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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 10 Earn Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga.
f Entered as second-claas matter at poetoffice at Atlanta, under act of March 3, 1171.
•übecriptlon Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mall, 16.00 a year.
Payable In advance
' » ' a»n
Vice President’s Death and
the Succession
The death of the vice president of the United Stat eh at Utica
hAs evoked sincere expressions of appreciation and regret.
The second officer in the Republic, is an essentia) factor in the
machinery of government. There are thousands of people of this
Republic who will recall the sunny and genial statesman with
poaitive affection. And the American people extend a genuine sym
pathy to the, little group which lament a husband, a father and a
friend.
No other vice presidential candidate ever died pending an
election or between the election and the fourth of March. Horace
Greeley died between the November ballot and the fourth of March,
but as he had few electorial votes there was no complication.
The death of Vice President Sherman brings once mor< sharply
to the front the interesting question of the presidential succession.
The event will make necessary no change in the ballots or in
the voting. Those citizens who are for Taft and Sherman will
vote for that ticket just as if the vice president had not
died. If the popular ballot should elect the Taft electors, the
electoral college will vote for President Taft, and under the party
rule, renewed at the Chicago convention, the National Republican
Committee have power to meet and present to the college another
name for the vice presidency. Only a moral obligation rests upon
the electoral college to vote for its party nominees.
If no one of the three presidential candidates should have a
majority of votes in the electoral college, then by the amended
constitution the election of a president goes to the house of re
presentatives voting by states under the unit ride, each state having
one vote. The.house is evenly divided by states between the Re
publicans and Democrats, and unless some of the state delegations
’ , change their party votes, the house may ballot in a deadlock every
day up to the fourth of March without an election.
On the fourth day of March, before noon, the senate, under the
constitutional amendment, must choose a presiding officer of the
senate, who will be ex-officio the vice president, and succeed to the
IE presidency.
The senate’s choice is limited to the two can luiates for die vice
presidency who received the highest number of votes in the
electoral college.
If Taft runs second to Wilson the vice presidential nominee
voted for by the Taft electors will be one of the two elig'. le for the
Renat ’s vote for vice president.
This will be some new man and unnamed, and the senate, being
Republican, if it can unite the Republican \<»te in the senate, might
vote for and elect him.
1 'This new man would then become vice president and president!
In this case it is possible that the next president of the United
States, under the constitution, may be a man chosen by the Republi
can national committee whose name was not presented to any con
vention, and for whom the PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES
DID NOT CAST A VOTE!
Truly an interesting situation!
But Woodrow Wilson’s overwhelming majority in the electoral
college will drive away the mist of speculation.
Help the Exceptional Child
i ’ * So much has been written and spoken about the backward
child, the ineffective and the misfit, that it is a positive pleasure to
see educators turning their eyes to the exceptional child to see what
cAn be done for him.
K, While the backward child presents serious problems, the best
that can be expected is to bring it up to the average. On the other
hand, the exceptional child, the pupil that is brighter than the
average and whose school course does not give his little mind full
play, is a far more important problem to the world. As matters
now stand, the exceptional child is held back by school routine and
his development retarded so as to bring him to a development above
the ordinary.
It is the exceptional child that should be most carefully culti
vated, most ardently encouraged and given the greatest opportun
ity. Special classes and courses for these little citizens of the world
should be planned and every aid given them for development. If
there are special classes for the ineffective, how much more neces
sary are special classes for the exceptionally bright?
I The Man Who Won’t Smile
Some of the foreign papers are discussing with avidity the sol
emn wager of Charles Meyer, of New York, who has made a bet
that he can travel around the world without smiling. The papers
are arguing that it can not be done. The fact that he traveled from
New York to London without cracking a smile is said to be due to
ahance. On the other hand, we can see no reason for a man to feel
merry at leaving little old New York to go to London. And as for
going around the world without smiling or giving way to merriment
any kind, that is comparatively easy. There are many men who
through their entire lites without a smih <>r a viperful word.
It is merely a matter of habit. And the smile habit is just as ease
to get as the grouch habit.
The Atlanta Georgian
You May Say What You Like—
Copyright, 1912, by International News Service.
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:: How to Build a Fortune ::
The Guarantee Fund
rpHK owner of an apple orchard
S in a Western state had paid
for his land and had culti
vated his trees until he found him
self the owner of a paying busi
ness. Up to the time of the first
income from fruit his plant had
cost him approximately $30,000.
There was no way by which he
could insure his trees through an
i insurance company, so he began to
insure them himself by setting
aside a certain sum for every box
of fruit sold.
His aim is to accumulate about
$20,000, to invest it in safe bonds,
and to hold it as a guarantee
against accident to his trees. He
expects to spend several years, pri
marily, in getting the total guaran
tee fund together. But when ho
has it, he will possess, us he says,
two orchards, one in trees and one
in tennis.
Also a Business Man.
.V man working for cay wages is
also a business man. He also
should carry a guarantee fund. He
has two principal assets: tli His
skill, (2) his health. His skill is
the knowledge by which he does
what he is paid for. Hi's health Is
that condition of mind and body
that permits him to report on the
job every day.
This man Is unwise if he fails to
Increase his skill, for that means
better pay some day. He is also
unwise if he fails to take the best
of care of his health, for that
means pay, every working day.
If, by carefully apportioning his
money, this man can get a little
fund together in the bank, he has a
cash surplus that will protect him
in illness should it come, that will
be serviceable in any emergency
that may arise, or, should neither
of these happen. t"hat will increase
into a capital, making for the pro
tection he will need later in life.
Some men get well along in life,
before they wake up to the fact.
A story is told of an Ohio river
captain that Illustrates this:
He hud piloted his boats tor
I t many years between Cincinnati and
MONDAY. NOVEMBER 4, 1912.
By THOMAS TAPPER.
• New Orleans. One night he sat
down with some friends for a
"quiet game” of cards. In the cap
tain’s pockets were one hundred
silver dollars, all the money he had
for his years of work. As the hands
were played the captain’s fund di
minished from a hundred to ninety,
eighty, seventy, and so on; then to
ten, then to five. Finally, when his
friends were done with him he had
one single silver dollar left.
|He Put the Dollar Away.
He sat for a while thinking over
the facts in the case. They were
these:
1. Nearly 50 years old.
2. Over 25 years of hard work on
the river.
:1. Result, One Dollar.
The captain picked up his silver
collar, put on his hat and went out.
When he came back an hour later,
he stooped to tie his shoe, and a
little book fell from his pocket. A
friend picked It up, and as he did
so, he saw written on the first page
an entry of One Dollar in the local
savings bank.
rhe Desert Dancers
By MINNA IRVING.
WHERE grows the cactus triply armed
With dagger, sword and lance,
All day beneath a burning sun
The wild dust-devils dance.
Like clouds of phantom dervishes.
In cloaks and cowls of gray,
; At every vagrant puff of wind
They rise and whirl away.
They are the ashes of the braves
i Who danced around the glow
l Os tires they kindled in the vast,
Dry desert long ago,
Reincarnated from the sand
Behold! they can not rest.
But haunt the trail the emigrants
Once followed to the West.
i .
—--—--— - - - -
r It is said that the captain died
rich. Let us hope he did. Os all
the hopeless ways to get rich
quickly, card games are said to be
the worst. But it is a question if
the expectations of getting one
hundred per cent of your money in
three months is not as bad or
! worse.
However, when the captain left
the boat he was the possessor not
only of a surplus fund of One Dol
lar, but of an amount of wisdom
that was sufficient to make that
dollar grow into a fortune.
As it grew It was always ready
to help him. He had in his way
increased his orchard; or, to say it
i another way, he had increased his
wealth and his fortune.
What He Can Save.
If a man earning Fifteen Doila. s
a week can save two, lie will have
I One Hundred and Four at the end
of the year. This means that he
has full protection for seven weeks.
In four years he can have more
than six months’ protection.
{• This is his guarantee fund.
THE HOME PAPER
Elbert Hubbard
Writes on
•
The Greatest
Tax
The Task of Civilization Is to
Eliminate the Social Parasite.
And the Recipe Is: Educate
for Usefulness, Not for Honors.
By ELBERT HUBBARD
Copyright, 1912, by International News Service
THE greatest tax on humanity
is not the tariff, war, strong
drink, tobacco or organized
superstition. These things are all
bad enough, but there is a tax more
terrific than any of these, and that
is tl'.e tax placed upon efficiency
through Inefficiency.
If 90 per cent of our people are
30 per cent inefficient, and 10 per
cent are totally inefficient, as Har
rington Emerson, Louis Brandels
and Roger Babson say, figure out
the increased burden that falls on
those who are able and willing to
work I
Mental Indecision.
The number of workers who go
ahead and do the thing when they
are told once Is not large—most
people have to be carefully super
vised in order to get results.
Inefficiency comes from mental in
decision, with physical weakness
and wrong education as a causa
tive base.
The success or failure of a busi
ness institution turns on its or
ganization. Wise organization min
imizes the cost of supervision. It
makes it easy for all to do right
and difficult to do wrong.
According to Fourier, each em
ployee pays for his own supervi
sion. This is true up to a certain
point and as a theory. But actual
ly the theory falls down in the case
where the eritployee does not earn
enough to supervise himself; then
the tax falls on the concern. Just
as in industrial schools, the scholar
may earn something, but the deficit
Is made good by his parents, who
pay his tuition and board.
In most prisons the prisoner
does a certain amount of useful
Smoke Here and Elsewhere
Editor The Georgian:
In your issue of October 29 you
give considerable space and promi
nence to an article by Inspector
McMicheal on the loss sustained by
the citizens of this city through
dense smoke being allowed to es
cape from the chimneys in Atlanta.
Mr. McMichael's figures are
probably correct, according to the
tests and observations made in the
cities to which he has reference,
but those cities are in the north
ern part of the country, where the
grate is not used so much in house
heating. There being seldom more
than two, or, at the most, three,
grates in the large residences, and
in the smaller houses of seven to
ten rooms, in most cases, there are
no grates at all, and if there are,they
are put there for ornamental pur
poses, with gas connections in case
there should be any use for them in
the early fall or late spring. All
the houses are heated by stove or
furnace, and in almost every house
hard coal or coke is used for heat
ing. Very little smoke or soot
comes off either hard coal or coke,
so that the average of soot from a
residence in Illinois, Michigan or
New York would be less than from
a house of the same size in Georgia,
provided the weather conditions
were the same. However, even
using less tons of coal per house in
the winter season, there will be
more smoke and soot in Atlanta
due to the use of soft coal in grates.
This part of the problem is hard
to handle here, on account of your
milder climate. On what is consid
ered a cold day in Atlanta a small
amount of coal in the grate will
warm a room. You do not get zero
weather 24 hours a day, for a week
at a time, as they do in Detroit or
Chicago, and for which conditions
they must be prepared there.
On the manufacturing end of the
smoke nuisance the problem has re
ceived so much attention that it is
no longer a problem.
We have always known that
dense black smoke was unburned
ftfel, but most managers of facto
ries thought that it would cost
more to burn it than what the get
ting rid of it would benefit them,
and as all factories are run for
profit, most managers or owners
were content to let the black smoke
roll out.
In fact, it is only a few years ago
that owners pointed with pride to
the smoke from their factories. It
was an indication to the town that
their plant was running; that they
were providing work for the citi
zens; that times were good, and
snowed that he was a successful
manager.
I don’t know exactly where the
came trom, pf.'oably from the
work, but seldom does she earn
enough to pay his way. The bal
ance is made up by the state. In
all insane asylums the patients are
supposed to work, and some do.
But if a patient can do enough work
to pay his way he is discharged as
cured.
The only reason for sending a
man to either the penitentiary or
insane asylum is that society finds
it cheaper and more expedient to
keep him inside the walls than to
let him run at large.
Every big store, shop, factory
and railroad has a certain number
of helpers, who not only do not
earn what they are paid, but who
form a tax on the concern.
They may be high up or in the
rear ranks—no difference. If you
get enough “workers” who do not
work, your concern is headed for
the rocks. It will not do to say that
every employee pays for supervi
sion. Some do, of course, but there
are many who can’t. And the cost
of the supervision of such is thrown
on ti e institution and eventually is
paid for by that übiquitous person,
“the ultimate consumer" —that’s us!
Real “Workers” Needed.
All idlers, all professional re
formers. all "educated fools”—all
inefficient men and women are sup
ported by society, in one form or
another.
The fact that they have no visi
ble means of support makes the
man invisible who supports them,
but we are all contributors to their
board and keep.
The task of civilization is to elim
inate the social parasite. And the
recipe is: Educate for usefulness,
■ not for honors.
homes, whose furnishings had been
paid for by salaries earned in the
factory with the smoky stack. May
be the idea came from some one
who did not know how or why
smoke was made, but who wanted
to live in the city, and objected to
smoke on general principles or just
because he or she was just a plain
kicker. At any rate, the "City Beau
tiful” movement was started some
where, and committees were ap
pointed to look after various im
provements.
The Idea grew until cities became
interested and made It a part of
the city government, along with the
other departments for the order
and health of the city, hence the
smoke inspector, whose value to the
public pocketbook and health is
now getting the credit it deserves.
Dense black smoke shows incom
plete combustion. The amount of
carbon or soot it contains is of so
little fuel value that it would
scarcely pay a firm, as a monetary
consideration, to go to the expense
of burning it. But, and this is of
Importance to the stockholders,
managers, directors and every one
in the plant, down to the coal
passers and to the citizens in gen
eral, where there is black smoke
there Is live, unburned gases. When
the gases are burned the smoke
is consumed. When all the gas
from a shovelful of coal is burned
under a boiler or in the flue spaces,
al! the heat it contains is used t<s
make steam. If part of the gas es*
capes it means that a. certain per
centage of the money paid for th*
coal is wasted and that the gas is
free to destroy health, goods and
vegetation, and disfigure the city.
Mr. McMichael’s figures of fifteen
per cent possible saving are not at
all too high where proper installa
tion and handling is given. Os
course, that should be taken as am.
average. The Power Efficiency
Corporation, of Detroit, Mich., in
connection with the department of
mechanical engineering of the Uni
versity of Tennessee, and the Ohio
State university, demonstrated, by
evaporation tests, that smoke could
be burned, and fuel saved at the
same time, besides improving the
steaming qualities of the boiler, by
burning up the soot, which pre
vents it from settling In the tubes.
This should interest every man
ufacturer in Atlanta, for he can re
duce the smoke to a minimum and
add to the dividends, while helping
to keep Atlanta in the lead for
health and cleanliness among the
cities of the South.
It can be demonstrated to the
manufacturers at a very small cost
that smoke can be burned at a
profit. Mr. McMichael’s greatest
psoblem is with the householder.
JOHN A, MACDONAUX
Atlanta, Ga.