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EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday £, Till; GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta. Ga Entered a? second-class matter at post office at Atlanta, under act of March 3. 1873. How Long Will Atlanta Continue to Dally With Death? The finance committee of council promises t<> take final action this afternoon on the question of garbage disposal. The Georgian ventures to breathe the hope that there will be action and that it will he final. The matter is one of vital importance not merely of great im portance, but VITAL importance for it concerns life and death. It has been a VITAL quest .on for three years. Ami for three years has been dodped am! postponed and considered and reconsidered and referred and re referred until it has become a ghastly joke. The phase of the <pies’.o*i which has recently been the cause of wrangling ami delay is \> hetlmr or not the city shall accept the bid of the Destriteto Company, of Xew York', to erect a crematory in accordance with the plans amt specifications unanimously fa vored by the board of health and recommended by Dr. Rudolph Hering, the sanitation expert employed by the city to devise a garbage disposal scheme. This company offers to erect and equip a plant for the sum of It).(Hitt. The finance committee of c.oui eil has held up action for weeks in the hope (l s securing a cheaper plant which shall be more or less satisfactory. The finance committee s wef meaning interest m economy has broken out in the wrong place. Tin Georgian believes. The finance committee has no special knowledge of modern sanitary methods, ami therefore has mi fitness to reject the garbage disposal plans which have been decided on by unanimous recom mendation of the board of health and of the city’s employed ex pert . The one duty the finance committee has had has been to at tend to the business details of closing .in the most expeditious and economical manner possible, the contract for erecting such a dis posal plant as the board of health and the city's expert have rec ommended. This duty it has not yet met squarely. Immediate action is what the city needs. ' Atlanta has been dallying with death long enough. Woman Suffrage-—and a Few Silly Falsehoods Buried r r r All Women Will Vote Soon—And an Excellent Thing It Will Be for the Country and for the Human Race Generally. When the steam locomotive, pulling cars on rails, first came be fore ’he public, sad things were predicted. Well-informed “scientists ” declared that human beings would be killed if they were draggd along for any length of time at such a frightful speed as twenty miles an hour. We know now that they can go one hundred miles an hour - and without danger. It was also said that spectators along the tracks when the train went, by would be killed by the fright fid rush of air. ami that it would be necessary to build high stone fences along the railroad. All that foolishness disappeared as soon as the railroad really began to WORK. When the sewing machine was invented, it was said that wom en would be put out of work that where a hundred women made a living with the needle, there would be work enough for only ten with the sewing machine. The fust man who invented the sewing machine was persuaded by his wife to break up the model in order not to ruin the poor women. But with the sewing machine there are more women employed at sewing than ever before ten to one. When the spinning jenny came along, and Arkwright, the in ventor, added thousands of millions to the wealth of the world and clothed the population of the world, fools declared that work ingmen would lie ruined and deprived ot labor. It was necessary to do the work inside of fortified factories to prevent ignorant work ingmen from destroying the machinery Now. where one man was employed more than ten are employ ed. and the wages are much higher. This byway of preface to the things that idiotic opponents of woman suffrage have been saying about the woman’s vote. We were told first that women would vote in a sentimental, foolish way: that they would be controlled by fancies, not by com mon sense. We find, now that women actually AKE voting, that they vote very much as the men do. except more conscientiously and more thought fully. They vole just about as men do. sanely, honestly. It was said that after women got the ballot THIA \\ (>1 LD NOT USE IT. The prediction was made that women wouldn't lake the trouble to vote. But now women ARE voting And we find that in California, for instance, in proportion to their numbers, more women than men went to the polls. In other words, out of one hundred women and one hundred men th« percentage of women sufficiently interested tx> rote was greater than th* percentage of men. It was mournfully predicted also that attendance at the polls wcu’d be very degrading to the women. It was said that rowdies ami roughs, and the flower of rotten political organizations, would insult Hu women, and that m re spectable woman could go to the polls in safety But now women ARE voting, and we lind that ihetr at ndance at the polls improves the tone of the voting place. The fact is that women going to tin* polls are treateel cour teously by the voters, even by the attendants, usually representing a pretty low class of political heelers And instead of women being degraded by voting, lhe voting place and the voting privilege are elevated and made better by tin presence of women. Women are all going to vole. And when they all vote, those UH r . . . ■ '—* The Atlanta Georgian THURSDAY. MAY 23, 1912. THE DEMON OF WAR ~ —— \ ■-5 ■ M * Y \ ... g| Isjß Ar W -w | (’opyrighted by F ranz Hanfstat ngi. AS HE RIDES OVER THE BATTLEFIELD HE RIDES IN THE HUMAN HEART. (One of a series of famous paintings by' Franz von Sruck that appear in the Cosmopolitan Magazine for .lune from which this picture is', by' permission, reproduced.) \ By GARRETT P. SERVISS. T T TITH the permission of the \ \ ('osmopolitan Magazine, there is reproduced above from its June number, one of the remarkable paintings with which tlie great German artist, FTanz von Stuck, makes the world shudder at its own reflection. This picture is called "War.” Over the a« ful»“l'ioody angle” of some field where men. muck in the image of God, have appealed to the dreadful arbitrament of the sword, rides a personifii-ation of th* spirit of murder, astride upon a beast which is half horse, half portent and trampling down lhe broken bodies anil limbs of the fallen. Erect, square-jawed, with deep, merciless eyes, and out-thrust, un pltying face, with muscles tense and lance upon shoulder, the rider moves straight onward, untroubled by the agonies of that field of slaughter, but gazing forward, with tierce eagerness, to some other Aceldama, which his prophetic vi sion foresees. Beast and rider are one. In them the artist lias embodied all the great war-makers of all times- —Cy- rus. ('anibyses. Alexander. Hanni bal, Scipio, Marius. Sulla. Caesar, i:.'isarim. Attila. Charlemagne, Tamerlane. Napoleon- and that dread held of nameless torture is a summation, a collective glimpse, an integral of Vlaratlion, Thermopylae. Arbela. Cannae. Zami, Cynoseep li.ilac. Alesia, i’hatsalia. Philippi, ('halons, Crecy, l.utzen. Blenheim. Naseby, Pultowa. Knnerdorf. Aus ’erltlz. Jensa t-’i iedland. Waterloo, Gettysburg. Sedan. All their "glory" i- summed up there! D<>es the pride of race thrill you as you look upon it ? It is no exaggeration of the hor rors of war. Every soldier knows 'hat it is a faithful picture. It shows what General Stu rman meant when he declared tha: "VV All IS HELL." This pointing tells the story of ni’iia y yi-.irv as nq words could 1' brings out elements that can not | in- di-eril>ed in speech or writing It is PP'ri'HE GOSPEL OF PEACE, which slumld be held be fore the <v es of every ruler and 'every people who arc tempted to mvok, war to settle their difler enc' r WAR IS THE GREAT OECEiV EK The w huh world shudders at it when it is thus disclosed in its i• c n i a,'ter but w ill the s son be '..ire'' I’n fort tin 11 el y not it, mi;- day ’ Evniybody knows that it wiU be thrown aside and toi'Koi.- ten the very next time —and that time may be very near - that is heard the spirit-stirring drum, the screaming life, the thrilling call of tlie bugle and the thunder of guns going into action It will fide away in the blinding flash of the bayonets, the flutter of the red battle flags and the glitter of the epaulettes, casques and flashing swords. Was there ever such an other deceptive demon hidden in concealing flowers as this monster WAR? But consider the picture closely, ponder upon it. and you will per ceive that it Is not merely a battle field w hich is represented. It is the inmost recess of tlie human heart • w lien maddened by the lust of blood that i- there displayed. That dread mount trample 6n in every soul where reason and mercy have made place for the "fighting spirit”—the spirit which said in South Africa, when greed of gain and of rule rode down a peaceful people: "Waste no time in listening, but EIGHT:” which says today in stricken Mex ico, when rival ambitions and dis cordant ideas come into conflict: "No argument! No words! Away with logic! KILL! SLAY!” The spirit of war will nevei be The Dictagraph By MINNA IRVING. UTE dare not have a quiet game (»f qjoker on the sly. We dare not kiss a pretty girl Winn not a soul is n’gli. We dare not talk about our friends. Or tell a joke, or laugh, Because it may be lurking near—’ The tattling dictagraph. No larks behind Hie teachers back Nor mischief in the school, Nor gos-ip at the sewing club. Where gossip is the rule, Eor any place though it may be Not big enough by half. To hide a mouse, may yet conceal The truthfuffdietagraph. y l When night lets fall Its starry veil. And we retire to bed. No more beneath it no we search l-’o burglars grim and dread. But in a fuller measure yet Tile cup of fear we quaff: We look behind the picture frames To find a dictagraph. I d like to speak my mind about The man who first conceived This conscience in a collar box. This spy that has me peeved. I'd like to meet him in the dark j And have an oaken staff. I'd like but hush! it may be near, ! The tell-tale dictacrajju. subdued until it has first been over come in the individual minds of men. I saw it flaming up but the other day in a city street, in the shadow of a great public school. Iwo fair-faced boys, just from their books, were disputing. Their elders and GROWN MEN gather ed about them —to separate them? To advise them to reason over their difference? NO! TO URGE THEM l<> EIGHT IT OCT. Men did that! Men. some of whom had children of their own. They formed a ring. They cheered on the fight. They laughed when blood was brought. And the two boys, mere infants, rolled in the gutter, striking, bit ing. tearing at each other with demoniac faces, until, exhausted, they rose, with bleeding cheeks and ruined garments, to go jjome in shame and tears to their waiting mothers. Some day, per haps as a result of that experience, they will go to a broader and blood ier field, never to conle back. In the hearts of those men urging on the battle of the innocents the ugly figure of the painting on his nameless beast was trampling over the slain and the dying! They were doing their best to breed new vic tims for war by encouraging the spirit of fighting instead of the spirit of peace and of reason. It is education that accorpplishes all things in this world, but educa tion works with disheartening de liberation. The race has struggled painfully upward during countless centuries, and still the grip of the war demon is strong upon its neck. We preach peace, but the hunter of blood rides steadily on—first in our hearts, then over the field of .slaughter. We talk of the pacifying influence of preparedness for war. and we are right. The age still demands that preparation. But we must not lose sight of the treacherous nature of that with which we are dealing. It is a poison which only the greatest skill and caution can safely handle. The necessity for Its use must be / slowly. Wisely eliminated. We cant not yet dismiss the demon, but we ■ an minify his influence by strip ping him of his deceptions. We can teach our children and our chil dren's ehilrren tlie true horror, the ABSOLUTE STUPIDITY of war and fighting. We can exorcise the demon, IE WE WILL. In the mean while. this great, terrible painting of Stuck s will be for all w ho study it a LESSON OF PEACE and a herald of th" wished-for time "when tiie nations shall learn war war no more " • I'HE HOME PAPER The Annual Tragedy There is something else to talk about except politics. The J a * e oold , snap reported to have seriously damaged the Georgia peach crop Darien Gazette. By HOMER KNOTT. THE melancholy days have come, The saddest of the year. The annual slaughter now is on— Dear friends, let’s drop a tear! The good old peach crop, once again Must be laid in its grave. Oh. kick it firmly in the slats; No one its life may save! For years and years, it’s been this way—- Each spring We kill the crop. For years and years it will'go on— Naught can its fate estop. Though some things live for centuries, And some things die—well, never! The good old springtime peach crop dies Forever and forever! NEVERTHELESS— Gentle reader, lift your eyes, And these sage words remember: Peach crops that die in budding spring Come back in sweet September! The Eternal Longing By BEATRICE FAIRFAX. ll' is quite the fashion of late to say that the life of the spinster is happier than that of the wife. There is almost a revolution on the question of marrying. Some generations ago it was said of a gfrl-thild: "When she marries.” It is now said: "If she marries,” and it Is quite the thing in circles re garded as progressive to imply a doubt that she will, and a hope that she won't. But all this agitation, this new way of thinking, can never change the fashion ordained when the world began. And that fashion was to love, to marry, to bear children and to have a home. It is the eternal longing in every heart that is truly feminine. And because it is the eternal longing, and a desire planted there by na ture, and which no new order of thinking can entirely uproot. 1 ask sympathy for the girl who writes me the following appeal: "I am twenty years of age. and very, very discouraged. 1 live in the heart of the East Side, where none but foreigners abide. I am perfectly Americanized, having re ceived a good education, and I now hold a very good position But I have very little chance of meeting nice young men to my liking. Most of those with whom I come in con tact are foreigners who are none too refined, and it appears that 1 am destined to be an old maid, which I very much dread, as my one aim in life is a home of my own, with everything that goes with it in the way of blessings. What am I to do? “DISCOURAGED BUSINESS GIRL." I can hear in fancy the voices of those who advocate tlie new order of things saying in very strident tones. “You" can thank heaven you are free, and have no man to tyran nize over you!” Doesn’t Want To Be Free. But the girl doesn't want to he free! She is free now. to come and go as she pleases. She is free to spend her money without quibble or question She is free to her own opinions. She is free to dress as she desires, with'out disturbing thoughts of the money being need ed for flour or bacon. She is free to indulge her longings for the beautiful without hampering mem ories of the needed prosaic. She is free for all these joys, and more. But she doesn't enjoy her freedom. Woman Suffrage—and a Few Silly Falsehoods Buried Continued From First Column. that are in office WILL BE COMPELLED TO THINK OE WOM EN AND THEIR NEEDS AND THEIR OPINIONS. Those in office will realize that woman’s first thought is of the children, and the children will fare better. Women will destroy the vice in the great cities as rapidly as that can be done. Women, for the sake of children, will fight child labor and kilt 11. Women, for the sake of children, will improve the parks. crease the playgrounds, see that the streets are clean—and poli ticians. knowing that these are the things that women demand, WILL GIVE THEM EAGERLY. Do what you can to hurry along votes for women. Tell the woman who opposes female suffrage that she is simply like the very dullest among the negro slaves before the war—thev didn’t want liberty, they wanted to stay and be treated kindly by “old Massa.” Tell the men who oppose woman suffrage that they are to bit pitied—the class of women with whom they have associated have evidently been of a rather poor kind. 1 She prefers the obligations of a home. She would be happier know ing she must be home at 5 to get dinner for a husband than posses sing the income and the time to go where she pleases and eat in a res taurant when it suits her. tjihe longs for the joy found only in sacrifice and obligation. She Is the kind of a woman who is hap pier in serving and loving a hus band than in going through life with less cares and more freedom without one. To “Discouraged Business Girl,’* therefore. 1 would NOT say: “Tut, tut. child, you don’t know -when you are well off. Put thoughtl of men out of your mind and de something for the world!” I would not say that to the girl She is lonesome now. How much more lonesome she would be if she started out with this longing in het heart for a little nest of her owr crushed by the newer fashionef ambition to save the world! What She Should Do. 1 would counsel her to keep he; ideal, her hope, her ambition ant never let the newer fashiojji change it. I would suggest that she becomt interested in some church or so cial organization on the West Side, where she would meet young men of her own nationality. I would urge that she guard her ideal sacredly, and that until the man who fits it comes along she re fuse to take any. And I would ask her to know that if the prince of her dream* never materializes, being an old maid isn’t such a terrible fate. There are happy old maids: there are useful old maids, and there are old maids who have built for them selves happy homes, without any man to help or hinder. I would ask her to remember that, while she wishes "a home and all the blessings that go with it,” one should know all are not bless ings. One who becomes a wife must know that it isn’t to be all sunshine I would ask “Discouraged Business Girl” to remember that. And. at the last, I would urg» her always to bear in mind that happiness is independent of the marriage ring. That little gold band doesn’t secure It. and neither does it keep it out. If a woman is happy, useful and content; if her life is made up of more than moans because she can’t change her condition, depends sole ly upon HERSELF. It does not de pend upon having a husband.