for governor of Georgia, then I will confess I don’t know how to put condemnation into words. And yet it is singular that none of the friends of these editors wrote to complain that I ought to have left those caustic words unspoken “until after election day.” It might not be amiss to remark before appending my signature, that I am “twenty-one years old, a free-born American citizen, a Southerner, a 1 Rebel’ a Democrat, and a Baptist,” and I propose to speak my mind on these paramount moral issues until my pen 11 refuses to float the ink, ’ ’ and the type refuses to spell out my meaning to the makers and venders of rum. And my friends might as well pos sess their souls in patience, for the little I have said thus far is only a slight “moving in the tops of the mulberry trees,” compared with the battle which The Golden Age intends to wage against that bloody blight of commercialism which is being sown into the minds and hearts of men and women all over our land—that the saloon is justified in the sight of candidates and voters—if the proceeds be used for education and benevolence. God helping us, we will not submit to this insidious and fatal doc trine. Get ready! The battle is coming! The bugle is sounding afar! William D. Upshaw. Echoes. From Columbus. I write to thank you, not once, but over and over again for your manly, powerful article in The Gold en Age of June 21st, against the charity saloon. It took courage to write that article and brave men everywhere will commend you. John T. Davis. From Tennessee. I must thank you for your strong courteous, con vincing article, “A Citizen’s Protest.” You have been true to your conscience and true to Truth, and you have expressed yourself in such courtesy and kindness of speech that no man who differs from you can feel offended. And surely the people them selves will be made to think of the awful effect of compromising with liquor in any form. The Golden Age has a great mission. Continue to be true and God will bless you. Knoxville, Tenn. A. J. Holt. From a Mother. How bravely you have met your first great fight in the temperance war! I am sure the “Citizen’s Protest” pleased the Lord very much. And sweeter than anything else is His approving smile. If St. Paul had been wrting for The Golden Age or a daily paper I think he would have said just about what you did. You must have “wrestled all night.” Such a piece of brain and heart work as that can only be done after much earnest prayer. It reminded me very much of Grady’s Boston speech. Os all the great and noble things you have been charged with for twenty years, this must be the very greatest and best. Better have the “Protest” printed in booklet form. It ought to be preserved in every home. Bowdon, Ga, Mrs. Mattie Shelnut Morris.