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EDITORIAL PAGE
1912—A Year of Progress and
Prosperity For Atlanta
> V- t*
And There Is Every Good Reason to Believe That 1913 Will Witness Even
Greater Strides.
Nineteen hundred and twelve has proved the greatest year in the history of
Atlanta.
A careful study of the city’s progress during the last twelve months shows
advancement beyond the dreams of the most enthusiastic, ft shows, too, that
with a few more years of equal prosperity, this city will take its place among the
greatest municipalities of the world.
An investigation of industries, wholesale and retail business and general con
ditions prove that practically all have shared in the good fortune of 1912.
This advance of prosperity has come in a year when climatic conditions have
been extremely unfavorable. The continued rains of the spring and the early
summer brought great hardships to the farmer. Much of his crops rotted in the
ground, and his cotton was greatly impaired.
Ten years ago these conditions would have meant almost total destruction of
farm products. But now cultivated land is carefully drained, and despite the
long downpours some of the soil that formerly would have been under water has
produced fair crops.
Thanks to this and other scientific advances in farming methods, the crop
showing was more than could be hoped for, and Atlanta naturally benefited by
the farmers’ increased efficiency.
Despite the gloomy prophecies of a few years ago, Atlanta real estate has
continued to soar. At no time during 1912 was there a pause. The “boom city”
aspect of a few years back disappeared. Prices were fixed on solid valuation,
and sales were made accordingly.
One piece of Peachtree street property sold for $8,200 a foot. It was the
highest price ever paid for property in the South—but it probably was the best
piece of property ever sold in the South. Other Peachtree street property brought
more than 50 per cent profit during the year, but the physical valuation proved
that the last prices paid were not too high.
One tract that sold for $l5O an acre thirty years ago, recently brought $lB,-
000 an acre, and other cases equally as remarkable might he cited.
Approximately $16,000,000 changed hands in real estate deals during the year,
and several millions were spent developing suburban districts, where well-built,
attractive homes are now springing up.
Building permits are the recognized barometer of a city’s prosperity. At
lanta’s record for 1912 is $9,986,000. This compares with $6,215,000 in 1911, an in
crease of $6,771,000.
This increase can not be attributed to one specific cause. A search of the rec
ords shows permits for a larger number of homes, hotels, office buildings, facto
ries and apartment houses than in former years.
Managers of department stores report that their business has been larger by
20 per cent in 1912 than in former years and the same thing is true in other re
tail lines.
Atlanta's health record—always fine, mainly on account of climate—has been
eclipsed since last January 1. Hygienic education has done much to bring about
these results.
The death rate has fallen from 18.70 per thousand persons in 1911 to 16.25 per
thousand persons in 1912, a decrease of 2.45 per thousand. Among the whites the
last year s death rate was 18.40 and among the negroes 20.82 per thousand
Attendance in the city schools in 1910-1911 was 21,418. At the present time
there are 23.334 pupils, an increase of 1,916. Before the end of the term in June.
500 more will be added to the rolls.
According to the city’ directory, just published, the population of Atlanta is
217,000. The census of 1910 gave the population as 154.839. If this ratio is held
up—and it undoubtedly will be increased—there will be between 450.000 and
500,000 Atlantans in 1920.
Truly this is a wonderful record when it is taken into consideration that just
a few years ago there was no such city as Atlanta.
All of these facts and figures are presented to give an idea of the progres
siveness of the city and to stir the imagination as to its future magnitude. The
municipal government must catch step with the citizens who are continually
forging ahead.
Streets must be well constructed and kept in repair; adequate sewers must
be built; schools must be erected; the smoke must be eliminated: parks must be
improved: substations must be secured to heighten the efficiency of the police:
and factional polities must be thrust aside whenever the welfare of the citv is
involved.
A new administration is taking charge of municipal affaire, and there is an
avowed intention among officeholders to work jointly for the good of the citv
and to bury personal prejudice.
W ith all city officials making good their resolution to co-operate, with private
enterprises and capital developing and pushing forward al the present rate, with
every Atlantan loyal to his city and taking a personal interest in its good name
and betterment, there is every reason to believe that 1913 will far surpass in
prosperitA and progress that wonderful year just ending.
The Atlanta Georgian
TI KSDAY, DECEMBER 31. 1912.
Ready For the New Page
By HAL COFFMAN.
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Ihe Mother -in-Law as 1 rouhle-Maker
By DOROTHY DIX
HAVE you noticed that the
mother-in-law joke is dead?
That the cartoonist and the
humorist have ceased to exhaust
their wit In depicting a fat and
fussy old lady, descending like a
prestilence on an unwilling house
hold?
You have noticed it? And you
suppose that the ancient jest had
perished of old age, didn't you?
Not at all. It is because we have
suddenly recognized that the moth
er-in-law is not a thing to make
merry over. She is the greatest
menace there is to domestic peace
and happiness. She is no longer a
comic figure. She is tragedy in
carnate.
A few days ago a distinguished
and conservative jurist who tries
so many divorce eases that he is
called a divorce judge, declared that
over 75 per cent of the men and
women whose matrimonial difficul
ties he was called on to settle would
have gotten on well enough to
gether if It had not been for their
in-laws.
Sometimes it was the man's
mother who made the trouble;
sometimes it was the Woman’s
mother, but everywhere it was the
mother-in-law who was the first aid
to divorce.
This is an appalling state of af
fairs, and it is time that women
faced the fact that the divorce evil
is not going to be cured by preach
ers. nor sociologists, nor laws, nor
lawyers, but it is in the hands of
mothers, and they must settle it,
if it is ever settled.
A Divorce Coupon.
Os course, any young couple who
get married and who go to live
with either mother-in-law could
save money and worry by buying a
marriage license xvlth a divorce
coupon attached to it, for unless
the whole family of them are pin
feathered angels—which most peo
ple aren’t—they are foreordained to
bickering and jealousies, and every
known species of the fifty-seven
varieties of domestic misery.
Nobody knows why, but no house
was ever yet built that was big
enough for a mother-in-law and a
daughter-in-law to live in togeth
er in peace, and a mother-in-law
and a daughter-in-law would be
forever treading on each other's
toes, although tliej had all the
room of the Waldorf to move about
in.
When a womans children marry
she should make a cast iron resolve
never, under any circumstances, to
live under the same roof with them, •
not to visit them too often, never
to interfere in their family affairs,
and to refrain from giving advice,
even though she has to bite her
tongue off to keep from doing it.
The responsibility of mothers for
their children’s divorces may end
with their keeping their fingers out
of their married sons’ and daugh
ters’ pies, but ft doesn’t begin there.
It commences in the cradle, and I
can think of nothing on earth that
is so piteous as that every mother
in the land could provide some
woman with a good husband, or
some man with a good wife, and
she doesn’t do it. She could save
the broken hearts, the misery, the
tears, the wrecked homes, the little
children that are made motherless,
or fatherless, and homeless, and she
doesn’t do it.
Surely if there is one thing that
is past even the mercy of God to
forgive, it is this.
What Her Mother Can Do.
There is no mother who pillows a
little baby girl's head on her breast
that can not raise that girl up to be
a true, good, sensible woman. She
can teach her to control her temper,
to be reasonable and practical, and
to have some sense of responsibil
ity, and some idea of her duty to
others. She can teach her hoxv to
make a home, and make of herself
the kind of a wife that is a bless
ing instead of a curse to the man
.who gets her.
We Own the Canal j
Editor The Georgian:
I want to commend your position
on the Panama canal, and especial
ly to congratulate you on the edi
torial in Thursday afternoon's pa
per, and hope that you will con
tinue the good work.
It is evident a few people who
are interested in English shipping
have subsidized some of our pa
pers and are trying to create a
sentiment that will benefit them
financially. ■
"I'ncle Sam" bought this land
and I- completing tills great work
for the prime benefit of his people,
and it would be a reflection on the
intelligence of our congress and an
outrage on its citizens to grant the
request of Great Britain or permit
the question to be submitted to T.ie
Hague.
I hope that you will continue to
ke. p this question before the peo-
Pl' - ' L. A. KEHWINE.
A tin nt .i » i.t
T'FIE HOME PAPER
There Is not a mother with a lit
i tie son standing at her knee who
can not teach that boy to be chival
i rous and tender to women. She
■ can teach him to show every wom
an reverence and respect. She can
teach him how to treat a wife, how
to be generous to her, and unselfish,
and tender and affectionate; how to
be the kind of a husband that will
make a woman bless her stars ev
ery day she lives that she was
lucky enough to get him.
It is the mothers who turn out
the wives and the brutal, neglectful
husbands. They furnish the raw
material out of which matrimonial
misery is made, and they are re
sponsible for the ensuing divorce.
Nor does the mother’s aid to di
vorce end with having supplied for
one poor. unfortunate man, or
woman, a wife or husband that
nothing but a martyr could stand.
Mother throws fresh fuel on the
fire in the shape of backing up her
son or daughter in their domestic
quarrels.
When Mary comes running home
to mother with her tale of woe
about some little matter in which
she and John have disagreed,
mother begins pitying her for a
poor, persecuted angel instead of
saying to her, “Go home and forgot
it. lam ashamed of you for being
such .'j little coward as to come
whining back the first time any
thing goess wrong What did you
| think marriage was—a picnic?
i Well, it isn’t. It’s a profession, a
calling, where you shut your teeth
' and do your duty and make the
best of things."
Mothers Hold Solution.
’Ninety-nine times out of a hun
dred mothers could stop a divorce
in the very beginning if they would
only hold their sons am! daughters
up to performing the obligations
they have taken upon themselves.
But they don't. They side with
their own, they sympathize with
their own’s Injury and magnify the
other's fault until they widen the
breach between husband and wife
past all bridging, and are thus ac
cessory to the crime of breaking up
a home.
Tiiesa are hard words, but they
a e ttUi one-, ft I- the mothers
who hold the solution of the divorce
<lti stion in their hands. There
would be no more unhappy mar
riages anil nobodx would want »i
divorce, if only mothers did their
iluty and were a little busier before
their children's ma iage. and a lit-
Garfett P. Serviss
Writes on
Sound
It Is a Marvellous Calculator
of Distance, if You Only
Knew How to Use It. Ex
its Waves One Can Tell
How Far Away a Thunder
Storm Is.
By GARRETT P. SERVISS.
YOU can make your head an
arsenal of power if you will
simply remember certain
facts that have tlie quality of
bringing out other facts. Take
sound, for instance. It is a mar
vellous measurer of distance, if
only you know how to use it.
Sound consists of waves, or vi
brations, which travel through the
air, at ordinary temperatures, with
a speed of 1,140 feet per second, At
lower temperatures the speed is
slightly decreased, and at higher
temperatures increased, but the fig
ures given are sufficiently exact fu
common purposes. Knowing them
you can, for instance, tell in a mo
ment how far away from you a
thunder storm is raging. You have
only to count the number of sec
onds that elapse between the flash
of the lightning and the sound of
the thunder, and multiply tin t
number by 1,140, which will ghe
you the distance of the cloud from
which the discharge took place.
The light travels more than 9(i0.-
000 times as fast as the sound, so
that the latter has hardly got
started before the former reaches
your eye. Since there are 5.2H0
feet in a. mile, it is evident that
the sound of thunder, or any other
sound transmitted through the air,
takes about four and two-thlr< i
seconds to go a mile.
Travels on Heels of Light.
The lightning bolt travels on the
heels of the light, so that it. too, so
far outstrips the sound that if it
struck you, you would never hear
the thunder.
Even we, however, are able to
send death-dealing bolts faster
than the sound that accompanies
their discharge. A swift rifle bul- .
let goes twice as fast as the crack
of the exploding cartridge.
Another useful fact to know is
that sound travels faster in water
than in air, in the proportion of at
least four feet to one. In some ex
periments sound has been trans
mitted through the water of a river
at the rate of more than a mile per
second, but its average velocity in
water is about 4,700 feet per second.
The sound of a bell warning a ship
to keep away from a dangerous
shoal would require about 23 sec
onds to go five miles through ths
air. while the same sound could be
transmitted through the water in
about five and a half seconds.
There are imaginable circumstances
in which the eighteen seconds thus
saved might suffice to prevent a
shipwreck.
Still more remarkable is the dif
ference between the speed of sound
in air and in solid bodies. In the
heavier metals, such as lead or
gold, sound travels at nearly the
same velocity as in water, but in
more elastic metals, like iron and
steel, Its speed suddenly increas s
to more than three miles per sec
ond, which is. six or seven times as
rapid as the flight of a bullet.
In wood sound travels about as
fast as in iron, provided that the
direction in which its waves move
is the same as that in which the
fibers of the wood rtAi, but if the
sound is transmitted across the
gram of the w<sod its speed is re
duced to from a half to a quarter
of what it is in the other direction
the amount of change varying for
different species of wood.
Waves of Sound Differ.
You can hear the sound of
scratching on a wooden fence at an
astonishing distance, if your ear
liappens to be close to th- wood, or
if your head touches the fence. And
so quickly is the sound conducted
that, although its point of origin
may be a quarter of a mile away,
yet. if you are unaware of the
manner in which it has been
brought to your ear, you may be
completely deceived, thinking that
it must have originated but a few
rods off. One might easily make a
kind of telegraph of a wooden
fence, conveying messages by taps
upon it. ’This suggestion is dedi
cated to writers of ingenious sto
ries of adventure
How long are the waves of sound
in the air? They differ according
to the pitch.
The average male voice, in ordi
nary conversation, produces waves
varying in length from eight to
twelve feet, while those of a wom
an’s voice are only from two io
four feet long. Waves sixty or
seventy feet in length, vibrating at
the rate of sixteen times per sec
ond. produce a very grave sound
which is scarcely perceptible Joy the
human ear, - while waves only half
an Inch in length, vibrating be
tween twenty and thirty thousand
times per second, produce e sound
so shrill that It. too, passes beyond
tiie range of our hearing, although
it may seeni as hoarse as the roar
of thunder to the hearing apparatus
of insect . All sounds, whether
grave or shrill, travel forward at
the same rate.