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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta, Ga.
Georgia Democrats IFill Not
Tqlerate Convention Bolters.
WHEN members of a faction threaten
to bolt the forthcoming State Dem
ocratic convention unless they are
allowed to dominate it regardless of the
majority’s opinions and rights, they are in
dulging in silly yet potentially harmful talk.
This convention, it is to be assumed, will be
Democratic in principle and procedure as
well as in name; assuredly it must be so if
it is to speak and act for the people of
Georgia. It will be composed of delegates
representing the three candidates in the re
cent preferential primary, or, to‘put it more
exactly, representing the counties and the
voters who declared themselves for one or
the other of those candidates. Thus, on the
face of the returns, (though it should be re
membered that there are several contests
pending, which only the Convention can
decide) the Palmer delegates will represent
fifty-three counties and a popular vote of
48,041; the Smith delegates, forty-six coun
ties and a popular vote of 45,344; and the
Watson delegates, fifty-six counties and a
popular vote of 52,129. The county unit
votes of the three candidates are: Palmer,
144; Smith, 110; and Watson, 132. (While
these figures may be subject to certain al
terations, they are unquestionably accurate
enough for the prupose of the present argu
ment. Sqch changes as may result from the
settlement of pending contests could serve
only to strengthen the point which we are
making.) In a convention at all democratic
or in any wise considerate of common rights
each of these groups will be seated and each •
will have its say.
This is so obviously the just and reason
able /course, particularly in as close a con
test as that of April the 20th proved to be,
that one w T ell mifeht expect it to be adopt
ed without controversy. Unhappily, however,
there are murmurings and churlish threats.
A certain arbitrary and really meaningless
pronouncement of a sub-section of the State
Democratic Executive Committee, known as
“Rule Teh,” is fished forth in support of
the claim that the Convention should be
governed, not by the majority of its dele
gates, but by a small minority. According to
“Rule Ten” (which has about as much pow
er in Democratic principle and precedent as
the rules of tiddledy-winks have on the
movements of the solar system) “The dele
gates to the National- Convention shall be
chosen from the friends and supporters of
that candidate for. president receiving the
highest county unit vote.” A glance will
show how preposterously unfair it would be
to apply this fiat of a few subcommitteemen
to the situation that will obtain in the ap
proaching State Convention. Os the one. hun
dred and fifty-five counties represented in
that Convention, only fifty-three at the out
most will have Palmer delegates; and of the
145,514 voters represented, only 48,041
will have Palmer delegates as their spokes
men. Yet, according to the sub-committee’s
interpretation of Rule Ten, all the other one
hundred and two counties and all the other
ninety-seven thousand-odd voters should be
utterly ignored or at best treated as mere
figureheads. The extraordinary argument
advanced for this over-reaching proposal is
that Mr. Palmer has the highest number of
county units. Even that claim is but a half
truth; for out of the total three hundred
and eighty-six county unit votes in the
convention only.one hundred and forty-four
are claimed for Mr. Palmer. This, be it
granted, is ten more than that of the sec
ond candidate, and thirty-two more than
that of the third; even so the difference is
inconspicuous. But by what standard of rea
son or right can it be contended that the
two hundred and forty-two county unit
votes NOT for Mr. Palmer—an excess of one
hundred above what he received—should be
disregarded 'in the Convention’s procedures
and decisions, should be thrust aside as
though they were ciphers and as though the
tens of thousands z of Democratic citizens
whom they represent were political non-en
tities?
If a sub-committee impose such a
rule upon the delegates of a Democratic
convention, then it could assume any power,
howsoever tyrannous, and enforce any edict,
howsoever absurd. It could abolish the Con
vention altogether, and that is virtually
what it proposes to do in nullifying the ma
jority of the convention votes. It could even
take unto itself authority to name the Geor
gia delegation to San Francisco, and that is
substantially what it proposes to do in its
plan to make up the permanent roll of the
State convention, deciding in advance con
tests for county delegations and usurping
other farreaching powers which only the
Convention itself can rightly exercise. It is
foregone that no great Convention coming
from the people and charged with the peo
ple’s recently uttered will can ever be man
acled by the arbitrary rule of a sub-com
mittee which represents nothing more than
the opinion and interest of some half a
dozen individuals. Certainly no Convention
that surrendered its own and the electorate’s
rights to any such dictation would be true to
the traditions of Georgia Democracy or
mindful of the party’s welfare in these days
of crucial test.
Yet the rumor is afloat that certain fac
tionists are disposed to break away from
the accredited Convention and set up pre
tended authority for themselves, unless the
Convention will suffer them to exercise the
discriminatory and oppressive power of
“Rule Ten.” The Journal cannot bring itself
to believe that any considerable number of
delegates are of this unreasonable inclina-
THE ATLANTA TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL.
I tion. But it is to be regretted that there is
!so much as a syllable of such ill advised
| talk. No discerning friend of any candidate
will countenance this reckless suggestion,
and assuredly no thoughtful friend of the
Democratic party will countenance it. In
deed, we can imagine no swifter way to bring
a candidate’s cause into popular condemna
tion and no surer way to undermine the
interests of the party itself than the rash
course which some of the sticklers for “Rule
Ten" are reported to be contemplating.
The State Democratic Convention soon to
meet, will be a sovereign body, answerable
only to the dictates of reason and fair
play. It will choose its own officials, settle
its own contests, adopt its own rules. Its
membership will be divided more closely
amongst the three candidates than was ever
perhaps the case in Georgia’s entire politi
cal past. Whether the measure be counties,
or county units, or popular votes, the dif
ferences are exceedingly small. In these
circumstances, as The Journal sees it, the
fairest procedure would be to give each can
didate such a proportion of the delegation
to San Francisco its he has county unit votes
in the State convention. Thus the candi
date controlling the largest number of coun
ty units would have*the largest number of
national delegates, and so on to the third
and last. In recommending this plan, The
Journal can hardly be said to speak other
wise than impartially since the candidate
whom it supported in the late primary would
thus receive the smallest allotment of dele
gates. In any event, however, it will be for
the State Convention itself, not for a sub
committee, to decide the course to be pur
sued, and we have faith in the Convention’s
discernment to see and courage to do what
i is just and right.
♦
Reviving River Commerce. '
PROGRESS toward a resumption of riv
er commerce in the United States was
impressively illustrated in the recent
arrival at New Orleans of one of the Gov
ernment built towboats with steel barges
bearing a big cargo from St. Louis. In its
comment on this beginning of a new freight
service between the two great cities, the
Houston Post remarks that under railway
competition river traffic on. the Mississippi
has been dwindling until in recent years it
“reached the lowest ebb in the history of
that waterway since civilization was intro
duced along its shores. The old time river
packet, which carried both freight and pas
sengers, is not likely to return, but the
barge line offers one of the best means row
available for expediting traffic. For the
movement of heavy freight, such as coal
grain, machinery, cotton and all other com
modities shipped in bulk, the barge method
of shipment is easy and cheap, and with the
present delays in rail traffic is perhaps the
quickest way of moving freight for long dis
tances.”
These observations, in the main, are true
of the entire country. Transportation needs
have grown so much more rapidly than
transportation service, and industrial devel
opment has struck so gigantic a stride, that
every channel for moving freight must be
brought into use. Railroads must be im
proved and in some instances extended; high
ways must be built strong and far for motor
truck lines; and rivers, must be turned again
to the great purpose which they served in
the earlier days of American commerce.
There will be ample traffic for all three if
the present rate of expansion continues.
No part of the country has better reason
to be interested in river development, both
for navigation and for water power, than
the South. Singularly rich in natural re
sources of this kind, Georgia and her neigh
bor States should look definitely to their
utilization. The Chattahoochee river between
Atlanta and Columbus, is capable of produc
ing hydro-electric power sufficient to pro
vide steady industrial employment for up
wards of a million persons. Happily enough |
the situation is such that the same system
of locks, dams and improvements needful to
make this latent power available would serve
also to render the stream permanently nav
igable. As far back as 1916 Government in
vestigation showed that the towns and
cities adjacent, to the river had an aggregate
freight tonnage of approximately twelve and
a half million, a large part of natural
ly would move by water if facilities were
provided. The counties in this zone produced
during the year in question more than half
a million bales of cotton. A number of the
towns are textile centers and supply-points
for extensive areas. Qualified observers say
that the territory is already amply able to
support a line of river transportation in ad
dition to railroads and highway “feeders.”
Plans for the Chattahoochee’s development
were being pressed vigorously forward be
fore the war. If conditions were favorable
then, they are far more so now. Wherefore,
it is to be hoped that this sound enterprise
will not lack renewed initiative and sup
port.
South America in the Garden.
WHILE waiting for the rains to abate
and the 'mushy soil to become work
able a philosophic gardener has
been hobnobbing with history on the origin
of the favorite vegetables which he and
thousands of other hope to harvest despite
a cantankerous season. It is to South Amer
ica, he reports in an article in the New York
Sun and Herald, that we are chiefly in
debted. There corn was first grown, some
where in the northern part of the continent,
or perhaps in Mexico. Montezuma’s palace,
according to legend, consumed some seven
million bushels of the grain each year; and
Columbus in one of his letters, speaks of
having seen eighteen miles of cornfields.
From South America, too, sprang the sturdy
Irish as well as the delectable- sweet potato.
The former appears to have flourished in
Peru long before the Christian era. “The
Spaniards found it in Ecuador,” and took it
to Spain, whence it traveled to Italy and
to France and Belgium, crossing the
channel in time to save Ireland from many
a hard winter.”
Particularly interesting is the story of the
tomato. When first grown in Peru this now
liberal and lusciqus bit of creation was a
mere midget of its destined self. “Even the
Inca never saw anything that approached the
glossy Gargantuas which bloom in red ink on
the pages of the seed books. Constant cross
ing by a thousand Burbanks of the various
kinds of small tomatoes has resulted in the
modern giants; but when the commuter
plucks the first three-pounder from his groan
ing vine he should remember the Peruvians
who kept its ancestors alive and ambitious.”
Though we commonly think of the Hub
bard squash as being as native to New Eng
’ land as Bunker Hill itself, research shows
• that “its seeds have been found in the an
’ cient tombs near Lima.” Red peppers flamed
: beneath the South American sun long ages
’ before they were taken into the graces of
European cooks and doctors; and there like
’! wise the navy bean is supposed to have had
L its genesis. Our gardens are debtors in
- deed to versatile South America.
!
’ Editorial Echoes.
j British Shut Up in Constantinople-- Head
line. But the Turks haven’t shut ud. —-AR-
: KANSAS GAZETTE.
i
Milk has fallen a cent a quart in St. Louis,
s but we fancy this is the result of the spring
i rise in Missouri creeks.- —HOUSTON POST,
f
C The troubles of draft dodgers are by no
t means ended. They are just getting into the
- war now.—CANTON REPOSITORY.
Freight From the South.
CERTAIN defenders of the unfair and
unreasonable practice of trying to
cram the larger part of the conti
nent’s ocean-bound commerce through a
few overcrowded North Atlantic ports
have contended that if shipments are made
to Southern ports, cars must be sent back
empty “through lack of return cargoes.”
How insupportable this position is in fact
appears from a letter to the Manufacturers’
Record from Mr. C. H. Markham, presi
dent of the Illinois Central railroad. “It
goes without saying,” he writes, “that as a
representative of a system which serves the
ports of New Orleans and Savannah, I am
in favor of any fair rate adjustment that
will put our • Southern ports on an equal
ity with the North Atlantic ports, and we
have a peculiar interest in the movement
of export business through Southern ports
for the reason that the tonnage of South
ern production is so much larger than the
Southbound tonnage as to constantly re
quire sending of empty cars into that sec
tion. It will be seen, therefore, that any
increase in export business in times of car
shortage is a matter of special interest to
shippers of cotton, lumber, rice, sugar and
other Southern products.”
The railways of the South Atlantic and
Gulf States are virtually a unit with those
of the Middle West in bearing witness to
the feasibility and rightfulness of letting
traffic which naturally tends to Southern
ports take that course instead of forcing
it, by means of arbitrary freight rates,
into the congested channels of the North
east.
♦
DAWNS
By H. Addington Bruce
SUNSETS, with their sublime color effects,
have true inspirational value, as multi
tudes can testify from unique personal
experiences. So have dawns, though far fewer
take opportunity to profit from their contem*-
plation.
Dawns, in tuth, often are more subtly ex
alting than any sunset. The soul expands as
they grow in radiance from their first faint
flush of rose or gold or silvery gray.
They bring to the discouraged- a benign
suggestion of waxing, not waning, power.
They give new heart for undertakings that
may seem desperate. They confirm the am
bitious in their resolutions to progress.
To this creative and recreative impulse I
can bear witness from dawns I myself have
watched. I am reminded of it, too, by an
uncommonly beautiful passage in Violet
Tweedale’s recent and most extraordinary
book, “Ghosts I Have Seen.”
“We have been many wonderful
dawns this winter,” Mrs. Tweedale notes,
“and I have used them eagerly as a cleansing
of the war-weary mind and distracted soul.
In such ethereal apparitional dawns one walks
with the Eternal, and all temporal things
fade away.
“Such daybreaks always rouse in me the
urge of wider thought, for the broad day of
the mind. Out of the limitless beyond comes
the certain knowledge of a something un
imagined, lying just outside human thought.
“There is a wine of happiness in tranquil
daybreaks, and an aloofness from life that
urges one to seek that which is beyond com
prehension. The draught exalts the soul and
quickens it with unquenchable fire.
“Again, there is an amnesty in such dawns,
a glory of release from the house of bondage.
In the great silences life as we know it is re
mote, and the immensity is a magic that
draws the soul, fusing it in a strange passion,
so that ■ whatever fulfilment our existence
holds is summed in that hour of solitude.
This, if you please, is the rhapsody of a
mystic. But all of us, if we would know
reality, if we would achieve our highest possi
bilities, need to think and feel in some degree
as the mystics think and feel.
And not the least of the gifts that excep
tional dawns bestow on us is the mystic thrill
they send to us and through us. The most
matter-of-fact, the man dominantly of the
market place, gains a saving sense of the
verity of the spirit as he beholds God at work
in the making of such a dawn. .
Even in the cities the purifying, re-energiz
ing inflow from dawns may be experienced to
some extent. But it is in the open spaces of
the country or across the reaches of the sea,
with the wide horizon apprehensible, that
dawns have greatest power to heal, to
strengthen, to reconstruct.
So that the vacationist from the city cannot
too eagerly avail himself of the chance to use
his holiday dawns for the broadening of his
vision, the enlarging of his personality. To
miss this chance may mean to linger in modes
of thought where life is only half Jived and
true success perpetually delayed and frus
trated.
Make trial yourself this summer if hitherto
you have let dawn after dawn pass unheeded.
(Copyright, 1920, by the Associated News
papers.)
THE’ AMERICAN ACADEMY IN
ROME
Bv Dr. Frank Crane
The American Academy in Rome is an or
ganization formed for the purpose of culti
vating American genius.
It is based on the theory, which one hesi
tates to put forward these days, that a nation
needs Beauty as well as Utility, Taste as much
as Money, and Artists as well as Bricklayers.
Advance in culture comes by folding mod
ernity back upon the antique. The past is not
a huge mistake, it is the greatest of teacheis.
Each generation mounts higher by standing
upon the shoulders of the preceding genera
tion. . _
In all the world is no teacher like Rome.
It contains the wrecks of three civilizations.
It is a museum of dead ideas. It is the
mother of civilization.
The American Academy in Rome, now cele
brating its twenty-fifth anniversary, is well
established and is backed by Americans ot
distinction. . , „ . .
It is trying to raise a million dollar fund.
This will be invested in youth, in genius and
in ability which are better than banks and
oil wells.
Those who have money and are inclined to
encourage art would much better put their
money into the red blood of aspiring youth
than into the gray stones of museums.
The Academy does not propose to help all
students, as we commonly understand the
meaning of the word. It helps those w r ho
have already acquired a preliminary educa
tion-and technique; to these it offers the op
portunity to become masters.
In other words, it is to help those who have
helped themselves; to encourage those who
have already demonstrated their powers; and
this is the best charity.
No country in the world needs genius more
than the United States, and none neglects it
more.
We should make things easy for the artist.
It is good doubtless for the merchant to strug
gle with privation and fight his way through
poverty to success; but it is liable to extin
guish the spark in the artist. He should be
removed from physical hardships and given
favorable environment.
This the Academy aims to do. It sends
young artists of promise, who have demon
strated their caliber, to Rome, the best of all
artistic atmospheres.
It is worthy of the support of all those that
have vision.
(Copyright, 1920, by Frank Crane.)
ROADS OF THE
FUTURE
By Frederic J. Hasten
WASHINGTON, D. C„ May 4.
There are many indications
that the next few years will
be in the United States one
of the greatest road-building epochs
ever seen anywhere. Most of the
presidential candidates seem to have
spoken in favor of a fine national sys
tem of roads, that being a thing that
is perfectly safe to indorse, and one
that can be nAade to appeal to any au
dience. If it is some organization of
militants and Imperialists that the
candidate Is addressing, then roads
are necessary for military reasons;
the farmers are to be the great bene
ficiaries if they are listening; while
the ultimate consumer is assured
that the products of the country
will flow to his very door in an un
ceasing stream when there are good
truck roads. The manufacturer
knows that the growth of the great
auto industry and all its Innumerable
accessory industries is dependent
upon good roads.
Here is something that all can
agree about, and certainly it is true
that the road building in this country
nearly all remains to be done. We
have good macadam roads in many
parts of the United States, but they
are not adequate in two ways. In
the first place, they do not join to
form the great trunk lines from one
part of the country to another which
are the essential frame-work of a
good national roads system,, and in
the second place, they are not built
well enough to stand the strain ot
the great and growing heavy truck
traffic. This fact is fully realized
by T. H. MacDonald, chief of the
United States biireau of public roads,
who states that our whole national
road system must be rebuilt with
the heavy truck especially in mind.
W LO £ AT E TRUNK SYSTEMS
MacDonald says that the first
thing to be done is to make a survey
of the roads of the country, determin
ing just what traffic goes over each
class of road, and fixing standards
of construction for each class. It is
generally agreed that a trunk sys
te'P of paved roads is the only thing
which, in the long run, will serve the
purpose. Such roads, made of fitted
stones, will be expensive to build in
the first place, but not nearly so ex
pensive to keep up once they are
built. Every highly organized civill
zation has foifnd such a system of
paved roads a necessity, from Rome
on down. The western European na
tions, being small, found it a compar
atively easy task to build adequate
road systems, but in an enormous
country like the United States, it is
another matter. *
There was little Interest in roads
in this country for a long time. It
was assumed that the railroads were
all-sufficient. The automobile
brought the first impetus to road
building, and now the heavy truck
has brought a still greater one. For
it has been discovered that the rail
road does not displace the highway,
even for heavy freighting, just as it
has been discovered that the railroad
cannot economically be allowed to
displace the canal and river traffic.
Real economy and efficiency are
gained by co-ordinating all of these
means of transport, letting each
function in its proper sphere.
The war department has given a
push to road-building operations this
spring by turning over some 27,000
inotor vehicles built for war purposes
to the various state road departments
for use in road building. At present
the states are not given title to this
equipment, and it can be used only
on roads which are being built, in
part by federal aid, but this is ex
pected to be remedied by legislation.
The state will then be able to turn
over some of the equipment to the
counties.
ROADS STIMULATE TRAFFIC
The completion of trunk lines be
tween east and west and north and
south will perhaps stimulate pas
senger traffic by highway almost as
as wil] stimulate freight
traffic. For the number of persons
who travel from one part of the
country to another by motor vehicle
is undoubtedly Increasing at a great
rate. And this “touring” is no longer
solely the sport of rich men that it
used t o be. For example, if you hire
a jitney in Miami, Fla., in January
you are surprised to learn that the
driver of it is a native of sdme place
in Connecticut. He has come south
with his wife and several children
every year for five years, returning
north in the summer.. By following
the travel crowds, both he and his
wife are easily able to get remunera
tive work and at the same time es
cape the extremes of heat and cold
and see something of the world. Nd'-’
are such perapatetic families at all
rare. ,
A strong evidence of the increase
of the auto-nomad of modest means
is the great boom which is going for
ward just now in auto-camping equip
ment. A great number of devices have
been put on the market by which a
flivver may be converted in a few
minutes into a sleeping chamber,
while cooking outfits, stoves and
other household paraphernalia for the
motorist are also available. These
devices are multiplying at a great
rate, and agencies for them are
springing up everywhere. American
ingenuity is really applying itself to
the task of converting the automo
bile into a complete home, at least
in warm weather. With rents rising
the way they are, it is no wonder
that even poor men find it expedient
to take to the road and live like
Arabs wherever they can find room
to pitch a tent. If you think this
class of modern nomads is a myth,
go to Florida in the winter or the
Rockes in the summer, and will
see them by the roadside everywhere.
And a very happy, healthy lot they
look. too.
WE ARE WANDERLUSTERS
After all, Americans are all sprung
from a wandering, pioneering stock,
and probably most of us are not with
out a certain hankering to take the
road and see what is somewhere else.
Then, too, there is so much seasonal
work in the United States that the
man who is able to go where he
pleases cah make money more easily
than the one who has to stay in a cer
tain place.
The individual who seems to be
losing out in this great development
of highways and highway travel is
the horse. As the good roads advance
he retreats. Until a couple of years
ago it was often pointed out that de
spite the great increase in the use of
motor vehicles, horses were just as
numerous in thiSco untrj r as ever, but
this is no longer true.
The horse population is now in for
a big drop. As Dr. G. H. Rommel, of
the department of agriculture points
out. the breeding of heavy draft
horses in this country has fallen off
about 40 per cent in the past few
years, and that of light horses 50 per
cent or more. The immediate reason
for this is that, while the price of
nearly everything else has doubled or
more than doubled, the price of
horses has increased very litle, if at
all. The farmers simply cannot af
ford to raise horses at the current
prices. It takes just as much feed
to produce a 1,500 pound horse as it
does to produce fifteen hundera
pounds of beef or mutton, and the
horse takes about five times as long
to mature. Hence it pays better to
raise the beef and mutton.
The horse is being speeded on the
downward path by a very open and
deliberate propaganda against him
carried on by the truck manufac
turers through their trade papers.
“The Almighty never designed the
brute for traction,” one of these state’s
editorially. “He was probably cre
ated for food. Often we find him still
so regarded. But the cunning and
greed of man converted the horse into
a beast of burden, and for this im
piety the world is still paying the
penalty.”
The writer might have added that
by this impiety it was made possible
to carry civilization westward before
the truck was invented, and also by
this impiety is it made possible to
handle great herds of cattle so that
editors of trade papers can eat beef,
and beef about fair competition.
The horse is undoubtedly filling a
smaller and smaller niqhe in the
scheme of things, but he is still safe
frqm the slaughter house.
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1920.
DOROTHY DIX’S TALK ON
PARASITIC SONS
The World's Highest Paid Woman Writer
Among my acquaintances is a fam
ily which consists of a mother and
her three daughters and one son. The
girls are all in business, and every
Saturday night turn in their unopen
ed pay envelopes to their mother.
That supports the family. There is
no other income.
The son, a big, husky young fellow
with plenty of intelligence, who is
ten times as able to work as his sis
ters, and .who could earn twice or
three times what either one of them
does, works only when the spirit
moves him. Which is seldom.
He doesn’t have to work. He doesn’t
really need to because whether he
works or not, he is sure of three good
meals a day, better than his sisters
get, for mother saves up the tidbits
for him; a good place to sleep, and a
little pocket money for which he can
always stand mother up.
The sisters are naturally very
much outraged at this state of af
fairs, but when they protest against
it, and tell their mother that they do
not feel called upon to support a lazy
loafer, even if he is their brother,
the mother turns upon them in fury
and demands to know what sort of
stony hearts they have that they be
grudge their poor brother a bite of
food and a place to lay his head. Then
she weeps and says that she will
never turn her own son out of her
house and shut her door in his face;
that as long as she has a crust she
will divide with him, and give him
her last penny.
So the scene ends, and when the
parasitic son comes in mother cooks
him up something extra to make up
for the way his mean sisters treat
him in not being willing to support
him. Then she gives him the last of
the housekeeping money and runs an
account with the grocer, which the
girls will have to pay in the end.
“And what are we going to do about
it?” inquire the girls. “We love our
mother and hate to hurt her, but wo
feel that it is neithei 1 right nor just
for three frail, delicate women to
have to support an able-bodied man,
and be able to lay up nothing for the
future because all of their excess
earnings go to pay for his excesses.”
Os course it is neither just nor
right either to the girls, or to the boy
for that matter, for their mother to
take their money to keep him in idle
ness, but how anybody is going to
get justice out of a woman where her
idolized son is concerned is a problem
far beyond my poor ability to solve.
Biologists tell us that mothers can
jiot help loving their sons better than
their daughters and having a differ
ent feeling towards them. It has
something to do with a boy inherit
ing more from his mother than his
father. Anyway, they say that it is
a fixed law of nature, and the
mothers cannot help it, poor things,
since loving is not a matter of voli
tion, but of some mysterious attrac
tion that we can neither understand
nor explain.
Perhaps this accounts for the case
cited above, and a hundred similar
ones that each of us can recall, in
which a mother who was a good wom
an, and really loved her daughters
dearly, neverthless sacrificed them
without a pang of compunction to
their brothers.
CURRENT EVENTS OF INTEREST
The village of Canarsie, on the
shores of Jamaica Bay, has in the
last two weeks been alarmed by a
series of burglaries, and unless the
thieves are halted the residents fear
they will be forced to wear olottHng
made of seaweed.
The entire population is in a state
of uncertainty, awaiting the next
nocturnal visit, of the marauders,
who have taken, besides jewelry and
cash, every article of clothing they
could lay their hands on. In one
case they left a resident with only
the pajamas he was sleeping in. Thfe
victim had to go to business in over
alls.
About twenty homes have been
broken into. One family, father, son
and daughter, had their entire street
attire carried off, and were compelled
to remain indoors until neighbors
lent" them clothing.
Indignation is strong at the 80th
Police Precinct, which has a full
quota of police reserves. The mem
bers of this organizatzion are won
dering how the robberies could have
occurred while they, heavily armed,
patroled the village. The police be
lieve the robberies the work of drug
addicts.
s On Ames Lane, no fewer than four
homes were entered in one night.
Residents say they have seen an au
tomobile prowling about the village
at night. The clothing and Valuables
taken are valued at more than
§30,000.
News from Amoy. China, states
there has been fierce fighting between
factions of the southern troops in
the Anhai district, and the city of
Anhai has changed hands three
times in the last week. The soldiers
are looting the country. It is reported
that more than 1,000 persons have
been killed.
Hundreds of the inhabitants of the
Anhai region are fleeing to Amoy.
It is probable that the Anhai faction
will march against General Chen.
Alleged evidence purporting to
show that the marriage of Maxine
Wayne Dempsey to Jack Dempsey,
heavyweight champion of the world,
at Farmington. Utah, in October.
1916, was in violation of the Utah
divorce laws and, therefore, invalid,
was made public by the bureau of
investigation of the department of
justice in San Francisco.
Temporary restraining order
against the- executors of the estate of
Lillian Nordica, the prima donna so
prano, was issued yesterday in New
ark. N. J., by Vice Chancellor Baces.
The order restrains the Fidelity
Trust company of Newark and the
executors, E. Romayne Simmons and
Robert S. Baldwin, from disposing of
the jewels of Mme. Nordica, now in a
vault of the trust company. The
jewels were inventoried five years
ago at $206,632, it is said, and have
doubled in value.
The rule to show cause and the re
straining order were granted on the
application of George W. Young &
Co., Inc., which h,olds an assignment
from the singer’s husband, George W.
Young, of his claim to the jewelry.
Acording to information received
from Pekin, seven bodies, four of
them said to be those of members
of the Russian imperial family, ar
rived in Pekin from Harbin recently,
and were buried in the Russian ceme
tery, outside the city wall. The
whole proceeding was surrounded
with the greatest secrecy, even the
Russian legation receiving scant in
formation of the circumstances.
The bodies were declared to be
those of Grand Duke Serge Michaelo
vitch. Prince Ivan, husband of Prin
cess Helene, daughter of King Peter
of Serbia; Prince Igor, brother ot
Prince Ivan; Grand Duche.js Eliza
beth, a sister of the late empress, and
three servants who shared the fate
of these members of the imperial
family when, it is alleged, they were
killed and their bodies thrown into
a coal mine near Perm. The discov
ery of their whereabouts was said to
have been made by a commission ap
pointed by Admiral Kolchak last
summer.
It is believed the transfer was
brought about by General Dietrichs,
the Kolchak commander, it being
hinted that King Peter co-operated
in the arrangements.
A dispatch from Paris states the
chamber of deputies adopted clauses
of the new tax bill imposing a tax
on business turnovers, which, it is
estimated, will yield a revenue of
5,000,000,000 francs. There will be
some exceptions, such as sales of
bread and brokerage, particularly
stock exchange transactions, which
are otherwise covered. The entire
list of exceptions has not been de
termined.
A flood of amendments to except
certain necessaries was stopped by
Frederic Francois-Marsal. fiflnance
minister, who declared: “There is a
necessity that dominates all others.
It is that of enabling France to honor
her signature.”
BY DOROTHY DIX
Did you ever know of a widow with
money whose boys did not get the
bulk of the fortune? Isn’t it the boys
who go off to college and buy racing
cars, whUe the girls stay at home
and economize because mother can
not deny her darling sons anything,
but she can say “no” fast enough
to the daughters. Haven’t you
known a mother to rob even an In
valid daughter of the last cent of
her inheritance to pay a scrape
grace son out of trouble? You have
often.
The mothers of working girls, one
would think, would be peculiarly ten
der to them, for the girl who toils
all day long and then lays every
cent of her earnings in her mother’s
lap, is making the most marvellous
and beautiful offering ever laid on
and altar of filial devotion. She is
giving her life, her youth, her beauty,
all the playtime and joytime of exist
ence to keeping soft, warm and
comfortable the mother who bore
her.
Surely you would think that a
sacred trust, but it is not sacred to
mother if her boys are unprincipalled
enough to want it. She hands it over
to them without a murmur. What
are the girls’ weariness to he if
they can pay for the boys’ good time?
What are the odds if the girls are
killing themselves earning money be
hind stuffy counters, or in dark of
fices, if the boys are fed with it,
and can take life easily?
Os course, mother doesn’t put it
this way to herself. Se says the boys
are hungry and must be fed. They
need money and must have it. But
the bald truth is, she is willing to
sacrifice the girls if necessary for
the boys’ comfort, for that is the
result of her taking her daughters’
earnings to support worthless sons in
their loafing.
It is a pity that mothers can not
realize that when they let their sons
graft on their sisters, they are doing
the boys are far greater wrong than
they are doing the girls. There is
one thing that no manhood survives,
and that is parasitism on a Woman.
A man may climb up from any other
pit, but whenever he sits down idly
and lets some woman work to feed
and clothe him he has descended to
the last depth of degradation and
there is no hope of his ever being
rescued.
It is for a mother who has a son,
to see that he is saved from being
this contemptible weakling by rais
ing him up to feel that he must take
care of his sisters, not that thev
must support him. And if he is curs
ed by lack of energy, and a yearning
for self-indulgence, she should force
him to depend on himself by refus
ing to shelter and feed him. For
even the laziest will work rather
than starve.
As for a mother taking her
daughters’ money to give to a para
sitic son. it is a dishonest thing to
do. The thin pay envelope of the
working girl is a trust of honor that
mothers should use wisely and well
for the girls’ individual behalf and
benefit.
Dorothy Dix’s articles will appear
in this paper every Monday, Wednes
day and Friday.
(Copyright, 1920, by The Wheeler
Syndicate, Inc.)
Information received from Wash
ington recites an additional tax on
tobacco will be one of the five sources
of raising revenue for the payment
of the proposed soldier bonus, ac
cording to Republican house leaders
in charge of the legislation.
The amount of the proposed addi
tional tax upqn tobacco and tobac
co products has not yet been made
known.
The other sources of raising the
money with which to pay soldier bo
nuses, it was said, will be a tax on
sales, a tax on real estate transfers,
a tax on stock exchanges and a
general increase in income tax.
Proposals to license meat packers
and to create a commission to en
force laws affecting the Industry
were rejected by the house agricul
ture committee at Washington.
With these eliminations agreed
upon, a subcommittee headed by
chairman Haugen was appointed to
draft compromise legislation for the
regulation of the packers.
Princess Nadeja Vassilievna Trou
betskoy, who has been called “the
most beautiful Red Cross nurse in
the world,” was quietly married in
Washington in St. Paul’s Protestant
Episcopal church to Captain Wallace
Strait Schutz, of Milwaukee, who
served in France with the One Hun
dred and Twentieth field artillery.
The bride, who served throughout
the war with the Red Cross on the
Russian front, has been a nurse in
the naval hospital for the last three
weeks, and doctors and nurses from
the hospital were among the few
guests at the ceremony.
Miss Sara H. Cox, head nurse at
the hospital, was the maid of honor
and the best man was Paul N. Ku
der, of Milwaukee, a business asso
ciate of Captain Hchutz. The prin
cess was married ‘in the uniform of
the Russian Red Cross. The couple
left for a honeymoon in Canada prior
to taking up their residence in Mil
waukee.
According to dispatches from Par
is the chamber of deputies passed a
bill prohibiting the export of works
of art whic.h the state considers form
a part of the national artistic patri
mony.
An export duty was placed on oth
er ancient objects of art of 50 per
cent ad valorem, plus 50 centimes
per 1,000 francs for objects valued
up to 100,00’0 francs and of 101) per
cent for those valued over 100,000
francs.
In a statement made at Washing
ton Attorney General Palmer an
nounced that investigations by the
d<epartment of alleged fraudulent war
contraicts have uncovered illegal
transactions involving millions of
dollars. Millions will be saved for
the government through civil and
criminal prosecutions now completed
or under way, the attorney general
declared.
“Questionable vouchers unearthed
in one class of contracts alone,” Mr.
Palmer said, “have resulted in with
holding payments by the government
amounting to approximately §4,420.-
000. These contracts, under inves
tigation for months, affect a very
restricted area.
Warrants were issued recently for
six of the leading theater ticket
brokers in Chicago, charging them
with defrauding the government of
approximately §IOO,OOO in war taxes
during the last year. Two of the six
are women. One, Mrs. Florence
Couthoui, operates ticket agencies in
most of tiie Loop hotels and is the
agent for more than half of Chica
go’s theaters.
The steamers Yale and Harvard
were sold recently by the navy de
partment at Washington, rd agents
for a Los Angeles syndicate, whlcn
will put thdm hack on the Pacific
coast rup, on which they were op
erating wlm® pMi-ejhased by the mW.
The price for both vessels was sl,-
755, 000.
Universal military training was
Indorsed at Washington by the Con
tinental Congress of the Daughters
of the American Revolution, an
amendment to make such training
voluntary instead of compulsory be
ing lost for want of a second.
There was a scattering of “noes,”
but no call for a division was made.
Copies of the resolution will be sent
to the house and senate military
committees.
Mrs. George Minor, of Waterford,
Conn., was unanimously elected pres
ident general of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, succeeding
rMs. George Guernsey, of Kansas.
Frank Richardson, of Edgartown,
Martha’s iVneyard, hunting on the
shore of Senekontacket pond, and
seeing waht he thought were three
seals playing in the water, killed one,
and found that it was an otter weigh
ing t hirty-seven pounds and worth
more than §IOO.