Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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. 1*79. Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week. By mail, $5.00 a year. Payable in advance. Men Like Suffragettes * * * Because They Admire Women That Can Think. The Clinging Vine Is Ornamental, but Does Not Last. Women inns! not !><• tliscoui'aur'd by the fact flint the woman suffrage cause was defeated in Ohio. Some years must pass and the mosi intelligent and most earn -,t woim-n v. >d continue to fight an uphill light before the mental slavery of woman shall disappear. Bit; THINGS ARE Al't (iMI’LISHED SLOWLY . ami the light tor woman s rights is a very big thing. While waiting for victory, it may be some comfort for the earnest, thinking women, loyal to their cause, to realize that men worth while respect mid admire the suflrageties. Needless to say. certain im n do not care very much about the women able io think—and such men are not interested in suffrage. The savage wauls a wonmn to o'm;. orders, cook, dig and brush the flies from him while he sh e) s. Certain kinds <1 "< ivilized ' savages want a woman to lead the idle life vl a lap-dog. w earing pretty colors and sa,-. mg to her owner. "How can you be so great ami wonderful ? Ignorant men. with the iagotiv and brutality of ages ground into their dull brains, object to thinking and voting for their women on the ground that voting and thinking are irreligious or immoral. I'evhle men like I? vide women, ami feeble women are not suf fi aget tes. The man worth while iealiz.es that the best thing about any hu man being, man or woman, is the brain. And men worth while admire women that stand up for their lights, women with intellig'nee enough to demand the vote ami use it when they get it. Imcause such women have brains. character and the power to attract and keep the interest of tltiifking iimn. Supei st ition. t rad it ion. ,Ingot ry. ignorance keep a certain class of women ami of men hostile to woman suffrage. But time will eml that, as tiim 1 has < mled the rack. Ihe 1 humb-sci i w ami other brutal i -1 ies. Silly, foolish, characterless < raving lor second rate admiration makes certain women oppose the suffragette movement. These women are usually between forty nine and sixty six years of age. And they are usually trying Io look as though they were between twenty nine and thirty-six. They are lackadaisical, sim pering. thoughtless, would-be "(dinging vims. They lack all power to control men through intellect and, therefore, try to control them through flattery. The ant i-sulfragelte woman usually has a sad, vvoe-begone look, and folds her hands in ecstasv looking at some tenth-rate man as she'moans. "I in sure 1 don t want tin vote while I have a noble, god like creature suck as you to think for me and di fend me." And the foolish man s<<’s to himself. "That is a very fine vv <>man vv hicii she is not The woman who wants to vote is the woman who thinks and who wants to fisc her brains. The woman who dots not want to vote is the woman -with a few honorable, old-fashioned exceptions unable to think, and, therefore, appalled hi the idea of flesh demands upon the iutelli u iie.e v Imdi sh< has mu got. The man who opposes woman sulf rage is some kind of a sav age usualiv c.itln r a weak man MEN ARE ALWAYS WEAK \\ HE.N THIA ARE AFRAID 'IO DIVIDE POWER. ’I he man worth while and file woman vvori h while want to live i<i_ ii ■ Auk tooether. plan togclhei AS EQ I ALS. Tin ballot will develop the minds ot women and the character of no :i .<ml it will gradually eliminate the " (Tinging vine, dear me, I non t waul lo volt w aii ! >; i d ' t.'pe <d women ami the egotisti cal irnin. \\ mm n w iII liav tin ballot everywhere. For 1 lie best women in tin < ountrv an determined to havv it. Defeats will not discourage them I HEY \\ lid. \\ IN A1 akingSenseof the I ’anania ('oiltract I. , It is an established rub lor the int rpretalion of contracts that they should he so construed as to make not nonsense, but sense. Thus it should be a sut'livn i I coiifulation of the British view of the Hay-Paum-eiote treaty that it is a view that is inconsistent with American sanity. Ihe British foreign office holds that we art precluded bv this contract from treating our own Panama commerce as well as for eign countries may treat their Panama commerce. It holds that the English. French or German government is tree, under the contract, to remit to its own ships any tolls that they may pay at Panama • while we. who built and own the canal, are not free to do so! I lw British foreign oiuee, with all its foolishness, has at least the sense to perceive a plain tact that most American lories have overlooked, to wit the fact that taking lolls tiom our ships and afterwards remitting them is precisely tin same thing as not taking them at all. Perceiving this point, th British have been driven, by the logic of their absurdity, to claim that we have no right to offer subsidies or concessions to our Panama comme,e. in the shape of remitted lolls in spite o) the tact ihat all otic r nations will have an un doubted right to do i hat v e • t liing I hen will be a day ot awakening in which < vervbodv will sec the British conleiitnm should ml In . ■ H . l | ty The Hague. but to a cviuuiibbiu de Imiaticu The Atlanta Georgian * [ : BILL! He goes out to get the Blues, and he gets them. But it might have been worse. Copyright, 1913, International News Service. 1 Bia the Blue Fish \ f iu-qo' Bur niaom n comeon bill 1 X ; /Ah Fokthe love of \ are runninqFine .Anymore Bqatkaces time To qo out and y/A mike cantYoulet I want You To Come. setoneo f a Man 'sleep l I ___ ; OOWJN AND QO FISH INC, BIUES-QET WILL. SET AN EARP! i START. MjELcqE-rUP J '//M xqo°u v _____ / '/// ■'/(?■ ~~ ’ J W/, ffl : 4wfy // / / ifT OUT MNH4ND.AKL ) LIKE THESE MOTHER THE BLUE S ARE BLISTEKEO ) ONKOVNINS I I CARV CHICKENS > JUST BEqiNNINt-To —k rx' -= V A. v . l \ X <A. -s K A ,'X A. A ' A ~ j f MLIMWIJ ivecqtthe BLUESAI : t * T Vhffi'eY.r ?! ' . feiu. PIPYE qer) Ma TwIIH fr* ' - '-A tw H r ! 5 ? ’■ !-O 7 ■ 1 5 ~ 'cgYo'N lE -K < 7 I j • I The Matter of Age i A MAN wh<> is forty years old, and w ho is going to be mar ried. asks this question; 't hat should be tin difference between the ages of a husband and wife, taking into consideration their happiness and the good of the childien that may be born to them ?" To answer the latter part of this , question first, it may be said that, as a general tiling, the healthiest and strongest children are usually the offspring of women who are in their twenties and early thirties. That is the ideal time for mother hood. because then a woman is at ! her prime physically, and she Is I old enough to have intelligence enough to take care of her children properly , and yet young enough to be in symjsithy with them. The children of an over-young and undeveloped mother are apt to be weaklings, and they are almost sure to suffer in the rearing from her lack of knowledge and expe rience of lite There are few sights more pitiful than that of a sickly little child-mother wrestling in competently with a sickly little ba by and the man who possesses such a combination has smalt chance of any thing but misery. On the other hand, the too-old mother is apt to have children who are "queer." and to lie overly indulgent and fussy about them, or else to ialso theta inhumanly according to | some system she has dug out of a I pook No Regular Law. Os course. there are many excep tions to this rule. but. speaking by and-largi it will be found that the most normal children are the chil dren of youthful, but not too young, mothers Not can any hard and fast law b< laid down as regards the dif ference between the ages of hus band and wife. It depends upon the :• tnperam nt and peisonallty of the m o':.1,1. .om rm-d .Nothing is n itty nmu foolish than to measure age Io > ears. because theic are people who are sculle in the uadle, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. 1912. By DOROTHY DIN. and others who are children at four score years. The consensus ex perience of the ages is that it is best the husband should be older than the wife, but this only mat ters when there is any great dis parity of years. Formerly it was held that a woman at the .same age as a man was really much older than he, but this is no longer true. In these strenuous times when men work so hard, and live so high, and when women take such good care of themselves, and devote so much thought and consideration not only to preserving their youth but to keeping themselves mentally and fresh, it is a question if they are not really younger at the same age than men are. There Can Be No Objection. Certainly there can be no ob jection to a man marrying a woman of his own age. so far as her look ing as young as he does, and being able to keep step with him in his pursuits and pleasures. Nor does a year or two more of age on the w oman's part make an insurmount able barrier between them. It is. however, a suicidal thing for both of them when the woman is fifteen or twenty years older than her husband. Such marriages are invariably unhappy, whereas marriages in which the husband is that much older than the wife are generally most successful. There are many reasons why, I "what Is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander" in the mar riage proposition. One is that the yman who marries a woman almost old enough to be his mother is in variably ashamed of her. no matter how brilliant, and charming, and handsome she may be. He knows that people laugh at hint behind his back. And the elderly wife is even more secretly ashamed of her boy hus band, and mote sensitive tu the rid icule she knows her chow* excites. More than this, it is not in human nature for a grilled, fat old wom an not to be frantically jealous of a young husband. He may be as faithful as the house eat. but she never sees him with a beautiful, • lissome, fresh girl without having her heart torn with the bitter knowledge that youth calls to youth, and without suspecting that he regrets his bargain. On the other hand, the old hus band's vanity stands him in good stead when he marries ’a young, wife. He thinks any girl ought to be glad to have gotten him, no mat ter v hat age he is. Even seventy year-old millionaires never suspect that girls of twenty do not marry' them for themselves alone. Naturally, fifty or sixty years, or even thirty, between a ntan and woman is a chasm that only gold ever bridges over, but twenty years is not ah insurmountable obstacle at all. Indeed, those twenty years in a man are sometimes just the gliding that gilds gold, and that gives him a little touch of paternal tenderness toward his young wife that makes him the best, the ten derest and the most considerate husband in the world. Perhaps as good a rule as could be formulated in the matter of ages would be to say that the man should be from eight to ten years older than his wife. This would fulfill the convention that the hus band should be the elder and have the wider experience or life, but it would still keep them in the same class, and give them a chance to develop along together, to settle into the same ruts of age. with the point of view of the same gen eration. A Matter of Temperament. The young woman whose feet still ache for the dance, who wants to laugh, and make merry, and to go about, can have no happiness if she is married to an old man w ho only wants to sit in the chimney corner and nurse his rheumatism. Neither can the young man who loves pleasure and society, and who is keen about outdoor sport, find a weary old woman a congenial com panion Rut these things are a matter of temperament and not age, and the years are not to ho considered when one finds one’s affinity —the one of whose society one novel tiros, and who has the same tastes and ways of looking at Hungs as one’s own. THE HOME PAPER MRS. W. L. I'Kf.L Writes on The Rule of the |»hJ Expert —-—„—, I Let Atlanta Take in the W hole of Fulton County, ’ J She Says; Plan For a ‘ I Greater and Better City, By MRS. W. L. PEEL AN article entitled ‘‘City Sense" by Frederic C. Howe in a late numbeiyof The Outlook might .. be read with great interest by At lanta just at present. Mr. Howe begins by saying: "It was a rude shock for four score business men from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and a score of oth er cities, to be entertained last summer by councilmen who were business men like themselves in the city halls of Manchester and Liv erpool. It was an even greater shock to be received with the dig nity and ceremony of ambassadors by the most eminent bankers, man ufacrtirers and professional men serving as city officials in Paris, Brussels, Dusseldorf. Frankfort, Berlin. Munich, Vienna, Budapest. Prague and a Half dozen other cities on the continent of Europe. It was a transition from the unabashed democracy made up frpm all na tions painfully finding its way to self-government in the cities of America: to the most efficient, most finished, and most highly or ganized municipal life in the mod ern world." He goes on then to speak of the rule of the expert. While English cities are governed on much the same plan, the German municipal ity is considered ideal. When they want a mayor they advertise for one. and experts from all over Germany compete for it. It goes without saying that the qualifica tions for office read something like this: Qualifications for Office. First. High character, position and integrity which is naturally expected of the head of any kind of enterprise. Second. Judgment and ability as manifested by his personal success in life. Third. Expert knowledge of mu nicipal affairs. The burgomaster is elected for twelve years, has a largo salary, and at th» end of that time he, \f satisfactory, is re-elected foi 25 years, and finally pensioned. Back of tile burgomaster is the city council, elected by districts, as is our own. It is made up of eminent business men. of lawyers, doctors, and, in the university towns, of professors as well. Mem bers of the council are paid no sal art. but they devote a large part of their time to city business. It is a distinguished honor to serve on the council, and men aspire to it as an honorable career. Service, too. is obligatory, for a man who is elected can be punished if he refuses to serve. But the directing spirit of the city is the burgomaster, although the council members, who enjoy considerable permanency through a six years term, have the same kind of pride and enthusiasm in their work that the» burgomaster himself possesses. The burgomas ter has a number of expert as sistants. elected by the council, who form the magistral. They, too. are permanent trained men. About one-half of them are sal aried: the other half are not. The council is a taxpayers’ and not a people's council. That would seem to leave the control of af fairs in the hands of the rich. But behold what is the result? Filth, disease and poverty have been wiped off the map. No crowded tenements. They expand. In the environs of the cities are plant ed colonies of working people, with up-to-date sanitary city houses, with flowers and parked streets and nothing unsightly or unwhole some. The first care of these city fathers is the welfare and pros perity of the laboring class. Baek of the German city, therefore, are the business men. the bankers, the merchant classes. The German city has no charter and is free and independent. In the matter of corporate towns it is the exact reverse ot the American city. But we h#ve a habit here in America of getting what we want by indirection. Rarely do we frankly face a problem and cor rect it by reforming the evil it self. Our reforms have away of coming in through the ba>k door. Milwaukee has discovered a means of securing the city expert without regard to residence, poiit- ical affiliations, or relation to i city. Milwaukee has organiz- . a Bureau of Economy and Efficiency It sent to the state university ;',, r Professor John R. Commons > !0 organized a municipal el,a ing house of experts. When the jty wants advice on a paving, health, engineering or harbor problem. ■ ■» bureau maizes a study of the sub ject with the co-operation of the best experts that can be found in the country, and reports its find ings to the city. Such studies have been made on garbage disposal, the incineration plant, on a harbo < n health and hygiene, on pure miik. as well as on a variety of other subjects. Standards of cost have been established and departmental efficiency secured by letting in the light. Expert Ability Available. We have the shme expert abilhy that Germany and England n mand. But it is excluded f:om ci;y politics. And as long as questions of policy or partisanship ar, de termined at the polls we can not hope to displace the political mayor by the trained official. Tin Mil waukee plan for a permanent bu reau of experts offers a means of securing that which our cities have heretofore lacked. But the reform that has done most to simplify our municipal ma chinery is tile commission plan of city government. It is a short cut to efficient, to responsible admin istration. It sweeps away the com plexity of the long ballot ami th‘ confused charter, and enables the public to locate responsibility It reduces the number of elective of ficials to three or five. Through the initiative, referendum and recall, it destroys the power of the boss and the privileged interests behind the boss. The commission plan may not be the final form that city gov ernment will assume, but it will enable our cities to establish them selves in the confidence of the pco pie. and that is what we most need just now. it was impossible t<> de velop a city sense so long ,s the city was distrusted, so long as tlie publig felt it should be shorn of power and limited in its ac'ivi tics. A healthy municipal life cotiH not exist under this distrust. This gives lu.it an idea "f Mr. Howe’s delightful article. Rule Applied to Atlanta. Now. if we had any exov ts In Atlanta, selected by taxpay c - say what should go with their money, docs apybody think they would have discai'deci our gicbage plant for which we had just paid $39,000 for one that cost over S3O - 000? No. An expert told "• ; v’ would have recommended th.i 'ar plant run day and night (it has only run by day) and that w,-" l"- do people lie required to consume their own garbage. The up-to-da: plan is very simple—a little gas arrangement in the kitchen which cats up anything from a dead dog to its own ashes. When we get our $300,(100 crematory,’it wii' take SIOO,OOO for an outfit to haul th” garbage, which must now |,p brought from Brookwood and Westview ami Kirkwood ami end of Marietta street —my! T: : about congestion. When this cari van takes the streets people " I all have to sell their automobiles! Let’s turn over a new leaf right now. Let’s get a clean, live. si. - eessful. up-to-date business man for our burgomaster. And then let s away with our little old antiquated charter, and our little old an, - quated methods. Let the city take in the whole of Fulton county and compel every landlord to furnish decent housing for his tenan'-, black or white. No wonder we ton third in the typhoid cities of America when we think of trie thousands of human beings in this city herded like cattle. Win n " know that the servant in dne house comes to us from these ioat - some dens, shall we not in Lie name of humanity demand a < hange?- The city of Trenton. N. J *a tried the commission , foun government for one year Althou hcavily handicapped by a f '’ nearly as large as Atlanta s ' be next year, left by the outgoin; administration. they announ ■■ ihat they have already saved i ward of $100.oa<) of the laxpa>( < money.