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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
/ ATLAJTTA, GA- 5 XOXTH FOBSYTH ST.
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SEMI WEEKLY JOVBXAL Atlenta. Ga.
The Tax Equalization Law.
Our friends who would repeal the Tax Equali
sation law on the ground that it is not as fair or
effective as it ought to be are remindful of Charles
Lamb's artless hero who would burn down his
house whenever he wanted to roast a pig. Their
theory, if consistently carried out. soon would strip
us of all laws and of the Constitution itself, for we
have yet to see the code, outside of the Decalogue,
that is not subject to revision soon or late. hy
not follow the regular course and amend the Tax
Equalization act to make it fairer and more ef
fective. instead of attempting to blot out all its vir
tues merely because of » weakness here and there?
It cannot be denied that this law, whatever its
defects, represents a substantial improvement in
the State's fiscal system and is resulting in a steady
betterment of the State s financial condition. On
this point the record itself speaks Irrefutably.
Since 1913. when the law was enacted, tax returns
have increased approximately one hundred million
dollars; and thus far in the current year, with only
half the counties and none of the big counties yet
heard from, the increase amounts to upwards of
nine million dollars. Shall the gains thus accruing
to the State's revenue, grievously needed as they
are. be abruptly cut off atnd the wolf that so often
has howled at the treasury door be invited to come
in and take possession? When the impoverishment
or bankruptcy which their mistaken policy involves
comes to pass how will the advocates of Tax
Equalization repeal answer the school teachers and
the Confederate veterans and the • public whose
vital interests are bound up in the State s institu
tions?
The millions which have been added and are
being added to tax values through the present law
represent no burden upon taxpayers. On the con
trary. the basic principle and the inevitable result
of a fair equalization of taxes is to lighten the
burden which the average citizen bears. When
every man pays his just part of the cost of gov
ernment. the great majority will pay less and fare
better. And when it is once understood that men
shall deal as honestly with the State as with one
another, there will be no perplexities and few com
plaints concerning taxes. But when the conscien
tious citizen sees his unconscientious neighbor year
after year returning property at the ratio of fifty
cents to a thousand dollars, he begins to doubt that
the pure in heart are blessed and that the meek
shall inherit the earth. Thus it is that
the meek shall inherit the earth. Thus it is that
lack of fair equalization makes tw o delinquent tax
payers grow where only one grew before.
Since the tax equalization act went into effect
the voluntary tax returns have increased steafdtly.
from year to year, showing that the people appre
ciate more and more the spirit and purpose of the
law. In some instances, of course, it still en
counters misunderstanding and prejudice and ve
hement opposition, as most laws do. But the rank
and file of citizens, as far as we can gather, feel
that tax equalization to their interest, their
county's interest, their State's interest, and that
while the existing law should be strengthened so
as to uncover a larger portion of invisible property,
it should not. and in reason and justice cannot', be
repealed.
w
The Wilson Way.
It was characteristic of President Wilson, in
handling the Shipping Board controversy, to sweep
aside all the personal differences that interfered
with public interests and to undo the Gordian knot
by cutting it. How inestimably fortunate that in
these crucial times we have a President who acts’.
General Goethals and Chairman Denman both were
unquestionably sincere in their attitude and both
have the country's, as well as the President s,
hearty admiration for the national service they so
ably have rendered. But their dissension had
reached a point where it was threatening to block
progress on the construction of the merchant fleet
which is as essential to the winning of the war as
are the raisng of armies and the manufacture of
munitions.
As to the merits of the dispute, the public
knows little and cares little. But it was distress
ingly clear that the all important work to which
General Goethals and Mr. Denman had been as
signed was menaced, if not indeed already suffer
ing. because of the lack of harmony between its
chief directors. The President acted wisely, there
fore. in striking straight to the bottom of the trou
ble and clearing away every likelihood of future
entanglements or obstructions. In accepting General
Goethal’s resignation and requesting that of Mr.
Denman, he paid them both well merited tribute.
The appointment of Rear Admiral t apps. ( hies
Constructor of the Navy, to take up General Goe
thal’s duties is admirable, as is also that of Mr.
Edward N. Hurley, of Chicago, to succeed Chair
man Penman
Now that antagonisms are happily at an end. it
is to be hoped that no time will be lost and no
pains or energy spared in pressing the shipbuilding
program to the utmost, for upon the speed and
adequacy with which this work is done the defeat
of the submarine and our success In the war largely
depend.
Well, we ran upon him the other day. the man
who referred to the German “kayser.”
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLV JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, JULY 27, 1917.
The Unwisdom and the Injustice
Os the County Un(t System
The proposal to write the so-called County
I’nit system into the statutory law of the State
is so contrary to the basic principles of popular
government that we are loath to believe that the
General Assembly, upon mature reflection, will
approve It. Advocates of this measure urge the
importance of having fixed rules for our primary
elections, instead of leaving so essential a matter
to the option of transient and sometimes, partisan
committees. Well, It would be desirable indeed to
have a fixed rule, provided the rule were just and
right. But how deplorable it would be to rivet
upon the State a rule that is unjust and wrong!
That is what will be done if the pending bill be
comes a law.
The Journal yields to no one in devotion to the
principle that the power of choosing public officials
should be placed directly in Che hands of the voters
rather than left to political jugglery in which the
will of the people can be thwarted or ignored. It
is because of our stanch and long-standing belief in
that very principle, that we are opposed to a bill
which, while professing to abolish minority rule
and political trickery in party conventions, pro
poses to Ingraft upon the law itself a system which
is of the very essense of minority rule and which
lends itself with peculiar readiness to political
chicane.
Does anyone pretend that the County I’nit sys
t.m gives every voter an equal voice and every
tounty its rightful weight in the selection of State
house officers?
Does anyone deny that it is possible under the
County Unit system for a candidate having only a
minority of the State's popular vote to be nom
inated over a candidate w'ho is the majority s
choice?
Or does anyone deny that under the County
Unit system it is possible for a handful of voters
in one county to nullify the ballots of thousands of
voters in other counties?
Every Georgian's vote should Count equally,
whether he resides in Rabun or Chatham, in Echols
or Bibb. Wherever a hundred votes or
a thousand votes or ten thousand votes
are cast for a candidate, they ought to
be credited —every one of them. But under the
County Unit system this fair and logical plan is
displaced by one that is altogether arbitrary and
inequitable. Under that system, as far as State
primaries are concerned, votes are not counted as
so many ballots representing the will of so many
citizens; they are counted as political blocks rep
resenting. it may be. nothing whatsoever as regards
the will of the State as a whole.
The County Unit system, it should be remem
bered. is part and parcel of those juggling political
conventions which the Neill bill assumes to re
form or abolish. It gives each county twice as
many convention or unit votes as the county has
representatives in the lower chamber of the Gen
eral Assembly. Now, suppose that one county
which on the unit basis is entitled to two votes polls
a popular vote of 1,591. Suppose that another
county, also entitled to two votes on the unit
basis, polls a popular vote of 373. Under the
County Unit system, those 1,591 votes count for
no more in the general reckoning than the 373
votes. Is that fair? Is it democratic? Is it
worthy of a Commonwealth that has blazoned Wis
dom and Justice on its shield?
The figures we have instanced are not imag
.inary; they are from the official returns of Ap
pling and Baker counties for the State Democratic
primary of 1914. They illustrate, in addition to
the gross inequity of the County Unit system, 'the
absurdity of the claim that that system is a pro
tection to the rights of the small counties. Ap
pling and Baker both are among the less populous
counties and neither, we assume, is fearful of be
ing oppressed hy the other. Wherein did the
County Unit system protect the Appling voters who
were virtually disfranchised when that county s
1.591 ballots were given no larger credit in the
State returns than Baker county’s 373 ballots?
The truth is the County Unit system protects noth
ing except the political evils that have sprung up
and thriven under its baleful influence. It is as
unjust to the small counties as to the large coun
ties. and outrageously unjust to the people as a
whole.
The Neill bill prescribes the popular-vote plan
for the individual county, but inconsistently aban
dons that principle when it comes to the State. If
the system of counting votes on a unit basis in
stead of a popular basis is as fair and fine as its
advocates contend, why not apply it to the counties
as well as to the State as a whole? Why not
provide that tn good old Muscogee, for example,
votes shall be reckoned on a basis of district units
instead of by the number actually cast? If our
friends who are seeking to thrust this unreasonable
and unjust system into our statutes dared to follow
their plan where it logically leads and put it into
operation within the counties as well as within the
State, they soon would find that they had stirred
up more war In Georgia than ever Ireland knew in
the days of her seven kings.
The fact that one State Democratic executive
committee after another has prescribed the county
unit rule for our primaries does not alter the prin
ciple involved one iota. Certainly, the mere fact'
that party committees have adopted the rule for
party purposes is no reason or warrant for writing
it into the State’s broad statutes. Democratic
executive committees take the responsibility of con
tinuing this reprehensible system, if they will; but
as for making it permanent and mandatory under
t he law—surely the Legislature will do no such
wrong against the people! If the object really is
to purge our primaries of convention trading and
minority rule, there is a short and simple means to
that' consummation so devoutly to be wished. Let
it be enacted that in all primaries the candidate re
ceiving the majority of the popular vote shall be
declared the nominee; and that where there are
more than two candidates and none receives a ma
jority. the two having the highest' number of votes
shall settle the issue in a second primary. That Is
the truly democratic method, and it is she only one
which either the Legislature or the people will
approve in the clearness of their conscience and
the fullness of their thought.
Nothing daunted by Doc. Cook. Copenhagen
continues to issue war news.
If the food bill debate lasts much longer, we’ll
have to can the food to save it.
It is doubtful which hurt the militant suffra
gists more —being arrested or being pardoned.
The German Larder. .
NoW that the Government is to exercise the
powers of embargo designed to prevent American
products from reaching Germany by w r ay of neu
tral countries, we should be able to see within
the next few months whether the desired effect is
being produced. There is no doubt that 'the
Kaiser's armies have relied upon Holland and
Scandinavia for large quantities of food. A
leader in the Reichstag is reported as saying re
cently that while the United States’ entry into the
war would be of little or no military consequence,
it would count heavily “owing to the extent to
which Germany depends on neutrals for food and
other necessaries.” The military authorities, he
added, had based their plans on the assumption
that those sources of supply would remain open.
The neutrals now must choose between stopping
food exports to Germany or losing their food im
ports from the United States. If they have enough
to sell the Kaiser, they do not need our products.
If. as an accommodation to their necessities, we
share with them our extremely limited stores of
grain and other basic commodities, we have a
right to demand that they shall not be re-sold
to our enemy.
Thus cut off from neutral larders, Germany
will be entirely dependent on her resources within
the iron ring. But those resources, it should be
remembered, are farreaching. In some respects,
indeed, Germany is stronger now than at the be
ginning of the war, for in addition to all of her
own and Austria's territory, she holds Belgium
and a treasureful region of France; she holds
Poland, Serbia, most of Rumania and through
Bulgaria has free communication with Turkey.
She has the richest part of Europe and a consid
erable part of Asia to draw from. It is not to
be expected, therefore, that Germany can be
brought to the brink of starvation any time soon,
no matter how rigorous the blockade becomes.
But it is evident from the German press itself
that the empire’s food shortage is serious, so seri
ous indeed as to threaten military efficiency.
Hence the importance of our seeing to it that no
American supplies reach the Kaiser’s domain to
relieve his growing discomfiture and prolong the
war which he precipitated.
• «
Editorial Echoes
“We shall not continue this war one day longer
to make conquest if we can make peace with
honor," unctuously asseverates Germany's new
chancellor, holding in his hand, no doubt, “the
sword from on high.’’
We shall not end this war one day short of
that victory for our forces afloat and afield, which
will humble the Hun, restore the peace of right
eousness and avenge the honor of an outraged
world. That is America s answer to this latest' bld
from Berlin for barter. It will take blood and
treasure and it may take years, but there will be
no turning back from the task, no time-killing con
versation or correspondence about a compromise.
—Boston Transcript.
ASSISI
A remarkable city is Assisi, showing how the
influence of a man with an idea can persist down
the changing centuries. It is seven hundred years
and more since St. Francis lived and died here,
and yet today Assisi is little besides the city of St.
Francis. His name lends it whatever fame and
Importance it may have, and something of his kind
ly spirit seems to hang about it still.
Assisi is a bare little Italian hill town, built of
dull gray stone, with narrow, winding rocky streets,
looking out over one of the fairest prospects in all
Italy. Here St. Francis was born of rich parents,
here he led an idle, spendthrift youth, and here he
was suddenly seized with the idea of universal
brotherhood and the necessity for poverty. Here
founded the Franciscan order, praying that its dis
tinctive sign might be “never to possess anything
under the sun. and to have no means of living save
by begging.”
He carried out his rule in strictest practice, liv
ing in a hut of reeds built where now stands the
church of St. Mary of the Angels. He felt a great
love for all things created, so that he hailed the
sun as his brother and preached to the fishes. All
of these incidents in his career and many others are
set forth in noble frescoes by Giotto in the Fran
ciscan church at Assisi.
' In Assisi too is the tomb of St. Francis, in a lit
tle chapel of the Franciscan monastery. The tomb
is surrounded by beautiful marbles and rich work
in beaten bronze. . Tne world has loved St. Francis,
but apparently it has never understood him. Else
it would not in all reverbnee have surrounded his
vault with the rich luxury of beauty against which
his whole life and all his teachings were but one
great protest.
THE MAID OF FRANCE.
Bedecked with flowers is the Maid
Who died to set us free.
All garlanded her steed, her lance
Is fair with fleur de lys.
And while her statue stands bedight,
Her soul rides forth again.
To lead our'hosts, as when of yore
She rode from out Lorraine.
Lift up your hearts, ye sons of France,
Let courage never die.
Our Holy Maid rides with us now,
Her hosts in rank on high.
For she has summoned to her sword
Our heroes of the past.
And Clovis, Pepin. Charles Martel,
Ride to her banner fast.
And Charlemagne. Phlippe, Capet,
Napoleon rides, too,
While from his bier in Brittainy,
King Arthur comes to hew.
And Roland rises with his knights.
From out the mystic isle.
D’Artagnan leads his musketeers
And Cyrano his file.
Along the Marches of the Marne.
Where Teuton power fell.
She led her hosts to battle with
The sword of Charles Martel.
It is the Maiden leads us on
To crush the Hun's advance.
The dreaming Peasant .Maid who is
The gleaming soul of France.
Oh, fair and flaming soul fight on,
For our fair land of France,
And. Maiden, lead to victory.
With lilies on your lance.
—EDWARD D. CLARKSON.
Atlanta.
HURRAH FOR MAUD!
Maud Mttller on a summer day
Did volunteer for raking hay.
She raked and raked
And ached and ached
Before she got all through, they say.
Maud Muller on the next bright day
Was right in line for raking hay.
She raked and raked
And baked and baked.
But was no slacker, by the way.
ARE WOMEN FARMERS? I.—Experts Say “Yes.”
♦ ♦
By Frederic J. Haskin
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 24.—“1 see no
reason why women should not make just
as good farmers as men,” declared Pro
fessor W. J. Spillman, expert in the bureau of
farm management of the department of agricul
ture, a few days ago.
• • •
The professor was seated in his office, the
walls of which are decorated with maps of the
United States splotched with colors that inter
pret the present crisis to the initiated eye. One
covered with large yellow splotches represents the
government mobilization of farm labor that is now
going forward in all parts of the country. Fac
ing the professor sat a young lady who had come
in search of advice on farming as a career.
• * *
“Is a woman strong enough?” asked tho
young lady doubtfully. “Isn't plowing very hard?”
• • •
The professor explained that in these days of
machinery plowing was not very hard. When
you planted your crops you rode in a steam trac
tor and kept the side boxes full of seed. Plow
ing was accomplished without even this effort.
Even without steam, he said, plowing was not dif
ficult. Neither was harvesting. All you had to
do was to occupy the seat and drive a couple of
horses, or, falling a seat, to walk along in back
of the horses with the reins in your hands. Wom
en might have some trouble stacking heavy bun
dles of grain, he thought, but it was sometimes
possible to hire men for that particular task.
• • •
"Furthermore.” declared the professor, "next
season I expect to see at least thirty thousand
women taking the place of men on farms. It is
estimated that about 40 per cent, or 250,000 of
the young men drafted, will come from the farms.
Male labor is already scarce. Women will be
needed to help harvest the crops.”
• • •
In view of this. Professor Spillman thinks that
the present training camps for women might do
well to teach agriculture instead of shooting, so
that in time of need they might prove really use
ful. An Inexperienced person is of little use on a
farm. Hence, if the women's clubs will organize
classes in milking, gardening, driving horses and
poultry-feeding, in addition to a few lectures on
agriculture, it would ultimately be of great serv
ice to the nation.
• • •
This opinion is also shared by several other
experts In the department of agriculture. Al
ready It is becoming so difficult to secure male la
bor for the farms, that the Idea of hiring women
presents itself as a natural alternative. More
over. there are others In the department who agree
with Professor Spillman that women make just as
good farmers as men. One man in a sudden burst
of generosity said be thought they were likely to
achieve even greater success than men for the
reason that women were the principal buyers of
the nation and therefore knew what other women
liked In buying food.
• • •
Women have been farmers, of course, ever
since there were farms. In away It is not a new
question. If you consult the last census you will
find that out of eight million women in occupations
in the United States. 1.800,000 are in agriculture.
But the majority of these are women whose
homes are on farms. Their work is not agriculture
but housework. Thus women agriculturists—
women who own and manage their own farms or
women who choose agriculture as a profession—
are still rare. To be sure, the number is increas
ing almost daily. lowa and Missouri now have
women farmers’ associations, with a central head
quarters and annual conferences at w’hich the
women meet and talk over their various farming
problems.
Then the famous International show 1r no lon
ger a masculine institution at all. It used to be
the case that the women merely accompanied their
husbands and appeared only at the horse show,
which was considered the big social event of the
occasion. Now women are to be found at the
show during all the hours of the day, discussing
the exhibits, arguing- fajm problems with the men,
and occasionally going home with blue and purple
WAS THIS TELEPATHY?—By H. Addington Bruce
SHORTLY after going to bed on the night of
Sunday, July 1, I had a curious dream.
I seemed be be in London, a city where 1 have
never been. In a business street, and in front of a
newspaper office, I met a man who told me that a
cablegram had just been received by the newspaper,
reporting a wreck in the Niagara river, with the
loss ot many lives, among the victims being one of
my best friends.
At once I hurried into the newspaper office
and was obligingly shown the cablegram.
From it I learned that a small steamboat named
the Clintonia— presumably after Governor Clin
ton—had in some way been overturned in the
Niagara. About a score of people were said to be
drowned, some names being given. But my friend s
name was not among them. ,
Here the dream ended, and I awoke. thought
of it a few moments, wondering at its unusual co
herence and definiteness. Then I once more tell
•j ql PPI)
In the morning I again thought of my dream,
taking up the paper, the first piece of news that
caught my eye was an account of the plunging of a
crowded trolley car into the Niagara. Ten people
were reported dead and twice as many missing.
The accident occurred in the mid-afternoon o.
Tulv 1 my dream some hours later. But. being
hundreds of miles from Niagara, and having been in
niv house all afternoon and evening. I had no possi
ble means of learning of the accident until I read
next dav's newspaper.
Now. was it merely a chance coincidence that,
from among the thousands of places where I might
have located my dream of disaster. 1 selected
Niagara as its scene? Or was my dream the result
of something more than chance?
Was it. possibly, the result of telepathic action?
Had 1 received, by some mysterious mental wire
less means, information which remained latent in
my mind until a favoring condition in sleep permit
ted its emergence in the form of a dream haxing
t he telephathically acquired information as its
hasis?
I admit I am inclined toward the latter explana
tion For there are on record many dreams similar
to mine —too many, it seems to me. to think that
chance coincidence could account for all.
Thus as I write I recall the singular dream of a
San Francisco lady. Mrs. S. C. Bugbee. who* knew
intimatelv John Wilkes Booth. In this dream Mrs.
Rugbee saw herself in a theater where Booih was
acting. Between the acts Booth came to her and
asked her how she liked the play.
Frankly she told him that she did not like it
at all. He became enraged, drew a p>tol, and
shot her in the back of the neck.
Awakening in a panic. Mrs. Rugbee imme
diately narrated the dream to her husband. Next
morning came the terrible news of the assassina
tion of President Lincoln by Booth, in a theater,
with a pistol as the weapon.
Was it only by chance, or was it by telepathy
that Mrs. Bugbee, asleep in San Francisco had her
strangely co-incidental dream?
As stated, many dreams akin to this and to
mine are on record. Many more. I am sure, might
be put on record, and for the purpose of scientific
inquiry should be on record.
Therefore I would ask any among my readers
who have had such dreams—dreams, that is to
say. suggesting a definite connection between the
ribbons. A woman won the state championship
prize for the best specimen of grain at the lowa
agricultural show last year, and other lowa wom
en captured prizes on their poultry and cattls.
• • •
The problems of the women farmer are no
different from those of the man farmer. In going
into agriculture the first question to be decided is
whether or not you have a natural predilection
for farming. Do you prefer to live in the out
doors rather than indoors? And—you have often
heard the expression—have you the "patience” to
make things grow? There is a talent ip this as in
everything else.
• • •
The most Important problem the would-be
farmer ever has to face is buying his farm. Nu
merous real estate sharks must be met and dealt
with —the type is legion—and in many Instances it
will be difficult to tell whether a real farm is really
good or not. You must know what land is worth
in a particular locality; you must be able to esti
mate the present rate of production, and you must
know the value of various farming appurtenances,
such as the barn, poultry house, pasture, water
supply and farm Implements. One woman bought
a farm once and afterwards found that it contain
ed no water. She had to have all the water car
ried from a neighboring farm until she could have
a well dug. Another woman who bought a farm
on a very small margin of capital found that the
roof of the house leaked; the poultry house was
falling to pieces and that what was supposed to
be the pasture contained many undesirable trees
but not a blade of grass.
• • •
Professor Spillman always gives the same ad
vice to everyone, both men and women, in buying
a farm. He suggests that they work on a farm
for a couple of months in order to gain the neces
sary experience. After that, they will know a
poultry house when they see It, and know what to
expect of a farm.
• • •
After learning the business of production there
is still another business to be learned by the suc
cessful agriculturist. That is marketing. How,
where and when will you market your goods? The
successful farmer has usually mastered XBk secret
of this business, which is
the business, but the goods. It Is the man or
woman who sends attractive goods to the market
who reaps the greatest profit. A couple of years
ago there was a tremendous over-produjtion of
peaches. In the markets of the eastern coast and
middle west crates of firm ripe peaches sold at
ten cents a crate. Hundreds of dollars were lost.
One farmers’ association, however, determined not
to sell its peach crop at that ridiculous price. The
farmers got together, packed their peaches in tis
sue paper, put them in attractive boxes such as are
used in packing oranges on the Pacific coast, and
marked them *1.65 a box. They sold every box.
The same peaches, carelessly packed were thrown
away because people would not buy them at ten
cents a crate.
• • •
This secret of making things attractive for the
consumer is usually well understood by the aver
age woman. If women were large buyers of live
stock instead of dressed meat, the woihan live
stock farmer would doubtless take her cows to
market looking *lO a head better than the same
animal offered by a man.
The statement Is often heard that women can
not succeed at farming, because they cannot get
men hired hands to work for them. This sounds
reasonable in theory, but has not proved true In
practice. Women ranch-owners and farmers all
over the country, according to the department of
agriculture, have no more trouble obtaining male
labor than do men farmers.
There is a woman who owns a large wheat
farm, comprising ten thousand acres, on the Pa
cific coast. She is known as the wheat queen. Her
production of wheat averages a profit of between
thirty and forty thousand dollars a year. There Is
never any delay or trouble concerning labor. The
majority of the work on her farm is done by
steam, but there are also several men who do not
feel the least humiliated at working on one of the
biggest wheat farms in the country, even though
it is owned and managed by a woman.
dream and some actual happening at a distance—-
to communicate them to me in the care of this
newspaper. .
(Copyright, 1917, by the Associated -Newspapers.?
•CHILDREN AND GROWN-UPS.
By Dr. Frank Crane.
We‘make two mistakes, one in treating chil
dren like children, and the other in treating grown
people as if they Were not children.
It irritates a child just as much to be patron
ized and patted on the head and looked down upon
as it would you.
What he wants is comradeship.' What he re
sents is being treated entirely different from the
rest of the family. When you say to your neigh
bor, “Will you please have a seat?” and to Tommy
“Sit down!” of course it hurts. And it may be
necessary and hygienic for him to be packed off to
bed at 8 o’clock just when the rest of the family
are beginning to have fun, but can you blame him
for not liking it?
If you’ll try treating a little girl sometimes
precisely as if she were grown, go on and say all
the big words you please and don’t explain, be just
as polite and considerate with her as if you were
two level equals, you’ll be surprised at what a re
markably wonderful little girl she is.
And why do you tell Tommy to be a good boy?
You don’t tell grown-ups to be good men.. And
why exhort him to be nice? Did any human be
ing, old or young, ever want to be “nice?”
Suppose you act toward him, as much as pos
sible, just about as you would act with somebody
your own size, and see what happens.
Os course it can’t be done. But, in the lan
guage of W. S. Gilbert's opera, “you might try.”
Then there’s the other mistake, thinking that
grown-ups are different and can’t understand the
child motives.
1 am a hundred years old, more or less, ac
cording to the direction of the wind, and I am
amused at the impassable gulf younglings seem
to think gaps between me and them. They as
sume as a matter of course that I don t want to
dance or play tag or roll on the floor.
The fact is I would rather play a good game or
marbles any day than golf, and If anybody w’ould
welcome me I d enjoy pussy-wants-a-corner or a
fine old kissing game like postoffice. But it’s no
use. I’m barred. I have to go along and be a
man when all the time I m not. In my secret mo
ments I never think of myself as a big, logy
man. And thank goodness when I dream I have
all kinds of games with the other children.
And I have an idea that if we remembered
that all men and women who ever were children
are children still we would understand them better.
Sa vs Mary Austin: “It has always been as
sumed that child psychology is grown-up psychol
ogy diluted with sugar and water. . . . Children
do not think of themselves as children, but as
kings and pirates and heroes and fairy princesses.
Always they figure themselves as grown-ups,
or at least doing grown-up things.’’
(Copyright. 1917, by Frank Crane.)
Belgium no doubt wonders at the strange treat
ment given Hoover by congress.
If nitrate could be made out of hot air, what
a service some war advisers cou’d perlw-ja.
