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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta, Ga.
A Plain, Unvarnished Record
Versus Ridiculous Abuse
Georgian to the manner born will be
deceived by partisan efforts to divert
attention from the vital issues in the
N”
Presidential primary through ranting abuse
of Senator Hoke Smith. That robustious
school of politics has torn passion to tatters
all too often to draw more than a fatigued
smile from the informed and native public.
Late comers to the Commonwealth, however,
may be puzzled to account for the melodra
matic stride, the air-sawing gesture, the pea
nut gallery gaze, the hoarsely bellowed
“Curses on ye” that instantly became the role
in certain quarters when Senator Smith en
tered the primary. If such bewildered on
lookers there are, we beg of them not to judge
all Georgia, nor even the little company of
players now stamping the stage, by this mo
ment’s outburst. The State ib in no wise hys
terical; and after a while our vituperative
friends themselves will lay aside the tragic
mask and admit that, although there was
method in their madness, they decidedly over
played the part.
What the foes of the senior Senator may
say against him or what his friends may say
for him is not so important as what the record
itself declares —that indisputable record of
Georgia and American history whose aim it
is "nothing to extenuate, nor set down aught
in malice.” Whoever cares to consult this im
partial witness will find that Hoke Smith has
done many a serviceable deed for his Com
monwealth and his country. They will find
him as a youth of twenty-one defending the\
integrity of the ballot against carpet bag in
vasion, defying the bayonet rule under which
the South then labored. They will find him
as chairman of the Fulton Democratic Execu
tive Committee, a leader in the hard, grim
battles of Reconstruction, and later a pioneer
in the larger fields of Soutneru education.
They will see him in 1893 called to the fore
front of President Cleveland’s administration,
the youngest Cabinet member ever known,
save Alexander Hamilton, and tnen the first
Georgian to be honored in that capacity since
the breach between the States. They will
see him as Secretary of the Interior putting
an end to Federal pension nauds that
were costing the people millions, and at the
same time fully protecting the interests of
every rightful beneficiary.
Looking further, they wiii recognize him
as an outstanding exponent of lioeral as op
posed to reactionary thought in Georgia pol
itics, and will judge of his appeal io the pub
lic mind by the fact that in the memorable
Governor’s race of 1906 he carnea one hun
dred and twenty-two of the one hundred and
forty-eight counties, carried tnem over
whelmingly against four of the most distin
guished and personally popular opponents
that ever a candidate faced. Two years later
they eee him defeated for re-election; but
with the cooling lapse of still another two
years, they see him returned to the Gov
ernor’s chair, his constructive policies vindi
cated. Next they will note his selection by
a decsive majority to fill the unexpired term
of the lamented Senator Clay, 'and will ob
serve that in his subsequent race before the
people he was elected, receiving one hundred
and thirty thousand votes—one of the most
emphatic tributes in the State’s annals.
This is the man and this the record that
insensate partisanship now attacks as though
he were guilty of high crimes and misde
meanors. To what specific acts do the wagers
of this wild war against character and achieve
ment refer? Is it the Smith-Lever law, that
monumental measure which has done more
for the agricultural interests of the South and
of the common country than any other one
piece of legislation—is it this that they so
bitterly resent in Senator Smith’s record? Or
is it the Smith-Hughes Vocational Educa
tion law, or the Smith-Feares act for the re
habilitation of disabled soldiers, or the pend
ing Smitb-Towner bill, providing for a Secre
tary of Education in the President’s cabinet
and for a fund of $100,000,000 to promote
public educational interests? Do they de
nounce the senior Senator for his persistent
and fruitful labors in behalf of Georgia
schools, Georgia farms and Georgia ports? Or
are they bursting with indignation because
as one of the leading framers of the Federal
Reserve law he stood out for amendments
which made it possible for three regional
banks to be established in the Cotton
States, whereas none might have been
here as the measure was originally proposed?
Or are they incensed because, largely through
his endeavors, the Reserve Bank for the Sixth
district was allotted to Georgia instead of
to Alabama or Louisiana? Do they consider
it traitorous in Senator Smith to have saved
Camp Gordon and Camp Benning from being
blotted from the map as Republican partisans
of the House and Senate had designed and
well-nigh accomplished? Can they deny for
a moment that in all which pertains to the
business, the agricultural and the educational
interests of Georgia, and of the common coun
try, he has been unfailingly vigilant and con
structive? Or can they pretend that work
like this deserves no better appreciation than
headlong abuse?
As to the senior Senator’s war-time serv
ices, the record again is the one fair court
of appeal. Not even his intenscst political en
emy can gainsay that in the winter of 1915-
16 he urged immediate and full-sinewed prep
aration for the emergency which broke upon
us the following spring, and that long ere this
he pleaded for army and navy expansion in
spite of pronounced opposition to that policy
on the part of a number of other Democratic
leaders. It cannot be gainsaid that he spok,e
and voted for the arming of our merchant
ships, his warmth of argument in that con-
THE ATLANTA TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL.
nection leading him almost into a personal
difficulty with Senator La Follette, who op
posed the measure. Following the declara
tion of war, which he earnestly supported, he
exerted himself, as a member of the Senate
Finance Committee, in behalf of unstinted
appropriations and the speediest possible pro
gram for mobilizing the country’s every fight
ing resource. He voted for the Selective
Service bill and aggressively advocated it,
at the very time when Democrats like
Speaker Clark and Floor Leader Kitchin were
opposing it, and when it seemed that sup
porters of the measure were hazarding their
political all. Is it for his record on these
vital war matters that Senator Smith is being
denounced?
The Food Control bill, the Fuel Control
bill, the Railroad Federalization bill and the
Overman bill, all received his vote, and, in
so far as their basic principles were con
cerned, his earnest advocacy. He stood for
certain amendments to them on the ground
that in their original form they were either
defective or were needlessly inimical to
common interests and common rights;
and those amendments were adopted.
Likewise he supported the Merchants Marine
bill, not only when it was introduced as a
war emergency measure but also when it was
first proposed, during the earlier stages of
the European conflict. How his colleagues
regarded Senator Smith’s work and counsel
in the critical tasks of winning the war is
seen in the fact that they created an addi
tional place on the Military Affairs Com
mittee for the express purpose of assigning
him to it; and any informed Senator will
testify that after Mr. Smith took that post,
friction between the Committee and the War
Department ceased and the situation in every
respect grew more satisfactory. These are
not matters of heresay; they are matters of
undebatable record. How unjust, then, and
how ridiculous that political feudists should
seek to class a Senator who earnestly and ably
supported the war program with those who
opposed it!
As for his course in the matter o| the
Peace Treaty, Senator Smith’s severest critics
cannot refute the fact that at the moment of
crucial test, when it was a question of saving
the great covenant with reservations, or losing
it by insistence upon its remaining unmodified
in word or letter, he voted with the twenty
three Democrats who stool for the only form
of ratification obtainable and who repre
sented the best balanced thought of Amer
ica and of the -world. This being the record,
is it not unsportsmanlike, is it not unjust, is
it not ridiculous for political termagants to
contnue their abuse of Georgia’s senior Sen
ator?
During his more than eight years in the
Senate The Journal has differed with Mr.
Smith on certain questions, both before and
after the war, and may differ with him again.
But justice is justice, service is service, and
truth is truth to the end of the reckoning.
The Lesson of Georgia's Growth
In the Cause of Good Roads
’HE growth of the good roads idea in
Georgia is hearteningly examp!ed in
the fact that there is available for
T
highway construction and improvement in the
State this year the sum of twelve million six
hundred thousand dollars. The time is not
far gone when this would have been consid
ered rather a large expenditure for the entire
Southeast; but at no very distant day, we
imagine, it will appear too small for even half
the counties of this Commonwealth. For it
is the unvarying history of the good roads
movement that the further it goes, the greater
is its momentum and the more abundant its
resources of sustainment.
In the old years—a well-nigh antedeluvian
past, it now seems—before this- movement
was definitely under way or was more than a
dream in the hearts of the forward-lookers,
highways which today would be called in
sufferable were accepted as fair enough.
Farmers were losing heavily and continually
because of difficult or broken communica
tion with markets; and on the same account
city consumers were under-supplied and ex
cessively charged while large quantities of
foodstuffs spoiled or went to waste at the
source of production, not many miles away.
Curiously enough, however, when roads were
at their worst, sentiment for their improve
ment was at its feeblest. And of all stages of
the awakening and advance which finally
came, the most difficult was the beginning.
But once fairly begun, how swiftly and
vigorously the reform went forward! It is
doubtful that any other line of American
progress during the last decade or sq has
been so marked in its widening appeal to
business sagacity and civic pride. Counties
where aforetime it was next to impossible to
pass a bond issue or by any other means
raise a special fund for public improvements
have come to be liberal supporters of the
good roads cause, and of kindred enterprises
as well, such as schools, sanitation and divers
forms of social co-working. The fruits of
‘every dollar efficiently spent for highway
betterment and extension were so manifest
and so beneficial to the interests of each and
all, that people grew to regard outlays for
this purpose as investments which it would
be folly nor to make. The more efficient the
methods of expenditure and of construction
became, the readier were taxpayers to vote
bonds, and the readier were legislators, state
and federal, to make appropriations for this
cause.
Thus do we see, in recent seasons, forty
six Georgia counties voting an aggregate six
teen million, seven hundred and thirty thou
sand dollars of highway bonds. It is worthy
of note that in nearly every instance these
were already good-roads counties; for the
very reason that they had good roads, they
saw the need and felt the inducement for bet
ter ones. It is equally noteworthy that since
these counties have taken forward strides,
their less advanced neighbors have begun to
bestir themselves, aroused and spurred on by
the examples about them. So the Caven
spreads, and so the indication grows that the
almost twelve million dollars which is avail
able for highway work in Georgia this year
will appear in times not very far ahead a
minor rather than a liberal sum for such a
purpose.
This, amount ,it should be observed, repre
sents the maximum construction program
possible for 1920. The March number cf
Southern Good Roads, calculating upon a bas
is of figures from the State Highway board,
sets forth the following “possible expendi
tures:”
Federal-aid projects from funds aris
ing prior to the current fiscal year, al
ready matched by county funds, $5,-
200,000.00.
Federal-aid projects from 1920-21,
allotment to Georgia when matched by
county funds in equal amounts, $5,400,-
000.00.
State-aid projects from 1920—income
when voluntarily met by county funds,
$2,000,000.00.
This total of twelve million, six hundred
thousand dollars, it will be seen, includes
only a part of the county bond issues of near
ly seventeen million to w'hich we referred. In
deed, it was largely upon an understanding
that the county funds should be supplement
ed, on a “fifty-fifty” basis, by Federal or
State apportionments, that the bonds were
issued. Thus we may count upon a large res
idue of the county bond funds for next year’s
undertakings, and be encouraged by the pros
pect of every dollar’s being doubled which
state and county provide.
Most heartening of all. however, is the as
surance that the more we spend for good
roads, the more we shall have to spend for
them, and that the speedier will be the up
building of those great economic and human
interests whioji they serve.
CURRENT EVENTS OF INTEREST
An attempt to transfer the atmosphere of
New York’s Greenwich Village to Boston for
one night ended in disappointment for pro
moters and merrymakers. Police blotters
and court records told some of the story, in
cluding the mention of five arrests of Har
vard undergraduates, a call for police re
serves to quell a disturbance, and complaint
from “Madame Sonia,” promoter of the
event, that her room had been robbed of
$l,lOO, the proceeds of the sale of tickets
and collections.
The occasion was a ball held in a fashion
able hotel attended by theatrical folk, col
lege undergraduates, members of the art col
ony and others who wished to have their
fling after the reputed Bohemian fashion of
Greenwich Villagers. The dancers whirled
until after midnight, when the orchestra
quit. Some one took up the work of turning
out jazz tunes at the piano and the dance was
on again, only to be stopped at 2 a. m., when
the police intervened.
The first outbreak of the night rider trou
bles in western Kentucky, in thirteen years,
occurred recently, when between 200 and 300
tobacco growers from the northern section of
Graves county visited the Mayfield tobacco
chute and applied the torch.
The renewal of night riding is said to be
the result of the fight of tobacco growers of
this section of the state against the dropping
prices of tobacco. Growers recently organized
and hundreds agreed not to sell their crops
on any warehouse floor. Recently, it is said,
twenty McCracken county growers, at the
point of shotguns, forced several growers,
coming to Paducah with their tobacco, to turn
back.
A girl in her early twenties, Dr. J. L. Cross
ley, battalion officer of the Order of the Brit
ish Empire, bachelor of arts and doctor of
science, is investigating Canadian trade possi
bilities on a special mission for the British
government, it was announced in Calgary,
Alberta, recently.
She spent six months in Australia recent
ly, traveling alone, inspecting manufacturing
plants and consulting with managers, to whom
she gave information obtained during her in
vestigations. After reporting to the British
government the trade requirements of Can
ada and Australia, she will go to China to
study trade conditions there.
A recommendation has been sent to the
secretary of agriculture by the American As
sociation of State Highway Officials that the
United States should accept the invitation of
foreign countries to join the Permanent In
ternational Association of Road Congresses.
The invitation was received through the
State Department from the American Consul
General at Paris.
Thomas H. MacDonald, chief of the bu
reau of public roads, said that the United
States is the only civilized nation not • a
member of the International association. The
roads congress, he added, constituted an in
ternational tribunal for bringing together the
best experience and results in highway con
struction and administration. Although
meetings havb been held each year, nono
has been called since the European war be
gan.
It was also recommended that the Inter
national association be invited to the United
States for its next meeting.
According to a dispatch from Geneva, Ad
miral Horthy, the regent of Hungary, has
secretly but officially offered the Hungarian
throne to former Emperor Charles, with the
assurance that everything has been arranged
for the return of the Hapsburg monarchy,
with the consent of the majority of the pop
ulation, according to information from Pran
gins, where the ex-emperor lives.
Admiral Horthy, it is declared, has in
vited the former ruler to come to Budapest
as soon as possible, adding that the question
with the Allies in connection with the move
could be best arranged from the Hungarian
capital.
The ex-emperor, however, is said to be ap
parently hesitating as to his course, and has
not left Prangins.
News from London states the Dutch pre
mier has informed the presidents of the
upper and lower houses of parliament by
letter that former Emperor William has as
sured the Dutch government that he will re
frain from all poitical activity and do noth
ing which would involve Holland in any in
ternational difficulty.
INDECENCY
By Dr. Frank Crane
No amount of wit, skill, or cleverness, or
philosophy can redeem indecency. There are
certain parts of the human body which man
kind agrees to conceal. It is not puritanism
nor prudery. It is not a law and unintelli
gent trait which we will outgrow. Quite the
contrary, it is a late, mature and permanent
trait of development. It is a recognition of
the essential divinity, mystery and modesty
of the human being. It is the symbol of
our progress away from the animal and to
ward the dominance of mind and spirit.
So also there are certain subjects that can
never have any right to a place in belles
lettres or any other form of art. Psycho
logical analyses of the pervert belong to
the field of criminal science and are only to
be tolerated in the old and steely analysis
of a Lombroso. When they are taken up by
a D’Annunzio, broidered with flowers and
perfumed with rhetoric, they are no more
nor less than filth, which the healthy nos
trils of normal folk will willingly pass by, or,
having examined once, forget.
It is refreshing to see how the people are
purifying the artists. I can remember when
the variety theater was a low and coarse per
formance, patronized by the scum. Today
the vaudeville has taken its place and is
patronized by everybody, and the result has
been that the level of decency has risen and
the average decent woman can attend the
average show of this kind without fear of
being offended or disgusted. In fact, the
vaudeville manager has become timid. His
rules of propriety are stricter than those of
the legitimate.” I know a reciter who was
compelled by the vaudeville manager to ex
purgate Kipling before he was allowed to
give some of his poems.
Profanity, coarseness, lewdness of any
kind are fatal. They are quick ways of at
tracting attention, but are sure signs of a
poverty of resources. No one can afford to
indulge in them.
And.the reason is a sound one. There is
plenty of material in healthy human nature
for the use of any artist. The heart of man
is inexhaustible. The higher relations of the
masculine and feminine soul present bound
less fields for artistic interpretation. Only
it takes sympathy and genius and insight and
infinite patience and technique to compre
hend and portray the motions of the spirit
There is no place in art of the better type for
the mountebank.
Anglo-Saxondon is peculiarly fortunate In
its great master mind who laid the foundation
and set the pace for our letters for all time -
Shakespeare. There is a breezy healthiness,
an out-of-doors purity, an innate decency and
self-respect in Shakespeare that is not found
always in Goethe nor Moliere.
1 ludishness and Miss Nancyism are intol
erable. No finicky soul can be great. And the
opposite is just as true: no mind that touches
Nastiness lovingly can be great.
(>ive us the universal experience; -reat of
God and of mud; go through every room and
Five million dollars in bills found in a
sack in the corridor of the Simplon express
have been seized and confiscated at the
Temesvar station on the Rumanian-Hunga
rian frontier.
The ownership of the money at present
is not known, but officials say it is believed
it will be revealed in a few days. The owner,
it is asserted, was expecting to make a trip
to England and the United States.
As a result of the measures recently
adopted by the Rumanian government to pre
vent any kind of money leaving the country
searches of the international trains are be
ing made daily.
Lieutenant Commander James R. Webb
and three members of Lis crew were lost
when the United States submarine H-l went
aground at the entrance to Magdalena bay,
Lower California, according to a radio dis
patch received here. The submarine was
driven on the rocks during a storm, but
could not be refloated. Surviving members
of the crew were rescued by a destroyer and
an Eagle boat. The collier Neptune and an
other destroyer are en route to aid in re
floating the vessel.
A dispatch from London states more than
16,000 anti-Bolshevist soldiers have been
found frozen to death on the Steppes, it is
announced in a soviet military communique
received from Moscow by wireless. (The
Steppes comprise the plains in southeastern
Russia and the western Asiatic provinces.)
The statement reports progress by the red
troops against General Denikin’s forces along
the railway in the Ekaternodar region, on
the Caucasus front.
Enormous thefts of platinum, accounted by
the present standards of value as more
precious than gold, are being reported from
the chemical laboratories and manufactories
of the United States.
The stealing of $50,000 worth of the val
uable metal from the plant of a large New
Jersey chemical firm a few days ago has been
followed by many other losses. The situa
tion is so serious as to cause warnings and
notices to be distributed throughout the coun
try. Members of the American Chemical So
ciety, through the various sections, have been
informed of the wholesale thefts, and descrip
tions of the stolen articles made of platinum
are being forwarded to the secretaries of the
sections of the organization with requests to
keep a sharp lookout for all platinum ped
dlers.
It is announced in the current number of
the Journal of Industrial and Engineering
Chemistry that the vault of the Department
of Agricultural Chemistry at the University
of Missouri was entered and the entire stock
of platinum crucibles* amounting to 2,5Q0
grams in weight had been stolen. Other uni
versity laboratories have had the same bitter
experience.
Aside from its growing use by jewelers for
rings and settings for diamonds and other
precious stones, platinum is essential to many
chemical tests and processes and is therefore
high in price.
According to a dispatch from Berlin, news
received from Upper Silesia, the semi-official
Wolff Bureau says, reports a rising of a Bol
shevist character at Warsaw and other parts
of Poland.
A strike of 15,000 engineers employed by
the British government department known as
the office of works, in London, broke out
recently and was settled by the department
concerned agreeing to the men’s demand.
The trouble arose over the dismissal of
a workman by a foreman. Engineers main
tained that not only should the workman be
reinstated, but that the foreman should be
dismissed.
The speedy settlement of the strike is as
sumed to be due to the fact that Buckingham
palace, the houses of parliament and nu
merous public buildings would otherwise have
been left without eletric light or central
heating.
According to a dispatch from Christiania,
Norway, it is understood that American rep
resentatives are trying to repurchase dry
goods and wearing apparel bought from the
United States from 1918 to 1920 for re
export to the United States, as the prices
of these commodities is 50 per cent lower
than those now prevailinig in the American
markets.
FOOD CAUTIONS
By H. Addington Bruce
(Copyright, 1920, by The Associated Newspa
/ pers.)
HE recent occurrence of many deaths from
botulinus poisoning, due to the eating
of infected olives, should not create a
T
prejudice against canned foods in general. But
it should create a prejudice against canned
foods that give the slightest evidence of being
spoiled.
From Detroit, Memphis, and other places
where death followed the eating of olives, it is
reported that the olives eaten were manifestly
in some stage of decay. They are described as
“soft,” “tasting queerly,” etc.
And likewise in cases of botulinus poisoning
from canned beans, asparagus tips, and other
vegetables, signs of decomposition were present
in the odor, color, or taste of the death-deal
ing foods.
It is said by good authorities, to be sure,
that even when one has reason to suspect that
canned foods are not quite sound they may
be rendered harmless by cooking. I should
not advise taking this chance.
Knowing the deadliness of the botulinus
germ, the one safe rule is to destroy all canned
foodstuffs which have an unnatural color or
odor, are “gassy,” are rot so firm as they
ought to be, or otherwise seem to be tainted
in any degree. Any swelling of their con
tainers before they are opened should itself
be a warning, “Don’t eat! ”
Better far to lose the cost of a few cans
of food than to risk the suffering and possi
ble fatality of a botulinus seizure.
For that matter, moreover, it is no less im
portant to refrain from eating spoiled foods of
any kind, fresh as well as canned. Which
means, of course, that every precaution should
be taken, both in stores and in the home, to
safeguard food from decay and contamina
tion.
Sheer carelessness often is responsible for
the so-called ptomaine poisonings reported in
connection \ ith the eating of meats and fish.
Meat is left lying in the kitchen pantry un
der conditions that may soon make it unfit
to eat. When the housewife finally decides to
cook it she perhaps notices that it is not in the
best of condition.
“1 guess it’s not too far gone, though, to be
unsafe,” is her comment. Perhaps it isn’t. But
she assuredly is taking, and causing others to
take, an unnecessary risk.
Then, too, death may follow the widespread
neglect to keep foods properly covered while
awaiting us, especially milk, butter, meats, and
breadstuffs. Left exposed for flies to crawl
over, germs innumerable may be deposited to
give rise to typhoid or some other dread dis
ease.
Care, cleanliness, common sense—these should
be the watchwords in every kitchen. Food is
indispensable to life. Recklessness, thought
lessness, may all too easily make it life-de
stroying.
closet of life, but see that it is done with the
antiseptic hand, with a mind that is clean,
sound and sane.
(Copyright, 1920, by Frank Crane.)
TIiUr.. J DAJ, AIG.IL 1, ILL.)
THE TRI-WEEKLY EDITORIAL DIGEST
i
A National and Non-Partisan Summary of Leading Press Opinion on Current
Questions and Events
How Shall IV e Make
Where does failure of the Peace Treaty’s
ratification leave us? Still at war with Ger
many, although hostilities ceased nearly a
year and a half go, and the nations of Europe
have made peace. Somehow we must make
peace, too, but how?
Some deny that the treaty is dead. The
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER (Ind. Dem.)
thinks the Senate should call it back and
ratify it, which would then “put the issue
squarely up to the president to offer peace
upon the senate terms or to reject the terms
any seek restoration of peace by some other
method.” The NEW YORK TIMES (Ind.
Dem.) takes a somewhat similar position:
“The tim ewill come, and it will not be a
distant time,” it predicts, “when the presi
dent will be able to resubmit the treaty to
a senate that, benefiting by sober second
thought, will be far less insistent on reser
vations that mutilate and destroy, . . .
reservations that will declare our under
standing of the treaty, but will leave intact
its vital guarantees of justice and peace
among nations.”
“Let the issue go before the people,” urges
the KANSAS CITY JOURNAL (Rep.); “that
will be the best thing that could happen.”
The TACOMA LEDGER (Ind.) states that
the senate’s action “means that the treaty
will be made an issue in the campaign,” but
thinks it “unfortunate that the treaty is to
be a campaign issue at a time when there
are so many other vital matters which ought
to be settled.” In the view of the LAFAY
ETTE JOURNAL-COURIER (Ind. Rep.) the
pact can be an issue only “in a secondary
sort of way,” for “there is no means by
which the people can vote directly on the
matter. They must cast their votes for the
candidates of the party that most nearly
represents their views on this subject, after
they have taken into consideration also the
other very important issues.” The BUF
FALO COURIER (Dem.) agrees with the
NEW YORK TRIBUNE (Rep.) that “there
can be no clearcut issue, no clear expression
of public opinion.”
Some difficulties in the way of campaign
ing on the treaty issue are set forth by the
LOS ANGELES (Ind. Rep.). President Wil
son, this authority says, “would like to have
a popular vote on the treaty as written;
but a majority of the Democratic leaders
are not willing to risk a campaign on rati
fication without reservation. The San Fran
cisco platform will probably call for ratifi
cation with mild reservations, and the Chi
cago platform for ratification along the lines
of the resolution beaten by Democratic votes
in the senate.”
The SPRINGFIELD UNION (Rep.) ana
lyzes the vote of the senate and concludes
that “there are no clear-cut lines of party
demarcation there, and there is no way of
so presenting the issue in a political cam
paign as to make any conclusion possible.
It is simply a mess, disgusting, humiliating,
shameful, and for which there is blame
enough to go around.” “Talk of the peace
treaty there will be, of course—and much
of it,” adds the TOLEDO BLADE (Ind.
Rep.), “but the electorate cannot be made
to see it as a paramount issue,” and the
SIOUX CITY JOURNAL (Rep.) declares
that “both parties are split asunder” on
the question. Yet the WICHITA EAGLE
(Ind.) believes that “the people may be
trusted to see through the fog of politics
the great importance of settling the treaty
question properly. And the people may be
trusted to vote for the League of Nations
and peace.”
But is there another way of getting out
of the war? “Surely something must be
done,” says the BOSTON POST (Ind. Dem.)
“to end the grotesque situation in which we
CHANGING NAMES—By Frederic J. Haskin
r ASHINGTON, D. C., March 28.—A young
man dropped into a lawyer’s office here
the other day.
w
“1 want to change nr name,” he said sadly.
“I’m a locksmith. I have my name on the door
—B. Ware —and customers are always cracking
jokes and pretending to be afraid of me. Peo
ple even come in just to make silly puns and
take up my time.”
“Why don’t you write your first name out?”
suggested the attorney.
“Oh, that would be worse. My name’s Barry
Ware—it sounds like bow-wow.”
The lawyer drew up a petition so the young
man to be called Barry Ward, and in three
weeks the change was affected to the client’s
joy- \
The lawyer who told us this story says that
business in changing names has been humming
ever since the war. Families who had been in
this country for four generations and who
prided themselves on their American qualities
woke up in 1916 and 1917 to find that their
German-sounding patronymics were regarded
with disfavor if not with suspicion. There was
just one remedy, and a great many took it.
German names were legally turned into English
equivalents, or were replaced by piain Amerlcaii
Smith, Carter or Johnson.
In some cases, owners of German names
desired changes as a means of showing that
they were not hyphenated Americans. In
others, it was a matter of business. Such names
as Kaiser and Hindenburg, the owners stated,
were injuring their trade, as Americans re
garded them as German firms, and were preju
diced by the war associations.
Names besides those of German sound
sometimes have an undesirable effect on busi
ness, and such names seem to be discarded by
their owners in greater numbers than ever be
fore. These are chiefly the masterpiecs of the
Russian, Greek, Italian and Slavic languages.
Some of these combinations contain the best
part of the alphabet, and defy pronounciation,
let alone spelling.
A name like Zacharula Panagopoulous, for
instance, is musical and mouth-filling, and in its
own country would place the owner at no dis
advantage. But over here, a title of such length
is a handicap, and the last name is usually
shortened to something like Pagas.
Then, there are names of unmistakable
Anglo-Sxon origin, which are unfortunately be
stowed in individual cases, or are in themselves
undesirable. The name Cheatham, an example
of the former type, is not unpleasant in sound,
and would cause a scientist no annoyance. But
a lawyer or merchant with such a name might
be an object of endles chaff.
Occasionally a clever man makes capital of
a peculiar name, as the man named Easum who
once advertised “Easum’s pills” all over town.
But as a rule, the odd name which suggests
amusing comparisons is regarded os something
to put up with, like awkward hands or a stiff
neck.
The majority of names brought to court
sot revision are surnames. Now and again,
however, a Christian name which has worried
the owner like an old man of the sea, is hap
pily discarded. It is hard to get the point-of
view of parents who give their children ridicu
lous names merely to gratify an overdeveloped
sense of humor.
A governor of a certain state, by name
Hogg, will always be remembered for the fact
that he named his two daughters Ima and
Ura. At least one of these girls, we are told,
married early, thereby spoiling the point of
father’s little joke.
Still more outlandish is the record in British
Peace lUith Germany?
now are. Whose is the first move?” And
the POST continues:
“Will the president at once move to ne
gotiate a separate peace with Germany? . . .
Will congress attempt the hitherto unheard
of and probably unconstitutional scheme of
making peace by resolution?”
The latter plan appeals to many. Senator
Knox has introduced a resolution to that ef
fect, and the JOHNSTOWN DEMOCRAT
(Dem.) believes “the senate should now
lose no time in passing the Knox resolution
declaring the war with Germany at an end.”
The WICHITA BEACON (Ind.) feels the
same way: “There is no excuse,” it says, “for
keeping up- a technical state of war when
no war exists. Congress declared war In the
first place. It undoubtedly has the right
to declare the war at an end,” and the
GRAND RAPIDS PRESS (Ind.) agrees that
this is “the least that congress can do after
the months of muddling.” So thinks the
STEUBENVILLE HERALD-STAR (Rep.),
and the CHICAGO TRIBUNE (Ind. Rep.) ad
vocates that the Knox resolution be “broad
ened so as to provide for a revision of the
treaty of Versailles.”
“An attempt at revision is essential,” the
TRIBUNE believes, “to the salvation of Eu
rope, whose civilization is worse threatened
at this moment than ever it was by Prussian
militarism.”
However, the NEW YORK EVENING
POST (Ind.) calls the Knox proposal “only
a makeshift. There is no certainty,” it says,
“that such a resolution could be passed, the
president might veto it. Even if he were to
accept it, the necessity for making a treaty
of peace with Germany would remain. In
law and in fact the initiative in treaty-mak
ing cannot be taken from the president.”
And even then, notes the NORFOLK VIR
GINIAN-PILOT (Ind. Dem.):
“The United States would still be an out
sider to nations working together under the
League of Nations. Such a resolution would
bring it a peace which it would not share
with others.”
Finally, the SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN
(Ind.) concludes that “it is the
prerogative to take the initiative at least in
outlining what the country should do next.
What does.he propose?”
NEW VIEWS OF CRIME
Certain new views about crime and punish
ment continue to make headway. Dr. Max
Schlapp, professor of neuropathy at the New
York Postgraduate hospital, declares un
equivocally that “an impressive percentage
of criminals can be restored to normal and
saved to society through treatment of the
nerves and emotional impulses.” “In view
of what we have learned,” he says, sum
ming up the results of the treatment of 14,-
000 cases, “it is as outrageous to lock up
victims of mental deficiency or of certain
forms of emotional impuse as it would be to
penalize a sufferer from measles or typhoid
fever. One is no more at fault than the
other, and both can be cured. In punishing
the former class society is blind to its duty.
It is as ridiculous as were our forefathers
in their witch-burning and similar practices
now recognized as criminally absurd.” t
The correctness of this view can be scien
tifically proved and there is no doubt that it
will eventually lead to the sending of more
prisoners to the hospital and fewer patients
to prison. It is barely conceivable that the
idea of punishment may gradually disappear.
The chance seems remote only because the
passion for revenge is so firmly planted in
human nature; and that there is a change
at all is due to the fact that there can be no
concentrated public opinion against the rou
tine criminal. —SAN FRANCISCO CALL
(Ind.)
history of a father who desired to name his
child Beelzebub. When the boy was brought
to church to be christened, the bishop refused
to bestow the name upon him, say; ig that it
was not a fit name to be sanctioned by the
church.
These are extraordinary cases, but hundreds
of children are chistened every year with weird
names handed down as family heirlooms. A
boy labeled Adelbert, Aquilphar or Alphonse
may remain to in t I.e nursery, but when he
gets ou tat school he almost always demands
a nickname for himself ana gets it by force or
strategy. A large number of petitions for
changes in givsn names are based on the plea
that the person is not known to his friends by
the name he has to use for legal and public
purposes.
The * process of changing an undesirable
name is simple. Here in Washington all you
have to do is to file a petition with the su
preme court of the District of Columbia, stat
ing that it Pastes too much of your friends’
time to call you by your proper name, or
whatever reason you may have for the change.
You must swear that you are not abandoning
your old name to avoid debts or any demands
against you. Then you have a notice of the
change of name printed in a local newspaper
once a week for three weeks. At the end of
that time, if nobody comes forward to object
—and nobody ever does—the court formally
grants your petition, and you go forth with
whatever name you have picked out. Consid
ering how easy it is, we wonder that there are
so many people with names that are unmelo
dious, to say the least.
The lawyer mentionec earlier in this letter
tells as his favorite story the old British anec
dote of a couple named Rose, who christened
their little girl Wild. “This combination,” he
says, “was voted verv pretty by the romantic
mid-Victorians. But when Wild Rose grew up,
she met and married a man named Bull, and
Wild Rose became Wild Bull, to the horror of
her aesthetic friends.”
“The record does not show whether she
changed her name or not,” the lawyer finished.
“It was not so easy in Victorian England as
now.”
“Tejl us another,” we suggested.
“I can’t vouch for the truth of this one,”
he said reflectively, “but I’ve heard of a girl
whose parents were named Bride, and who
was christened June. This girl grew up and
married a man named Bug—l hardly believe
that tale, though.
“You know,” he said, “it isn’t necessary
even to have the court grant a petition to
change a name. Anyone can alter his name at
any time, and it is not an offense unless the
person has intent to defraud, or is assuming
an' alias for purposes of crime.”
“That so?” we murmured. “We know a man
named Julian who has always wanted, to be
named Mike. He’ll be glad to know.”
The attorney shook his head. “I wouldn't
advise anyone to wake Up in the morning and
say, ‘Well, I think I’ll change my name today
to something distinguished or sporting.’ A
change of name require readjustment of rela
tions with friends, acquaintances and business
associates. Sometimes it makes trouble.
“I know a case where two firms almost
came to blows. An oficial in one of the firms
changed his name. Soon after, he called at the
office of the other firm and sent In his card.
The president glanced at it. ‘Never heard of
him. Tell him 1 am busy,’ he told the office
boy. The visitor regarded the message as an
insult to his firm, and it was months before the
matter was straightened out.”