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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. 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