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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 second-class matter at post office at Atlanta, under act of March S, 1873
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mail, $3.00 a year
Paygb’e in advance.
The“M idd le-Class” M an Has
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 S
class, not to enlightened labor.”
Nobody knows better than Victor Berger that nothing is so j
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 J
England and all of Europe.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE belonged to the restive middle ;
class. His mot her was a middle-class woman, almost as broad as she J
was high and with good business instinct. !
DANTON, ROBESPIERRE. MARAT, all belonged to the i
restive middle class.
And MIRABEAU who started the great French wheel revolv
ing, took the stand that he 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 Rome, and de- ?
stroyed the power of a patrician senate. ?
A restive middle class in this country represented by George <
Washington and Jefferson ami men of this type threw over the Eng- (
»lish power. The aristocrats of that day in America, as in England, \
wanted no change. And the masses at the bottom of the heap de- >
manded no change. 5
If Roosevelt can lead the restive middle class, or can ride se- j
curely along on a wave of middle-class restlessness, he will travel '
far. The man who has any power in our day raises himself into the H
middle class EASILY. He may not reach the top. I'nusual intelli- H
gence or unusual dishonesty or good luck is necessary to put a man B
among the first few.
But in our day real ability gets into the middle class readily. i<
And when real ability finds that it hasn’t a fair chance, that it lacks y
justice, it becomes restive here in America, or in the England of B
Cromwell’s day, or in the France of 1790, or in Rome before the g
Christian era.
Workingmen feed the middle class, workingmen supplv the
ablest individual to all of the classes so called “above” the labor ■
class.
But the great work is not done in political, revolutionary or
other great movements by working-class individuals. Am] as that
is historically true, it may as well be frankly acknowledged by Her- , ■
ger and others.
In the whole of the French revolution there was never one ;
single uneducated workingman that ever reached any position of j
power or influence. It was “restive middle class” work
Stanley Report Muddles
the Trust Question
mu , ———nil—,,——,,
"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, semi-socialistic in its nature, is be
yond the power vested in the constitution in the Federal congress."
In the foregoing words the Stanley committee of the house of
representatives—which has spent many months trying to find out
what should he done with trusts in general ami 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 it 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
ulate 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
RECOGNIZE 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 ot the field ot 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
the constitutional competency of congress.
It may be conceivable that the slates of the I nion should be
made entirely foreign to each other, so far as indust rial corporations
are concerned. It may be conceivable, for example, that a New
York industrial corporation ought not to sue or be sued in the state
ot Pennsylvania, or to hav. any property rights or legal existence
there. But it is NOT cone, ivable that such corporations shall >m
on LIVING A NATIONAL LIFT. WITIKHT KESpONSIBII ITY
TO THE NATIONAL GOV EILN M ENT
The Stanley committee has put itself in a pr. posterous posi
tion with reference to the powers of congress and the rights of the
states. But that is not tin bottom of its folly Its fundamental
error is a complete failure to understand the law of the evolution
of modern business and the imvitabbness of the world wide ten
deucy toward industrial combination
The Stanley committee underrates tl,. power of congress in
its relation tp the states. But it also ovvrnitrs tin* power of
Stress in its relation to the mighty modern trend toward industrial
combination ami co-operation.
The Atlanta Georgian
I DOES IT PAY?
Copyright, 1912, by International News Service
w- _ y / \_. WJ?.r Uy
■ .
I Ulllhllfi l| II ' ™ URp W/W,
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T ERROR', -tiW
1 Mh 11
/- aMc ;
i 11. ( \l .1 > HIMSELF A MAN
By BEATRK k FAIRFAX.
ONE who undoubtedly classes
himself as a sample of "the
Lord's noblest handiworlf--
Man." writes the 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. I 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.
"But my girl friend doesn’t care
to dress as I would have her dress.
She says site can’t afford it, but if
she wants to travel with me she
has to have some class. So 1 have
given her up. She seems heart
broken. as she loved me dearly. Did
1 do right or wrong? 1.. H. N. IT.”
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
liner, the nobler, the braver sox.
and if there exists a man who
doesn't say it, it is because he seeks
a reputation for gallantry. Down
in his heart he thinks it.
This "1.. 11. N. 1'.,” whom we will
call 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. Now 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
. ft-told tragedy, as many wives
have found.
Siu must have some class if she
wants to travel with him! 1 rejoice
in the level-headedness that leads
her to decide to discontinue the
journey. I am proud of a girl who
refuses to spend more on clothes
than she can afford, in order to
keep the so-called love of a man.
1 am delighted to find that such
a girl exists, and if she will refuse
to this Alphabet man enter her
pr. sem e again, my delight wUI be
b. xon . < \t>i • -siou
WEDNESDAY, AVGUST 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 adornmept, and that delights
in all that is flashy and tawdry.
Those who affect that style are
not the kind of people’ who will
Questions in
Science
By Edgar Lucien Larkin
Q. —"You have stated in The
Georgian that two batfs x of equal
size' but one 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
why the heavier one does not strike
the earth first?"
A. — Newton made the 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 answei 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
fence problem. Let one square mile
be set with rows of trees, as in an
orchard at equal distances 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
would be 52S trees. Let a row tun
ning over th. hill contain 550 trees;
then there would be as many more
trees on the rough section as there
at e rows having this > x. .-ss of 22.
t..... ..<• ..... ..... .
stand wear, any mpre than their
tawdry attire will 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 they
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 wealth 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 will not last long.
This is not the greatest misfor
tune; lie will spend it in such a
way lie 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 with the object of one's affec
tion.
He can't go back. He thinks in
his present moments of puffed-up
idleness that lie doesn't want to go
back. But the day will come when
he will 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 dolluas a week. She knows
him so much better now. I am sat
isfied he> feeling for him is largely
a pityins contempt.
He is going up like a rocket that
will flash across the sky. and he
•thinks tl fl. will last. He doesn't
r. ilize that ho one looks for the
burned-out stick that falls to the
ground.
Did bo do right in giving the girl
up? Y s, a thousand times yes!
For he has saved her from the ter-
THE HOME PAPER
Dr. Parkhurst’s Article
on
Interview With Mme. JPO?
Sarah Bernhardt
-and-
The Uplift of Pulpit HHH
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 pr two ago,
one question which I asked her she
failed to answer.
She had told me that any in
quiry which I might make of her
she would reply to, but in one in
stance she w'as evasive, and very
much to my regret, for I felt that
her answer to that particular
question would reveal a good deal
to me as to the moral aud reli
gious attitude of her own mind.
The inquiry io which I failed to
receive a reply was this: “Do you
give your preference to the pulpit
or to the stage, considered as means
of human uplift?”
Change of Opinion
Toward the Theater.
She is too bright and too expe
rienced a person not to have a
rather definite opinion upon a ques
tion of that kind, lying so close as
it does to the line of her own in
terest and pursuit.
I have always wondered w'hy 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
opinion, or at least of usage, as to
ward the theater.
1 Whether the truth of the case is
to be stated by saying that change
of sentiment induced change of
usage, or change of usage induced
change of sentim<*nt, 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 w’e 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 our-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
!<- - j
:■ Down by the Sea ::
By SLOANE GORDON.
R • T "Y tE'RE living down by the sounding sea—
< VV 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,
? And that's why the sea and the victims sob; I
But the water’s wet and the air is free,
And it costs you nothing to see the sea.
> Out in the grass and through the wood
The chigger chigs as a chigger should; v
He burrows into your trusting hide
And seeks to emerge on the other side.
For energy, push and ceaseless toil !
I The chigger's the insect Standard Oil; '
< The wood-tick dallies along the way, !
< But the chigger cljigs till the close of day.
j The songful skeeter of Jersey fame '
? Gets happily into the Summer game. ’ '
? I He nips an ankle or nipsfa nose,
And loves the open-work style of hose. 1
} He sings his way through a peek-a-boo,
S 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;
And the water's wet and the air is free!
The crafty crab and the cooing clam >
(For which no fisherman gives a—continental) (
I Can»be procured for the price of meat, {
If one must sordidly stop to eat; >
( Or one may fatten on beans and pork )
IThat an tinned and labeled in old New York >
But the water's wet and the air is free.
And it costs us nothing to see the sea! )
that which the theater has to offer
—assuming, of course, that it is
untainted—undoubtedly 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
predlcable of dramatic exhibition.
/ The whole thing is conducted in
an unsubstantial atmosphere of Ac
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 w r hich you say is probably
true, but I have lived so long and
so constantly in the realm of the
unreal that lam not able to dis- .
criminate between what is true and
what is false.”
A whole audience may , be
brought to sob with tender emo
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 sendee as it is con
stitutionally fitted to render and
not claim for it a function which it
is inherently incompetent to per
form.
