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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.