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EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga. Entered as second-class matter at postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March 3, 1371. Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week. By mail, J 5.00 a year. Payable in advance. The United States Should Own the Home of ! Thomas Jefferson ppp No Doubt Mr. Levy, a Rich Man, Will Think the Matter Over and Be Glad to Sell His Property at a Fair Price. The first man in the history of the United States is George Washington. The second man undoubtedly is Thomas Jefferson. The nation owns the home of Washington, takes care of it and maintains it for the benefit of all the people. The nation SHOULD do the same with the home of Thomas Jefferson, writer of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson's home is now the private property of Mr. Jefferson M. Levy, a member of congress from New York state. Mr. Levy is an amiable and a rich gentleman. He was named for Thomas Jefferson, but he is not related to Thomas Jefferson. He would not be giving up “the home of his ancestors’’ if he consented to sell his property to the United States. There may have been some exaggeration in the statements as to Mr. Levy’s failure to keep the Jefferson home in first-class order, or about difficulties encountered by citizens anxious to visit the historic residence. There is no denying, however, that the people ought to own that place, and that Mr. Levy for a fair price should give his consent to ownership by the people. He has, of course, derived no income from the place, and perhaps a fair estimate of the value of the place—assuming, as we safely may, that Mr. Levy would not be willing to make any profit out of it—would be the price paid for it originally by Mr. Levy’s family, with 5 per cent added from the day of purchase to the present day. Should that seem too high a price, a fair sum could be agreed upon by an impartial committee. Congressman Levy, in common with all the other inhabi tants of the United tSates, shares the benefit of the magnificent work done by Thomas Jefferson. We are inclined to believe that upon thinking it over carefully he will be willing to share owner ship of the Thomas Jefferson homestead with all the people of the United States. Meyer Pleads for a Patri otic Naval Policy The annual message of the secretary of the navy should awaken some millions of sleepers in this country—and cut short their dreams. Mr. Meyer’s rousing cry is a demand for an adequate navy. He says we are not now nearly strong enough as a sea power to compel the turbulent nations of the world to let us alone. We have about thirty-three capital warships. Measuring by the strength of our neighbors, we ought to have at least forty-one battleships and battle cruisers. Mr. Meyer admits that the Panama canal will, in practical effect, nearly double our naval strength, but insists that that fact has been duly allowed for in his present estimates. He says that without the canal our security would demand the doubling of the greater navy that is now required. The Hearst newspapers have been tireless in their insistence that there should be two new battleships this year. It is a minimum claim—probably quite insufficient. The general board of the navy says that we should have at least four new battleships this year. It says that even so we should merely replace those that must soon go to the junk heap. The secretary of the navy points out the fact that if we are to have only two new battleships per annum, we shall soon sink from second to fourth place in the scale of naval powers. Here is Mr. Meyer's catalogue of the additions to the navy that should be undertaken next year: Five battleships; three of them dreadnoughts and two of them battle cruisers of a type not now exemplified in our navy! Sixteen destroyers, six submarines and two gunboats. A fleet of auxiliaries, including transports, supply ships, tugs, tenders and a dry dock. Mr. Meyer asks also for the creation of a naval reserve of fifty thousand men. He insists that the provision for the development of military aviation should be of unlimited scope. This is a naval program adjusted to the actual facts of our in ternational situation. Those who do not like the program may quarrel with the facts, but they are not likely to change them. Whoever will take the trouble to glance about the world in these days will see on every hand the menace of international an tagonisms. It is regrettable. But it is so. Every means should be taken to allay these antagonisms. What ever will help to establish relat ions of mutual advantage and friend ly understanding across political frontiers should be favored and assisted hi all good men. We should develop international com merce. international culture, morals, laws. But in the meantime we must stand our ground, without malice, with universal charity—but self-sufficient and strong. We must be strong, not merely for the, sake of defending ourselves and our property, but mainly for the sake of guarding and perpetuat ing the democratic civilization that we arc laboring to build up. On the very day when Secretary Meyer issues his new naval program. Premier Borden, of Canada, stands up in the Dominion parliament and asks for a vote of $35,000,000 for the building of three battleships as great as any afloat . He explains his plan to give Canada a voice in the foreign pol icy ot the British Empire, in words that seem threatening to our continental peace. Perhaps such a threat was not intended Let tw hope ho. Nevertheless there are many menaces from other quarters that are unquestionably real. » building up „f moving The Atlanta Georgian Lung Gymnastics for Diaphragm Strength f J I ’ " * 'V g 5 r* L •I' Hr L J e .J ■ I Mijy JSa /jz W / k M 'J- "■■.. lb / / T .. . • 1 // ffwllL -’4 iff l - - *'V &>. ' / <' — — x J Top picture shows a singer demonstrating lung gymnastics—by breathing, raising and low ering a full-grown man standing on liis diaphragm. Lower picture: Strengthening a pupil’s diaphragm; placing an additional volume on the pile which has to be raised and lowered by breathing. THE other day I met a mail who was on the ill-fated Titanic. When the boilers burst, and the great ship took her final plunge, my friend felt himself going down into the waters. Being an experi enced swimmer, he involuntarily knew enough not to inhale. He held his breath, but he did a good deal of thinking. So down he went, but he knew, though, that soon he would be com ing to the top, and it was only a question of being able to hold his breath long enough to escape im mediate drowning. When he felt himself coming to the surface a great joy possessed his soul. As his head came above the water he reached out his arms, flattened himself on the surface of the wave, as nearly as possible, and took in a great big «breath. Then lie looked up at the stars and gratitude filled his mind. He was still alive: his senses were intact; he was able to think, to breathe, to realize, to see the shining stars. He felt as one who had been dead, like Lazarus, and returned to earth. He was alive! His Sense of Gratitude. But suddenly there came to him the thought that he could only swim for a little while. The water was icy cold, and he began to look around for deliverance. About 100 feet away he saw a floating spar, and it came to him that if he could reach that spar it would, indeed, be Paradise. So he struck out for the spar. It seemed to be floating away from him as he swam, but through great effort he reached it, grasped it with his hands, drew himself up and then sat on it. When he felt that It was holding his weight he was relieved. Again he wau tilled with n great sense of gratitude. And as he aat on that spar, holding on with hands and THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1912. A Titanic Recollection By ELBERT HUBBARD. Copyright, 1912, by International News Service. • feet, he looked up at the sky in thankfulness. He was alive; and to know that this spar was holding his weight filled his soul with joy. But tile wind was cold. His frame was chilled and he knew that it was only a little time that he could hold on. The Privilege He Asked. Just then he saw a boat pulling away, at 50 or 100 yards distance. He shouted, and called again and again. And slowly the boat turned in his direction. It came nearer and nearer, and he knew that if he could once get in that boat and feel that the boat was under him it would be Paradise indeed. And in a few minutes the wish came to pass, and he was in the boat. He was exhausted, too weak to even lift his hand. But the joy was exquisite; he was with hu man beings. So they floated with the tide, and they pulled the oars. After a long time a flush of pink came into the east, and they knew that day would soon come. And then they saw a great gray like form, with many lights, away off in the distance. They prayed, they wept, they waited—there was nothing else to do. The Carpathia came nearer, and my friend breathed a great prayer that he might be able to climb the side of the ship and He on the deck. That was all he would ask —sim- ply the privilege of lying flat on the deck, and knowing that the ship was beneath him. And his prayer was answered. He climbed up the rope ladder and knelt <>n the deck in thankfulness. But soon he realized that strength had gone out of him, and he begged that he be placed in the meanest ■room In the steerage, just so it was a bed and he was covered with blankets. Sorm. of th' mothers and ehil- ' dren in the crowded steerage made room for him. and when he was in the bunk he said to himself, “Sure ly, this is paradise!” and he closed his eyes in gratitude. But after an hour or two the cry ing of the children, the smell of cooking, the presence of many peo ple began to pall on him. He felt that he must get away from this mob. So he called to a petty officer and begged that he might have a cabin. And a bunk was found for him in a cabin. And here in this cabin he was very happy, and he said, "This is paradise, indeed!” And he rest ed and thought, and tried to write out telegrams to send to his friends when he reached shore. He slept soundly that night, but when he awoke in the morning he realized that the cabin wasn’t ex actly right. And so he asked the steward who came to wait on him if there was not a berth somewhere in a cabin on the upper deck. And the steward said that every bunk was full excepting, possibly, one berth in the captain’s cabin. This Story’s Moral. And so my friend took pencil in hand and wrote a letter to the cap tain of the ship. And this is a copy of the letter; “Dear Sir—This cabin in which I am located is right alongside of the engines. I hear the clank and clash of machin ery all the night time through. 1 am awakened by the noise and foul air, for this cabin is very small and illy ventilated. “I understand that you have a vacant bunk in your cabin on the upper deck. Kind sir, please send word by bearer, al lowing me to occupy this cabin with you, and 1 will ever be ’’YOCR SINCERE FRIEND.” No answer came from tile cap tain But the moral of thia t|*ue story is this; Nobody is ever satis fied with anything after he gets it. THE HOME PAPER Judge Wm. D. Ellis Writes on The Divorce Evil ■T* i a Separation Is Increasing More Rapidly Than Population; One of Every Twelve \ Unions Dissolved. * 1 Written for The Atlanta Georgian By Judge Wm. D. Ellis Os the Atlanta Circuit. ARTICLE I. As a judge of the superior court of the Atlanta circuit, I have pre sided in hundreds of divorce cases and have, of course, had unusual opportunity of observing th(j effect upon the home, the lives of sepa rated husbands and wives, the chil dren of divorced parties, and upon the community at large, as brought about by “family jars,” culminat ing in applications for alimony and suits for annulment of the mar riage tie. I have become accus tomed to regard the divorce ease as the “divorce evil,” and I never close that particular part of the court proceedings known as “the divorce docket" without apprehen sion for the future, and without a general disgust for much of what in this regard is now upon us. A Growing Evil. The trouble is that it is a growing evil; it grows out of all proportion to most other ills of life, and a study of statistics will show that it grows not only with rapid strides, but it grows in its appli cation to all classes of people, and apparently grows in the toleration of people who once looked upon it with horror. In a volume issued by the United States census office in 1911, entitled “Special Reports—Marriage and Divorce, 1867 to 1906,” is set forth an immense amount of statistical information on this subject, and from the two volumes I have culled the figures and conclusions which will be set forth in this paper. It is demonstrated that the di vorce rate is higner in the United States than in any foreign country except Japan, and that, in an aver age, the annual number of divorces per thousand population the United States exceeds Francd, England, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Austria almost two to one. This Is a bad showing for our boasted civ ilization, for our claim to exalted ideals, for our demand for the sanc tity of home, for our efforts to ele vate and educate our children, for opr religious views and for our clamor for pure and Intelligent citi zenship. Great Number of Divorces. Another distressing situation is shown in the fact that in the United States the rate of increase in di vorce is far greater than the in crease in population. Between the Party Gone; “Ring” Off By N. P. BABCOCK. THE telephone rang, and she answered the call; He stood with his hat and his stick in the hall. He heard her say, “Yes,” and he heard her say “goose.’’ Then, after a pause, heard her say, “Os great use.” He was an eavesdropper, but what could he do. When only the back of her neck was in view? * He couldn’t give warning that he was close by. He just had to wait, as would you, or would I. "Yes, dear,” she said next. “I’m expecting him now. Not quite that amount; oh, you did, did you? How? Perhaps you are jealous. You’re not? I don’t know. He’s the prize of the year, so I couldn’t be slow. “Yes, father is willing, and mother Is glad; She says I neglected the last chance I had. You haven’t forgotten; well, I was a dunce. I won't let a good thing escape more than once. "Get used to his looks? They’re not really so bad. 1 don’t have to kiss him. Oh, that’s just a fad. She does? Well, I always thought Bars was a goose. Why, as a protector I’ll find him of use. "Now, listen! I know what I’m talking about: He comes of the very best stock—yes, no doubt. They all tried to get him; they hadn't a chance. I pulled a few wires before he left Erance.” Tin Count de la Puree turned pule where he stood. "Perdition!” he muttered, and took to the wood. For how could ho know she wo* making report To a friend of a costly French bulldog she’d bought? years 1870 and 1880 the increaw in population was 30.1 per cent, and of divorce 79.4 per cent, while fa the decade from 1890 to 1&00 the rate of increase in divorce was three times the rate of the inereas* in population. Statistical evidence (declares thl» census report) tends to show that the chances are that not less than one marriage in every sixteen will probably be terminated by divorce, and that it seems reasonable to suppose that the ratio will be near, er one out of every twelve. What a horrid spectacle this presents to the man and woman who, doing their duty in the present, hope for the future of their children and children’s children, who yearn for the time when posterity will enjoy all we have today and be more enlightened and elevated to enjoy the good things that may be dis covered, or enlarged, or perfected in the future. This statistical in formation develops many Interest ing questions, none of which, how ever, tend to encourage the hope that this divorce evil will abate, un less some ralcal effort is made and put into effect to make divorce ' more difficult to obtain and less respectable in the estimation of th* best people of our country. Higher in West. The divorce rate in the United States increases as one goes West ward. The highest rate per 100,dOO estimated population was in the Western division. In that division it is four times that reported in the Atlantic division. The North cen tral division was almost two anil two-thirds times that of the North Atlantic division, while that for the South central division was two and three-quarters that of the South Atlantic division, whicii latter in cludes the states of North and South Carolina and Georgia. Including all causes for divorce permitted by the several states of the Union, twice as many divorces are granted to the wife as to the husband. For habitual drunken ness about three times as many di vorces are granted to the wife as are granted to the husband. For cruel treatment divorces granted to the wife exceed those granted to the husband by approximately ten to one. For desertion divorces granted to the wife exceed those granted to the husband in the pro portion of about two to one.