Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

4 THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA„ TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1913. THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of the Second Class. JAMSS R. GftAY, President and Editor. o> UBSCR1FTXON PRICE Twelve months "Sc Six Months 4 ' )c 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 our 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. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD LEY, Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are J. A. Bryan. R. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyie. L. H. Kim brough and C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling repre sentatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label used for addressing your paper shows' the time youi 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, Turning Agricultural Knowledge to Account. It has been truly said that if half the knowledge gained through the researches of the Federal De partment- of Agriculture, the various State colleges o" agriculture and the experiment stations were put •vorkmanly use, the methods of American farm ing would be revolutionized in less than a decade and the productive wealth of the soil would be more than doubled. The vital and urgent problem, there fore, Is to place these vast stores of knbwledge di rectly within-the reach of the men on the farm. This can best be done through a thoroughgoing system of educational extension work whereby the truths that now are available only to a limited num ber of students and to favored localities may he car ried to the rank and file of those actually between the ploughshare and to the homes of every rural community. A bill to this effect, which was introduced by Sen ator Smith of Georgia, is now before the Senate. There are cheering indications that it will soon be come a law. It has already passed the House; it has the hearty indorsement of leading educators and associations throughout the Union and the support of all interests that appreciate the essential bearing of agriculture upon every sphere of economic en deavor. national government and the individual States have devoted much time, and m v oney to the discovery of new facts and principles in the divers branches of farming. In agricultural col- deges and experiment stations, Congress has spent some seventy million dollars and it is now spending nearly four million dollars annually for the same purpose. This fund is increased eleven million dol lars a year by appropriations from the States and from allied sources; and for the twelvemonth which ended June the thirtieth, 1912, Congress allotted fif teen million dollars to the exclusively agricultural work of the Department, of Agriculture. This great sum has been-wisely invested; hut the important fact is that by far its larger portion is applied to matter^ of research and experimentation; and it is needed for just such activities. Unless, however, means are provided for carrying the infor mation thus acquired directly to the farm, these million^ of money cannot yield due results. Knowl edge is capital but the nation cannot afford to let this splendid stock of its capital lie comparatively idle; it must be put into circulation, must be made to..count definitely for the country’s enrichment and progress. 'The director of the federal Office of Experiment Stations has aptly observed in this connection: Heretofore interest in agricultural develop ment has been largely in the direction of secur ing new truths. A vast amount of valuable in- * formation ■ is now in existence, waiting some effective means of getting it into operation by .the farming people of the United States. It has been found that the mere publication of results in bulletins and pamphlets is not sufficient. . . The agricultural colleges were created and or ganized chiefly for the benefit of agriculture. They have devoted themselves to perfecting organization and courses of study for the educa tion of th/eir students and by means of experi ment stations to the investigation and discovery of agricultural truths. Recently there have . arisen demands upon these institutions for in formation and assistance outside their class rooms by persons engaged in agriculture, unable to attend these colleges as students.” This is the very class of persons it is essential to reach and to aid. The number of men, young or mature, who have tlu time and the means to attend an agricultural schoo' is comparatively small. Yet, it is they who must be heartened and guided in their work, if the country’s agricultural resources are to be turned to full account. The bill now before the Senate provides the money and the machinery for carrying forward this important enterprise. It calls for a fixed appropria tion from the Treasury of ten thousand dollars un conditionally to each State and for an appropriation beginning with three hundred thousand dollars a year, July the first. 1913, to be prorated among the States according to their rural population. This lat ter amount is to be increased three hundred thou sand dollars each /ear until 1913 when the max imum of three million dollars will be reached In order to receive its pro rata share of this particular fund, a State must >'lot an equal amount for the same purpose. The national appropriations are to be expended by the State colleges of agriculture through their extension departments. Three-fourths of the lponey, it is stipulated,* must be employed in actual field demonstrations; that is to say, competent agents or instructors must be sent into the various, districts and counties of a. State and show the farmers how the soil can be most profitably cultivated, how diffi culties can be mastered, how the land can be best adapted to one crop or another and, in short, bring the known truths of agricultural science into prac tical and popular use. Twenty per cent of tne fund to which we have re ferred must be used for instruction in household economics and matters that concern the domestic side of rural life. Thus the bill is liberal in its scope, providing for the illumination and enrich ment of every phase of rural interests. If this measure becomes a law, the American peo ple, regardless of their residence, whether in town or country, regardless of their vocation, whether in an office or on a farm, will be incalculably benefited; for the greatest achievements, like the greatest con quests, are those made with the plough. It's easy to bear the ills we haven’t. The average married woman has a lifelong job without wages. - 1 Anyway,, a woman would rather have cold feet than large ones. How would you iik? to be compelled to love your self as you do your neighbors? Three Interesting Conventions. Three conventions that are peculiarly important to farming interests and, indirectly so, to the gen eral public will meet this week in Athens at the State College of Agriculture. They will represent thd Georgia Live Stock and Dairy Association, the Breeders’ Association and the State Horticultural Society. The former two are closely related and will doubtless unite in their daily discussions on Wed nesday, Thursday and Friday. All three conventions will bring together for common counsel -men who are working more or less as pioneers, in a particularly promising field of opportunity. The development of Georgia livestock and dairy ing industry is a matter in which the entire State has cause to be interested. In no part of the country are natural conditions more favorable to the raising and marketing of livestock than in Georgia. The equable climate, the cheapness of housing and feed ing, the adaptability of the soil to all manner of grasses and forage and the numerous tracts of avail able land—all these circumstances offer unusual in ducements to stock breeding. For many years past, a few farsighted men have been earnestly striving to encourage and promote this industry. Their number has increased aud their purpose has foun ’ organized expression through the Live Stock and Dairying and the Breeders’ associa tions. The faithfulness with which they have urged this enterprise upon the State’s attention is at last bearing reults. Cattle breeding is no longer a haphazard venture in Georgia. It is being conducted along well-consid ered and progressive lines. Its problems are being overcome and its profits more and more widely real ized. So with all the allied fields of live stock rais ing. The forthcoming convention will doubtless show that the past year has been one of substantial growth and will do much to quicken and extend this industry in the future. The Horticultural Society represents one of the State’s most productive spheres of endeavor. It is difficult to realize how comparatively recent an in dustry is peach growing in Georgia. But it would be still more difficult to conceive a limit for this and otlier branches of fruit culture. The wonderful popularity of the Georgia peach will s6on be parallelled by that of the Georgia ap ple. Skilled and experienced students of horticulture declare that nowhere in the world can there be found a combination of climate and soil more favor able to the production of apples than in north Georgia. This State enjoys a peculiar advantage, too, in its relative nearness to the great fruit markets of the North and the East. There is every reason to believe, therefore, that when the apple industry is well under way—and it is now progressing by leaps and bounds—it will prove one of the most enriching resources Georgia has ever known. The Horticultural Society renders valuable ser vice in uniting fruit growers in liberal and scien tific endeavor.' Its annual convention should be largely attended and all its efforts generously sup ported. ' It’s the easiest thing in the world for the average person to make a bad break. It takes a born diplomat to appear interested in other people’s troubles. Even Mr. Baker seems to be of the opinion that 226 per cent is enough. American Inventions Abroad. . Within the ! past twelvemonth, eleven thousand miles of motion picture film, made in the United States, were sold to Europe. This is but one among many interesting items in a recent report of the De partment of Commerce and Labor, which show how important a factor in the country’s foreign trade in ventions are. It is rather surprising to learn that America is thj world’s largest producer of motion picture films —that her capital and ingenuity are invading the history, the romance and the scenic wonders of the Old World and, as one observer happily puts it, “showing Europe how interesting she is and making a profit by the transaction.” Even more impressive than this record is the fact that a million dollars worth of American telephones were shipped abroad in 1912. This one invention, with its continuous and creative touch upon man’s life, would suffice to give the United States a fore most place in the story of civilization; besides that, it* is proving a direct source of national wealth and foreign trade. Most striking of all, perhaps, is the statement that thirty million dollars’ worth of American auto mobiles were exported last year. What a distinctive triumph for the industrial genius of the United States that it has outdistanced the European man ufacturers in this important field! The American car is winning its way abroad chiefly by the fact that it is within the reach of men whose incomes are little above the average. The invention and perfection of the automobile meant much; hut to have made it a generally available and a really useful machine, instead of merely a rich man’s luxury, means even more. The average export price of the American automobile last year was less thfin a thousand dollars; that, combined with cred itable workmanship, is the secret of its world-wide popularity. - — . . . ----- iMIjilii 1 Parcel Post On the Wing. An intrepid young aviator of Massachusetts has been commissioned by the postal authorities to carry mail mid-air from Boston to New York and inter vening points. It is said that he will confine his ventures to the parcel post, but in that field he will undertake to deliver any load not exceeding twenty-five pounds. Such is the ambition of our birdmen and the uptodateness of American institutions. What is new today must be made (if the word be allowable) still “newer” tomorrow, or it ceases to hold our interest. The parcel post offers aviation a chance to re deem itself from rather a prolonged season of un- eventijflness. Aside from the average number of accidents and fatalities due to reckless flying, the airship world, on this side of the Atlantic at least, has been un usually tame for many months past. No new records have been established, no thrill ing achievements have been made, no principles of far-reaching consequence have been discovered or applied. Indeed, the ordinary reader is at a loss to know just where the science and art of fllying now stand— whether they are progressing or are stationary. So far as the army and navy are concerned, avia tion is being continually pressed forward and is yielding more and more important results. But as for the general public, the airship is not the thing of magic and of ceaseless surprise that it was a year or two ago. If the Massachusetts birdman succeeds in deliv ering eggs and vegetables to the housewives along his aerial route, thereby putting wings on the parcel post, he will become the hero of the hour. Cleave to the good and use a cleaver on the bad. Europe probably would feel a bit awkward with out some kind of war rumor. The status of the weather, neither hot nor cold, revives the old quandary about whisky and beer. If there is any conversation between the gover nors of the Carolinas, it seems to be Blease’s inning. A Season of Probes. No reader of Congressional news can be unim pressed by the number of probes or investigations which the House is now conducting. The so-called Money Trust is being taken to pieces and examined in all its intricate wheels and springs. The Shipping Trust is being hauled ashore and explored. The tariff schedules, made for the enrichment of a few special interests at the expense of the people as a whole, are being analyzed with a view to a fairer readjustment. The national currency system is being studied more keenly and more broadly than ever before in the hope that it may he made more adequate to com mon business needs. And besides these investigations, there are a number of inquiries into less general but scarcely less important problems. There are persons who may regard these divers probes as the evidences of a fretful and muck-raking time, the froth oi a sensation that will soon pass and leave nothing substantial behind it. There are others to whom the investigations sig nify an era of graft and injustice unparalleled. Neither of these views is the true one. The fact that Congressional committees are prob ing into all manner of abuses and inefficiencies sim ply shows that the rank and file of American citi zens are more alert to'their rights than they have been for many a decade. When hidden tyrannies are dragged to light, then political and economic freedom begins to shine. When a nation sets out tc cure the ills of its government then national health is assured. Cheerful note from the gloom of the weather. It is helping winte;- wheat. Amundsen is going to make a tour of the country, but it won’t create the excitement of a Cook tour. The authorities evidently do not construe Cas tro’s eagerness to enter the United States as a com pliment. The Income Tax Amendment. The proposed Income Tax amendment has been ratified by the Legislatures of thirty-four States; to assure its adoption the approval of only two more States is needed. The weight of popular judgment back of this measure leaves no doubt that ultimately it will be come effective. It is important, however, and especially so from the Democratic standpoint, that the amendment he ratified and made operative with the least possible delay. , The incoming administration is pledged to down ward tariff revision. The people have ordered that the tariff tax on the necessaries of life be removed in so far as is practicable and that all tariff schedules be read justed with a view to common economic interests. Early next spring_ Congress will be called into extra session in order that this popular mandate may be carried into effect. If by that time the Income Tax amendment has been ratified by three-fourths of the States, or is definitely assured the required majority of votes, the work of tariff revision will be made simpler and surer. A new source of government revenue will have been provided and thus the way toward guarantee ing the rights of the country’s consumers in respect to tariff duties will be clear. In every State where no legislative decision on the amendment has yet been made, prompt action should be taken. Public sentiment should organize and exert itself to that end. The amendment should be adopted on its own account and also on account of its present bearing upon tariff reform. Cold cash has produced many quitters. Even the deadbeat is always willing to pay a grudge. It looks as if the country was throwing light in all the dark places. Indications now are that spring will arrive along in the latter part of Marph, ., ... .. . .. The Labor Cause Is Not a Class War, but the Cause of Humanity By Dr. Frank Crane It ought to be clearly understood that those who employ violence are the worst enemies of labor. The men who shoot policemen, smash factories, wreck freight cars, and blow up houses are the men who are doing most toward retarding the movement of the laboring people toward their full rights. It ought also be understood why this is so. It is so because the cause of labor is not a class war. It is the cause of humanity itself. The cause of the masses is the cause of justice. The case is not one wher e two dogs are quar reling over a bone. Capital and labor are not enemies in an eter nal feud. What one gets is not necessarily robbed from another. Their interests are mutual. What the sensible, honest workingman wants is not some thing that belongs to somebody else; he wants what belongs to him. He does not desire to beat anybody, whip any body, nor be avenged upon anybody. All he wants is a square deal. Now, violence and riot never wrought a square deal for any man or class since the foundation of the world. They invariably have ended in conditions of anarchy, and anarchy is the mother of tyranny. When there is no law the people welcome a despot. Far better is the rottenest ruler of absolutism, with law and order, than the most vociferous democracy where life is insecure and property unstable. We are of English blood. The English genius stands for reform by law. Look at the progress in England during the nineteenth century. There was no revolution, no destruction, yet the gains are con siderable. Note Catholic emancipation in 1827, the reform in suffrage in 1832, by which the political power was practically transferred from the upper to the middle classes; the abolition of slavery in 1834, by which no English soil might hold a slave; the re form of the poor laws in the same year; the fac tory act of 1833 protecting children from destruc tive labor, the act of 1868, which threw contested elections into the civil courts to be quietly adjudi cated; the acts of 1872 and 1883 concerning the ballot, which have rooted bribery out of English elections, transforming then, from being the most corrupt to being the purest in the world; the uni versal suffrage acts of 1884 and 1885, adding 3,- 000,000 votes to the polling lists; the municipal re form acts of 1835, in wliich the rubbish which city charters had gathered for ages was swept away; the repeal of the corn laws in 1846, and civil service reform of 1870. These and other changes in England constitute a change as profound as the French revolution. They were brought to pass by a people not only determined to have their liberties but also equally determined to pull the house down over their ears in the process. Law is the mutual compact under which it is pos sible for human beings to live together. Without re spect for law from all classes there can be no civili zation, but we lapse into that wretched barbarism where the strong prey upon the weak in unrestricted license. Most of us recognize this. It seems trite. And yet there# are many, warm-hearted in their struggle for a better social system, who need to be reminded that there is no real or permanent advancement of justice except by law. \ And don’t forget that to make the labor cause a class war is to cheapen and degrade the issue; tp the normal American any kind of a class war ranks as a species of dog fight, but when you make the labor movement to be the cause of humanity you put behind it the conscience of the race, and you are sure to win. Good Morning in Eskimo Mr. Frederick Palmer, in his Balkan letter in The Sunday Times, mentions a German porter at a Sofia hotel who spoke so many languages that it would not have been surprising to have heard him say "Good, day" to a Greenlander In Eskimo, which reminds me of a little story. Some years ago, and just before Perry had set out on his successful voyage to the north pole, we were talking one morning at breakfast in a Saratoga hotel, and X asked what the Eskimo language sounded like, and would he give me a sen tence as a sample. “For example,” said X, “how do they say ‘Good morning?” “I asked this guilelessly, remembering my Ollendorff method. The lieutenant laughed. “They don’t say It,” he replied. “No?” said I, somewhat surprised' at such bad manners. “No,’ he explained very seriously. “You see, in a country where it is morning only once a year they don’t need as we do here where we get ours a little more frequently.’' Thereupon the light broke in upon me and I asked for a sample of a different kirtd.—W. J. L., in The New York Times. Saving and Investing Talks THE OLD AND THE DEAF AND TEE MUTE. BY JOHN M. OSKXSOIY. As I write this two men are on trial in the Federal district court in New York City for the fraudulent use of the mails in selling mining stock. They are A. L. Wisner and John J. Meyers, of the old firm of promoters and stock peddlers which used the name of A. L. Wisner & Co. From the Times of December 14, I take these extracts from testimony given at the trial the day before. , “Urbane Derby, of Concord, Mass., was another of the pur chasers of stock. He is an old man with snow white hair and beard, and he has been a con stant attendant in the court room ever since the trial began. 44 ‘How much money did you give A. L. Wisner & Co?’ asked Mr. Arnold (assistant United States district attorney). “ ‘More than $10,000 in all,’ he said. “Sometimes he got small dividends, he said, but as soon as he did he received an offer to sell him more stock. “His wife then took the stand. . . . The state ments of A. A. Butterfield, the Concord agent, had caused her and her husband to invest in the mining stock, she said. “ ‘We told him we couldn’t afford to invest all our money unless it was safe, as we had to have some thing for our old age. When w e had given the firm all we had we tried to borrow from them on their stock, but they wouldn’t let us have any money.’ “Another witness who told much the same tale was Peter J. Bollinger, of Buffalo, a deaf and dumb man.” •It is interesting to observe that the fight being made in the court on behalf of Wisner and Meyers is based on the alleged double-crossing of these gentle men by a third man who was interested in selling the Wisner stocks. They say that in one deal this man sold stocks worth $500,000 and turned in to the com pany only $17,000! Can you think of Urbane Derby, his old wife, and the deaf mute of Buffalo as “legitimate suckers who are due to have their money taken away from them? I can’t; I think they ought *o have been protected ** IMMIGRATION X—DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANTS. BY MLEDEBIC J. HAJSKIM. It is quite generally agreed among statesmen and philanthropists that if the “new” immigration, which is flocking to our shores at the rate of three-quarters of a million souls a year, is to be a blessing and an economic asset to the nation, ways and means must be found whereby it may be distributed widely throughout the country—for then only can the digestive juices of American influence reach the en tire mass and fit it for assim ilation into the body politic. So long as it crowds into colonies and holds itself aloof in commu nities that never feel the touch of American customs and ideas, how can we expect it to become like us and a part of us? #n And yet, that is what is hap pening right along. Three- fourths of our Russian -immi grants are to be found in cities that have a population of 25,000 and upward. More than half of the Italian immigrants, the Polish, the Bohemian, tho Hungarian and the Aus trian immigrants gravitate to such centers of popula tion. On the other hand, less than one-fourth of our native Americans are to be found in such cities, and the same is true of our Scandinavian immigrants. More than half of the great population of New York City is of foreign birth, and there are sections of the metrop olis that are as foreign to America, as far as influences go, as are Warsaw, Naples or Vienna. The list of American cities where the foreign population exceeds the native is a large one. There are some fifty cities where the population of foreign birth represents more than two-fifths of the total, and among these are some twenty where the foreign “element is in the majority. * * Every authority agrees that it is desirable to secure as many settlers on the land as possible, but there are some who do not believe In any other sort of distribu tion of Immigrants, except such as Is created by the natural working of the law of supply and demand. The ground upon which they predicate their belief Is that It will tend to reduce that kind of living and wages which they call “the American standard.” One of those who holds this view is the commission general of Immi gration, Daniel J. Keefe. . • • He asserts that many of the arguments In favor of the distribution of aliens other than to plant them on the land are fallacious. He says that organizations struggling to solve (the problem of putting the alien where he is needed, vary from those moved by pureljl business impulses to those which are “or pretend to be, patriotic or philanthropic in their purposes." They range, he adds, from combinations of ticket agents, money lenders and labor agencies to state and munici pal organizations conducted bona fide and from high, pure motives.” He further adds, however, that the lat ter “often incidentally produce some of the same ef fects as the selfish organizations.” • » * In commenting upon the problem he says If It ever was feasible to devise a complete, efficient plan ton the general distribution of aliens, it probably Is now too late to stem the tide which has set toward certain lo calities, where alien nucleus colnoies have been estab lished, constituting new reasons why aliens are drawn and unless they are physically and mentally .adapted to to them; even though a certain number of aliens may be distributed, they will not remain where they are placed unless the arrangement coincides with their desires, their new surroundings, as a large percentage of those who now insist on herding in the cities never will be; and that, viewed from a national standpoint, distribu tion tends to increase the difficulties of Immigration rather than to reduce them. He concludes that distribu tion will tend to increase immigration, and that this will, in turn, tend to drive down the wages of Ameri can Workingmen. • * • There are many students of the problem, however, who take direct issue with Commissioner Ueneral Keete, both as to his minor and major conclusions. They point out that the same fear was expressed when his own people began to come and continued to come to Amer ica, but that American wages are higher and American workingmen’s standards of living are better than they were before. Likewise, they point out that nearly au per cent of the immigration from many southern and eastern European countries comes to us from the vil lage and the farm, and that to say they arc not physi cally or mentally fitted for anything else than to herd in congested communities is not a just statement. * . • It is further pointed out by thoso who oppose the conclusions of Mr. Keefe that neither congress nor the immigration commission has agreed with him, but have taken the opposite view. Congress created a bureau of information for the purpose of collecting iriformatton concerning opportunities for Immigrants and dissemi nating it among them with a view to encouraging a ben eficial distribution of immigrants. 1 The main purpose was to co-operate with the several states in acquaint ing immigrants with their advantages. * * * The immigration commission likewise concludes that the rekson the Immigrant goes to congested cities is be cause he knows of no better opportunities elsewhere, it says that "a large part of the immigrants were agri cultural laborers at home, and their Immigration is due to a desire to escape the low economic conditions which attend agricultural pursuits in the countries from whten they come. With no knowledge of other conditions, it is but natural, therefore, that they should seek another line of activity in this country.” •* * * It is pointed" out that the thing to do is to plant the immigrant where )ie can secure a plot of ground and build a house on it, because there goes on mo3t rapidly the process of Americanization. Go to Brown Bark, Omaha, which has been improved by the Bohemians, Poles and Lithuanians. What was a few years ago a rolling prairie Is today studded with neat, well-kept homes, schools and churches, having well cultivated gardens and flowers, and conforming to the best Amer ican standards among wage earners. Go to the Italian settlements in Rockland county, N. Y.; Providence, R. I., and Rosetta, Pa. There the immigrants have their gardens, no matter what the soil Is, and sometimes in striking contrast with adjacent farms of New Eng land, the Italians on the swamps of New Jersey, and the Portuguese on Cape Cod, have shown what they can do under conditions that have driven out older Americans, have shown that they can rehabilitate worn out soil and build up a competence in waste places. * * • The lowest wages paid in America go to the 1 for eigner and the highest to the native American, and yet the investigations of the immigration commission into home ownership in cities, reveal the fact that, while only 4.2 pel* cent of the native born Americans, of native parentage own their homes, more than 10 per cent ot the foreign born and native born of foreign parentage own theirs. • * • A striking illustration of the need for some sort of a system of distribution of immigrants is to be had In a map prepared by Peter Roberts. He takes a United States map and draws a line from Atlantic City to the southeastern corner of Illinois. Then he draws another line from that point to the northwestern corner of Min nesota. The little slice of territory inside of this angle bears about the same relation to the whole United States as one slice of pie to a whole pie—It represents only a little more than one-sixth of the country’s area; and yet, within that comparatively small territory, live nearly five-sixths of all the ‘’new” ^ Amefjca>