Atlanta Georgian and news. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1912, July 06, 1907, Image 4
PIP
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS.
SATURDAY, JULY 6. 1S07.
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
' (AND NEWS)
JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES, Editor.
F. L. SEELY, President.
Published Every Afternoon.
(Except Sunday)
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY.
At 3 West Alabama St., Atlanta. Os;
Subscription Rates!
One Year «•»
Six Months J.B0
Three Months •«, !•*
r, r>p Month 4*
Dr Carrier. Per Week 10
Telephones conneetlor ?U . depart*
meets. Lon* distance terminals.
Smith A Thompson, adrertlalnf rep*
rpsentntlvea for all territory outside of
Goorgln.
t blrago Ofiflee Trlbnna Bnlldlng
hew York Office Potter Building
If yoq hare anr trouble getting TUB
GEORGIAN AND NEW IT telephone
the elrculatlon department and have
lurarsurnn* «« T ' 1 ' pboD,,:
It la desirable that all communlea-
UbUIMJIAlt .’BHD KO liuuint IV
800 worda In length. It la Imperative
that they be signed, as an evidence of
good faith. Rejected man«ae|)pta will
THE GEORGIAN AND NEWS prtnta
no uncicjtn or obJecGonable advertla*
log. Neither doe* It print trblaky or
any liquor adi.
OUR PLATFORM! TUB OEORGIAN
AND NEWS atanda for Atlaiitn'a owns
gas as low aa 60 cents, with a profit
to tha city. This should ba done at
once. THE GEORGIAN AND NEWS
believes that If atreat railways can be
operated successfully by European
cities, as they art, thara la no good
reason why tnty can not be so oper
ated hera. But we do not believe thla
enn be done now, and It may be some
yeara before we are ready for ao big
an undertaking. Still Atlanta should
set Its face In that direction NOW.
Persons leaving the city can
have The Georgian and News
mailed to them regularly by send'
ing their order to The Goorgian
office. Changes of address will be
mado as often as desired.
Tho corn crop, tays The Blrmlng-
hnra Ago-Herald, Is growing over nlgbt
almost beyond recognition.
Tho only way to side-step the regti
latlon 60-cont tip In New York Is to
patronize tho beaneries.
Now that the last Fourth of July
cracker has popped, suppose we go to
work making preparations for Christ
mas.
"Chilly Charlie" Fairbanks will now
bo kept busy explaining to tho boys
that there’s nothing In tit* story that
cocktails were served at that dinner.
Many people had never heard of
Boise, Idaho, until that man Harry
Orchard sprung his confession and
pat tha town In the limelight.
Judging from the reckless opera
tions of tho "groon bug” In the Kan
sas wheat fields. It must ba operating
under a New Jersey charter.—Detroit
News-Tribune.
Secretary Taft Is beginning to real
ize that there I* one qualification for
sitting on tha lid and another for
sprinting to tha perch.—Macon Tele
graph.
A man dumb for seven years hid
his speech restored through dodging
an automobile. Still, that style ot
treatment is not likely to become pop
ular.
Colonel John D. Rockefeller has a
big Job on his hands. It’s up to him
to expisln away a One ot |]9,000,000.
and the common people are wondering
It be can do it
The story that a Michigan 16-pound
pickerel dragged two men from a boat
and drowned them Is likely to excite
a certain Texas Journal to assert that
a Texas bass can wreck a battleship
or scuttle an armored cruiser.
A physician says the warning ot
bacteriologists Is taken seriously end
kissing Is on the decrease. "Moon
shine,” declares Colons] VVatterson;
“S mollycoddle who’d be bluffed by a
germ theory never did have nerve
enough to kiss a girt.”—Savannah
News.
Listen to The Richmond News-
leader: "As long as remains the
blank on Cabin Johns Bridge which
tells of the chiselling out ot Jefferson
Davis' name, the bridge will stand as
a monument to Northern petty spite.'
By the way. these New York fly cops
are not so quick. That teller who got
away with $66,000 In his grip was
right In town all the time and wasn’t
found until Friday afternoon, when
his biding place was tipped off to the-
pollce by a woman.
Colonel Oravea la making It pretty
bard for The Atlanta Journal to re
main the Big Noise of the Hoke Smith
administration.—Houston Posh
Governor Hoke Smith is a big men,
mentally, morally and physically, and
any paper that does him Justice will
< need to make a nolee, Mg or little.
The Cost of Prohibition.
John Temple Graves, editor of The Georgian, .la Oaent from tho state, and Is un
able to give to tho readers of Tho Georgian any Oi\ct message on the question that Is
before us. Wo take tho liberty of saying for him. that he Is heartily In accord with the
stand that Tho Georgian takes today.
Regardless of whether it is right to consider if moral reforms will cost
money or property, the fact that those who are fighting to keep out prohibition are
spreading fear in the hearts of our people lest we be ruined financially, makes it
necessary to answer their fancy with facts:
They claim that—
1. Values will be ruined. |
2. Taxes will bo higher.
3. Foreigners, and especially Germans, will not come here. *
- 4. Our cities will not grow.
We will take the latest government reports which have only been from the
presses of the Department of Commerce and Labor a few months, and delivered
to us six weeks ago. Then we will use for comparison the state of Kansas, to
which our friends refer so often-as the horrible example. Kansas is an agricultu
ral state—so is Georgia. They raise grain—we raise cotton. Kansas has about
the same amount of manufacturing that we have. Kansas is one-fourth larger in
size than Georgia. Its population is the same as our white population, 1,500,000
Bear in mind, please, that we do not claim that prohibition in Kansas has
made its values what they are. We simply claim it has not ruined their values.
All farms, improvements and buildings in Georgia are worth $183,000,000.
In Kansas they are worth $643,000,000. The buildings alone on Georgia farms
are worth $44,000,000—in Kansas $111,000,000.
The value of all real property and improvements—not including any rail
road, street railway, telegraph, telephone or private water works system nor pri
vately owned electric light and power plants, and leaving out all property of every
kind exempt from taxation in Georgia, is $517,000,000. In Kansas it is 1,067 mil
lions.
Georgia owns fifty-seven million dollars worth of live stock, while Kansas
owns 228 millions.
Georgia owns 156 millions of railroads—Kansas 356 N millions.
The average value of all real property and improvements for the state of
Kansas is $21.00 per acre, while in Georgia it is $15, notwithstanding there aro
15,000,000 acres more in Kansas than in Georgia.
The per capita value of Kansas real property is $739, of Georgia $237-. Sup
pose, for argument, wc give the wholo value to tho white population alone. Geor
gia would then be less than $500 per capita, against $739 in Kansas.
Enough of that—these arc facts in answer to hearsay. ,
2. Taxes will be higher.
Tho argument is used that if we have no liquor tax we will have nothing
with which to run our schools. Let’s look at the state as a whole. Georgia has a
state debt of 7 3-4 millions, on which it has to pay taxes, and levies for all schools a
tax of 11-2 millions. Taxes in Kansas aro higher than the average in Georgia,
and, as lias already been shown, the wealth has grown greater, and they have a
state debt of but a little more than 1-2 million, against Georgia’s 7 3-4 millions, and
they levy a school tax of $4,655,000 against our $1,500,000—over $3.00for our $1—
a good excuse for more taxes, and Georgia could profit by levying them. The
average tax per $100 in Kansas is just about double that of Georgia, and nearly
nil of it is shown in the school expenditures, regardless of the fact that all must
come from direct taxation.
3. Foreigners will not come. Germans must have beer.
The population of Georgia is two and one-half millions. That of the two
prohibition states, Maine and Kansas, 700,000 and one and one-half millions, re
spectively.
Kansas has one hundred and twenty-seven thousand foreign-bom citizens
and Maine ninety-three thousand, while Georgia has twelve thousand.
Kansas entertains forty thousand Germans and eleven thousand Irish* and
thousands of Danes, Austrians and Poles. Georgia has 3,000 Germans.
Kansas has more foreigners than any state of its size except Connecticut,
Rhode Island nud Nebraska.
No comment could strengthen these facts.
4. Our cities will not grow.
Atlnnta grew 37 per cent from 1890 to 1900; Savannah 25 per cent; Augusta
18 per cent. Kansas City, Kali., grow 34 per cent; Portland, Maine, 37 per cent,
and Topeka, Kan., 8 per cent, though Topeka grow over 100 per cent the 10 years
previous and Kansas with a population equal only to our white population, has
365 cities to our 375.
Most significant of all is the fact that Kansas, with this million less popu
lation, levies in municipal taxes, four million dollars a year, while Georgia with
more cities raises two and one-lmlf million. ,
We are about tired of Kansas now. We have pulled it pretty well to
pieces. We are tired, too, of the worthless, factless arguments used by our
friends who aro trying to make a oaso against prohibition. There is no reason to
believe that beautiful poetic statement, “Grass will grow in our streets.”
The Georgian is not convinced that Atlanta will be less desirable as a
Southern headquarters for the many insurance companies and large Northern cor
porations that fill our office buildings.
The Georgian does not believe Atlanta will be less desirable as a railroad
center and headquarters, when the biggest railroads in the world are making the
use of liquor a bar to employment on their lines. The Georgian believes it is ab
surd to think that the cotton mills will stay from our borders when their men can
not got liquor as conveniently as they now do. The mills are getting closer to
the cotton fields every day, and no power could stop the commercial advantage
they reap by being nearer the source of supply. Those who make other claims
have never studied the economics of cotton manufacture.
The Georgian calls with all its might to every citizen of our state to arise
and drive off the bugaboo that is being used to searo our people, aud putting
aside all sentiment, all weeping, praying and singing, set yonr faces to give our
cities and our state at least a faiy trial of what can but be a blessing to many if it
succeeds at all, and what so great a man as Henry Grady says was an absolute
success here twenty-two years ago, contradictory statements of men who were
children at that time, and only tell us of hearsay, notwithstanding.
Trial of Prohibition in Atlanta
By J. L. D. HILLYER.
I have teen utterly amazed at the
statements that appear In an address
published In The Georgian of the 4th,
which comes from a meeting of ■
group ot wealthy citizens of Atlanta,
who held a meeting at the Piedmont
Hotel on Wednesday afternoon.
These gentlemen aro lighting the
propoeed state prohibition bill now
pending.
The most conspicuous fact that ap
pears In the preamble and the resolu
tions Is the utter want of Information
that those gentlemen have on the sub
ject of prohibition and Its effects on
city prosperity. It Is useless to go
Into their columns of generalizations
to refute their statements. It Is only
necessary to refer to their glaring mis.
statements about Atlanta under the
prohibition law.
They sny that Fulton county tried
prohibition for over two years. The
faet is, prohibition In Fulton county
lastod only about sixteen months. They
say there was more crime and drunk
enness and disorder
tlinn ever before or
simple denial. None
lived at Jonesboro. I was frequently
here. I know that precisely the te
verse of all that stuff Is true.
In the eummer of 1887 Henry Grady
published an editorial In The Consti
tution that was not denied by any
body. It never has been denied. I read
It at the time, and I knew that many
of the facts stated were true, and I
have verified many of them since. That
editorial pointed out the condition of
the city after twelve months of pro
hibition. Many thousands of copies
of that editorial have been published
and circulated recently all over the
atate by the Anti-Saloon League. If
those gentlemen had been sufficiently
Interested In this question, before now,
to read that editorial of Grady's, they
would have been better Informed. And
unless they meant to speak falsely
they would havo worded their address
very differently. Tho editorial. shows
that the school attendance was better
than ever, that every line of business
was better except the business of the
police and criminal courts, and the
liquor business. Grady said In one
of hts speeches that during tho six
teen months of prohibition only two
homicides occurred In Atlanta during
the prohibition period of elxteen
months. At the time the speech was
made I remembered both cases. One
was the Eddleman case, that was on
trial about the time that Grady spoke.
The other wae a. case that occurred
•ometlme earlier, the circumstances ot
which I do not now remember. Many
people will recall the fact that the
Jury In Eddleman case acquitted him.
8ome people were so Incensed at that
that a few days before the prohibition
election In November, 1887, twelve
effigies representing the membere of
that Jury were hanged near the court
house and then burned. That Incident
will prompt the memories of the old
people about those time*. When Grady
made that speech nobody ohallwged
It. It has never been contradicted. If
It Is not true the docket of the supe
rior court will show what other homi
cides did occur In Fulton county with
in those months of prohibition. From
about July 16. 1886,’to November. 1887,
those dockets will show all the other
crimes of those months and the pre
ceding years and the succeeding years.
And they will show that Fulton county
had fewer criminal cases of all sorts
during that period than ever before or
since.
I can give story after story to Illus
trate the better trade'eondlttons during
those months.
Shoo merchants sold moye shoes, es
pecially on Saturday nights, than ever
before or since. Meat men sold more
meat on Saturday nights. More chil
dren went to Sunday school. More
grown people went to the churches,
The schools were fuller and the pupils
were better. Furniture men doubled
crime ana uruus- tho,r nleB - Renting agents had less
dirffie That period I troul)Ia wlth collecting, and more peo-
stacef I puf In a F le bought their homes than ever had
i of that Is true. I ° c £ - or ®- .
Fulton county people did not aban
don prohibition. Everybody who
knows the history of that election
knows that many hundreds of negroes
were hauled Into town and voted
against prohibition who were not res
idents of Fulton county, but at that
time we had no law to prevent their
voting. ‘ And while there were esti
mated to have been about 700 or more
votes of that kind, the liquor majority
was only a little more than 800. The
majority of the citizens of Fulton
county was opposed to the sale then,
and It Is opposed to the sale now.
The excellent gentlemen who com
posed that meeting represented proba
ble two-thirds ot the wealth of At
lanta. But they represented a very
small proportion of Its virtue and In
telligence. The arguments they ad
vanced have been met and answered,
and tested and found to be false In
numerable times, and that they should
be promulgated now, shows that those
who use them have been giving no at
tention to the advancing power of pro.
hlbltlon. They make an appeal to the
prohibition legislators, and offer argu
ments that those legislators know are
utterly worthless. Absolutely the only
weight that the document published by
those gentlemen carries Is derived from
the gold thst those men possees. It Is
generally understood that tho present
legislature Is not likely to be greatly
affected by that argument. The wealth
and selfishness ot a few In the cities
has for years oppressed and enslaved
the multitude of common people who
were not organized and could not re
sist the combined power of capital and
the liquor trade. But we hope for bet
ter things now. Capital need fear
nothing except that that Is In barrels.
The destruction of the liquor traffic
never hurt any business except the
liquor business.
Foreign Exchange
Letter» of Credit
Circular Notes
Payable in all parts of
the world.
Information gladly fur
nished those who con
template a trip abroad.
4 °/o
On Yonr Savings
Compounded Twice a year.
MADD0X-RUCKER
BANKING CO.
Alabama and Broad Street*.
Is the Saloon a Good Financial Policy ?
By J. C. SOLOMON, 8TATE 8UPERI NTENDENT ANTI-8ALLON LEAGUE
We would like to discuss this great
prohibition question from a moral
standpoint, but the antis doubtless re
gard this feature of the question ns
sickly sentimentality, or else they can’t
meet the argument, or else they nfe
color blind—haring a gold dollar In
their eyes. We had hopes that a moth
er's boy was worth saving, end that It
was humanltarlanlsm to put forth an
effort to redeem a poor drunken fa
ther, but alaat these are not to be
considered.
Gentlemen Insist that we shall atand
on the monetary platform and talk
about gold and silver. Values are
more Important than virtues, and
money Is bigger than men.
Surely this Is a humiliating confes
slon, but If we must meet our fellow-
cttlsens on this low plain, we will.
So we will light It out on a financial
basis.
Does 4he dram shop pay? Does It
bring business? That's the question.
Well, let u* reason together. Alcohol Is
a poison—a narcotic poison. So It Is
In the most dangerous class, it heats
the blood ar.d Inflames the brain. It
maddens the man. It not only unfits
him for society, making him a crimi
nal, but It renders him Incapable of
serving his family or his country. It
leseana his wage earning capacity. It
makes him a financial burden to the
state.
But you say we get a handsome rev
enue. You are making not only a gen
eration of spiritual and mental degen
erates and miserable perverts, but
financial weaklings. They are a bur
den on the body politic and a constant
menace to the social order.
Now does It not stand to reason that
no government can debauch Its citi
zens and get the same brain and brawn
power from them at from citizens "cool
sober?"
This country Is what Its cltlsene
make It. The men and women are the
assets of tho nation. Send fire aflam-
lng through their blood, break down
the brain cells, make debauchees of
human beings and you rob the nation
of Its proudest heritage and Its chief-
est glory. You make both criminals
and paupers, and In either event a
heavy burden Is entailed upon the gov
ernment, for the government must care
for both classes.
A greedy sow may as well undertake
to stock a farm with well-bred swine
by eating up the pigs as the govern
ment to grow prosperous, honorablo
and happy by debauching the people,
and then robbing them of their brain
apd their money.
If Atlanta should drink her own
blood and Georgia shoukl eat her own
flesh, how long think you robust,
bounding life could be maintained?
This exact state of affairs obtains to
day. ThlB Is particularly and sadly
true on the part of our cities. Thero
Is a decaying at tho top—and there Is
a black spot In the heart—and there
will be, as there has been, a disin
tegration ot finances. You can not
posalbly moke the people drink and at
the same time moke them better wage
earners, so It Inevitably follows that
this government must be poorer In
consequence of the dram shop.
But they tell us tho whisky rove
nues furnish tho school fund for Geor
gia. They also tell us wo aro behind
now with our teachers fl,(00,000. Now,
why not multiply nur saloons—Just sow
tho old state down with them? Put
one on every corner. If they aro ao
good and virtuous, and pay for tho ed
ucatlon of our children.
But the children are becoming more
numerous In Georgia and tha saloons
are being rapidly reduced. Something
Is radically wrong. Either the saloons
ought to be Increased or else we shotlld
K t rid of so many children. Why not
patriotic and furnish sufficient sa
loons to educate all the poor little
helpless children In Georgia, In the
mansion as well as In the hut? For
It doesn't matter, you know, If we make
drunkards of the fathers If we can only
educate the children! For every dol
lar we spend to enlighten the youth
of the country we spend seven to de
grade the parents and darken the
homes. Is this humane? Is It .wise?
Dr. Swallow, once the prohibition
party's candidate for president, ssld
that for every dollar this government
receives from liquor revenues, It pays
out $18.60 towards ths prosecutions of
Its criminals, the care of the paupers
and the maintenance of the Insane, etc.
How long would Atlanta's richest citi
zen be able to keep out of the poor
house with such miserable financiering?
But they tell us prohibition won't
prohibit. What about the sixteen
months’ prohibition In Atlanta between
1885-7?, notwithstanding the fact the
liquor gang had hired agents to de.
bauch the city and to make tha law
Inoperative, and notwithstanding the
fact there was considerable drinking,
and some crime to be sure. Yet in
that remote day before prohibition
sentiment was half so pronounced In
Georgia as It Is today, prohibition did
prohibit and was a Messing to the city.
Ask every unbiased and reputable
citizen. Consult tho records. Read
the golden-mouth Grady In his splen
did editorial In The Atlanta Constitu
tion. Read that ringing declaration
and coll the dead hero a liar If you
dare.
The Georgia Anti-Saloon League,
No. 602 Lowndes Building, Atlanta, Qt,
has 10,000 copies of this great editorial.
Ask for one.
Just In the wake of the Atlanta riot
laat fall the lid was put on. and put on
tight. For nine days and nights in this
city prohibition reigned. It was sure
enough prohibition. It was almost llks
the millennium. The city was practi
cally transformed.
Consult Judge Broyles. Ask other
court and city officials. Prohibition
prohibits In Ocllln and Fitzgerald and
Abbeville and Moultrie and Waycross
and In every prohibition town In this
state. Now watch Balnbridge grow,
and Valdosta,
Why Fitzgerald, so long cursed by
saloons, was afraid she would die if
she lost them, but to the contrary, her
life was never so abundant, in less
than a year her values have Increased
over a million dollars.
Now as to Maine, Kansas and North
Dakota, very much lied against states,
I have Incontrovertible facts touching
their wonderful prosperity. Fewer
criminals, moro empty Jnlls, less pau
perism, more money In the savings
banks, increased values In the farming
lands—In a word there Is undoubted
prosperity In every honorable line of
Industry throughout these awfully
slandered states.
So get on the "band wagon," ye
kickers and calamity howlers, and
doubting Thomases! Get in tho pro.
cession: lb) quick! The Kingdom's
coming! Come now, for we are going
to moke this old state dry. You hear?
80NQ OF THE FOURTH.
(Grantjand Rice, in The Tennessean.)
There, little Boy, don’t cry—
You have blown off an ear, I know—
And your eye lashes, too.
With your two eyes of blue,
Are things of the long ego—
But It's all In tho gamo on the Fourth
of July.
So there, little Boy, don’t cry.
There, little Buy, don't cry—
'Twss loaded—but you didn't know—
Now your nose looks forlorn
And your teeth are all gone—
While your skull was caved In by
the blow—
But It's all In the game on the Fourth
of July,
So there, little Boy, don't cry.
A8 TO PRE88 CENSOR8HIP.
Representative Adkins, ot Doolsy.
wishes to establish a press censorship
In Georgia. He should know that there
already exists such a censorship, and a
better one than could be created by
legislative enactment. It 1s public opln.
Ion, and no newspaper daree to run
counter to It. The unclean or un
wholesome newspaper can not live In
Georgia. This has been Illustrated on
several occasions, with respect to which
Mr. Adkins can Inform himself In ths
city of Atlanta. The Journalistic bone-
yard glistens with tho skeletons of
periodicals that tried to fatten on sen
sationalism, only to starve to death. Mr.
Adkins can And much better employ
ment for his talents than trying to cen
sor the press.—Savannah News.
JURY MAY INVESTIGATE
AFFAIR8 IN CHATTANOOGA.
Special to The Georgian,
Chattanooga, Tcnn., July 6.—A grand
Jury Investigation of the city affairs
Is now threatened. Frank Steffner, a
leading member of the Ninth Ward
Business League, announces that at the
next meeting ot the league, Monday
night, he will Introduce a resolution
catling upon the grand Jury to Inquire
Into every department of the city gov
ernment
IIHIHIIIItNHtMHIlillMUMIHHIMHMIllllllll
GRADY'S ESTIMATE OF HIS
WORK FOR PROHIBITION
In a card written on Nov. 27, 1887, the day
after the election, when he knew that the bar
rooms had won, Henry W. Grady declared:
“When everything else I have said or done is
forgotten, I want the words I have spoken for
prohibition in Atlanta to be remembered. I am
firm in the conviction— and from this convic
tion I shall never be shaken—that Atlanta has
prospered under her two years of prohibition
as she never prospered before, and the experi
ment of prohibition in a large city succeeded in
Atlanta as no experiment under like obstruc
tions ever succeeded before.”