Newspaper Page Text
EDITOR IAL PAGE
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
r’ublished Every Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At SO East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga.
Entered as second-class matter at postoffiie at Atlanta, under act of March 3. 1873.
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week By mail. I" 00 a year
Payable in advance.
j ~
■ Under a New Congo Rule
Only MEN Are Flogged
But in This Country, Parents That Are Savages, Still Flog and
Frighten Little Children.
■Road an announeement of reforms in iho Congo. Sir Ed
ward Grav. the British Foreign Minister, issues the following
interesting piece of news regarding the punishment of natives:
“FLOGGING IS LIMITED TO TWELVE STROKES. OLD
MEN. THE SICK WOMEN AND CHILDREN BEING EN
TIRELY EXEMPTED, AND IF FAINTING OR THE AP
PEARANCE OF A WOUND SUPERVENES AS A RESULT.
THE APPLICATION OF FURTHER PUNISHMENT IS FOR
BIDDEN.”
In these civilized days, with flogging forbidden in the navy
and in the prisons, it seems shocking to read of Congo negroes
flogged. Even limiting the whipping to twelve strokes and
ceasing punishment if the beaten man faints wound ap
pears does not mitigate the horror of it.
Almost every man and woman reading the paragraph
about “milder punishment” in the Congo is horrified Io think
THAT THERE SHOULD BE ANY FLOGGING AT ALL.
But among those that are horrified at the idea of flogging
full grown Congo natives, there arc unfortunately not a low
parents brutal and ignorant enough TO WHIP THEIR OWN
CHILDREN.
A full grown Congo native with a tough skin, a tough
body, and a more or less toughened nervous system is pitied
when he stands up, helpless, and receives the blows that fall
upon his back.
What about the delicate, nervous children, feeble in body,
suffering the intense agony of fear, whipped by the fathers
and mothers one moment Wnd told to love the father and mother
the next moment.
What could he more horrible, more, disgraceful than the
sight of an angry man or woman healing a defenseless child?
FOR BEATING IS ALWAYS DONE IN ANGER The
father or mother preietnding to boat the child “for the
child's good.” and pretending not to hr angry when the heating
is administered, is untruthful as well as brutal. Every blow is
given in anger. There is no other blow.
There is a story of a child that had been saying its pray
ers listlessly. One evening after being beaten severely by its
mother the child was eager to pray and said to the nurse.
“I want to pray, because I've got something to say to God.”
And then the child prayed that God might cut off both of its
mother’s arms “so that she can not beat me any more."
Such a prayer would shock mothers and fathers, but such
a praver unspoken has been in the heart of many a child, cruel
ly beaten and the prayer was justified.
The heating of convicts, the beating <>f adult ('ongn na
fives, the flogging of sailors such things arc horrible.
Infinitely worse is the beating of children It hurts the body
and stunts the mind. It kills courage which alone takes a hu
man being safely through life. It makes the child a liar and
a hypocrite. It makes the child hate its father and mother.
AND IT SHOULD HATE THE FATHER OR MOTHER THAT
STRIKES A COWARDLY BLOW THAT CAN NOT BE RE
TURNED
This world will he civilized when we are able to exercise
in our own homes and for the benefit of our own children the
sympathy that we send now to the Congo to the tall, six foot
black man crying under the lash Think of your own children
first. If yon strike a child you are a savage and a coward.
© Possession ©
By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
Copyright 1912. by American Journal-Examiner
• z T'IIAT which we had we still possess.
I Though leaves may drop and stars may fall;
Nn circumstance can make it less.
Or take it from ns. all tn ail
That which we lost we did not own.
We onjr held it for a day
A leaf by careless breezes blown
No fate could take our own away.
•b.
We think we lose when we most gain:
We call joys ended ere begun
When stars fade out. do skies complain
Or glory in the Hsing sun?
No fate could rob us of our own.
No circumstance ran mak< it b
What time removes was hut a loan,
fc’or what was ours we Mill (">.■
The Atlanta Georgian
THE OLD COVES HAVE THE NERVE
By T. E. POWERS.
Copyright, 1912, by International News Service
Mom mi nd if] ' lpok. Harold. A ( AFTERAUI. a mam's place I 1
5P%T F XTi ) * HIS W)FE! ’
< 1 •- WAS KIND ENOUGH like MX V
& J
- r J-V-t PJ/ 11
Xou Neednt Come Howe to ‘ say &ill. fSURU x****.
DIUHER ItrN'GWT mr COOK. } IVt A NtqsT / 1
y HAS QUIT OfF.COME Anti. I ' \ > FY
—; CailwhU dibfxnithsw , Y" nGUB /,
YouH
--- ' (ouare I v jUp
/lEN 1 mA AFRAIO To Go\ W'.
X fIU U U-2 OVER AHO j LJ
<\|zi-ri speak To W' , • _____
LV rs ®I fIMENER'
to W TAKE A i
I ‘ a ffll r ’Bi
uj? I BiM Bl.' z A
■®|l f w\'
The Great Kaleidoscope Overhead
Opening of the Summer Night Spectacle That Nature Offers Free to All
X A T HEN I am tired, worried.
V V worn out, and uninspired by
the least thought or ambi
tion, I go out, if the evening is se
rene. and pause tong under the
stars. I get a rest for the head,
and stay staring at the Spectacle
above mo with more interest and
wonder titan a child experiences
at an exhibition of motion pictures.
The heavens ar, the most mar
i olmts of all kaleiddscopes.
That win'll is not heard much
nowadays, and the little instrument
for which It stands Is seldom soon.
When I was a boy almost et ery
household had one. The derivation
of the name from three Greek
words KALOS, "hea utiful: " El
I>< is. "an appearance," anil SKO
I'l-'.t'. "I view” reveals Its naltiro.
and lolls its story.
Three Strips of hlatk glass two
inches wide and -ix or eight long,
are set edge to edge lengthwise,
making a triangular - enelosute.
They are then fixed in a round
pisteboard tube, with a peephole
at one end. and a pair of transpar
ent glass circles, placed a quarter
of an inch apart at the outer end.
The outside circle is of ground
glass. The space between these cir
cles Is partly filled with broken bits
of varicolored class, which tumble
about among one another as the
Instrument Is turned on Ds hori
zontal axis
Reflects Many Images.
The polished sides of the long tri
angles reflect multiplied images of
the hits of glass when the kaleido
scope is hold with Its outer end to
ward a bright light, and marvel
ously beautiful < ombinations of eel
o'- ami exquisite forms are revealed
io tin ex c looking through the
peephole As Hie instrument Is
turned the bits of glass fell con
tinually into .new. sha|ie«. so pleas
ing ami surprising that they often
.all forth cries of admiration.
It is hardlx possible to give a
c hild a more entertaining, and at
the same time useful, toy than a
kaleidoscope, and it requires very
little skill to make one It is said
that makers of artistic designs
sometimes empbn kaleidoscopes
to stimulate their invention, and
suggest novel combinations.
To t -,e clscerning ex c the
heavens are a gigantic kalcido
np<- But we who-' lie- ai . hut
a gljmp ■ only on<- of it- in
finite com hi ria I'on s. All i, in nio-
FRIDAY, JUNE 11. 1912.
By GARRETT P. SERV.ISS.
lion, but all seems at rest. The
three-acore years and ten of a
man’s I'te afford him but a single
peep into the wonder tube of tlte
universe. We know that It is end
lessly turning, but we should need
to live and watch for a million
years in order to sc- its many-hued
and infinitely diverse stats falling
in ceaseless showers from one com
bination to another, and the con
stellations rolling from form to
form like clouds or sparks.
Here the marvelous power of the
«
imagin trion. guided by science, aids
us. he can look both backward
and forward in time and see the
heavens as they have been and as
they will be.
Sights of the Sky.
When you look al the sky tonight
you will pen eive, low in the wist,
Leo the Lion, with its principal
stars forming the figure of a sickle.
High overhead you will catch sight
of the "Big Dipper," in Ursa Major.
No name could he more truly de
scriptive of the figure shaped by
its seven stars. Just In the south,
well above the horizon, shines the
beautiful white star Spica, which
would be a far grander sun than
ours If we could approach near to
it Spica Is surrounded with many
stars which the ancients imagined
to resemble the figure of a white
robed maiden, Virgo, and they had
a legend that Virgo represented the
goddess of Justice fled from the
earth, where she reigned in the
golden age, and finding refuge in
heaven, where alone Justl e now
rules.
Between the Dipper and Virgo,
but eastward of a line joining them,
glows tlie magnificent Arcturus, a
star which turns red when seen
through the mists of the horizon,
end which w-.is worshiped for ages
In less enlightened times. Arctu
rus Is the chief of another constel
lation called Bootes, or the "Bear
Driver." because he seems to chase
the huge beat. Ursa Major, round
the pole, l-'.ast of Bootes is a splen
did circlet of stars named the
Northern Crown, or Ariadne's Dia
dem. It is a constellation whose
mythological history runs away
back to the expedition of Jason in
search of tlte golden fleece. You
will find not the slightest difficulty
in recognizing it. BelAxx the Crown
in the northeast is the constella
tion Hercules, and below that again
X polio’s I.x re. adorned with one of
the most beautiful of all the stars.
i the liianioitu blight l’ r :,i or \lpha
Lx ice Half round th*® pop-, be-
tween Ursa Major. Hercules and
the Lyre coils the great dragon,
TTraco, a figure that stirred the im
agination of the ancients to its
depths and gave rine to many leg
ends that will never disappear from
literature. Low in the northeast,
rising xvlth the Milky Way, you will
see the shapely form of th® North
ern Cross in the constellation
Cygnn«.
Such is the night sky of June.
It Is a single, brief glance Into the
kaleidoscope of the universe. Now,
call science and imagination to
your aid. and you can represent
to yourself the revolution that It
has undergone, anti will undergo
in the future. Not one of the
splendid constellations which we
noxx admire xx-tll remain a few hun
dred thousand years Jinnee. Apollo’s
Lyre will dissolve, and men will
m> longer admire the intertwining
rays of its stars, which noxv seem
the glitter of stiver strings, trem
bling with the music of the
spheres. The Big Dipper will flat
ten out as if the millstone of the
ages were rolling over it. Draco
xvill unwind his eoils, and flit away
like a wisp of mist. The Crown
will fall apart and all its gems will
be scattered. Arcturus will fly
away from Bootes, and the whole
constellation will drift into some
other shape. The virgin goddess
of justice will flee again, as If an
Iron age had daxvned in the heav
ens. And the great Lion, which
has looked down, apparently un
changed. upon the whole course of
known history, measured by its
petty centuries, will vanish like the
vision of a dreamer.
Constellation of the Future.
But there will be constellations
in the far future, as there have al
ways been constellations. Manx
of them may be more beautiful and
wonderful than those that now ex
. Ist. The possibilities of this vast
kaleidoscope are illimitable and it
rolls forever. The astronomer can.
even now, foretell some of the
shapes that will he formed by the
stars in future eons, for he has
measured the speed and ascertained
the directions in which many of
them are traveling, at a velocity
xvhich sometimes amounts to hun
dreds of miles in a second.
can anything afford a better
proof of the immensity of tlte uni -
verse and tlte insignificance of the.
earth? Let its not think that these
remote things do not concern us.
Exerything concerns us. hecattse
there is something in us which
tr. in .ends t»oth time ind space.
THE HOME PAPER
War and Common Sense
Bv ELBERT HUBBARD.
Copyright, 191.’. International News
Service.
THE modern .nation is a totally
different thing from the an
cient empire or the medieval
monarchy. >
The idea of the king or monarch
was that he was the viceroy of
Deity. This kind brooked no rivals.
T he interests or rights of other na
tions were never considered;
neither were the rights of indi
viduals.
The court of the king was as
splendid as he could make it. and
his palace as sumptuous as he
could afford. The limit of his mag
nificence was his ability to tax the
people, and the extent of bis power
t\as his ability to subjugate. An
army of trained fighting men, ready
io use at any moment, was needed.
First, he must be able to sup
press any possible revolt at home.
Second, he must at all times re
veal a glamour and splendor that
would excite both the adulation and
the fear of his subjects.
Third", lie must be able to fight
off a foreign foe.
Fourth, he must be able to take
advantage of any opportunity that
might occur to acquire new terri
tory should any rival kingdom re
veal a weakness.
Today, the strength, prosperity
and perpetuity of a nation does not
turn on its ability to fight, but on
its ability to fender a service to
other nations.
It is productive skill that counts,
nol destructive ability.
The army of the modern state is
a medieval appendendb vermifor
inis. It is the most costly and fu
tile item In the government “over
head." tile most dangerous thing
in point of national health —and the
chief cause for dread as a disturber
of our national peace.
Nations today are Interdepend
ent. Each one fulfills a certain
economic purpose. Permanent
prosperity for ail nations turns on
permanent peace.
Our solicitude is for the happi
ness and prosperity of the indi
vidual. not the ambition of the so
called rulers.
And happiness, health and pros
perity for individuals demand dis
armament.
The. United States, in point of
wealth. loads all nations. Yet the
© Truth in Print ©
Bv CHARLES FERGUSON
IF newspaper men were subject
tn governmental prosecution
and possible imprisonment for
every honest mistake they might
make in their criticism of an ad
ministration. the government would
soon cease to be democratic.
Few journalists would be found
to take the inevitable chances of
error and of the failure of their
witnesses. The lure of the finan
cial and social rewards of the news
paper business would lie altogether
on the side of a studied sycophancy
In the praise and promotion of the
political pawns as they exist, and
the monev pawns that stand back
t
of them.
There would be but a short run
back to that political absolutism—
that worship of power In spite of
dVery defect title —from which
modern society has so painfully
emerged.
Shall we say, then, that the thing
to do is to declare for absolute
freedom of speech aYtd print, and
to go abroad through the land stir
ring men up to flaming indignation
against every restriction of tongue
or pen
I heard a brilliant man make a.
speech to this effect at a club din
ner of literary men in New York
the day.
The speaker called himself an
"anarchist” indeed, but his doctrine
was not so very different from that
expounded so classically by John
Milton in his famous essay, "On
the Liberty of Unlicensed Print
ing."
And it was hardly to be distin
• guished (tom a notion entertained
by many scholastic people concern
ing what they call the rights of
academic freedom.
It Is said by these theorists that
teachers in colleges—if they will
but Invoke the sacred names of art
and science—ought to be permitted
without hindrance or accountabili
ty to say anything they please.
Now. this freedom to say any
thing one pleases—in a well en
dowed moral vacuum—may be an
academic ideal. But to practical
men it has always seemed too aca
demic.
And modern society is likely, in
accordance with its own genius, to
become not fess but more insistent
in holding people responsible for
what they say.
\ society that passes the title to
a million dollars by a single word
uttered in the exchange, and that
sets great enterprises afoot by the
frith in t gnature. Is likely to
acquire a new and vivid sense of a
size of our army is less than that
of any of the so-called seven Pow
ers of the first class. In numbers
we have one-sixteenth of the pop
ulation of the world; but one-third ,
of the wealth of the world is ours.
This wealth has come through
the peaceful industry of our peo
ple, not through the destructive
ability of our army. /
Yet. 72 per cent of the govern
ment revenue of the United States
goes for war, war purposes and the
results of wfer, and only 28 per cent
'is used for furthering the arts, the
sciences and commerce
Ninety-six of our farmers out of
a hundred flounder to market
through almost impossible mud
during certain seasons of the year,
but all the time we are building
dreadnoughts and recruiting men
to man them.
Arrangements are now under way
for an International Congress of
the Nations. The first session is
to be held in San Francisco in 191-5,
when plans will be effected for the
permanence of the congress.
It will be made up of 100 of the
very best and strongest men in the
. world. And its membership will be
so distinguished that any individual
who is nominated ran not afford to
decline to serve.
The first intent of the congress is
to bring about a federation of the
twelve great Powers, to the end
that disarmament shall follow.
Today we have generated a world
spirit, and It only remains to give
the world spirit a voice, through an
International congress, to make it
effective as a counsellor and a con
ciliator.
In 1899 we rushed to war with
Spain to right a wrong. An inter
national congress that could have
turned a cosmic megaphone on
Spain would have caused her to
right her wrong herself. Our in
terference was meddlesome, costly
and in great degree Ineffective.
When great commercial institu
tions can eliminate competition
and get together on a communlty
of-interest basis, and one institu
tion minister to the world instead
of doing business through a Iwn- t
dred little, warring, fighting fac
tions, surely the question of four
teen great world Powers getting
together on a mutual understand
ing is not an Idle drcam.
man's responsibility for his uttered
word. And in general, as human
relations become more delicate and
intricate in their adjustment, words
acquire a prodigious power to hurt
or help.
It might be safe to set down the
rule, provisionally, that it should he
lawful for a man to propose and
recommend by speech and print the
doing of anything that it Is lawful
to do. Thus it should, of course, be
a .crime to advise the commission
of a crime.
And it should he unlawful to use
words in such a manner as tends to
subvert the meaning and purpose
of the law.
Rut such precepts need tn be
pressed closer home before they
can amount to much as working
principles.
We need to clear our minds as to
what is the genius and spirit of
modern law' before we can judge
what kind of speech should be con
demned as libellous or against pub
lic policy.
Now' the actual social order In
America is industrial, and is based
on property rights.
This is a working society and its
master aim is to put the people in
possession of the materials of ex
istence. This aim is not to be
thought of as necessarily sordid,
for the process of earth-subdual
and matertai production is seen tn
involve the fine goods of art and
all the spiritual Issues. Therefore.
It is not and should not be lawful
In America for a man to use his
tongue or pen to destroy rights of
property so far as they are genuine
and legitimate rights.
Speech and the press can not be
too free or too bold in attacking
ostensible property rights that are
not authentic.
The whole battle for freedom of
utterance is likely to be waged
around the question of the authen
ticity of certain cdntestible prop
erty rights.
When the battle is over we shall
probablv settle down to the general
conviction that property is inviola
ble, whatever its amount in the
hands of an individual, so long as
the manner of its use and tenure
tends to diffuse propertv through
out the whole communitv, and that
otherwise it has no legitimacy.
A man may be as rich as he can,
if his being rich helps to make
everybody else rich. Rut if his
riches make the community poor he
will be fair game for anybody with
a barbed tongue or a trenchant
pen.