Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

editorial page 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. XvA -rue- CommqH PEOPIE MAY PE AH UM FORTUNATE GIMK MOST oF THE TIME.,— FRiEKpj GT3 /mVTR|OR>5 > I AAHb IN roKCLiKicaT 1 ' SHAuI. Tut comhoh 5 PRIPtTo MY I tf/gk J<, /(Wish"To Say cT People, be U>EEP AFFEC nJ \That hy heart/ j A On 1 why,Sure not*. / IvMaY'a* I Ton. the// flab\ 1 ?eat> warmly/ J ITHAMK You FOR < KOMMON N , , mbSfrJßa -.’JIL tew 1 u \.An«*w*r m, hello,) ) rr/L «»»«£.' SB flw VW bin HF HAS LOTS OF FRIEND JUST :: 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.