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EDITORIAL PAGE
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Fubhshe<? Every Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East Alabama St, Atlanta, Gb
lettered second-class matter at postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March 3, 1879.
Absurdity of Half-Cerit
Piece in Coinage
The vote id the house of representatives for the coinage of one
half rent pieces will strike the tier 4 ght fill public as puerile and
antiquated
It is in response to no demand and is to meet no situation. It
is the least intelligent piece of legislation that the house has passed.
It is simply the return of a progressive, modern nation to the
ridiculous basis of Chinese currency.
C hinamen carrv pounds ot copper pieces with a hole in the
center, and when they go out to buy five cents worth of rats they
hand the seller a long, heavy string of copper coins in payment.
Is that what the American congress would bring us tn in this«
age and country?
Is our progress in currency reform tn he measured by a return
to a system which prevails only in China or Egypt or among the
beggars of the Orient ?
Surely the house must have been napping or without thought
-ehcd such a foolish piece of legislation got through
AH modern nations have grown out of rather than toward
fhp attenuated division of coinage The centime is banished from
France and the farthing from England, and the centessime from
Italy. The smallest coin in France is the sou. which is five centimes,
and the smallest in modern England is the ha penny, which is
on® cent
Why should America go backward when all other progressive
nations are going forward?
What a spectacle the average future American will make with’
hi« pockets bulging with copper and haggling with tradesmen over
th® matter of one half of a copper cent !
And what an absurdity to suppose that such a farce in coinage
could reduce the high cost of living' Would it make things any
cheaper that a man has to pay for the minting of two pieces of
copper instead of one?
The copper penny as it is. is an abomination to the American
pocket, but to double the number of copper pieces in the small
shopper's purse is simply a slap in the face of financial civilization.
Such legislation as this would have been an excellent diversion
on some first day of April, but it is worse than a waste of time in
serious assemblies.
We trust the deliberate senate will promptly sit down upon
the house folly.
An Indefensible Breach of
Contract
N> V R
(Editorial in Today's Constitution )
Notwithstanding the walk out of the union pressmen of The
Atlanta Georgian last Saturday, that paper has suffered little or
no inconvenience. It is now issuing regularly, on time and with
practically the normal complement of news and features.
Rut the pressmen's union hasjtself sustained a severe blow
as an organization that may be depended upon to live up to its
solemn contractual obligations Its individual members, having
violated a binding agreement absolutely without cause or shadow
of justification, find themselves regarded everywhere as men
whose contractual obligation must always be- regarded with
suspicion.
In Chicago, even, where the disagreement originated, there
was no just ground for the action that temporarily embarrassed
all the papers of that city. The details have already been told,
and they must sadden eyery Atlantan who sympathizes with the
more exalted phases of union labor and its mission In Atlanta
the walkout was. and is. wholly indefensible. Ihe pressmen
themselves admit that they had. and have now. no cause for
complaint against The Georgian. They have been well and
promptly paid, the questions of wages and hours, were never in
dispute and. above all. they were, collectively a.nd severally,
bound by a written legal document to fh.e discharge ot certain
specified duties. Out of mistaken sympathy for men who have
themselves set aside a contract of their own making. The Geor
gian pressmen elected to break also their contract and abandon
a charge to which they were sworn at a moment no less inop
portune to the public than to the publishers.
Their course is shown the more regrettable by the fact that
only in two other cities- Chicago itself and San Francisco has
their action been confirmed by their confreres. In other cities
and even upon the alleged offending Hearst newspapers, the
pressmen righteously regarded a legal and deliberate contract hi
preference to breaking it in obedience to ill advised orders issued
as a palpable attempt at unfair intimidation In this connection,
it is refreshing to note the upright and conservative loyalty to con
tract of the powerful typographical union, which refused by a
heavy vote in Ch.icago and elsewhere to upset tficir pledged word
and join in a sympathetic strj'ke
Tn any business, in any cause, at any time, and unless abro
gated by bad faith on the side of either party, obedience to a writ
ten contract is the first and indispensable principle in success and
the maintenance of self-respect. Wantonly disregarding this law,
the pressmen on The Georgian have brought disrepute upon
their order, and alienated the sympathy of th.- overwhelming
majority of law-abiding and pledge-keeping union men m this
country.
The Atlanta Georgian
A DYING GRIP
By HAL COFFMAN.
Sfi SKSfil 8
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DOROTHY DIX WRITES
OF
Fhe Child as the Unanswerable Argument Against Divorce
fTXHE one unanswerable argu-
| ment against divorce is the
child.
We may say that each of us has
a right to his or her own happi
ness. We may say that an un
worthy husband or wife forfeits
whatever claim they have upon us.
We may say that when we make a
mistake in marriage there Is no
more reason w'e should be bound
forever tn It. than there Is why we
should continue to be the victims
of any other'error <>f judgment.
We may say that to be forced to
live with a husband or wife whom
we hate, and who brings nut all
that Is worst in our natures. Is de
moralizing to our characters—that
ft condemns us to live tn an atroo®
phere in which all that is beautiful
and Ideal in life withers and dies
as if blown upon bv the blast of a
simoon
This is true. There is no other
siii'li -blighting influence in the
world as discord However pa
tiently borne, it turns the very soul
into an arid desert, and nobody can
blame the individual who seeks to
escape from this deatb-tn-life.
Children Must Always Be
Considered First.
There Is no answer to the conten
tion that we have a right to save
ourselves from the purgatory of an
unhappy marriage except tlie wall
of a child, weeping over the wreck
of its borne That is nature’s re
lentless reply to the sophistries of
philosophy. That Is duty’s stern
call to us to stand at our posts,
whatever the cost in suffering, and
fulfill the obligations we have taken
upon ourselves. When w e have chil
dren we have given hostages to
fortune and are no longer free to
seek our ow n happiness. It l« they
who are to be considered first
The childless may be divorced if
it seems best to them, but abn\e
the noise of warring couples with
children comes the cry of the help
less little ones who are left father
less or motherless in the breaking
un of a home.
Listen to this pathetic, curious,
unchildish letter that comes to me
TUESDAY. MAY 14. 1912.
Bv DOROTHY DIN.
»■
from a little girl. She writes in a
little, round, schoolgirl handwrit
ing:
Pathetic Letter of a Girl
Whose Home Is Threatened.
"Dear Miss Dix -I am thirteen
years old and 1 read all your ar
ticles. Now. I want you to toll me
what you think of my case. My
home is about to be broken up by a
woman. Os course.- she is younger
than my mother, but not any bet
ter looking nor one-half so good.
Tell me. please, is that the way the
world is going? Are there no more
happy homes? My brothers and
sisters and I have made up our
minds that we will never get mar
ried No one could have been more
devoted than my mother has been.
She has been a slave to us all. and
this is what she gets. Please an
swer me soon What do you think
of :i thief who robs little children
us their father"
Poor little girl who at thirteen
lias seen al! of the gold rubbed off
of < upld's wings, and who has wit
nessed so many family spats that
she has resolved never to get mar
ried! Poor little girl, who at thir
teen. judges between mother and
father and .contemptuously con
demns father! Poor little girl,
whose childhood has been darken
ed bv the sad and sordid knowl
edge of the world, who discusses
affinities and broken homes with
her baby sisters and brothers, and
who bears on her little shoulders
the burden of her parents’ weak?
ness and sin' <
Doesn i the mere thought of h°r
• bring stinging tears to your eyes?
And don’t you fee! that nothing can
justify the parents in the way they
are doing? Is it not the plain
dutv of tliat father and mother to
keep a home together for their
children and to make their children
happy , and give them the chance in
life that only children have who are
brought up in the environment of
decent family life?
Compared to the welfare of these
little ones what is the lure of some
other woman to the man? How
small a matter even the wife s Jeal
ousy and righteous indignation*
The real victims of divorce are.
the children, not alone because they
are made half orphans and home
less by it, but because it destroys
their faith in all that is good and
true. How can you teach purity to
a girl .whose mother has the slime
of the divorce courts on her gar
ments? How can you teach honor
to the boy who knows of his fath
er’s. dishonor? How.can you teach
steadfastness to duty to children
who have seen their parents turn
cowardly’ away from a hard situa
tion? How can the weak breed
strength into she little ones?
Os course it will bp said that
when a father and mother can not
agree, and life is perpetual discord
with each other, the children are
better off with either one than with
both; that no home at all is better
than a home divided against Itself.
To this argument one can only
say that parents have no- right to
make such a home. No matter
how deep they may feel, in their
own breasts that they have gotten
the wrong life partners, and that
some other man and woman are
the leal mates, they are bound by
every law of decency to hide this
from their children, and to keep
the doors of their skeleton cioset
fast locked against •inquisitive’lit
tie eyes. To be tempted is the
lot of all. To yl'eld to temptation
Is the act of the craven
Duty of Parents to Protect
Children From Themselves.
It is the paramount dutv of pa
rents to protect their children even
from themselves, and for fathers
and mothers to drag their children
IritoTheir squabbles is a~. bad as if
they threw the helpless little crea
tures into the midst of a battle
w here they w ould be trampled upon
and mangled For a father and
mother to let their children become
cognizant of their amours is worse
than taking them into a leprosy
camp it defiles the little minds
bey ond the power of cleansing
As for the woman who would
lend herself to the breaking up of
a home in which there are children,
the curse of God is upon her Truly
ft were better for her that she
should tie a millstone about her
neck and cast herself into the sea.
than that she should offend one of
these Uttle ones.
THE HOME PAPER
Dr. Parkhurst’s Article
on zggsjjfc
The Audacity of Prof. Kf®
Arthur Drews
... a n(U-- It
How Severity Is Some-
times a Kindness
Written For The Georgian
By the Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst
ON entering, some years ago.
the city of Stratford-on-
Avon, the birthplace of
Shakespeare, almost the first object
that arrested my attention was a
volume exposed in a shop window
and bearing the title. ''Bacon Was
the Author of Shakespeare."
Although there are five points in
the life of the dramatist, stated, by
so good an authority as Tennyson,
to be absolutely trustworthy his
torically. yet there is a east of mind
that finds a peculiar and cranky
ilnd of delight in arraying itself
against the combined and estab
lished opinions of the age and in
discrediting conclusions that have
been long and confidently cherished
by men who have been most con
servative and judicious in their
proccesses of judgment.
Since the time when, according to
the Bible story. Adam presumed to
raise a query as to whether It was,
after all. obligatory upon him to
obey the command of the Lord,
there have never been wanting peo
ple who. either out of conceit or out
of distrust of human intelligence
and belief that eve.-y mind but their
own was a lying mind, have taken
absurd and mischievous comfort in
wantonly seeking to cut the ground
out from under convictions that
have been impregnably established
in the general mind and that have
borne the test and secured the in
dorsement of many long and
thoughtful centuries.
Professor Who Tries to Prove
Jesus Did Not Exist.
A late example of this is afforded
bv the recently published work of
\rthur Drews, professor of theolo
gy in the technical Hochschule at
Karlsruhe. Germany, who, in a vol
ume of 300 pages, sets himself to
what Is to him. evidently, the very
congenial task of proving that there
has never been such a person as
Jesus Christ.
Now, there is a kind of impudent
audacity in the undertaking that is
almost fitted to fascinate us by its
immensity.
Commonplace presumption we
simply resent with quiet contempt,
but arrogance that is so colossal
and cyclopean as that of the pro
fessor is staggering by the very
fact of its monstrous proportions.
To stand up serenely in the face
of twenty centuries of Christian in
telligence. Christian scholarship
and Christian experience and to
challenge that whole mass of wind
as being the collective dupe of a
bodiless idea and a silly delusion
Involves on the part of our author
a degree of intellectual immodesty
and impertinence that should se
cure for him the title of psycho
logical freak rather than that of
theological professor.
That a building as vast in its
proportions and as immense in its
pressure as Christianity can stand
the tempests and the quaking of
twenty centuries is all the proof
that a reasonable man either needs
or wants to persuade him that un
derneath there Is foundation com
mensurate in breadth and solidity
with the structure that it upholds.
* ♦ »
Severity Is Often Necessary,
to Maintain Dignity.
ANY person possessed of a gen
erous and sympathetic spirit
shrinks from the exercise of
severity, and yet severity is very
often necessary in order to main
tain the dignity of authority, and
not only that, but is quite likely
to prove, in th» long run. the finest ■
form of mercy.
That is the fact in the case of a
father dealing with his child.
The time is almost certain to
come when the young boy. realiz
ing that he has a will of his own.
sets it in opposition to his. fath
er's w ill
Now. Ihere are two parental pol
icies that under such circumstan' es
can be pursued.
The child can be coaxed into
obey ing, and perhaps have some
privilege allowed him in return
for obedience.
Or the father can then and there
settle the question for al! time as
to which of the two to be .mas
ter—a result that is never reached
by lollypop or any processes of
barter.
A conflict to be decisive may
wring the heart of the father and
be full of cost to the body of the
child, but when it is once done it is
done for always, and one thorough
whipping may save the path inci
dent to a hundred half-way whip
pings
The current polley of affixing
small fines to the violation of cer
tain statutes Is another case Where
the'desire to be merciful results
in ten times the hardship that
would result from the resolution to
be severe.
A part of this is the fault of the
laws, and a part of it chargeable
to the uncalculating sentimentali
ty of the magistrates.
Dealing out petty fines both im
pairs the dignity of the law* and
tempts to its violation.
Automobiles have, during the
past two years, been driven in such
away in New York as to result in
263 deaths.
Petty Sentence for Speeding
Causes Death to Innocent.
Now undoubtedly so far as those
deaths have been the result of care
less driving, at least a half, if not
three-quarters, of such mortality
« ould have been avoided if the first
violations of auto statutes had been
dealt with in a manner propor
tioned to the enormity of the crime.
As a rule, people who can afford
to own an automobile have so much
money as to care no more for a
fine of ten dollars than a rhinoearos
cares for a pin-prick.
The pettiness of the sentence en
courage? speeding, so that judicial
sympathy with the criminal is the
author of death to the innocent.
This "slaughter of tlje innocents”
would have a stop very promptly
put to it if a scale of fines ade
quate to the criminality of the of
fense were established legislatively,
and if our magistrates would agree
to put their warm sympathies in
cold storage and deal with offenses
with a severity commensurate with
the seriousness 6f the offense arid
the just demands of the general
public.
Safe Hits
A girl thinks' a young' man who
spends his money freely is the whole
thing - but if she marries him and finds
he has spent it all she changes her
mind. - ’ •
Once in a while a woman buys some
thing at a bargain sale, only to dis
cover after she gets home that it was
just what she wanted.
When a man begins by saying, “Os
course, it is none of my business"—you
may as well stand aside and let him
butt in.
Perhaps the time may come 'when a
vast army will strike in the midst of a
great battle for more pay and shorter
hours.
A man's w ife is always willing to
agree with him—when he declares he
has the best wife in the wbrld.
It's usually much easier for a man's
fool friends to get the best of him than
it is for his enemies.
It takes a woman th tell other women
how she trusts her husband, just as if
she really did.
If a book bores you it's an easy mat
ter to 'hut it up—but it's different with
a human bore.
Instead of laughing at the mistakes
of others, try to profit by your own.
A man always has well trained chil
dren—if his wife attends to it.
We are al] entitled to something in
this world, if it's only a lemon.
You may have noticed that a kickel
is usually headstrong also
His satanic fiiajesty-tores to fish in
troubled waters.