Newspaper Page Text
THE ATLANTIAN
1
THE PARTY IN OPPOSITION
Our government Is one of parties—
the will of the people is made effec
tive through parties and a disorgan
ized opposition is just as weak in poll'
tics as it would be in war. A majority
of the voters might be anxious to an
tagonize the party in power, and fall
entirely to make any impression on
the government while divided against
C. H. MASON.
Chairman Police Board Now
Serving His Term Without
Opposition.
itself and acknowledging no intelligent !
cohesion or direction. At present the
strength of the Republican party
comes from exactly the same source
as that of a trust—the strength of
many intelligently and consistently
directed will always win over a great
er strength that has no common lead
er. When two armies of near the
same strength fight a battle the vic
tory goes to the better general—two
parties of equal strength are subject
to the same law, except that the qual
ities needed for leadership are not ex
actly the same.
Now the government in this coun
try without a political organization
behind it must become impotent—it
could neither express its policies in
laws nor impress those policies on
the people of the country. It is equal
ly true that a party in power cannot
govern well without an opposition
strong enough to restrain and correct
its excesses; it follows that when a
party in power grows servile to its
organization it is unable to perform
its most important functions for the
good of the whole country. The par
ty in power must always fear the in
surrection of its parts in case it sup
ports bad policies—the party in oppo
sition should always be so strong that i
accessions from the other side will j
enable it to punish the mistakes of
its enemy. It is more than possible
that the Democratic party in opposi
tion has done as much for the country j
as the party in power.
We thus reach the conclusion that j
Central Bank and Trust
CANDLER BUILDING
Capital
Undivided Profits
Deposits
Five Hundred Thousand Dollars
Two Hundred Thousand Dollars
Three Million Dollars
A Strong, Well Equipped, Conservatively Managed Bank
4/ on Savings Deposits
YOUR ACCOUNT IS INVITED
Branch, Corner Mitchell and Forsyth Streets
ASA G. CANDLER, President
a party in opposition is as necessary
as a party in power—it is as necessary
to restrain as to govern. We now ap
proach the discussion of the late dif
ference between the Democrats in
congress. It is not necessary to de
cide whether the fault primarily lay
with the leader of the Democrats or
with the dissenters—we know that the
organization must be preserved, and
to do this the authorities of the party
must be obeyed. The leader may be
unfit, but the soldier is not justified
in deserting to the enemy when he
loses faith in his general. If the Dem
ocrats chose an unfit leader, they can
depose him and choose another; if the
rules of the caucus did not enforce
unanimity of action, then the rules
should be changed. A party without
a leader Is only ridiculous—a leader
who is not obeyed is contemptible, and
a caucus which does not bind its mem
bers who are not bound by the caucuB
should be considered free lances; they
cannot claim the support of the party
whose authorities they refuse to obey.
We speak in criticism of no one, but
for the good of the party and of the
whole country. Democratic congress
men should be competent to make
rules and enforce them that will bring
uniformity of effort if not of opinion,
and, if this be impossible, the sooner
Democrats resign the duties and re
sponsibilities of the opposition party
the better for all of us. Necessity
will quickly give us another organiza
tion to perform these duties. The dis
organization of the Democracy would
be a portent, and Is only possible if
; Democrats insist on committing politi
cal suicide, but if the party cannot or
will not perform its function, there
should be no hesitation in getting out
of the way and letting another take its
J. LEE BARNES.
Prominent Hotel Man and Police
Commissioner.
place. The country needs an opposi
tion party, and will have it—the ques
tion before us is not whether the Fitz
gerald amendment or the plan of Lead
er Clark be the wiser, but whether
the Democrats work together.
AN UNKNOWN CIVILIZA
TION.
Between the regions occupied of old
by the Aztecs, and the realm far to
the south over which the Incas ruled,
lies an immense stretch of territory, a
thousand miles long and eight hun
dred wide, where the remains of un
known and wonderful civilizations are
being discovered. This region extends
from the northern boundaries of Peru
to the southern limits of Costa Rica.
In one section alone along the coast
of Ecuador, six entirely unknown civi
lizations were recently brought to
light by Prof. Marshall H. Caville, and
a vast collection of relics has been
brought to New York, where it is stor
ed temporarily at a house uptown.
This collection is to be the nucleus
of a great American museum, which
will represent the history of ancient
peoples who attained an extraordinary
high degree of civilization, yet whose
very existence has been hitherto lost
in antiquity.
The famed marble chairs of Rome at
its zenith were not more symmetrical
or beautifully carved than those of
one of these unknown civilizations.
No pottery of any other ancient race
was more delicately patterned than
that found in vast quantities, as nu
merous almost as pebbles, on the sites
where these extinct peoples dwelt.
Their cloth was of truly marvelous
weave; in beauty of design, richness
of color and fineness of texture no
fabric of today surpasses it.
Thus far, Prof. Saville has not been
able to explore more than one section,
which embraces the provinces of Man-
abi and Esmeraldus in Ecuador, and
the remains are so thick that more
surveys will be necessary. Not a
grave is opened in Esmeraldus but
contains heaps of jewelry. In a single
grave, the bullion value of the gold
jewelry was $1,800.
The costly expeditions to Ecuador
have been made possible by the gen
erosity of George G. Heye, a New York
millionaire. Mr. Heye is a young man,
a graduate of Columbia University,
and is one of the most enthusiastic
archaeologists in the United States.
Aside from the large assortment of
relics just brought from Ecuador he
possesses the greatest private collec
tion of North American Indian arch
aeological material in the world.—
From an article in Van Norden Mag
azine.
"Are you insured?"
“What should I want to be insured
for?”
“Well, if you have your life insured,
for $5,000 for instance, then when you
die you’d get $5,000.”
“I wouldn’t get it, would I? Who
would get it, my father, my brother,
my wife? Who would get it?”
“What would you care? You’d be
dead.”