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THE ATLANTIAN
6
though long since new shoes have been needed. It is marvelous,
the inability of men to grasp the crucial fact that nearly all the
hardships of law fall upon the innocents. All this, because punitive
law loses sight of equity, and exists only to satisy the State’s
exaction of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
Hut the State has no right to exact two eyes for one, two teetii
for one—and that is just what the State does!
You will ask how. Let’s see. The State brings the wrong-doer
before the bar of justice (?) and sentences him to prison. In far
too many cases there are women and children dependent for their
bread upon the wrong-doer’s labor. These the State callously leaves
to starve. On what grounds has the State the. right to punish the
women and children by taking away their living? The only grounds
that exist is that it has always been so—and we have progressed so
little that we can find no better way. Our punitive system, our
penology, is so little to our credit that our cheeks should redden
with shame every time we look at our jails and penitentiaries. Hut
we are so brutally callous that we actually take pride in a system
which, in order to punish one law-breaker, makes two paupers or
several potential criminals. With all our boasted progress, how
little we learn!
Lest We be accused of being merely carping critics, let us present
in brief a just system. The labor of a man is worth, say $1.50 a day.
Let us presume that it costs the State 50 cents per day to care for
the prisoner. That leaves $1.00. That dollar should be divided into
two equal shares, and one-half of it should be turned over to his
family, and the remaining half kept in trust until the conclusion
of the prisoner’s sentence to give him a start. In the case of those
having no dependents, one-half might be retained by the State or
municipality. That would be Justice. What right have we to con
demn the law-breaker when we first curtail his liberty, and then
steal the proceeds of his labor? Can the great State or the great
city afford to set such an example of dishonesty? We have the
right to curtail the law-breaker’s liberty—but we have no right to
take away the living of his family. The one is Justice. The other is
Vindictiveness and Governmental Graft.
Police Protection
Wc hear much complaint on account of the inefficiency of the
police, in connection with the numerous burglaries, thefts and such
like crimes. As a matter of fact, the police are in no sense to blame
—as can be shown very briefly.
A line drawn through Edgewood avenue and West Hunter street
would be about six and a half miles long; another line drawn
through Capitol avenue and West Peachtree street would be about
six miles long. Within those lines, the corporate limits of Atlanta
embraces twenty-six square miles, or 16,240 acres of land. Upon that
sixteen thousand acres of land stood, on the first of the current year,
35,898 houses. With the new houses erected during the present
year, there are probably now 37,000. If the whole police force was
on duty at one time, each man would have nearly a hundred acres
of land and two hundred houses to look after, and nearly a thou
sand people; but only one-half of the police force is on duty at
once, so each man has nearly two hundred acres of land, nearly
four hundred houses, and nearly two thousand people. The fellow
who thinks that easy, ought to try it on just for an experiment.
This is one side of the equation.
The next is the fact that the people of Atlanta insist on maintain
ing near beer saloons, which arc manufacturers of loafers; these
loafers are the source of much of our crime; so we keep crime fac
tories running, and then complain that we have crime, and kick
because the police cannot perform impossibilities. If we would wipe
out the saloon and increase the police force to, say, two hundred
and fifty able-bodied men, we could make a better showing.
The few lines, here written, show that the charge of inefficiency
against the police is not well-founded; the mere mention of this
matter raises a much larger question. We have the stockade, in
which we put a lot of human rerelicts, and then work them on the
street. If we admit that this is the best we can do, in that particu
lar direction, there yet remains much to be done in another direc
tion. There is.never a time when there are not a thousand idle men
in this town, white and black. The raids made by the police, on
these idle men, are practically confined to the negroes and are half
hearted even in connection with the negroes, because the policeman
knows in his heart that the negro is being discriminated against.
As we see it, the white loafer is no better than the black one. As
we see it, the city of Atlant ought to provide street work, park work
and other sorts of work, that will lead to the improvement'and
beautification of the city; and divide those street loafers into two
camps, one black and one white, and make them work for a living—
this is without taking into account any question of criminality. 'iVlic
fact that a man is walking the street, out of a job, ought to Im
enough warrant to put him at work, at an honest occupation, with
a living wage—and then make him work.
Of course, the cry would be raised that there is no money. There
never will be any money as long as we let two-thirds of our citizens
cheat in their taxes, but there will he plenty of money whenever we
have an honest system of equalization, and make everybody pay
just what they owe. Not only that, it would be the best invcHtment
that the citizens of Atlanta could make, from a purely investmenl
standpoint, if we only had sense enough to quit being hog-selfish
for about two years.
Frederick J. Paxon
Fred J. Paxon is retiring from the presidency of the Chamber of
Commerce with a record of accomplishment which his successors will
find it difficult to live up to. No man in Atlanta has, during Ids
term of office, been more in the public eye. Everywhere and at all
times where Atlanta’s interests were involved, lie has been in evi
dence. If he had been in private station, one might have suspected
him of vanity. Hut occupying the position of head id' the represen
tative business body of the city, lie has but simply discharged Ills
duty in showing up in the forefront upon every occasion where At
lanta needed to be heard from.
Kcsulting from his activity and the support of his colleagues, the
Chamber of Commerce has exercised a larger influence during Ids
administration than at any previous time, and he goes out of office
with the good will not only of tin* membership of that body, but
with the lively appreciation of the people of Atlanta, who realize
that, however much they may disagree with him on questions involv
ing private judgment, they have never disagreed with him on any
question involving the welfare of the city, and that Atlanta has
within its borders no more devoted or loyal son than Frederick »l,
Paxon.
Wilmer L. Moore
Wilmcr L. Moore, the new President of tlm Chamber of Com
merce, as successor to Frederick J, Paxon, is one of our well known
business men, who has been at the head of Hie Houlhern Stales Life
Insurance Company since its organization, Mr, Moore, like Presi
dent Paxon, is a young man, He is one of tlm best balanced men in
Atlanta. lie never gets excited—never seems to be in a hurry I but
somehow or some way, lie manages to get results, President Pa#nn
has set a pace that it would be hard for an ordinary matt In main
tain; hut though rn entirely different type of ntatt in many respeel*,
there is no danger of failure on tlm part of Mr. Mnore. Me will be on
the job steadily and continuously, and every friend of the Chamber
of Commerce will soon realize that the new PreabJent know* thor
oughly well what he is about, and that the Chamber will be a*
efficient under his administration as it lias been under the band#
the able men who have controlled it in Hie past.