Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

4 Trtt IKIWEEKLY JOURANL ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of the Second Class. Daily, Sunday, Tri-Weekly SUBSCRIPTION PRICE TRI-WEEKLY Twelve months $1.50 Eight months ....... SI.OO Six months -75 c Four months 50c Subscription Prices Daily and Sunday (By Mail —Payable Strictly in Advance) 1 W-.l »*o. 3 Mo«. 6 Mob. 1 Xr. Daily and Sundaj..... 20c £Jc $2.50 $5.00 $9.50 Daily 16c 70c 2.00 4.00 7..50 Sunday •••••• ........ 7c 30c .90 1.75 8.25 The Tri-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished con tributors, with strong departments of spe cial value to the home and the tarm. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Lib eral commission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRADLEY. Circulation Mai£ ager. The only traveling representatives we have are B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, Charles H. Woodliff, J. M. Patten, Dan Hall. Jr., W. L. Walton, M. H. Bevil and John Mac- Jennings. We will be responsible for money paid to the above named traveling representatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS The label uaed lor addressing your paper shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In - ordering paper changed, be sure to i*ention your •id as well as your new address. If on a route, please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with bach num* bees. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notices for this Department to THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURN AL, Atlanta. Ga. jihuj - ••>-'■ Alas, for Piracy! w rSRILY it ciems that the modern world \Zr,floes move in unromantic groove. Even that unlawful but picturesque pursuit of a century or two ago, where it crops up in these prosy times is shorn of the glamour that once made it so alluring to shmll boys and to some of their ildei J who re- Joice in vicarious crime. The dispatches tell us that the Soviet schooner Alaska, with a Bolshevist crew and the Bolshevist fla, flying at its mast-head, has arrived in Seattle with the tale of a pirate ship encountered on the deep seas, of coast wise raids by the buccaneers, of murder, plunder and hair-breadth escapes. Time was when such a description would have conjured of visions of a south sea isle, waving palm trees, scorching skies and a low lying black barque at anchor in a secret cove, while ruffians clad in nought Lut pantaloons and high boots, c.imson handkerchiefs about their brows, cut asses and pistols, reveled in rum on the beach, in the midst of their bars of gold and silver. Bpt the twentieth century pirate belies this description. He was seen—in the shad in ow,p£a glacier in Bering Sea. His raids v were— on the coast cit.es of Alaska and Si beria. And the thing he stole was—coal! -What a colla.pse have we here in all the best traditions of piracy Assuredly Captain Kidd and Blackbeard would turn over in their graves at the knowledge ot it. Kidd could never have buried his doubloons in an iceberg, and even the ferocious Blackbeard have hesitated at walking a victim off •* UEtTplank into the icy waters of the Arctic. Perhaps their degenerate descendants find hot noggins of rum most warming in their chilly clime. They may even follow, as a practice to inspire comfort as well as fear, Black beard’s habit of firing the ends of his mous tache. But if ever they Jiope to go down in volumes that wi 1 -(reserve their fame, to the boys of posterity, they will do well to change the scene of their activities to a tropical and more romantic setting, and to plunder something else than a coal-yard. ■ x-:: A Population of 427,679,214 THIS was census taking year in China as well as in the United States. Ac cording to the figures given out at Pekin, the Celestial Empire—or must we now say Celestial Republic?—exceeds us in population almost as we exceed the greatest of our Latin-American neighbors. Four hun dred and twenty-seven million six hundred and seventy-nine thousand two hundred and fourteen inhabitants dwell in the Chinese homeland —a number unparalleled or un appxbached by any other nationality. Westerners have been wont to regard China’s census as heightened and colored by Oriental Imagination. Her manner of enumerating is so unique that a malapert American official described it not long ago as exhibiting “com plete" ignorance of the methods now nearly universally employed ” albeit he was con strained to admit that they did “throw con siderable light on the question of popula tion.” Whereupon a Pekin scholar quietly remarked that “they nad discarded a system even then better than ours.” Interestingly enough, a comparison of the latest census with counts made tea years ago by two dif ferent branches of the Government in China appear to indicate that the present reckoning is riot extravagant. But suppose we reduce it by hundreds of thousands, suppose we reduce it by a mil lion. Still the of the Chinese popu lation stands as one of the outlooming facts in the life and commerce of the world. What markets will open and expand as those mil lions of people develop tastes and needs for the products of the civilization into which they are more and more extensively enter ing? And what a power for stability and goofl\they will prove if to their native in tegrity is added the leaven of Christian ideals f •W A ' • W Moultrie Looks Ahead TRUE to its progressive • record, Moul , trie is taking stock of the coming year’s opportunities and purposing to malTe the most of them. Particularly nota ble Is the movement of its business and civic .leaders to encourage building. Ac | corSing to The Journal’s correspondent, at | least two hundred moderate-priced houses I ere needed there and be prospect is that all r could be sold or leased by the time they could be finished. Seeing that the prices of ma terials and other important factors will be favorable to construction work after the holidays, Moultrie capital expresses itself as ready to aid such enterprises “in so far as is consistent with sound banking principles.” This is the spirit th?* makes communities and commonwealths truly prosperous. A year or so hence many persons and many towns will look back to the season of more dr less anxious waiting in which we now are involved and will see all manner of fertile opportunities. But the wise and the fortu nate they who discern those opportuni ties while they are available and grasp them, It may take faith and courage to do so, but nothing worth while is ever done without courage and faith. Every town in Georgia has some field of development to which it can profitably turn its energies in the new . year. THE ATLANTA TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL. More Effective for Peace Than Reducing Armaments MUCH interesting comment, some of it gently satirical, has been called forth by the suggestion at the Ge neva meeting of the League of Nations that henceforth the manufacture of munitions and engines of war be taken- out of the hands of private interests and confined to Government plants. The author of the idea argues for its adoption mainly upon the ground that thus the equipment of the filibustering ex peditions would be prevented, since only the economically established nations could af ford the cost of manufacturing their weapons. The consequence, he thinks, would be to spare the world many a petty revolution and minor war, and thereby keep down the sparks from which, sometimes, vast confla grations come. This, however, is not the most cogent rea son that can be mustered for the Geneva sug gestion. That ever resourceful correspond ent, Mr. William Ivy, who writes, from Paris, The Journal’s “European News and Views,” doubts that inability to procure guns and munitions would in itself keep the little, local wu.r-makers quiet; they will fight just as lustily, he imagines, with knives or even with stone hatchetd. But, he adds, “the big point, thus far overlooked, is that if all ar maments are henceforth manufactured by governments it will Sake months to get the necessary papers signed authorizing the load ing of a carload of shells, and when the shells are finally ready they will either not fit the gun or else they will fail to explode. If Europe, in order to have another war, had to wait until three or four leading gov ernments with their respective bureaucracies got the material made in government work shops, the war would be so long postponed that very likely the causes of it would have disappeared.” Giant munition makers like the Krupps have been blamed not infrequently for the belligerent attitudes of their respective na tions, and even have been accused of con spiring to precipitate great conflicts. But it is easier to suspect such evil than to prove it. Armament plants, whether privately or publicly owned, are symptoms of national and international states of mind—fear, jeal ousy, ambition, hate; or, it may be, simple prudence. In any case; it is vastly more important to promote good understanding and good will among nations than merely to prescribe reduced proportions and new terms of ownership.for their gun and powder fac tories, The latter will take care of itself if the former is duly minded—though by no means should the indirect helpfulness of gen eral reduction of armament be minimized. The worst enemies of peace today are those who endeavor to kindle distrust or hatred of one people against another, and those who sneer. at honest efforts for international friendship and co-working. Hancock County s Wise Step HANCOCK county is highly fortunate in having «> Faim Bureau that sees oncoming needs and prepares to meet them. That organization has voted unani mously to establish at Sparta, the county seat, a market for butter, eggs, poultry and other food products from the farms of the adjacent territory, and also to build a large sweet potato curing plant in time to care for next season’s crop. These steps are to be taken in order that farmers who produce commodities other than cotton may not lack adequate means of converting them into co at fair prices, or x storing them until gen eral 'conditions are favorable for selling. No more useful or more seasonable lin: of service can be undertaken by those seek ing to conserve and promote Georgia’s prosperity for the coming twelvemonth. Never was it more needful that facilities be provided for the profitable marketing of food crops. Unless all present omens fail, the year 1921 will witness a marked reduc “tion in the cotton acreage; hundreds of planters will be compelled to adopt that policy, and hundreds will do so from choice. It may oe expected, then, that a vast deal of new energy will be given to raising food crops and food animals—a procedure that will redound to the State’s richest welfare, provided there are ample accommodations for handling these products when they are ready to be sold. The Hancock County Farm Bureau, like other forward-thinking organizations of its purpose, is preparing for those harvest days betimes. The result will be not only to en courage food production but also to stimu late business and to speed the coming of a stable, well rounded prosperity. IF ABILITY IS IN YOU, GET IT OUT BY JOHN BLAKE The young man looks at his more suc cessful fellows, and wonders why they suc ceed. “I have more ability than they have,” he tells himself. “Yet they are drawing good salaries, and I have hard work to hold a job. This is a mighty unfair world.” It very often happens that this contention is perfectly true. Often men of very con siderable ability fail where those with less ability succeed. But they fail because they do not use their great ability at all, while the others use their little ability to the very limit. There are many actors and writers, and painters of small ability who become real successes, merely because recognizing that their talent is not great they determine to make the best use of it. They are envied and hated by men of more ability, who think the mere posses sion of ability ought to count. But the pos session of ability ill no more make a man ccessful than the presence of gold in quartz will make the quartz saleable. The quartz must be milled to get out the gold. The human quartz must be worked to get the ability where it is available. If you thing you have ability, you have ten times as much incentive for hard work as the man who hasn’t any. A rich mine is certainly better worth working than a mine that contains nothing but low grade ore. The people who have made themstlves the great figures in the world are people who have not only had talent, but the in dustry to develop their talent. If you have any ability in you, get it out. Bring it to the' surface where others can see it. Use it for the benefit of others. Until you do chat, you can never con vince them that you have it. The way to find out whether you have ability or not is to look for it. Find out what you like to n. and try to do it; It won’t be easy at first, but it will come easier as you go along. Then if you find that there are some things you can do better than others, put in all your time and all your effort doing them. Make every atom of talent count. Many men who their friends believed to be very ordinary, by sheer hard work have put them selves high in the ranks of the useful and successful people in the country. Don’t be jealous of them. Don’t think it is luck that has raised them while it has kept you Imitate them. Get your own ability out of hiding, if it is there. Use it, and you will prosper, too. And even if you find you have no special ability, you will have lost nothing. For even mediocrity which is industrious and ambitious will get a man a pretty good rating in this world. (Copyright, 1920, by John Blake.) YOUR GROUCHINESS ’ By H. Addington Bruce FIGURE ft out, brother. Everybody is crooked. Every man has his price. Graft and grab are the great determining principles of life. Business men, without exception, are prof iteers. Workingmen, bar none, are lazy and dishonest. Nobody will tell the truth. Kindness and sympathy are to be found nowhere. The world is absolutely out of joint, the worst of all possible worlds. So you say. But — Common sense tells you that you are ab surdly foolish to talk this way. Your own everyday experiences give the lie to this crabbed, cynical attitude toward life and your fellow man. Figure it out. The reason for your grouchiness is far more likely to be found in yourself than in the world around you. Nay, you must admit that it is certain to b# found in yourself, since most people living’'iri precisely the same world have not a whit of a pessimistic sen timents you habitually entertain. Other people, you may protest, are more fortunately situated than you. They are in better health, for one thing. You are, in deed, willing to conc&dc that the state of your health may be the real cause of your perpetually nursing a grouch. You suffer much from dyspepsia. You have frequent headaches. You tire easily. You suspect that you may be a victim of eye strain. And you know that teeth are in pretty poor shade. Well, then, go to a dentist, go to an ocu list, and give a doctor a chance to help you back to robust health. It is undoubtedly easier to see life rosily when one is well than when one is ill. Only, brother Just remember that thousands of people in much poorer health than you display none of the grouchiness in which you revel. There must be at work, after all, some other, some deeper, cause. K Figure it out. And perhaps it will help you to figure it out if you ponder these words by an un commonly keen observer of the ways of’men: “Suppose the chronic grouch who is al ways finding fault with everything and every body should realize that he is only advertis ing his own incompetence. See what a differ ence it would make to him—how he would restrain his complaints and have the energy he would otherwise dissipatp available for use on his job. __ “This would increase his efficiency, make him more successful, and thus end the occa sion for the grouch.” Honestly, now, doesn’t this "explain your own grouchiness? Figure it out. (Copyright, 1920, by The Associated News papers.) BLUE LAWS By Dr. Frank Crane The whole Blue Law talk arises from a certain confusion of mind. Unfortunately people think in terms of mob mania. The present flurry is due to the popular misconception, on both sides, of Why Prohi bition. The Reformers think they brought it on, which belief is also held by the Wets. The Reformers flatter themselves, and the Wets don’t understand. Never in this world could a group of re ligious enthusiasts either cow or cozen both houses of congress and the legislatures of two-thirds of the states into voting for some thing they were sure their constituents did not want. Such absurdity needs no arguing The guilty parties who brought Prohibi tion to pass are: (1) The Scientists, who dug up the nasty facts in the case, showing that the benefit from alcohol was at best problematical ar occasional, and the injury from it universal, certain and appalling. Os course alcohol got linked up with tra dition, sentiment, joviality, and a lot of pre cious companions, but Science is cruel, off came the mask ind the disguised enemy had to go. (2) Life Insurance Companies. You could not fool them. They had too much money invested in the law of averages of human life. They spoke only in statistics, but these were eloquent. (3) The Men of Business. After all Amer ica is primarily a Business Institution. Booze spoiled business. It honeycombed efficiency. It crippled production. It made unrest and agitation doubly dangerous. Bo one by one great railway companies, manufacturing con cerns and business houses lined up against it. (4) The Women. Average, decent, hon est and serious-minded American women never liked the stuff. (5) The War. When it came to concen trating four million young men in camps and getting them into shape to fight the best trained enemy troops in the world, the booze issue became acute. Things were too criti cal to take any chances on not winning. Exit booze. And we won. And it was only because the gifted Re formers had this tremendous platform to stand on that they succeeded. Os course, no such platform and prepara tion exists in the case of Sunday laws, to bacco and seven-up. , They are harmful, compared to alcohol, as a flea-bite is compared to a rattlesnake. The Reverend Mr. Bowlby et al. will rattle around a bit and then subside. It is all brass band; they have no troops (like the five regiments above mentioned) behind them. The U. S. A. is not going ahead into Puri tanism. Neither is it going back into Alcoholism. The people—give ’em time —have sense. (Copyright, 1920, by Frank Crane.) WITH THE GEORGIA PRESS BY JACK PATTERSON “The Old Man Abroad” An old farmer and his pretty young city niece were watching the young people danc ing. “I bet- you never saw anything like this back in the 90’s did you, Unkie?” “Yep, once—but the place was raided.”— Walton News. Back to Normalcy We are sure that a state of normalcy has been reached. An ante-bellum colored friend called around last week and asked for a suit of old clothes.—Alpharetta Free Press. This is a sure sign of returning sanity. This Is Profiteering See liquor quoted in Atlanta at forty dol lars per gallon. There is certainly some profiteering that the authorities should han dle.—Oglethorpe Echo. Considering the quality that is being hand ed out by the dealers “Uncle” Shack is ab\ solutely correct. Macon News Expands On Tuesday. December 7th, the Macon News, one of Georgia’s brightest and best aft ernoon newspapers, will be changed from seven to eight columns, this being in keeping with the policy of many enterprising news papers that are running eight columns slight ly narrower than the seven-column stand ard. Around the World , Tri-Weekly News Flashes From All Over the Earth. Bombing Criminals Ammonia gas bombs will be used by Chi cago police to drive criminals into the open vhen they barricade themselves in build ngs, Chief of Police Fitzmorris announces. The gas will be contained in regulation jirmy hand grenades. Lead plugs will be ised to cork up the grenades, and a four nch fuse attached will melt the lead when ighted and release the gas, according to ;he scheme devised by city engineers. Boston Challenge Boston will make a bid next fall for the international fishing schooner championship, it was learned tonight. A vessel to be named the Mayflower will be built, financed and manned by Bostonians under plans now well advanced. Nivelle Decorated Secretary Baker decorated General Nivelle, of the French army, this week with the Distinguished Service medal, by direction of the president, for “exceptionally meritorious and conspicuous service to the United States.” General Nivelle later conferred French decorations on eight navy officers for their services in connection with the design, con struction and operation of the Lafayette radio station at Brest, France. They were: Com mander Legion of Honor, Rear Admirals Wil liam Bullard and C. W. Parks; Chevalier, Commanders S. G. Hooper and E. C. Hickey; Officer Instruction Publique, Commander Sherman and Lieutenant Commanders Le- Clair, Coman aud Baldwin. Auto Deaths Deaths from automobile accidents in America continued to show an increase dur ing 1919, with a total of 7,969 for the census bureau registration area, comprising about 80 per cent of the country’s total population, ac cording to statistics just completed by the census bureau. The total includes 3,808 deaths in sixty-six of the largei cities of the country for which statistics were announced early this month, and which total was not clearly indicated as representing the aggre gate for those cities only. The deaths last year from automobile ac cidents showed an increase of 444 for 1919 over the total for 1918 in the registration area. The rate per 100,000 population in that area has not yet been complete, but the rate in the cities was placed at 14.1. National Spree I Apparently Germany is drinking to drown her sorrow. With champagne cost ing seventeen times its pre-war price, 10,- 000,000* bottles were consumed last year against an average of 6,000,000 before the .war. All records w r ere broken for betting also. Between drinking and betting Ger many spent in one year nearly $350,000,- 000. Heroism Rewarded Three officers of the U. S. S. General George W. GoetLals, who assisted in rescuing the crew of the United States submarine S-5 last September, when the under-water craft was disabled off Cape Henlopen, were re warded with presents from Secretary Daniels this week. Captain E. D. Swinson and Second En gineer Robert A. McWilliams, of the General Goethals, were presented with binoculars, and Chief Engineer W. G. Grace received a gold watch. The presentation was made by Rear Admiral J. H. Glennon, commandant of the third naval district, acting for Secretary Daniels. Builds Own Casket Rufus Hollis, eighty-seven, Confeder ate veterans of Scottsboro, Ala., is too aged for farm work. Rather than loaf, he is doing what other people usually have done for them. He is building his own casket and shaping his own monu ment. Discover Ruins Discovery of the ruins of a pre-lpstoric vil lage and cemetery, in which were inany relics of great value, in the Navajo country in New Mexico, is announced by the Amewcan Mus eum of Natural History. The discovery was made by an exploration party, headed by Earl H. Morris, which has been conducting excava tions in the Pueblo community dwelling at Aztec, New Mexico. Fragments of polished pottery, glistening in the sun, led the party “by mere chance,” to the new discovery, Mr. Morris wrote to headquarters here. Hundreds of pottery ves sels of artistic design and scores of ancient tombs, which revealed many interesting hab its of living, were unearthed, he said. “There had been more than twenty dwel lings in the village,” he wrote, “varying in size from four to as many as fifty rooms.” King Distributes Land Instructions have been given by King Al fonso for the formation of ar. agricultural syndicate, the object of which will be the par celling out of the king’s royal estate at El Pardo, nine miles west of Madrid, for cultiva tion under the Auspices of the Catholic Agrarian federation. The property contains nearly 2,500 acres and will be divided into small plots. A plan has been devised which will permit laborers to acquire the land allot ted to them. Cob Pipe Returns Re-enter the corn cob pipe. Tobacco salesmen in New York say the relic of another day is coming back into its own again. A wave of economy has brought the discarded favorite of by-gone days back into popularity with smokers. I Morgenthau Named Henry Morgenthau, of New York, former ambassador to- Turkey, has been selected by President Wilson to act as the president’s per sonal representative in mediating between the Armenians and the Turkish nationalists. Mr. Morgenthau conferred with Acting Sec retary Davis at the state department receiv ing final instructions as to his mission. The ■department, however, has not yet heard from the League of Nations in response to the presi dent’s request for further information as to procedure. Largest Chrysanthemum Oescribed as the largest chrysanthemum yet grown, the “Louisa Puckett,” on exhibition at a flower show in London, has a circum ference of thirty inches. Big Money A bill for $840,000,000 against the government fell due Wednesday and at the same time the treasury collected $650,000,000 in income and excess prof its taxes. About in treasury cer tificates of indebtedness matured also and at the same time the semi-annual in terest on the first Liberty loan and the Victory Liberty loan, aggregating about $140,000,000, became payable. Austria in League Austria was elected a member of the League of Nations by the assembly of the league this vzeek. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1920. Watching Wall Street Workers By Frederic J. Haskin NEW YORK, Dec. 13.—Obtaining em ployment in Wall Street these days is about as easy as securing a passport to Russia, or gaining admission to the Union League club since the recent Irish episode* Not that Wall Street has reached the satu ration point in the matter of employment, as have so many other districts all of i- sudden. It is one place where jobs are still numer ous. But Wall Street does not employ people in its former casual a-c. even careless man ner. Instead, it overhauls them thoroughly, as a horse dealer overhauls a horse before committing himself to its purchase, and ac cepts only those who are of robust health, and impeccable character. Judging by the nonchalant ease with which clerks and messengers always seem to be get ting away with millions of dollars worth of bonds in this district, you would never imag ine that Wall Street was at all particular about whom it employed. But, as we have said, it is. Nearly every large concern in its narrow, crooked little streets, nowadays has its personnel department, which is its first line of defense against criminals in search £ jobs. Since the recent explosion, these de partments have increased rapidly in numbers, while entrance examinations to the big finan cial institutions have become so rigid that, as one employee remarked sarcastically the other day, only the sons of bank presidents can be messengers in banks. The typical Wall Street personnel depart ment has three important divisions —namely, the psychological division; the health divi sion; and the social service division. Per haps the health division should have been placed first, since health is the first consid eration in examining a prospective employee. The district’s specifications in this regard are quite as rigid as those of the army. In order to land a job here, a man’s eyesight must be good; his hearing perfect; his lungs and heart and kidneys in good condition; and above all his teeth must not be defective. If a man is in otherwise good health, but his teeth need attention, he is required to have them repaired before he is taken on the staff. The same conditions apply to women em ployes. The Employe’s Health The health division of the personnel de partment usually employs at least two phy sicians for the work of examining applicants as well as for the care of permanent em ployes. One of these doctors is a man and the other a woman. It is their duty to keep the permanent staff a top-notch physical ef ficiency, and to prevent the employment of persons with incipient tuberculosis or other chronic diseases. One such division also teaches hygiene to the firm’s workers, and advises them as to their personal habits in diet, dentistry and baths. When the health division gets through with him, the prospective employe is dispatched to the psychological division, where he is given elaborate tests for determining his mental and moral grasp of affairs. Sometimes a man who enters this division believing him self to be an expert secretary is informed that his powers lie in the field of salesman ship, and hence is told that the firm will em ploy him only as a salesman. According to one psychologist working for a financial in stitution employing hundreds of people, as many young people come to him underrating their abilities as those who overestimate them. Occasionally, he has to disillusion a prospective bank clerk by telling him he would make a better automobile mechanic or plumber, but not so often as one might imagine. The average New Yorker, he says, is usually pretty accurate in finding his own particular niche. Having passed the inquisitions of these two divisions the applicant must now encoun ter the equally searching crutiny of the so ial service division, which wants to know a host of things. What is his full name; his mother’s and father’s name; his nationality; his religion; and political belief, his birth place; and his chief recreation? Where does he live-; where has he lived; and where will he live in the futurie? How many jobs has he had before, and what and where were they? How many people are in his family, and who are they? All of these, and many more questions are asked. One young man. who recently obtained an important position in a bank in the Wall Street district, asserts that its social service inquisitor even made him write down the names of all his women Friends and acquaintances. This extensive record is then filed in the eompany ( ’s files, together with a photograph of the employe, and his list of references investigated. If these are found to be satis factory, he is accepted as a permanent acqui sition to the staff, but this does not mean that he is exempt from further .examinations or investigations. The social service division ’.till keeps an eye on him. And so does the health division. If his work suddenly be comes irregular in efficiency, he is whisked up to the medical office for another examina tion, and if this does not disclose the cause, he social service division, rushes up to his neighborhood and Interview his family or landlady. Home Life and Efficiency Experience has shown that home condi tions have the greatest possible influence on a man’s efficiency. An extravagant or com plaining wife can drive a man to strange acts of crime, which, of course ,is a matter of history. If the Revolutionary War staff had only had a social service department Ben edict Arnold might have been rescued from an ignominious immortality. But even little nuisances at home play an important part in a man’s work. For instance, one social serv ice worker declares that all the male work ers on the staff of her company suddenly evi dence a surprising inefficiency, during the spring and fall housecleaning seasons, while one man made a mistake, which would have cost the firm thirty thousand dollars had it not been discovered in time, during the pe riod that his wife was putting up cherries. Any serious illness’at home, of course, is al- ways registered by a man’s lack of concentra tion on his work. Having proved this curious fact to its own satisfaction. Wall Street does not confine its surveillance to new employes, but has recent ly extended its investigations to include the home conditions of employes long connected with it. There are about 10,000 of these em ployed by over 400 firms. Some of them 3" gray-haired and stoop-shouldered from long service, but they are to be investigated and card-indexed just as thoroughly as the newest office boy. Most of this work, however, is not being handled by individual social serv ice divisions, but by the bureau of investiga tion of the National Surety company, which has been engaged for the purpose by the As sociated, Stock Exchange firms. An Espionage System This bureau of investigation has had its staff of investigators in the field for several weeks. They are working quietly but fairly, and are trying to avoid embarrassing anyone. Their information is obtained from any relia ble source at hand—from the corner grocer, the apartment house janitor, the neighbors or the mailman. Upon uncovering any suspicious circum stance, the investigator immediately reports to headquarters and waits for further or ders. Some surprising facts have been brought to light in this way. For example, in investi gating the record of an employe of a large Wall Street firm, not, however, in the stock* exchange business, the inquirer was informed by the young man’s landlady that he leftthe house carrying a satchel around 10 o’clock DOROTHY DIX TALKS I BY DOROTHY DIX The Ideal Mother Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syndi cate, Inc. * MOTHERS’ CLUB asks me if I will /A give it my definition of an ideal x mother. Well, if I were a baby and could choose my mother, I would pick out a strong and healthy mother. I would want a mother who would start me out in life with a ro bust body, with steady nerves and with clean blood, free of any taint of disease, for I -should choose to be born of a mother who > had exercise.! as much thought and judg- w ment and care in selecting my father as she would in buying a new hat. I should want a strong and healthy moth er also, because I should want to be raised in a quiet, peaceful home, and I couldn’t hope for that if my mother was a peevish invalid, with raw nerves, that every little noise irritated to distraction, and who was fretful, and fault-finding, and complaining because she was half sick all the time. And I should choose a mother who wanted me, and who did not regard children as one of the major afflictions of life. I should want a mother who was more interested in me than she was in clubs, and who thought it more fun to play with me than she did to play bridge. I should pray that I would get a mother who wouldn’t turn me over to nursemaids and servants to bring up by hand, but who would give me her own per sonal attention. I should choose a woman who was very w tender and understanding, for a mother. I should want a mother who knew that a child’s soul is the shyest thing on earth, and who would not try to force my confidence, or pry into my little secrets, but she would know just what I meant, and just why I did things when I blundered out my confession ’ to her in the twilight, or when she tucked me in bed at night. I should want her to be the kind of woman who knows things by the grace of God, without being told, and that no mat ter how much I stumbled and fell, she would know why, and believe in me to the last. And I should want my mother’s breast to be very soft for me to cry out my childish heart upqn, when I was little and hurt my self, and her arms to be a refuge to me, to which I could alw..ys turn when I was big and the world buffeted and beat me. I should want my mother to be a good natured woman, one who always laughed with you, and nbt at you. I should like to be reared in a home that was bright and gay, where people made merry over mis adventures, and turned deprivations and sacrifices into jokes. I should like to have a mother who en couraged every form of innocent enjoyment, and who could enter into the spirit of things, the sort of a mother who is never too busy to put up a lunch for a boy who Is going •fishing, or to add a new frill to a girl’s dancing frock. I should like to come into a cheerful home, where the mother’s smile made sunshine, no matter what cloud of adversity darkened the balance of the world. I should like to have a mother with a funnybone, and from whom I inherited a funnybone myself. For she would teach me not to take myself too seriously, or to grow morbid, and sour, and grumpy and disgrun tled There are so many things in life over which one must either laugh of cry, and ir is only those who can laugh whom Fate can never down. I should want a mother who was Intelli gent, a mother who read and who kept up j with the times, and who was always a fasci nating and interesting companion. I should want a mother who would teach me to read, and guide my footsteps down the flowery path of literature, and, if I could have frost ing on my cake, I should wish my mother to be a musician, so that in the evenings there would not only be a group around the drop light, but also around the piano. I’d hate to belong to one of those families where the home is so dull that nobody stays in it a minute more than they can help, and w'here everybody has to go to the movies or the theater, or a cabaret to spend a pleasant evening. I should wish to be the child of an ambi tious mother. I should wish for a mother —one of those women who set some high ’ goal Before their children’s eyes, and who make them feel that they had better die than not reach it. I should like a mother who was like a spear in my side, urging me on and on to something letter and higher, some worth-while achievement. I should pray the gods to save me from being the child of one of the mothers who are content to have their children clods, if * only they remain near them, who will balk a girl’s ambition so that she may stay at home and nurse them, or block the boy’s , career because they cannot bear to have him go away from home. I should want a mother who had some thing of the Spartan in her. A mother who had the courage to see my faults and cor rect them, a mother who had the strength to hold me to my duty when I faltered in It, and who did not shrink from making me do the hard thing when it was the right thing. I would want a mother who would teach me ! in my youth habits of industry and thrift, who would inculcate in me the gospel of efficiency, for thus would she insure my suc cess and prosperity in the world. I should wish to have a mother who loved me, not blindly, but with seeing eyes; a mother who would perceive my deficiencies and help me strengthen the weak places; a mother who would help me fight my tem- u per if I were possessed of such a devil, who ’ would teach me diplomacy if I were tactless, who would inspire me to effort If I were a shirker, and shame me into sticking If I were a quitter. A strong woman—a woman strong of 4 body, strong of hdart, strong of brain, strong * of spirit. These are the qualities that I should ask in my mother if I were a baby to whom the gods gave the privilege of pick ing out my ideal mother. every evening, and did not return until one / or two o’clock in the morning. The young man was considered a model employe, 'and his former employers had testified to his honesty and efficiency. For a week or two the matter remained a baffling mystery, at the end of which time the young man’s em ployer suggested that it be dropped, as he was sure it was unimportant. But in the meantime the bureau had placed a detective on the young man’s trail, who followed him . in his nocturnal wanderings and brought to /' light the amazing fact that they were de voted to burglaring. He was caught in the act, and confessed quite coolly, explaining that his Wall Street job was held merely as a blind. “We do not expect thefts and embezzle ments to cease entirely because of this work,” says the National Surety company, “but we do expect to protect ourselves as far as pos sible. Wherever there is room for suspi- / cion our bureau of investigation will use every means to get the facts, but we know before we start that the great majority of Wall Street employes are honest people. “We know, too, that human nature is a thing that cannot be reduced to mathemat ics or filed away for reference. But we do want to know how these people live at home, J where they spend their recreation hours, and W something of their habits generally, for It not only has a bearing on their honesty, r but on their efficiency as employe*,”