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ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of the Second Class. # JAMES R. GRAY, President and Editor. o DESCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months 7oc Six Months 40c Three months 25c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the* shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires into oyif office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong departments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Qutfit free. Write R. R. BRAD LEY, Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are J. A. Bryqja, R. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyie, * L. H. Kim brough and C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only for money qaid to the above named traveling repre sentatives. > NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label used for addressing your paper shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention your old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or. registered mail. Address all orders and notices for this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL. Atlanta, Ga. . DEVELOPING GEORGIA. It Is an interesting sign of Georgia’s develop ment that thirteen new railroads were chartered by the State during the past year. These new lines, two of which are to be electric and the others steam, will have a total mileage of nine hundred and. twenty-eight miles and an aggre gate authorized capitalization of nearly four million dollars. " Such an investment hears striking testimony to Individual and public confidence in the State’s re sources. It is dirCcti c, for the most part, to fields of ’ enterprise, hitherto unexplort.-, The fact that most of the lines will be short and will serve local needs does net lessen hut, on the contrary, empha sizes the importance of the entire movement. The length of the projected roads varies from fourteen to two hundred miles; they will average about seventy miles. This means that divers parts of the State, which hitherto have been hut loosely connected with the main highways of traffic are to be joined to the steady currents of commerce and development. Their own growth will be quickened and they, in turn, will add to the enrichment of the entire commonwealth. The building of new railroads is simply one aspect of a general movement for the exploitation of Georgia's great stores of latent opportunity. Invest ments of ■ovcr^M^^^^^icre^tog steadily from -year toyearbnd^naeed^iran^mohth to, month.’ Hundreds of acres of land are being brought into cultivation and productivity by settlers from other parts of the Union, notably from the West. The State’s agriculture has reached, or is fast reaching, the stage of specialization.. New crops are being profitably raised, new veins of natural treas ures are being turned to account. It is only within the past decade that fruit growing and nut growing have been undertaken with businesslike purpose, aac’. yet, even within this brief period of experiment, it has become evident that for these industries, Georgia is one of the most advantageous States in the country. Likewise with cattle breeding, truck farming, poultry culture and kindred pursuits. The State’s production of food stuffs and its enlarging place in the food markets of the nation have an sconomic import that can scarcely be overgauged. The same observation applies to larger fields of qterprise and investment. The potential wealth . i ka’s streams and water powers is just, coming frious recognition. Her growth in manufactures, Pugh pronounced enough, has really just begun. The truth is there lies within this State, where al most every type of soil and climate and natural treasure are to be found, vast stores of undeveloped wealth, richer than Ali Baba’., cave and more won drous in their possibilities than the lamp of Aladdin. The timely significant fact, however, is not so much that this treasure exists as that it is finally being brought into use. The new lines of railway, (to which we have referred, are but one of many evi dences that capital k turning more confidently and more eagerly to Georgia and, indeed, to the South as a whole. For every dollar that was invested a decade ago, there are now a hundred. Despite this, however, there is still a vital need of means for plac’ng the State in closer and easier connection with the sources of capital; for, money and credit are the springs of development. Every sound effort toward this end merits hearty welcome and support. evidently satisfied with their country’s liberal trade policy; they know that free ports have quickened trade and have at once sustained and invigorated their whole business life. In the last election, the ^ Tories were defeated on their tariff issue. Mr. Bonar Law, the Unionist leader, concluded, therefore, that by some means or other his party should relegate this troublesome proposition and, so, he proposed in a recent speech that the question of food duties be left for settlement to a conference of the Colonies themselves. For f .hw:th, his leadership sank almost to a nullity and his party broke into two opposing camps, neither of which gives any promise of closing the breach that has been made. The situation has been compared, not inaptly, to the division which sundered the regular and the insurgent factions of the Republican party; and in the event of an election, the Liberal triumph should logically be akin to that of the Democrats last November. Better or timelier luck, the Liberal government could not have wished for. The by-elections of the past year have brought them many adversaries; their majority in parliament, though still effective, has been steadily dwindling; and they now face, in the Irish Home Rule bill, what is, perhaps, the most difficult and precarious piece of legislation they have yet attempted. But the demoralization that oversweeps their opponents’ ranks has suddenly lined the clouds with silver. Hopelessly divided over the big economic issue that has hitherto given it unity and distinc tion, the Unionist party stands before the country, for the time being at least, disorganized, impotent to meet responsibility or to utilize authority, a party without a clear-cut issue or leadership. In these circumstances, the Government, that is to say the Liberal ministry, might find it advan tageous to seek from the people a direct mandate on the question of Home Rulq and kindred matters of franchise reform. The Liberals, if returned to power under such conditions, would have a clearer and easier path to follow and the rights of Ireland would be nearer fulfillment than ever before. Whatever may be the upshot of the present sit uation, it is certainly One of the most interesting that English politics hgs developed for many a season. You can’t convince folks that the good die young. It will soon be. time for the annual massacre of the fruit crop. It will seem strange not to have but twenty-eight days in February. • The Democrats have started to revise the tariff, and still the country lives. THE TORIES’ DILEMMA. Should a general election he held in England in the near future, an event which now seems likely, the- Liberal party could reckon upon a more decisive victory than it has yet known during the past few rears of stressful British politics. That is the pros pect, today, although a month or-two ago just the contrary outcome would have been predicted. This sudden shift of omens is due chiefly to a sharp and really bitter division which has arisen within the Tory organization; and, interestingly enough from the American point of view, the split came over a question of tarilf duties on some com modities, among them being food products; their contention in this regard hast been that such a tariff would make possible certain reciprocal preferences between the British Kingdom and its colonies and would thus establish within the empire a stronger economic unity. But the rank and file of the English people axe FREE THE SENATE FROM THE “SENIORITY” RULE. The purpose of progressive Democrats to abolish the outworn and foolish rule of seniority by which the organization of the United States Senate has heretofore been controlled is one of the happiest omens in our new political era. If the Senate were a Chinese council of the an- ciept order where, as some one has drolly and truly said, “the peacock’s feather and the yellow jacket went to the oldest mandarin,” the seniority rule would' be just the-thing. • -But in an American and a Democratic body of lawmakers, in this liberal and workmanly decade, it is as unfit and absurd a practice as one could well conceive. Under the so-called seniority rule, the places and the chairmanships of important Senate com mittees are given arbitrarily to the men who happen to have been longest in office. Whether they are the best available men for the places and the duties allotted them, whether they will promote or encum ber the country’s interests, whether they will prove faithful or recreant—these questions are given only secondary consideiation. The vital test under the seniority rule is length of office tenure. If a Sen ator has been on a certain committee longer than any of his colleagues, then, according to this rule, he should be assigned to its’ chairmanship when a vacancy arises. This standard, arbitrarily applied, is about as sensible as It would be to distribute committee places according to the length of whis kers or the paucity of teeth. If a senator has served on a committee for many seasons and has done his work earnestly and well, then, to he sure, he would be peculiarly qualified and would be entitled to preference. But suppose, on the contrary, he had been on a committee for years and had reached a prominent place simply through the lapse of seasons or the luck of circum stance, without having .proved himself competent or really deserving of leadership. The seniority rule, while operating In hie Individual'favor, would prove a barrier to the freedom and the usefulness of the Senate. The Democratic party, now that it has come into power and responsibility, cannot afford to ham per itself with so un-Democratic a custom. Its own Interests and tne country’s interests demand that Its tasks be assigned to the men who arc hest fitted to perform them, who have a hearty and intelligent sympathy with those liberal and constructive pol icies on which the party has won the people’s trust. In the new Senate, there will he a working ma jority of Democrats. The country will rightly ex pect the administration, entrusted as it will he with the means of power in both Houses, to pro duce substantial results. The country will not be satisfied, and should not he, with lost motion, with parleying and delay and the fruitlessness that inev itably follows weak or laggard organization. How vitally important it is, therefore, that the Democratic strength of the Senate he made to count for its utmost in the way of speedy and efficient performance; and to that end, the Senate should he organized wholly with a view to faithful, thorough going work. Should the seniority rule stand in the way of this purpose, then the rule should be abolished without a moment’s hesitation. Committee places and chair manships should be assigned by the Democratic cau cus on a basis of merit, of capacity for service to the party and tne nation. When that is done, the Senate will not he considered a stronghold for special privilege; it will be in fact as well as in name, Democratic. Much will come out in' the wash or the divorce court. ' THE PART .THE AUTOMOBILE PLAYS IN GEORGIA PROGRESS The recent report that there were eighteen thousand automobiles and motorcycles in Georgia last year and that two thousand additional State license tags would soon be taken by the owners of new machines has evoked a deal of interesting and rather diverse comment. Just what does this con- tinual and extensive purchase of motor vehicles mean to the State’s economic life and its common interests? Those eighteen thousand machines represent an outlay of at least twenty-one million dollars. Forth with, some observers will ask: “Is such an invest ment a prudent one? It indicates prosperity, to he sure, hut are its dividends to the average man and to the commonwealth as a whole really worth while? Does it spell progress or extravagance?” There is no denying the fact that in a number of cases the ownership of automobiles is a precari ous venture. In this, as in many other matters, there are persons who plunge beyond their means and who, sooner or. later, must feel the pinch of their folly. But there is another, and we believe, a larger side to the question. While the automobile may be extravagance to some individuals, to the State as a whole it is a wonderful agency of development, an opener of new opportunities, a producer of new wealth. The good roads movement, which, in every part of Georgia, is increasing realty values, linking com munities, once dormant and remote, to the centers of trade and which is quickening every field of commercial life—this movement owes its encourage ment, if not its very origin, to the automobile. Not until the motor vehicle came into popular use, did the nefed and the demand for well built and well kept highways find potent expression. It was, so to.speak, the spark that ignited public sentiment and set the wheels of road improvement turning. Certain it is that the great era of road building and extension which the past few years have inau gurated falls within the period when automobiles began to appeal to the public as a whole. We realize the tremendous value of good roads today, largely because the automobile has centered our attention upon their vital necessity. The peo ple hkve always accepted the good roads gospel as a theory, but not until years comparatively recent has it been forced upon them as a gospel of works. The farmer knew that a .bad highway meant a loss of time and of profits; the merchant kjiew that it was a barrier to trade; the property owner knew that it kept down the value of his land; and every one recognized that it was a drawback to educa tional and social as well as material interests. Yet, there was no dynamic and concerted effort to improve these conditions; nor is it likely that there would have been, except in the snailtng course of time, had -it not been for the appearance of hun dreds and thousands of automobiles whose owners, facing the imperative need of good roads, became a band of ardent crusaders in this cause. This, as we have said, was the spark that released and uni fied the forces of highway development. Certainly, a machine that has done so much in behalf of good roads, and therefore in behalf of the State’s economic welfare, is an instrument for progress. Though it may tempt Individuals to folly, its net influence is incalculably constructive. The extravagance of individuals will of necessity find its own readjustment and finish, hut the larger influence of the automobiles will continue as a stim ulus and enrichment. In the long run, therefore, Georgia is to be con gratulated on the fact that she has perhaps more automobiles than any other State in the Soiith. Such a record, when broadly considered, is evidence of substantial progress In the State’s upbuilding. The old-fashioned editor who grows pessimistic over homicides in America during 1912, and evades the issues close at home, still exists. Some people swore on again on the first just to appear different. ANOTHER THOUSAND. AND-ONE NIGHTS Judging by its cunning delays and dramatic sus pense, the London Peace Conference bids fair to be come another “Thousand-And-One Nights Entertain ment." The role of the seemingly fated but resourceful lady is played, o. course, by Turkey. Just as the Balkan Allies, ch. fing under repeated postpone ments, whip out the sword and vow that the decisive moment has arrived, Turkey begins another story; and then all the Powers settle back to listen. In the outset of the Conference, the Turks were precise and emphatic in saying just what they would and would not concede and, in order that they might have ample space for diplomatic retreats, they took a very advanced position. From this, they have yielded on one issue and another until now they are not so amazingly far from the terms of the Allies themselves. The Porte expected, of course, that it would play other and more skillful cards than its handful of concessions. It hoped that the Balkan States would develop jealousies and suspicions among themselves and would lose their cohesiveifess; or that the larger Powers, fearing to entrust the control of south eastern Europe to any other than a weak and atro phied government, would call a halt on Balkan am bitions. But the little States have sedulously avoided the trap prepared for them. They* have rejected Turkey’s advances for secret or individual conversations and, from first to last, have stuck stanchly together. In the meantime, the larger Powers have increased thei: pressure upon the Ottoman government with a view toward effecting a settlement that will he ac ceptable to the Allies. Hence It Is that Turkey is making one concession after another; and, if she is only given time enough she will doubtless come squarely up to me Balkan demands. Editorials In Brief “I would make an ideal wife,” cfeclares Mary Garden. Boy, page Nat Goodwin.—Richmond Times- Dispatch. , * People in a live town never boast of their cem etery. There isn’t anything prettier than an ugly little girl just beginning to grow pretty.—St. Louis Re public. WHOM ANIMALS FEAR NOT By Dr. Frank Crane One of the beings to whom I look up with genuine . reverence is the man whom animals take into their confidence. I consider him as much higher in the scale of evolution than the man who enjoys killing animals, as Florence Nightingale is above Bill Syxes. Many of us are friendly enough toward the lower crea.- tures; we would not cause them pain, and we wish them the sweetness of life. Yet they are afraid of us. They run or fly away when they see us coming. Evidently they have no faith in us; to them we are devils. But now and again we find a human being who seems to have bridged the gulf that separates man from beast, as the unpassa- ble gulf separates Dives in tor ment from Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom. It seems a miraculous gift. I knew a man who could walk among a swarni of bees, brush them about as if they were pebbles, pick them up, and push them by, and never get stung. I knew a man, that could take a bird from her egg® and put her back, whilst she gave no sign of panic. Squirrels came to him, as they scampered from me. There are men who can handle snakes. There are men whom lions and tigers seem to regard as one of their family. There are even men who are more fa miliar with and at home among horses than among women. These seem to have broken down that wall of fear and hostility that separates the genus homo from all other animals. It appears to be a kind of sixth sense, an aur a im perceptible to ordinary mortal sight, yet which the animals nder stand. However, the dog is the one exception. It is no credit to a man to be loved by a dog. A dog will love yo*. whateve* you are, if you will let him. I have no difficulty in believing the miracles of those saints who talked with the creatures of the field. I believe in ole Brother Beni gnus, who made a bar gain with the blackbirds, that if they would let his cherries and peas alone he would supply them with plenty of “corn and manchet ends and marrowy bones,” which bargain was faithfully kept by both parties. And I believe, most of all, in that dearest of all ^ saints, Francis of Assisi, who loved bees, leverets, and* all wild things of t\ie wood, and reasoned with them, and, on one occasion, when he was walking the high way with his disciples he lifted up his eyes and saw some trees full of birds; and he said to his compan ions: “Wait for me here in the road and I will go preach to my sisters, the birds,” which he did, and the birds listened quietly until he was through, and haa giv4n them his blessing; whereupon they rose in the air with wondrous singing, and flew away to the north, east, south and west, in the form of the sign of the cross Saint Francis had made over them. Did ever a more beautiful story come down to us from the gray past? American Cities in iqi2 (New York World.) The growth of our cities, phenomenal in many instances, always arouses interest, and one need not wait for the decennial census to get a true indication of their relative rise. The building re ports, which are without incentive to exaggeration, are a sure index. The reports for the year, with estimates for the last day or two, have been made up. New York of course leads, with its phenomenal growth not only maintained but increased. No other city ever equalled or approached it. Chicago is installed duly in second place, with rather less than half the amount of building that New York has done. But below these two, important changes are oc curring. Philadelphia, an undisturbed third for decades, still holds the position in 1912, but by a narrow margin. Los Angeles is close upon her. It is a singular fact that this city, not so long ago a sleeply half-Mexican town, is :iow the fourth of the Union in building operations. It spent for that purpose twice as much money as Cleveland, nearly three times as ’ much as Pittsburgh, Minneapolis or Kansas City, and 50 per cent, more than St. Louis. San Francisco is considerably behind Los An geles hut is several million dollars ahead of St. Louis, while Detroit leads San Francisco by a fair nlargin. The building reports for this and the pre ceding years since the census indicate that Detroit is 'growing faster than any other of the lake cities except Chicago. Atlanta, has achieved more .n 1912 than any other city in the South, but Louisville, Richmond, Dallas and Memphis have growr much, according to their building reports. The greatest ratio of development is shown on the Pacific coast. It will surprise many people to learn tjiat Portland, Ore., has spent more money on new! buildings than Buf falo or Baltimore or Newark or Kansas City, and that it stands in tenth place. Seattle has also built heavily. Saving and Investing Talks A WOMAN’S JUDGMENT. BY JOHN M. OSXISON. Angels may he high fliers, but not every high flier is an angel, rmlwiiH— ill ■ i' No rose without a thorn. The parcel post has brought down the express rate on prunes.—Pitts burgh Dispatch, It is not fashionable to save. "Imagine me find ing out what a thing costs!” says Mrs. Average Amer ican. A woman who edits, a paper for bankers is re sponsible for the sentiment quoted above. She says that the mounting cost of living, is due to the indifference to figures shown by the modern housekeeper. "The habit •' of saving," she says, "is not a matter of pride.” But to hav e things "as a matter of course” is the end and aim of ‘the average American woman. No longer do women buy with the object of getting as much as possible out of them—rather the opposite, for the more you buy and the more indifferent. to the cost of things you are, the bet ter your caste. If the women who do the buying (please remember that I am still quoting my friehd, the woman editor) won’t consider the price and lasting qualities of things bought for the home, pray why should the butcher, the grocer, the dry goods merchant? He boosts the price for Mrs. Smith, his "wholesaler boosts the price for him, and the manufacturer boosts the price for the whole saler. My friend believes that if the average business man “should proceed in such a (manner his firm would have his head investigated ! for proof of the statement that ‘nature abhors a vacuum,’ or if he were head of the firm his business would take it upon it self to wither under his fingers. His competitors would be afraid of the very bankrupt sale of his stock.” Any system of saving which is designed to make the family a more effective unit in the economic world must have its foundation in the home. Smith's in come will never be so big that it cannot all be used in meeting living costs, for the producers of frills are the best paid, most inventive and most tireless workers in the world. "Saving is a part of the needed Education of every child, no matter how poor the family.” That is a true saying—imported from France. .It will become fash ionable in time, .too, . . , ||||| . , Till—LANDING AT ELLIS ISLAND. BY FREDERIC 3. HASH.IN. No cabin passenger ever sailed through the Nar rows and beheld the Statue of Liberty without feel ing a thrill at the sight. If it were not the thrill of patriotic devotion to his native or adopted land, it must be a thrill of pleasure at being sare- ly across and with a chance to set foot on solid ground so soon again. But, if the sight of the Goddess stirs tire cabin; what must it mean to th* steerage? To the steerage a new world is dawning and a week or more of an earthly purgatory ending. Dr. Stein er, the eminent immigration authority who has carried his gospel of kindness into many a steerage, himself acknowledges th^t often he has tried to over come the deep despair of the steerage by reminding its peo ple that though it seems like Hell, there is a Heaven be yond. He says that it Is not easy to travel ih the steerage; not because there is not room enough, or air enough, or food enough, al though that is all true; but because it is hard to be lieve down there that the God of Israel is not dead. * • • To the immigrant Fills island Is an ordeal. ThS "man at the gate" is a big giant who can speed him through or crush the life out of his hopes in an In stant. A thousarid lies, some useful, some useless, and some unnecessary, are prepared in the hope that they will help in the navigation of the tortuous chan nel of admission to America. Passing quarantine and the customs officials as the ship comes up the bay, it is warped into its dock, and when the last cabin passenger has gone ashore the steerage people are put into barges and towed to Ellis island, where final judgment awaits them. Their tickets are fast ened in their caps, or pinnned to their clothes, and their bills of lading are in their hands. When they enter they are lined up In long rows, with two doc tors for each row. They must walk down a narrow lane made by rows of piping, with an interval of twenty feet between them. As they approach the doctors begin to size up each immigrant. First, they survey him as a whole. If the general impression la favorable they cast their eyes at his feet to see If they are all right. Then comes his legs, his body, • • • his hands, his arms, his face, his eyes and his head. While the immigrant has been walking the twenty feet the doctors have asked and answered in their owa minds several hundred questions. If the immigrant reveals any intimation of any disease, if he has any deformity, even down to a crooked finger, the fact i* noticed. . If he is so evidently a healthy person that the ex-j aminatton Teveals no reason why he should he held, he is passed on. But If there is the least suspicion * 1 in the. minds of the doctors that there is anything at all wrong with him, a chalk mark is placed upon thd lapel of his coat. After passing the surgeons wn«t examine their health, tickets and their bodies, the lmJ migrants next encounter the one who examines their eye With towels and antiseptic solutions by him, the surgeon rolls the eyelids of the immigrants bacW on a round stick resembling a pencil. He is looking for trachoma. Those discovered to have it are sent away for deportation. • • * The line moves on past the female Inspector look ing for prostitutes, and then past the inspectors who ask the twenty-two questions required by law. Hers., is where the lies are told. Most of the Immigrants have been coached as to what answers to give. Her< is an old woman who says she has three sons in America when she has but one. The more she talks the worse she entangles, herself! Here Is & Russian Jewish girl who has run’ away to escape persecution. She claims a relative in New York at an address found not to exist; she Id straightway in trouble. • • • . r The surgeons mark about half of :he Immigrants with chalk marks as they file by, and those so marked go to another pen £or further examination. Families are torn asunder, and no one has time or opportunity to explain why. Mothers are Wild, think ing that their children are lost to them forever; chil dren are frantic, thinking they will see their parents no more. Husbar.ds and wives are separated and for hours they ’ now not why or how. e • * After the Immigrants have passed the inspectors comes the real parting of the ways—the "stairway of separation.” Here are three stairways, one lead ing to the railroad room, another to the New York room and another to the ferry. . , • • • To those who have passed muster in this ordeal the way is now open. They are inside the gate and their troubles are over. But here is a room 1 where those go who have been given tickets marked “P. C." (public charge). This takes them to an iron barred gate behind which sits an official who admits them and has them distributed to the various detention rooms. Sometimes 2,000 may be detained at a time. Conditions are admittedly bad in some of theae rooms due to overcrowding and Inadequate facilities, but all agree that the officials and those under them do all in their power to ameliorate these conditions. • • • Does the law work hardships at our •immigration stations? Yes, everybody admits that. Sometimes merj are turned back for trivial causes. Four Greeks were going to Canada, via New York. The Canadian law requires each Immigrant to have $25. They had $24.37 each. When they found their funds short they wanted to come into the United States, but they could not. A child is taken down with a contagious disease and is carried to the hospital. The mother must wait and cannot even see her child. A man and his son have had their money stolen from them in the steerage; they lack $25 and must go back. And so the sad tale goes on every day. • • • But could the immigration authorities be vested with discretion in the matter? Then 16,000 debarred aliens a year would lay siege to their sympathies and each would regard his own as a special case, and in- numerble difficulties would result All authorities agree that the system in vogue is Just about as hu mane and as free from hardships as any system that might be devised, and that would maintain the inter ests of the nation as paramount to the interest of the individual immigrant. It is, however, equally agreed that Ellis island is often overcrowded and needs enlargement and that many minor changes in the immigration laws ought to be enacted. * * • Sixteen thousand immigrants debarred from the United States in a year! Half of these are debarred because they probably would become public charges. Some 2,300 were deported upon surgeons’ certificates showing that they possess mental or physical de fects which might affect their ability to earn a Hy ing. Another 1,800 were sent back because they had loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases, while 1,333 were denied admission because they were con tract laborers. Pointed Paragraphs 1 A good way to have all the friends you need is not to need any. m * n The wise man puts his troub£"-4n pawn, then proceeds to lose the ticket. \ • • • People who throw bouquets at themselves are not necessarily fond of flowers. • • • And sometimes a man who calls himself an art connoisseur is considered an artless bore by his ac quaintances.