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EDITORIAL, PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Excent 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. 1873. Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week. By mail, $5.00 a year. Payable in advance. The Panama Canal Is Ours, Not England’s The English government protests against our using the Pan ama canal as if we really owned it. There is an English theory that Americans have no more rights in the canal than the Eng lish have. They point to a musty document and say to the American people: “See, yon have forfeited your ownership ol the gigan tic labor of your hands. You have paid the enormous tolls of sweat and blood, but the canal belongs to anybody and every body as much as it does to you. And whatever other tolls re main to he paid for the upkeep of the great waterway yon must pay, cent for cent and farthing for farthing -«tvlth h* English and all the rest of the world, who have stood by at ease and watcher! your herculean labor and gigantic expense at the Isth mus.'’ Certainly, if there is anything on earth more colossal than the Panama canal it is this impudence. The London Daily Mail says: r’ "It 1b Impossible to see on what grounds of law or ethics the United /T-State* senate can defend the proposal to grant free tolls to American ships passing through the canal. The United States may claim the right, exer cised by other nations, of subsidizing its merchant service, but a general subsidy Is not the same thing as a special refund of tolls paid for passages through a canal in which the ships of all nations have equal rights; nor is it practicable, without injustice, to exempt coastwise traffic, which, under the navigation laws of the United States, is already reserved exclusively for American ships.” This statement is typical. The English press is unanimously supporting the protests made by Ihe English government, and— as always happens when questions of American rights are in volved—not a few Tory New York newspapers aid Great Britain and adopt her view. They not. only deny our right to lei Ameri can transoceanic ships go, toll-free, through the canal, but even our right Io pay the lolls out of our public purse—and also our right to refrain from laying an embargo upon our own domestic commerce! The simple truth is, of course, that the Panama canal is American property. We have bought it at a great price, and paid for it. In the use of it we are under moral as well as treaty obligations to treat all foreign nations alike and to fix equitable tolls. The senate has announced that it will consider Panama leg islation this week. The senate will, of course, treat the protest of the British government in the matter of Panama tolls with such politeness as is due to a formal communication from any friendly government on any subject. Rut the American people will have no patience with the con tention that we are precluded by the Hay-Pauncefote treaty from letting our ships go toll-free through the canal —if we want to do that. To the American people this whole agitation can hard ly seem to be anything else but a stupendous British “bluff." It recalls to mind the spectacular effort that the English made when the Hay-Pauncefote treaty was pending to get into that document a formal renunciation of our right to fortify the canal. It will be remembered that that earlier gust of British bluster was met and silenced by a storm of American indigna tion raised by the agencies of publicity which the Hearst papers represent. It was the Hearst newspapers alone that aroused the people—and through the people compelled the senate to see the pusillanimous character of the proposal that the Panama canal should be built at an expense of $300,000,000 and then left with out defense. The Georgian feels itself impelled to voice the rights of the American people against an amazing assumption of the British government. We have no doubt that the patriotism of the senate will make the same response in this ease that it did when it compelled Secretary tiny to change the treaty to which he had already agreed. From the moment that our government took steps to fortify the canal it was settled that we could not entertain any question as to our right to defend our proprietary rights there and to levy such tolls as we please. In effect, the position taken by our government is as fol lows : First, that the Hay-Pauncefote treaty when it says that the canal shall be “free and open to vessels of commerce and of war of all nations on terms of entire equality” means substan tially what an inkeeper would mean if he agreed that his house should be open to all comers on equal terms. He would NOT mean that he himself had no special rights in his own house. Tty the same token, it is to be observed that every interstate railroad which is now legally hound under the law to carry passengers and freight without preference or discrimination is not precluded from carrying its own employes and supplies free of charge and is forbidden to carry other traffic free of charge. Second, if the treaty had any other meaning than this, when there was question of a canal through the foreign state of Nica ragua, that other meaning certainly can not apply to the pres ent canal—since it runs through our own domestic territories, and is. therefore, to all practical intents, an inland waterway, as truly as the Hudson river or the Mississippi. ■ To Theodore Roosevelt, more than to any other man, is due the gratitude of the natron for the freeing of the canal from all foreign entanglements. It was his courageous action in cut ting a tangle of diplomatic red tape that brought about the ac quisition of the canal zone and made the American title to the canal forever incontestible. President Roosevelt deserves the undying gratitude of his countrymen for this prodigious achieve ment. By his own acts alone and solely on his own responsibility he acquired the Panama zone for the I'nited States and made the canal possible, just as President -lefferson made possible the Louisiana purchase. The pretensions of the British government tire divested of even a specious semblance of cogency because the canal runs through ou!’ own land. The logical position of our government is that if Great Britain insists that the Hay-Pau mefote treaty ties our hands. I then we will put an end to that t reaty. There is no canon of the law or comity of nations that van prev-nt our abrogating a compact that has ceased to serve a mutually useful purpose. And as between the denunciation of th> old treaty and the vanv'Jlaiion of our ownership of the '’anal the nation should not hesitate a moment. The Atlanta Georgian OVERBOARD! Copyright. 1912. by International News Service (!F V.'E wuuD . i J a fa Lthe whibitioh 1 I T / ' / " three: / wZJfI - -Zy y "T:- =- y Prohibitionists east Demon Rum into the briny deep at Atlantic City while -asting about for a presidential candidate. MATRIMONY DE LUXE Bv DOROTHY I)LX. HOW big a bank account should a young man have before he asks the modern maiden to marry him'.' A millionaire Chicago father, whose daughter’s marriage to a poor young man has been broken off, has been expressing his views on the subject, and this is what he says: v "If a young man expects to mar ry the daughter of a well-to-do family he should be prepared to furnish her with the comforts of her father's home She should have tlie best food, clothes, amusements ind friends, and her husband should have a sufficient reserve fund for any sort of sickness or misfortune. "In other words, when a girl leaves her father's home to go with a husband she should feel that there has been little change in her life -either in her habits, ideals, hopes, ambitions, or material comfort. It is the violent transitions that you should avoid in marriage." It is to be hoped that not many fathers hold such expansive Views of what a young man should be able to give his wife when he mar ries her as does this Chicago fa ther Otherwise there is likely to be a record-breaking crop of old maids in the country. Singular Lack of Sense. Cor what this father demands is that the young husband shall begin where the father leaves off. that the young man just commencing his career shall be able to supply a young woman with as many lux uries as does her father, who has hud a lifetime in which to make a fortune. No young man. unless he has in herited money, is able to support a wife in the comfort and style to which she lias been accustomed as the daughter of a successful father, and any man who expects that of a son-in-law is asking the Impos sible, and also displaying a sin gular lack of sense and judgment. The young husband who can take his bride to live in a tine house with a host of servants, who can give her automobiles and trips to Europe, and the gowns and jewels such a.-, site has been used to must be the son of rich parents, accus tomed to living on an allowance himself, and the commonest ob -ervation will show that not one out of a hundred rich youths is fit fm any woman to marry. As a general thing they ao- idle, spoil ed, worthh:., di ; -tpued. with no WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 1912. W .J I dn ‘ljr It DOROTHY DIX. knowledge of money save how to spend it. It Is said that in America it is but two generations front shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves. Cot a girl it may be said with equal truth that when she marries she may decide whether she would prefer to be rich when she's young and poor w hen she's old, or poor w hen she's young and rich when she's old. That is about the way it goes, for the woman who marries the son of a rich father usually dresses in silks when she's young and is glad to get homespuns when she’s old, while the girl who married a poor and ambitious young fellow and pushed her own baby carriage when she was young rides in her own limousine when she is old. Should Be Making Living. .lust as a financial proposition, and taking matrimony for the long pud. as they say on Wall Street, it is a better invesunent for a girl to marry a man who is getting 42,500 a year as a salary that he Is earn ing himself by his own ability than one who has an income of $25,000 a year that he inherited, and that represents somebody rise's intelli gence and industry . I do not advocate the folly of marriage on a shoe string. Before any man asks a woman to be his wife he should be making a decent living, enough to provide them with the ordinary comforts of life, enough to keep the w olf reasonably far from the door, but if he can do this, and if he has shown that he is a real man who can stand on his own feet and take care of hi* own, the girl's father should be sat isfied. He should ask no more money of the suitor. Nor should the girl. Any woman who does not love the man she marries well enough to do without some of the luxuries she has been accustomed to in her father's house for his sake, has a pretty poor and lukewarm brand of affection. If her happiness depends on her having as many clothes, and going to as many plays, and giving as fine din ners as she .has always done, the man who misses getting her ought to go down on his knees and thank heaven for his escape. She isn't a woman. She is a doll baby. She hasn’t a heart. She is stuffed with sawdust. She wouldn't make a man a helpmate. She would be a millstone around his neck to the longest day of his ex istence. It Is. perhaps, natural that a fa ther who has pampered his daugh ter all of her life should desire that she should always be kept in pink cotton in a satin-lined box. but he hasn't got any right to shunt this burden on another man's shoulders. It is nothing more than simple jus tice that if he demands luxuries for her he should supply them himself. Dot System Is Good. In this democratic country men do not demand doweries with their wives as they do on the continent, but there is much to be said in fa vor of the dot system. If a girl has been raised up to be helpless, ex travagant. with no knowledge of how to cook or sew, it is no more than fair that her parents should furnish the money to gratify her tastes and hire somebody else to do the work they have not fitted her to do, instead of demanding that some poor young husband shall slave himself to death to sup port her. The father who does not want tils daughter to marry any but a rich man deprives the girl of the great est happiness that can come to any woman, and that is of helping the man she loves; of being the com rade who stands shoulder to shoul der with him while he fights his battle for success, and who shares with him every interest, every am bition, and so becomes one with him in a sense that no woman is over one with the rich man she marries. That Is the great American ro mance. It begins in two rooms and a cook stove, and ends in a pulace: whereas the marriage that begins in an automobile and a bridal tour to Europe only too often ends in Reno. THE HOME PAPER Dr. Parkhurst’s Article An Early Sermon of Mine on Parsimony —and— Progress That Lasts Is PWI| Slow Written For The Georgian By the Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst THE opinion that a man gains of any moral quality by reading about it or thinking about it is very different from that ■ which he gains by practicing it. This was very vividly illustrated to me many years ago in the case of a member, an esteemed mem ber, of my little church in the country. I had planned to preach a sermon on parsimony. In prepar ing a discourse of that kind it is helpful and stimulating to have in one's mental eye some personal rep resentative, some embodiment of the quality that is to be expounded. In my parish there was one that suited my purpose and who was easily available. I kept him imaginatively by the ■side of my study table during the entire week in which the sermon was in course of preparation. The pen picture, so drawn, cut pretty close to the vitals, and when it was finished I was startled, and not only startled but alarmed, by its resemblance to the original, and hesitated about taking it with me into the pulpit. For he was a center-aisle man, which means a good deal to an im pecunious minister who depends for his meat and drink upon voluntary contributions. As Sunday drew on I trusted that the day might prove rainy, thus se curing the absence of my living ex ample. But it was his habit to wor ship rainy days as well as sunny days, and he was there. His Pew Was in Front, So I Talked to Galleries. His pew was well to the front, and I took care to address myself to the galleries rather than to the auditorium proper. But even so, I was quite sure that the public serv ice would be followed by an after meeting of a more private nature. Hardly had the benediction been pronounced when my anticipation was realized. My friend stepped to the front, his face lit up with a singular (and to me) bewildering kind of illumi nation. He extended his hand with an unusual warmth of hospitality, which I shall never forget, and greeted me with these words: “Mr. Parkhurst. I thank you heartily for that sermon, and I do hope that those old fellows will put it on.” He had a very definite idea as to what generosity was. but he had never gotten an Inside view of it by practicing and working it. • • • WE were climbing one day in the mountains over a rock-arrete shaped like a knife edge, not quite as sharp, but almost, with the ground falling off on either side a couple of thousand feet and the possibility of fatal dis aster. therefore, within easy reach, when my guide addressed me in words to this effect: "We are in no danger and are going to get to the top. All that is necessary is that you do this thing leisurely, avoid making any movement that is spas modic. keep your head on your shoulders and your legs moving in dustriously. but steadily and quiet ly.” There was an entire volume of philosophy in my rough guide’s THE FLAG * By MINNA IRVING. a s *' ' rt - a soldier’s eoat, * * And strips of flannel made, I’pon the smoky battle breeze The flag was first displayed. Combining in its brave design The midnight and the morn, Behold! It barely covered then A nation newly born. Rut since it put the foe to rout Its stars of glory bright Have grown so fast that every land Is guided by their light. The dauntless stripes of white and red Kort Stanwix saw unfurled Above a few intrepid souls i Now shelters all the world. prescription, and it is as applicable on flat land as on ground that is turned up on edge. Os course, we arrived at the sum mit whole and unworried, and re turned In the same placid state of mind and undisintegrated condi tion of body. My mountaineers view of the situation was of an optimistic cast, but his optimism was not of a silly order, but found ed on reasonable conditions. To be hopeful merely because one is determined to be hopeful is child ish and quite another thing from being so because taking the steps by which it is rational to believe that one’s hopes will be realized. His Optimism Founded On Reasonable Conditions, Os course, my guide made no promise as to Sow much time would be required to complete the ascent. That was left indefinite; has to be left indefinite in every man’s pro gram. It might have required all day; might have required all day and all night. The only certain thing was that we were going to get there because we were going to pursue a policy of quietness, persistency and self control. And that is a picture of the wav in which results generally are ac complished, if they are accom plished. It is not done by revo lution, but by evolution; by taking one step steadily and sanely on 'he top of the preceding steps. When things move wholesnmelv and in such away that the ground gone over does not have to be re traced they move not by leaps and bounds, nor by any short cut. but by a progress that is conservative: that is to say, a progress that shows a respect for the past as well as a zeal for the future. Revolu tion may sometimes be necessary. .Perhaps that was the case In France in 1793. We think it was in our own case in 1776. But, in gen eral, as Victor Hugo once said. “Revolutions are the BRUTALI TIES of progress.” Even the Socialists have thl« m their credit, that in the face of Haywood's advocacy of revolution ary methods, the Socialists in con vention at Indianapolis last month voted by more than two to one to adopt conservative, evolutionary methods in terms of the following resolution: “Any member of the party who opposes political action or advocates crime, sabotage o' other methods of violence as i weapon of the w-orking class aid in its emancipation. shall be expelled from membership in the party.” It Takes Time to Retrace One’s Steps. Such action, especially when taken by men socialistically in clined, is a clear indication that, as a, people, we are arrived at such a condition of intelligence and re spect for righteous authority that no results can be regarded as per manently achieved unless secured by due process that is untainted by lawlessness or blinded by passion. Whatever is done otherwise will have to be done over again Re tracing traversed ground costs time, but there is no other com modity of which there is such am ple abundance.