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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 aecond-class matter at postoffsce at Atlanta, under act of March 8. 187?
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week. By mail, 15.00 a year
Payable in advance.
The Shame of Atlanta
«e n
' She Excels in Many Things. But She Can Not Hide Her Streets.
“By its highways ye shall know the city.'’
True or untrue, this paraphrase, made long ago. contains f.
bitter arraignment of Atlanta.
Tin- streets of the metropolis of the South are as much ir
keeping with the rest of the city as a team of oxen would be
with a 60-horse power automobile truck.
To the stranger five points in any city are uppermost: Th*
climate, the natural advantages, the shipping facilities, the build
ing development and the condition of the streets. There is nc
fault to lie found with any of these conditions except two. One
of these will be discussed later.
The other is the shame of Atlanta- its streets.
From day to day The Georgian will give facts and figures
about the streets.
If the people’s money is being thrown away while the city is
being disgraced, the people will know it.
If the amount appropriated is insufficient to finish respectable
highways, the people will know that.
If incompetence is responsible for the thousands of jnnd holes,
the people will know that.
The time has come when there must he a remedy. It is all
very well for Atlantans to point with pride to their city’s su
premacy in a hundred things, because in at least a hundred things
she excels; but she can not hide her streets.
Atlanta deserves the best, and she MUST and WILL have it.
The Duty of “Instructed”
Delegates
How long does a state’s “instructions'’ bind its delegates in
a national convention?
This was a question frequently discussed and variously oon
strued at Chicago and at Baltimore. The answer should be plain.
When the people of a state in free consideration of several
presidential candidates come to the primary polls and give a ma
jority vote for one of these candidates it ought to be perfectly
clear that the man so voted for is distinctly and definitely the
choice and preference of the people, whose wishes are sovereign
and conclusive. Il is a matter of common sense and common loy
alty that delegates so chosen should expend every effort of advo
cacy and endurance to put ink. execution the wishes of the people
whose servants and messengers they are.
And this advocacy and effort are by no means discharged as
an obligation when some designing politician or some scheming
interest inax urge that the choice of the people is hopeless. No
candidate can be honorably deserted by “instructed delegates’’
so long as he is in the lead, certainly not while he has a majority
of the votes, and not even while he leads a loyal and undismayed
minority with a hope of his success.
There was more than one delegation which violated and for
swore its “instructions’’at Baltimore and at Chicago. If the
states that instructed for Clark’’ had been loyally obeyed by
their delegates “as long as there was a reasonable hope for
Clark's success’’ dark would have been the nominee on the fourth
day of the convention.
Os course, all “state instructions'’ should provide some dis
cretion for the delegates who represent it. The absurdity of rob
bing delegates of all discretion was illustrated at Baltimore in
the ridiculous ease of Georgia—hound by an ironclad instruction
tn vote for Lnderwood “UNTIL HIS ELECTION IS SECURED.’’
Under this foolish resolution the Georgians really had no
right to vote to make Wilson’s nomination unanimous. The man
who wrote that resolution ought to have his head put under cold
waler and be retired from further duty as an instructor of dele
gations.
The Tariff: Platform Com
ment
Il is regrettable that the Baltimore convention committed
itself Io the abstract theory that “the Federal Government un
der the Constitution has no right to impose or collect tariff
duties except for the purpose of revenue."
This notion that the protective principle is unconstitutional
is a theory of closet philosophers. Its falsity is a matter of
history. The Democratic party will never attempt to put it into
practice. It is. therefore, not dangerous to the country. But it
stains an honest platform with a touch of insincerity.
This newspaper stands, with the mass of the American peo
ple. lor the effectual protection of American industries trom
the competition of foreign countries having a low standard of
living. I’he Georgian voices the nearlx unanimous sentiment of
the country in demanding a rigorous downward revision of the
tariff in all the schedules touching the common necessaries of life
The trouble with the Bayne-Aldrich tariff is that it stretches
out its arms to smite the weak and defend the strong. It pro
tects no poverty, but piracy.
Even in the Republican platform and in spite of Taft’s
atrocious vetoes of the farmers' free list and the reforms of
the woolen, cotton and chemical schedules attempted by ‘the
Democratic House it is admitted that the tariff on necessaries
ought to be sealed down. But the Republicans want to have
this sealing down done very gingerly by those who have a
parental affection for the tariff as it stands—those who believe,
with Mr. Winona Taft, that it is “the best tariff ever enacted
by a Republican Congress."
The Georgian, on the other hand, will continue to insist
that the tariff should he sealed down not by “the friends ot
the tariff." but by the friends of the people; and that this
reform should be accomplished not gingerly, but with ginger.
The people will not commit the incredible folly of giving
Air. Taft and the interests represented by him a fresh mandate
to go mi after their own fashion with the “reform" of the
tariff. The people will not set wolves to tend the sheep. The
words uttered by Senator James on taking the gavel at Balti
more will be remembered:
“President Taft has the lone and singular distinction of
bfiiio the only President in the life of this Republic who evei
i bills cheapening clothing to the people, lumber to thf
iioii! mi-at and bread to the hungry Americans and free farm
nig ' ”p ■■ineiits to the toiling farmer—measures that would
! ;, y' -av-d to th” consuming public three hundred and fifty
millions a year."
The Atlanta Georgian
• JULY 1912.
The First View of the Ocean
By HAL COFFMAN.
ggy : I LOOK SiwMlt-
» jf. j ,T S LU WRfe
gsi \ —j Full OF /==g-==f
mills
Bip l -
jfeb. "ST: U-
I' i Js w - -- -
A .U, 1
DOROTHY DIX WRITES
OF
Both Sides of the Amusement Problem
PROBABLY there is no other
one question that gives rise
to more arguments and dis
putes in the average well-to-do
family than the amusement prob
lem.
The wife wants to go out to
places of entertainment. The hus
band wants to stay home and read
the newspapers. Result: Domestic
fireworks.
The wife says: x
“I am a good wife and mother,
and a competent housekeeper. I
am thrifty, industrious and frugal,
and I am busy all day doing house
hold tasks that can make my fam
ily comfortable, and trying to
make my husband's money go as
far as possible. By the time night
comes I am weary of performing
monotonous domestic duties, and I
would like some change. I would
like to do something that would
give a different turn to my
thoughts, and that would stimu
late me, and brighten me up.
"1 love society. 1 like to dance.
I like a good game of cards I like
people. I am devoted to the thea
ter. I enjoy going occasionally to
a restaurant for dinner or supper.
I like to see and be seen, but be
fore I can go anywhere of an even
ing I have to have a bottle royal
with my husband that takes all of
the pleasure out of it. To get him
to go to a dinner party is like
dragging him to an execution. To
induce him to take me to the thea
ter requires a week of hints and
persuasion and jollying, and then
he sits up with a kill-joy face and
knocks the actors in the play and
yawns in my face until I get so
mad 1 vow I’ll never ask him to
take me anywhere again
"We actually have a row over
every invitation we get and he
puts on hts evening clothes with as
many groanlngs and mutterings as
if he were an early Christian mar
tyr dressing himself to be led out
to the stake.
Wife Wants Some
Os the Diversions.
"He acts as if being married to
him was picnic enough for any
woman, and that she ought not to
expect or desire any other diver
sion. while J contend that a wife
who does her duty, as I do. is enti
tled to at least a few of the treats
after marriage that a man was
ready enough to give her before
marriage XX'hen he was courting
me my husband wasn’t too tired of
By DOROTHY DIX.
an evening to take me to places or
meet me at parties.
"Besides all this, my husband
needs to go out some for his own
sake. A man gets so narroxx’ who
sees nobody but his business asso
ciates and hears nothing talked
about but business and. in addition,
we have children for whom it is
our duty to make as good a social
position as we can. So it seems to
me that my husband is unreason
able not to be willing to go about
with me more."
Husband Says
He Needs Rest.
The man says:
"1 work all day under a pressure
that my wife does not even under
stand. I am giving every ounce of
strength and vitality that is In me
to my business so that I can give
nix- famll.x' every possible luxury
and indulgence, and when night
comes 1 am utterly spent, soul and
body and brain. I am so tired that
I don't care to talk, nor to be talk
ed to, and so nervous that I feel
that I xvould scream if I had to lis
ten to the inane chatter of some
foolish woman to whom I was ex
pected to make myself agreable at
dinner.
"All I want to do Is to eat iny
own dinner in my own house, and
sink down in my own particular
chair in the library, and doze along
over the evening paper. More than
that. I must have this rest if I am
to hold up my end in the strenuous
business competition of today.
"If I go to bed at 10 o'clock and
get a good night's sleep I attack
my problems with a clean, clear
brain the next morning, but if I’ve
been out to 1 or 2 o'clock, and eaten
a lot of indigestible stuff, and drunk
and smoked too much, my mind is
in as upset a state as my tomaeh
is. My judgment is elu. ded; my
temper is on edge and I'm literally
not fit for business.
"Heaven knows 1 want nix wife
to have every possible pleasure. It's
for her sake and the kids that I
toil like a dray horse. Let her go
to all the matinees, and teas and
luncheons and hen parties she
xvants to, but why can't she be
reasonable and le’ me have my
evenings at home in peace instead
of dragging me about to places that
bore me stiff, and where every other
married man looks like St. Anthony
on the gridiron'.’"
And there you are. And so the
argument goes on over every in
vitation, and ends with tears on one
side, and a banging door on the
other and the queer part of it all is
that each side is perfectly right
from his or her point of view.
The solution of the problem is
only to be found in compromise,
and. undoubtedly, it would make
for peace In most families if the
wife would establish the house
maid’s inalienable right to a night
out once a week on which her hus
band would accompany her xvhith
ersoever she chose to go without
protest. The balance of the time
she could take her pleasures with
out him at the various afternoon
diversions that women have de
vised to meet this very contingency.
It Is unfortunate that the very
difference of their fields of labor
makes men and women look at this
question from opposite angles. The
husband, who is seeing new faces
every minute of the day, and talk
ing to new people, longs for quiet
and rest in the evening. The woman
xvho has been shut up in the house
all day, often xvith no one to speak
to, longs for fresh faces and fresh
interests. This being true, xvhy
should they not figure out together
a working schedule by which the
man should go cheerfully abroad
with his wife a certain number of
nights a week, while the balance
she may remain at home without
feeling herself a persecuted domes
tic slave?
One Reason Why »
Americans Lead.
1
One of the chief reasons xvhy this
country leads the world in divorce is
because Americans so often settle
this question in the wrong way by
the wife and husband each going
his or her own way—the wife going
in for society, and the husband go
ing in for business, and both land
ing in Reno When you meet a
married woman traveling alone, or
going to balls and theaters xvith
friends, instead of her husband, you
don't need any other tip as to the
state of affairs in that family.
I 's course men say that they
have to work so hard they haven't
time to go about with their xvives,
but if husbands gave their wives
more of their time and personal at
tention and less money it would be
better for both.
After a!!, it's the people that we
plax with who are most necessary
to us.
THE HOME PAPER
Dr. Parkhurst’s Article
on
Conservation of Human L
Race as an Urgent Need
---and---
Development of Deserv
mg Men and Women
Written For The Georgian
By the Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst
THERE is one need of the
times that the generosity of
our large givers seems not
quite to have touched, but a need
which, if handsomely met, would
go far toward the conservation of
valuable material that is now run
ning to waste.
We have latterly learned to
realize that our wealth in forests,
water power and minerals has
been dealt with so carelessly and
extravagantly as seriously to im
pair our resources, and to cause
mischief that only the prolonged
pursuance of a more cautious pol
icy will avail to repair.
But our new policy of conserva
tion will not be complete till it also
extends itself outside the region of
our material assets. Very much of
the humanitarian work that is be
ing done is done in pursuance of
the conservation idea, and is an at
tempt to prevent values in human
bodies, minds and characters from
being wastefully sacrificed.
Our thought just now’ is upon one
particular class of people—men and
women —whose embarrassed condi
tion is making, consistent appeal
to any man who is known to be at
all interested in those who have
abilities and ambition, but whose
abilities are rendered unproductive
and their ambitions disappointed
by the Imperious limitations of cir
cumstances —people who could do
something worth while, but who
are so hampered by adverse condi
tions thatTtrey have no chance to
get a start.
No Sensible Person
Would Advise Pampering.
“Der anfang ist immer schwer.”
say the Germans.
It is comparatively easy to build
a ship; the crisis comes at the
launching.
It takes more steam to start a
locomotive than it does to keep it
running.
Once a seed has begun to ger
minate we can pretty confidently
count on its becoming a shrub or
tree.
The same holds true of young
humans as of ships, engines and
flower seeds, that the rub comes at
the beginning.
No sensible person would advise
the pampering of a fledgling.
Things can be made too easy for
the young aspirant as well as tco
hard.
An ambitious fellow can go up
a pretty steep grade if he has grit,
but he can not pull himself up a
perpendicular.
Llnough slant must be put into
the climb to give him a scrambling
chance to get to the top. And
that chance is what a lot of
young people—boy s and girls—do
not have.
::: ::: Together ::: :::
By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
Copyrigh’ 1912, National News Association
"I"! TE two in the fever and fervor and glow
V V Os life s high tide have rejoiced together;
We have looked out over the glittering snow.
And known we were dwelling in summer weather.
For the seasons are made by the heart I hold.
And not by outdoor heat or cold.
We two. in the shadows of pain and woe.
Have journeyed together in dim, dark places,
here black-robed Sorrow walked io and fro.
And Fear and Trouble, with phantom faces,
Peered out upon us and froze our blood.
Though June's fair roses were all in bud.
We two have measured all depths, all heights.
We have bathed in tears, we have sunned in laughter;
We have known all sorrows and delights—
They never could keep us apart hereafter.
Whether your spirit went high or low.
My own would follow, and find you. I know.
If they took my soul into Paradise.
And told me 1 must be content without you.
I would weary them so with my lonesome cries,
And the ceaseless questions 1 asked about you,
They would open the gates and set me free.
Or else they would find you and bring you to me.
We are thinking only of those
who hate in them the makings of
something, who are aware of the
fact and who are brave enough to
( do what they can themselves, hut
who can not do it all. can not make
opportunities when there is noth
ing to make opportunities of—
young people who have an art im
pulse and want to cultivate it: or
a genius for mechanics or a pro
nounced ‘leaning toward teaching,
journalism, preaching, no matter
what, but needing just enough to
help get them on their feet and to
put them on the road.
A Few Dollars Will
Conserve Human Effort.
Not to give such ones an initial
push means a waste of value; it is
neglect to conserve resources mov
valuable than timber or water sup
ply.
Sometimes SSOO will do it. or even
SIOO, if only it he enough to help
the wheels to begin to turn.
Or the need may be for money
enough to buy a little farm, giving
a mortgage on the land as security.
Appeals for just that kind of as
sistance are reporting themselves
constantly.
Who now is the man of large
wealth that wants to create an en
dowment, the income of which shall
be applied in the manner proposed?
We have had immense moneys
donated in the interest of advanc' d
education, gifts that inure espeeia'-
ly to the advantage of those xx no
have already gotten quite away
up the incline, money without stint
for the construction of magnificent
buildings.
It is said that if a man resident
in Boston dies without leaving h If
a million in bequest to Haivard
university it is considered suffi
cient groun?. for breaking his wii'.
All these bequests are attract- d
to men and institutions that n «
already favored, but the poor,
struggling, capable and ambi’ious
boys and girls at the bottom of i i--
ladder have, comparatively spfsit
ing. very little done for their ■
couragement.
If They Have Ability
i That’s Half the Fight.
If they have ability and grit, th--v
do not need much; hut if they hate
those qualifications, society. t'’e
state, the schools. th n world's busi
ness, the church, can not afford to
have their powers of effect west'.
I'ine and competent hummn- .
is more necessary to the wad I
than,etude oil and timber.
Men and women, capable and
confident, are the best prodm '
our civilization, and the re. ovc /
of such from helplessness ■■ use
fulness is one of the best etim
prises to which men of wealth •
give their hearts and apply th :"
means.