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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
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Christmas and Crime and
the Ending of the Pistol Era
r. r »
tlanta Enjoyed a Holiday More Nearly Ideal Than Ever Be
fore in Its History.
<’hristm.is in Atlanta this tear approached the safe and sane j
Io a most gratifying extent.
Compared with other years—even with last year—Atlanta
enjoyed a Christmas more nearly ideal than ever before in its
>• story
Drunkenness, rowdyism, unnecessary noise, and breaches of
the peace were reduced nearly 5(1 per cent under the record
of 1911. The police court reports show this.
Last year, the arrests on Christmas day totaled around 350.
This year they numbered 224. This showing, while not yet what
it should and eventually will—be, nevertheless is indicative of
a greatly improved situation, and induces genuine optimism as
to the lilt lire.
In •>() ot the arrests made, pistols figured in one wav and
another. This, under the law against carrying concealed weap
ons as it stands now, is about as much as we can hope for.
The authorities should be congratulated, therefore, upon hav
ing reduced the number of arrests in Atlanta for that specific
cause to a practical minimum.
Il can be reduced still further, however, if not wiped out
entirely, by legislative enactment prohibiting absolutely the sale
of pistols, save where both the purchase and the sale are made
public records, subject to immediate investigation in case of
trouble.
Ihe Atlanta Chamber of ( ommeree proposes a law requir
ing every would-be purchaser of a pistol to secure from a. pre
scribed authority a permit to buy. If with this proposal is
coupled another requiring the seller to return the permit,
indorsed with his name as the party selling, a complete rec
ord will be established that will safeguard thoroughly the pur
chase and sale of pistols. That within itself would hold down
the use and misuse of pistols to a definite and precise point
difficult of evasion.
Judge Broyles also has a good suggestion, namely, to make
the license for the sale of firearms so high that dealers can not
afford to handle them.
Atlanta experienced a fine Christmas this year. It mav
oe that next Christmas will be even more satisfactory, so far
as safety and sanity are concerned.
Indeed, few will doubt it. if in the meantime the legislature
gives us a law restricting rigidly the purchase and sab' of pis
tols.
Can There Possibly Be a
Money Trust?
Does a money trust actually exist?
Is it possible for a money trust to exist .
'these are two very different questions.
I he former question has not yet been answered by the I’uio
committee or by any other public authority The latter question
has been too eagerly and rashly answered by Mr. J. Pierpont
Morgan.
Mr. Morgan hastened to assure the country the oilier day while
testifying before the Pujo committee that a money trust is an im
possibility. that " all the banks in Christendom" could not estab
lish such a thing; that in the world of finance power depends
wholly upon "personality."
Mr. Morgan s idea seems to be that control of credit can be
exercised only by spotless and incorruptible individuals in whose
personal character the public has unlimited confidence, and that
when a trusted financier dies, retires or forfeits this confidence, all
the financial power centered in him must, in the nature of things,
be utterly dissolved.
It is hard to believe that this is really Mr. Morgan's deepest
thought on the subject of financial monopoly. If if is. Mr. Morgan
has not troubled himself to think about these things at all—or has
ceased to think about them.
There may be no such thing in America as a single all-embrac
ing money trust. There may be. instead, just a number of financial
combinations that are more or less loosely related. But there can
be no doubt ot the possibility of private monopoly in credit There
can be no doubt that such a power could conceivably be built up on
a scale as comprehensive as the existing monopoly in petroleum or
tobacco.
Luder modern conditions credit or capital is bought and sold
in the market just as oil and cigars are bought and sold. It is, on
the whole, easier to monopoli?ic the credit market n lan i( js t()
monopolize the oil or tobacco markci-" because the transactions in
the buying ami selling of credit are relatively few ami large.
When the projector of a practicable railroad or factory goes
into the money market to buy capital in exchange for proposed
issues ot stocks and bonds, it is immensely important to the .general
welfare of the community that the market should be an open mar
ket. For if there is no competition in the wholesale market for
stocks and bonds—if there is only one possible buyer or "under
writer, or it there is only a small group of possible buyers acting
in "a community of interest "- then no large project will be
financed unb ss it mortgages its profits in advance ami pledges its
control to the hanks that furnish the capital.
Thus independent private enterprises on a large scale may
everywhere be brought to a standstill The whole industry of a
continent may be made tributary to lhe private fortunes of'a few
banker*.
Does anything like that exist in the United States'
fool 'in' ' S '*' e ' |U<s, ’" n ’*" lt committog was appointed to
The Atlanta Georgian
Wouldn’t It Make You Mad?— I
Copyright 1912 by International News Service.
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YOU GOHL TO BERMUDA, TO
A CERTAIM RAVLN,— St PE. STEP SAIP R.AVESI,
f 1 //w leave V ||
i’ P 'HI 7( LONELINESS UNBROKEN A -xw >
. X. h'B W POtAe A FAVOK ANp QUIT AoW W '
B 'yUE EOST A&OVE MY pOOR?.
wm I ■
-ANPos? Yc?UR RETU«tsi You HAP SLIPPED 'IF YouCOULOKT SHAKE THE- •
into the house BY The 9AcK jtooß ABovE-mEnTioNEP
to ascAPt the aforesaip ravem,— it GROUCH You?
Men and Women Should Behave Better
II TE hear a great deal about
! Vy the horror of divorce, but
nobody says a word about
the horror of a life being ruined by
a vicious or foolish husband or
wife.
What virtue, or what sense is*
there in a woman submitting to be
dragged down and down through
long years of misery by a drunken
husband? What good is accom
plished by a man suffering his
whole existence to be made a hell
on earth by a woman’s shrewdish
temper nnd tongue?
My own belief is that if divorce
were commoner than it is, and that
if men and women knew they had
to behave themselves properly and
be reasonably agreeable and pleas
ant at home in order to keep their
husbands and wives, we should see
a marvelous reform in domestic
manners ami -morals. People who
want to hold on to their jobs , e
velop an amazing self-control.
One Case In Point.
Life is hard enough lot all of
us, tit best, when wo play the game
as wisely and well as we know
how. and nobody has a right to
queer our calculations and con
demn us to lose out because he or
she happens to bo our husband or
wife. Here’s a case in point:
A splendid young fellow of my
acquaintance is honorably anxiou,«
to get on in the world. He is a
poor boy. but he Is capable and
industrious and thrift?. at#l will
some day be a rich man If he is
not held back from success by his
wife. Ever since this boy began
work he has made It a rule to save
something out of his wages every
week. At first he could only spare
10 cents a week to go into the sav
ings bank. Then it became a quar
ter. Then 50 cents and then a
dollar. Then several dollars.
All was going well when he mar
ried a few months ago. He picked
out for a wife, as such men have
the knack of doing, a pretty, friv
olous. wasteful extravagant girl,
who b< longs to a family that is
perpetually in debt to everybody
that will trust it. The young man,
who Is generous and openhanded,
promptly turned over to his wife
| his salary envelope, only keeping
out the amount that he had de
cided was the proper proportion of
Ids earnings for him to save.
W hat he gave her was ample to
maintain them comfortably in their
station of life. Hut the girl was
furious because she didn't get it all
to spend. She couldn’t be made to
see why any money should be put
I'RIDAY. DECEMBER 27. 1912.
By DOROTHY DIX
•’ in the nasty old bank when there '
were so many things one could buy
in the stores. Although she had
far more to spend than she ever
had before, she reproached her hus
band with being jt miser and tight
wad, and took her grievances to
her ne’er-do-well family. They
decided witli her. of course, apd she
l “' l ~ '
fl- 'i. 11l , '
I
*
=- ' *
DOROTHY DIX
announced her ultimatum to her
husband: Either he was to give
her every cent he earned and save
nothing, or else she would go back
home.
Fortunately the lad had enough
J ~ sense and backbone to stand by
Ids bank book, and let the selfish
little creature go, but he Is grieving
his heart out for her, and wants to
know what he shall do.
Just Let Her Alone.
If he takes my advice, he will let
her alone and let her stay where
. she is until she begs to be taken
back, and before he does it. he will
put the reverence for a bank ac
count into her soul, so that she will
be as anxious to save as he is. And
.if she doesn't come back on those
conditions, he will offer thanks to
Heaven that he was mercifully de
livered from iter before she bank
rupted him.
There is no reason why any man
should let an extravagant woman
ruin his life, and, if he has the
courage of a fly. he won’t do it.
There flYe plenty of men who.
when they are young, are full of
ability, full of energy.- full of ini
tiative. fill' of ambition. They ex
pect to be nothing less than big
manufacturers, owners of their own
j business; rich at 50. They inarry
extravagant and wasteful wives,
who spend not only cent they
I can lay their hands upon, but a
j little more. When the year's work
is over, no matter how hard the
men have toiled, nor how liberally
they have been paid, they have not
a dollar in the bank: they are not
i ati inch ahead on the road of pros'-
I perity.
Foredoomed to Poverty.
A man married to this kind of a
woman is foredoomed to poverty all
his days. He is tied to his coun
ter. to his bookkeeper’s desk, to his
route as a drummer, because he is
always Just one lap ahead of the
wolf at the door, and he dares not
give up the position that he has on
the chance of bettering- himself.
When opportunity knocks at his
door with a chance to get an in
; : terest in a business, or buy some
; ■ stock in the company he works for,
he can not open the portal because
he hasn't got the golden key that
unlocks it. His fool of a wife has
frittered away his < hanee in life
over the bargain counter. There is
nothing for him but to just go on
in the same old rut. getting less
and less pay until he gets to be an
old man and is crowded out alto
gether.
The difference between freedom
and slavery, the difference between
a happy and independent old age
and a miserable, dependent ,one, is
the possession of money. The man
who doesn't save when he is young
is bound to be a pauper whep he is
old. There is no» way of w histling
money back to you that has once
passed from your hand. If you will
have it you must keep your grip
on it.
Women know this as well as men,
and the womiWi who really loves
her husband is more anxious to
save and help him get on in the
world than he is to do so himself.
With the right sort of a wife, this
problem of saving does not arise.
And when it does arise with the
wrong sort of a wife, a man is jus
tified in settling it in a high-hand
ed way.
He should refuse to become the
victim of the selfishness of a wom
an who regards him only as a cash
register. He should refuse to let
any woman make a slave of him,
and condemn him to spend his life
toiling to gratify her whims, and
if she refuses to listen to reason
and moderation, and it comes to a
choice between her and the savings
bank book, he is w ise to choose the
savings bank book. It will be a
, better friend to him in his old age
than she will.
THE HOME PAPER
WINIFRED BLACK
Writes on
Made Thief by Bad
Company
That’s What His Wife Said, But
She Was More to Blame Than
Anyone Else.
By WINIFRED BLACK.
SHE sat before me the other day •
—the wife of the Thief. She
had come to ask for mercy for
her husband, who had been caught
stealing.
She was young and she was
pretty, and her black eyes shone
from under a hat of late design,
and she wore a coat of fine cloth,
and the shoes on her small feet
were good, and the gloves on her
little hands were not cheap.
“You see,” said (he wife of the
Thief, "it’s this way: I was away
and be got lonesome and wanted
me to come home, and he was out
of work, and he got into bad com
pany, and he is not strong-minded,
and they made him think It was all
right. And that's how he got into
trouble—bad company—that's the
whole thing. I hope you won’t
prosecute him.”
His Salary Was SSO.
“What was your husband’s busi
ness?” said I to the wife of the
Thief.
“Bookkeeper."
“What does he ge't a month?"
“Fifty dollars,” said the Thief’s
wife.
“You make your own clothes?”
The Thief's wife swept her mod
ish dress with the tail of her dark
eye and laughed a little, like a ’
mischievous child.
“Who, me?” she said. “I can’t
sew.”
“You uo your own washing,
then?"
The Thief’s wife looked down at
her little white, useless hands. She
looked as if she didn’t know wheth
er to laugh or frown. She chose to
laugh.
“Why, no," she said; “I never did
that kind of work."
“How do you get on with the
cooking? You do that, of course.”
The Thief's wife smiled this time,
and - what a dimple she had, to be
sure.
"That ain't so hard,” she said.
“There’s a delicatessen store, and I
get everything, or almost every
thing. from there. I don't know how
to cook.”
Fifty dollars a month the Thief
made, and his wife does not cook,
can’t sew, and would not wash for
anything, and she says he is In
trouble because he got into bad
company. I didn't say a word to
the Thief’s wife about the company.
I went to see the thief. He was
locked up—as a thief should be. He
sat on the edge of his cot and he
looked as if he had been crying, and
he told me about the trouble.
“I lost my job,” said the Thief,
“and my wife went home on a
visit. I had to give up the flat and
I couldn’t pay my room rent, and I
owed the laundry people, and the
delicatessen man was after me, and
I went into this flat you’ve heard
about and took what I could see.”
H FRAGMENTS I
By WILLIAM F. KIRK.
T BONDER if you think tonight.
|i As I am thinking, of the dreams
That made our years of love so bright—
:? lire hopes, the plans, the sweetheart schemes;
The wondrous home we weite to build.
The play in which you might have played.
Your melodies forever stilled;
The poems that I might have made.
V here have they gone, those bits of things’
Oh. had we known before they went
The grief a shattered vision brings.
I he hopelessnes/of prayer’s cement.
Poor fragments, each a sorry part
01 what was Love and now is Rue!
I hug them to an aching heart
And wonder if yon see them. too.
•J* “How did you lose your job?"
“I don't know,” said the thief
“They just let me out. that’s all."
"Do you know who took your
i place?”
A Different Sort.
“Yes. A fellow that lives in the
same house where our flat was."
The new bookkeeper’s wife wasn’t
at- all like the thief’s wife. I went
to see her and found out. She
| isn’t as good looking as the thief?
wife, but she is sweet faced and
rosy and her eyes are bright and
true and loving, her hair is prettv
and her neat little house dress was
well made and hung right.
She made it herself, she told me:
makes all her own clothes, oh. yo--
indeed. She could not affo d to
hire them made.
Her hats, too, she trims, and t
laundry—well, the collars, sh<
sends them, but the rest she do, -■
herself.
The delicatessen shop; is the e
one near by? She didn’t know. She
does all her own cooking, it j s
cheaper so, and better, and her
husband does not like ready cook.-,
things.
Picture shows? Oh. yes, once ir
a while, but they are paying fl,
the home things now, and there's r
lot they want to get—so much
down and so much a month—s<
they don’t go very often.
1 went to see the man who pays
the bookkeeper’s salary,
"Yes, we let him out,” said he.
“No, nothing definite against him.
you might say, but he and his wife
were picture show fiends, went ev
ery night, and once I ‘saw them
there and the wife was dressed
better than my wife, I can't see
where he got the money for that
hat. He handled money for me
sometimes and I didn’t think it was
fair to put him under such a strain,
so I got a different sort of man.”
“A different sort of man?"
It Was His First Offense.
“Well, no, not exactly. I mean a
man with a different sort of wife.
It amounts to the same thing. Don't
you think so?”
Bad company, that's what got
the poor, weak chinned thief into
trouble. There's no doubt about
that. The worst kind of company,
a silly, vain, selfish, lazy, wasteful
wife. A foolish girl, who marries a
poor man and then will not wash
will not iron, will not cook and will
not sew. Bad company, indeed I
Poor, silly thief! Bad company,
indeed!
He is out of jail now, is the thief.
We asked the judge to be lenient
with him, as It is a first offense,
•r I wonder if it will be his last