Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

/p) |~H\ r\ J BRARY • < ///O za jF^Bv^ x w jCrII }) <% lohßt Rst* ¥ 11 ® ««»jHTSAir> Vol. X—No. 2 WHAT ATLANTA NEEDS A Ringing Message Os Responsibility To Atlanta Christians IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS, DR. H. M. DU BOSE, THE COURAGEOUS PASTOR OF THE FIRST METHODIST CHURCH OF ATLANTA, DECLARES THE GREATEST NEEDS OF THE CITY AND THE STATE. TLA? TANS and Georgians have been told hv an oracle in lawn that what the Capital City needs is municipal A ss dance halls, less police oversight, abol ition of the Men and Religion Forward Move ment and a soft pedal put upon general re ligious and ethical restraint. Such advice would be startling if it were new, but it is no<; it is old, obvious and threadbare. It is opposed to the canons of experience, common sense and moral soundness. The only thing which could give it a call upon public atten tion is that it comes from the dean of a Cath edral. This fact, however, serves less to re deem it from offensive gratuity and the com mon-placeness of sham than it does to recall the incident of a bishop’s having advocated, a decade or two ago, the open saloon as a prop er club and resort for working men. The ignoble end of that travesty on reform em phasizes the folly into which this latest ad venture has fallen. While I have been one to discourage giving newspaper notoriety to these criticis and enemies of high public mor ality, nevertheless, since the evil eminence has been achieved, I think it well to indulge in some pertinent reflections on the situation which has thus received a sinister illumina tion. Tn doing this I dismiss the incidental personality of the oracle in lawn and count his utterances and performances as part of the general Philistine movement against old fash ioned righteousness and true social soundness The logic of the alignment can not be dis proved. Atlanta does need some things which it does not now possess, and it needs a tremendous emphasis put upon some things which it pos sesses and some movements which it has b gun Atlanta has a right to demand these things of herself, and the state, as represented in the capital city, has the same right of de mand. Atlanta needs a daily newspaper that will advocate the highest principles of Christian morality, and demands, so far as law and lo- WHAT A CHRISTIANS ATTITUDE SHOULD BE—Page 2. ATLANTA, GA., MARCH 4, 1915 such newspaper, and they are far from being journalistic mendicants or pensioners upon sen timental bounty. A daily newspaper in Atlanta that would frankly advocate the strict enforcement of all laws, including the prohibition laws; that would speak out boldly against all clubs and public places violate these laws, would By DR. H. M. DU BOSE. cal administration can secure them, the con ditions of social soundness and purity. Such a newspaper would, like many other industries ami institutions, exist primarily as a means ot* public service and benefit, mid only secondar ily as a means and end of financial profit to its promoters. These promoters would count themselves benefactors, as do the founders of self-supporting hospitals, schools and the like. Such a newspaper would at all times speak out in fearless and instant advocacy of right, the enforcement of law and political cleanness and honor, and would with equal fearlessness and swiftness condemn evil, official delinquency and political and social obliquity of every degree. Several American cities have each at least one Jglg DR. H. M. DU BOSE. not only voice the highest and truest convic tions of the best people, but would quickly augment a public sentiment which would be irresistible. The mayor of Atlanta recently, in an. official message to the city council, call ed attention to a matter —the growing evil of female tippling in clubs, cases and other pub lic places—which, had it been taken up and fearlessly and frankly developed by a daily newspaper, would have brought a cure locally for the most frightful menace to modern so ciety. As it is, the threatened plague gets treatment by a few pulpit volunteers whose . solemn calls .get characterization in the news paper press as “clerical antics,” or are pri vately denounced as fanaticism. Atlanta needs a great robust, modernly conceived, bright, but clean, newspaper whose message shall be the burden of the old Hebrew prophets —righteous- ness, truth and judgment. Atlanta needs, as already intimated, a more vigorous and outspoken support of its moral movements, as also a more generous and sym pathetic support of its officials who have shown themselves the immovable friends of law’ and social honor. It is so obvious that the Men and Religion Forward Movement and the fear less city chief of police fall into this category th: t they can not possibly be counted other wise than among the chiefest of the city’s moral agencies. The bulletins of the Men and Relig ion Forward Movement have always betrayed an authorship of genius and an exceptional depth of moral purpose. In any comparison with other cities, Atlanta’s possession of this bureau of moral ideas would give her a su perlative advantage. Atlanta does not need dance halls of any sort, much less those of the municipal variety; she does not need any place where intoxicating liquors of any character are sold or dispensed, and that the people of Georgia as e' pressed in plainly written statutes, have said. We want a real newspaper that will recognize this fact, and officials who will make it effective in an enforcement of the law. ONE DOLLAR AND I'll TY CENTS A YEAR :: FIVE CENTS A COPY