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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 Year WILLIEMT). UPSHAW. - - - - Editor A. E. RAMSAUR, - . . Associate Editor LEM G. 'BROUGHTON - - - Pulpit 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. We begin in this week’s issue a series of articles from that popular correspondent, Alex W. Bealer, which, for quaintness, originality and breezy pre sentation will occupy a unique place in our litera ture. In these articles, “Clippings From the Ancient Press,” he imagines himself a reporter on a big daily in Jerusalem or Jericho, or the editor mayhap of a country weekly in ancient oriental days, and these Bible stories are told very much as an enterprising newspaper would have printed them in those days. A trust has just been killed in England by the weight of hostile public opinion. Messrs. Lever, Watson & Co., leading soap manufacturers of Eng land, engineered a scheme whereby ten of the larg est manufacturers were consolidated under one man agement into the British Soap Trust, along the lines of American trust management. They were going to crowd out the smaller firms, grab the entire soap rnaking business, and literally and figuratively clean up the people, good and plenty. It was simply an American trust as applied to English opportu nities. The first thing the trust did was to reduce the weight of the pound package to fifteen ounces. Public protest brought about the restoration of the missing ounce, and finally the trust disbanded purely and solely by reason of public disapproval. The short-weight graft is familiar in this country. The tobacco trust. reduced the weight of its pack ages to recoup for the war tax of 1898, and has forgotten to restore full weight now that the tax is removed. The beef trust and Standard Oil are worse. There is a moral for our teaching in this action of the English people; but we don’t know what it is, until we have an opportunity to observe English public opinion lined up against the real thing in the shape of an American trust. Our sympathy would be with the opinion, but ou'r money, for reasons of economy, would go on the trust. Either the British manufacturer has a more sensitive hide than the American, or public senti ment in England can be made a more formidable engine for attack than here. Samuel Spencer. Every editor’s heart grows sick and his pen al most “refuses to float ink” when he tries to fashion words concerning the tragic death of President Samuel Spencer of the Southern Railway. That the beloved and honored head of a great railroad system should find death on his own road under cir cumstances of most painstaking care for bis safety, simply emphasizes the fact that no plans can be faultless, nor their execution absolutely assured when the element of the human must be reckoned in the account. We sincerely hope that President Spencer’s death will create a widespread determination on the part of all railroad officials to guard the safety of hu man life at whatever cost. The untimely taking away of Samuel Spencer is an irreparable loss to the commercial life of the nation. A native of Georgia and a graduate of tihe Stute University, Samuel Spencer never forgot to The Golden Age for December 6, 1906. love and work with special and commendable zeal for the people of his own section. He was gen erous, attentive to the sacred demand of the small things, and glad always it seemed to give favor and help to others. It is not every public man engrossed with the acumulation of wealth and the cares of business of whom this can be said, and we place upon the bier of Georgia’s honored son, the nation’s financial leader, a flower of tenderness bedewed with sorrow’s tears. A Wholesome Movement. We know of nothing which is fraught with more hope concerning the solution of the great problem than the effort of Christian business men in At lanta to put into actual practice the working prin ciples of the Christian religion in dealing with the negroes “every day and Sunday too.” The best of the leaders among the negroes will co-operate with these men in a most helpful way. In the church and in the school room these efforts are to be put forth, and we confidently believe that great good will be the result. But we have this suggestion to make to every man interested in the movement. Let him be sure that he does not becoi J’ a theorist only. Talking to a congregation large or small will do a great deal of good in cer tain ways but if each Christian man and woman will try every day to be a spiritual blessing to the life of every negro they meet it will not be long till the threatening frown will leave the face of the race problem and the shadows themselves will lift and flee away. Reader, try it. Make it a rule never to ride across town with 1 negro hackman without trying to help his moral and spiritual life. Put this spirit and this effort into your daily con tact with the negroes whom you meet, whether edu cated and law-abiding or ignorant and vicious, and you will find ninety-nine times out of a hundred a deeply appreciative heart, and you can thus begin to see with your own eyes the practical solution of the problem of the races. Wake Forest-Mercer Debate. The debate between the champions of Mercer University and Wake Forest College, which took place in Macon on Thanksgiving night, revived those inspiring days of forensic splendor, which meant so much to the higher life of our Georgia colleges a few years ago. There should never have been any abatement of interest in -these splendid contests. Honorable John Temple Graves did a great favor for the college life of Georgia when he launched the Inter-collegiate Oratorical Association, and it was unfortunate that any circumstances whatever should have caused the death of this association. Debates, of course, like the one between Mercer and Wake Forest, and like those between Emory and Trinity and Athens and Chapel Hill, may take place any time the colleges may select, and we heartily hope that more of our Southern colleges will arrange for these tournaments of brain and tongue. A man in college who spends much of his spare time in the library digging out the facts of history and the richness of literature, and who knows how to weave these facts into powerful ar gument so as to overcome an intellectual antagonist is, to our thinking, better educated than the fellow who can kick a. football over the fence. These thoughts are naturally inspired by the story of the inspiring scene at the great debate in Macon. The champions of both institutions did their part nobly, and the debate on the enforcement of the Monroe doctrine seemed not to be falling from the lips of college students, but from young states men, indeed. The fact that Wake Forest won the decision, naturally reflects great honor upon the stalwart young collegians, Messrs. W. H. Weather spoon and F. F. Brown, who came as “strangers in a strange land” to do battle against the institution whose standing in college debate had never been lowered until Wake Forest was met last year at Raleigh. N. C. But two successive victories for Wake Forest do not necessarily mean two defeats for Mercer. Messrs. Griner and Wells, at Raleigh last year, find Copeland and Jones at Macon this year, proved foemen worthy of the Carolinians’ steel. Mercer has to her credit a long line of victories in debate and oratory with many battles yet to lose before she ceases to be a leader in the speaker’s art among the colleges in the South. And the fact, of these splendid victories only adds luster to the present prestige of the great North Carolina college. No institution in the South has given greater men to the world than have been given by Wake Forest, and her representatives, whether on the platform or on the athletic field, have always exemplified the highest standard of college life. Mercer, nothing daunted, is beginning to plan al ready to break Wake Forest’s line of victories in the third of this series of debates in Atlanta next year. This honored Georgia institution is pulsing with new life and rejoicing in an enlarged student body under the magnificent leadership of President Jameson, and the lovers of thought and speech may expect a battle next year in the capital city of Georgia that will be an inspiration to the cofeges of the South. More Advertising Talk. We are just in receipt of a letter from an un known friend who signs his communication, “A Reader,” and renders us therefore unable to reply directly to him. We are presuming that our friend is of the masculine gender, although, as there is no female form of the word “reader,” we cannot be certain. The letter consists of a suggestion to the Editor that before beginning a crusade against drink the ginger ale ads be cut out of the advertising section of The Golden Age. It is fur ther suggested as follows: “Let’s advertise some thing good to eat, and not something that ‘giveth its color in the cup’.” From time to time friends of this publication have written to us making sug gestions along this and other lines and affixing their signatures at the end of their letters. All such have received courteous replies and their sugges tions have been given consideration by the manage ment of this paper. It may not be amiss to say in this connection that any one attempting it, would doubtless find great difficulty in meeting the en tire approval of every one—however friendly they might be to the enterprise in question and however sincerely they might mean their criticisms. In this instance we yield the right to every person everv where, to make us suggestions as to the proper man ner of conducting our business; but we at the same time claim the right to an opinion of our own. That is of necessity, after due consideration, the final arbiter as to what we shall or shall not do. We have never heard anyone—physician, minister or layman—young or old, allege that ginger ale was harmful. We consider it an innocent drink. We believe, however, that humanity could get along beautifully without a single soda fountain drink. Our grand fathers did it and most of them were hardy and lived to a good age. As an illustration, we venture to assert that coffee and tea are more hurtful than ginger ale; and the tobacco habit (not inluding cigarettes) works more harm than ever ginger ale did. M e have never heard ginger ale called a dangerous drink and we say in entire hon esty that we do not consider it so. We believe that those who want to accomplish real good for their fellows, have a warped sense of proportion when they waste time fighting’ such thing’s as this when there are so many terrible enemies to our life and happiness which should engage all our attention. To show the spirit in which we have written, we will add this: We would not for any consideration publish an ad\ eitisement of whiskey, beer or other drink known to be alcoholic and prepared for use as a beverage. We have refused advertising con tracts for other drinks known as “soft” and “harmless.” “non-alcoholic”; but which we had reason to believe were harmful; and will continue to refuse. Further we pledge our unknown friend Ibat we will discontinue ginger ale advertising immediately upon being convinced that it is a harm ful drink, and our minds are entirely open to con viction. What more can we do? If you have grounds for your objections, “come, let us reason together. ’