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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. 1873
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mail, J 5.00 a year.
Payable in advance.
Beating the English at Their
Own Game
Recently the city of Manchester, England, wanted steel rails for
its roads. The contract was not a large one. but when it was adver
tised the bidding for it was sharp and bitter. Manchester is in the
iron and steel district of England, and in a position to command the
lowest price on the domestic product
When the bids were opened, however, it was found that an
American concern, the Lorain Steel Company, of .Johnstown, Pa.,
had made the lowest offer. In round figures the Lorain company
would sell Im- $51,(100 what its English rivals demanded $55,000 for.
The American company was prepared to manufacture the rails,
pay freight and handling to the Atlantic seaboard, pay freight and
handling by st a to England, and again pay freight and handling to
Manchester, and still make a profit on its sale at nearly 10 per cent
under the Bril ish price.
And yet, m the face of such a showing as this, the stand-pat Re
publican still maintains that the present tariff on steel rails is abso
lutely essential to the prosperity of the industry in this country.
The steel business is still for him an infant industry, even though it
can go into the heart of Britain and win contracts in competition
with hard-headed, close-calculating manufacturers of the tight lit
tle isle.
As it is with steel, so it is with a number of other products of
our manufacturing plants, and with much of our raw material.
Some day the American citizen will wake to the fact that he has
been swindled by the tariff mongers who have fattened on his toil,
and then the day of reckoning will come.
We Must Build Our Own
Ships
The rider in the Panama canal bill granting free admission
to American registry of foreign-built ships seems likely to have
no practical •effect whatever. Journals of the shipping interest
report that no projects are afoot for the purchase of British oi
German vessels by American citizens.
The accepted theory is that they are deterred from doing
so b\ the fact that American sailors and marine engineers de
mand high wages. But back of that fact lies the still more sig
nificant fact that American shipowners have not been much
moved by patriotic considerations in this matter; and they can
own under foreign registry all the ships they care to own.
This newspaper has always contended and still believes that
America should lake direct means, under the protective princi
ple, to revive its deep-sea shipbuilding industry. The admis
sion of foreign-built ships to American registry for foreign
'.rade s bed policy. Xo good can come of it.
build our own ships. We must breed a new race
of seafaring men. The way to do it is to protect this industry as
we have protected other industries through a period of weak
ness We ought to understand that all-around greatness for any
nation requires that it should he at home on the sea as well as
on the land; and that the sacrifices necessary to produce that
balance in social and industrial life and national character
should be accounted light.
A system oi preferential duties in favor of home-built ships
engaged in foreign trade would pul new salt ami savor into the
American people.
Romance and the Vikings
Romance is not dead; it lives and breathes now as in the
days of the bow and arrow. ‘‘Romance brings up the nine fif
teen. says Kipling. She does more; she sits at our shoulders
waiting for us to see with individual eye her ever fresh con
trasts.
What could In more inspiring than the discovery of the lost
descendants of the bold Lief Ericksen, who invaded the shores of
Greenland a thousand years ago? •
I'hose thousand years have led Europe through the mazes of
barbarism to Christianity, through the glories of the Renaissance
to an <nl ghtened civilization daily growing more wonderful.
The sane thousand years have led the descendants of the Ice
land \ iking.s slowly backward.
The daring that moved tin 1 sea-kings of the flowing beard to
brave unknown oceans in cockleshells lives no more in the hearts
of the white Eskimos of the North. Saga and sea song stir
them not.
Sate to say, if some astral habitant could view, through
rays to u I t this earth a thousand years ago. the landing of
Lief lari •'<> ti. he would predict the conquering of the world by
people such as his.
80. it this discovery teaches ns anything, it is a lesson on
our own littleness. Our boasted civilization is only an incident
in tti’ turn of the wheel. Lucky for us Romance remains to
gild our ways.
A New Idea in Philanthropy
* I y h ;is assumed many forms, but it is doubtful whether it
ever asstim d a more practical character than in the case of a man
named Hawkins, in Philadelphia.
Hawkins was a wealthy man. and died at the ripe old age of OS
' 1 ar- \m<mg h's possessious>were eighteen houses, valued at about
•f i.tttiu each, it is now made, public that prior to his death tie paid
ri ail liens upon the property-.pud’ in his will bequeathed the houses
loth, icnatiis v> ho had I ’'pay ing him rent for many years. These
houses were workingmen\ Itomps, the kind that rent for about $25
11 iiimi and tee eight that weupjed them have bv this
uieans !,<■, n put into possession of Ifonies of their own. homes that,
tie y have come to lovettrom lofig years of association.
I'his is a m w idea in philanthropy and one that equid wtjjl he
inutat Thinl " hat a,benefit to that tragic class,-tjie mkijl
would be Os course, there are some who wjltt <t
11 . but the majority would receive»a lastingraw tils
k y'; 11 }'' ing belter. It is the sJart toward home oy-rfingipud
■ l! 'hug that is hard tor the poor |f given a‘ ‘ ’aX t
' beiieiits to the race as a whole would be iiicakuil<.ldw. *
The Atlanta Georgian
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1912,
C Unhorsing an Emperor
The Glories of Ancient Rome Reverenced by Its Animating Spirit of Today
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LOWERING THF BRONZE FIGURE OF THE EMPEROR MARCUS AURtLIUS FROM HIS HORSE.
By GARRETT P. SERVISS.
VERY visitor to Ro 111 re
j member th' him- bronze
statue of the Emperor Mar
cus of Aurelius, seated on his
bronze horse, in front of the old _
capitol. The pedestal was designed
by the great Michael Angelo, but
the statue is a far older work
This summer they have taken
the old emperor down from his
horse, which he had bestrode for
centuries, and removed him to the
Capitoline museum, where artists
are going to •‘restore" him—for the
ravages of time have made sad
work upon him. In the long run
an emperor in bronze is no more
immortal than one in flesh and
blood.
It was a considerable undertak
ing to unhorse Marcus Aurelius, as
the photograph shows, but the op
eration was successfully conducted,
and for some time to come tourists
tn the Eternal City will see only a
big wooden shed covering the ped
estal from which he stretched forth
his imperial hand with a gesture
of command. With what some per
sons will regard as a flue s nse of
propriety, they hooded the emper
or's face while taking him down,
as If to prevent him from looking
upon his own .abasement. Rut the
real reason was to save his finely
molded features from damage ad
ditional to that which time had
already inflicted upon them.
Os World-Wide Interest,
This undertaking, had it oc
curred in any other city, with any
other old statue, would have been
a matter of local importance only,
but it really had a world-wide in
terest, partly because all nations
have a certain pride in the an
tiquities of Rome, yet mainly be
cause it reveals, in a very striking
form, the growth of the new spirit
of nationality in Italy. It is akin
to the impulse which made the
Venetians, when the tower of the
Campanile of St. Mark fell, with a
great trash a few years ago. im
mediately set to work to restore it.
after the old model. It is also akin
to the spirit which has produced
the enormous monument of Victor
Emmanuel in Rome, a work so
vast and splendid that but for the
prestige which covers them the
other monuments of th. ancient
A> ■■' of th< w 1 d would seem
diminished tn its presence.
This spirit is now at work every-
e in Italy. It is pushing on the
I «> tvations at !'•mipci:. as v,li as
*
in the Forum. and in many other
places where the glories of old
Rome lie buried. But it is not al
together a revival of the cultiva
tion of art and history. It has
produced a marvelous transforma
tion in the plains and cities of
Piedmont and Lombardy, w here the
traveler now sees long rows of
smoking chimneys towering above
the poplars, the flower gardens
and the cathedrals, and proclaim
ing the reign of modem industry.
Nowhere has electric power been
further developed than in northern
Italy. Nowhere are the latest re
sults of practical science more .
’ promptly utilized. X
Italy is awake—wider awake than
Five Points For
“Five Points”
Editor The Georgian:
Having noticed the spirit with
which you undertake, through the
medium of your columns, needed
teforms in our city. I am writing
to suggest that you get behind sev
eral changes which would work to
the benefit of the city ami get It
further from the "has-been" class
changes which are in force tn any
of the larger well run cities of the
country, but not. as a rule, used in
the "down-at-the-heels" towns.
(1) Having the traffic squad'
equipped with traffic whistles. A
flourish of the hand is well enough
for a village street, but in a crowd
ed thoroughfare it is ridiculous. It
may mean "Go ahead," "Stop," or
nothing.
(2 > Preventing the parking of
everybody's and anybody's machine
along the street, thereby reducing
tlx usable portion of the street to
the width of the car tracks. Peach
tree is narrow enough, and yet in
other cities of size such a thing as
allowing one to "room and board"
his machine all day long along the
main street would be unheard of.
(3) Preventing the individual
whose sole occupation is loafing to
practice his prof, ssion just where
the streets are narrowest and the
crowds greatest. This, too, is a
leave over from the days when At
lanta was in the class of some of
our neighboring cities and not when
it is pushing its Eastern rivals for
civic honors.
<4l Having in the center, between
the ttacks, a small refuge such as
is seen in the greater cities, where
by the pedestrian who is crossing
may escapi the flow of traffic and
whereby the traffic is evenly di
vided into definite streams,
(5) Enforcing 2 ami 3.
• CIVIC PRIDE.
it has been since the days of Cae
sar. Indeed, one is tempted to think
that, somehow, the spirit of that
wonderful genius now inspires the
descendants of his legionaries, so
long apparently submerged by the
influx of foreign blood which came
pouring in from every side after the
fall of the imperial power.
That some, at least, of the Ital
ians now dream of Caesar, as many
Frenchmen do of Napoleon, is cu
riously’ shown by an incident con
nected with the unhorsing of the
statue of Marcus Aurelius. Now
that the statue is down, the “Young
Nationalists” have demanded that,
instead of replacing it on its pedes
tal, after it has been “restored,” it
be sent to some less conspicuous
place, while the statue of Caesar be
set up in its stead, on the plaza of
the capitol.
Marcus Aurelius was a philoso
pher. He could tight, and he did
fight, when he had to —and he
fought well —but his was not the
spirit of a conqueror. He was mild
and gentle in his thoughts and
manners. He put conscience above
everything else, and his true glory,
for centuries, has consisted in bis
book of "Thoughts,” one of the
greatest moral treatises in exist
ence.
This type of man does not fit in
very’ well with the ambition of
those w ho want to restore the mili
tary glory of Italy, to make her a
great European power, w ith formid
able fleets of battleships and armies
that must be taken into account
when the nations go to war. But
Caesar was a man after their own
heart. Seated on his bronze war
horse, in front of the capitol, he
would, they think, better represent
the Italy that they dream of—an
Italy to be feared as well as ad
mired.
Peace Must Be Preached,
So, there are three aspects of the
new Italy that are revealed by’
heae •ecent events; first, the aspi
ration toward art and the cultiva
tion of history; second, the deter
mination to keep abreast of the
modern world In practical scientific
advance, and third, the desire to
make Rome once more a name of
power because of the weight of her
mailed hand.
Evidently war. the charmer, has
not yet lost its potency over the
human spirit. The gospel of peace
will have to he preached still for
many centuries before it has alto
gether banished its panoplied foe.
THE HOME PAPER
Thomas Tapper
Writes on
The Educa-
FN *
tion of the fcs,
Ish ll ' i i I
Voter ■ F wki j
g > Jr
i M
[. jffjf :OI
The Vice-President, a I i
More or Less Obscure
Gentleman, Who
Never Has a Vote in jw
the Senate Unless It
Is a Tie.
By THOMAS TAPPER.
WHEN the inauguration serv
ices are over, the president
moves into the limelight
for four years, and the vice
president sits in the senate cham
ber, a more or less obscure gentle
man.
The constitution did not origi
nally state the qualifications for the
vice presidency, though it implied
that they should be the same as
for the president. But, in the
twelfth amendment, it is clearly
stated: ‘‘No persons constitutional
ly ineligible to the office of presi
dent shall be eligible to that of vice
president of the United States.”
The duty of the vice president is
to preside over the meetings of the
senate. He can not appoint com
mittees, nor can he vote save in the
case of a tie.
Five times in our political his
tory the president of the United
States has died during his term of
office and the vice president has
succeeded to the presidency. This
possibility warrants the careful se
lection of men for an office that is
generally looked upon as of small
importance.
At the great conventions dele
gates get so out of breath yelling
for their presidential candidate
that his running mate slips in dur
ing a profound silence.
Plans to Increase Power.
It. has often been suggested that
the possible succession of the vice
president to the higher office war
rants his receiving an increase of
power and importance. Two plans
have been put forward —(1) to
make the vice president a member
of the cabinet; (2) to give him a
vote as a member of the senate.
The purpose of this increase of
power is to assure the nomination
of men of high caliber, and to erase
from the popular mind the impres
sion that any one will do for the
tail of the ticket.
The salary of the vice president
is $12,000 per annum, less than
one-sixth of the amount paid to
the president; and the same as
paid to the members of the cabi
net. The vice president, like the
president, may be impeached, but
this has never happened in the his
tory of the United States. Presi
dent Johnson escaped conviction
in an impeachment trial by one
vote.
The constitutional convention of
1 787 had been in session four
months before any one suggested
the office of vice president. One
Tootle of Tattnall!
(Tootle, of Tattnall, who will be a member of the next legislature, !s
a good fellow, all right.—Darien, Ga., Gazette.)
’ By HOMER KNOTT.
Now, into a world that is sordid and sad,
Now, into a universe groping in gloom,
Conies Tootle, of Tattnall—oh. blest be his name!
For Tootle, of Tattnall, good people, make room!
Oh, sighing of south winds, and singing of birds.
Oh, babbling of brooklets through sylvian dells,
Oh, music, Calliope—listen! Old girl.
What lilting in Tootle, of Tattnall, dwells.
Cease, whispering of lovers neath silvery moon!
Jubilant nightingale, silence—he mute!—•
Before this elimaxic concordance of sound.
Tootle, of Tattnall! All sing it! 7’cot! Toot!
V Smiths, and ye Johnsons, and Jones’and Browns,
Too long have ye vexed us ye commonplace folk.
Toot! Toot! Comes now Tootle, of Tattnall! Toot! Toot!
Comes Tootle, of Tattnall—and Tootle's no joke.
Tootle, of Tattnall! Good fellow? Os course!
Why, how could a person named Tootle be mean?
There s the song of a siren in ' Tootle" ah. yes!
But naught of the siren in Tootle, 1 ween!
Hail. Tootle, of Tattnall and conn into camp!
Hail, surcease of sainetfas In cognomens trite.
Tympanum tickler of Tattnall! Tintin-
Nabulating >■ fuc.tie surely all right!
member of the convention d,lar.-j
such an office to be unneces.- in
This office, created in strenuous
times and limited as to its scope,
has been a source of trouble, in
the national conventions the nam
ing of the vice pioident may cre
ate no interest; or political hoss-s
may use the office, as a hole in the
ground in which 'to bury a man
who promises to be a popuhi: lead
er of strong convictions. Mr.
Roosevelt was selected for inter
ment in this political graveyard.
But in the course of events re
sound of the resu. section frunv -t
fell upon hie ear and he has come,
if not into life everlasting, then
into everlasting life.
You Never Can Tell.
By gambling nn the chatfre that
tlie vice presidential office would
effectually bury the gentleman from
Oyster Bay, the first step vs
taken in a direct patli to what is
now being affectionately called th:
Bull Moose party. You never can
tell what will happen when you
have made your nice little plan
work out just as you want it.
You, as a voter, can help elect the
vice president, but not the sena
tors over whom he presides.
Each state has two senators,
elected for six years. Cases on rec
ord show that some senators have
served for five or more consecutive
terms.
The term of office of one-thi : f
the senators of the United St.>tis
Expires on March 4 of i've:y oml
year. Hence, whatever the convic
tion and policies of new senators,
two-thirds of the body ar-- rets
to warrant the benefits of oxp<-
i ience.
Must Be Thirty Years Old.
A senator must be at
years of age, and a citizen for nine
years of the United States. He
must, further, be an inhabitant of
the state which he desires to i pri
sent. If the methods by which t
senator has secured his election -ii"
open to the charge of dishonesty,
ho is tried before his fellow sena
tors and acquitted of the charge. H ”
his seat is declared vacant. Ihe
case of Senator Enrimer is an in
stance.
A senator receives an annual sal
ary of Seven Thousand Five Hun
dred Dollais. In addition to ties,
he has an annual allowance of 1 »ne
Hundred and Twenty-five I’
for newspapers and stations '■
Clerk hire is provided, and mile
age, at twenty cents per mile, be
tween his home and Washington.