Newspaper Page Text
PAGE FOUR
(Ciuuuutnu SfmtB
Published Every Thursday
Official Organ of Newton County and
City of Covington Georgia.
FRANK REAGAN, Editor and Publisher
A. S. ADAMS, Superintendent
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
One Year ..................... $1.00
Six Months .................... 50c
Three Months ................. 25c
Advertising Rates on Application.
Entered as second-class matter De¬
cember 2, 1908, at the post office at
Covington, Ga., under the Act of
March 3, 1S79.
All obituary notices, cards of thanks,
and announcements, other than of a
public nature, will be charged for at
the rate of one cent a word—cash with
copy.
All display advertisements consist¬
ing of a half page or more space must
be in the hands of the printer not later
than Tuesday at noon. It is to the
interest of advertisers to observe this.
COVINTGON, GA., APRIL 6, 1916.
PURPOSELESS PARAGRAPHS
“Painful but not Serious.”
Did your candidate win ?
Are you cleaning-up to-day?
Don’t fail to hear Mrs. Ar¬
mor at Oxford this evening.
Keep Kovington Klean to-day,
to-morrow, and every day.
Our relations with Germany
ought to be very fine, they have
been strained so many times.
A grip full of snakes was
found in the Terminal Station
in Atlanta. No doubt they
were bottled snakes going to
some country friend.
“Hot dogs” at one end of the
table and rabbit at the other
ought to make the man feel at
home who is constantly engaged
in the chase for a living.
It’s Pershing—not Perishing.
Hope so.—Americus Times-Re
corder.
We hope he will be the one
who puts an ill or two in Villa.
They roported that Villa had
lost one leg and later that he
had found it. He must be one
of those centipedes or thousand
legs and every one running in a
different direction.
It took three years for Rodin,
the great French sculptor, to
get the French government to
accept as a free gift all his
works and his mansion housing
them. We call that persevering.
“Tact, Not Scolding, to Cor¬
rect Children’s Faults” is the
title of one of our exchanges’
editorials- Well, there are some
things a bachelor paragrapher
does not have to do, and one is
telling how to raise children.
One of the most apreciated
visitors to our office recently
was Editor Ernest Camp, of The
Walton Tribune. He and Mrs.
Camp and all the little Camps
too came along and it was a
treat to meet such a fine family
of such a splendid member of
the fourth estate
The greatest part of our
standing army may be seen in
the street cars after six o’clock
every evening.—Macon News.
Come on over to Covington
where you can ride on the
street cars without having to
stand
The Meriwether Vindicator
upholds the state's courts
against the wholesale and ir¬
responsible tirades which have
recently been directed against
them. We are with the Vindi¬
cator in vindicating the ways of
the courts.
The Walton Tribune says that
it was all right to post town or¬
dinances on telephone poles in
the days of Ben Franklin when
there were about half a dozen
newspapers in the United States
and no telephone poles at all, but
that the practice is too old
fashioned now for any use.
Readers of papers expect the au¬
thorities to publish their pro¬
ceedings—and pay for it.—El
berton Star.
The statutes of Georgia call
the newspapers “public ga¬
zettes.” If the public as it, a gov¬ the
ernment does not use
name seems a misnomer.
THE COVINGTON NEWS, COVINGTON, GA., APRIL 6, 1916.
THE STATE’S RAILROAD
There is evidence that acrimony and choler begin to color
this controversy.
We do not surely know why this should be the case. A
few newspapers have almost gone to the extent of denouncing
every paper favoring the sale of the road as a hireling of the
Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
On the other hand, the papers favoring such sale charge
that those who oppose the sale are playing politics.
It is true that when politicians play the people always pay
and no matter which politician loses the people also usually
lose.
But in this question it is somewhat like the game of
“Button, button, who has the button?” Who is the politician?
We cannot go so far as to say every paper which favors
the sale itself first became the subject of sale to secure such
sentiment expressed in its columns. We are sure that is not
true.
But often bought influence changes the belief and opinion
of honest men. It is a matter of “all things to all men”; it is
to be argument for the honest and money for the mercenary.
Some facts in this matter are at least significant, and we
mean only facts which are not disputed, as follows:
1. The suggestion of the sale was not published to any
noticeable degree until after the selection of a commission to
take up the question of re-leasing the road-
2- The greater proportion of the papers favoring the
sale do not suggest a possible or prospective purchaser. The
few who do name none but the Louisville and Nashville rail¬
road as a possible purchaser.
3. The first suggestion of sale started in the utterances
of certain city papers which have always been recognized by
the people as having very strong pro-railroad and pro-corpora¬
tion sympathies.
4. That the Louisville and Nashville railroad is a con¬
scienceless corporation without regard for the people’s rights
or interests and without any scruple in the methods it uses
and would use to accomplish its purposes.
This corporation knows as well as anybody whom to buy
and whom it can buy. Many whom it would not for a moment
attempt to buy it may influence through those it does buy.
Now those papers which favor the sale say that one of the
good grounds for their position is the small return on the in¬
vestment paid to the state by this property.
Now, as a matter of fact, this return to the state is about
what governments usually pay when they issue bonds or bor¬
row money.
It is more than most railroads owned by private corpora¬
tions pay as dividends.
And again, why do they presume that Georgia can secure
no more for its lease than it is now receiving ? The present
lease is soon to expire.
Any concern as lessee can pay more than it is now paying.
It can pay a fair return on a fair valuation of the property.
This return can be much more than the dividends now earned
by the railroads: because, as everybody knows, all railroad
stocks are well watered and the added fictitious value is often
equal to the real value representing actual outlay in construc¬
tion, maintainance, depreciation, etc. The railroads have
been allowed to charge such rates as will pay a fair return on
this capitalization, water and all.
On the actual investment in the state’s road a railroad
corporation should easily and profitably pay double what it
pays on its capital stock. This is what the state should ie
ceive.
And again the corporation now leasing this property may
and no doubt does have other lines which it operates at or be¬
low cost. Now this corporation must earn more on lines which
do pay in order to equalize its earnings* and pay dividends on
its capital stock representative of the corporation s entire ag¬
gregate properties
Now Georgia’s property ought not to be taken into this
aggregation as such a part of it that its earnings must go into
the general earnings fund and so, by its greater amount, con¬
tribute to help make up the deficit on some other lines
In brief, the State of Georgia should receive such rental as
is based on what it and it alone can be made to pay in its op¬
eration ; of course holding to the value of the investment as a
basis for the earnings.
Any railroad ought to be able to pay Georgia for its road
almost double what it now pays and then earn more operating
it than it does in operating any other line, for the reason that
it is not having to earn an income on watered stock.
If we sell the road, who will buy ? Certainly only a rail¬
road corporation will buy. Who will fix the price ? The rail¬
roads probably. In other words the railroads will probably
be both buyer and seller. Of course Georgia would be the
loser.
For, when the time comes to select men to fix the price, a
publicity campaign would at once be started by railroad in¬
terests through their newspaper spokesmen, intended to ed¬
ucate” people to a realization that none but “experienced
railroad “experts” could know’ how to value the property.
And then the present evidences of purchased opinion
would sink into insignificance beside the boodle-bought and
boodle-bound publicity the railroads would then turn loose on
Georgia.
We are opposed to any discussion of sale until a proper
lease is made.
We do not want to see the Louisville and Nashville wreck
our state’s property.
PROTECTOR OR PROPRIETOR?
Which will it be? This is a question which is rapidly
coming coming home to our great nation in our dealings with
Latin America.
Our nation is a peculiar one in many ways. And as it is
the people w’ho make the nation, we are a peculiar people.
From the very method of our settlement of this country
and the subsequent foundation of the republic, on down to the
present, we have been different and unusual in our character
and conduct. •
Other nations have been land grabbers from the earliest
times of recorded history. That is not peculiar,
We started out with the expressed purpose of not seizing
and appropriating lands lying apart from our own, and so that
purpose made us peculiar.
The Spanish-American War was followed by a departure
on our part from the practice of that peculiar principle and so
lead us into a practice common to all countries of all ages.
This departure from our old custom must have made the
old countries regard the new steps as very inconsistent with
our Monroe doctrine.
The occasion for the Monroe doctrine is not now what it
was when President Monroe promulgated it in 1823
At that period Spain was still smarting from her fate in
losing dominion over the South American countries which had
declared their independence and whose independence had been
recognized by the United States government.
The European governments were seriously considering a
plan to help Spain recover these lost dependencies.
This fact and the alarming expansion of Russia on the
West coast called forth the Monroe doctrine. It w’as then de¬
manded as a step for self protection. Self protection called us
to the protection of our sister republics.
President Cleveland, in the Venezuelan dispute, further
enlarged this doctrine to apply even to land line disputes be¬
tween territory already owned Uy European powers and Latin
American nations.
Under Roosevelt is was further interpreted to prevent the
seizure by European governments of territory of these Ameri¬
can republics even to collect from the latter just debts due to
the former.
And President Wilson has indicated a further extension
of the Monroe doctrine. He has declared that the United
States is interested in maintaining not only the territorial but
the economic independence and integrity of the South Ameri¬
can countries as well.
Since that utterance, in 1913, President Wilson has gone
far beyond that and has pronounced the doctrine that we
should become the big brother to all these countries and not be
satisfied with protecting them only but should aid them as well
to the end that they may constantly and steadily advance in
civilization and in moral as well as material matters.
Diplomats have laughed at him for it, but it is only in
keeping with the high purpose which originally discovered and
later settled this, our country.
Many of us who believe that a man should practice the
Christianity which he professes as much as a citizen as he
does as an indiviual, thoroughly agree with our president
Now, into our midst, while we are entertaining as our
mental guests such high thoughts, there comes the Mexican
muddle to disturb us..
And this affair has called forth every imaginable kind of
suggestions to our government. in
The very dean of our American editors, without a peer
the virile and charming expression, raises the cry, “On to Pan¬
ama,” and myriads of lesser lights over the meads of our na¬
tion reflect the light borrowed from him.
Some sensation-seeking reporters with our border army
put into the mouth of one of the soldiers hunting for Villa the
words, “We are taking the border with us.” And thousands
of readers among our people applaud the sentence.
This newspaper item and this purpoted soldier’s saying do
not accord very well with the words from the White House.
Which shall the people approve and which shall our gov¬
ernment finally put into practice ?
To-day the United States is a stupendous arena or stage
of a vast amphitheatre with seating capacity for the balance
of the world.
And those sections reserved for Latin-America and for
Europe have every seat occupied by an interested spectator.
Unlike the ancient or modern stage of the smaller play¬
houses over the planet, the audience in this world amphithea¬
tre are watching the actions of the minds as well hs of the men
in this nation producing the play.
The A. B. C. sections applauded our president’s withdraw¬
ing the troops from Vera Cruz, while sitting in silence during
the act of his landing them there.
Our Southern neighbors have looked upon us with eyes of
suspicion, and not entirely without justification. When our
soldiers embarked from Mexican soil the half opened eyes of
distrust began to widen with wonder. And the act opened
their hearts for real brotherly feeling to enter.
The next act is now coming upon the stage.
Will it hold and heighten the favorable impression made
by the former and immediately preceding acts? Or will it re¬
place that wonder with consternation or with the breaking
down of every barrier in the way of mutual trust and under¬
standing? “On Panama” doctrine like
Those who favor the to are
the rich land-grabber, who did not want so much more land,
but only wanted what “lined” him.
When we reached Panama there would be a new border
there, whether temporary or permanent.
It is almost certain that the people just across that new
border to be are no better and no less contentious than are
those just beyond the Rio Grande.
With our border at Panama, we would have the same pan
demonum and chaos of people to face. The same forays
across our border would have to be repelled and followed
New Villas would have to be pursued. Our boys, still
bearing our mobile border by land and air and sea, would pen¬
etrate further South.
Then soon the border would have to be moved another
notch or degree South. And our border would move on and on
and on until it reached its limit in the southernmost seas.
And all this we would have done only by trampling over
every right and feeling of those Latin-American people. This
would be the deed of this our so-called Christian nation.
Is this Christianity ? Is it brotherhood ? It is even de
cenecy ?
That would be out a step some thousands of years back¬
ward. an acknowledgement that our forefathers were poor,
misguided, demented zealots and their boasted spirit of Chris¬
tian brotherhood in equality was but a delusion and a snare.
And we would be but using the Monroe doctrine as a cover
under which to act the highwayman to our southern sister
states.
Do we desire to acknowledge that this experiment of a
free government, with liberty and justice for all is a failure?
The time of trial is here. Will it prove us true to our
history and keepers of the faith ?
Protector or Proprietor, which shall we be to the balance
of this hemisphere?
rm-c m' cm w ci
foRIGINAL* |.....................—A
N D----------------
| ? OTHERWISE
By A. S. ADAMS
Now that the primary is over,
let’s organize a baseball team.
*—n—*
Ernest Camp says that hip
pockets will go out of style after
Maythefirst.
*--*
Only twenty-four days until
May the worst, so “make hay
while the lid is off.”
*—u—*
If Mexico had a half dozen
Villas, Uncle Sam would have
to call for volunteers.
*—u—*
A friend of ours says that
when it comes to writing poetry
that we would make a splendid
blacksmith.
Ernest Camp, of Monroe,
came by for a few minutes last
week. Come again, Campie,
when you can stay longer.
*-If-*
The primary lias come and gone,
And it didn’t turn out so bad,
So the candidates and the voters
Are awful, awful glad.
Col. C- C- King’s fowl house
burned the other night, which
led a fellow to remark: “Why
did he allow his chickens to car¬
ry matches?”
*-11-*
If each member of the Baraca
Class will make it a point to
bring one fellow with him next
Sunday, the class will be twice
it’s present size. DO THIS.
*—1f-*
Two hundred and fifty-six
people attended the Methodist
Sunday School here last Sun¬
day. Why not make it three
hundred in the next thirty
days ?
*-If-*
LOST — One Poodle dog.
White right after bath. Finder
will please return to this office
and receive—MUCH OBLIGE.
P. S.- -Never mind, he came
black.
Woman in Atlanta said of
her husband: “I loved Ed
when I shot him.” Strange
sort of love indeed. Love that
passeth understanding.—Mad¬
ison Madisonian.
Maybe she loved to get Eddie
out of the way.
* -If-■*
Adams, of Covington, is ad¬
vertising for a kicking ma¬
chine. Sorry, but we wore
ours out immediately after
the last state convention at
Macon.—Walton Tribune.
Yes, they tell us that they al
vays feel that way the morning
,fter the night before.
* -If-*
We received our usual two
copies of The Covington News
last week, but were surprised
to find that its accustomed
paragraphs were missing and
we were somewhat vexed, es¬
pecially when we enjoy their
substance so well—Lumpkin
independent.
Wonder which side of the ed¬
itorial page he's talking about—
Don’t say it.
Every week that the Cov¬
ington News comes to our
desk we make a “bee line”
for A. S. Adams’ column, but
some weeks he fools us and
doesn’^ write any “Original
and Otherwise” which causes
disappointment and too, we
are actually hungry.—Lithon- f
ia Journal
Glad you miss our column,
“Sing,” but as for being “hun¬
gry” the feed stuff you find in
this coumn is for squirrels only
A. S. Adams, in The Cov¬
ington News, advertises for a
printer; says printer will have
nothing to do but set jobs and
ads, make up two newspapers,
feed the cylinder and job
presses and run the linotype
while he's resting. If that’s
all he will have to do, we might
loan him a printer a few hours
a week.—Conyers Times.
Muchoblige, Tyler, we wall call
on you next. Had to borrow
Sinquefield, of Lithonia, the oth¬
er day.
