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THE DALTON CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1921.
Tbc /Dalton Citizen
mmus BTBBY THURSDAY.
The President Recovering.
*. B. SHOPS
*. 8. IM1HT
Editor
iuocUti S4It»r
Organ et tki United Stataa Circuit and District
Vertkvutwa division, Northern District af Georgia.
OFFICIAL, ORGAN OP WHITPIBLD COUNTY
Terms of Bnbserlgtiou
•me Year
$1.50
.75
•AO
Parable in Ad-ranee
Adrertieiag Ratea an Application.
Retired at the Dalton, Ga., postoScc lor transmission
the mails as second-elass matter.
DALTON, GA., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1921.
A town cannot be built up if everybody waits for
everybody else to do it
Selfishness is by no means a defeated general. He
always puts his greed ahead of the public’s good.
The La Grange Reporter is a model daily. Editor
Jones is one of the livest newspaper men in Georgia.
The express company still continues to deliver goods
with the promptness and dispatch of freight ship
ments—almost.
We take it that it is not out of place to refer to
Tommyrot Watson as the corn licker senator from the
imperial commonwealth of Georgia.
The Fate of a Grafter.
Robert P. Brindell, head of the building trades
extortion ring, which robbed New York people of
millions of dollars, has been found guilty on one
indictment, and may be sentenced to fifteen years
in the penitentiary. There are five other indict
ments pending against him. If he is sentenced on
all six, no great harm would be done, and perhaps
his fate would serve as a warning to extortionists
for all time to come.—Macon News.
Brindell’s conviction for grafting on the builders
of New York should have a wholesome effect the coun
try over.
There is no telling how much of this sort of thing is
going on in this country.
Brindell toiled not, neither did he spin. But on the
contracts of the builders’ trade union he was paid a
percentage, which of course was money taken dis
honestly from the parties paying for the building.
The sums of money paid him were enormous^ and
He was a long time being caught. It was the New
York World that turned the light on the gigantic
grafting operations of the building trades’ extortion
ring. .
Brindell has been found guilty on one count and is
likely to get fifteen years for it. There are several
other counts against him, and when all are balanced
up he may find himself chucked away in the peniten
tiary for the balance of his life.
It doesn’t pay to be dishonest, and yet there are
everywhere those who will take bribes and accept
graft. Sooner or later they come to judgment Their
sins will find them out, and disgrace and shame en
velop them all the days of their life thereafter. The
innocent members of their families are generally the
greatest sufferers.
Profiteering, graft and bribe-taking are all in the
same class, and if persisted in will lead eventually
to prison doors.
When a man deserves a bouquet he should have it.
When he deserves a brick he should be accommo
dated—and generally is.
Thomas A. Edison says we eat too much and sleep
too much. And he might have added that too many
exercise too little and meddle too much.
The railroad commission has granted the Southern
Bell Telephone Company an increase in rates. We
hope the increase will bring about better service—for
it. has been, and still is, rotten.
Now for a Bond Issue.
A great many Georgia cities have voted bonds for
improvement, or have called bond elections, and it
would seem that now is the time for Dalton to vote
improvement bonds.
Street paving must be done, and the crowded con
dition of the public schools is evidence that more
school buildings must be supplied. The grammar
grades are so crowded that the best work is impos
sible, and such a condition is neither fair to the pupils
nor to the teachers.
The city council is now moving with a view to sub
mitting the question of a bond issue to the people,
and within a short time in all probability the voters
will be confronted with the proposition. In all the
cities and towns wher^ bonds have been voted a bond
commission of the best business men has been selected
to handle the money and see that it is economically
spent, and this is doubtless the direction the matter
will be given in Dalton.
Mayor Wood has stated that if a bond Section is
called he is anxious to appoint a commission of suc
cessful men to handle the funds, who will see to it
that the people get full benefit from such monies as
they vote for improvements.
The most pressing need of the city at the present
time is another school building, and until another
building is supplied conditions at the schools can not
be ideal.
There are a great many things that Dalton needs.
It is to be hoped that the new hotel project will take
shape and that the building will be under way before
this year is ended.
A new depot is a necessity, and if the city would
begin making improvements it might inspire individ
uals to get busy and build up the waste places that
are eyesores in the very heart of the city.
Materials of all kinds are getting down to normal
levels, and there will be plenty of labor for the work.
Let’s everybody get busy and start something in
Dalton.
President Wilson is getting well, which is good
news to all really good people^ whether they be dem
ocrats or republicans.
Those who wish him ill, and say all manner of
hard and evil things of him, are of the Debs type,
and do not count for much.
But there is nevertheless a shameful chapter of his
tory written in connection with the President’s seri
ous, almost fatal, illness. When he was stricken it
was as if he were a soldier in the front lines. He
was in the line of duty and at no time during his
incumbency has he ever shirked a duty, or dodged a
question before him. Yet when he lay in the shadows
of death no word of sympathy, or expression of sor
row, was expressed by the republican-controlled senate
and house at the other end of the avenue.
No such exhibition of partizan hatred has ever be-,
fore stained tbe annals of American history. Let us
hope another never will.
But the prayers of tbe righteous of the nation; and
of the world, were heard, and today President Wil
son, as he nears the end of his administration, the
greatest perhaps in the history of the republic, is on
the high road to recovery..
The people are so accustomed to hostile propaganda
that they, at least many of them, think the President
some sort of monster, whose name is anathema and
whose very presence is to be shunned as if he were
the reincarnation of his majesty the devil. That such
propaganda is permissible is an indictment of a coun
try that boasts of its freedom and liberty, both of
which are often abused to such an extent that the do
main of unbridled license is entered and explored by
partizan muckrakers and political and moral outcasts.
President Wilson has been the victim of these as
perhaps no other president has. His very bigness
invites the hostility of the mediocre and little.
But the people still hold him in high esteem, as is
evidenced by the applause that greets him when he ap
pears in public. In Washington last week he attended
the theatre, and as soon as he was recognized the
audience stood and applauded him most heartily.
The Columbus Enquirer-Sun editorially comments
as follows on the President’s appearance at the the
atre : ^
The people of the ^United States as a whole,
whether they be republicans, democrats, or what
ever may be their political affiliations or leanings,
will rejoice to know that President Wilson has
so far recovered his health as to be able to leave
the White House and attend the theatre. This
he did one night during the past week.
Not only was he able to do this but the dis
patches tell us that he was able to walk up the
stairway to the box he occupied without assist
ance and that he sat erect through the perform
ance, indicating that his health is at least fairly
good.
The appearance of the President was the occa
sion for the audience to rise and cheer, indicat
ing that, notwithstanding that there may be, and
doubtless are, differences of opinion as to many
matters of policy between tbe President and them,
they, nevertheless, have no personal feeling against
him, but that they are really glad that he is again
physically able to get about.
President Wilson has been ill for some sixteen
months, during most of the time having been con
fined to the White House. It is true that he went
out at more or less frequent intervals but always
in his automobile, and with the assistance of oth
ers. He has not received very many visitors dur
ing this period.
President Wilson will retire from the presi
dency within less than a month, after eight years
of as hard and trying service as any man who
has ever occupied this high position has been
called upon to render. It was probably due to
his official labors that his health broke down when
it did.
Will a new hotel pay in Dalton? The right kind
of one will. This is no hick town.
The roads in this county are fast going to the bad
because they are not kept in repair. It is folly to
build roads and then fail to maintain them.
President Wilson is to be congratulated on his
Georgia traducers. It would be an awful thing to have
Old Lady Felton and Tom Watson praising him.
A thief stole Vice President Coolidge’s overcoat
on his recent visit to Atlanta. He ought to be thank
ful that he got out of that dear Atlanta with his
trousers.
Tommyrot Watson endorses the K. K. E. Certainly.
We are going to venture the assertion that most all
other outlaws will do the same thing.
General Dawes Visits Washington.
Brigadier General Dawes told the Washington
smelling” committee a great many things the other
day it did not care to hear. On the other hand, the
American people, regardless of political affiliations,
were heartened by the stem rebuke administered by
a republican who is an American first.
Since the armistice was signed in 1918 muckrakers,
smellers and professional fault-finders, encouraged by
partizan zealots, have been engaged in trying to make
it appear that the war was dishonestly conducted in
Europe. Even General Pershing has not escaped the
hissing of the envious and malice-bearing contingent.
With a plentiful supply of “hells” and “damns,”
interspersing his remarks, General Dawes talked
rather vehemently to the committee.
“What the hell do you think we went to France
for; to steal?” he asked his inquisitors.
We imagine that by this time there were a plenty of
“ohs” and “ahs” and “bated breaths” on hand in the
committee room. At any rate nobody was doing any
talking except General Dawes. He was also doing all
the ^cussing.”
“This country is tired of muckrakers who pick at
fly specks,” he informed the committee. More “ohs”
and “ahs,” but no applause.
And on the General went until he had finished his
story. It was a merited rebuke to a committee that
has spent $200,000 picking at fiy specks. When the
General was through the great majority of the Amer
ican people applauded, and they are still applauding.
“War is waste," and the world war was no exception
to the general rule. “Haste makes waste,” and war
is not an enterprise that can be successfully carried
on by the employment of dilatory tactics. Human
life is more valuable than money.
When this country was forced into the war by the
atrocities of the German empire it was not then a
question of dollars. It was a question of victor} - .
The republic must be saved and future wars rendered
impossible.
As long as rascality and greed and avarice are pres
ent in humanity, dishonesty will crop but, and the
greater and more stirring the events the greater and
more revolting the transgressions will be. Those with
out conscience or patriotism regard the opportunities
afforded by a great war as special provisions for their
operation. That grafters and profiteers flourished
during the war is not at all surprising. The
surprising thing is that there were not more of
them. And, as showing the greatness and strength
of this government, it won the war on the battlefields
in spite of them. But thanks to smelling committees
and partizon hatred it is about to lose the fruits of the
victory on Capitol Hill.
The jingoes are now busy trying to kick up trouble
between England and this country. If mischief mak
ers only harmed themselves it wouldn’t be so bad.
Let’s begin to talk that new hotel proposition over
in earnest. Dalton must have a new hotel, a new
depot, a new school building and some more paved
streets.
An eavesdropper is not likely to hear anything good
about himself. Like the fellow who examines a ballot
box to find out how “they ’ voted he is destined to be
disappointed.
The Griffin News and Sun is fifty years old. And
its editor is a bachelor. But being as he can’t help
it, like ‘Jack Patterson, of the Atlanta Journal, he
should not be blamed.
The trouble with the average labor union crank is
that any law that in any way restrains him should be
repealed. In other words, he should be permitted to
do as he pleases, law or no law.
Well, yes, Whitfield county is going to keep her farm
agent. The farmers, who don’t want an agent, ac
cording to the county board, are interested enough
to dig down and pay one’s salary.
Editor Loyless, of the Columbus Enquirer-Sun, is
right. The so-called Kuklux Klan is a dangerous or
ganization. In our opinion it is a direct challenge
to the courts. There is no need for such an organi
zation.
We don’t believe General Dawes omitted a single
word. The congressional “smellers” must have felt
very cheap by the time the General had finished with
his few “cursory” remarks. He referred to the fault
finders as “muckrakers who pick at fly specks.” Geor
gia has her share of this class.
It has been intimated to us that one of the reasons
why the county board refused to provide for a county
agent is that It does not like the way he spells. If
our information is correct good old Andrew Jackson
was not much of a speller, but he got there just the
same. “Owl Korrect”—O. K.
Johnny Spencer, of the Macon Telegraph, thinks
that after all movie tickets are not so high, “if you
stop to figure the cost of the stuff the screen come
dian busts and tears up and pours out in the course
of every picture.” And just think of the pies Charlie
Chaplin throws in the other fellow’s face.
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♦ CLIPPINGS AND COMMENTS ♦
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Mrs. Felton seems to be getting a good deal of
free advertising In the Georgia press these days.
—Rome Tribune-Herald.
Yes, such as it is. She got a lot of it trying to get
Traitor Debs out of the penitentiary.
Here’s a chance for another congressional in
vestigating committee—the cash in the United
States treasury is two-thirds of a cent out of bal
ance.—Columbus Enquirer-Sun.
Well, if that is so, a smelling committee will soon
be on the job.
Now they are all praising Harding for cutting
out the frivolities of the inauguration—forgetting
that it was Woodrow Wilson who first cut it out.
—Marietta Journal.
The Washington profiteers caused Mr. Harding to
cut out the pomp and ceremony.
Shouldn’t, think the Ku Klux Elan would get
very far In Boston. Wizards are not as popular
there now as they were before Br’er Ponzi took
in wizzing that time.—Macon Telegraph.
“Imperial Wizards,” whatever they are or ain’t,
can do the country no good trying to ku-klux it Wiz.
Ponzi didn’t help Boston much, did he?
Cough drops are getting back to the nickel
class but as long as barbers keep their prices up
the labels on the box wil have long whiskers.—
Rome News.
Shaves have been reduced in price up here, but a
nickel Coca-Cola still sells for a dime.
Every once in a while the Atlanta Constitution
gives about two indies to the utterances of Com
missioner J. J. Brown, the great cotton expert,
who told the farmers not to sdl when they could
have obtained a pretty nice price early last fall.
If the Constitution will just deny the two inches
the country will be better off.—Commerce Ob
server.
That’s true. Charley Barrett is another “friend
of the farmer” who merits silent treatment.
A contemporary notes that 84 per cent of the
business failures of 1920 were of concerns which
did not advertise, says -the Chattanooga News.
If we are not mistaken, all the contemporaries
are noting it. And, why not—pass it along?—
Columbus Enquirer-Sun.
All right. Here’s our bit.
Senator Harris’ resolution to investigate the
print paper prices is all right, although a couple
of years too late to save millions of dollars the
country papers have already paid to the profit
eers.—Marietta Journal.
It will at least be interesting to find out who the
chief robbers were.
The man who is too stingy to subscribe for his
county paper reminds us of a man Who -was ar
rested for squeezing the buffalo so tight on a
nickel that be was guilty of cruelty to animals.
—Greensboro Herald-Journal.
The man who is too stingy to take his county paper
doesn’t hurt the paper half asjnjich as he hurts him
self.
Those North Georgia counties that are trying to
run out their negro population are bringing re
proach upon the state. There Is room here for
both races and each is helpful to the other until
trouble makers interfere.—Cuthbert Leader.
Must be the “Clucks-Clucks” are busy in those coun
ties.
President Wilson received a great ovation at a
Washington theatre one night recently. When
he becomes a private citizen thousands of those
who have hated him will soften up. Time and
truth are mighty factors in clearing up misun
derstandings.—Commerce Observer.
President Wilson will live in history long after his
traducers are dead and forgotten.
It is said that Germany’s fine was based on
her great prosperity. The Germans should have
allowed the allied armies to overrun her to some
extent. It would have paid in the long run.—
Rome Tribune-Herald.
Germany’s fine, or indemnity, ought to be based on
her great depredations, the destruction of human life
and property. The kaiser, jyhen it appeared to him
that his Huns were going to win, in one of Ms boast
ful moods, said that he would levy against the allies
$100,000,000,000 as indemnity. The Germans ought
to be surprised at the moderation of the allies, and
lump at the opportunity to get off with half that sum.
The information comes that the railroads will
not ask further increases in rates. Well, we
reckon not, but if there isn’t a mighty demand
for reduction in the present outrageous rates we
are a poor prophet The railroads are gouging
the people on both freight and passenger fares,
while the express rates are little short of high
way robbery—Walton Tribune.
There is some truth in the above statements. Since
the above was written the roads have voluntarily re
duced freight rates from the northwest to the south
east. The items of labor and war tax will have to he
reduced before any great amount of reductions in
freight and passenger rates can be brought about.
There’s no getting away from the fact that it
pays the Georgia farmer to raise sufficient food
crops to feed every human being and dumb beast
on his place. It is a splendid idea to raise a sur
plus to be converted into cash, but the law of self-
preservation requires that at least the farm’s own
needs be supplied from the farm’s own fields, or
chards and pastures.—Albany Herald.
And for such reasons as above named a farm dem
onstration agent is necessary. Catoosa, Gordon, Floyd,
Bartow, Cobb and Walker counties wisely provided for
an agent. Whitfield county’s board, inspired by a
fit of superior wisdom, refused to give the farmers
what they petitioned for—700 to 70! Which, as a
fellow says, is czaring. kinging, and emperoring quite
a little hit. However, this good county is going to
have an agent just the same.
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♦ LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE ♦
• •
The Right of Conscience.
To the Editor of The Dalton Citizen:
If the reformers are not brought to a halt, the time
is not far in the future when personal liberty and
freedom of conscience will be reformed out of exist
ence. The fathers established a government of the
people, by the people: but the reformers are bend
ing every energy to change it into a government of
fanaticism, by fanatics. The fathers wisely left reli
gious matters to the individual conscience-; but the
reformers are striving to make matters purelv reli
gious in their nature matters of legislative action.
The keeping of Sunday, or of the ancient Jewish
Sabbath, as a holy day, is a matter purely religious in
its nature. For legislatures to enact a law requiring
the so keeping of either is to take away the right of
conscience from the individual and decide a purely re
ligious matter for him. The principle involved is the
same as if a law should be enacted requiring every
citizen of the state to he baptized by immersion, or
parents to have their infants sprinkled.
Religious-conviction leads thousands of loval Amer
ican citizens to keep as a holy day. the ancient Sab
bath. For the state to require them to keep some
other day is for the state to tyrannize over conscience,
and become a dictator in matters purely religious.
If history teaches anything. It teaches through
thousands upon thousands of pages, written in fire and
/blood, that when religion rules liberty perishes.
It is the beginning that must be resisted. When
once the state has begun deciding religious questions,
there is no end of questions for it to decide. The time
inevitably, comes when the state must decide what
religion is. When this has been decided the state
church has virtually been established.
Let the state set apart a day of rest. This Is need
ful. and being needful is right. But let the state set
apart this day simply and solely as a day of rest-
giving unto It not the shadow of religious signifi
cance. It is when the state begins to make what
should he a legal rest day a legal religious day that
the danger zone begins to be approached.
When the state makes it a crime for citizens to
Indulge In pastimes, recreations and amusements upon
a specified day that are lawful upon other days, be
cause that specified day is a church-day. a religious
day, a holy day, the state has usurped the right of
conscience and becomes a religious dictator.
The right of conscience, is the most precious right
any man possesses; and when the state, whipped on
by ignorance and fanaticism, begins to infringe upon
this right It Is high time every man and woman who
loves human liberty and government of the people by
the people were taking serious notice.
Well meaning people who are urging legislative ac
tion upon purely religions matters don’t realize what
they are doing. Their attitude proves their ignorance
a Jlrv’Z ’ the spfrtt they manifest is as foreign
to Christianity as anything can be. They themselves
arc religion s deadliest enemies. Their course pur
sued far enough will destroy both political and reli-
GHEERY LAYS
for DREARY DAYS
- BY JAMES WELLS
Writer of Newipaper Verse, Hvm n -P^_
and Popular Song Lyrics . ®'
Normalcy.
(Much is being said these dhys about retur •
“normalcy.”) mn? to
When a newly wedded couple
Seem to settle back to earth,
And each one appraise the other
At about the real worth;
When the epithets and teacups
Fill the air tMck as can be,
Then the honeymoon is over
They’ve returned to normalcy.
When the cMek you fed all winter
Never laid for you an egg,
Spite of all your feeding, pleading.
E’en though on your knees you’d be®-
Then when eggs were down to zero
In the spring, then lay did she,
Do not think she was contrary—
She’s returned to normalcy.
When a sick man nearly dying
Tries to make himself a saint,
And he’s going straight to heaven,
(Which you know of course he ain’t);
Then when he spouts blue blazes
With his fluent language free,
Why, the man is convalescent—
He’s returned to normalcy.
When you see a politician
And he’s winning of a race,
He is awful glad to see you—
Knows your name and knows your face-
But as soon as he’s elected,
He’ll pass you and never see,
For electioneering’s over—
He’s returned to normalcy.
+ ♦ ♦♦♦
Look What a World It I*.
Look what a world it is:
Blue sky above it,
Mountains and plains below—
Who could but love it?
• Look what a world it is:
People God-fearing,
Yet a good deal of them
Still profiteering.
+ ♦♦♦♦
Prayers.
Hear the auto owner pray,
He is hard up, I ween;
I hear him say: “Give us this day
Our daily gasoline!”
—Luke McLnke.
I hear the pious baker pray,
He is hard up, I know,
I hear him say: “Oh, Lord, give us
This day our daily dough.”
/ —Hastings (Neb.) Tribune
I hear the peaceful farmer pray,
Who holds strife in disdain,
“Help us during Ninetefen Twenty-one
To raise a lot of cane.”
^ —Cedartown Standard.
I hear the humble cobbler pray,
The while his tears fall fast:
“Lord, while this business is my awl,
I pray Thee let it last.”
'+++++
The First Spring “Pome.”
I long to hear the little birds
A-singing in the tree;
I long to hear the farmer’s lad
Tell Hulda, “Whoa—haw—gee!”
I long to plnck the little flowers,
And through the woodland stray;
I long to hear the fisher’s tale
Of one that got away.
♦ + + + ♦
Fll Say They Do.
“Man wants "but little here below,” .
And, fellows, you can bet it,
That all the tribe of profiteers
Will make sure that we get it.
♦ + + ♦ +
When the Day Is Dreary.
When the day is dreary,
That’s the time to smile,
With a song so cheery,
Weary hours beguile.
Though the sun’s not shining,
What’s the use -to cry?
Cease your sad repining—
Better, bye and bye.
What’s the use of pouting,
When a thing goes wrong?
Better far he shouting,
Singing of a song.
In life’s journey, ever
Clouds are in the sky,
But the sun is shining—
Better bye and bye.
gious liberty, close the Bible to the masses and
a spiritual dictator over the souls of men.
Those who love Christianity—those who lo
open Bible—those who believe in the freedom o
and women to worship God. undictated to by e
master—those who believe in government by th
pie, and to whom the ideals of the fathers are <
—should and must resist to the utmost this v
ignorance and fanaticism upon the sacred rig
man. JESSIE BAXTER SMI
We Agree with This Woman.
To the Editor of The Dalton Citizen:
Please give just a small space to reply to
few of the abusive things that have appeared
papers in regard to the much-talked-of women?
In the first place, men have no right to try to
to woman what she mu& wear. Since history
men have reviled and abused everything that <
worn. It is no concern of any man’s what
wear. They seem to think the vile things it
will reform her dress. Never! No one likes
an extremist but we have them. The average
dresses in good taste. The styles today are l
than in the last half-century. A dear old li
marked the other day that she would not let h
dress like she did. Said she married in t^ e
In her trousseau she had eighteen nice dresses,
were low neck, no sleeves. She also remark!
the fashion then was anything but pretty and if
wore it now the men would die sure enough.
I think it time for men to call a halt and
silk hose, high heel shoes, etc., have a rest; an
at home to stop the wearing of silk hose. ”
always believed in charity at home first.
that hate the silk hose ought not to Invest in
it is our belief the silk hose, like the automob
come to stay, so be resigned to the future and s
dreadful things yon have been saying. It certai
very little weight, for women will (just like t
do as they please. S.