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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every zXfternoon Except Sunday
Py THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga.
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The “Mi(l(Ile-( 'lass” Manilas
Always Been the Fighter,
the Real Revolutionist
He, and Not the Man at the Bottom of the Heap or at the Top
of the Heap, Has Worked for Progress in This World.
Our distinguished and able fellow citizen, Victor Berger, who
represents the whole Socialist party of the I'nited States in the
I’nited States congress, comments interestingly upon the Roosevelt
program and party in a letter which he sends to The New York
Times.
Berger sees in Roosevelt a man who will create Socialists and
develop socialistic theory and socialistic voting.
Mr Berger says that Roosevelt “appeals to the restive middle
class, not to enlightened labor.'’
Nobody knows better than Victor Berger that nothing is so
powerful in this world as “a restive middle class.”
Berger knows that the great changes in the world have come
from the restive middle class. It is not the roof or the foundation
of the social structure that, has done the work and brought about
the changes.
CROMWELL belonged to the restive middle class he changed
England and all of Europe.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE belonged to tin* restive midfile
class His mother was a middle class woman, almost as broad as she
was high and with good business instinct.
DANTON, ROBESPIERRE, MARAT, all belonged to the
restive middle class.
And MIRABEAU, who started the great French wheel revolv
ing. took the stand that ho did because prejudice and dislike pushed
him down from the nobility and compelled him to ally himself with
that restive middle class.
The restive middle class followed Caesar in Romo, and de
stroyed the power of a patrician senate.
A restive middle class in this country represented by George
Washington and Jefferson and men of this type threw ov#r the Eng
lish power. The aristocrats of that day in America, as in England,
wanted no change. And the masses al the bottom of the heap de
manded no change.
Ts Roosevelt can lead the restive middle class, or can ride se
curely along on a wave of middle-class restlessness, he will travel
far. The man who ha.s any power in our day raises himself into the
middle class EASILY. He may not roach the top. I'nusual intelli
gence or unusual dishonesty or good luck is necessary to put a man
among the first few.
Bui in our day real ability gets into the middle class readily.
And when real ability finds that it hasn’t a fair chance, that it lacks
justice, it, becomes restive here in America, or in the England of
Cromwell’s day. or in the France of 1790, or in Rome before the '
Christian era.
Workingmen feed the middle class, workingmen supplv the
ablest individual to all of the classes so called “above” Ihe labor 1
class.
But the great work is nol done in political, revolutionary or i
other great movements by working-class individuals. And as that
is historically true, it may as well be frankly acknowledged In Ber
ger and others.
In the whole of the French revolution there was never one
single uneducated workingman that ever reached any position of
power or influence. It was “restive middle-class” work.
'
Stanley Report Muddles
the Trust Question
"The control of corporations by the Federal government, as rec
ommended by Mr. Carnegie. Judge Gary and others, Is not ap
proved. • • • Such a control, seml-soclalistlc In its nature. Is be
yond the power vested In the constitution In the Federal congress.”
In the foretyointr words the Stanley committee of the house of
representatives—which has spent many months trying to find out
what should be done with trusts in general and with the Steel Trust
in particular reveals its mental incompetency for the task.
There is not even an appearance of cogency in the theory that
congress has no constitutional power to regulate the great indus
trial trusts For it is perfectly plain that if the combinations in
steel, oil, tobacco and so on are permitted to do an interstate busi
ness. that business must fall under the head of interstate commerce.
And since congress has the settled and unquestionable right to reg
nlate the common carriers of interstate commerce, its right to reg
ulate the interstate industrial concerns that employ the common car
riers is equally unquestionable.
If the Stanley committee had the courage to go to the logical
conclusion of its narrow and reactionary theory of “state rights.”
it would recommend that each of the states should refuse TO
RE( OGNIZE I HE EXISTENCE of any industrial corporation that
was not of its own chartering. It should be plain, even to the Stan
ley committee, that manufacturing corporations must either be kept
wholly out of the field of interstate commerce, or else must be made
amenable to the interstate power at Washington. It is not tolera
ble that interstate “industrials'- should be permitted to live in a
twilight zone—beyond reach of the individual states, and outside
Ihe constitutional compel, nev of congress
It may be conceivable that the states of the Fnion should be
made entirely foreign to each other, so far as industrial corporations
ar? concerned. It may 1 < cot < vable. for example, that a New
York industrial corporation ought not to sue or be sued in the state
of Pennsylvania, or to have any properly rights or legal existence
there. But it is NOT eoneeivabl tfi-j such corporations shall «n
on LIVING A NATIONAL LIFE WITHOI T KESPONSIBn ty
TO THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT h.ii.im
The Stanley committee has put itself i(1 a preposterous posi
tion with reference to the powers oi congress and the rights of th.,
states. But that is not the bottom of its follv Its fundamental
error is a complete failure to understand the law of the . volution
of modern business and the inevitableiiess of the world-wide t.
denc.y toward industrial combination
The Stanley committee underrates the power of congress in
its relation to the states But it also overrates th. power of ron
gress in its relation to the mighty modern tr. nd toward industrial
combination and co operation.
The Atlanta Georgian
DOES IT PAY? 1
j Copyright. 1912, by International News Service
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111 :< ALLS HIMSELF A MAN
By BEATRICE FAIRFAX.
ONE who undoubtedly classes
himself as a sample of "the
Lord's noblest handiwork —
Man,” writes tile following letter:
"I am 25 years of age and have
been keeping company with a girl
three years my junior for a year
and a half. 1 had been earning
sl2 a week, but lately an uncle died
and left me a sum of money which
I feel 1 ought to enjoy while it lasts.
"Rut my girl friend doesn't care
to dress as T would have her dress.
She says she can't afford it, but if
she wants to travel with me she
has to have some class So I have
given her up. She seems heart
broken. as site loved me dearly. Did
Tdo right or wrong? L. H. N. U.”
The men have claimed since the
first man was made that their sex
lacks every element of conceit.
They have taken to themselves all
wisdom. They are the truer, the
finer, the nobler, the braver sex.
and If there exists a man who
doesn't say It, it is becau.se he seeks
a reputation for gallantry. Down
in his heart he thinks It.
This "L. H. N. 1’.,” whom we nil!
.•all Alphabet for short, believes
that he is a prize. He was sure of
it when he got sl2 a week, but the
world didn't know it. Xow that he
has inherited a few dollars from
an uncle, the world, he thinks, is
finding it out.
Not Good Enough.
The girl who was good enough
for him when he got sl2 a week is
not good enough for him now. An
oft-told tragedy, as many wives
have found.
She must have some class if site
wants to.travel with him! I rejoice
in the level-headedness that leads
her to decide to discontinue the
journey lam proud of a girl who
refuses to spend more on clothes
than -h< .an afford, in order to
k* ep the so-called love of a man.
I am delighted to find that such
a girl exists, and if she win refuse
Io ■ til’-- Alphabet man enter her
I' l ' -■ io • agam. my delight will t><
bey ond i ypi. slou
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1912.
He wants a girl on high heels
who paints her cheeks to match his
increased income, and whose
"class” will match his own. And
that class is of the swagger, imi
tation order. It is a class that no
good, sensible girl cares to enter.
It is a class that decks itself in
cheap adornment and that delights
in all that is flashy and tawdry.
Those who affect that style are
not the kind of people who yvill
Questions in
Science *
By Edgar Lucien Larkin
t
Q "You have slated in The
Georgian that two balls of equal
size but ope weighing twice as
much as the other, if dropped from
the same height at the same time,
would strike the earth at the same
time. Please explain the reason
w hy the heavier one does not strike
the earth first?"
A. Newton 'made th. capital
discovery that action and reaction
are equal. And by his law of gravi
tation. its attraction between any
two bodies is directly as the prod
uct of their masses. From this It
is clear that if the mass of any
body increases, the force of attrac
tion also increases at the same
rate, and also its specific speed, in
a vacuum, free from friction of air.
all bodies, whatever their respective
masses, obeying the attraction of
universal gravitation. fall through
the same distance in the same time.
Q. —"Will you answer the ques
tion whether there Is more timber
in a mountain section of land than
on a section down on the plains*
the trees being spaced the same?"
A —This is similar to the picket
f< nee problem. Let one square mile
be set with rows of trees, as in an
. apart.
Take another square mile with a
hill inclosed. On the plain let the
trees be ten feet apart in a row
from north to south; then there
yvould he 528 trees Let a tow run
ning over the hill contain 550 trees;
then thete would be as many ihore
trees on the rough section as there
are rows haying this excess of 22.
True ,>f any ex<-e-<
stand wear, any more than their
tawdry attire yvill stand a storm.
They are showy and fickle. If
they have one good trait it is hid
den under ignorance and conceit.
If they have a little success they
turn that success into failure by
letting it turn their heads.
If they have a little money thay
become the prey of all the unscrup
ulous. Their conceit is so blinding
they lose the power of recognizing
the true from the false, and good
friends in their humbler days are
abandoned for flatterers.
The End in Sight.
This man's inherited yvealth will
not last long. His letter tells a
story that ends in financial ruin. He
wants to "enjoy it while it lasts,’
and his manner of enjoyment is
such that it yvill not last long.
This is not the greatest misfor
tune; he will spend it in such a
way he can never again be con
tent with the simple enjoyments he
found in his twelve dollar income.
That was earned by hard, honest
labor. He could not afford any ex
travagant joys with it. but a pleas
ure doesn't have to cost much to
be a pleasure when one loves, and
is yvith the object of one’s affec
tion.
He can’t go back. He thinks in
his present moments of puffed-up
idleness that he doesn’t want to go
bttck. But the day will come when
he w ill curse his little inheritance,
his own asinine conceit and stu
pidity, and the day he was born.
He says the girl loves him. That
may have been true when he got
twelve dollars A week. She knows
him so much better now. I am sat
isfied her feeling for him is largely
a pitying contempt. ,
He is going up like a rocket that
yvill flash across the sky. and he
thinks the w ill last. He doesn't
realize that no one looks for the
burned-out stick that falls to the
ground.
Did he do right in giving the girl
up? Yes. a thousand times yes!
For he has saved her from the ter
ribb- fate of becoming his wife
Dr. Parkhurst’s Article
! • on .
Interview With Mme. t I v
Sarah Bernhardt
—and—
| The Uplift of Pulpit mHb
and Stage
Written For The Georgian
By the Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst
IN an interview which it was my
pleasure to have with Madame
> Bernhardt a year or two ago,
;■ one question which I asked her she
J failed to answer.
She had told me that any In
j quiry which I might make of her
j she would reply to, but In one In-
J stance she was evasive, and very
j; much to my regret, for 1 felt that
! her answer .to that particular
< question would reveal a good deal
to me as to the moral and reti
s gious' attitude of her own mind.
The inquiry to which T failed to
\ receive a reply was this: "Do you
j give your preference to the pulpit
; or to the stage, considered as means
i of human uplift?”
Change of Opinion
Toward the Theater.
She is too bright and too expe
j rienced a person not to have a
} rather definite opinion upon a ques
! tion of that kind. lying so close as
j it does to the line of her own in
! terest and pursuit.
I have always w'ondered why it
! was that, communicative as she
proved to be upon all other matters
to which her attention was called,
! she was so reticent upon this.
Even among distinctively church
! circles there has been, during the
> last 50 years, a decided change of
j opinion, or at least of usage, as to
> ward the theater.
< Whether the truth of the case is
f to be stated by saying that change
of sentiment induced change of
usage, ob change of usage induced f
change of sentiment, is a question
about which opinions might differ.
We know that in such matters
people sometimes alter their cus
toms and habits first, and then ad
just their opinions to match.
It is rather commonly the case
that we shape our doctrines to fit
aur behavior rather than our be
havior to fit our doctrines, and,
having learned to allow ourselves
modes of living and doing that
conscience would at one time have
forbidden, turn around and fix over
our doctrine in away to satisfy the
necessaries of our altered and per
haps deteriorated, behavior; for we
do like to keep ouv conduct and our
creed somewhere in sight of each
other, whether by prodding the one
or by curbing the other.
This is not. however, to be taken
as a critique upon the theater, for
:■ Down by the Sea
By SLOANE GORDON.
■t V tE’RE living down by the sounding sea—
\/\/ The sad, the ceaseless, sobbing sea—
Where the water's wet and the air is free,
By the soulful, singful, sighful sea. ?
( And there's plenty of fog and sand and sky
And the sand flea rages and fish are shy.
< The grocer, of course, is on the job, J
And that’s why the sea and the victims sob;
But the water s wet and the air is free,
? And it costs you nothing to see the sea. i
> Out in the grass and through the wood
J The chigger chigs as a chigger should;
He burrows into your trusting hide
$ And seeks to emerge’on the other side. {
Eor energy, push and ceaseless toil j
The chigger's the insect Standard Oil; I
The wood-tick dallies along the way, >
But the chigger chigs till the close of day. >
The songful skeeter of Jersey fame (
? Gets happily into the Summer game.
He nips an ankle or nips a nose, <
S And loves the open-work style of hose. J
H<j sings his way through a peek-a-boo.
? And all men envy him—wouldn't you?
> As soon as the chigger's day is done
S The skeeter’s shift is at once begun. (
But, still, we're down by the sounding sea;
5 And the water's wet and the air i free!
{ The crafty crab and the cooing clam 5
(Eor which no fisherman gives a—continental)
Can be procured for the price of meat, 5
If one must sordidly stop to eat; J
Or one may fatten on beans and pork
That are tinned and labeled In-old New York
But the water's wet *(nd the air is
And i ts us not gto Sts- - . ..., •
THE HOME PAPER
that which the theater has to offer
—assuming, of course, that it is
meets a le
gitimate demand in that it minis
ters refreshment, that it is rational
without being mentally, wearying,
and that it is diverting without
being sensuously debasing.
That except in rare instances peo
ple are made any better in their
morals or finer in their .piety by
the theater there is no reason to
believe.
And it is easy to suppose that
Madame Bernhardt's conviction of
that fact is what explains her ret
icence in reference to the question
which she evaded. A man is not
morally or religiously bettered by
any influence that does not tend
to some sort of moral or religious
action, and that is a result which,
judging from observation, is not
predicate of dramatic exhibition.
The whole thing is conducted in
an unsubstantial atmosphere of fic
tion. A successful actress, who
consulted me in regard to certain
matters that touched closer to the
line of actual living than those that
were traversed by her own dramat
, ic experience, once said to me:
"That which you say is probably
true, but I have lived so long and
so constantly in the realm of the
unreal that I am not able to dis
criminate between what is true and
what is false.”
A whole audience may be
brought to sob with tender emo
ll tion. without a single member hav
ing his heart permanently softened
into a condition of finer altruism.
Theaters Have Large
Mission to Fulfill.
Tears wrung from the eyes by
fictitious sin Or fictitious sorrow
neither spring from the heart nor
soak back into the heart in gra
cious irrigation.
Nevertheless a theater that deals
in what is intelligent or even in
What is emotional has a large mis
sion to fulfill in these days of suf
fering and weariness.
We need more diversion, not
less. Only let the friends of the the
ater be content to credit it with
just so much service as it is con
stitutionally fitted to render and
not claim for it a function which it
is inherently incompetent to per
form.
