Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

EDITORIAL RAGE! The Atlanta Georgian the home paper California's Fight Is the Entire Nation's Fight There is a certain class of people in this country of ours who are aliens at heart, always have been aliens and always will be. They have never become Americans in spirit. They have never been able to assimilate the American system, to appreciate the American point of view. They may have been American, citizens for years, their fathers and grandfathers may have been American citizens, they may Iiave descended from our first and oldest families, but they are inherently incapable of being Americans or understanding Americans. In most cases the immigrant who has just landed has a better understanding of American principles and policy and a greater loyalty to American ideals than these congenital aliens whose thoughts are foreign to our American spirit and sentiment. The hotbed of this kind of un American toryism is, and always has been, New York. In the days of the Revolution these tories supported the cause of the Crown, and never since that time has there been a dispute between the United States and any foreign nation that these aliens in character and constitution have not taken the side of the foreign nation, without regard to the justice of the American position and generally without any knowledge of the subject under discussion. The present instance is the case of California. These congenital aliens immediately assume that California is wrong in her decision to exclude unnaturalized citizens from the right to pos sess lands in California and that Japan is right. They know nothing of the subject, as their utterances clearly indicate. But they are con vinced that California must be wrong, apparently because it is a part of the United States, and the fundamental principle of their position is that the United States is always wrong, and what is characteristic of the whole must be characteristic of any particular part. As a matter of fact, California is right, legally right, constitutionally right, morally right, ethically right, ethnologically right, right for her own best interests, right for the best interests of the whole country, including New York, and right for the best interests of all the citizens of this country, including the citizens of New York—even the class of congenital toadies and tories. California is within her State's rights, guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, when she decides that individuals who have not been naturalized may not hold land within her confines. Any State in the Union might make such a law, and it would not be within the power or, privilege of the United States to prevent it. California is acting to her own best advantage in making such a law, because the Japanese would not make good citizens and do not make good residents. They are a race which this nation cannot and should not assimilate. They would inflict \ipon us another and greater race problem than we have yet dealt with, and we already have, race problems which are difficult enough to solve. The Japanese in the numbers in which they are invading California are not only objection able, they are dangerous. They begin by occupying a small section of a district and making themselves there so obnoxious by their personal attitude and Oriental peculiarities that the Cau casian residents of that district soon become willing to sell their properties and leave the sec tion. The Japanese then buy up these depreciated properties at bargain prices and bring in more Japanese to extend the ill effects of their colonization. The Japanese are never on good terms with these Caucasian neighbors. They never em ploy a Caucasian when they can employ a Japanese. They live encysted in their orientalism, a. a foreign growth within the American body politic, an ever-increasing danger to the well-be ing of our social and political system. These Japanese are not, and never will be, and never want to be, Americans. Worse than that, they are actively and essentially antagonistic to American ideas and to the welfare of the American nation. They are Japanese citizens. More than that, they are Japanese soldiers, and when their numbers become sufficient they may at any time become a Japanese army, directed definitely, positively and powerfully against the Government and the people of this country. In acting in her own interest, therefore, to limit this Japanese invasion and prevent the widespread possession of American territory by the Japanese, California is wisely and patri otically providing for the protection of the whole country. She should be commended by the other States of the Union and sustained in her action by the other States in the Union and by the people of every State in the Union. There is no objection raised on the part of the United States to the exclusion of our citi zens from the privilege of holding lands in Japan, and theie would be no objection on the part of Japan to the exclusion of her unnaturalized and unnaturalizable citizens from holding lands in our country if it were not that the same congenital aliens, the same treasonable tories, the same pitifully small Americans who are opposing the best interests of the nation in this instance of California, have always opposed the best interests of the nation in the matter of a greater navy, and have traitorously caused the Pacific coast of our great country to be left almost de fenseless against an Asiatic enemy. Our semi weekly Secretary of the Navy, who has discovered that a ship has an off and a nigh side and can best be controlled in its course by the orders “Gee’’ and ‘Haw,” is about to send our battleships on a junket abroad. He would do better to keep them at home and lo cate them in the waters of the Pacific, where they may be needed to maintain the rights of our citizens and to protect the territory of our nation. How to Learn French==or Any Language One of our young readers, abroad in France, w T rites us for advice on how to learn the French language easily. The advice is given here, and we hope that it will prove useful to him. Remember that the big thing in this world is to take ad vantage of OPPORTUNITY You cannot blame a boy for not learning when he hasn't the chance. But when OPPORTUNITY comes, pity the boy or the man who does not take it. You might walk all through Africa, for months at a time, without seeing a lion. But if you did see one and didn t take the OPPORTUNITY to shoot it you would feel foolish and silly aft erward. To learn a foreign aguage is more important than to shoot a lion. And a boy who can learn has an opportunity that many boys and men would give anything to get. Don't neglect it. Make it your business to listen to French, TO UNDERSTAND IT AND TO TALK IT. Ask your companion to say everything to you in French first and repeat it in Englinsk only when you do not understand. Remember that we learn languages THROUGH THE EAR. Reading and studying grammar has very little to do with it. A child four or five years old speaks its mother's language v. ell -although it has never read a word. It has learned every- fhmp . -y~h the ear. and ?n that way you can learn French or another language if you will. Listen and talk constantly. Try to -et French thoroughly into your nead. You will not forgive yourself if you do not do it. Try to read some French books, and, above all, TALK AND LISTEN. Letters From Readers of The Georgian CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. K»litor The Georgian: The papers have been loud in their advocacy against vice and it has been my experience that one who trespasses in Atlanta is dealt with by law in a merciless manner But a contractor may underfeed, beat and work to deaih a number of mules and horses, and this offender is not even rep rimanded. 1 live on Capitol Avenue, and not long ago it was a source of pain to me to see mules driyen along tilt avenue heavily loaded, driven to their uttermost, many bleeding from the lashes of ignor ant negroes. The mules were pulling dirt from an excavation on Trinity Avenue and 1 mad* complaint to the police station, but these men cannot afford to take proper steps; it would in terfere with progress, which At lanta rulers want at all hazards. C II WILSON, A. C. of 1*. and S. MORE AEOUT DEADBEATS. Editor The Georgian: I was profoundly impressed b> what Dorothy Dix said in The Georgian of April IT regarding the deadbeat who is too proud to work. 1 would that the world knew him as she does, for then there would be fewer heartaches and blighted lives in the sad dis appointment of never knowing true manhood. For truly we never find it in such characters as these, tor they are as dross and count for nothing. So often when l liav« >ecn - .a i .vai'ai' i-r.' af these en ticing the h» arc affection of a pure, innocent, saeet gin’ F G. H(R< ’H Jlitv; WOULDN’T IT MAKE YOU MAD?- i A Five pouhd go* of Youk O-tOCOUATtS Rev. John E. White Writes on The Original Idiot He Gets as Much Out of the Com petitive World as He Can Seques ter for Himself and His Folks, and Lets the World Swing Along as it Pleases. WRITTEN FOR THE GEORGIAN By REV. DR. JOHN E. WHITE Pastor Second Baptist Church E are on on the trail of the Origii^tl Idiot and we will get him not far from Where Does All the WorlcTs Gold Go? According to a British Authority, Mysterious India Absorbs and Secrets It in Enormous and Increasing Quantities—Not Gold, blit Labor and Thought Enrich the World. By GARRETT P. SERVISS. I F all the gold which is haft'-an nually dug from the earth won employed exclusively for coin age and kept in continual circula tion. the prices of the. necessaries of life would soar to heights yet undreamed of. If Sir William Ramsay could control the creation of atoms, and cause gold to build itself up out of apparent nothing, he would uixset the whole monetary system of' the world. And yet, in either case, would the real value of food and cloth ing and other necessaries be al tered in the slightest degree. It would be only the relative value of the dollar that would be altered. The fact that that. value, as based upon gold, lias not disas trously changed^ in the face of the enormous increase in the out put of gold, shows That there is some great open valve through which the surplus metal csyap.es. More and more of it goes into the arts, it is true, but that does not explain the entire situation. Hoarders of Gold Treasure. A recent report prepared by t lie .MessrMontagu. bullion merchants of London, offers an other explanation. According- to this* report that great., hive, of brown humanity. India, i.^ the * principal absorbei of the world’s surplus gold. There it disappears as if it had fallen into the rrbySvS under a cataract. The people of India are invet erate hoarders of gold. They are as saving in their habits as the French, but Instead of putting their .-avings at interest they bury them. Says the report from which I quote: “At present nearly all the gold dug from the earth in South Af rica is. by a fresh digging.opera tion. deposited again beneath the soil of South Asia." There, on about half the area or tin Fait- d Stau .-. tin re uiv .:«•» 000,000 people. The> not only hoard gold, spending a*, ruth GARRETT P. SERVISS. them even swallow it for medi cine, in the form of thin leaves! They employ enormous quan tities of gold for religious pur poses. in gilding the domes and interiors of temples, and in deco rating idols. They use it also for Pertinent Paragraphs Win n ttie office seeks the man in. Sin •u iv H" nu s business is necessary. As a rule, the Hist child is pet ted nearly to death, or is over trained. You can occasionally convince one with eloquence, but he will not always stay convinced. It is nonsense to hold up as an example statesmanship that can not land an office of some kind. *. * * Take no stock in the shifty man. He has not the stability of a weather vane. * * * OccasionalI> the threatened dog bumps against the silencer. * * * Tile good man is mare apt to he fooled h\ « vil associates than individual v >• nas few ’ jcks of -bis **v\ t\. capricious display. A st.oi:y is told of a rajah who imported thou sands of British sovereigns, bear ing- the figures of a shield on the obverse, each coin being employed to form the center of a little pane in the innumerable windows of his palace. The gold imports of India are on a scale so immense that tiiey constitute, say the'-Messrs. Mon tagu, a matter of primary impor tance to the re Ft of the world. In dia is enabled to import gold on a large scale because, whenever a. succession of favorable monsoon winds blesses the country, its pro ductiveness becomes phenomenal. But. apparently, when the dread ful famines, due to the failure of the monsoons*, burst upon them, the people still guard their buried hoards, preferring to perish rather than seriously to diminish their stores. Recently India has been fa vored with excellent crops, the consequence being that last year its imports of gold attained a rec ord mark, absorbing as much as* 28 per cent of the world’s entire production of the precious yellow metal. In other words, nearly one-third of the world’s total an nual production of gold went to a country which covers only about one-fortieth of the land surface of the globe, although it contains a sixth or a seventh of the earth’s population. India is an Immense creditor pation. say the authorities from whom I am quoting, but it is a creditor that hang*' onto its gold, when it gets it, with a grip of death. World Would Be Benefited. Perhaps, if all these statements are facts, and if India should sud denly disgorge the treasures that it is believed to have hidden, the world would find itself over whelmed by the glittering idol which for so many centuries it lias worshiped with blind devo tion. Then price? would jump still higher, wages would soar to new levels, the poorest man would have stacks of yellow dollars, half stripped of their magic power— and who would b< the better for it 7 it is 4 not gold that makes the rich, but labor and thought. where jou live. Once upon a time, in their beautiful language, the Greeks needed a designation for a par ticular type of citizen, who un willingly attracted attention to himself in the city of Athens. To describe him and isolate him in the public mind they coined a contemptuous word which has come down to us with an increas ing ugly meaning. It is the word "Idiot.” So high was their ideal of pub lic duty and so exacting the Grecian conscience of public service, that when certain of their citizens were discovered more concerned with their private in terests than the common welfare of Athens, they were character ized—"idiotes.” By this word a citizen absorbed entirely in his own private affairs became an object of public contempt. He was considered a civic defaulter. His reproach was in all noble eyes that looked upon him. His name was a hissing on all noble lips. The wrath of the Athen ians knew small mercy for the man among them who engaged chiefly after Number One. The Greek "idiot” w«s not necessa rily u fool nor a bad man. His crime was liis i elfish withdrawal from public responsibility. The Modern Idiot. The "Modern Idiot” may like wise be isolated. He lives in Atlanta, though thanks be. his name is not legion here. Indeed the ancient Athens and the mod ern Atlanta are not unlike in con tempt of him. But the few there are among us may not object to the performance of one public servic *. Let them serve as a warning. Do you know a man who boasts that he attends strictly to his own business and wishes everyoody else would do the same? In ancient Athens that man would have ‘been called “icbotai/’ Do you know a man who tracks the path from bis residence to his business wrapped in the sol itude of his own concerns and shrunken to the limit of short- hearted interest in the welfare of common humanity? The Greeks would 'nave pointed him out as one of their “Idiots.” Do you know a man who lias no time for the general welfare and the big problems of society? The schools. I he hospitals, the libraries are not his business. The institutions of social serv ice and the ‘organizations for the amelioration of social sorrow' .are in no wise his personal obliga tion. Good Government—of course; moral reforms — of course; the conservation of health —of course; the preservation of the Sabbath Day for a sound re ligious civilization—of course; but let those aggressive individ uals who like prominence and fighting attend to such thankless tasks and public services. This is the ‘ Modern Idiot." He gets as much njt of the competi tive world as he can sequester for himself and his folks and lets the world swing along as it pleases. When he dies you have to go to the cemetery and peep through the doors of the little tight vault to discover that lie ever lived. There repose the re mains of "The Original Idiot.” Public Schools. The President of the New York Chamber of Commerce visit'd Atlanta two years ago. It hap pened that a great public cairn- of humanity was at that time in the balance, and each of the linns and corporations had been ask ed to pick their best young man and tender him for its servic. They were gathered together one hundred of them—to accept the commission. The big X Yorker was taken to see tin as sembly of young citizens who were going to lay down their private concerns for the public good. Their spirit and devotion amazed him and drew a sharp exclamation of delight. He stood up before them and with a big man’s emotion, said: "This is the finest lesson in citizenship I have ever seen. It is very like old Roman days when young cit izens assembled to receive ti.- "toga virilis.” I extend to even one of you as the President <7 the New York Chamber of Com merce, the keys of our great city on Manhattan Island. When y«*!i come l will show you on the walls of our Chamber the pictures m the men New York regards as worth remembering. They an not theie because- they were rh-a and powerful, but because the\ were public souls-who gave them selves to the common welfare and denied themselves, and lov ed the highest and noblest things belonging to that city.” Why Is Atlanta? AA'c were asked a while ' ’ "Why is Atlanta?" Some said it is the railroad.-. They hate made Atlanta, The statue of Samuel Spencer on tin- Terminal Plaza is the symbol of the city's prosperity. Some said the newspapers have made Atlanta. Publicity is the secret of the city’s success. Some said geographical loca tion explains Atlanta. Did not John C. Calhoun prophecy it seventy-five years ago? Some said climate was the 1 x- plaining fact. Did not the great est doctor in the 1'niterl States assert that Atlanta was pre-emi nently the arsepttc Southern el evation ? But everybody said something about “The Atlanta Spirit.’ AVhat is that? It is the old Greek contempt for “The Original Idiot, ’ Start the Day Right By WILLIAM F. KIRK S TART the day right. W.ien the sun conies to Give it a smile for each ray that it sends. Shake off the worries that long to defeat you. Strengthen your faith in yourself and your friendr Yesterday's giiost will be striving to haunt you. Yesterday’s errors may come to your brain; Throw off the worries that trouble and taunt you: Start the day right; begin over again. W HAT a brief span is the longest existence— One flashing journey from .Nothing to Night! Show while you may the old Roman resistance— Off with your drowsiness—into the fight! Never an empire was won by a laggard. Never a prize was obtained but by worth; Heed not the sneers of the misanthropes haggard; Start tlie day right and they'll know you're on earth S TART tlie day right and you'll find as it passes— Something to live for and something to love. A T ie\\ not the future through indigo glasses— Note the bright streams and the blue skies above. I 'ailure may mock you through years, of endeavor, I'.ime and success may net come at your wi:’ But nothing can baffle a climber forever; Start the day right, and you’re half up the hlli reet you