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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Atlanta and the “Mystic
Shrine" Convention
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he Atlanta Georgian THE HOME PAPER
Editorial in The New York American of Wednesday, April 23.
The typical and now historic “Atlanta Spirit’’ is well illus
trated in the way the Georgia capital has prepared to capture
the Imperial Council of the Mystic Shrine for 1914.
The Imperial Council of the Shriners is one of the great
convention prizes of the American years. Gathering from 8,000
to 10.000 Shriners—the very flower of Masonry—it is in num
bers, in quality, in spectacular splendor and in social and fra
ternal importance scarcely inferior to the quadrennial conven
tion of the two great political parties.
The greater cities of the country eagerly seek the honor of
entertaining these princely Masons. Before the great Council,
which meets in Dallas in May, Atlanta is going to press her cor
dial invitation to the Shriners to be her guests in May, 1914.
Atlanta discovered that it would require $60,000, raised in
advance, to assure the Council of her preparedness to entertain.
Atlanta prepared to do it. Her committees were appointed,
the famous “Atlanta Spirit" was invoked to raise the required
sum before sunset—in a single day.
By four o'clock on the day appointed Atlanta had raised,
not $60,000, but $75,000, and was going on toward the $100,000
mark when sunset came.
The great social order of the Masons could not do better
than accept the hospitality of the brilliant and historic capital
of the New South. Atlanta is the Phoenix City of the Old South.
It was leveled to ashes by General Sherman in 1864 and left with
only 3,000 population. Thirty years later Atlanta banqueted
General Sherman in splendid spirit upon the scene of his battle,
in a city of 70,000, and now houses nearly 200,000 people in one
of the most beautiful, brilliant and hospitable cities in all the
country.
The destruction of Atlanta broke the backbone of the Con
federacy and really had much to do with bringing a conclusion
to the Civil War.
The Atlanta Spirit " and the Atlanta men, from Henry
Grady to John B. Gordon, have been great factors in the re-es
tablishment of good feeling and the obliteration of sectional
prejudice.
And Atlanta itself has more to offer in historic interests,
in easy access, in splendid hotels, vivid entertainment, and in
charming hospitality than any other city in the South.
t It
“The mystery of the oats
schedule ’ has not yet been
solved.
It has not been explained—
by Congressman Harrison or
anybody else—why the new tariff bill should make a free gift
to Canada of our oatmeal and rolled-oats business. That is what
would happen without a doubt. For to lay a heavy tax on raw
oats and let the milled oats come in free IS SIMPLY TO AR
RANGE TO HAVE ALL THE MILLING DONE IN CANADA.
But the mystery of oats is only’a detail of the wider mys
tery that shrouds the Underwood bill in all its bearings upon
our trade relations with Canada.
For example, FLOUR is made free and WHEAT dutiable.
This would destroy all our flour mills or drive them into Can
ada. Perhaps not QUITE all. For the case of flour is a little
different from that of oatmeal—since only A FRACTION of the
oat crop goes into oatmeal, while substantially ALL of the wheat
crop is turned into flour.
The certain effect of the Underwood wheat and flour sched
ule would be to drive most of our flour-miliing business into Can
ada and to compel our farmers to market much of their wheat
there.
THE CANADIAN PRICE FOR THIS WHEAT WOULD
FIX THE PRICE OF THE WHOLE AMERICAN CROP. That
price would certainly be lower than any price our farmers have
been accustomed to. They would lose money. And the wheat
acreage of this country would shrink.
With American wheat prices Anally adjusted to the lower
Canadian level, some part of the flour-milling business of the
United States might continue to be done in this country—though
IT IS PERFECTLY POSSIBLE THAT OUR DOMESTIC PRO
DUCTION OF BOTH WHEAT AND FLOUR WOULD BE
PRACTICALLY ANNIHILATED.
The Underwood bill puts a 10 per cent duty on SHEEP, but
no duty at all on sheep PRODUCTS—wool, skins and mutton.
This provision is perhaps intended to protect the American
sheep-farmer. But the American sheep-farmer does not under
stand how it will prosper him—and this newspaper office does
not.
Taken all in all, THE NEW TARIFF BILL PROPOSES
TO GIVE CANADIAN FARMING AND MANUFACTURING
ENTERPRISES A TREMENDOUS BOOM—AT THE EX
PENSE OF THE INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
IT OFFERS CANADA ALL THAT WAS OFFERED BY THE
TAFT RECIPROCITY BILL WITHOUT EXACTING ANY
CANADIAN CONCESSIONS IN RETURN.
The arrangement is grotesquely lopsided. It is reciprocity
running on one leg.
Under such an arrangement Canada could do what she
pleased in OUR markets, while allowing us to do only what she
pleased in her markets.
She could sell to us at the highest rate of profit and buy of
us at the lowest rate of profit.
She could, for a time at least, maintain the highest scale of
wages and the highest standard of living in the world, while
driving us to a lower scale of wages and a lower standard of liv
ing than we have ever known.
In view of the complete one-sidedness of this tariff plan,
and its immeasurable advantage to the Canadians over the plan
for Canadian reciprocity that was wrecked two years ago, there
is something satirical, if not sinister, in the news that Mr. Wal
ter Scott, of Regina, Prime Minister of the Canadian province of
Saskatchewan, is in Washington “urging a revival of the Taft
reciprocity plan.”
Is it possible that this far-journeying statesman has not read
the Underwood bill?
Or may it be that, in a secret rapture of hope, he is seeking
to accelerate the passage of the Underwood bill by an ostenta
tious effort not to notice it?
It is thus that a skillful horse-trader cheapens the real ob
ject of his desire—to wit: by paying marked attention to the
I negligible merits of -ome other horse.
Plenty of Water on This Wheel—Always. Elbert Hubbard
Writes on
This is the wheel that keeps the machinery p,o-
ing in great factories.
This wheel grinds out fortunes for a few rich
men and sorrow for thousands of others.
This is the wheel of the child labor factory, and
the children are the water that goes over the wheel
and keeps it turning.
Once the water goes over that wheel it can not
be used again.
There is always more water coming down, al
ways more children to keep the wheel turning.
Avoid Debt as You Would a Harmful Drug
Endure Any Hardship Rather Than Buy Comfort at the Price of It
Bv ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
I T Is interesting to me to find
how much more logical and
discriminating men are than
| Women, and it is always gratify
ing to me to he set aright by a
man when I make an error of
judgment or an untrue statement.
t m several occasions in this
column I have expressed my in
born and cultivated horror <*f
debt; I have said it was kin to
disgrace, and urged mothers to
Impress their children with this
idea.
Now comes the good, clear
headed critic, in the form of a
business man, who writes me as
follows:
“Debt for purposes of comfort,
c iso ->i* pleasure, is to be con
demned. but debt in a legitimate
transaction, not for speculative
purposes, but for real business,
shows that a man has confidence’
in himself, respect for his own
ability and determination to suc
ceed.
“Your article is helpful, com
mendable, wise, but you do not
want it to limit any man’s legiti
mate ambition or opportunities.
Taken literally it might do so."
I realise the truth of his words
and see the distinction that
should be drawn between differ-
« :.t kinds of debt.
Hut the trouble with most
young people, unless they have
heei. carefully educated to re
gard debt with aversion, is in the
ease with which they can argue
that a speculation or a desired
pleasure or comfort is a legiti
mate business.
Were my son living on this
earth (instead of a celestial
sphere), I am sure I would urge
him to live, as John Crabb did,
on 84 cents a year until he saved
enough money for “legitimate
business." rather than run in debt
for that purpose; because 1 have
seen so many young men (and
women, too) form the deadly debt
habit, for business purposes, and
never accomplish anything and
never pay their debts.
When We Realize Its Value.
Unless the moral nature is well
developed and the ideals high,
and self-respect and a fine sense
of honor are th? accompaniments
of ambition, it is a dangerous
thing for a young man to find
himself able to start on the road
to business or fdueation on
monev he has borrowed.
Only when we have earned
money, or are accustomed to the
thought that it belonged to us by
inheritance, do we realize its
worth or understand its import
ance.
Even when it comes by inherit
ance it is not always appreci
ated. for parents are prone to
hide from their children the
strain and stress through which
they passed to acquire the com
petence which their offspring
enjoy.
i reva . one young girl of poor
family, whose absorbing life of
knowledge and whose indomitable
will made her successful, bor
rowed. without security, one thou
sand dollars for educational pur
poses.
She graduated *from a four
years’ college course. and by
.teaching during vacation season
was able to pay interest on her
debts; at the end of four years
she obtained an excellent position
in the Far West as teacher,
cleared her books of debts* and
began a brilliant career as a suc
cessful educator.
Hut 1 know a dozen other
young women and men who have
gone in debt for seemingly worthy
purposes and have lost all sense
of responsibility, even self-re
spect, by enjoying the privileges
of unearned dollars. So the»whole
question eeetns to rest upon the
moral character of the borrowers.
A man with a quarter of a mil
lion may borrow two million with
far more impunity than one with
five dollars a week may borrow a
hundred.
We are all more or less influ
enced by our personal experiences,
and it has been my misfortune in
past times to lend money to those
who seemed deserving of such as
sistance, and to see (with the ex
ception of three people) all be
come “leaner*” without any real
sense of the responsibility they
had incurred or obligation which
rested upon them to liquidate the
uebt.
Great Inventions
He Tells How Some of the
Most Useful Things Have
Been Invented Almost by
Chance by Men Who Had
Imagination and Were In
dustrious.
By ELBERT HUBBARD
Copyright. 1913, International News Service.
I have seen one whom I had be
lieved in the direst straits, and
whose needs It had seemed a priv
ilege to supply, u?e the loan in
extravagant ways, which would
never have occuired to me—in
carriages, where walking would
have sufficed; in telegrams and
long-distance telephone messages,
where letters and postals would
have answered, and in hotel bills,
where dairy restaurants would
have sufficed.
The Lending of Money.
Not once only has* such an ex
perience been mine, but at least a
score of times, and I have grown
to regard the lending of money as
an injury to nineteen people out
of twenty.
I have grown to think that debt
is like a drug, and that he who
lends to his friends Is like one who
applies the hypodermic needle.
Personally, I would rather en
dure any amount of hardship
than purchase comfort at tho
price of debt. I have known what
its burden and sting meant and
have realized afterward that I
could have succeeded better had I
avoided the path of temporary de
pendent upon other peoples
money.
Yet, as my critic says, there are
distinctions to be made in the
ways and wherefores of debt, and
I give his ^definition that those
who are contemplating any ven
ture upon borrowed money may
analyze their purposes and decide
whether or not they are wise to
go on.
A N epoch is a pivotal point,
•omething that changes old
methods, cleans up the
slate and starts the game of life
afresh.
In the lives of individuals there
.are pivotal points. Doss, calami
ty, grief, may be pivotal points—
times when an issue bravely met
adds cubits to our stature.
Great successes are usually
those where victory it* snatched
from the jaws of defeat. And
the old idea of the Indians that
when they killed an enemy they
absorbed his strength into their
own is poetically true.
The greatest invention of mod
ern centuries is the steam engine.
Rigged Up An Engine.
The principle of the expansive
power of water under heat was
known to Pythagoras, who lived
600 years before Christ.
However, the value of steam as
a producer of power was of no
avail until we had a receptacle
that would contain it.
The rolling of iron plates was
the thing that made the steam
engine practicable. It was the
steam boiler and not the steam
engine that ushered in the Age of
Steam. Robert Fulton said his
job was to make a boiler to hold
the steam—the engine was easy.
Stephenson rigged up an engine
and boiler on a wagon, ran a
chain over the hub, and this chain
ran around the flywheel of his
engine. With this steam wagon
he could travel on a good road
way at the rate of four miles an
hour. Four miles an hour is the
speed of a traction engine.
Stephenson found that when he
increased the speed of his wagon
it jarred his engine so that it was
impossible to manipulate it. The
wheels of a wagon hit the ground
and every' inequality caused a
shock.
Driving horses on a stone pave
ment faster than five miles an
hour is not practical.
I once rode to a fire with
Chief Hale, in Kansas City, at
the rate of ten miles an hour. We
certainly did make the sparks fly.
We swung from curb to curb, and
the racket, the friction, the pound
ing were terrific. I vowed that
if I ever got out of that red wagon
I would never climb into such a
vehicle again.
Gave Him a Sulky.
The Invention of the rubber tire
made the automobile possible.
And .if rubber tires had been in
vented before iron wheels were
utilized, the railroads would never
have existed.
When Stephenson discovered
that it was impossible to make
speed on a roadway with an iron
wheeled vehicle, he laid wooden
rails and covered them with strips
of iron, thus getting a compara
tively smooth surface.
When I used to jog horses with
my neighbor. Ed Geers, the Silent
Man, I realized, in driving a sin
gle block over a macadam pave
ment from the barn to the track
how' impossible speed was on any
road excepting one specially pre
pared.
The race track was made up of
loam and tan bark. Here was a
soft footing for the iror.shod feet
of the ‘horses, and a yielding
pavement for the iron tires of our
sulkies.
One fine day someone sent to
Ed Geers a present of a little low
wheeled sulky. The wheels were
evidently those taken from a bi
cycle.
At that time I had never heard
of ball-bearings. But I soon un
derstood that the ball-bearings
shift tlie friction from one place
to a great many.
The little low-wheeled sulky was
laughed at, then admired. Finally
Ed Geers hitched a horse to it.
Two turns around the half-mile
track and his horse was used to
the contrivance.
It ran as silently as Ed Geers
himself, and with so little friction
that it seemed to be chasing the
horse and pushing him along. And
I saw- that the horse was draw-
ing the sulky by the reins, and
not by the traces.
And so we came down the
home stretch, neck and neck. And
then Ed Geers drew out in front
of me very easily and went under
the wire three lengths ahead. We
tried it again, and the Silent Man
delivered himself thus: “It means
about ten seconds on the mile.'
Then he dived into silence and
pulled the silence in after him.
A few days later Ed Geers
drove to this little low-wheeled
ball-bearing sulky in a race at
Buffalo. When he drove out to
warm up he got the laugh from
the grandstand. But he walked
away with the race just the same
He had just ten seconds leeway
over the rest.
Had a Solid Tire.
The next year on the Grand
Circuit not a single high-wheeled
sulky was seen. The bicycle tire
and the ball-bearing axles were
here to stay.
As Emerson’s shoemaker car
peted the earth with leather, so
has the pneumatic tire paved the
roadway with rubber.
Fifteen years ago the principal
use for rubber was in making
gum shoes for politicians. The
gum shoe is not now’ so much in
demand as it was then.
Dr. B. F. Goodrich was a prac
ticing physician at Tarrytow’n, N
Y., when the high bicycle came in
It had a solid rubber tire. One
day Dr. Goodrich just took a
piece of garden hose and fastened
it on his high wheel with the
aid of wires. He found that this
lessened the bumps, but the hose
soon flattened.
Then he put a smaller hose in
side of the other. And the third
move was to blow* the little hose
that was inside of the big one
up with air—and the pneumatic
tire was born.
Curiously enough, a man by the
name of Dunlop, in England, did
the Lame thing at about the same
time.
It was very much like the in
vention of the telephone. Gray,
of Oberlin; Dolbear, of Tufts
Alexander Graham Bell, of Bos
ton and Thomas Alva Edison, of
the round world, turned the trick
at the tame time.
Everybody now agrees that it
is the rubber tire and the pneu
matic inner tube that make the
automobile possible. With the
iron tire we would still be hitting
the pavement at five miles an
hour and no more.
How Can You Sing?
By LILIAN LAUFERTY.
C AN the heart Bing of joys it docs not know?
Tour city’s streets have never room for flowers;
But buildings crowd with tall sky-pointing towers.
And giant winds snarl by—w’.iile zephyrs blow.
On gloomy days your gray horizon lowers;
Before the gusts your raln-whipt city cower*.
Wind, rain, or sun—each element’s your foe.
Yet. still of country Joys you make your song:
Our rippling brooks, our shady trellised bowers.
Our warm, sweet-scented rains whose gentle showers
Bring nodding blooms in rainbow-colored throng.
You sing—and every country heart must long
For all those humming, droning, warm-pulsed hours
Of brook and field—the country’s thrice-blessed dowers.
And all your grim, gray city life seems wrong.
How can you sing? I think you never knew
My hills, my streams, my forests and my sea.
But still you fling o’er all the sodden view
A speii o' dreams—the country’s here with me!