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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.
Subscription Price —Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a. week. By mail, $5.00 a year.
Payable In advance.
“Money Goes to Money’’
Said the Old Peddler
» * K
He Left His Little Fortune to Rothschild. Money DOES Go to
Money, and Those That Are Richest Can Buy the Cheapest.
We have told you of the old peddler—dead, in the city of-
Nice. His will simply said. “Money goes to money.’’ and left all
that he had to the great Rothschild, although he never saw him.
In life everv dav, as well as in the will of the eccentric old
peddler. MONEY GOES TO MONEY.
Mrs. J. -I. M. writes asking how it happens that, with the
price of coal increasing, “the well-to-do people should receive a
special letter, quoting the price of coal 25 cents cheaper on the
ton I han prices quoted to ordinary working people.”
Mrs. .1, .1. M. says that the prices quoted come from the big
gest coal concern of which she has any knowledge.
It is not true, however, that the coal companies maliciously
sell more cheaply to the rich than to the poor.
When they deal with men that buy great quantities of coal,
they .ire dealing with successful men, cunning and resourceful,
able to get the best prices and the best bargains.
And in order to GET the business from the big and intelli
gent men the companies make them lower bids.
They do this to get the business, and they do it also because
it is much cheaper to deliver coal in great quantities than in
small quantities.
Tim rich family buys coal more cheaply than the little fam
ily.
The quotations sent out today in the suburbs of a big city
quote a certain price on coal, and then add, “You must add 25
cents a ton to this price if you order less than four tons at a
time.
Hour tons of coal means more than twenty-five dollars in
New York. The little family can not afford to order twenty-five
dollars worth of coal at once. Therefore THE LITTLE FAMILY
WHICH REALLY CAN NOT AFFORD TO PAY THE MONEY.
PAYS TWENTY-FIVE CENTS MORE THAN THE RICH
FAMILY WHICH CARES NOTHING AT ALL ABOUT THE
EXTRA TWENTY-FIVE (’ENTS.
The lady who writes us probably buys her coal one ton at,'
a time and the richer woman in the neighborhood buys four or
fixe tons, or an entire carload, and gels it much cheaper.
But there are others in worse plight than the woman who
writes us.
They are the hundreds of thousands that buy their coal
during the winter season. ONE PAILFUL AT A TIME.
The very rich person buys stove coal now by the carload.
And the smaller citizen buys the same coal from the same dealer
one or two tons at a time and pavs more.
But THINK OE THE VERY POOR PEOPLE COM
PELLED TO Bl'Y THEIR COAL BY THE PAILFUL, AND
TO PAY SOMETHING LIKE TWENTY DOLLARS A TON
FOR IT
So it is with ice, and with everything else.
If you are prosperous you can buy flour by the barrel and
ice in quantities and coal and other things in quantities and
save money.
"Money goes to money.”
And if you are poor and must buy in small quantities you
must pay more because you ARE poor.
It isn't done, dear Mrs. .1. -I. M., because the rich coal
companies hate the poor and love the rich. The coal companies
do not hate anybody or love anybody. They are simply bent on
making as much money as they possibly can.
And they can make more money selling four tons of coal at
a time to one person for tweny-five cents less per ton than they
can in selling the same coal in small quantities at a bigger price.
One man and one pair of horses with an automatic coal wa
gon attached can haul and dump four tons of coal for just about
what it costs to dump and haul one ton or two tons. Hauling
and the handling make up A LARGE PART OF THE COST OF
COAL.
An ice wagon can deliver a ton of ice to a corner saloon and
make money selling at a low price.
But if that ice wagon must deliver a few pounds of ice at a
time along a hot street, up many stairways, carrying small lumps,
letting the ice nn-lt. waiting to make change, then the ice costs
more, the delivery costs more AND THE POOR PEOPLE PAY
MORE.
The great trouble is not so much in the heartlessness and
extortion of the big seller, although extortion does play an im
portant pari. The trouble is in the lack of organization among
the many.
Many thousands of poor families buy separately a certain
amount of ice and get a certain amount of refrigeration.
If they had organization, if they were united in the keeping
of their food or the arrangement of their dwelling, they could
have twice as much refrigeration for less than one-half the
quantity of ice. and buy that ice for one-quarter of what they
pay now.
Then, the rich man buys a first class icebox, in which the
ice doos not melt. And he saves the cost of the icebox the first
year through economy in ice.
And the poor man buys a eheap icebox, in which the ice
melts verv rapidly And because he has bought a cheap icebox he
must buy a great deal more ice than he would buy with a GOOD
icebox.
And because he buys ice in small quantities he must pay
three times as much, or even five times, what the corner saloon
keeper pays - and so it goes.
“Money goes to Money.” One very rich woman, who was
formerly a Mrs. Vanderbilt, remarked that life was really very
easy, because she always sent her washing from Newport to be
done in New York—the express company carried it for nothing,
because her husband. Mr. Vanderbilt, didn’t base to pay any
thing to the express company.
And her horses and carriages ajid so on went hack in the
same way—transportation cost nothing.
That was another ease of “money goes to money." It was
cheerful for her. hut not so cheerful for the washerwoman at
Newport, who did not get the washing to do.
Don't imagine that things are worse than they were in the
past The\ are not worse, but BETTER. At least, poor people
now ACTI ALLY HAVE SOME K E AND SOME COAL You
don't have to go back more than the lives of three old men to
Continued in Last Colon--'
The Atlanta Georgian
OH! THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY!!
By T. E. POWERS.
Copyright, 1912, by International News Service
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Laying Giant Steam on the Shelf
His East-Coming Rival Is Neater, Trimmer, Less Expensive and More
Efficient. x
ARWMAKKABIAC picture of
•Tack the Giant Killer on the
title page of HEARST'S
MAGAZINE for June forms a sug
gestive commentary on an article
In the-same magazine on the com
ing of the "steamless steamship.”
Many of the generation which Is
now on the-declining slope of life's
highway will recall George \V. Cut
ter’s “Song of Steam,” which we
used to learn and recite with thrill
ing effect on school exhibition days.
The boastings of the Giant Steam
then seemed prophetic of ages of
unchallenged domination.
"I've no muscles to weary, no
brains to decay.
No bones to be laid on the shelf.
And soon 1 Intend you may go and
play.
Willie 1 manage the world myself.
But harness me down with your
iron bands.
Be sure of your curb and rein.
Eor I scorn the strength of your
puny hands
As the tempest scorns a chain."
A Better Workman Than
Steam Is Crowding.
L»ess than two score years ago
that seemed the proclamation of a
new reign which might endure as
long as man himself. But already
preparations are being made to lay
the boastful giant on the very shelf
that he scorned. Every automobile
that darts through the streets an
nounces the end of the reign of
steam. A better workman than
he Is crowding him out. it is no
longer given t<> his powerful hand
alone to drive the piston that
makes the wheels of progress spin.
And even his right-hand partner,
old King Coal, sees a rival growing
up to push him from his throne.
The new Diesel engine, which
jou will find succinctly and clearly
d< scribed in the article referred to,
uses oil for its fuel instead of coal,
snd derives its motive power ftom
the i xpansive force of the
burning oil. and the tecoil of com
prct-sed air. it is. to be sure, not
the first "oil engine" to be invent
ed. But in it a new principle has
FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1912
By GARRETT P. SERVISS
been introduced, which vastly in
creases the efficiency of the ma
chine. 1 shall not here repeat the
interesting story of how this has
been accomplished, but I would
supplement it with some thoughts
on the meaning of such an inven
tion.
A Motto Which Involves
Whole Spirit of Progress.
The simple fact that the new
engine is not altogether new is full
of significance and of endless
promise for the future. It empha
sizes the necessity of what was
dwelt upon in an editorial in last
Sunday's American, viz.: NEVER
LET WEIA> ENOUGH .ALONE.
There is a motto which involves
the .whole spirit of progress. The
Chinese let well enough alone, and,
as a consequence, until very re
cently, China has bqen more than a
thousand years behind the age. if
inventors had regarded steam as
"well enough," the giant's rule
might have continued for millen
niums to come instead of ceasing
and giving place to something bet
ter within a hundred years after he
first put on his harness.
if Dr. Diesel had thought that the
older oil engines were well enough,
we should not now be opening our
eyes at the sight of a large ocean
going ship driven by the new mo
tive power. We should not have
had before us the prospective of
steam, and smoke, and huge bunk
ers full of dirty coal about to be
driven from the sea and the land,
and in place of these things the de
lightful promise of clean, cool, easy
working motors, and compact,
manageable liquid fuel. "It is es
timated that the Diesel engine
would drive a ship as fast and as
far with 100 tons of fuel as the
best steam engine would with 350
. tons of coal." In that single sen
tence you have an inspiring glimpse
of what the tireless spirit of in
vention and contempt for the lazy,
"good enough" principle can do.
No human invention has ever
been perfected at a stroke or by a
single drain. After Edison had
proved that an electric current
could be "sub-divided" indefinitely
and made to cause thousands of
brilliant lamps to glow through the
"resistance" of little loops of car-
bon. unprogressive minds may
have thought that the invention
was completed. But it was not.
Other brains set to work upon the
problem SEEKI-NG IMPROVE
MENT. Then came the various
metallic filaments for lamps which
have produced wonderful results.
First, trie forests of the whole
world were ransacked for a vege
table fiber that would furnish the
best carbon loops. Then chemis
try took hold of the problem and
sought for a metallic substance or
combination that would do better
still.
The telephone was not the sole
invention of any single genius.
Every improvement suggested an
other —and the end is not yet.
Wireless telegraphy is not a com
pleted, thing. It would be foolish
to think that it can not and will
not be pushed far beyond anything
we no.w know of it.
Human Progress Result
Os Cultivation.
Human progress is the result of
combination. A hundred pushing
shoulders make the wheel roll fas
ter than one, even if some of them
are ineffectively applied. Two
heads are better than one. and no
where more so than in invention.
One head sometimes gets all the
credit, but each helps in its degree.
The greatest Inventor would fail if
he did not have aids and sugges
tions, and if others did not follow
him with improvements. When the
whole world takes up a new thing
it begins to grow like a snowball.
This is the secret of "the psychol
ogy of a crowd." The orator finds
a wonderful inspiration blown to
him from his interested listeners,
and the inventor Is.stimulated by
the focussing of many minds upon
his work. If an invention fails to
attract attention, it dies; if it gets
the attention of the world, thou
sands of minds set to work to im
prove it, and it rises into a marvel.
When it reaches its limit something
else will take its place and a new
giant will arise. The lesson is
never to believe that we have the
best thing possible.
THE HOME PAPER
Dr. Parkhurst’s Article
on
The Recall as a Parallel
to Divorce EyM
—and—
Capital and the Labor
Unions
Written For The Georgian
By the Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst
DIVORCE is in essential par
ticulars similar to what is
know-n in politics as the "re
call,” and the two can properly
enough be considered as illustrat-
; ing each other.
Marriage and election are both
of them to some extent a leap in
the dark.
A man never knows the woman
he marries till after he has mar
ried her and the courting days are
over.
Neither does a voter know his
candidate till after the canvass is
completed, the polls have been
closed and the elect has gone about
discharging the duties for which
he was chosen.
The two kinds of courtship,
therefore —the political and the
matrimonial —require to be con
ducted as studiously and thorough
ly as may be, that the unknown
elements in each of the two varie
ties of candidacy may be reduced
to a minimum, find tfisappointment
obviated if possible.
It is unfortunate on the whole
that such a thing as divorce is pos
sible, for ’while the prohibition of
it would in particular cases work
hardship and injustice, the harms
made possible by divorce are in
general severer than those that re
sult from strict monogamy—one
many and one wife apiece.
One resulting harm is that it
converts courtship into very much
of an amusement and reduces it to
the low grade of a matrimonial
experiment, the lover—that is to
say the man who imagines himself
a lover —relieving himself, in view
of the uncertainties of the ulti
mate outcome, by the reflection
that if the first wife proves dis
appointing he has learned enough
by his first trial to make a follow
ing experiment more probably suc
cessful.
With the matrimonial door thus
widely and variously open, his
courtship becomes an easy-going
affair, and in this way careless
courtship engenders divorce and
facility of divorce engenders care
less courtship.
A necessary result of all of which
is that marriage ceases to be a
human, a dignified or a holy thing.
The “recall” in polities is all the
way through the ex<ct parallel of
this.
It renders an electoral canvass
merely an experiment, and be
cause felt to be an experiment, and
to be an experiment that can easily
“Money Goes to Money”
Said the Old Peddler
Continued from First Column.
find conditions in which the poor people never dreamed of using
ice or coal, and, as a rule, had no shoes—even in Winter. En
tire populations wrapped their feet up in rags or in straw. En
tire populations lived year in and year out without tasting a
mouthful of meat. They were not allowed to kill the rabbits
and the deer that ate their crops. They were not allowed to
shoot the pigeons that took their seeds out of the ground.
Conditions are better—partly because the French Revolution
made them better, partly because our American Revolution made
them better, and especially because human intelligence, improv
ing production, reducing the cost of obtaining supplies, has made
life easier.
You pay $6.50 a ton for your coal now—because you haul
it from Pennsylvania to some great city thousands and thousands
of tons at a time, one panting, huge engine hauling the load.
If the coal ha,d to be hauled as in the olden times—by horse
power—those thaf complain of the high price of coal now
WOULDN'T HAVE ANY COAL AT ALL, AND COULDN’T
THINK OF HAVING ANY.
What the world needs is ORGANIZATION. It has already
organized PRODUCTION. The system of creating wealth, the
system of mining coal, of manufacturing iron—all that is under
stood. Wonders have been accomplished because the ablest men
have studied ORGANIZED PRODUCTION OF WEALTH.
But the brains of organization have not yet been devoted to
the great problem of DISTRIBUTION. That is the problem of
the future.
That problem in time will be solved also partly by greater
intelligence, partly by unselfishness on the part of the men of
power, partly because some of those whom we now denounce,
thoughtlessly at times, our great industrial organizers have
shown the way and blazed the path..
Meanwhile, it is not amusing to be poor in a civilization
which charges the poor man for the little that he needs more
than the rich man pays for what he wants.
Civilization will be improved by making men of power and
ability take a greater interest in the welfare of the majority
less able.
That will be brought about chiefly by the natural improve
ment called social evolution and largely also by a display of *
greater loyalty on the part of the majority of the peope to those
that really serve them.
The great corporations and trusts never forget those that
do them favors.
The people DO forget.
enough be tried over again, if the
first one fails, is dealt with only
semi-seriously and with no anxious
concern as to whether it turn out
well or ill.
It converts into play the most
serious of all civic functions, and
in proportion as the office to be
filled is more critical and respon
sible—like a position upon the
bench, for example—the greater
the dignity f and the graver the
belittlement that is practiced.
If one will read the sixth plank
of the Rochester platform, and in
every case when the word recall
occurs w-ill substitute divorce
(along with one or two minor
changes), it will be found how
nearly alike the two vices are and
how closely resembling each other
are the results of the two vices;
also how earnest and critical a
truth it is that in both domestic
and civic matters "the fundamental
consideration is that candidates
shall be soberly elected rather than
carelessly elected and then cash
iered.” i
♦ • »
Although claiming that working
men should have secured to them
the right of unionizing themselves,
yet that right, like all rights, In
volves certain obligations, and ob
ligations which workingmen do not
always discharge, and their failure
in this particular is one of the rea
sons for the prejudice which capi
talists have against unions.
Capital organizes itself and by
act of incorporation legally com
mits itself to the fulfillment of its
corporate engagements.
A union unincorporated, enters
into a compact with capital, ob
serves its contract so long as It ap
pears to be to its advantage to do
so, and then is legally free to re
pudiate its covenant.
Os course, it is morally holden,
but being morally.holden does not
render it legally accountable, and
if the union is destitute of moral
respect for its pledge, capital can
have no redress.
That puts in the hands of union
ized tabor an advantage not pos
sessed by the other party to the
cofitract.
We are not saying that unions
generally will avail of this advan
tage, but they do sometimes, just
as we are learning at the present
moment; and every time they do
they hurt themselves and their
cause.
Men who have not the conscience
to deal on the square should so
have the leash of the law thrown
over them that they will have to
deal on the square.
That is what law is so hold
up virtue that is toppling.
