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I EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published tOvary Afternoon Except Sunday Hy TMR (JKOTUllAN Com PAIS V At 20 Kent Alabama Ht., Atlanta, (in JJtMffixl ond-Gas* matter Rt pofltoffle** at Atlanta, under act of Man h 3. 1 ft7H Ptlbnrflptlon JYlcr Delivered by oam«r» 10 cent* *i v/» ek. Hy mail, *6,00 n year. Paynbln in Advance. Bryan’s Narrow “Little Navy” Policy the Cause of His Visit to California. The selection of Mr. Bryan to visit California and persuade the attJcens there to abandon the exercise of their sovereign rights and to bow timorously and obsequiously before the threats of Japan is peculiarly appropriate. The reason that Californians are asked to give up their rights in ostler to pacify Japan, and to saoritloe their interests and the in-, tcrests of the country at large in order to please the Japanese, is because we have no sufficient navy, and the main reason that we have no sufficient navy is beoause Mr. Bryan has exerted his in fluence among his unthinking followers in the Democratic Housei to prevent the country from having a sufficient navy. This visit to California, therefore, will give Mr, Bryan an op-: port,unity’ to demonstrate to the country the advantages of his peace-at-acy-price policy. It will give him a conspicuous ohanoe ■ to establish his superiority in wisdom and patriotism to George^ Washington, who said: "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual methods j of preserving peace.'' Mr. Bryan iB noted for his eloquenoe, if for nothing else, and it will take considerable eloquence to prove that war is oheaper than a reasonable naval insuranoe against war, and to convince the citi-I sens of California that Abraham Lincoln was wrong when he said: “One half day’s cost of this war would pay for all the slaves^ in Delaware at £400 a head." It will take quite a flow of oratory to oonvinoe the citizens otfthe country generally that the proper American policy is to save j a few dollars in the building of ships and sacrifice our independ- enoe, our self-respect and our actual interests as a nation. It is fortunate that Charles Coatesworth Pinckney, statesman t and partiot, iB no longer alive* to learn from the Democrats of to day how poorly he represented the American spirit when he replied to the demands of Napoleon's Minister that the motto of America was "Millions for defense, but not one oent for tribute." To-day, at least among the Democrats of America, there are no millions for defense, but there is a pitiful disposition to pay tribute in consideration and concession to any demands that an in solent foreign nation may urge. In Ambassador Pinckney's time the United States had about one-third the territory that it now possesses and about one-twen tieth of the population. It was smaller in men, but larger in manhood. It was smaller in size, but larger in independence and honor. It was lesser in wealth, but greater in courage. For Ambassador Pinckney was not speaking for a nation of a hundred millions to a nation of less than half that number. He was speaking for a scant five million of plain American citizens, and asserting his independence and theirs in the face of the great est military nation of that time, and of the greatest military leader of the world. But courage and determination more than made up for lack of numbers and lack of wealth, and Talleyrand accepted Pinckney’s defiance and abandoned France’s insulting demands. Even in our day courage and conscience count for more than size. Little Montenegro is one of the smallest nations in the world. Yet all the powers of Europe, with their fleets concentrated at its shore, could not make it abandon what it believed to be right. King Nicholas, of Montenegro, in spite of the threats of the powers* prosecuted the siege of Scutari until he took the city. And withal little Montenegro is so small upon the map and the iW of Europe is so large. In view, then, of our own American ex perienoe and from our observation of the achievements of other na tions reliant upon right, it would seem that the size of a country ig«not so important as the size of the men it has at its head. "TEACH US TO PRAY” T By LILIAN LAUFERTY. EACH uh to pray; ’Tiadark o’er all the world, And over land and pea the mints close down. If You Should Live 100 Years If you should hr alivt* 100 yoars from to-day, no loubt you will hr ahlr to see sights in the United States like the above. Here you see the great, tall buildings of the future, so tall that the giant sky scrapers of to-day, one of which boasts of a height of T-">0 feet, would appear hut a pigmy compared to the skyscraper of the future with its more than 100 stories. You may be sure that when build ings such a safe pictured above become a reality, the airship will then he as common as the trolleys of to-dav. American Genius Has Given the World Its Greatest Wonder Out In tlie darkness hopeU And search and can not O God! teach us to pray. ssly we stray, tlnd again our way. i«wv-v Teach tis to pray; We are not worthy. Lord; For we have dwelt long: years in sin and shame We closed our eyes and would not see the way; And now ’tis vain—for hopelessly we etray. O God! teach us to pray. Teach us to pray. For this cannot be prayer Which comes but as the cry of hearts of fear. We are poor trembling mortals gone astray— 3f it be not too late to find Thy way. O God! teach us to pray. Teach us to pray. For everywhere is gloom. And sudden terror seizes on our hearts. A bitter knowledge comes to us t o - d a y; We are world-weary sinners far astray, O God! teach us to pray. Teach us to prav. We would but speak w ith Thee. Our hearts are full of what but Thou coukiat understand And we are tired children far astray We seek the light of -Thine Eternal Way. Dear God, teach us to pray. Teach us to pray— YSet this iteelf is prayer Fflcm hearte of troubled pilgrims learning pearek* 1 * « us but strength to go a eng Tb> Wu< * Thv little children v .io did stray. Aft* we sieep—we pray. By GARRETT P. SERVISS. that N antiquity there were the world, l was said seven wonder beaded by the great Pyramids of Egypt. In the Middle Ages the list of world's wonders was change*! throughout, and then it started with the Coliseum of Homo. To-day, if we should revise the list once more, there can he no doubt as to what would stand at the head — it would be the Pan ama Canal. In order to i'v ai ropi rtl as a “wonder.” any work of man must make a particular kind of appeal to the imagination. That it ex cites admiration is not. enough; it must also awaken the feeling that in creating it man has taken a step forward, beyond the line of his previous achievements. What Nature Has Done. Regarded in this way. the Pan- • iih Canal is without a rival, as the intense interest shown by the entire world in its approaching completion proves. For the first time in his history man ha directly joined two oceans, the greatest on the globe. na? cut two 8$ tf* t'nwi A GEO- t peal to the imagination all, his former works sink into relative insignificance. If some new Herodotus were to go wandering through our modern world in search of mar vels he would, on arriving at Panama, find no words strong enough to express his amazement. He would exclaim that the Amer icans had defied the gods In changing their arrangement of the fare of the earth! ‘ In order to understand what the Panama Canal means as an ex ample of human interference with geography, we must look at what nature had done on the same spot. For this purpose take a map showing the Central Amer ican and .West Indian region, with indications of the depth of water on both sides, and a raised chart, like Mr. Grays. exhibiting a bird’s-eye view of the line of the canal across the isthmus. Thus you will perceive that, in some long pa t period, broad, though very irregular, necks of land probably connected the two Americas, joining many of the islands to the mainland, both north and south. The Gulf of Mexko whs otic* nearlv istvated, kkr a srr # 'al lake, and there were other a*Tge .ah.es the Carib bean Sea now roll.-* its waters. Afterward there was a sinking, separating the islands from the eontinentai shore, and leaving •only the narrow isthmus to con nect North and South America. Two Oceans United by Man. For ages this condition has per sisted. and it is doubtful if the two continents have ever been completely cut apart, at least since the cretaceous* age. More likely the rocky spine of the isth mus has always connected them, whatever other changes may have occurred. If this he so, it is evident that, in making the Panama Canal, wo have interfered with an original arrangement of Nature. We have taken two oceans which she had separated and united them by a waterway. That waterway, to be sure, is a mere thread, and we have had to elevate much of it above sea level (which Nature could not have done), but it serves our purpose, and does it without upsetting any of Nature’s broader designs. If the r hole Isthmus were swept away the Gulf Stream would probably be diverted, and a climatic catastrophe might fall upon northwestern Europe, if not upon North America itself. It wih be just 400 year* next the; home: paper Rev. John E. White Writes on The Sociological Congress w t* It Means That the South Intends to Make an End of Outside Fault finding by Undertaking Itself Al! of the Faultfinding That Is Nec essary. \ J WRITTEN FOR THE GEORGIAN By REV. DR. JOHN E. WHITE Pastor Second Baptist Church \ \ THEN sociology first came V V South it met a cold re ception. Here and there a college professor extended hos pitality, but the popular mind viewed it askance. The word was * the limit of new-fangled scien tific? and smacked of a certain “black beast" called Socialism. Who would have thought that in the year 1918 a great South ern Sociological t’ongress would be meeting in Atlanta? This Sociological Congress which began its session here last Friday evening means criticism. You know that, of course, if you have attended any of the con ferences. South Criticising Itself. It means that the South intends to make an end of outside fault finding by undertaking itself all the fault finding that is neces sary. Southern conditions of one kind and another have been the subject of a good deal of dis cussion in this country and abroad. Injurious impressions about the South have gone out over the world. The Southern Sociological Con gress means that Southern men are addressing themselves to Southern conditions and thart the best intelligence and the most unselfish patriotism is to be con centrated upon all the social problems of the Southern States. The old protest—"Let the South alone" may now cease. The South is not going to let her self alone. Wherever there, is any general situation of social sorrow, of de pressed civilization, of backward progress, our minds and hearts are to be organized and a great hand stretched forth with the truth on its palm for all the peo ple to see. It will be a Southern hand, a hand of understanding and sym pathy. The Broad Diagnosis. It will be again of incalculable value for Southen men to see the truth about ourselves and see it whole. None of the conditions which need remedy can be dealt with effectively so long as they are considered merely individual and local. The slogan of the congress is “A Solid South for a Better Na tion.” That is a solidity of Southern* society which peculiar ly invites tbe sociological lever. We are a morally inflammable people. The resolution of im provement can be invoked for a general contagion of progress. A good straight look at the Southern field sociologically, for instance, will show our weakness clearly in relation to our strength. There are 80,000,000 people, but they are not all safely civilized. From the standpoint of the so ciologist—and this is the stand point of the truth—the South is ten million strong and not far from twenty million weak. There are 10,000,000 people who represent the Intelligence, tbe thrift and the progressiveness of the Southern States, but there are 10,000,000 white people—and An glo-Saxon at that -who, on ac count of illiteracy and unsocial ized natural intelligence, are suf fering the penalties of backward ness. They constitute the real prob lem. and until it is taken out of the eddies and put into a current the reliability of our civilization is called into question. The 10.000,000 negroes a 1st* are here among us arid a part of the heavy downpull which handicaps us. * Optimism With Motive. The characteristic of the Socio logical Congress is optimism with a motive. Those who stand out side and criticise the South do not do us any good, and. indeed, can not. Grover Cleveland said; “Those who stand next t<> the burden are alone able to lift it." When a man finds fault with himself -there is hope of practical repentance. Southern men believe in the South. They believe that its re sources justify a radiant vision. These resource's of material wealth in soil and climate, in mind and field, are world assets. Our resources of human nature are generous and courageous. We constitute the great American re serve of the unmixed republican stock of jealous Anglo-Saxonism. Our great poweis only await en listment, combination and direc tion. There is nothing going on below the Mason and Dixon line that appeals quite as much to funda mental patriotism as the begin nings of constructive criticism realized and foreshadowed in the Southern Sociological Congress. No Molecule Ever Rests By EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN. September since Balboa, standing silent upon his “peak in Darien,” saw the glitter of the Pacific and thus knew that tiiere was another great ocean west of America. He. and others after him* looked for a natural waterway between those oceans, but the possibility of making such a way could not have occurred to him, and he cer tainly had no foresight of the mighty nation that was to arise in the north, composed of a differ ent race from his. and destined, in so short a time, to link the ocean behind him with that which he saw far ahead. No More to Discover. The age of discovery of new- habitable lands, capable of becom ing the seats of new empires, is past. We now know the whole earth, as Nature made it. having seen even its poles, through the eyes of brave explorers. It only remains for us to complete it- conquest by making it fitter for our habitation. The Panama Canal is the first gigantic stride taken in this new conquest. American genius and enterprise have achieved it un aided. We have paid its cost in lives and treasure: let him beware who would deprive us of the fruit of our toil and sacrificel M OLECULES are composed of atoms; and, of course, the least number that can form an atom is evidently two, and the number varies greatly from the molecules of rare gas to dense solids. But no molecule within the entire range of hu man experience is at rest. Put very line particles in water, put a small drop of the water under the lenses of a very high power microscope anti examine. The particles move rapidly and in many directions. Thus a particle will move on a short straight line and then turn abruptly, not in a curved or round corner, but sharp, angular turns will be made again and again, the path being zigzag. When the phenomenon was dis covered in 1827 by Brown the mo tions were named Brownian mo tions in his honor. But the mi croscopes used by him would be in the "ash heap" now, or in a museum of curios. The present day microscopes are instruments of vyry remarkable power. Brownian Motions. 'The Brownian motions have* been studied by many able physi cists. At first investigators thought that the mysterious mo tions were caused by slight in equalities in temperature in the little drop of water. This was dis proved. The motions were appar ently self-caused, and continuous, no rest. Thus the smaller the particles suspended in the liquid, the faster they moved. Finally they used particles to the limit of their magnifying powgi- >uU the rapidity of the strange move ments ever increased with de crease of size. All kinds of liquids were used to sustain the floating and flying things. No explanation of the motions was made;, still men could scarcely believe that they moved of themselves. Then came the very wonderful new ul tra-violet energy-ray microscope, and new methods of applying rays to the flying bodies. All was now animation in laborato ries; the limit of all power of seeing was reached; and it seemed that the very interiors of the particles could be reached. New kinds of liquids were dis covered and used, and new kinds of excessively minute particles suspended. They all moved; but new rates, new speeds were dis covered. Speeds Increased. Then another new plan was tried; fine mettle, as silver, were torn apart by eleutriolty Into dost of stiver so fine as to be beyond Imagination. These were put into liquids, and specific speeds were greatly Increased. Then an unheard-of experiment «as made—the extremely small fragments of stiver were floated In gas. They moved faster than ever and in far longer paths be fore turning The great dlsoov- ery was made; they do not move of themselves, but are carried along hither and thither by the original Invisible molecules of the liquids and gases. Xljeee gjgyg perpetually. ti