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EDITORI XI. PAGE
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JThe Future of the Bull
M oose
Mr. Roosevelt’s pronouncement as to the future of his new
party is convincing only in its prophecy that the cause of political
progress will not perish. He fails to show cause why his particular
brand of progressiveism should survive or supersede other brands.
The meeting of Governor Hadley with the lowa senators at Des
Moines the other day reminds us that many Republicans who re
fused to follow Roosevelt and will continue to refuse, have, never
theless. set their hearts upon following the. Progressive flag. In
deed. the plainest fact to be deduced from the election returns is
that stand-pat ism, if not totally dead, is at least reduced to such
narrow limits that there is no reasonable expectation that the
Barneses, Penroses and Smoots will ever again set their battle in
formidable array on the field of national politics.
In one sense or another we are all progressives now. The na
tion has passed into a new atmosphere, in which it has become im
possible to believe that the best thing to do is to sit still and do
nothing. It has come to pass that all who count much in the mak
ing of public opinion are convinced that something must be done—
THAT WE MUST MOVE FORWARD, ON ONE LINE OR AN
j OTHER.
Thus it would seem that we may have to revise our traditionary
ideas about the character of party cleavage. We have been accus
tomed to take it for granted that there must always continue to be
a party of progress and a party of reaction, a party that presses on
and a party that holds back. But it seems now that such an align
ment is not immutably fixed in the nature of things.
It seems now that the two great, national parties of (he imme
diate future may both aim to be progressive—that they may con
tradict each other only in choosing opposite ways of getting for
ward.
It has happened many times in the world’s history that an
epoch of social change has been ushered in by two contrasting im
pulses, both pressing for reform. On the one hand, there has been
the impulse of imperialism and on the other the impulse of de
mocracy.
The imperialistic tendency sometimes strives consciously to
establish an emperor on a throne; but oftener it is a blind striving
toward the setting up of an irresistible power to heat down injus
tice. In practical fact it has been proved a hundred times that
such a power becomes ever more arbitrary as it becomes more
irresistible —and that it always ends in utter irresponsibility to the
people w’ho set it up.
The democratic tendency drives toward reform by a different
and safer road—a road that is laid through the eternal nature of
things. It strives for the suppression of injustice, NOT THROUGH
THE CREATION OF A SUPERHUMAN AND IRRESISTIBLE
GOVERNMENT, BUT THROUGH THE STRENGTHENING OF
THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC LIBERTY OF AVERAGE
CITIZENS.
Now it is possible that a political seer—if such a man existed —
would tell us that Mr. Roosevelt’s new party is destined to form
the basis of a party of the Big Stick and the Man on Horseback.
Without imputing to Mr. Roosevelt any conscious desire to make
himself a Caesar, and even supposing that, he may be personally
eliminated from the struggle, a shrewd prophet might find in the
Bull Moose the natural symbol of that wild impulse of the people
which has so often sought justice—and pathetically failed to find
it—in the establishment of an irresistible government of brute force.
It may be that the Bull Moose may find congenial alliance with
bureaucratic and centralizing socialism; and that the party thus
formed will, for the decade or so, move in opposition to a re
vived and militant democracv.
IF THIS SHALL PROVE TO BE TtlE CASE, THE BULL
MOOSE WILL STAND ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BAT
TLEFIELD IN THE REAL ARMAGEDDON OF AMERICAN
POLITICS.
I Poisons and Some of Our
I Great Men
3____
The human intellect is most brilliant when life is ebbing, ac
cording to Dr. Charles B. Reed, professor in the medical school of
the Northwestern University.
Poison and disease foster genius, he says; they inspire poets,
authors, inventors and statesmen. He cites history to prove his
assertions and declares that such poisons as ether, arsenic, alcohol,
strychnine, cocaine and chloral, inspired the metrical numbers of
Poe and the rhythm of "Tam o’Shanter’s Ride.”
He holds that under extremes of emotion the mind in concen
trated as one thing, so that during unusual stress of love. war. or
grief, many brains become abnormal and an improved product is the
result.
For instance, coffee may Im taken as an instance of these stimu
lants. ‘‘lts essential qualities are so well defined,” he says, “that
one critic has claimed he can trace its effects through the works of
Voltaire. Balzac ami Dr. Johnson.”
In the present day Maeterlinck is cited as an example of to
bacco stimulus; while for many years De Quiiicev increased his
mental activities with opium, as did Coleridge. Boe. Burns. De
Musset and Gluck are given as influenced to great works by the use
aJtoob.nil.
-istnnia urged Macauley on to extreme menial concentration
and made William 111. a great figure, while gout supplied Gibbon
with a needed momentum.
“Gibbon and Bulwei’-Lytton exemplify the class inspired to
superior mentality by toxins from divas. s. " | > r . fasserts, "and
with them might be classed Landor. ( ampbell. Millon. Steele. Svd
ney Smith. Yielding. Dryden. De Foe. Claude Lorraine, Reubens.
Charles Keane and the Pitts.”
This is interesting, but still it is safe to say that if toxins had
been unknown these men would have shone just the-same, like the
bright stars they were and are.
Dr. Reed is careful to say that any of these agencies has no
'‘i.eci on the me<lio< r< mind, which is a good argument for most of
to leave them alone
The Atlanta Georgian
Over the Jumps
By HAL COFFMAN.
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Farmers Fail to Keep Pace With Population
YIP' wonder and grumble at •
Vi/ high prices, and yet we
continue to crowd into
cities and pile the prices higher!
We can not, through our own
fault, produce enough eatables to
keep the cost of living at a moder
ate level, and yet we are abandon
ing millions of acres of land, and
reducing the productive capacity of
that which remains under cultiva
tion. by neglecting to •upply it with
the proper food for plants.
Every year we send to the thrifty
farmers of Europe more than a mil
lion tons of phosphate rock of the
highest grade, one-half of which,
applied to our own soil, would
double our crops, and do more, per
haps, than anything else to reduce
the cost of the necessaries of life.
In the dietary of plants there are
two things which are, at the same
time, essential and liable to become
exhausted —phosphorus and nitro
gen. In Europe they have learned
to supply these elements artificial
ly wherever they are needed, and
they gladly take tho phosphorus
which we are so willing to sell
them. Look at the consequences.
In western Europe, under the sys
tem of feeding the soil to keep up
its strength, the productivity of the
farms has been doubled.
Europe’s Grain Yield.
The ten-year average yield of
what in the United States is four
teen bushels per acre; in Germany
it has been brought up to 29 bush
els. in Great Britain to 33 bushels,
and in Denmark to more than 40
bushels.
1 borrow these statements of
facts from Professor Cyril G. Hop
kins, of the University of Illinois,
who says further: “A comparison
of the last live years with the aver
age of the. live years ending with
1900'shows that our wheat exports
decreased during the decade from
198 million to 116 million bushels,
and that ou” corn exports decreased
from 193 million to 57 million bush
els.”
Here is another startling fact
backed by the same authority:
During the last ten years tile popu
lation of the United States has in
creased 21 per cent, while tiie acre-
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1912.
By GARRETT P. SERVISS.
1 age of farm lands has increased '
only 5 per cent.
Is it any wonder that prices are
high, and going higher?
Man can not live on air and
water. Fine clothes, beautiful man
ufactures, art and music can not
feed him, but, like his ancestor,
Adam, he must continue to till the
soil. As his numbers grow he must
till more soil; as they grow still
greater he must make the soil more
productive.
When to Fear “Race Suicide.”
When he has enabled every acre
to produce at its utmost possible
capacity, then he may begin to
The Trumpet Call
By PERCY SHAW.
OUT of the night they came
From the shades of the Mongol
wing;
And the paths they made
And the power they laid
Was steeped in slaughter and flame,
Was builded in terror and shame
And tied with the dread bow string.
Children of wild Iran
On the Christian soul they trod;
And they flocked from prayer
Like beasts from the lair.
Vizier and Bey and ehtn
To torture the helpless man
In the name of the Moslem God. '
Wile wa» their plot and plan
As they watched the West World
rise.
They saw the sun of the printed page,
The upward march of the waking age
Crying: "Mahomet, who all things can
Restore us the glories of great Orkhan
That are blazed in the Prophet’s
skies.”
Like dogs snarling over a bone
The Christ-loving nations stood
While the cries of the thousands came
Weeping from outrage and flame—
" Must we stand forever alone?
Help us, you always have known—
We pray to the God of your blood.”
Bulgar and Serb and Greek,
They have scaled the cruel wall;
They have shamed the strong and great
That paltered before the gate;
They have glorified the weak
With the Cross on the mountain peak;
They have heard and answered the
call.
• think of "race suicide.” but not be
fore.
This year We have had record
crops, but they are not enough.
Prices are not tumbling!
The crops should have been twice
as great as they are. and they
might have been twice as great if
the soil had been fed here as it has
been fed in Europe. If we had kept
back half of the million tons of
phosphate that we have sent to Eu
rope as a yearly contribution, and
applied it to our own exhausted
farms, not only might a wave of
real prosperity have rolled over us,
but we could have rested in the
comfortable assurance that if our
population should jump from 90 to
150 millions there would still be
enough for all, at prices that all
could pay.
These i*re the reflections that
come to me as 1 read Professor
Hopkins’ statements. They should
make everybody reflect, and espe
cially those who have fled from the
farms to the city, led by the foolish
fascination of theaters, club houses,
dance halls and hoodlum gangs.
Many of them have already learned
there is more society, more
comfort and more Intelligence in
the country than in the city—but
still they will not go back.
What Science Offers.
What nobler occupation could a
young American propose to himself
than that of rendering the soil of
his country more productive, its
fields more beautiful, its hillsides
richer and its forests grander?
Science now offers her hand to
the farmer if he will but take it.
With such an alliance America
could always lead the world in
wealth and happiness.
To make 60 bushels of wheat
grow on an acre "where only 30
grew before is a finer achievement,
and one more worthy of praise, and
of the thanks of posterity, than to
double the dividends of a watered
railway stock.
The most splendid tigure that
Rome could show was that of the
farmer, Cineinnatus. who, three
times called to save his country
from the invader, three times went
back from victory to the plow.
THE HOME PAPER
Dorothy D i x
Writes on
The Liberties
of Matrimony 1
A Man Has No Right | ./ ~
to Open His Wife’s •- .
Letters, and, by the j
Same Token, a Wife
Has No Right to )
Tamper With Her
Husband’s Mail.
AMAN asks this question;
“Do you think that a hus
band and wifejiave the right
to open each other’s letters with
out being asked to do so?”
I certainly do not. A man has no
more right to open his wife's let
ters than he has the letters of any
other woman, nor has a wife any
more right to tamper with her hus
band’s mail than she would with
that of the most perfect stranger.
We have a right to some decency
and privacy of life, even though
married.
To have a husband or a wife who
would open your letters and read
them before you had a chance at
them yourself would'Tie disgusting
and revolting to any person of
refinement. A letter is as purely a
personal thing as one's tooth brush,
and it’s hard to imagine the lack
of delicacy and taste that would
lead a husband or a wife to set up
a joint claim to either one.
Os course, there are circum
stances in which a husband or wife
may properly object to their
spouse’s correspondence. A man
may not, for instance, approve of
his wife receiving letters from
other men. A wife may be insane
ly jealous of the violet-scented pink
missives that her husband gets
from other women, but even then
the remedy is not the high-handed
and tyrannical one of opening the
other’s letters.
The Average Couple.
The affinity, however, does not
figure in the ordinary family circle,
and the average husband and wife
receive no letters from a- more ex
citing source than Sister Susan, or
Grandma, or Cousin Jane, or some
old friend. Why any human being,
except the one to whom they are
addressed, wants to read the unex
citing chronicles set down in these
epistles passes comprehension.
Nevertheless, it is 'the ill-bred
habit of many husbands and wives
to open each other's letters and
read the confidences that were
never meant for their eyes. It is a
sort of listening at the keyhole that
does not endear the Paul Pry or the
Polly 'Pry to his or her wife or hus
band.
It is not* that the wife or hus
band has any guilty secret that is
hidden in the letter, but no woman
or man of real refinement tells all
of his or her family and friends’
affairs even to the wife husband.
John Smith, fine and honorable, and
devoted to his wife, shrinks from
laying before her eyes the sorrowful
story his sister has written him
about a wayward boy who has been
caught robbing a cash drawer.
Mary Smith, as loyal a wife as ever
lived, can not bear that her husband
should read her mother’s letter in
which she sobs out the pitiful tale
of how Mary's father lias been
drinking again, and has spent the
rent money on liquor, and how
they are to pay the grocery man,
she doesn’t know.
Generally speaking, most hus
bands and most wives are jealous
of each other's families, and prone
to criticism of them. The family
letters furnish material for crimi
nations, and lead to recriminations
and to domestic spats. For that
reason alone, if for no otiier, hus-
THY DIX
By DORO
bands and wives have no business
meddling with each other's mail.
Over and beyond the letter it
self, though, the objection to hus
bands and wives opening each oth
er’s letters is the deadly affront it
offers to one’s individuality. The
mere act of the tearing open of the
envelope rivets on one the fetters
of a slave.' It is the outward and
visible sign of subjection, and any
man or any woman would have to
have the soul of a mouse not to
feel the hot blood of rebellion and
righteous anger surge up in her or
him against it.
The Reason Why.
The opening of your letter brings
home to you as nothing else can
the fact that you have not left one
iota of freedom, not one vestige of
personal liberty, not one scintilla
of privacy. Somebody else has as
serted the right to see words writ
ten for you alone; to hear confi
dences intended for only your own
breast; to keep you under espion
age as if you were a child, and you
would be more than human if you
did not resent it, and hate the do
mestic tyrant on your hearthstone.
The thing that makes matrimony
a failure oftener than anything else
is just this lack of the decencies
and reserves of life between hus
bands and wives. It Is because
married people so seldom are gen
erous enough to extend to each
other any liberty of action that
marriage becomes a bondage that
we are ready to break at any price
The one thing that militates more
against domestic happiness than
anything else is the knowledge that
a woman has that she has got to
give an account of everything she
does, of every cent that she spends,
and of every place that she goes to
her husband, and that she has got
to submit to his, critical approval
her dress, her opirfions, her friends
her politics, and her religion. That's
what makes her envious of the
bachelor woman, and dream of ca
reers.
If she knew that her husband
would think and say, “Why, my
dear, you’ve got as good a right to
your opinion and to dorihings your
way and to live your life as I have
to do mine,” there would be no
more discontented wives. ’
The Secret.
Nor would there be many side
stepping husbands if a woman had
enough sense to say to the man she
married: “See, here, John, I didn't
apply for the job of jailer when I
became your wife. I don’t want
to interfere with all the things you
enjoy doing. Nor am I going to
hold a stop-watch on you and sec
that you get home on the minute
Nobody can be happy who isn’t
free, and I present you your liberty
on a silver salver, sure that you
won't make a bad use of it.”
That's the secret of how to be
happy though married. It’s to re
spect each other’s rights, and not to
enforce one’s own rights, and chief
among the rights that matrjmony
doesn't give is to open a husband’s
or wife's letters. That's a piece of
impertinent and vulgar curiosity to
which no one should submit.
What we need in matrimony is
to extend more liberty to the part
ners of our joys and sorrows and
take fewer liberties with them.