Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, April 17, 1913, Image 20
EDITORIAL RAGE
The
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
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A Warning Lesson From the
War of 1812—We MUST Keep Our
Navy Up to a Proper Standard.
The United States
of the Par Past
Let not the Administration
at Washington wait, after all,
for European sanction before
giving recognition to the new
government in China.
That government has stood for a year. There is not the
least chance that the old government of the Mancbus will be re
stored. The republican order, which all the leading men of
China are trying so hard to perfect, is the only order that can
be hoped for. IT IS THAT OR NOTHING—THE REPUBLIC
OR ANARCHY AND DISSOLUTION.
We in the United States should remember that the making
of our own Federal Constitution was a perilous process. John
Fiske was right when he called that period emphatically, “the
critidal period of American history." We could hardly have
survived that time, as a united nation, if the whole world had
given us nothing but cold shoulders and suspicion. THE
FRENCH REPUBLIC GAVE CORDIAL DIPLOMATIC REC
OGNITION "’O THE NEW AMERICAN NATIONALITY-
EVEN WHILE BRITISH SOLDIERS WERE BILLETED IN
OUR CAPITAL.
It is even truer to-day than it was a hundred and thirty odd
years ago that no free government can live in isolation. To say
that we will “wait and see" whether the Chinese republic jan
survive a universal political boycott is to state an absurdity and
to mock at the necessities of the Chinese.
The assembling at Pekin last week of the first legally elect
ed Congress of the new republic was an historical event of the
first magnitude. In that event the Orient broke a tradition of
ages and turned its face toward the fellowship of Occidental
civilization. This Chinese Congress expects to frame a Consti
tution. The Constitution will follow the lead of our own or of
the French republic—or ^Ise will borrow from both.
American sts-ndartis are uppermost in the minds of the Con
stitution oMkers. Yuan-Shi-Kai, now provisional president,
*.vili stand for a constitutional presidency on the American pat
tern—a real head of the government, not a ceremonial figure
head as in France. Probably Yuan-Shi-Kai will have his way
since he has had the appointing of the special committee that is
making the first draft of the Constitution. His efforts to create
a real United States in China has the support of the northern
provinces and of conservatives all over the country.
A large proportion of the Chinese Constitution-makers
were educated in American public schools and universities. A
few of these are cautious decentralizers, jealous of presidential
power. But most of them are enthusiastic in urging the Amer
ican Constitution, in something like its present highly central
ized development, as a model for their own country.
Taken all in all, it is evident that this old China, now in pro
cess of being born anew, is our own spiritual progeny, a giant
child of our own world-stirring life.
THE SYMPATHY AND ASSISTANCE OF THE AMERI
CAN NATIONALITY SHOULD FOLLOW—EVEN TO THE
OTHER SIDE OF THE GLOBE—THE CONQUERING MARCH
)F ITS GREAT IDEAS
During the War of 1812-15 a British fleet sailed up the
Chesapeake and the Potomac and burned the Capitol at Wash
ington.
It was a cruel and unnecessary action—even in war—and
London journals were ashamed of it.
The Cossacks spared Paris, but English soldiers did not
spare the Capital of America.
England was able to inflict this overwhelming humiliation
upon our country because the United States, under a Demo
cratic administration, had allowed its navy to deteriorate.
So long as our ships were anywhere nearly equal on the sea
the little American navy defeated the British ships in such bril
liant victories as to astonish and enrage the British public, and
one London journal was moved to inquire if England was to be
stripped of her maritime supremacy by “a piece of striped bunt
ing flying at the masthead of a few fir-built frigates manned by
a handful of bastards?"
But England, roused by the prowess of American sailors,
massed her many ships against our deteriorated navy, and re
duced our Capital to ashes.
That was under a Democratic administration.
We have another Democratic administration now, during
these anniversaries of the War of 1812.
The last Congress was Democratic, and was responsible for
our navy 's threatened decline and loss of rank among the na
tions of the world.
Shall it continue to decline? Shall we continue to be un
prepared?
Are we going to celebrate one great national disaster by
inviting another? Are we going to learn nothing from bitter
experience?
Is this Democratic Congress and administration going to
repeat the follies of an earlier Democratic administration and
allow greed for domestic spoils to interfere with our national
defense?
Are pork barrel politics" to be allowed to expose our
country once more to invasion and insult, to disaster and dis
honor?
If any trouble should arise with England or Russia or Ja
pan, is an inadequate and decreasing navy to present in its
weakness an invitation to English or Japanese warships to sail
again up the Potomac and burn our infinitely more beautiful
Washington of to-day?
Is the Democratic party going to make it possible to do
this? If so, it is time that we had a new popular party—as pa
triotic as it may be democratic—that will strengthen the de
fenses, uphold the ideals, and maintain the honor and safety of
the American Republic.
A decent giant would pity and feed well the little creatures bringing
meat to his table.
The Brobdingnagian monsters in “Gulliver’s Travels” felt sorry for Gul
liver’s weakness.
And Gulliver amortg the Lilliput dwarfs, as he ate their sheep and
oxen whole, “chewing the bones as an Englishman would chew the bones of
a lark,” felt sorry for the poor little creatures.
But cold-blooded, pitiless and heartless is the giant of our day living
Telescope Has Told Us More About Moon
Than We Know About Earth’s Surface
The Lunar'South Pole Is Dotted With Huge Mountains, Rugged and Clear Cut,
with No Air to Sweep Over Them, No Water to Wear Them
Down, No Clouds to Hide Them.
W I-; know more about the
South Pole of the moon
than we do about the
South Pole of the enrth. One rea
son why we know more about It is
because we are so far away from
It. Let me explain this paradox.
If we stood on the moon, In the
neighborhood of Its south pole, we
should Arid ourselves' surrounded
by steep and rugged mountains
from 16,000 to 26,000 feet high,
and vast ernter-llke holes twenty
miles across, and three or four
miles In depth. Of course In such
a situation we could see nothing
but our immediate surroundings,
and If we attempted to clamber
over them to get wider views, we
should be confronted by insur
mountable obstacles.
But worst of all. on the moon
we should find no air to breathe,
no water to drink, no clouds to
screen off the blinding sunshine
by day, and no vaporous blanket
to afford protection at night
against the awful cold of empty
space, hundreds of degrees below
xero!
The Telescope Is a Genie.
Evidently there could be no po
lar or other exploration amid
such circumstances. But, situa
ted as we are on the earth. 240,-
000 miles from the moon, we can
avoid all its inconveniences, and
yet get effectively near its south
pole by the aid of the telescope.
This shows us the whole polar
region in a single view, and all
its features are before us at a
glance. If we could get a similar
view of the Antarctic continent
the entire scene of the adventures
of Shaekleton. Amundsen and
Scott would lie plain before us.
The telescope is a genie more
powerful than any in the Arabian
Nights; .t seises the moon for us
and practically puts it in our laps.
With a magnifying power of
500 diameters the moon is brought
w ithin 480 miles of the observer's
eye if the power is 1,000 the
apparent distance is 240 miles;
and with a power of 2,000 the
distance becomes only 120 miles
Now. let us Mee what this means.
Suppose you take an ordinary
terrestrial globe, on which the
geographic features of the earth
are plainly represented—the seas
By GARRETT P. SERVISS.
and lands, the mountains and
plains, the locations of the great
cities, etc. Let the globe be one
foot in diameter, a usual size.
Take it on your knees.
When it is one foot from your
GARRETT P. SERVISS.
eyes you see its features on the
same scale as you see those of
the moon with a telescope magni
fying only about 120 diameters,
and a small telescope will easily
magnify that much.
Little Weathering on Rocks.
Then bring the globe within a
distance of about six inches and
its features will appear on the
same scale as those of the moon
when magnified 240 diameters.
In order to make the same com
parison when the magnifying
power of the telescope becomes a
thousand or two thousand, you
must bring the glob*e so near that
distinct vision is destroyed, and
the only way to see its features*
clearly is to use a magnifying
glass.
This shows us how it is that,
thanks to the telescope, we really
know moi’p about the surface of
the moon, as a whok- than we do
about tin- surface of the earth. (»f
course, we do not see the minute
details, but, on the other hand, we
see the broad relations of the
moon's geographic features bet
ter than we can represent those
of the earth on an artificial globe.
Recently Mr. Scriven Bolton, of
the Royal Astronomical Society
of Great Britain, has made a. se
ries of telescopic studies of the
south polar region of the moon,
and then constructed a plaster of
parks model of them, which can
be photographed in an electric
light, at any desired angle of Il
lumination, and the pictures thus
obtained show the moon as it
would appear to us if we could
visit Its surface or hover close
above it in an aeroplane. The
mountains about the south lunar
pole are much grander than any
found near the south pole of the
earth. Some of them are nearly
five miles high, and very steep.
No Air to Bend Sun’s Rays.
Because of the absence of air
and water, there is little weather
ing action on tho lunar rocks, and
accordingly the huge, sharp peaks
stand up in all their precipitous
ness for age after age. whereas
the mountains of the earth are
being continually worn down.
Perhaps the feature of the lunar
landscapes which wolild appear
most wonderful to us is the im
mense number of great volcano
like craters that pit the surface.
One of these in the neighborhood
of the south pole is called New
ton, and it is so deep and so
steep-walled that the sunlight
can never reach the bottom of it.
Owing to the absence of air,
there is no diffused light in the
lunar sky. The heavens are as
black as ink in full daylight.
The stars all shine, with daz
zling brilliance in the very pres
ence of the sun, and when the lat
ter rises, at the end of the lunar
night of two weeks duration, it
is preceded by no dawn, but comes
up without warning, a curve of
blinding light, shooting above
the horizon and quickly swelling
into a blazing globe that smites
the ragged mountain peaks with
its untempered rays. Yet behind
every rocky wall black night pre
vails. although the sun be risen,
until th solar beams penetrate
directly into the hidden recesses.
The Worst Sort of Deadbeat Is the Man
Who Is Too Proud to Work
These Days the One Infallible Test of a Man’s Real Love for a Woman Is Not
Whether He Will Die for Her, But Whether He Will Get Out and
WORK for Her.
THE HOME
Atlanta Georgian
A Giant Who Starves His Dwarfs
PAPER
upon child labor, devouring the product of the child’s work and destroying
the child itself.
The Democrats, quite proud of themselves, are busy abolishing “pro
tection.”
Will they fifid some way of giving to the children that protection which
they are trying to take from monopoly? Or will they intensify the struggle
for existence, and make child labor worse, and more dreadful, by putting a
premium upon cheap labor, and upon ability to get the most work done for
the least monev?
feet and over-strained muscles ,as
a strong man never knows. Every
cent that you save out of your
' scant pay envelope is at the price
of your starved stomach and un
derclad body.
The man who would take from
you this money, so hardly earned,
>o bitterly needed, is as soulless,
as conscienceless, or heartless as
Judas, who sold his Lord for 30
pieces of silver.
Have nothing to do with such
a man, little sister. All that he
wants with you is to make of
you a slave who will toil to sup
port him. You are nothing to
him but a meal ticket, and while
he wheedles the money out of
you, he is laughing in his sleeve
at how much easier it is to make
love to a girl for a living than it
is to work for it.
Don’t put any faith in the vows
of devotion that you have to pay
for on the nail. Be suspicious of
the tender speeches that a man
coshes in as soon as he makes
them.
Any man that doesn’t disgrace 1
the shape 'he bears doesn’t wait
for a bank presidency or some
other gilt-edged job to come his
way hunting somebody to take it.
Any Work Is Respectable.
He rolls up his sleeves and sails
into the work that is closest to
him, and no matter how humbie
the labor may be, he honors it by
the way he does it. He knows that
all work is respectable, and that
the only shameful thing is for a
man to be a parasite, and espe
cially to be one of the parasitic
men who live on working women.
There are thousands of work
ing girls who are being bled of
their every cent by loafing sweet
hearts, thousands of wives and
mothers who are toiling night and
day to support able-bodied loafers
who are their husbands and sons.
These women lack the courage
to cast their no-account sweet
hearts and husbands and sons and
brothers away from them, and to
shut their doors in their faces and
tell them to either work or starve,
yet it is the one thing that they
shsuld do. It is the only chance
to make a man out of a sponge. 4
A WORKING GIRL is en
gaged to be married to a
young man w r ho held a
position as a salesman. The
young man lost his job sev
eral months ago, and since
then has not been able to get an
other position in a store or office
that would enable him to wear
, good clothes and keep his hands
nice and white and his nails man
icured. He has been offered a
place as a street car conductor,
but he considers that beneath his
dignity. So is any kind of man
ual labor, which he declines
haughtily to do.
In the meantime he is living on
money that is borrowed from his
sweetheart. The girl is troubled
by the situation. She feels that
she should not be asked to sup
port a husky young man. and yet
what can she uo? She can not
see him starve, she writes to me
in a miserable little letter that
has a sob in every line, and the
man tells her that he will kill
himself if she turns against him
in his hour of hard luck when all
the world is down on him, and she
wants to know' w r hat she shall do.
My advice is emphatic: Shut
up your pocketbook. little sister,
and put a Yale lock on it. The
man who is too proud to do any
sort of honest labor, but not too
proud to sponge on a woman, is
nothing on earth but a deadbeat
and a loafer, and the sooner you
are rid of him, the better for you.
Is Infallible Proof.
The one infallible test of a
man's love for a woman is not
whether he will die for her, but
whether he will work for her. No
body is called on to die for any
body else in these days, and it is
easy for a man to profess that he
would do a thing that he never
has to make good on. But a man's
willingness to get up at 6 o'clock
in the morning and tackle a hard
job because his doing It saves a
woman from toil and weariness is
a proof of devotion strong enough
to draw money on at the bank.
Thetefore. little sister, when a
sonn Lidia ilia —.winute how
l
DOROTHY DIX.
matter squarely in the face and
tell him the truth.
Tell him that if he really loved
you he would starve before he
would take a penny from you, and
that instead of hanging around
and begging front a woman, and
especially the woman that he'says
he worships, he would sweep the
streets, or break rock, or drive a
garbage wagon, or do any other
work under the sun that left a
man his self-respect and Inde-
pendence.
Every penny in your thin pook-
etbook is Plained with your very
life, blood. It represents such an
guish of aching back and weary
By DOROTHY DIX.
much he loves you. and the next
minute asks you for a dollar, just
try to have enough sense to size
up the situation as it is. Put your
own feelings to one side. Crush
your vanity under foot. Look the