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« ♦ f >t *' 4 THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1913. THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of the Second Class. JAMES R. GRAY’, President and Editor. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months Six months Three months 250 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 "Tifto our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong departments . of special value to the home and the farm. Agents war ted at every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R- BRAD LEY. Circulation Manager. The onl>; traveling representatives we have are J. A. Bryan. R. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle. 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 your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on j 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 JOLRNAL, Atlanta, Ga. More Mischief Likely From the California Bill. The report that China is preparing to follow Japan in protesting against the California anti-alien land bill Is another hint of the many problems that may spring from this mischievous and uncalled for piece of legislation. Chinese ownership of California lands has steadily dwindled within the past few years, just as the Japanese population in that State is steadily decreasing, but a number of Chinese property own ers are still there and it is to protect them against possible loss that the Chinese government Is said to be contemplating a protest. The United States would thus be Involved in luck less differences with two nations whose good will it has hitherto enjoyed and whose trade it hopes to at tract more and more in years to come. Why should such issues be provoked merely in order that the po litical partisanship of one State may carry its point? The anti-alien bill, if permitted to stand, is likely to bring on all manner of international entanglements and, as President Wilson has said, “what might be long and delicate litigation." Neither the Japanese nor Chinese have heretofore been disposed to question our naturalization law or to seek the right of citizen ship under its terms. That act limits citizenship to “free white persons, natives of Africa and persons of African descent" The Supreme Court has not yet been called upon to Interpret tbe phrase "free white - persons." The Japanese contend that in an ethno logical sense they are “white” and that it is their race lineage, rather their color, which really counts. If they are forbidden to own land, according to the California bill, on the ground that they are ineligible to citizenship, they will not be slow to as sert their claims to the right of naturalization; and the Supreme Court would thus be required to settle an issue which hitherto has been fortunately quies cent. The New York World pertinently asks: “What will it profit the Hiram Johnston demagogues, if in • their blithe attempt to put the Democrats into a hole they set in motion forces that may extend our naturalization law to Mongolians. No matter what the result of such a suit might he, the controversy ■would hardly end with the courts’ judgment. After that we should have agitation and legislation and ex ceedingly troublesome diplomacy. Instead of a little Jananese question, we should have a big one.” The California legislature has approached this issue from an entirely illogical and a very dangerous ' angle. It has sought to deal with a matter of na- : tional diplomacy from a purely provincial standpoint. In an effort to carry a petty point, it has opened the way to farreaching and embarrassing problems. It is ' to be hoped that the thoughtful people of California • will invoke the referendum and will put an end to ; this ill-considered and unnecessary measure. i % The Law Must Be Enforced. The firmness and fairness with which he has in variably enforced the law have earned State Game Warden Mercer the public’s hearty approval. All thoughtful citizens realize that the new g^me and fish statute was enacted in behalf of the people’s com mon interests, and that upon its due observance de pends the preservation of a very important part of Georgia’s resources. It is gratifying to note that all true sportsmen have stood consistently and loyally behind the State warden and his deputies and that as a result the wise purpose of the law is being ma terialized. It seems, however, that in the vicinity of what is known as the B^tks estate in Berrien coiysty there has been a persJStent disregard of fishing eights and that this has now waxed into an open, defiance of the State law. There are persons who .refuse to recognize the boundaries of private property and who, despite repeated warnings, continue to fish in a pond where they have no rights. Conditions have reached such a stage that the State warden has de cided to go in person to the scene of the trouble and endeavor to adjust the present difficulties by moral suasion, if he can, but by a resort to the law’s full f power, if he must. We are sure that in this timely and rightful mis- ' sion he will have the support of the rank and file of : all good citizens in Berrien county. There are indi viduals in every community who fail to see where their personal liberty ends and their neighbor’s or the public’s rights begin. Their point of view is due sometimes to ignorance and sometimes to a wilful disregard of the law. In any event, they can not be permitted to set up their own wishes against the common Interests. The law which Mr. Mercer is charged with en forcing was enacted to protect the State’s game and fish and also to protect the owners of property. Un der the duties of his office, he cannot make excep tions or extend special favors to any one. He goes to Berrien county as the representative of the State, as the executor of an important law, as the protector of Important Interests. He goes as the agent of all the people. He should receive and, we belive, will | receive the co-operation of every good citizen in see- j lng that the law is respected. The Failure of Huerta. That was a somber but seemingly faithful picture of Mexican conditions which Mr. Charles Hines paint ed when he appeared last Saturday before the foreign relations committee of the Senate. Mr. Hines, former ly a Virginian and now president of the West Shore railroad, of Mexico, spoke from direct observation and gave a number of intimate touches which foreign dis patches have lacked but which, in the main, are con firmed by the State department’s advices. His testi mony, as summarized by The Journal’s Washington correspondent, indicates that at no time since the exile of Porfirio Diaz were conditions so unsettled in Mexico as they are today. In all the republic, we are told, there are but three States which are even partly free from the fire of rebellion or from the harryings of desperate ad venturers. Provisional President Huerta is popularly regarded as a red-handed conspirator rather than as an official commanuing the people’s confidence and re spect; and, to quote directly, “it has become apparent even to his supporters that he can never pacify the country.” Most noteworthy of all is the fact that the temporary alliance between Huerta and Felix Diaz has broken and the latter is now plotting for the overthrow of the dictator whom he induced to betray President Madero. The most aggressive figure now in the Mexican field seems to be Venustiana Carranza, a leader of the so-called "Constitutionalists,” who declare that orderly processes ot government are their aim. Hu erta, they insist, is a usurper and must yield the office he has seized. They demand a speedy election through which a new president can be legally chosen. Carranza’s distinctive quality is his genius for or ganization. Unlike many of revolutionary leaders who are continually preying upon Mexico for the moment’s advantage or the handful of booty they may win, he cover, each step of his advance with carefully systematized plans. “As fast as he seizes a section of territory,” rays The Journal’s Washington story, “he forms a military government, restorer or- dir and makes the inhabitants pay for it by a heavy tax levy; his progress is slow hut it is methodical.” Whether Carranza or the "Constitutionalist” movement will succeed in re-establishing efficient government in Mexico remains to be seen. Certain it is, however, that the Huerta regime is toppling. The provisional president is compelled to keep large detachments of the ‘federal army in Mexico City to guard the approaches to his personal safety. The army, at no time strong or particularly loyal, is to day more demoralized than ever. A spirit of mutiny is astir. A general is ordered hurriedly to the north to quell the rebels there, but no tidings of his move ments are received at the capital; presumably he goes over to the revolutionists. An expedition sent forth in behalf of the provisional government is as likely as not to become, on the way, a new arm of the rebellion. On every hand and almost every day the armed opposition to the Huerta government grows more serious and more 1. sourceful. All developments con firm the wisdom ox the United States in not recog nizing the Huerta regime; and they also give rise to the question, what will happen when the present would-be dictator falls? Will the “Constitutionalists,” profiting by the tragically witnessed failure of murderous politics, seek to restore government through civilized means or will they repeat the barbarous story of the past few months? Will there emerge a man strong enough to unite and hold behind him the thoughtful element of the Mexican people, and Is that element itself num erous and vigorous .enough-'to' carry out its will? Only time can answer. Instead of being driven to drink some men are led. The Magic of Montenegro. No circumstance of the Balkan war has appealed so widely or so keenly to the world’s imagination and sympathies as the hardihood of little Montene gro In defying the commands of the great Powers. We of America read the foreign dispatches, with their allusions to strange places and people, as though they were intimate letters on events in which we were personally concerned. King Nicholas be came a familiar character to be talked of at the breakfast table and his sturdy soldiers, though they camped almost at the other end of the world, were clothed with a vividness like that of the home team. Such is the magic of bravery matched against over whelming odds. And when the tidings finally came that Montene gro had yielded, most of us felt a twinge of disap pointment and regret. It seemed contrary to ail our conceptions of the square deal that the little nation, after fighting gallantly for six months and and after remaining calm and immovable under the threats of combined Europe, snould renounce the prize she had so splendidly won. Men on street cor ners and trolley cars debated as to what would have happened had Montenegro persisted to the end; pop ular opinion was that she would certainly have come forth with colors flying, and that in any event, the sorry upshot of it all was a shame. * Yet, for the sake of European peace, Montene gro’s agreement to evacuate Scutari is perhaps the best thing that could have happened. Had Austrian troops moved into Albania, far-reaching entangle ments among the great nations might have followed. Certain it Is that the eleventh-hour concession from King Nicholas has served to relieve the high tension of European politics and has restored confidence to financial circles. The gravest crisis to which the entire course of the Balkan gave riser- has been passed. Another meeting of the ambassadorial conference at London will he held Thursday, at which time fur ther plans for the future of Scutari and Albania will be discussed. It has frequently been suggested that Montenegro would be compensated for her sur render of the city. The declaration by King Nich olas, however, held no such conditions. His simple statement was: “My dignity and that of my people do not allow me to submit to isolated orders. I, therefore, place the destiny of Scutari in the hands of the great Powers.” By “isolated orders” he alluded, of course, to the policy of Austria; and he seems to have calculated with true discernment that it was more graceful to how to the will of all the Powers than to yield to a single nation. Whatever boundaries may finally be established for Albania, whatever disposition may be made of Scutari, whether or not a portion of that territory is allotted to Montenegro, the little mountain king dom has earned a high and enduring place in the world’s admiration. A woman will jump to a conclusion while a man is crawling toward it. When it comes to work, in the spring almost any body is willing to pose as a total abstainer. Democracy and Organization BY DR. FRANK CRANE (Copyright, 1013, by Frank Crane.) Ther e can be no democracy without organization. A democracy whos e units do not work together, where there is no co-ordination, will fall to pieces. A monarchy, a tyranny, can get along without or ganizing the people. In fact, where the people have no team-play, there is where the despot is needed. Hav ing no intelligent unity they must have an artificial unity, the unity of a superimposed brute force. We fear standing armies. But such armies, in the days of Rome, were perfect machines composed of only a small number of people, and they ruled only because the rest of the populace was not drilled to keep step. In a tri^ democracy the whole population—men, women and children—should be a standing army, not necessa rily to march and shoot, but, under equal discipline, to sow, reap and sell. All despotisms have been due to a lack of organ ization among the common people. So nowadays, in the loose individualism of the city, any compact band of drilled^frnen can control them. Hence We have the polit ical party and the boss system. A dozen ignorant, self ish, unscrupulous men, if well organized, can govern a thousand intelligent and honest people who will not get together. The reason wh;- democracy is impossible without organized unity is this: Democracy means a govern ment in the interest of all the people, even the weak est, and the only power great enough to scure the weak est man his rights is the organized power of the whole state. Where everything is left in a condition of free com petition, human society is like the jungle of wild beasts, and the strong devour the feeble. In the United States a few powerful men, powerful by natural shrewdness or by having certain privileges, have exploited the pop ulace for their own personal gain. They did this by co-operation, by forming trusts. The only way to remedy this is for the people to form a better and stronger trust, to make of the state a trust able to swallow up the beef, milk or railway trusts. You cannot go backward and make the trusts become competitive; a social consolidation once formed cannot be turned back to individualism; the only thing to do is to go on—-is to organize the whole people into a trust. There is no freedom worth the name except in per fect organization. A state of pure individualism or anarchy always invites the Man on Horseback and the Robber Baron. Freedom in a state keeps pace with organization; and in degree as each man does as he pleases tyrants prosper, whether feudal duke or Chicago ward boss. The political party, the business trust, the ecclesi astical hierarchy, and all partial gettings-together of men are but drills and preliminary “setting up' 1 exer cises, wherein mankind is practicing for the coming or ganized world militia and world business house, in which every living person has a responsible part. We now have government “of the people”; it can be come government “for the people and by the people” only by complete organization. I do not advocate Socialism; it connotes too much. But, unless we secure an Organized Democracy, we shall have by and by no Democracy at all. END OF A FIASCO (From The Atlanta Constitution of May 6.) News dispatches report today that the supreme court of the United States yesterday dismissed the case of the government against The Atlanta Journal, involving alleged violation of the postal regulations. The verdict oi the court was unanimous. This is an end to the miserable effort of Hitch cock aryl his bureaucratic spies to inolve The Journal in a manner which was overwhelmingly resented by the public, not only because the people knew that the management of The Journal was not involved in any petty swindle to save a few dollars in mail payments, but more particularly for the reason that the Hitch cock procedure against legitimate business was a departure entirely new in federal administrative meth ods in this country. It will be recalled that when The Journal was first apprised of the fact that it was to be the victim of Hitchcock’s animus the information came in the nature of an indictment for trial without having been given opportunity to make even a showing as to the accuracy of its figures, or of the fact that it was, at least in its own opinion, making an honest effort to comply with the law. That was considered an un important detail to Hitchcock and his spies. Of course, the government lost in the lower United States court, and now the supreme court has put the stamp of its disapproval upon the whole proceeding by dismissing the case. It is the end of the cheapest fiasco in which this government has ever been involved, and it is to be hoped that never, as long as this is a goernment, will there be a repetition of such a disgraceful and tyranni cal proceeding from any of its departments. Jealousy always has a target. Old Senator Works seems to think that it isn’t at all blessed to receive from Rockefeller or Car negie. Greetings to New China. In formally recognizing the Chinese republic, the United States has simply consummated a purpose which became manifest in the outset of the Wilson administration and which had already produced its moral effect. Our State department has evidently been only awaiting the complete organization of Chi na’s new government. That having been accom plished through the national legislature at Pekin, there remained no occasion for further delay in offi cially welcoming the young republic into the family of nations. There is reason to believe that this seasonable example on the part of the United States will influ ence other world Powers to follow our lead. Certain it is that the republic is the only established gov ernment in China. It is through the officials of the republic that all diplomatic business must be trans acted. The Manchu regime is dead and done for and the new political order stands ^unchallenged. Plence, matter of pratical necessity, if for no other consid- as a matter of practical necessity, if for no other con siderations, the republic must soon be recognized by all the Powers. It is gratifying, and we believe will prove for tunate, that the United States has graciously led the way in according the new China -its due acknowl edgement and courtesy. Our government has always been the stanch friend of this great Oriental people. It was our high-minded and plain-spoken diplomacy that saved the Chinese empire from being dismem bered by European greed. It is from our constitu tion and our ideals that the Chinese statesmen of this new era have drawn their model and inspiration. It is, therefore, very appropriate that the United States should he the first among nations to recognize the republic and to hid its patriots godspeed in their brave and splendid endeavor. Love laughs at locksmiths and ignores chaperones. The game warden is putting a quietus on the old- fashioned type that quit work to re-visit the old fishing hole. Latest reports are that the European war clouds have been scattered. But then those reports have been heard before. ^OU/MTRY rioME TDPuS CcMWCTED _ BLTIHS. -tf RACIAL DIFFICULTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. The action of th e California legislators In regard to the Japanese is norated as a new sensatltfn In raee troubles, but it must not be forgotten that California had an experience with Chinese emigrants quite sim ilar two or more decades ago. It is indeed the old old story that has been told in every country where the Anglo-Saxon has lived or where he has gone forth to conquer. It is the old, old story of white suprem acy, as England has dealt with her East Indian pos sessions and with China during the “opium war” It is the old story as illustrated in the dealings of the white man with the red Indian in these United States of America. It would have been the same old story in dealing with the African race in America, if the south had been wise enough to have remained in the union In 1861, and demanded the colonization of for mer slaves before the Civil" war intervened and wrought havoc in the bloody settlement of the vexed question of slavery, it will be the same story to the end unless there shall be enough statesmanship to meet this race question properly by declaring these United States to be a white man’s country with citi zenship for any other alien race on the globe.' China made a treaty with the United States direct ly after the Civil war, called the Burlingame treaty in which concessions were made by these United States and which concessions allowed the yellow man to come in and which guaranteed he would be as well treated as citizens of this country expected to be treated in the treaty ports of China. Hon. Anson Bur lingame, a former senator of the United States, be came the agent for the government of China in getting that treaty (which bears his name) ratified by the au thorities of the United States, and there could not be a more solemnly ratified document ever enrolled on the records of this country. As the Orientals crowded into California the na tives begun to protest, and after a few years of rough and Steady friction California not only legislated to’ shut off the yellow man but congress abrogated this Burlingame treaty and wiped it from the statute books. California is doing the same thing over again, except this latter day legislation is directed against the brown Jap rather than the yellow Chink. My sympathies are with California. They are taking this matter by the forelock, and although we may have a scrimmage, this difficulty must be set tled in favor of white supremacy or this republic will become a hybrid government and subject to the same fate as Mexico and South American republics. I am old enough to remember the furore that pre vailed during the excitement of Know Nothingism. The principle of Know Nothingism, as applied to alien races is eminently right. Its former weakness lay in the opposition to the white races, Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Celts who desired to come over as emigrants to the New World. The antagonisms of color are insuperable; they are born into the bone and bred in the skin of the white race. I am no prophetess, have nothing but the slow wisdom that goes with age and experience, but I do see the danger, and I do dare to say that our ideals of civilization will not bear a mixture with alien races that are marked by color. It is a universal rule. Th© privileges of citizenship that were given to the black man are fraught with danger to both black and white. It was a kind of spite program after Ap pomattox, and I am tempted to say to California: The shoe is on the other foot” for you now, but two wrongs never could make a right by any known sys tem of calculation. Every sane and sensible student of history does now fully understand that a well defined line of citi zenship should be made in these United States and that line of demarcation must he a color line and a separation from alien, races. • • • THE MUBDEB MYSTERY IN ATLANTA. It is simply astonishing how difficult it becomes to trace a murderer among the throngs that crowd the streets of a large city. With a horde of policemen and scores of active, earnest probers, yet some trag edies like that th e disappearing of young Mr. Crowley some years back and murder of poor little Mary Pha- gan a few uays ago seem to baffle vigorous and deter mined searchers who are on the job continuous day and night for weeks at a time. And circumstantial evidence is , so dangerous! Bet ter a thousand times allow the real murderer to escape than to lynch, tourture or electrocute an innocent per son! "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will re pay.” In the first white heat of public indignation the near friends of the victim always feel as if the murderer should receive the extremest penalties of the law; but I am~ satisfied in my mind that mistakes have been made, and the wrong man punished time and again. I have heard numbers of people say with in the last week, “ ought to be burnt alive!” “Hanging is too good for him!” “He should be torn to pieces limb by limb,” etc. Indeed, public indigna tion lias been fatigued, the crime was so atrocious, and the poor little girl so brutally maltreated, but it may happen to be exposed during some future time that the much talked about basement door permitted the real offender to emerge from the scene of mur der and escape without detection. Coming at a time when the city was full of socio logical delegates who wer e exploiting civic righteous ness and humane treatment to criminals, it was pain ful to know and understand that a tender, delicate lit tle white girl had no better chance for safety and less protection from bestiality than the nude savages in African jungles. I'll wager that the story will finally circle about the deadly virus of lust and liquor, the twin disturb ers of public peace, and the cancer germs of degrada tion and death But one must be certain before the fagot or the gibbet is evoked to settle such cases. * * * SATURDAY’S HALF HOLIDAY. Every one who has been accustomed to farm life understands there are only five and a half working days in the week, no matter how busy the season or propitious the weather. The half Saturday custom is a constantly growing one, and those who depend on hired help to feed and water stock on Saturday after noons generally get out of patience or go out to do th e stunt for themselves. The day and a half of rest out of the seven has como to stay, and people like it so well that it is not likely to be changed. Country homes are generally more than quiet because the noisy ones have gone to town or a-fishing and everything looks deserted. In the towns there is a general stir. Neighbor hoods are active, the children have had a bath and fresh clothing, and the -ladies dress up, sit on veran"- das or go calling. Those who have autos or buggies enjoy themselves in their use, and everybody but storekeepers and grocers get home early for the aft ernoon rest, with leisure to sit around and pass jokes, as neighbors stroll on the streets. Th e hours of everyday labor being shortened by legislation, the half Saturday holiday cuts into the week’s work with a large slice. The people who hire day laborers always expect to pay at noon on Saturday nowadays when it used to be sundown, after everything was fed and the barn locked that the money settlement was made. Remembering as I do the oldtime before-the-war methods, it looks to me as if we will not be allowed to work anybody in the farm or garden or mill or fur nace but a scant few hours each day, and yet pay dou ble prices for the time. As ^ld as I am I comfort ijiyself that it does not seriously matter to me one way or another, but I am convinced that successful farming must be done by those who own or rent the lands with as littL hired help as possible. Proposing by mail Is as unsatisfactory as kissing a girl through a knothole In a board fence. Many a man’s interest in a woman’s is confined to wondering what foci thing she will do next. THE INCOME TAX I-—THE SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT. BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. The ratification of the sixteenth amendment to the constitution and the determination of the Wilson ad ministration to follow it up with an income tax law marks one of the most impor tant pages in the history of American taxation. It proba bly represents the beginning of I a new era In the application of j the revenue raising policies of the Federal government. On i the one hand it settles many questions about which there has i been much dispute, while on the other hand It opens up new | fields of argument and conten tion which will probably figure! in the forum of American poli tics for many years to come. It, * therefore, becomes of paramount interest among the questions in! the public mind. And, more-| over, it giv i to the people an Issue the- can feel, a tax thatj they do not pay unconsciously.; A person who buys something i upon which a 'customs duty has been levied lyiows nothing of what the government levies upon him in 1 the transaction—.unless he happens to be coming through one of the ports and gets held up for duties on what he has bought abroad. But the salaried man who finds $60 deducted from his salary to pay his in come tax knows it with a good deal of certainty. * • • The sixteenth amendment came about in a ratheri unsual way. When the congress met to make the Payne-Aldrich tariff law there had. developed, a wide spread sentiment in favor of an income tax. The rev enues of the government were not meeting the expen ditures, and nearly everybody agreed that the tariff was already too high. In looking about to find some' other source of revenue most eyes fell upon the in come tax. It is true that there was a supreme court decision which had declared the income tax an unc*n- situtional tax, if levied without apportionment amon" the states, but that decision was made by only one majority, five to four, and after a divided court had failed to declare it unconstitutional. And so it was' that many people felt that the supreme court was wrong on its second thought. This feeling was the more pronounced because every previous decision dur ing a hundred years seemed to have been reversed by the second decision of the court. • • * Ther© was a determination in some quarters to put, the matter up to the court again, and at one time it looked as if the proponents of th e Bailey-Cummins' amendment to the Payne-Aldrich law, providing for the enactment of an incoipe tax law, would be able 1 to muster enough votes in the senate and house to pass it. At this juncture President Taft cam® upon the scene with a message to congress expressing the view that the supreme court had taken away from the Federal government a power it was generally sup posed to have had, and one that it undoubtedly ought to have. He added that it might be necessary for the salvation of the country in time of a great crisis. • • • He said, however, that he thought It would be much better to make sure of that right through the medium of a constitutional amendment than by putting on the statute books a law already there and never repealed. He thought It would not add to the popular confidence In the courts for congress to enact a law upon lines that had been declared unconstitutional. It may he said in passing that Mr. Taft, as well as many another statesman, fell Into an amusing error concerning the Income tax of 1894, when he said it was still upon the statute books. As a matter of fact, the very second < line of the act provided for its own expiration by lim itation in 1900. ... He, therefore, recommended that congress pass a constitutional amendment to constitutionalize an In come tax law, and that, pending the passage of sucb-.an— amendment, a- corporation tax be levied. Many mem bers of th e senate and house professed to see In this an effort to prevent the Immediate passage of an income, ( tax law, and for the time being opposed It. Finally, however, they accepted the Inevitable and joined in, voting to send the amendment to the legislatures of the states for ratification. Many of them thought | that those who backed the amendment weer doing so as a means to choke off Impending Income tax legislation and to strengthen the supreme court’s last decision by offering the amendment and have it fail of ratification’ by the states. Then, they contended, the court fur ther could say that the people had rejected the in come tax idea and that It was not for the court to set up what the people had thrown down. • * • But in spite of all these conflicting ideas, the pro posed income tax law failed of passage, while both houses of congress promptly gave the states the right to say whether they wanted an income tax law or not. If any of those who voted for the amendment did so under the assumption that it would first defeat the proposed Income tax law and then be defeated inself by the non-concurrence of twelve states, they reckoned without their host, for the sixteenth amendment Is now a part of the supreme law of the land. But it did not become the sixteenth amendment un til it had first revealed that question may arise con cerning its interpretation almost as serious as those concerning the “direct tax” clause of the constitution which It was aimed to settle. Mr. Justice Hughes! now of the supreme court, was governor of the State of New York when the legislatures were asked to ratify it. He recommended that it be rejected, one of his grounds of objection ..eing that it would tax' state, county, and municipal bonds, and therefore give the federal goverpment practically complete domina-' tion over the states. The amendment says: “The con gress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source, derived, without appor tionment among the several states and without regard to any census enumeration.” It was contended thati the words “from whatever source derived” gives to congress the unquestioned power to tax statfe and local I securities to whatever point it chooses, even to the point of destroying the credit of the divisions issuing! them. It would seem to the lay mind that -from what ever source derived” would include everything, and, so a great many people hold. They contend that in asmuch as it is the last word it naturally repeals, anything inconsistent with it. On the other hand, such a lawyer as Senator Root opposes this doctrine. He, contends that the amendment does not enlarge in the slightest the scope of the taxing power of the federal j government, and that its ^nly effect will be to re lieve the exercise of that taxing power from the re- 1 quirement that the tax ghail be apportioned among the states. So we see that if the present congress' shall enact a law income^ derived from state and local, securities there will probably be another great legal fight and another income tax decision. It is generally believed, however, that while congress will not waive' its power to tax such securities, it will not embrace them in the forthcoming law. Enforcement of Law in Georgia 1 (New York Evening Post.) It is so much easier to agitate for a new law than to press for the enforcement of an old on© that the Georgia communities which are waking up to the dan gers connected with the carrying of concealed weapons, and are proceeding to apply the legal penalty to the j practice, are to be commended. More indictments for this offense have been presented at the current session: of the superior court of Colquitt county than ever be fore. This is attributed to “the vigilance of the offi-! cers, rigid Investigation by the grand jury, and to a growth of public sentiment in favor of the law’s strict’ enforcement” This last is the element of real hope in the situation. Officers and Juries will not long con tinue to enforce a law which misrepresents public, opinion. In these Georgia communities, indictments' have been followed by convictions and the impositi, of heavy penalties. 1