Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, June 21, 1912, FINAL, Image 20

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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. 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 .. , u -e->,_?) I LETS SPEND TPE DmT [OH SEE THE BEAUTIFUL. COW'} _ . (H THE COUNTRY ) OH SEETHE BEAUTIFUL TREE! J 1 * A . ikF TH I S OH SEE TriE BEAUTIFUL \ CATLIKE THIS _ (WE uu JAKE A < v rZXr'V’-' Y~ V d i /Ti I -/Vi 1 Z zZ Z; J ) io<G U'o/t, *4l 7'7 m Wt® W"M ft W tq? mHUDL j\_£yWy» convalescent «T«N (OH SEE THE BEAUTIFUL-') I fOH SEE THE BEAUTIFUL.) « Zr <INN X < CAFE-J T INHW /~2 a" A Pof .J 'Yy beast Jj □ □ □ □ □ '— rViTs 5 o c xr = r /AHRa 7/Wfr -- JILY A a "”" <"-’L. Z/Jv <\ * & v sb » r'n OH seethe beautiful 1 <THATSA UG ON You! I —7= DICE BOX ■ ——j TpK A —-a» - I -- II- -a~—Lil - ... ■ / . 7 Yim rvqp q h X. I -ifePouJcßy ' 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.