Newspaper Page Text
EDITORIAL PAGE
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East Ala'»ama St., Atlanta, Ga.
Entered as second-class matter at postoffice at Atlanta, unde: art of March 3, 1879.
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. Bi mall, $5 00 a year
Payable in advance.
I Men Like Suffragettes
Because They Admire Women That Can Think. The Clinging Vine
Is Ornamental, but Does Not Last.
Women must not be discouraged by the fact that the woman
suffrage cause was defeated in Ohio. Some years must pass and the
most intelligent and most earnest women will continue to tight an
uphill fight before the mental slavery of woman shall disappear.
BIG THINGS ARE ACCOMPLISHED SLOWLY, ami the fight
for woman's rights is a very big thing.
While waiting for victory, it may he some comfort for the
earnest, thinking women, loyal to their cause, to realize that men
worth while respect and admire the suffragettes.
Needless to say, certain men do not, care very much about the
women able to think —and such men are not interested in suffrage.
The savage wants a woman to obey orders, cook, dig and brush
the flies from him while he sleeps.
Certain kinds of “civilized” savages want a woman to lead the
idle life of a lap-dog, wearing pretty colors and saying to her owner,
“How can you be so great and wonderful ?”
Ignorant men, with the bigotry 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.
Feeble men like feeble women, and feeble women are not suf
fragettes.
The man worth while realizes that the host thing about any hu
man being, man or woman, is the brain.
And men worth while admire women that stand up for their
rights, women with intelligence enough to demand the vote and use
it when they get it. because such women have brains, character and
the power to attract and keep the interest of thinking men.
Superstition, tradition, bigotry, ignorance keep a certain class
of women and of men hostile to woman suffrage*. But time will end
that, as time has ended tho rack, tho thumb screw and other brutali
ties.
Silly, foolish, characterless erasing for second rale admiration
niakos certain women oppose the suffragette movement.
These women are usually between forty nine and sixty six years
of ago And they are usually trying to look as though they were
between twenty nine and thirty six. They are lackadaisical, sim
pering, thoughtless, would-be “clinging vines.” They lack all
power to control men through intellect and, therefore, try to control
them through flattery.
The ant woman usually has a sad, woe begone look,
and folds her hands in ecstasy looking at some tenth-rate man as
she moans, “I'm sure 1 don't want the vote while I have a noble,
god like creature such as you to think for me and defend me."
And the foolish man says to himself. “That is a very fine
woman”—which she is not.
The woman who wants Io vote is the woman who thinks and
who wants to use her brains.
The woman who does not want to vote is the woman with a
few honorable, old-fashioned exceptions -unable to think, and.
therefore, appalled at the idea of fresh demands upon the intelli
gence which she has not got.
The man who opposes woman suffrage is some kind of a sav
age usually rather a weak man MEN AKE ALWAYS WEAK
WHEN THEY AKE \FR.\IDTO DIVIDE POWER.
The man worth while and the woman worth while want to live
together, think together, plan together AS EQI'ALS.
The ballot will develop the minds of women and the character
of men and it will gradually eliminate the “clinging vine, dear me,
I don't want to vote, water-eyed” type of women and the ogotisti
cal man.
Women will have the ballot everywhere. For the best women in
the country are determined to have it. Defeats will not discourage
them THEY WILL WIN.
Making Sense of the Panama
Contract
I
It is an established rule for the interpretation of contracts that
they should he so construed as to make not nonsense, but sense.
Thus it should be a sufficient confutation of the British view of
the Hay-Pauncefote treaty that it is a view that is inconsistent with
American sanity.
The British foreign office holds that we are precluded by 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 free, 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!
The British foreign office, with all its foolishness, has at least
the sense to perceive a plain fact that most American tories have
overlooked, to wit the fact that taking lolls from our ships ami
afterwards remitting them is precisely the same thing as not taking
them al all.
Perceiving this point, the British have been driven, by the logic
of their absurdity, to claim that wo have no right to offer subsidies
or concessions to our Panama commerce in the shape of remitted
lolls in spite ot the fact that all other nations will have an un
doubted right todothal very thing.
I Iwr, will be a day of awakening m which everybody will see
’’" al I' it.„b •oetentioi) should no! 1., referred io The Hague.
to a cuinuuis<iu de luuaticu mqiiii < udo.
The Atlanta Georgian
TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 10. 1912.
BILL!
lie goes out to get the Blues, and he gets them. But it might have been worse.
; Copyright, 1912, International News Service.
; *■ '
Bui the Blue Fish \ X ill qo 1 but niaon ' co/aeon bill' ’TIT ah love of \
ARE RUNNINdFINE .ANYMORE BoATRAC.ES TIME To qo our anoW AVOAE CANT You LET
I WANT YOU To CO/AE I I AAUST NT GET THIS SUIT A^HSLEEP 1 I
DOWN ANDqo FISHING BLUES-QFT UP. .
I a ®hJ '■ r r i |
BL i
LIS' ;
- ’ —" " ■—“——
/'san: isnv mu FARiNOucaN -tTu&qo IN 1 DontA
I out MX hasps arc LIKE THESE ASOTNER Tin- THE BLUE S ARE /
BLISTtRFO ) KEEP OH R»wiNq I ( GARX CHICKtN S ) JUST BEQINNINC, To
V CjjlE y
f Gt// L •
; 5 7 ——7 _ ' I
' ' (Nt IM SORRY) f |VE qoTTUE BLUE SA >
.. F —F *
; ( Bill PipYE cjet) 41]) jr V ■
’ ANY BluCs ? J /A* \ ;
I '' "XXXX'-:,- 7- wl ’ i
s f. W 'Jo |
■ .tun 1 W A a r 7
> _ V \
< The Matter of Age
\M ,\ N who Is forty years old,
and who is going to be mar
r.cd. asks this question:
"What should be the difference
between tin ages of a husband and
wife, taking into consideration
their happiness and the good of
the children that may be born to
t hem ?”
To answer the latter part of this
question first, it may be said that,
as a general thing, 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. tiecause then a woman Is at
her prime physically, and she is
old enough to have intelligence
enough to take care of her children
properly, and yet young enough to
be in sympathy with them.
The children of an over-young
and undeveloped mother aie apt to
be weaklings, and they are almost
sure to suffer In the rearing from
her lack of knowledge and expe
rience of life. There are few sights
mote 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 lias small
chance of anything hut misery. On
the other hand, the too-old mother
i.- apt to have children who are
"queer,” and to be overly indulgent
and fussy about them, or else to
raise them inhumanly according to [
s ime system she Ims dug out of a
book ;
No Regular Law.
Os course, there are many excep
tions to this rule, but speaking by
an I large it will tie found that the
most normal children are the chil
dren of youthful, but not too young,
mothers.
Nor can any hard anti fast law
bi laid down as regards the dif
ference between the ages of hus
band and wife. It depends upon the
temperament and oersonality of the
m: it cm! ' < . n< ernmi Nothing is
n illy more iisdis'i than to measte ■
I '■ ir- -I . m... t 1.0... I
people who arc semi* in the outlie,
By DOROTHY DIX.
and others who are children at
four score years.
The consensus of matrimonial ex
perience of the ages is that it is
best the husband should bo older
than the wife, but this only mat
ters w lu n there is any great dis
parity of years. I’ormerly it was
field 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
alert and fresh, it is a question if
they are not really younger at the
same age than men ar’.
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 lie does, and being
able to keep step witli 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
1s 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 <>ne is that the
man who marrna w oman 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 him behind
his back.
And tile elderly wife is even mor®
secretly ashamed of her boy hus
band, and mote sensitive to the rid
icule she knows her choice excites.
More than this, it is not in human
nature for a grizzled, fat old wom
an not to lie frantically jealous of
i young husband He max hi as
taithfi.:! .1- the hou.se v.n. but he
| mid setu 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
h<> 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 what 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 man and
woman is a chasm that only gold
ever bridges over, but twenty years
is not an insurmountable obstacle
at all. Indeed, those twenty years
in a man are sometimes just the
gilding 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 ago, with
tlie ivolnt of view of tile 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 who
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.
But these things are a matter of
temperament and not age, and the
years are not to be considered when
one finds one's affinity the one of
whose society one never tires, and
vhol’ is th■ sen taste* .:n■ i w .:y«
of looking at things as ones own.
MRS. W. L. PEELI
Writes on
The Rule of the
Expert
Let Atlanta Take in the
Whole of Fulton County,
She Says; Plan For a
Greater and Better City.
By MRS. W. L. PEEL
AN article entitled “City Sense"
by Frederic C. Howe in a late
number of 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
i
score business men from Boston,
New York. Philadelphia, Chicago.
Denver, Seattie. and a score of oth
er cities, to be entertained last
summer by eouneilmen 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
ufacturers and professional men
serving as city officials in Paris,
Brussels, Dusseldorf, Frankfort,
Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Budapest,
Prague and a half dozen other cities
on liie continent of Europe. It was
a transition from the unabashed
democracy made up from 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:
j Qualifications for Office.
First. High character, position
I and integrity which is naturally
expected of the head of any kind
; of enterprise.
Second. Judgment and ability as
; manifested by his personal success
I in life.
Third. Expert knowledge ot mu
nicipal affairs.
The burgomaster is elected for
twelve years, has a large salary,
and at the end of that time he, if
satisfactory, is re-elected for 25
years, and finally pensioned.
Baek of the burgomaster iS the
city council, elected by districts,
as, is our own. It is made up of
eminent business nien, of lawyers,
doctors, and. in the university
tow ns, of professor* as well. Mem
bers of the council are pa.id no sal
ary. but they devote a large part
of their time to city business. It
is a rlistinguished honor to serve
on tlie 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
citv 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 rvork that the burgomaster
himself possesses. The burgomas
ter has a ifumber 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 arc plant
ed colonies of working people, with
up-to-date sanitary cit.v house's,
with flowers and parked streets
and nothing unsightly or unwhole
some. The fi st care.of these city
fathers is the welfare and pros
perity of the laboring class. Back
of the German city, therefore, are
the business men. the bankers, the
merchant classes.
Th' German city has no charter
and is free and independent. In
the matter of corporate towns it is
the exact reverse of the American
•city.
But we have 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 1n through the back door.
.Milwaukee has discovered .1
mean' of >eeuring the city expert
witiVout regard to residence, polit-
THE HOME PAPER
I
' i 11
QMh - I
I
tSSWaL 1 ■
■ H■ 1
I
OU -
leal affiliations, or relation t( , . I
city. Milwaukee has organ;?.,,] t 1
Bureau of Economy and Effie.. I
It sent to the state universit-. f., r ■
Professor John R. Commons. WUa I
organized a municipal cle.i- lns ■
house of experts. When the city I
wants advice on a paving, health, I
engineering or harbor problem, t s I
bureau makes a study of the suh- I
ject with the co-operation of th, I
best experts that can be foun.i n I
the country, and reports its find. I
ings to the city. Such studies hav, I
been made on garbage disposal. u ls I
incineration plant, on a. harbor. <-. n I
health and hygiene, on pure milk, I
as well as on a variety of ( >ths r I
subjects. Standards of cost have I
been established and departmental I
efficiency secured by letting In th, I
light. I
Expert Ability Available.
We have the same expert ability I
that Germany and England com. I
mand. But it is excluded from city I
politics. And as long as questioni I
of policy or partisanship are d--. I
termined at the polls we can not I
hope to displace the political mayor I
by the trained official The M". I
waukee plan for a permanent bn. |
reau of experts offers a means of I
securing that which our citier have I
heretofore lacked. I
But the reform that has don, I
most to simplify our municipal ma
chinery is the 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 and the
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 ths
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 peo
ple, and that is what we most need
Just now. It was impossible to de
velop a. city sense so long as tlm
city was distrusted, so long as the
public felt it should be shorn of
power and limited in its activi
ties. A healthy municipal life could
not exist under this distrust.
This gives but an idea of Mr.
Howe's delightful article.
Rule Applied to Atlanta.
Now. if we had any experts in
Atlanta, selected by taxpayer >
say what should go with their
money, docs anybody think th '
would have discarded our g<
plant for which we had ju-t |>.
$39,000 for one that cost ovei S 3" '
000? No. An expert told me
would have recommended that our
plant run day and night (fl h •
only run by day) and that wrll-i -
do people be required to consume
their own garbage. The up-to-date
plan is very simple—a little gas
arrangement in the kitchen whi h
cats up anything from a dead dog
to its own ashes. When we get
our $300,000 crematory. It will tak°
SIOO,OOO for an outfit to haul the
garbage, which must now Im
brought from Brookwood and
Westview and Kirkwood ami tl|P
end of Marietta street —my! Ta'k
about congestion. When this cara
van takes the streets people w I
all have to sell their automobiles!
Let's turn over a new leaf right
now. Let’s get a dean, live, suc
cessful. up-to-date business man
for our burgomaster. And then let's
away with our little old antiquated
charter, anil our little old anti
quated methods. Let the city tal'T
In the whole of Fulton county and
compel every landlord to furnis
decent housing for his tenant
black or white. No wonder we rani
third in the typhoid cities of
America when we think of the
thousands of human beings In th
city herded like eattle. When «'
know that the servant in !
house comes to us from these loa:
some dens, shall we not in t:m
name of humanity demand a
change?
Tlie city of Trenton, N. J . has
-tried the commission form
government for one year. Although
heavily handicapped by a >'•
nearly as large as Atlanta's '' '•
be next year, left by tlie outgo:' -
administration, they annout" ■
that they liave already saved up
Mird of s)t)i>,lino nf the taxpav' -
money,