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EDITORIAL PAGE
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East Alabama St . Atlanta, Ga.
Entered as second-class matter at postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March 3. 1879.
“This Comes of Teaching
Girls to Read”
» » »
That Was About the Rest Sign in the Women’s Parade—and There
Were Many Good Signs in That Important Demonstration.
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Women, old and young, parading tn assert their rights on
Saturday last in New York carried banners with interesting in
scriptions.
A number of these shall be reproduced from time to time in
this newspaper tn keep alive the memory of the fine parade, and
the courage and determination that animated the women in it
Os all signs, the best, in our opinion, was one which, referring
to the parade and the mental energy that it represented, said:
“This comes of teaching girls to read.”
It is a fact that every great development of our day IS THE
RESULT OF TEACHING CHILDREN TO READ.
And the growth of American wnmen in particular, their in
creasing intelligence, individuality and strength nf opinion, are
beyond all question “the result of teaching girls to read.”
In the old days, girls were taught to read—some of them, at
least Rut they were taught also that it was not a good thing to
read TOO MUCH. And they were taught that they ought to read
the things that were written of a peaceful, quiet, sleepy character.
Tn our day. and for some years past, girls have been taught to
read intelligently and radically.
AND READING INTELLIGENTLY IS PRACTICALLY THE
WHOLE OF REAL EDUCATION.
The great Frenchman. Jules Jaiires, in his speech addressed
to the school teachers of France the best speech ever made to
school teachers in any country—told them that the very best thing
that thev could do was TO TEACH CHILDREN iO READ IN
TELLIGENTLY.
He explained to the teachers that the power of reading is as
far in value above the small amount of individual information that
a mind can absorb as the total intellectual power of the race is
a hove the knowledge and the power ot any individual.
To teach a child to read is to open a window that allows him
to look into all the great minds that have lived upon this earth.
Once a man can read, every giant in the past and in the pres
ent that has done valuable thinking has thought for that man.
Once the hoy or girl is able to read, the mind will never lack
food, will not go backward; it will not cease to grow.
Teaching children to read means teaching them to think;
means enabling them to form opinions for themselves; means giv
ing to them the total product of all the good work of all the able
minds.
And teaching girls to read, not to read stupidly and blindly
and by rote as they teach the little boys to read the Koran in the
Asiatic religious schools, but teaching them to read with thought
and character of their own to such teaching is due the woman’s
movement m this country, the highest character of women, the
greatest intelligence of the mothers, the better health of children,
and the longer life of human beings
Teaching girls to ready has given the ‘‘votes for women”
movement to the country.
And teaching girls to read more and more intelligently,
persuading them to read that which is best and later to give to
their children the results of their reading, will do more for the
human race than ever been done to this day.
Teach your girls, above all, to read intelligently, don’t tire
them out teaching too many othei things
Teach them to read that which is best; teach them to UN
DERSTAND what they read, and von will be preparing the right
kind of mothers who, in their turn, will give to this earth the
right kind of population and the right ind of civilization.
Humanitv one dav will point to real civilization and say.
“That came of teaching girls to read.”
The One-Chance Men
(COAL MINE INSPECTORS.)
Bv DAMON KINYON.
yORTH vomits a fearful rear, and seventv men are In. the hole.
/I Whites and blacks and a Jap or two, hut probably never a living soul
A Probably not. but there mat be one Is there a man who will go and
see?
Swinging a safety lamp h‘ comes and. God' What i man of men is he!
Overa’led. capped, and a qu'-rulem grin;
Bobbing his head as he dives in
Shoving th» weeping girls aside 'Don't let them follow me!”
Into the dismal pit he goes
Bv the light of the lamp 'hat fa’ntiv shows
Where the dead Me dead in mournful rows
God! What a man of men Is he'
Main Norths mouth breathes the breath of hen md it- guts ar-' -otted with
afterdamp.
But God and the s>ate send a man to =-e, a>-d be i -■ s looking with a safety
lamp
Death lurks there, but it hides Us face from a man. -a ho passes
Poking h’s light !u its very eyes God' Wh i’ i man of n,..„ i e '
Grease and grime *<. the roots nt His hair;
Blear-eyed, bleeding is he tests th* air
Tests the roof, and tests the walls, and note- where the dead mu -t b- ;
Over the falls of treacherous shale;
Ears sharp set for a human hail -
On he goes down th» Death wind's trail—
God! What a man a man ■ in b-'
It’s a hundred to one t-hat never a man has ’lv. .1 for a mon- nt after the
blast —
But the mine inspector’s ' on* chance man and h* follows that hanc«
from first to last.
The women pray at the mouth of th' ni» v dead file mt so mournful'- _
Down In the depths he tolls for them God' What a man of men Is he'
Listens and hopes for a human m .
Peels’of the dead as he pa.- .-- them b\ -
Feels for the tunk of a human heart -vh f -- ms stretch -ILntly.
Follows a hope howeve slim.
Maps a path through the • haos grim
For the rescue gangs that must follow him—
God! What a man a man can be!
The Atlanta Georgian
WISHES
By HAL COFFMAN.
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The Kind of a Trade for a Girl
“Womanly Occupations” Far Better Than the Mad Pursuit of a Man’s Job
A FEW days ago T wrote an ar
ticle In which I urged upon
parents the importance of
having their daughters taught
some kind of a trade or profes
sion by which they could earn a
living if it ever became necessary
for them to do so. Since the ar
ticle in question was published I
have n-cefved scores of letters from
fathers and mothers, and the young
women themselves, asking what
trade I would suggest as a good
one for a girl to study.
Naturally, this would depend a
great deal upon a young woman’s
natural aptitude. Also upon her
necessity. There are girls who are
born to write, or to act, to paint,
or sculpt, or sing or be doctors.
These, in this day of women’s op
portunity, will find their occupa
tion for themselves.
There are other girls—poor girls,
with a present necessity for earn
ing money—who must be clerks, or
trained nurses, or stenographers, or
something else that will bring them
in readv cash.
I did not refer to either of these
classes of young women when I
U’-ged parents to have their daugh
ters taught some wav to make a
living I spoke specifically of
girls belonging to well-to-do fam
ilies. who have comfortable homes
and good prospects, and no imme
diate need of becoming breadwin
ners. but who should, none the less,
be safeguarded against some future
catastrophe that may throw them
upon their own resources to sup
port themselves.
What shall this girl be taught to
do that will enable her to provide
for herself if she is ever forced
to sell her work in the labor market
of the world?
For myself. I am strongly In fa
vor of women pursuing what are
called the "womanly occupations."
I believe that women never make a
bigger mistake financially than
when they leave their own pecu
!4ar field—the work they have been
bred to for centuries, and for
which they have what Darwin calls
an inherited aptitude—to go off in
mad pursuit of some man's job for
which they were never built or
t rained
I know- there have been a few
su'. cessful lady longshoremen, car-
FRIDAY. MAY 10. 1912.
’ By DOROTHY DIN.
penters. boiler makers and steeple
jacks, but how much more success
ful these women would have been
if they had put the same grit, de
termination. intelligence and per
severance into being cooks or
dressmakers.
Women have not the excuse for
leaving their own bailiwick that It
is overcrowded Nowhere else is
there such a scarcity of labor as
in the lines of work that are pe
culiarly woman’s own. Nowhere
else is labor, grade for grade, so
well paid. Nowhere else In the
business world are there better op
portunities for making fortunes
than are open to the women who
cater to their own sex.
Therefore, I urge upon girls to
make a learned profession of
cooking, sewing and millinery if
they want to study something that
■will be an ever present help in
time of trouble as they go along
in every day life, and that will
also be a trade by which they can
support themselves if the necessity
comes upon them.
Suppose you learn to be a cook—,
not a theoretical rook, with a
smattering of how things should
be done; not. an amateur hit-or
miss cook, one of the kind that can
make fudge or chocolate icing;
but a highly efficient. ■ blue ribbon
cook that is capable of turning out
a first-class meal, and who knows
as well how to select things in a
market as a hotel steward.
If you marrj and. have a home of
your own. you can use that knowl
edge and skill to the advantage of
your family every day, and in that
way you will keen in continual
practice and add to your efficiency.
Also, if your husband dies and you
are left destitute, you will have a
trade by which you can not only
make a living, but a fortune if you
are sufficiently competent in your
work. There is no better occupa
tion In the world for a woman to
follow than that of a boarding
house keeper If she-is an expert in
her line.
Failure Them Own Fault.
Os course, you will shriek out
that you know hundreds of board
ing house keepers who fail. Yes;
and it’s invariably their own fault.
I had the misfortune to have to
live for nearly twenty years in
boarding houses. and in all 'hat
time I never struck but one woman
who understood her trade and who
went about it intelligently and hon
estly, and that woman supported a
family in luxury and retired with a
competence.
The one thing that people will
pay for is for physical comfort, and
no woman who is able to supply her
patrons with clean and comfortable
rooms, well cooked food and good
service ever failed as a boarding
house keeper. The women who are
sold out by the sheriff are the
boarding house keepers who laid on
their beds and read novels while
servants wasted and stole, of who
thought themselves so much above
their jobs that they never conde
scended to see whether their "pav
ing guests" were comfortable or
not.
Sewing is an equally good trade
for a woman to study. There is no
better weapon than a needle with
which to chase the wolf away
from the door. No woman who can
execute even a decent job of plain
sewing will ever starve. If she can
do second-class work, and make
a dress that you can wear, other
women fight over her, while if she
is capable of turning out really
good work and of constructing a
garment that you don’t have to
take back for alteration three
times, women prostrate themselves
t before her and implore her to
charge them what she will for her
services,
A woman dressmaker In this city
recently refused a salary of $30.0(10
a year to give up her own business
and become the head of the dress
making department of a big de
partment store, and every one of us
know s a dozen other dressmakers—
every dressmaker who was at all
competent—who have made for
tunes.
The moral of all of 'his is 'hat
the girl who wants to learn a trade
can do no better than, to accom
plish herself in cooking and sew
ing. the old trades of her sex. She
can ply them to advantage in her
own home, and she can make a
living with them if the occasion
arises But—and it is a capital
Bl’T -she must learn to be an ex
pert cook and housekeeper and
dressmaker. The day of the blun
dering amateur is over There is
room now for only skill and
trained intelligence.
THE HOME PAPER
Our Judiciary 7
By ELBERT HUBBARD.
(Jopyright, 1912. by-International News Service.
THERE is a popular crv just
about now for honesty in
advertising.
And the one magazine that has
most to say ab-G. honesty In pub
licity has recently wddely adver
tised a series of articles that pur
port to be an exposure of corrup
tion in our courts of law.
From the spreading headlines,
the brazen bazoo and the loud bal
lyhoo. one was led to expect a
startling condition, now for the
first time opened up to public gaze.
Any one who buys a copy of this
magazine expecting to get his
money's w orth in way of-exposure
will have good grounds for de
manding his money back
Read Spaulding on Testimony
and you will find that the value of
a depends upon
who the witness is. That is to say.
you must get his point of view in
order to know whether he sees a
wildcat or the trouble is merely a
flv on his eyebrow
The whole flavor of the article is
that of whipped out disappoint
ment. Having failed as a lawyer, the
author turns state’s evidence, hop
ing to retrieve his hazard of lost
fortunes. His mental attitude is
that of the escaped man. His arti
cle is a petition in mental bank
ruptcy.
The beliaking lawyer is no bet
ter than the beliaking business
man An employer could just as
well make an indictment against,
his workmen, giving a list of their
faults and foibles, as this lawyer
can bring an indictment against the
judiciary by combing his memorv
and imagination for the lapses of
courts.
Ex-parte post-mortems on law
suits should be left to the fledglings
in every big law office—these boys
that get around in the morning,
and while they are dusting the fur
niture, try the cases of the great
men who show up at 10 o’clock. •
Every village railroad station,
grocery and blacksmith shop has
this contingent that sits in judg
ment on the action of Its betters.
Emerson speaks of the inmates of
alms houses who sit in the sun and
Women’s Clubs No Longer
a Joke
By ADA PATTERSON.
WHOEVER attends a conven
tion of women’s clubs may
go there to jest, but re
mains to wonder and admire The
conviction overwhelms him that
the woman’s club has ceased to be
a joke. It has passed forever out
of the stage of fads.
Four hundred and eight women,
representing "O.nno clubs in the city
of New York met recently to jnite
their influence for measure for pub
lic good. Nobody read a passage
from Browning and guessed the
riddle of obscurity. Instead, they
talked of practical measures to
prevent a recurrence of the disas
ter off Cape Race Not a word was
spoken about fashion, but every one
was keenly Interested in what
would become of families of pris
oners. who in the ordinary course
of events would go to the alms
house. The women at the meeting
helped to devise a system where
by prisoners may work overtime
and the profits be applied to the
support of the prisoner’s families.
The convention of the Federation
of Women’s Clubs proved that
women have grown, and that, as
Mrs. John Hays Hammond well
phrased it. "Women’s clubs are th“
greatest engines of their advance
ment.”
The faults of the sex are being
fast overcome. We have been
charged—and with some reason,
too —with being rather nebulous of
ideas and lacking decision Yet
the women of the convention talk
ed as straight to the point as the
bullet speeds toward its target and
the presiding officer said “No” to
the member who was out of order
with officer-like precision and. with
one possible exception, the soldiers
obeyed in the same manner.
Women have been inclined to
childish sensitiveness and to impa
tient intolerance of the opinions of
others. But these club-schooled
women gave every evidence of sup
pression of the ego. They did not
seem to consider themselves nor the
women who sat on their right or
left. Measures were everything;
personalities "nothing
We have heard that club life
takes women away frcai their
homes. Yet every measure sug
gested that bore upon the home
held their keenest interest.
A speaker appealed to the “ten
derness of their hearts,” but laid
stress upon the “soundness of their
minds." the direction of their need
ed growth. Women have always
had. will always have, tender
hearts. Trained mental faculties
are what they need, and this is
what club life is helping them to
secure. It was noticeable that they
were less touched by appeals to
sentiment than by that which is of
stronger, deeper root —their sense
of justice.
Women have been accused of be
ing natural snobs Yet in their
seats of honor, grouped about the
gravely discuss the president's isoi*.
icy.
This lawyer-author seems to be g
has-been or a never-was.
If lawyers were debarred from
heaven, this man would probably
find no trouble in getting in and
keeping his seat.
His whole line of argument is re
vealed in this statement: "There la
widespread growing distrust among
business men o? our courts which
manifests itself 1n a tendency to ar
bitrate. compromise and keep out
of court at any cost."
That wise business men keep out
of court when they can is true. But
they keep o.ut not -because modern
judges are corrupt, btu because
litigation is non-productive. It dis
turbs and breaks in on one’s peace
of mind so that compromise, with a
known loss, is very much better
than litigation with its uncertain
ties.
f believe the quality and caliber
of our judges are higher today than
ever before in history, and any
judge, anywhere, will advise busi
ness men to settle their own dis
putes.
The business of a good lawyer
now- is to keep his client out of
court. >
Judges are men, and as such they
are liable to mistakes and errors.
As we get better business men, we
get better lawyers and judges. In
deed, it often happens that com
monplace men lifted to a judgeship
are inspired mentally and spiritual
ly and placed on their good beha
vior as never before. They are more
sober, more discreet, more judicial
in all of their actions. The posi
tion of a judge makes him supe
rior In character to either lawyers
or clients. Lawyers may be for
sale, but this man is not.
The success of a judge does not
consist in catering to this party or
that, but in interpreting public
opinion wisely and well, and In
bringing common sense to bear in
his decisions.
This popular magazine that has '
endeavored to boom circulation by ■
making an attack on our courts all
along the line has overshot the
mark.
brilliant chairman, were women
who stood for their own, not their
husbands’, achievements
Millionaires’ wives sat in the
body of the house, but women who
work tn shops and factories, with
and for the laborers, were on the
platform.
The chief frivolity of our sex is
caprice In clothes. Yet this con
vention was no fashion display.
Neither was frumpery in the fore
ground. The women were well
enough dressed, never overdressed,
and their habit of individual
thought was shown in the fact that
most of them apparently had not
determined the season A few were
in floral May array. Most of them
cautiously wore thick, wintry look
ing frocks.
We have heard that women will
vote for the handsomest man Yet
an unusually handsome man ad
dressed them in apologv for bad
Street railway service and was
frigidly received.
The strongest Impression this
bcdv of women made is that they
are nearly al! of mature years.
Their faces are stamped with ex
perience and thoughtfulness. Gray
hair balanced brown, if it. did not
predominate. Because of this, what
they said was worth hearing, and
what they are doing is worthy of
respectful consideration.
In May
By PERCY SHAW.
UTHEN you’re brother to a feeling
' Most Insidiously stealing
Full of subtle lure appealing
That whispers, “Come away;’*
You can know without digression
That it is no strange obsession,
But a voice from the procession
That sings the charms of May
Can’t you see the blue bells swinging’
Can’' vou picture white clouds wing
ing?
Can’t you hear the sheep bells ringing
Where the small lamb childree
play?
Don’t you long wrth pole and tackle
The bewitching hours to shackle
To the chirp of thrush and grackle
In this tempting month of May?
Does yotir work begin in r-orc you’
Do the figures oiur oefore you ;•
Do the simplest, problems Poor you
As you watch the passing day?
Rest in. peace, your mind’s not failing,
Nor your strength of body ailing;
What you fee! Is just the nantr.a
Os the new -born joys of May.
Take your chance and run to meet her
Sing her praises as you greet her
Every sense will be completer
As you walk the trodden way.
You will hear her song with pleasure,
You will revel in each measure.
You win share the boundless treasure
Os the happy month of May.