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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 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. Panama Pecksniffs and the Shipping Trust A large contingent of newspapers- -of the kind that live by their entangling alliances have fallen into sudden paroxysms of moral horror at the action taken last week by the I’nited States senate on the Panama question. Busy people who have no time Io unravel the intricate prob lems of diplomacy and finance are perhaps puzzled to understand why the cause of high national morality should seem for the moment to find its most passionate devotees in the ranks of privilege. They marvel that common honesty and simple good faith should be claimed as a monopoly of those who have cornered so many other of the good things of life. Why is it that the stand-pat senators, whose consciences have never before seemed too lender for this rough world—Crane, Gal linger. Lodge, Oliver, Penrose, Boot, Wetmore and so on—are now so dreadfully shocked by the proposal that American ships should go free of tolls through an American waterway? The people of the I’nited States are not, all —or even mostly fools. And they are prepared to understand that it is not. pure piety that has ranged the stand pat senators in such solid ranks against free tolls. ('leaned of all the sanctimonious humbug that has been smeared over this subject, the plain fact is, of course, that the Pan ama canal belongs to the I’nited States—just as t he Erie canal does. A few of the Americans who espouse the supposed right of England and other foreign countries to manage the canal as equal partners with the I’nited States arc no doubt merely honest people with mud dled heads. But the main strength of this preposterous opinion is derived from the back-stairs influence of the International Ship ping Trust and its allied financial interests. The present controversy over the question of canal tolls should awaken the American people to a certain broad fact of modern life that has never before been so vividly illustrated, to-wit: THE EX ISTENCE OF A VAST INTERCONTINENTAL COMBINATION OF SELFISH INTERESTS THAT KNOWS NO PATRIOTISM, BUT USES ALL GOVERNMENTS FOR ITS OWN PRIVATE ENDS. « The hysterical outcry against a reasonable American policy for the control of an American waterway is due to the organized hyp ocrisy of this combination. Englishmen, Frenchmen and Germans, so far as they are free from this influence, readily agree that Americans are right in man aging the Panama canal to suit themselves. They admit, as a mat ter of course, that they would wish to do Hie same thing if they were in our place. The talk of our obligation under the Clayton-Bulwer treaty and the Hay-Pauncefote treaty, to treat the canal as if it did not belong to us, is mere cunning sophistication. This is evident from the following considerations: First —Nobody would dare question our right to stop work at the Isthmus, and even to destroy all that we have done there— which certainly would not be the case if our property right were not absolute. Second—There is no existing consideration that could possibly induce the United States at this moment to enter into an agreement with England or any other country to bind our hands in the way that the stand-pat senators and stand-pat newspapers say we are bound by the Hay-Pauncefote treaty. They, therefore, rest their ease on the theory that we have got ourselves into a diplomatic fix —and can not get out. This is nonsense. For no great nation over did, ever will or ever ought, to submil interminably to a bargain that is wholly one sided and has no give-and-take to it. Such bargains are respected only by servile and decadent states. Among self-respecting nations treaties are always abrogated when they cease to have mutuality of advantage. Third -The history of the Clayton-Bulwer and Hay-Pauncefote treaties absolutely justifies the action taken by the senate last week. Sixty-two years ago. when the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was made, England had a slight consideration to offer us, because of its claim of a protectorate over the Mosquito Indians and some more or less shadowy rights in certain Central American territories. The suspension ot those rights formed the consideration for the bargain made by Secretary Hay with Lord Pauncefote in 1901. The treaty of 1850 was then abrogated—just as the treaty of 1901 might now be abrogated if it were worth while to do so. The vitality went out of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty when we acquired sovereignly over the canal strip, ami decided to build the canal. NOT THROUGH FOREIGN AND NEUTRAL TERRITO RIES BUT THROUGH OUR OWN LANDS. A careful study of the history of the long controversy with England about the neutralizing of a canal across the American isthmus will show that lhe claims of England had steadily weak ened and had nearly reached the finishing point. WHEN THEY WERE SUDDENLY REVIVED THE OTHER DAY BY INVIS IBLE INFLUENCES. THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT WAS THEN MADE THE TOOL OF THE PRIVATE POWERS THAT RULE OVER INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION The broken sobs of outraged morality that have since tilled the air proceed from emotions that are, at bottom, predacious and Fecksniffiau The Atlanta Georgian Can Death by Disease Be Eliminated? // Doctors Succeed in Finding a Specific For Cancer, the Last of Man 's Greatest Maladies Will Have Been Mastered In this picture —-.Jib" I9Lj?F"' ’ T JOBSS' ■ ’ '9* " «. laboratory as- '■ jS sistants are "X ! ......... lating a rat with \ cancer tissue. —i w ip™ jAi Both of Um. L“l * I ' f pictures are J ; IK k k ■ «« 1989ik4 taken and re- .ZyX A 1i produced, by N. Nx * /a permission, from WL. ........ ‘ the Cosmopoli- tan Magazine £ ' for August. ’ *■’ 'iih I in jM*. Illi \\\\ //// By GARRETT P. SERVISS. IN the August number of THE COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE there Is an article on “The Conquest of Cancer,” which is of absorbing Interest, for the simple reason that it tells, in popular lan guage, the exact truth on a subject about which there has been so much sensational exaggeration that the public mind has been perturbed without being informed upon it. The sad truth is that, at the present time, the only sure cure for cancer is the surgeon's knife— and that is sure in only certain special cases. But doctors have learned to recognize cancer in its earliest stages, when It often IS CURABLE, and that is a vast gain In itself. Moreover, experimental investi gations are now on foot which give at least the hope that a specific cure may be found for all forms of cancer. Some of the lower animals are the necessary victims of such experiments, and some people, who apparently love dogs more than they love men and women, make a great outcry over that fact. Such people, whose sentimentalism has gone astray, may be disregarded when the object in view is an al most Immeasurable blessing to hu manity. It would probably be Im possible to find anywhere men en dowed with a more sympathetic nature, and a greater desire to ban ish suffering from the world, than those very experimenters. Terrible Figures. Since, after all. selfishness is at the bottom even of the soul of the sentimentalist, some of the object ors to animal experimentation as a basis for improved medical science may hesitate in their blind opposi tion when they are informed that statistics show that one out of every fifteen men, and one out of every eight women -who have passed the age of 35 years is doom ed to die of some form of cancer. This is not to say that death by cancer is a mere lottery. It is not ns If fifteen men, or eight women, • shut up in a room, were required to draw from an urn containing either fourteen white balls and one black ball, or seven white and one black, with the certainty that the unfortunate who drew black must die a terrible death. The meaning Nagging By Dorothy Dix IN a peculiar and piteous divorce case now pending, the sole cause that is alleged for the breaking up of a borne is a woman's nagging. The l.usband, a wealthy and prominent man. testified in court that he had left his wife because he could stand her incessant nag ging no longer. The children, a nearly grown son and daughter, entreated the court to give them to their father be cause their mother’s nagging made life unendurable to them Neither busband nor children manifested the slightest affection for the woman. She had killed their love by nagging. The woman is pretty and good. She lived in a palace and had all the luxuries that money could buy. She had husband and children and everything to make life happy, and she has thrown away every thing. lost everything, by her nag ging. Not Her Fault. There is a lesson in this little story from real life that ever) wom an who is at the head of a family should pause and consider. For this lady with the serpent's tongue is not the only nagger. There are others, and if more husbands do not get up and desert their wives, and more children do not turn against their mothers, it is be cause of the marvelous fortitude and power of endurance that some people have. It isn’t the nagger’s fault. She docs the very best she can to break up her home, and make life a bur den to those unfortunates whom a THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1912. -‘w v ' Cancerous growths on a carp, a rare case, which shows that even fish are not immune to cancer. is that, on the average, out of every fifteen men and eight women past 35 years of age one surely possesses the seeds of cancer, which will eventually develop. It Is as if in the room there were a fly having an unerring sense enabling it to detect the presence of the undis closed cancer. The person on whom that fly alighted would be the vic tim designed by fate. All the others might be perfectly safe be cause they did not bear the fatal mark. But, according to the sta tistics. there would In the long average surely be ONE In every such assemblage who would carry the hidden Insignia. Sometimes the doctor can detect the fatal blight or the probability of its existence, but generally even he can know nothing about it until the disease visibly declares Itself. Then, if instant action Is taken, in some cases of external cancer he can effect a cure with the aid of the knife. The object of the spe cialists now is to find some remedy which will act upon the disease wherever it may be located. You will read in the article to which I have referred what has been done with such means as radium and the X-rays and certain chemicals. You will also find there what has been learned about the causes of cancer, about the means of detecting itWt an early stage, when It may still be curable, and what Is the nature of the hopes which the searchers for a specific cure enter tain. The man who is foremost in this search, and upon whom the ex pectant eyes of the world rest, is the German, Dr. Ehrlich, who re cently discovered a specific for an other disease which had been re garded as hopeless. Suppose that Dr. Ehrlich should succeed (as he may do any day), cruel fate has doomed to live un der the same roof with her. When the sum of the harm that is done in the world Is added up, it will be found that the nagger holds the banner record. She has driven more men to drink, more young girls into idiotic marriages, more children away from home, than all other causes combined. She is like Samson. With the jaw bone of an ass she slays her thousands. Take the woman, for instance, who nags her husband about what he shall eat, and what he shall drink, and whether he shall smoke or not. She thinks tha* when she mentions these things to him a hundred times a day she is only doing her wifely duty. She doesn't realize that she is Invading his sa cred liberty and insulting his judg ment every time she reminds him that highly seasoned food Is bad for his stomach, and that he'll acquire smoker's heart from the use of 0 pipe. Still less does she perceive the effect of her nagging on her hus band. She doesn't realize that at first he feels offended, then wor ried, then exasperated; then he be gins to duck when he sees her get ting ready to launch the old. dreary familiar arguments against him. And at last he comes to Ihite her with the deadly hatred tiiat we feel for those who subject us to petty tyrannies against which there is no defense. If a woman is really opposed to her husband’s method of eating and drinking and smoking, she might fight it out with him once: but after that she had better let him kill himself in peace, doing what what would be the ultimate conse quences? The last of the major diseases that shorten human life and cause endless Buffering would have been conquered. This does not mean that they would imme diately disappear, but there would be good reason to hope that they might all be eventually eliminated, so that, after a time, death would only occur either as a result of accident or murder or of simple old age. Men would live longer and their lives would be relatively free from suffering. What It Would Mean. But would they be content even with that condition? Not in the least. The next effort would be still further to prolong life. Then the question would be seriously debat ed—as it has indeed already been debated whether death itself might not be banished. It is not in the nature of man to be content, and his Creator did not intend that he should be content. His wonder ful powers were given to him in or der that he might always seek to better his condition. He was not placed in the position of a Sislphus, doomed to pass all his time in pushing a stone up hill, only to see it inevitably roll down again. He DOES GAIN something every day. His progress is slow, but yet cer tain. He was put into a world full of enemies and given the means of combating those enemies. Many of them he has already conquered, but many yet defy him. When he has mastered all of his diseases a new field for the exercise of his genius will open before him. If It did not he would WISH TO DIE, and might welcome back the dis eases as friends, for there is no happiness for human nature except in marching forward and accom plishing something. he wants to do, than to be forever nagging him about it. It would be an easier and a pleasanter death. It is also the nagging of her de voted mamma that makes many a girl marry the first man that asks her. or tempts her to go from home to work, and that causes manv a boy to leave home. The child that said, when asked his name, that he was called "Johnnie Don't" fair ly expressed the position of many unfortunate young people in their own homes. The Result. fhey never aave a minute's peace; they never have a particle of liberty; they can never do any thing just as they like to do it. because mamma is after them with her eternal “do" or "don't.” She badgers them about the way they sit, the way they speak, the way they stand, the way they do their hair, the clothes they have got on, what they eat—everything under the sun, until she stands to them for nothing else on earth but a kill joy, and their one thought, plan and determination from the time that they are old enough to think at all is to get away from her. And they do it at the earliest possible moment. Df course, dear madam, you who read these lints will never admit that you nag. But examine your self and see if you have fallen into the habit of telling your husband and children over and over again what they should do and shouldn't do, and if you interfere in all their plans. Naturally you don’t call this nagging, but they do. and if you want io keep them from hating vou STOP IT! THE HOME PAPER Ella Wheeler Wilcox Writes on An Investigation of the Causes Which < Lead Men and Women Into Z~> • » ‘ (. rime Su»bV T Written For The Atlanta Georgian By Ella Wheeler Wilcox Copyright, 1912, by American-Journal-Examiner. WHOEVER was begotten by pure love. And came desired and welcomed into life, Is of immaculate conception. He Whose heart is full of tenderness and truth. Who loves mankind more than he loves himself, And can not find room in his heart for hate, May be another Christ. We all may be The Saviours of the world, if we believe In the Divinity which dwells in us And worship it, and nail our grosser selves. Our tempers, greeds, and our unworthy aims Upon the cross. Who giveth love to all, Pays kindness for unkindness, smiles for frowns, And lends new courage to each fainting heart, And strengthens hope and scatters joy abroad, He. too, is a Redeemer, Son of God. JUST at this particular juncture several unfortunate men are being held prisoners for the de liberate planning of the murder of a fellow being in New York. Other men implicated will no doubt be added to the list before this article appears. The meanest and most despica ble motive for crime in life is at the bottom of this dreadful and ap palling act—greed for gain. Certain men desired to break the laws of the land. Certain other men were bought who violated their oaths to pro tect those laws. The law breakers were caught, and they told the tale of buying the silent co-operation of the law protectors. Then these law protectors delib erately employed professional as sassins to murder the man who be trayed their act. Murder Not Always Result of Wild Impulse. It is a shock to many people to know there are professional assas sins in our land. Many good people had believed that murder was always, in these days, the result of some wild im pulse—of drunkenness, or jealousy, of anger, of self-protection or in sanity. It seems almost incredible that men who are not moved by any of these emotions are to be found banded together, ready to kill any one for a stated sum of money— and a paltry sum comparatively. Now that such men have been found and are held by the law for trial, it would help the students of eugenics to learn something of the prenatal and early childhood con ditions from which those men came. It would be worth while to appoint committee to go about this search for the desired information with as great care as the detectives went about the search for the criminals. There should be, Indeed, such a committee, whose work is to look up the pedigree for at least two generations of every man and wom an who becomes a criminal. Especially should the prenatal conditions be learned when there is any possibility of obtaining such data. If there is a bad piece of road where vehicles are broken and hu man beings injured, the causes I :: Courage :: By REGINALD LUCAS. F all the boons the gods can give. This one T ask and ask in vain. Well satisfied if I might live My life, as it was lived, again. * Its faults and failures I confess, Os cares and griefs its ample store; From evils past I shrink the less As dreading future ills the more. And yet this were the coward’s part; “Go forward”—there's our duty clear; The humble and the contrite heart Knows not ingratitude or fear. For this were man's most shameful lot. To lie in an unhonored grave. Even those who loved him daring not To claim for him that he was brave. which led to such accidents are in vestigated, in order to avoid future trouble. If the causes which lead men and women into crime can be traced then there is a firmer foundation for our reformers and philanthro pists to stand upon while they seek to better the coming genera tions. j Few Women Know Laws ] Os Prenatal Influence. Only a few women of the most progressive order today know, or, knowing, believe in, the laws of prenatal influence. Not one poor woman of the un educated classes in a thousand has the least Idea on this all-important subject. Yet a butcher's wife, who watched the slaughter of animals before her child was born, brought forth a human monstrosity—a child crimi nal—who possessed an insatiable desire to destroy life. The child of a woman whose hus band was a miser and who com pelled her to beg or steal pennies from his pockets to satisfy her hunger was born a thief, and went through life a kleptomaniac. Innumerable cases can be cited of the immediate results of the mental influence of the mother on her unborn babe; and there is no subject of greater import for wom an to study than this. The government would do well to set aside a certain sum of money to aid such investigations for the benefit of the science of eugenics. And this present moment is a most appropriate one to begin these investigations. Science is doing a great deal in its effort to conserve and prolong life. World Needs a Better Order of Things. But it is not so much the con tinuance of the life of individuals on earth which the world needs as a better order of beings. Every possible investigation into heredity, prenatal influence, child hood’s environment and early as sociations should be made, and the information carefully classified and presented to the world for consid eration. The capital punishment of crimi nals will never reduce crime. But. the proper education of men and women on what fatherhood and motherhood means will prevent the birth of criminals. - ,