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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,