Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday ■C. THE GEORGIAN COMPANY *> East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga. Uttered as second-class matter at postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March S. U7». Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week By mail, 10.00 a year. Payable In advance. “The Government Is Help ing the Banks” St » W Yes, Indeed, Helping the Banks TO ROB THE FARMERS BY CHARGING FROM EIGHT AND ONE-HALF TO TWELVE PER CENT INTEREST I _ “Eminently respectable” newspapers, always filled with joy when “those that have” ?et a little more, comment approvingly upon the fact that, as they put it. “the government is helping the banks." They mean by this that the government of the United is taking money which belongs to all of the peo ple and sending his money on deposit to inland bahks through out the nation. The crops are in and must be “moved.” The farmer must pay his freight, pay’ his bills for fertilizer and the wages of his men. HE MUST HAVE MONEY He gets the money—and he gets it at shamefully usurious rates —because the money that belongs to the people of the" United States is handed over to the banks, which in turn bleed the farmers. When we tell you that “the farmer has to pay on the average eight and a half per cent for the money he borrows,” we are NOT GIVING YOU IMAGINARY FIGURES from a soft-hearted muck raker. we are quoting B. F. Yoakum, president of the St. Louis & San Francisco railroad, president of other railroads in the past, interested as director and stockholder in banks AND INTIMATE LY ACQUAINTED WITH THE METHODS OF ROBBING THE FARMER. WHO PRODUCES, BY THE MONEY LENDER, WHO PRODUCES NOTHING. Yon wonder that the cost of living is high, but you need not wonder. The farmers of this country’ owe the banks six thousand millions of dollars these are Mr. Yoakum’s figures and they pay in interest EVERY YEAR EIVE HUNDRED AND TEN MILLIONS of dollars. The amount would be much greater, except that many of the loans are paid off by the farmer as soon as his crops are sold, so that the vast sum of five hundred and ten millions, which would hnild two Panama canals every year, which in five years would put good roads in front of every farm in this country, repre sents only’ the interest that the fanners pay for the use of the money FOR A LITTLE WHILE, no for a whole year. Nothing is more demoralizing than the payment of exorbi tant interest. It discourages the man who pays, it makes him reckless and discourages careful economy. The cost of the food that you eat represents the money that the farmer must spend to produce that food, plus his protit AND THE INTEREST ON THE MONEY THAT HE BOR ROWS Here you have the banks. THAT PRODUCE NOTHING, tak ing from the farmers in interest every year live hundred and ten millions of dollars, and that vast sum is added at once to the cost of the food you eat. Do yon realize that the money which the banks loan to the farmers is government money’ Do you realize that the banks pay nothing for the use of this money, and that, as Mr. Yoakum testifies, they charge the farmers on the average the usurious and criminal rate of eight and one-half per cent interest? Do you realize that this money which the government uses “io help the banks" is money that the farmers and other citi zens have paid to the government in taxes—taxes on imports, on cigars, on beer? Can you conceive anything more outrageous and shameful than a system of government which taxes the people heavily and then deposits the taxes in the hanks and permits the hanks AGAIN TO TAX THE PEOPLE IN THE SHAPE OF CRIM INAL USURY? A national bank buys government bonds. The government pays interest on those bonds to the bank Then the bank can issue money of its own against those bonds. For this money thus issued it pays not one cent of inter est. Its own money is safely invested in government bonds, and the artificial money which it issues against those bonds is loaned out at usury to the farming class. it is a wonder that, instead of worrying about the high cost of living, our country is not. in actual want. And it is a wonder that we are not in a continual state of panic, instead of merely having panics every few tears The farmer would not try to work a horse with blood suckers hanging to him and draining his vital tv. How can the farmers be expected to work and eurieh the country and make the cost of living reasonable when the blood suckers of the banks bleed them to the tune of five hundred and ten million of.dollars every year in the shape of usury B and use the people « money in making their loans I The Atlanta Georgian The Great Political Show By HERSHFIELD. 4m - ~ ■■■ . < —_ —G ‘ igg ' - i There was an Old Man in a boat, Who said, “I’m afloat! I’m afloat!” When they said, "No. you ain’t!” he was ready to faint, That unhappy Old Man in a boat. From Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense. j HAVE received a lettei which I says: "Will you kindly help a wom an with an artistic tempera intent to see the bright side of a life that she is doomed to spend with a man who cares for nothing in the world but business. He is not in terested in politics, religion or lit erature. He plays no games. He does not care for the theater or opera. H- reads nothing but the stock reports. He does not care for automobiling except to get mote swiftly to his business. He does not even care for his children, but gives them any tiling they want to keep them from bothering him and taking up his valuable time. \\ hen he is at home, which isti t very oft en before 11 or 12 o'clock at night, he Is absorbed in thinking over his business plans, or us cross and grouchy as a sore-heAded bear be cause he is exhausted, mentally and physically, by his labor. He’s No Companion. "laterally. I have no husband I have a generous provider, but no companion, no chum, nobody to go out with me or to enjoy things with me T know there is so much misery in the world, so much real suffer ing for the necessities of life, that I should not complain of my lot. There must be a bright side to my ease, and I know if there is you will be able to see it. Will you kindly point it out to me?" Os course, there is a bright side to yom lot, sister. Your cloud Is literally silver lined and what you want to do is to get a pick, and go mining for it. Believe me, there are worse hus bands than a cash register, ami the woman who is lucky enough to be married to a man who has the gift for making money, and the energy to do it, should sit down and con trast her luck with that of those wives who have to take in washing to support lazy, looting, ne'er-do wells. who are born too tired to w ork. The woman with a husband who is a good business man ran. at least, r spent him because he is able to hold his own in a world of men, because he iias tpe intelligence to plan and scheme, and the grit and backbone to tight and achieve things Would you Hade that kind of a husband off for a pool, wishy washy. helpless m.tlr creature, so blind lie can never see opportunity until it has gotten past him, so in competent he always fails at everv thing he undertaker, so weak he MONDAY. OCTOBER 7. 1912. The Silver Lining Bv DOROTHY DIX •> can not stand alone, but has to be always helped by somebody else? I trow not, and before you quar- I rel with your cake just consider how hungry .von would bo if your husband was one of the men who could not provide you with even bread and butter, to say’ nothing of angels' food. • It is, of course, unnecessary to call your attention to your mate rial possessions, and to say’ that the woman who is married to a naan ♦’iiw 1 DOROTHY DIX who can provide her with a luxu rious home, with an automobile, with money for trips and theater and opera, and good clothes should be down on her knees, knocking her forehead on the ground, and returning thanks for her good for tune she ha-- got the stuff to make happiness out of. Site has got the means of entertaining herself, and if she doesn't have a jolly time It's iter own fault Os course, y ou shrug y our shoul ders and say that houses and au tomobiles and Paris gowns are not love and thrills and all of the bal ance of the romantic flub dub that you thought that marriage was go ing to mean. Alas, sister, nobody is >< Utinn nta' after they have becii ell IX otolith . and tin re is never a thrill gets past thi honey- moon. Then, when you settle down to the long pull of married life, it makes all the difference in the world whether you glide over it in a 90-horsepower limousine, or have to haul a handcart yourself. You. who are married to a plain business man whose greatest heart interest is the rise and fall in the grocery trade, think how wonder ful It must be to be the wife of some long-haired poet, or dreamer, w ho could palpitate with you over a sunset, or delve deep with you into the psychology of the last problem novel. Kindly reflect, be fore you get green with envy, that Mrs. Poet doesn't have time to palpitate over anything but the cook stove, and that the burning subject of discussion in their household is how they are to get enough money to settle the butch er s bill at the end of the month. Also if you could look into the breast of Mrs. Poet you would find that she would like to trade off about a barrel of her husband's j soulful thoughts for your hus band s ability* to mas<e money. Without doubt, the woman whose husband neglects her for his busi ness has just cause of complaint. It would be far better for the hap piness of all concerned if men worked less and played more, if they gave their families fewer lux uries and more of their society. Point lace over a woman's brea«t doesn't ease the ache of her lonely heart, nor does a string of pearls make up to her for never having his arms about her neck. It s Easier to Preach. Rut it is easier to preach mod eration in business than it is to practice it, for it is a strenuous tare in which you must keep in the lead or else be trampled out of existence. But the wife of the man who is absorbed in making money has at least the consolation of knowing that her rival is a bodi less one. and that at the back of all her husband's seeming neglect the real motive that inspires all of his labor is his love for her. and his desire to lay the best of every thing at her feet. In reality the supreme test of love is whether a man is willing to work for a woman or not. Judged by that the checkbook husband is ace high, and the wife who is mar ried to such a man and is not har - py is a worthy successor to the Fairy Princess who was such a seeker after trouble that she delved under her in mattresses of ease un til she found a single crumpled rose leaf. THE HOME PAPER Thomas Writes on How to Beat the Cost of Living and Provide For a Savings Fund Strict Management of Family Finances Can Defy Presidential Changes and Result ant Periods of Unset tled Conditions. TO make a success of himself, the average man must have these things: 1. A job. • 2. A place to sleep. 3. Some clothing. 4. Food. 5. Ambition. They are all necessary, and they all figure in the Cost of Living. The job yields so much Income, and takes so much Time. Out of the Income the worker buys shel ter, clothing and food. Out of the Time he has left over after his day’s work is done he buys ths possibilities of Ambition. The Cost of Living may be high, and the way the government runs affairs may be wrong, but the av erage man can do nothing in the next 24 hours that will materially change either of these things. But he must begin, say, about 7 a. m., and get down to tbrass tacks —down to doing his day’s work that he may, have shelter, food and clothing of his own earning dur ing the day and night. And, besides this, he must spend a little of his spare time in firing the engine of Ambition, in order to be able to afford tomorrow, or next year, the things that he can not afford now. We grumble a good deal about conditions as they are about us. And. grumbling, we forget to cast a cold and critical eye upon conditions as they are. The Mental Scientists tell us that by holding the proper attitude toward life all good things will come to us. This is true. But there is a joker in the pack age. It lies in the words “proper attitude.” The whole game of life, includ ing the Cost of Living, is up to the individual. There is no likelihood that the government will make us rich pen sioners, however we may vote. But there is every likelihood in the world that it will protect the man who undertakes to run a job and a lofty Ambition at one and the same time. This is life, lib erty and the pursuit of happiness, which are free gratis to all who have the “proper mental” attitude toward them. 11. The value and worth of the dally paper is that it continually shows us our possibilities. Here is a news item from a New York paper that reports the opera tions of a man who, after 75 years of age, made over Two Hundred Thousand Dollars. He MADE it, mind you. The government gave him nothing—except liberty to be ambitious. Here is another that tells about a man who owes over Ten Thou sand Dollars because he could not The Three Tenses XA THAT do we know of lhe wondrous scheme * » That sages and serfs have tried to know ’ Why do w'e look at the stars that gleam At the end of a sad day's afterglow’.’ Why gaze we up and never below? All Logic tries for replies—and misses. But this is so. and <hall ever be so: The Future applauds; the dead Past hisses! Future and Past—what au ill-matched team! Biting and fighting to and fro. Always a mock and a menace thev seem Io the Present that sees them come and go. lhe Present is neither fast nor slow; She is just a dream, like a sunbeam's kisses. But she senses this, as we know a foe: Ihe Future applauds; the dead Past hisses. Bl 5 K Jr Bv THOMAS TAPPER. change his mode of living, even his income fell below his expenses Now, the government did n't get him into trouble. He probab charges his misfortune to the Co of Living. That is right. But it was the cost he bought that wreck ed him, not the cost that was lor, upon him by any power except ii ■ own bad judgment. in. I talked with a hotel waiter a few days ago about the Cost of Living. Here is this case: Salary per month, Twenty-eight Dollars. Tips about the same. The hotel gives him all his ineaH except three per week. He has held his job for l well years. He is married, and has on. b„v, aged nine. Against this: Rent, Twenty-two Dollars per month. Habit expenses, smoking a pipe Insurance, a Five Hundred-Dollar Endowment Policy, costing Twen ty-one Dollars per year. A wife, who handles all the mon ey and keeps a record so carefully that it balances to a penny every montn. This record shows two weak pointst Too much Is paid for rent—near ly 40 per cent. An endowment policy is a mis take, because considerably more straight life insurance could be carried for the same premium. But this record also shows some strong points: 1. The man has kept his job con tinuously for twelve years. 2. He and his wife know exactly what they do with their money. 3. An examination of their record shows that the wife has put into the savings bank. In twelve years, a total of Four Hundred and Thir ty-eight Dollars. Small amounts have occasionally been drawn out to pay unexpected expenses. They have in hand now. Three Hundred and Twelve Dollars as an emergen cy fund. What does It all mean? It means this: B.v strict management, fanulv finance can beat the Cost of Liv ing. It can defy change of presidents every four years. It can do business on little and still secure a savings fund. Referring once again to news items: Some consternation is ex pressed in high society because there is to be a scarcity of certain expensive kinds of perfumery i.i: : season. A small amount that foi merly cost Ninety-five Cents is to be One Dollar and Thirty-five Cents, or something like that. This is going to raise the Cost of Living for many a struggling family, but It is safe to say that won’t hurt the affairs of the wai By WILLIAM F. KIRK. Tapper