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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, 1379. Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mall, $5 00 a year. Payable in advance. Men Like Suffragettes M *. * 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 fight an uphill fight before the mental slavery of woman shall disappear. BIG THINGS ARE ACCOMPLISHED SLOWLY, and 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 best 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 the rack, the thumb-screw and other brutali ties. Silly, foolish, characterless craving for second-rate admiration makes certain women oppose the suffragette movement. These woijien are usually between forty-nine and sixty-six years of age. 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 anti-suffragette 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 I 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 to 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 ARE ALWAYS WEAK WHEN THEY ARE AFRAID TO DIVIDE POWER. The man worth while and the woman worth while want to live together, think together, plan together AS EQUALS. 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 egotisti 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 It is an established rule for the interpretation of contracts that they should be so construed as to make not nonsense, but sehse. 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 lories have overlooked, to wit —the fact that taking tolls from our ships and afterwards remitting them is precisely the same thing as not taking them at all. Perceiving this point, the 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 commerce m the shape of remitted tolls-—in spite of the fact that all other nations will have an tin doubted right to do that very thing There will be a day of awakening in which everybody will see that the British content ion should not be referred to TJie Hague, . but to a coiuiuissiu de lunatico inquirciidu. The Atlanta Georgian BILL! He goes out to get the Blues, and he gets them. But it might have been worse. Copyright, 1912, International News Service. Bill the Blue Fish \ ( luqo' our niaon ' co/aeon bill’ ah love of \ ARE RUNNINQFINE . AnX RE RACES TWEToQO outanoW Ml KE CANTYou LET I want Tou To Come I I wst nt get this suit Lz aMah / DOWN ANDGoFISHINCf BIUtS—QET UP. WE WIU-GETANEARLN WW [out LIKE THESE MOTHER PIU- THE BLUE S ARE I BLisitßto J WE i I CARV chickens ) JUST BEGINNING To L \- — y SHE y * L\ I// ? K ~~- 'V A_i _•* - ' (>ts IVEGOT-WE BLUESA (BILLPIPYE qET) /gL A R) KV • A ' "'K ■■ jSSSk IIIL? —• .iul* wr’? .. ?, ~... ujw—' ---.ZL.vsVtH The Matter of Age W 5 AMAN who Is forty years old, and who is going to be mar ried, asks this question: "What should be the difference between the ages of a husband and wife, taking into consideration their happiness and the good of the children that may be born to them?” 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. because 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 are 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 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 anything but misery. On the other hand, the too-oid mother is apt to have children who are "queer," and to be overly Indulgent and fussy about them, or else to raise them inhumanly according to some system she has dug out of a book. No Regular Law. Os course, there are many excep tions to this rule, but, speaking by and-large, it will be found that the most normal children are the chil dren of youthful, but not too young, mothers. Nor can any hard and fast law be laid down as regards the dif ference between the ages of hus band and wife It depends upon the temperament and personality of the Individuals concerned Nothing is really more foolish than to measure age b;> years, because there sir people who are senile in tile cradle, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1912. 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 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 w hen 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 are. There Can Be No Objection. Certainly there van 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 woman'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, l “what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander” in the mar riage proposition. One is that the man 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 him behind his baek. And the elderly wife is even mo r e 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 so- a grizzled, fat old wont an not to be frantically jealous of a young husband. He may be as faithful as the house cat. but she I never secs him with a beautiful, lissome, fresh girl w-ithout 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, w ife. 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 thatx- gilds gold, and that gives him a little touch of paternal tenderness tow'ard 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 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. Rut these things are a matter of temperament and not age. and the years are not tn be consideied w hen one finds one's affinity—the one of whose society one never tires, and who has the same tastes and ways of looking at things as one's own. THE HOME PAPER MRS. W. L. PEEL Writes on The Rule of the I Expert Let Atlanta Take in the Whole of Fulton County, She Says; Plan For a Greater and Better City. 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 score business men from Boston, New York. Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and a score of oth er cities, to be entertained last summer by eouncilmen 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 the 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: 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 targe 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 busines* men, of lawyers, doctors, and, in the university towns, of pfofessor* as well. Mem bers of the council are paid no sal ary, 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 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. Back 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 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 in through the back door. Milwaukee has discovered a means of -ecui’ing the city expert without regard to residence, poin- By MRS. W. L. PEEL ical affiliations, or relation to ; city. Milwaukee has organized a Bureau of Economy and Efficiency It sent to the state university for Professor John R. Commons, who organized a municipal clea mg house of experts. When the city want? advice on a paving, health, engineering or harbor problem, the bureau makes 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, th 9 incineration plant, on a harbor, on health and hygiene, on pure milk, as well as on a variety of other subjects. Standards of cost have been established and departmental efficiency secured by letting tn the light. Expert Ability Available. We have the same expert ability that Germany and England com mand. But it Is excluded from city politics. And as long as questions of policy or partisanship are de termined at the polls we can not hope to displace the political mayor by the trained official. The 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 dons 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 ths 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 the city was distrusted, so long as the public felt it should be shorn nf 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 taxpayers to say what should go with their money, does anybody think they would have discarded our garbage plant for w’hich we had just paid $39,000 for one that cost over $300,- 000? No. An expert told me he would have recommended that our plant run day and night (it has only run by day) and that well-to do people be required to consume their own garbage. The up-to-date plan is very simple—a little gas arrangement in the kitchen which eats up anything from a dead dog to its own ashes. When we get our $300,000 crematory, ft will take SIOO,OOO for an outfit to haul the garbage, which must now be brought from Brookwood and Westview and Kirkwood and the end of Marietta street —my! Talk about congestion. When this cara van takes the streets people will all have to sell their automobiles' Let's turn over a new leaf righf now. Let’s get a clean, live, suc cessful, up-to-date business man for our burgomaster. And then let s away with our little old antiquated charter, and our little old anti quated methods. Let the city take In the whole of Fulton county and compel every landlord to furnish decent housing for his tenants, black or white. No wonder we rank third in the typhoid cities of America when we think of the thousands of human beings in this city herded like cattle. When we know that the servant In the house comes to us from these loath some dens, shall we not in the name of humanity demand a change? | The city of Trenton, N. J., has tried the commission form o'’ government for one year. Although heavily handicapped by a debt nearly as large as Atlanta's will be next year, left by the outgoing administration, they annminre that they have already saved up ward of SIOO,OOII of the taxpayers' money. ' A i