Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, July 11, 1912, EXTRA, Image 14

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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 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.