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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga.
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The Panama Canal Is the
Property of the United States
A Democratic Congress Should Not Permit
England to Dictate How We Shall Con
trol Our Domestic Possessions-
Th'- Democratic House of Representatives furnishes another evi
dence of its lack of patriotism in rejecting the senate stipulation
that ALL American vessels shall use the Panama canal free of
tolls The grave blunder of the house consists in recognizing the
right of England to interfere in a canal built entirely with our
money and ENTIRELY IN OUR TERRITORY.
In some of the provisions of the conference report on the (’anal
hill passed Friday by the senate, the house has done well, notably:
First. The granting to American coastwise vessels of exemp
tion from tolls.
Second Admitting to American registry foreign-built vessels
owned by Americans.
Third. Prohibiting railway-owned steamships from use of
canal.
Fourth. Forbidding use of canal by vessels engaged in trade
in >l.‘*iou of the Sherman law.
But in tlm main thing, which is the recognition of the Ameri
can right Io control an American canal, the house has failed tit
le: ly.
American vessels now engaged in foreign trade, and denied
free tolls by tlm house, are .pitifully few. The difference in the
tolls would have been slight were such ships admitted free. As
business it is trifling AS PATHHI'ITS.M IT IS MO.MEN’.TDI S.
The Democrats in congress had already denied the country a
navy. Now they surrender the country’s right to its own pos- I
sessions A policy of abandoning the navy, abandoning the Philip
pines, abandoning the Panama canal, abandoning everything but
the political jobs that its adherents have managed to get is a policy
of poor patriotism and small Americanism.
The question of our right to operate the canal that has been
dug bv American monev through territory as much American soil as
Alaska or New York is as great as the Venezuela question, in which I
(’leveland’s splendid patriotic action was such as to atone for all ;
his faults and to write his name in history as one of the great
American Presidents.
The canal is a domestic possession In his message of Do- j
cetnber 21. 1911, President Taft points out: "We own the canal.
It was our money that built it We have the right to charge tolls
for its use." And Mr. Taft, he it said to his credit, has from
the first contended that the canal was for Americans, and that
means should be found to give Io American ships, whether in the
coastwise or in other trade, the right to use tin 1 canal free from
the tolls charged for vessels of other nations. Clubbed to their
weak knees by a dead atid abandoned treaty, the Democrats in eon I
gress have taken an action utterly unworthy of men pledged to j
carry out the will of a patriotic people.
The Clayton llulwer treaty, the one argument used to '
frighten the house weaklings by the British and British lobby al
Washington, is now of questionable value, even as an exhibit in a
museum. And the Hay Pauneel’ote treaty, in force in its stead,
expressly omits the clauses in the Clayton-Bulwer agreement
which restricted the right of Americans to deal with the canal
then still to be dug--as they chose.
Wlmn this treaty was pending Mr. Hearst, fearing that an
attempt would he made to interfere with the rights of the I'nited
States as the House of Representatives has now permitted them
to In interfered with—sent to Washington a corps of eorrespon
d- ids and cartoonists to fight for the exclusion of the objectionable
clauses. The fight was made. The clauses were excluded. And
years later a dead and dried treaty is dragged from a musty
pigeon-hole and cited as an argument that Great Britain should
have the same rights in a canal built by the American people as
the American people themselves!
Tamely to submit to this kind of sale of the rights of Ameri
can citizens is wholly un-American. Th ns newspaper has begun and
WILL CONTINUE a persistent tight for the restoration in the bill
of the clause admitting all American vessels to the cfttial toll-free.
In the meantime write to your Congressman, be he a Demo
crat or a Republican. Tell him that'you are an American and
yon want him to he one. or. at least, to act like one. Tell him
<~H R money paid tor the canal, and you want ships flying YOl'R
flag to use it.
Be earnest and persistent about it. and, perhaps, you can
persuade him that American sentiment is a more important thing,
as far as he is concerned, than British argument and the argu
ments that are advanced by selfish so-called American interests
that are controlled by British sentiments.
It is worthy of note that in the matter of the canal, as in
the matter of battleships, the senate acted bravely and wisely,
the Republican president of the United States in his advocacy of
free tolls set an example for a Democratic house which it would
have done better to follow. But though every possible argument,
not only from a patriotic but from a common sense point of view,
has been laid before the house, its action on the canal almost at the
close of the session has been thefeuhnination of a series of political
mistakes which justify the cynical opinion President Grant ex
pressed of the party years ago
This is no question on which there can be two American opin
ions. On the one side is the American people, on the other a foreign
power which has sought to be the aggressor in every quarter of
the globe, and which has succeeded whenever might made right—
and it met with a weaker nation
The canal is our domestic possession. It has been built ex
clusively by us. The negotiations that led up to our possession of
the canal strip were approved by the people The land through
which the canal runs was bought by the I'nited States, and con
gress voted the money to pay for it. Domestie territory it will
remain, unless the time has come when the voice of tlm people of
Great Britain is more powerful in the National Congress than the
voice of die American peopJ-
i •
The Atlanta Georgian
-
*• *- A Giant Ant Hill *-
A Wonderful Mound of Earth Built hx Tiny Insects
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r -IS photogr?:ph, taken in one ■>.' ' South A.m i- ■ w nr, ■ in.s, aud is of such strength ‘that it can bear ■>.
h o n ri<show. a let erted ■ hill, one of ’ ’ n “ b ' ' ' tu j e sbo s^ s A A ? r ! at
r.; (i ■ iijs aie to (a* found in the interior
tin 'i 'ocr (lisc<>vcr> <l. It was built by | ;nn f i . i: • ting sights jor tourists.
:: A GREAT EMPEROR T]
Mvtsuhito, the Late Ruler of Japan, Brought About Many Reforms as the "Kaiser of the East.”
I
rpHl< late enTp' ior of Japan has
I boon called the kaiser of the.
bits: The stuiy of Japan dur
ing his reign I.m the story of a
country that lias het onto modern
ized at a remarkably rapid rate.
\ few rears ago Japan was a laud
of feudalism; today it stands for
all that is included under up-to
date civilization. ,
The Emperot Mutsuhito was
called to the throne when he was
fifteen years of ago. in February,
ISfiT. Before M utsuhitn's time lilt'
emperors of Japan were figure
heads. In 1 S 8!» he brought about
the end of the monarchy, and gave
to his people a constitution, thus,
he became a ruler in the truest
sense.
one of the first forward steps of
the emperot was to grant audiences
to the ambassadors of foreign na
tions. This had never before been
done.
Next, h< undertook to bring his
country into a single unit of polit
ical strength. The two provinces
of Japan were united, and Tokio
was made the capital. This was
not accomplished by merely raising
the royal hand and saying. "Let it
be done." It created a rebellion,
and the emperor’s enemies were
powerful. But he skillfully brought
order out of confusion, and instead
of beheading those who had op
posed him. Mutsuhito promoted
many of them to oftici s of responsi
bility.
Educational Reforms.
With these preliminary steps
taken, the emperor sent represen
tatives to all foreign courts, and
established consulates. Then the
material welfare of the country be
gan to take its place. Where once
only feudal rights were recognized
men began to think in terms of
telephones, dockyards modern
transportation, telegraph, electric
power and the like Large numbers
of Japanese were sent to foreign
countries to get the new learning
and bring it back to Japan Insti
tutions for educational purposes
were im teased at home, and tol
erance toward all religious creeds
was established.
Even with all this accomplished,
there was still much to be done
The emperor is not subject to the
laws of marriage, but this did not
throw his mind out of focus. His
wife, tite it:st i-iiipn.-: of .l.ipar,
was* oi'tida ir. at, i m ~ mon (
I The) itvvi; a ate of mutual inter-
MONDAY, ATGITST 19, 1912.
By THOMAS TAPPER.
est in a great qu< stion—t he de
velopment of their people. Instead
of taking het men#' in the back
room, the empress wont to the table
of her husband to exchange ideas
with him. This means that women
in Japan have a chance. It also
allows that to change conditions
through the whole social structure
one must begin at the top.
That pitiful old rascal, Abdul
Hamid, with his suspicion and his
harem, missed it by a whole life
time. So did all his people.
It soon became necessary to give
'Call of the Wheat
By CHESTER FIRKINS.
I With a bumper crop on the fields, >
j the farmers of the Northwest can '
1 not get enough men to harvest it.
■ ry for bread, they cry for '
? bread, ' $
When Winter walls them
? ’round.
IThe city sees her hungered dead ?
Borne to the burial ground.
They look in wonder on world
That can not give them food;
J They sleep in icy alleys, curled
J Like beasts within a wood.
11 cry for men. I cry for men
When rolls the harvest wain
And far upon my fields again
Waves bright the ripened grain. i
i I look in wonder on the ways
( Os them that can not Stive
< The little labor of few days
J To li t their children live.
[ They cry for work, they cry for >
I work
Within the smothei d town,
Where miseries of ages lurk
To <riish and cast them down.
<1 ci y for a id. 1 cry for a id,
*, I call for them to come
/ \nd glean the riches Hod has laid
.' i'pon my prairie hmm.
I And I will give them life and heart, >
{ Will they bm lend a h.-nd
; And hasten from thi it sordid mart s
To say, my golden land.
' t >h. come! Oh. come, ye blinded y
men!
( Afid i.ik« the gift I hold,
| That when tm- hunger comes again
i T i s it ..ha not bi to
I
strict business attention to the sub
ject of national defense—that is,
to a competent army and navy, big
enough and well equipped, in po
litical circles there tvas disagree
ment on the question. Mutsuhito
examined the matter for himself.
The proposition was extensive and
expensive. He looked around for
the necessary funds to pay the bills.
The result was the announcement
that "from this day and for six
years the household expenses of
the emperor will be reduced so that
300,000 yen may he contributed an
nually toyvard the national de
) sense.” In the course of time the
< Russians arose to a point of order,
I and Japan replied.
Born in 1552, the emperor's six
? tieth birthday would have fallen on
i November 3 of this
> these flu years a new nation has
( emerged; has come forth for the
S people to take its place with other
< progressives.
Japan seems to have gone Into
? business with the motto; "Begin
y and keep going!”
Sometimes yve are inspired jjy the
s biography of a man. We begin to
< see that other men's struggles in-
j dieate titat. by struggling, yve, ton.
■ can come out into the light. We
> can learn the same from the bi-
y ogrgphy of a nation Too many'
’> mon from 40 to 50 let go of the
i' progressive life and slip back into
< the absolute monarchy of let it go.*
, There are no taturn passports from
> that country.
Neither emperors nor other yvide
s awalo thinking men ever yvear out
I the easy chairs of the palace. The
Abdul Hamids do that. Out of this
difference springs a good many
conditions. When Mutsuhito-had
quelled a rebellion he offered the
? ringleaders places of trust in of
> tiee. When Abdul caught an ene-
■ my Im gave the royal m,d and the
( gentleman "as dropped into the
’ Bosphorus
The Moral in Business.
Il is the same in business. The
real m in moves on and forgets his
enemies. The others forget every
thing else.
Thus the emperor became a great
I Vm id figure. He set an Ideal for
; his people to be pursued long after
> hr is gone. \n Ideal is a sort of
; ney er-maiuring bond. You can
J. cash your coupons regularly, but
the principal must always be de
ni ri you go out of business.
When the [finch comes, cm down
household i xfien I - and set th,- yen
, aside for yuui ptopri ueieitst,
THE HOME PAPER
Dorothy Dix
' Writes
The Reason Why '
All Husbands •
a n d W i v e s
Lie to Each
Other ’
■c
I
By DOROTHY DIX
A LI. husbands and wives lie to
each other. Otherwise Reno
would be the largest city on
the map. It is rhe more or less
white, or gray, or black fib that
, makes domestie life tolerable.
Probably every married couple
regrets this necessity of dallying
with the truth and of diluting it
down to the degree that makes it
sit comfortably on the family
stomach. Certainly it is not the
high ideal with which a bridal pair
start out. They are strong for ve
racity and perfect frankness, but
after one or two run-ins with the
plain, blunt facts they go quietly
and secretly and unostentatiously
off and qualify for membership in
the Ananias and Sapphira clubs,
for they perceive that speaking the
truth is a luxury that we can In
dulge in freely only with our ene
mies, and occasionally with a
friend, but never, never with our
husbands or wives.
Unless, of course, you are one of
those born fighters who are never
happy except when he or she is in a
scrap. And most of us are poor
Spirited creatures who like some
degree of peace at home —which is
not compatible with too much
truth.
As a matter of fact, neither hus
bands nor wives will endure the
truth. Each forces the other to lie.
Each is actually driven into pre
varication when he or she would
much rather tell the'truth.
A Man Doesn’t Really
Enjoy Lying to His Wife.
For instance, a man doesn’t real
ly enjoy lying to his wife about
staying downtown of an evening. It
hurts his self-respect, and degrades
him tn his own eyes to have to con
coct a fairy tale about having to
work overtimes or a man from Osh
kosh having come on to see him
about some important trade, or
having to sit up with a sick friend,
and he despises both her and him
self as he goes into a telephone
booth and tries to put the weak
fabrication over the wire.
He would much prefer saying:
"Hello, is that you. Maria? Well,
this is John.**Say, I’ve met up with
a bunch of the boys and I’m going
to stay downtown and have dinenr
and play poker. Yep. We’ll have
plenty to drink, and I am staying
because I want to. and because I’ve
got a right to enjoy myself in my
Own way occasionally and I expect
to have a bully time, and goqdness
knows when I’ll be home. So doh’t
sit up for me.”
That’s the truth that the man
would like to tell his wife, but he
doesn't dare do it. So he tries to
subdue the joy in his voice, and
whines out something hypocritical
about wishing he could come home
and be with his darling little wife,
and how he hates to be kept away
from her, and sb on. And Maria
has forced him to be a liar because
she wouldn't stand for the truth for
a minute. Any man who would
admit that he had spent an even
ing enjoying himself outside of the
bosom of his family would meet
such an ocean of tears t*hat he
would be drowned in it. Therefore,
the prudent man puts on the 'life
preserver of falsehood before he
approaches the briny deep.
And women force their husbands
to be liars regarding other women.
Ninety-nine wives out of a hundred
will naively remark to you: "It Is
so queer how unobse'mint my hus
band is H> never notices how a
woman look-, or what she has on,
• oi an>thing about her. 1 will say
to him, ‘Wasn’t that a beautiful
woman we passed just now on the
street?’ or ‘lsn’t that woman a
stunner in that opera box?’ And
he’ll say: ‘Oh, I suppose so. I never
noticed her.’ Honestly, r believe
all women look alike to him. I
never saw a man so indifferent.”
Wifey Is Responsible
For His Mendacity. (
And you smile as you reflect what
a gorgeous liar her hubby is, and
you know perfectly well that wifey
is responsible for his mendacity.
He acquired that vice after his first
incautious remarks after the wed
ding about some peach that he re
ferred to in terms of admiration.
He hasn’t forgotten what occurred
on that occasion, and henceforth
it is discretion and lies for his
where other women are concerned.
If men are driven to the use of
subterfuges In matrimony, how
much more so are women! An ab
solutely truthful wife is an un
thinkable proposition, she never
has, and never will exist. All even
moderately veracious women are
old maids.
No man will endure the truth
from any woman. Still less will he
put up with it from his own* wife.
Men require to be bamboozled by
women. They like it. and demand
it as their right.
Every woman who gets along in
reasonable peace and comfort with
her husband has to do it by art
and diplomacy, and not by plain
above-board dealings. She has to
ptetend that things are true that
she would have to be a fool to
believe. She has to act the hypo
crite, and keep it up, or else there
is trouble.
Women don’t enjoy this. They
would far rather speak the truth if
their husbands would Jet them, but
they won t. A woman would like to
come out flat-footed and tell her
husband that she wants a new dress
and intends to have it, and that
she thinks ’she earns about nine
times more than she ever gets by
the cooking and sewing and mend
ing she does, and that it makes
her perfectly sick to have to
wheedle every cent she gets out of
him. and that she thinks he's a
self-conceited, egotistical old mush
because he can be worked by a lit
tie soft »oap.
But She Doesn *t
Tell Him the Truth.
But she doesn’t tell him the truth.
On the contrary, she lies to him
about how grand and noble and
smart and big he is, and how gen
erous she thinks he is to give her a
dress, and how lucky she is to have
such a husband. And as she fin
ishes she says to herself: "There,
you made me do it. And the sin’s
on your soul, not mine.”
Nor does she dare tell him the
truth about how tired and bored
she gets* of his society, and of how
glad she is to go away in the sum
mer and leave him, and she pities
him for how he's going to miss
her and the children, and then both
of them wonder if the other is as
big a fibber as he or she is.
And so It goes, and the more
gifted the romancer the more es
teemed is he or she as_ husband or
wife, for truth has no place in the
domestic circle. It Is ever the most
unwelcome guest, and the minute
that a husband and wife begin tell
ing each other their real opinions
' and the unadorned f.,, ts in the case
| '' ,I '‘ headed fol lite divorce
court.