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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, IB7>.
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mall. $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 for $51,000 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 sea 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 British price.
And yet. in 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 igle.
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 or
German vessels by American citizens.
The accepted theory is that they are deterred from doing
so by 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 take 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
trade is bad policy. No good can come of it.
We must 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 be 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 of preferential duties in favor of home-built ships
engaged in foreign trade would put new salt, and 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 be more inspiring than the discovery of the lost
descendants of the bold Lief Ericksen, who invaded the shores of
Greenland a thousand years ago?
Those thousand years have led Europe through the mazes of
barbarism to Christianity, through the glories of the Renaissance
to an enlightened civilization daily growing more wonderful.
The same thousand years have led the descendants of the Ice
land Vikings slowly backward.
The daring that moved the 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.
Safe to say. if some astral habitant could view. through
rays that left this earth a thomand years ago, the landing of
Lief Ericksen, he would predict the conquering of the world by
people rich as his.
SO. if this discovery teaches us anything, it is a lesson on
our own littleness. Our boasled civilization is only an incident
in the turn of the wheel. Lucky for us Romance remains to
gild our ways.
-
A New Idea in Philanthropy
Charity has assumed many forms, hut it is doubtful whether it
ever assumed a more practical character than in lhe case of a man
named Hawkins, in Philadelphia.
Hawkins was a wealthy man. and diml at lhe ripe old age of 98
years. Among his possessions were eighteen houses, valued at about
$4.00(1 each. H is now made public that prior to his death he paid
off all liens upon the property, and in his will bequeathed the houses
Io the tenants who had been paying him rent for many years. These
houses were workingmen's homes, lhe kind that rent for about $25
Jt month, and the eighteen families that occupied them have by this
means been put into possession ot homes ot their own, homt's that
they have come to love from long years of association.
This is a new idea in philanthropy, and one that could well be
imitated. Think what a benefit to that tragic class, the middle-class
pool, such a plan would be Os course, there arc some who would
♦mt benefit by it. but the majority would receive a lasting impetus
towaid something better It is the start toward home owning ami
home-building that is hard for the poor. If given a “leg up." as it
were, the benefits,to the race as a whole would be incalculable.
The Atlanta Georgian
< Unhorsing an Emperor
The Glories of Ancient Rome Reverenced by Its Animating Spirit of Today
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LOWERING THE BRONZE FIGURE OF THE EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS FROM HIS HORSE.
By GARRETT P. SERVISS.
EVERY visitor to Rome will re
member the huge 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
In 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 Cine si use 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 \ ry striking
form, the grow th 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 crash a few years ago. im
mediately set to work to restore it.
after the old model. It is also aklr
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 the ancient
capital of the world would seem
diminished in ;« presence.
This spirit is now at work ev.ry.
w here in Italy. It is pushing mi the
excavations at Pompeii, as well as
TUESDAY. SEPTEM BER 24. 1912.
in the Eonttn. and in many other
places where the glorie.fi 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, where the
traveler now sees long rows of
smoking chimneys towering above
the poplars, the Hower gardens
and the cathedrals, and proclaim
ing the reign of modern industry.
Nowhere has electric power been
further developed than in northern
Italy. Nowhere are the latest re
sults of practical science more
promptly utilized.
Italy is aw ake—wider awake than
Five Points For
“Five Points”
Ed.tor The Georgian:
Havu g noticed the spirit witli
which you undertake, through the
medium of your columns, needed
reforms in our city. 1 am writing
to suggest that you get behind sev
eral changes which would work to
the benefit of the city and get it
further from the "has-been" class
changes w hich are in force In any
of the larger well rim cities of the
country but not. as a rule, used in
the "down-at-the-heels" towns.
(If Having the traffic squad
(•quipped 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
iiriy mean "Go ahead," “Stop." or.
nothing.
(2> Preventing the starking of
everybody’s and anybody's machine
along the street, thereby reducing
the 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
allow ing one to "loom and board'
his machine all day long along the
main street would be unheard of.
Preventing the individual
whose sole occupation is loafing to
practice his profession 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.
It * Having in the center, between
the tracks, a small refuge such as
is seen in the greater cities, where
by the pedestrian who is crossing
may escape the flow of traffic and
Whereby the traffic i evenly di
vided into definite streams.
<■> Enforcing and 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, w hile the statue of Caesar be
set up in its stead, on the plaza of
I the capitol.
Mari us Aurelius was a philoso
pher. He < ould fight, and he did
tight, when he had to—and he
fought well—but bls was not the
spirit of a conqueror. He was mild
and gentle in his thoughts and
manners. He put conscience above
everything else, and Ills true glory,
for centuries, has consisted in his
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 who want to restore the mili
tary glory of Italy, to make her a
great European power, with formid
able fleets of battleships and armies
that must be taken Into account
when the nations go to war. But
< aes.tr was p. 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
these recent 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 be preached still for
many centuries before it lias alto,
gether banished its uanooheu
TTHE HOME
Thomas Tapper
Writes on
The Educa
tion of the
Voter
I &
The Vice-President, a
More or Less Obscure
(.7 en 11 ema n, Wh o
Never Has a Vote in
the Senate Unless It
Is a Tie.
i
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
ease.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. ■’
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,
Comes 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—be mute!
Before this climaxic concordance of sound.
Tootle, of Tattnall! All sing it! Toot! Toot!
1e Smiths, and ye Johnsons, and Jones and Browns,
1 oo long have ye vexed us—-ye commonplace folk.
Toot! Toot! Comes now Tootle, of Tattnall! Toot! Tootl
tomes Tootle, of Tattnall—and Tootle's no joke.
I ootle. of Tattnall! Good follow? Os course!
hy. how could a person named Tootle he mean?
There s the song of a siren in “Tootle" —ah, yes!
But naught of the siren in Tootle, I ween!
Hail. Tootle, of Tattnall—and come Into camp!
Haii, surcease of sameness In cognomens trite.
Tvmt'anum tickler of Tattnall! Tintin-
Nabulating old Tootle is surely all right! j
r wy
I
c' - '-Jgwl;
I
member of the convention d. . i ai
such an office to be unnecessary.
This office, created in strenuous
times and limited as to its -cope,
has been a source of trouble. In
the national conventions the nam
ing of the vice president may ere
ate no interest; or political bosses
may use the office as a hole | n the
ground in which to hurt a man
who promises to be a popular lead
er of strong convictions
Roosevelt was selected for inter
ment in this political graveyard.
But In the course of events ths
sound of the resurrection trumpet
fell upon his ear and he has coms,
if not into life everlasting, then
into everlasting life.
You Never Can Tell.
By gambling on the chance that
the vice presidential office would
effectually bury the gentleman from
Oyster Bay, the first step wai
taken in a direct path to what is
now being affectionately called the
Bull Moose .party. You never can
tell what will happen when von
have made your nice little plan
work out just as you want it.
You. as a voter, can help elect ths
vice president, but not the sena
tors over whom he presides.
Each state has two senatom,
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-third of
the senators of the United States
expires on March 4 of every odd
year. Hence, whatever the convic
tion and policies of new senators,
two-thirds of the body are retained
to warrant the benefits of expe
rience.
Must Be Thirty Years Old.
A senator must be at least 3 1 )
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 repre
sent. If the methods by which 1
senator has secured his election are
open to the charge of dishonesty,
he is tried before his fellow sena
tors and acquitted of the charge, or
his seat is declared vacant,
case of Senator Lorimer is an i n ’
stance.
A senator receives an annual sal
ary of Seven Thousand Five Hun
dred Dollars. In addition to this,
he has an annual allowance of One
Hundred and Twenty-five Do
for newspapers and stationery.
Clerk hire is provided, and mile
age, at twenty cents per mile, be
tween his home and Washington.