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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 postortice at Atlanta, under act of March 3. 1873. Subscription Price —Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week. By mail, la.oo a year. Payable in advance. Root’s Brief for the British on Canal Question V. M •? He Thinks That Congress Is Presumptous in Attempting to Legislate on the Subject of Canal Tolls. Senator Root has espoused the contention of the English gov ernment that the United States has no right to favor its own ships in the matter of canal tolls at Panama. It is not to he supposed that Mr. Root is a mere sentimental Anglomaniac—blindly eager to do whatever they do in London. 1 he sudden and eloquent Toryism of his speech last week in the senate must be attributed to other impulses. It should be borne in mind that the cause of the British in this case is the cause of the Shipping Trust and the transcontinental railroads. And to such a cause every fiber of Mr. Root s mentality instinctively responds. Said Mr. Root: ( "I am reluctant to make an argument against the rights of the United States. . . . But it is certain to me that if the provision now before us, making the discrimination against which Great Britain protests, Is enacted the question raised will be one for arbitration under the Hay-Pauncefote treaty. . . . This is a question we can not finally decide. . . . Our right to legislate may be decided against us by The Hague tribunal. . . . No one can tell what a vast burden of debt would be piled up if we collected tolls and the decision of the court required us to repay them. . . . We may be subjected to a ruinous demand upon the treasury.'’ In short, Mr. Rodt is moved by some power, which seems to him greater than the United States, to deny the sovereignty of the United States over the canal zone. He thinks that congress is pre sumptuous in attempting to legislate on the subject of canal tolls, and that such presumption may be severely punished—-with “ruinous” consequences to the United States treasury. Mr. Root has the reputation of being a great corporation law yer.* He has. however, no very great reputation to lose as a con stitutional lawyer—else it is likely that not even the strong tug of his sympathy for the transportation trusts could have drawn him into the preposterous position he has taken in the matter. It should be perfectly clear, as a matter of constitutionality and international law, that the Panama canal is an American in land waterway; that the government of the United States has ab solute sovereignty over it; that congress can legislate in the matter as it pleases—can destroy the canal, if it likes, or open it to the world's commerce on its own terms, and that if the Hay-Paunce fote treaty stands in the way it can be put out of the way in a manner conformable to the custom and ciynity of nations. The complete answer to Senator Root's brief for the British is, first, that the Hay-Pauucefote treaty contains nothing in dero gation of American sovereignty over the canal, and, second, that we should immediately denounce and abrogate the treaty it it did. Senator Lodge offered fresh and convincing confirmation of the first point in his speech in the senate the other day. lie re called the fact that he was himself the member of the foreign relations committee who reported to the senate in I'.XM) the ap proved draft of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty with (treat Britain. Mr. Lodge declared that the United States had retained by the treaty full rights to form its own policy toward American vessels. He de fended the principle of free tolls tor American ships, lie said: "1 was of the opinion, at the time I brought the report, that it left us in complete control In determining the position of our own vessels. 1 did not suppose that any limitation was imposed, and did not believe that the United States was included among the nations to be ’treated with equality’ . under the treaty terms.” Our right, or England's right, to denounce and abrogate this treaty—or any treaty—when it ceases to be mutually useful to the contracting parties is equally clear. There is nothing about a treaty that makes it more sacred than the constitution. And the constitution gives the government of the United States sovereignty over all the lands and waters of the United States. It is the custom of nations that a treaty may be changed or annulled when it ceases to be just and equitable to one of the parties Commercial treaties are bargains in which privilege is matched against privilege Such conventions as the Hay Paunee fote treaty rest upon the idea of reciprocal advantages, each partv obtaining an equivalent for what is yielded. The life goes out of them when one of the parties fails I<> obtain such an equivalent. We made, for example, a treaty with England in 1834. with reference to Canadian reciprocity, ami we annulled this treaty in 1863—without straining in the least our friendly relations with England. In the last ninety years we have made reciprocity treaties with forty-two countries, and we have amended them, continued them or terminated them without question of our right to do so. The simple fact is that the Hoot theory of the present situation is a baseless fabrication, invented and propagated by private in terests. Representative Knowland. of California, explained to the pres ident last week how the Canadian railroads, prompted by inter oceanic railroad interests on this side of the line, have instigated the protest of the British government against free Panama tolls for the ships of the United States. Mr. Root may not have had any personal initiative in this in trigue. But its purpose has aroused the latent sympathies of his heart and spurred him to a championship that is congenial to his habit The Atlanta Georgian What Shall It Profit a Man? By HAL COFFMAN. Ate ? ’co A taji lifeSWoA \ 1/ i hi .Il ji| 1 « THE WISE WOMAN M Dear wintered black: "What do you think of a «Oman 40 years old who is so dpad in love with her hus band that sjhe can’t wait for the mail to be distributed, but stands in front of the postofiice window like some love-sick girl of sweet sixteen ? "There’s a woman like that here at this summer resort. She’s the joke of the whole place and I feel sorry for her, for she is a nice woman in every other way, and a sensible one. too. Do you think I ought to tell her mit to let every body see what a goose she is about her husband? “WELL MEANING.” What do 1 think of a woman 50 years old who is dead in love with her husband ? I think she’s a worn- Questions in Science By EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN. QIS it true that a physician can diagnose diseases in * his ofH.t e when the patients are in a distant hospital by means of electricity? \. A physician in a distant of fice. if lie ijas tin proper electrical devices, can count pulse, and also hear the systols and diastole of the heart in its beating. A stethoscope can be connected with a transmit ting telephone, and sounds in the chest magnitlod and transmitted. Air rushing in tile lungs can then be heard by the distant physician. Q. Atlantis, the* submerged land between Spain and Central Amer ica. has been mentioned quite fre quently of I<ite in some of tile pe riodical.- 1 read. Was there ever such a continent? A- There is no rigid scientific proof of the existence of the tradi tional continent now supposed to be at the bottom of the Atlantic. Remains of prehistoric plants, like thos. now growing in Central America, Cuba and Venezuela, have been discovered in islands now ris ing above the waves of the Atlan tic ocean. The stories told to Solon and the Greeks by the an cient Egyptians are familiar to all. Hut a very r< markable series of books purporting to be accounts of Atlantis are in existence. A new book on this fascinating subject is announced from tune to time-—the last being a huge volume of SO7 pages, it is hop, <1 that some in scription or writing of some kind will be discovered in the ruined THURSDAY, JULY 25, 1912. By WINIFRED BLACK. an of sense and a woman of brains and a woman who knows how to get the good out of life, and if I were you I’d stop feeling sorry for her and feel sorry for myself and for every other woman who is fool ish enough to let the girls of six teen and the fascinators of 30 or so have all the fun of things. Do you know the sort of world that woman you laugh at lives in, you poor, blind, stupid, "well mean ing" soul, you? She fives in a world of sweet sui;- IVises, glorious discoveries, splendid faiths, and joys that are as far be yond anything the nice little girl (who thinks she's dead in love with Claud because Claud wears such perfectly lovely tennis clothes) knows that there's no comparison between them at all. temples now being excavated from beneath the site of ancient Mem phis, the great capital of ancient Egypt. Q. Please deline the word ener gy. A.—l can not. Suppose that I should be asked: "What is the cause of light moving with the in cessant. specific speed of 186.383 miles during each successive second of time?" I would be utterly un able to reply, ( First, I can not think of the cause of this unthink able velocity. How answer.’ The fact is, science does not know what anything really is. Electrons are the vanishing points; they ate on the limit of knowledge, of even hope of thought. All are agreed that they are elec tricity, but that does not help in the solution of any riddle of the universe. It does not seem possible that science will come to an end in any attempt at explaining. Some new discovery surpassing all others may yet be made. Really, such a dis covery inust be made, or science will come to an impenetrable wall, for we can not at present think of mind, life or an electron. How progress or advance in search of anything if we are unable to think of it? This is a gloomy outlook; but just nott it appears to be hope lessly Impossible to discover any fact as to what mind, life and elec tricity are. I have printed during 30 years that the human mind is illimitable in its powers; but I may be obliged finally to admit that it can not find what itself is. Ten o’clock in the morning! What does that hour mean to you—there at the resort where you are spend ing the summer, tatting or crochet ing? And you gossip there on the front piazza, don’t you? Lovely, uplifting, inspiring, thrill ingly exciting, that sort of thing, isn’t it? The woman you laugh at doesn't hear one word of it, she’s waiting for her mail. A fool—that woman? She's the only sensible one among you all. There's that friend of yours, the "wise woman”—oh, how is. So wise that her tired eyes look al! the time as if she were in the most terrible torment, and she can't smile a natural smile to save her life. That husband of the wise wom an—she’s always making fun of him, isn't she? and taking the greatest pains to show every one tljat she doesn’t care the snap of her finger .about him. He’d like to be in love with his wife, and he’dWlike to believe that she is in love with him. if he is 40 years old and not particularly handsome. He’d like to remember the Wise Woman as she wafc when he first met her. when they were both young and happy. He'd like to. put a little halo of sentiment around her rather stupid little head, but the wise woman can never be “fooled” by any such gammon as that, not she. Qh, she knows him. she knows all men, they are all frauds, every one of them, all gay deceivers. She lets her own particular gay deceiver see quite plainly that she doesn’t care a rap for him, but does care for his cheek book, and he is gradually growing to be the very thing she expects him to be— just because she does expect it. She’s the one who leads the laugh at the woman who is in love witlt her husband, isn't she? —poor, silly, dull-witted thing, she’s missed all that is best in life and is bragging about it. "Hurrah!" cried the blind man. “I'm stone blind, I don't have to be bothered seeing sunsets and moon rises. A rose looks just the same to me as a blackeyed Susan. I never care whether it’s dawn or dusk it's all the same to me. I'm wise, really wise; I am blind, stone blind, and I'm proud of it.” * That’s what the "wise women" are like poor, blind things—and they dare laugh at any one with the blessed gift of sight! Sit at the feet of the woman in love with her husband, well mean ing one. if you really are "well meaning." and learn wisdom—the only wisdom of all the ages, the wisdom of love. THE HOME PAPER The Education of the Voter THE QUESTIONING CITIZEN The Well-Paid Man and the Well-Equipped Citizen Are in the Same Class. They Both Get There by Asking Questions. By THOMA S TAPPER. A COLLEGE president, speak ing about the well paid man, said: ‘‘The man who is wanted is the man who can DO the thing. Some __ may guess at it; some may have read about it. This man can DO it. He has learned his lesson. He kept doggedly at it. He paid the price. He saw things-far off that others did not see. Therefore, the world now wants him. Therefore, he has his chance. “But the man who achieves is not simply the man who CAN do the thing. He is the man who WILL do it. His mind is not on the pay. His eye is not on the clock. He is not counting the dif ficulties. His business is to see the thing done. He stops when he has finished. ‘‘And the man who achieves does not need to hunt for a job. The job hunts him. And life’s best fun is its work well done.” The well paid man and the well equipped citizen lire in the same class. They both get. there by ask ing questions. If things as they are seem wrong, they do not wor ship things as they are, but they begin to examine into them. $75,000,000 Might Have Been Saved. The United States government is, in some things, a type of Ques tioning Citizen-body. In 1911, the questions of the postoffice depart ment addressed to gentlemen who sell securities by mail to the public drew forth the information that practically worthless goods were exchanged for $77,000,000 of good money. The government was able to put some of these promoters in jail. But it did not get them all. The NEW YORK AMERICAN, quoting Mr. B. F. Harris, president of the Illinois Bankers association, states that the people of the United States (citizens and voters with rights and privileges) are annually swindled out of $300,000,000 through the sale of fake securities of one kind and another. In other words, it costs the citi zens $1,000,000 a day NOT TO ASK QUESTIONS. They worship on Sunday. They feel proud of the public educational system on week days. They read papers seven days a week. They pay up promptly—a million a day. Meanwhile, it is hard to meet bills, for wages are low. Mean- . while, the citizen finds it difficult to prosper becatTse of the high cost of living; but, meanwhile, regularly as the day dawns, out goes a mil lion dollars to the wildcat gentle men who have families to support. H. Xo be a good citizen, your ear must be to the ground. It is your duty’to yourself and your family to know who is coming up the street—arid what he wants. :: The Forecast :: By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX (Reprinted by permission from Good Housekeeping Magazine for July.) F I may bp that I dreamed a dream; it may be that 1 saw 1 he forecast of a time to come, by some supernal law. I seemed to dwell in this same world, and in this modern time; \ et nowhere was there sight or sound of poverty dr crime. All strife had ceased; men were disarmed; and quiet Peace h; made A thousand avenues for toil, in place of War's grim trade, from hast to West, from North to South, where highways smool and broad Pied State to State, the waste lands bloomed like garden spots i God. 1 here were no beggars in the streets; there were no unemployed, For each man owned his plot of ground, and labored ami enjoyed. Sweet children grew like garden Howers; all strong and fair to so And when I marvelled at the sight, thus spake a Voice to me: “All Motherhood is now an art; the greatest art on earth; And nowhere is there known the crime of one unwelcome birth. From rights of parentage the sick and sinful are debarred; I*or Matron Science keeps our house, and at the door stands gua know the cure for darkness lies in letting in the light; And Prisons are replaced by Schools, where wrong views change right. The wisdom, knowledge, study, thought, once bent on beast and so We give now to the human race, the highest work of God; And, as the gard'ner chooses seed, so we select with care; And as our Man Plant grows, we give him soil and sun and air. There are no shims; no homeless poor, all men are opulent, For Mother Earth belongs to them, as was the First Intent.” It may be that I dreamed a dream; it may be that I saw The forecast of a time to come, by some supernal law. No man is a good citizen who does not demand of humanity what he can justly have. There is no statement in the Federal or state constitution that you shall be pros perous. But there is a distinct statement that you MAY be. Now, the lack of prosperity results from two causes: 1. Political conditions produced by men in office. 2. Personal conditions produced by yourself at home. As a rule, the lack of prosperity is invariably a personal matter. This means that you a’re, to a great extent, responsible for what you get or do not get. Main Thing Is To Keep Awake. The main thing, however, is to keep awake. Do things as they are seem to put you out of the race? Ask questions, and find out where the fault lies. Are you spending all you egrn on necessities? Ask questions; per haps you can spend more wisely, if you examine your own methods. Has a gent knocked at the front door, a gent with securities sticking out of his pocket? Ask questions. It is costing a million dollars a day not to do it. Several conditions make prosper ity hard to secure. I mean the prosperity that you yourself enjoy in your own family. Generally we blame the trusts, the shortage of crops, the party in power, and so on. Well, theyWnay deserve it, or they may not. But there is no doubt about prosperity being influ enced by three things: 1. The Easy Mark side of human nature that pays three hundred million dollars a year for nothing. 2. The willingness we all show in paying taxes—not to the tax as sessor, but to the saloon keeper, the slot-machine man, the cigarette maker and all the rest of that jo vial company, 3. The refusal to be introduced to Frugality. Self-denial, and Econo my, and the insane ambition to run up and down the streets of the town with Prodigality, Waste and Extravagance. Ask Questions When You Hear Him. When the spellbinder stands on top of a barrel and tells you that the government is the cause of the high cost of living and the low rate of wages—ASK QUESTIONS. Before you adjudge the govern ment guilty of the crime, try your own case. It may flatter your vanity and raise your expectations to be told that if you had your rights -you would be better off. Well, you would be better off if you had your rights. And you can have them by asking questions OF YOURSELF. It is largely up to you.