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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
Bl THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
20 East Alabama St . Atlanta, Ga.
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I'he Depth and Breadth of
Wilson’s Democracy
When Governor Wilson said in Carnegie hall in New York, “I
don t want to be the ruler of the people; I want to he the spokesman
of the people,” the great audience cheered, and then cheered and
cheered again. The speaker had intended to say more. But there
was no need. He stopped short. He had uttered the most intimate
word of that Democratic faith that binds him to the electorate.
In Wilson the Democracy of Thomas Jefferson revives and
breathes again. Wilson is thorough. He goes to the root of the
matter. He refuses to believe that some men are born saddled and
bridled, and others booted and spurred.
Democratic government, according to Wilson, is not an elective
despotism, tempered by a time-limit. It is the organized energy and
intelligence of the whole people. It does not abide in capitols; it
pervades society, like the nerve-system of the human body. The
Democracy of Wilson would make every school house a center of
governmental power.
Wilson insists that this campaign is a life-and-death struggle
for real Democracy—that we stand at the parting of the ways. He
insists that Taft and Roosevelt both draw toward an undemocratic
kind of government a government that assumes to take care of the
people. He insists that that kind of government has always—with
the best intentions in the world—enslaved and impoverished the
people.
Wilson understands that this age is different from the age of
Jefferson that the supreme question now is the question of
economic liberty, in face of the tariff and the trusts.
Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt seem to live under the illusion that
tariff privileges and trust monopolies can be made innocuous by be
ing kept under the eye of wise and good rulers at Washington.
Wilson insists that privileges should be utterly abolished and
tha) private monopolies are absolutely intolerable.
»» ilson says he is not striving “for free trade or anything that
■ im iviy ri -.ejublvs free trade." because it is impossible to do away
with imposts io long as the expenses of the Federal government
inu.-t lie raised by indirect taxation. He does not object to the
prol■■ctioii that makes life easier in America, but only to the tariff
privileges that make life harder. He would (dean the tariff sched
ules o' all he lobby larcenies and the subsidies of cunning and sloth.
A ilson is no enemy of big business—the kind that grows big be
vaie ig men are behind it. He abhors the kind of business that is
flatulent and dropsical with fraudulent finance. lie thinks—and
thinks rightly—that there are many businesses in this country that
are big because the men behind them are little ami have not scru
pled to do pusillanimous things.
Mr. Wilson said in Pittsburg that some of these small nu n
should be forcibly secluded, so that they may have leisure and quiet
to think larger thoughts. This, too. was a true word of the spokes
man.
The regulation of competition, for which Mr. Wilson contends,
means that a sharp distinction should be made between two very
different kinds of competition. Lt is all right that private persons
should compete with each other for power to serve the public; it is
all wrong that they should compete with each other for power to
tax the public.
Governor Wilson is speaking a language familiar to the Ameri
can people when he reminds us that the fluent and on going life of
democracy depends upon the ceaseless competition of all individuals
Io excel in the service of the commonwealth.
It is not to be inferred from this principle that vast, highly or
ganized and efficient business concerns—when they arise in the natu
ral course of industrial evolution—are to be broken up into warring
factions. On the contrary, the true inference is that such concerns
should be treated as if they were in practical effect public insti
tutions.
I hey should be recognized on such a basis that their directors
and managers can find increased profit and personal promotion
only in improving the services they render to the public.
I'he system of legalized monopoly proposed by men like Mr.
George \\ Perkins is an offense and peril to democracy, because it
would leave the gigantic industrial organizations private in their
motive and private in the method of their operation. They would
have an o t crest adverse to the public interest, and they would have
a power that no public power could permanently withstand.
This newspaper has steadily maintained that where prices cease
to be regulated by competition they should bo limited by law; that
when business risks have been eliminated dividends should be cut
to the current cost of working capital, and that when a corporation
ceases to be competitive it must cease to be private, for the only
kind of monopoly that is tolerable in a free country is a public
monopoly.
T his is the logic of Wilson s democracy. It is also the prevalent
purpose of the American people.
In carrying this purpose into effect Wilson will act, not as the
mast, r o j the people, but as their lucid and indissuadable spokes
man
The Atlanta Georgian
The Suffragette Outrage in Wales
rraißi
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itere is a group of startling .pic
tures taken during the recent dem
onstration against the suffragettes
in Wales. The top, left-hand pic
ture shows a woman being protect-
TiyiNGJNA WORLD OF IDEAS
IX wh;n kind of a world do you
live? By w hat ideas is it peo
pled '.'
We say of this person. How
(.•harming she is," arid of that.
"What a disagreeable man." We
mean. "In what a hopeful, happy
.vorld of ideas site lives." or "By
what morose, selfish thoughts is he
companioned.”
Surrounding this earth is atmos
phere, about five miles in extent.
In that atmosphere we can live and
breathe and work, perforin the hu
man functions of’ loving and mat
ing. of hoping and developing and
worshiping. But should :tn ambi
tious aeronaut pass beyond the at
mospheric limit he would reach a
stratum of rarefied air. in which he
would soon die. This atmosphere is
the world's envelope, inescapable,
indispensable. Every person has his
atmosphere, indispensable and in
escapable. It is the world of ideas
in which he has his existence.
Radiating Cheerfulness.
One person attracts us. another
repels. Unless we have the habit
of analysis we are puzzled by the
fact that two persons of apparently
equal gifts and amiability should
so differently affect us. We know
that we would like to know one of
them much better, and we would he
glad if we never had to see the
other. Yet there is no real mys
tery about it. The thought world
in which one lives pleases us. The
thought atmosphere of the other
displeases.
Magnetism and personality are
terms for which philosophers have
gone set king to profound depths
and at dizzy heights, yet whatever
the terms they have given to their
more or Itfss valuable discoveries
they us back to the starting
Till <?SI)AY, Os TOKER 24. 1912.
ed from the mob. Tile policeman
has put his hands over her head to
keep her from being struck by
canes, one of which can be seen in
tl;e upraised hard in the center of
the illustration. The picture on the
Bv ADA P.\TTERSO\.
• point. What kind of thoughts do •
these persons think?
This worn tit rodiat; s a pervasive
ehet t fulness, that man high hope
and supreme courage. \\ c say to
them. "This half hour I have spent
with you has done me good. It
lias made me better and brighter
and braver. I don't know why."
But we do know why. They have
tinged our pale, anemic thoughts
with the vivid colors of our own.
Our weakness has borrowed from
their strength. Our mental atmos
phere has absorbed some of their
own electric quality.
Ynur Sphere of Ideas.
"She is tin most ebennii g wom
an I ever knew.” we hear enthu
siastit r.ljy spoken of some one who
seenis to us plain, insipid, com
monplace, until we come within
range of her personality. We may
not even have a chance to talk with
her. We may only catch the flash
of her smile, or a glance of het
eye. But by these we have had a
glimpse of the real woman that un
derlies the unburnished exterior.
Brief as it was. we have made an
excursion into the world of her
ideas, and found it good.
In what world of ideas do you
live? Is it tilled with principles
and truths, or crowded by perem
alities? Is It your habit to come
home, after a day of shopping, and
say: "That was a magnificent sun
set on the bay," or "That is a won
derful device for ventilating pas
senger cars 1 saw demonstrated
this afternoon. This is the way I
understand it works?" or do you
say. "I never was so mad in my life
as I was at that red-headed "ien
. nie Jones. I’ll never shop with her
again if I live to be a hundred. She
right shows a policeman endeavor
ing to get mother of the women
away from the mob, while the bot
tom illustration shows two suffra
gettes being led away, one of them
evidently being in some distress.
• giabbed a lace bordered hafidker
chief 1 wanted, right under my
nose," or "1 met Sallie on the ave
nue. anil Sallie said to me; then I
said Sallie."
it i. well to be interested in per
sons. Such interest satisfies the
hunger for human contact. We need
it to keep us harmonious, and
mentally well rounded, but this is a
topsy-turvy world we'live in. if
it is filled with personalities. To
keep poised and sane, we must fix
the eyes of the mind on some truth
that is mighty, on principles that
are changeless, as mere human na
ture can not be.
I» it n little world or a big
Ideas need not be few and small
because we live in a village, or in a
back street, or a tenement. Our
ideas need not he narrow because
our lives seem to be. In these days
of reading matter, both good and
cheap, our thoughts may rove the
eartii and be as wide as the uni
verse. though we live in a hall bed
room. We may live in a world of
pigmies or of giants according to
our tv ill.
View Rosy Side of Life.
What is the color of the world
you live in? Is it black with gloom,
or gray with passive acceptance of
things as they are, but which you
might make *hetter, or is It rosy
with the rays of undying hope?
That color depends upon you.
What is the climate of the world
you live in? Is it damp, with cul
tivated despair? There are persons
whose atmosphere is as moist and
chill as a frog’s slipper. Or is it
full of the moving airs of hope and
courage and good will? Persons
who live in ruch worlds are tonics
us a breeze from the sea.
THE HOME PAPER
Thomas Tapper
Writes on
Spending
Money
Earning Money Is a
Necessity and Spend
ing It Is an Art Few
of Us Learn, as Each
Insists Upon Being as
Lavish as His Neigh
bor.
WHEN we find that the price
of roast turkey has risen in
the best hotels until for a
half portion you pay seventy cents.
It seems certain that few people can
have turkey away from home.
Did you ever see such a half por
tion ?
A lot of dressing, three or four
little pieces of dark meat, each
about the size of a walnut, and two
slices of white meat, cut amazingly
thin. And all for seventy cents.
The poor can not afford to eat
turkey at this .price.
And yet it makes us wonder
whether the rich have grabbed it
all, or whether a great multiplicity
of causes are at work to put up
prices.
In a few years the population has
increased twenty millions.
Maybe fewer turkeys are raised
than formerly.
Perhaps it costs more to raise
them, now that the young men are
leaving the farms and coming to the
cities.
And yet some politicians tell you,
glibly and without blushing, that if
you vote right they will fix the tar
iff and prices will be down again.
Who pays the tariff on hotel
turkey?
You.
Can a politician alter that?
Not unless he calls personally on
the hotel man and points out the
injustice, to the purchaser, of tur
key at seventy cents per half por
tion.
And. speaking of restaurant food,
I have before me the prices charged
in 1904, eight years ago. Compare
these with the prices charged in
the same restaurant in 1912.
In 1904. In 1912.
Roast Beefs .40 $ .50
Mushrooms on Toast 1.00 1.25
Mutton Chops4s .50
Lamb Chops4s .60
Sirloin Steak... 1.10 1.50
Astrakhan Caviar.... 1.00 1.50
Fish (Pompano)7s .90
Potatoes, friedls .20
Cucumbers4o .30
Frog Legs7s 1.25
Chateaubriand Steak 1.50 2.25
Double Sirloin 1.50 2.25
Os course, it is cheerful to note
that the price of cucumbers has
gone down, but it is impossible to
economize through them very much
because therti is a limit to cucum
bers as a steady diet.
Now. these restaurant prices
merely reflect the prices in the
market. Many a family has had.
gradually, to stop buying the bet
ter cuts of meat, because wages
are insufficient.
Even the secondary cuts have
gone up in price until they are as
:: A New Race ::
I
By ELBERT HUBBARD.
Copyright, 1912, International News Service
PR OF E S SOR STEFANSSON •
reports the discovery of a
tribe of Esquimos in MacKen
zies Land who have red hair.
These people have no history that
they can recount.
There are about two thousand of
them. They have a degree of intel
ligence which the regular Esquimos
do not possess. They have red hair,
blue eyes and a tendency to argue
about religion. Some of them are
artistically freckled.
Many of their names beglp with
Mac, and they have away of ad
dressing each other with something
that sounds like “Hoot Mon!”
Oats grow farther north than
wheat. Whether these Esquimos are
fed on oats or not Professor Ste
fansson does not say.
But the world will not rest easy
on Professor Stefansson's report
until we find whether haggis and
oatmeal have played their parts in
the hirsute color scheme of this
tribe of Esquimos. who not only
have red hair, but are red-headed.
Evidently Professor Stefansson
has never heard of Macpherson
Macgregor, who was lost off the
New Bedford whaling ship, Mary
Ann, in Bafiins bay z
- ,
am vaK ,^2- jftfcK , 1
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Ob’ N„ 1
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I
i jfy Jal
•II
By THOMAS TAPPER.
’ high as luxuries used to be. Ten
years ago a pound of "chuck” steak
cost about one-third of its present
price.
And yet the best restaurants are
so crowded with guests that if you
have the 70 cents for a half portion
of turkey, and a little extra for a
boiled potato and the waiter, you
may have to stand around a half
hour before you can sit down and
begin to give up the money.
11.
But back of all these high pricea
there Is a solemn fact.
We are a wasteful nation
Every man is as good as any
other man, and everybody wants
grape fruit for breakfast.
And there is another solemn fact.
Very few of us have even an ele
mentary knowledge of how to spend
money.
Earning money Is a necessity
Spending money is an art that
jnany. of us never learn.
And a good many people are be
ginning to think that we are poo
hands at making what we buy <0
as far as possible.
I have mentioned turkey tn this
article, for this reason:
I saw a man order a half portion
While the waiter was in the kitchen
getting ft the man picked up the bi!'
of fare and discovered that he had
signed away 70 cents without
knowing it.
It made him mad When tha
waiter came back with the whfta
meat and the dressing, the man be
gan to argue with him about the
ridiculous price. But, of course,
the waiter could not deliver the
goods for less than the C. 0 D,
price.
Then the man called the hotel
steward and argued with him. He,
too, was powerless to reduce the
cost of living, on that occasion, be
cause he had received his orders
from “upstairs.”
The “upstairs” man had not yet
returned from Europe. Even If he
had, tile angry diner could not have
accomplished much; for he would
have been referred to the market
man, then to the next man. and so
on down the line until he reached
the man that had raised the turkey
And he, the turkey-raiser, would
probably dodge behind the hay
stack, and refer him to the presi
dent of th& United States as the
one cause of the whole trouble.
Which is, of course, unfair to the
president.
Meanwhile, the half poiiion on
the table is getting cold. T
has nothing to do but to go back
and partake of it.
And the price on th” cheek
j be 70 cents, just the same
With ten cents added, in some
!• places, for bread and butt''
Doctor Kane, in his wrr ltd"’
esting memoirs, tells bow tlii>
drifted on an Ice floe and finttW
reached the mainland.
Doctor Kane found Maegreit |, r ,D
Uppernavik and offered to take
back to civilization. The Scotch
man declined the invitation, am
explained that he was headed
MacKenzies Land, where he
posed to start a Utopian co .nt a '
lead the Ideal Life
That was the last reliable Infor
mation that the world had o
pherson Macgregor, of
ford, formerly of Glasgow.
If there Is any conm-r’i'
tween Professor Stefansson - 1
eovery and the last tldines
pherson Macgregor. let th"
assume it.
Stefansson is a great noiti. !
he seems to lack the poetic
nation, as well as being ~
perspicuity and perspicacity
And in any event. Profess
cy Shaw, the noted bi"logi-i.
portune in his remark when
claims: “Esquimos In Ma" l '
Land with red hair! Will. ■
color hair would you expect the*
have?'