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The Golden Age
(SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS TORUJT)
Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Hge Publishing
Company (Inc.)
OrriCES: LOWNDES 9UILDING. ATLANTA, GA.
WILLIAM D. UPSHXW. --- - Editor
A. E. RAMS A UR, - - - Managing Editor
LEM G. "BROUGHTON - - - Pulpit Editor
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Entered al the Tost Office tn Atlanta, Ga.,
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'Robert Edlvard Lee.
January 19, 1908, the one hundred and first an
niversary of the birth of General Robert E. Lee,
has received proper recognition in the South as an
expression of the veneration a great people feel
for the memory of their worthiest hero.
Perhaps there is not in the history of the world
the record of such a life as that of General Lee.
Men have been great soldiers who were small and
unworthy in their civic life. Men who were quali
fied to lead their countrymen in the halls of state
have failed as soldiers or have been wanting in
the virtues and the patriotism of the private citi
zen.
General Lee was the choice of his people as
a military leader and proved himself worthy of
every trust reposed in him. He led the armies of
the Confederacy through a struggle of four years
which tested to the uttermost his military genius
and his nobility and patriotism of purpose. Over
come by superior force he was great even in his
defeat. And then he was greatest and dearest to
his people when he set them the example of the
private citizen, taking up the duty which lay near
est him, and going forward with dignity and self
denial to carry it out.
The years are garnering a rich harvest of honor
to adorn his memory. He is to the young man of
the South the worthiest example for his emulation.
He is to all men everywhere the ideal citizen and
patriot.
Help Tor the Unemployed.
Under the above heading, The Washing! on Post,
of a recent date, contains an editorial which seems
to, us to embody some wise general suggestions, and
in view of the industrial conditions now prevailing
throughout this country, which have forced thou
sands of wage-earners out of their positions, it
bids fair to become a question of vital importance.
It is worth the consideration of every thoughtful
person:
“We are not prone to look upon Austria as a land
wherein economic wisdom flourishes, but she has re
cently perfected a practical plan for securing work
and a livelihood to the worthy unemployed, which, if
adopted, to some extent, at least, by the several
states of the United States, might help solve a very
The Golden Age for January 23, 1908.
grave problem which we have had always with us.
The problem is how to keep our floating, restless
population of unskilled laborers constantly at work
earning an independent living. The United States
has never been a land of beggars, but it has always
been a country of tramps. Many men have become
tiamps from no choice of their own, but because
they lacked the skill to make places in the higher
trades for themselves, or did not know where to find
the employment they "were fitted for. The streets
of our cities and the country by-lanes are constantly
more or less filled with these idle, hungry men in
search of something to do. Long enforced idleness
soon makes vagrants of them, vagrancy breeds law
lessness, and in time they become a criminal menace.
“But in Austria every town has an employment
bureau where every man in the community needing
work registers his needs, and every man needing
workers registers his name and the kind of help
he desires. Thus, everywhere, all over the king
dom, laborer and employer are brought together.
If a wanderer reaches a town and finds no work
awaiting him at the bureau, he is sent to the gov
ernment farm, or government workshop, established
near, and is given food and lodging for his services
until the bureau has found a situation for him. An
excellent provision of the law is that a man may
not leave the position found for him unless he fur
nishes the district superintendent of the bureau
with proof that another job is open to him, or that
he has some other good reason. Thus he can never
become a public charge, nor remain idle long enough
tc feel forced into crime.
“Such a system may seem to be a kind of gov
ernment paternalism, but it is a paternalism worth
while. Austria regards idleness at the expense of
society as a crime, and punishes begging with three
years in a workhouse. Theoretically, that is an
American idea also, but we do little to put it into
practice. If the States could fix upon a plan
somewhat similar to Austria’s, by which society
could be protected from the idle and the -worthy
unemployed be insured against the temptations of
crime to keep from starvation, the whole people
might be greatly benefited.”
As suggested, the difference in the form of the
two governments, would preclude the possibility of
the United States adopting such methods as are
followed in Austria; but the principle sought to be
adhered to there, is applicable here and everywhere.
The honest unemployed person should be provided
for, not by means of a fund upon which to subsist
ir. idleness, nor by means of charity, but through
honorable employment of some kind, even though
the amount earned be necessarily small. Such an
arrangement works both ways; it protects the man
himself from the loss of his self-respect through
having to accept charity; and it protects him from
the feeling of hopelessness that in many cases leads
to crime. The Associated Charities organizations,
and others similar in their methods, perform their
functions with this end ever in view; and the time
should not be far distant when they will be de
veloped to such an extent that they will take care
of all the cases that may come before them. The
problem of the unemployed man or boy develops
with alarming rapidity into the problem of the
criminal man or boy. This subject merits the at
tention of all earnest citizens.
The Liquor Hen STre "Belvildered.
“Collier’s,” under the heading “Wild Charges,”
publishes as news a statement to the effect:
“The Distillers’ Securities Corporation, the larg
est producer and seller of -whiskey in the United
States, at the recent annual meeting of the corpora
tion, cut the dividend. Some stockholders having
w T ondered if this were due to the anti-saloon move
ment, the president, Mr. E. J. Curley, said:
“ ‘lt can be stated as a fact, based upon long
experience and statistics, that all attempts to regu
late the traffic by statute and the enforcement of
restrictive legislation have resulted in an increase
in the per capita consumption in the State af
fected. ’
“In the recent campaign in Alabama an effective
argument widely used in pamphlets and newspaper
advertisements by the anti-saloon party, consisted
cf a brief speech by the opposition, from which
we quote:
“ ‘Men who drink liquor, like others, will die, and
if there is no appetite created, our counters will be
empty, as will be our money drawers
It will be needful, therefore, that missionary work
be done among the boys, and I make the suggestion,
gentlemen, that nickels expended in treats to the
boys now will return in dollars to your tills after
the appetites have been formed. Above all things,
create appetites.’ ”
The editor of Collier’s very properly questions
the accuracy, and even suggests a doubt as to the
existence, of the “long experience and statistics”
referred to by Mr. E. J. Curley, and contrasts that
statement with the one made by the Anti-Saloon
League campaign in Alabama.
' There are some strange things in liquor statis
tics. One of the most prominent facts is that here
tofore the statistics have been in the main fur
nished by the liquor men themselves. Only very
recently have these statistics been sifted through
prohibition hands, and up to a very recent date the
statistics furnished by the government in some of
its most conservative and sober departments have
been found to be affected by very serious errors.
It is not likely that the liquor and beer statistics
have been any more accurate than those of other
products. About ten years ago the regular report
of consumption of alcoholic goods was about one
billion dollars. Since the overhauling of the de
partments that give statistics, or simultaneously
with some other moving force, the reported con
sumption of liquor and beers has increased until
in his watchnight speech, on December 31, Mr. Sea
born Wright announced that the consumption of
drink had reached the enormous sum of two billion
dollars. It is simply incredible.
The Spanish-American war disturbed the figures
by a slight increase of the tax. But that amounted
to a mere trifle. Yet the apparent liquor bill has
grown steadily from year to year, and this, too,
while county after county, town after town, has
gone dry, until half the territory of the Union is
enforcing prohibition. This shows what sort of
statistics Mr. Curley has to guide him.
In the meantime the prohibition statistics are be
ginning to be a factor. What do they show?
First, the number of arrests for drunkenness in
Atlanta for the first eighteen days of 1908, com
pared with a like period in 1907, shows that there
has been a falling off of about seventy-five per cent,
and that notwithstanding the excessive buying of
liquor during the last few days of the old year.
Second, the marked increase of sales of fresh
meats, shoes, furniture, clothing and the like re
ported from many dry places and abundantly veri
fied in Atlanta.
Third, the general depletion of chain-gangs and
the emptying of jails and shortening of court dock
ets everywhere. These things show that far less
liquor is consumed than was the case before pro
hibition.
Fourth, the jug trade under prohibition comes in
the express office. The number of jugs about equal
the number of barrels that used to come by ordi
nary freight.
The campaign document quoted by Collier’s, and
given above, is but a sample oi very many admis
sions that the liquor men have been making for
a number of years past.
We must be patient about statistics. They are
not all in yet.
beginning a Great "Enterprise.
On Thursday, January ninth, the first brick’
was laid by Dr. L. G. Broughton in his great new
Tabernacle enterprise. Several institutional build
ings will be grouped around the main church build
ing, which will be a reproduction of Spurgeon’s
Tabernacle, and will seat five thousand people. The
Nurses’ Home for the Infirmary is the first build
ing being erected, and the services attending the
laying of the first brick were full of interest.
Dr. Broughton has proven himself a wonderful
leader, and the progress of his great enterprise will
be watched, with intense interest all over the re
ligious world.
