Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, April 30, 1913, Image 20
THE HOME RARER
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EDITORIAL RAGE
he Atlanta Georgian
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Kvery Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN (’oM p ANy
At 20 East Alabama 8t., Atlanta, Ga.
Entered as second-class matter at postofhrM at Atlanta, under act of March 3.1*73
Subscription Prlc<* Delivered by carrier, 10 Lents a week. By mail, ? '» 00 a year.
Payable in Advance.
| President Wilson, These Ought
to Be the UNITED States
The States and the President They Elect Should Be UNITED,
Not Opposing Each Other to Oblige Some Foreign State
Copyright, 1918.
If this country SHOULD get into a war with Japan, would
not President Wilson feel part of the responsibility resting upon
him?
The people of Japan are intelligent and they are not going
to fight this country while the country is UNITED.
But if they get, as they must get, from President Wilson the
idea that the country is NOT united, that California in defend
ing herself has not the approval of her sister States—then Ja
pan will feel inclined to take advantage of the condition of a
nation NOT UNITED.
Mr. Wilson's public condemnation of California- a State
in which conditions are absolutely unknown to him—is a mis
fortune to California, and more of a misfortune to the whole
country.
This nation has prospered and developed as a united nation.
We have let the outside world know that the interest of one
part of this country was the interest of the whole country.
We have not felt that any one of the States in legislating
for itself, defending itself against undesirable population or
harmful land ownership, would lack the support of the other
States.
Mr. Wilson and his Secretary of State, Mr. Bryan, have an
nounced to the world that California is out of sympathy with
the rest of the United States, and that her acts, perfectly legal
and proper to those who understand California conditions, are
not approved by the President of the United States, and, as he
puts it, NOT APPROVED BY THE CITIZENS OF THE COUN
TRY IN GENERAL.
If some English or French or German or other ruler had ,
lectured California, as Wilson has done, the people of the conn
try might understand it.
But the people of this country do not understand that the
President of the United States, who represents California as he
does every other State in the Union, should publicly, emphati
cally and repeatedly side against California, allying himself
with the unjustifiable demands of Japan, and encouraging the
belligerent attitude of Japan and her hostile and critical tone
toward this country.
Those who know conditions as Mr. Wilson could not pos
sibly learn them in his study at Princeton are aware of the fact
THAT CALIFORNIA MUST PROTECT HERSELF AGAINST
ASIATIC LABOR AND ASIATIC LAND OWNERSHIP.
This continent, and especially that part of it facing on the
Pacific, will remain either European in its population or become
Asiatic.
It cannot be half and half. The Asiatic population and the
European populations do not mix and have never mixed.
Where the Asiatics have been invaders, since the days of
Attila and before, the Asiatics have been overwhelmed and de
stroyed by those whom they invaded.
Or the invaders have overwhelmed the invaded and made
their territory Asiatic.
The Pacific Coast must be kept European in its population,
or we must consent to its becoming Asiatic.
Mr. Wilson, we presume, will admit that it will be better for
this country to keep conditions as they are, to keep the popula
tion of the Pacific Coast a population progressive with the stand
ards of the United States and not change it for a population
with the standards of Japan or of China.
Californians, our frontiersmen of the Pacific, have a hard
task; they have done it well, and they have acted temperately.
THEY CAN NOT PERMIT ASIATIC INVASION, THEY
MUST NOT PERMIT IT, AND THEY WILL NOT PERMIT IT. :
Nothing that Mr. Wilson can say, and nothing that his Sec
retary of State, Mr. Bryan, can spout will change the attitude
of California.
The men who live out there, who created that State and de
veloped it, OWN IT AND MEAN TO CONTINUE IN OWNER
SHIP
They will not, to oblige Mr. Wilson or his theories, and they
mil not, to oblige Mr. Bryan or his fallacies, turn over to Japan
or any other Asiatic nation the land that they have cultivated,
fought for and won.
All that Mr. Wilson can do will not change the determina
tion of the Californians.
But Mr. Wilson can continue along his present dangerous
path, encouraging Japan in her warlike attitude, justifying the
complaints of her citizens apparently, whereas they have NO
just complaint.
These are the UNITED States. California is one of the
United States.
Wilson is the President of all of the United States. And his
public utterances should never fail to give the impression that
these States ARE UNITED, united against Japan, against China,
against the whole world if necessary, wherever the interests of
one of the States are involved.
Mr. Wilson has studied history very deeply, so it is said.
He ought to know that the great original objection to a
union of the States was the fear on the part of weaker States
that their interests would be forgotten in the selfish scramble
of bigger and more powerful communities.
Mr. Wilson is now justifying that fear which filled the minds
of the smaller States among the original thirteen when he makes
it appear that theories prevailing in Washington or theories pre
vaiiing in Lincoln. Nebr.. will use the power of government to in
terfere with the rights and the vital interests of one of the States
in favor of an alien Power, ,
Hunting the Bungalow
DR. PARKHURST
JON AH-S
BUNGALOW
This is the season of sunshine, pure air and pleas
ure—in the country and at the seashore. It’s your
duty to get away from the paved streets and city
dust, out into the country or seashore, with your
wife and babies. As we said in a recent editorial:
“Get out where you can see the sun in the day time
and the stars at night, where your children can
grow up, noticing the change of the seasons, real
izing that such things exist as Spring, Summer,
Autumn and Winter.”
:=: History Supplanting Fiction
• • • •
By GARRETT P SERVISS.
T HE very important state
ment is made by superin
tendents of great public
libraries that books of fiction are
losing in popularity as compared
with works of a more solid and
instructive nature. Books on
science and history are said to be
particularly in demand.
The habitual novel reader may
stick at that. He thinks that 11E
uses his imagination when he
reads Ms favorite stories. But
usk him to construct a clear men
tal picture of anything outside
the conventional scenes of the
novelists and he will tlutter like
a bird that has never learned the
use of its wings.
Knows Little of History.
You will usually find that he is
incapable of understanding the
real working if any of the great
mechanisms that have trans
formed tin* life of the modern
world. He sees the outside, but
he lias not imagination enough to
bring the inside before hts mental
vision. lie gets his idea of a
great aeroplane from a sketchy
story by Rudyard Kipling.
Instead of dealing with the
great characters ami scenes of
history* for himself, and recon
structing them in his mind, he
reads fanciful “historical novels”
in which facts are distorted, fa
mous men and women carica
tured, and false scenes presented.
He fancies that he is USING his
imagination when he is only rid
ing on the wings of some other
man’s imagination.
He might grow very wise about
the world of men and women
amid which he lives if he would
study THEM, but he studies only
the more or less foolish repre
sentations of them made by nov
elists. Let every intelligent per
son imitate what the conscien
tious novelist himself does by ex
ercising his imagination directly
upon the scenes of daily life, as
presented by his own observa
tions and by the newspapers, and
• he will quickly develop mental
powers that will surprise him and
he will also discover that his fa
vorite authors have miseed. or
disregarded, or falsified, many of
the most important -and interest
ing things.
An illustration of the real use
of the imagination may be wit
nessed any afternoon in front of a
newspaper bulletin board, w here a
telegraphic picture of the strug-
gl< s on the baseball grounds is
presented The imaginative boy
in su li a situation is almost as
well placed as it he were sitting
1 on the bleachers, lift SEES the
twirled ball shoot over the dia
mond; he SEES the wild grab of
the catcher; he HEARS the swat
of the bat, and SEES the runner
speeding from bag to bag, and he
cannot restrain his clarion voice
when a run is scored by his fa
vorite player in the glowing field
of his imagination-. *
Later he READS the history of
what he has already SEEN, and
renews his joy In memory. If he
were ‘.imply reading the story of
an Imaginary game it would be
somebody else's picture that he
would have before his mind, and
he would feel the essential false
ness of the representation.
The scenes of this world are
enormously interesting, if only we
will fill them out with the imag
ination and use for the purpose
our own and not some other per
son’s imagination. This applies to
the history of past times. It is no
advantage to us to see General
Washington in a novel, but it is
an immense advantage to see him
wdth our own minds’ eye. The
reason why history is not a more
favorite study is solely because
most ptrsons h ive not learned to
use the imagination independent
ly. To a properly trained mind
the accounts of Nero by the Ro
man historians is a thousand
times more interesting and vivid
than Slenkewicz’s fanciful pic
ture ot Gim in Quo Yadi%”
cause the thoughtful reader of
the histories uses his own imag
ination untrammelled, and fills in
the outlines in the way that
seems to him the most probable
and pleasing. The plainest facts
are full of the deepest romance if
only we educate the mind to get
out of them what they contain.
Historic Heroes Interesting'.
The country boy who when the
spring thaws have started minia
ture rivers flowing from every
snowbank follows those streams
through the fields, wondering at
their roaring cataracts, noting
their sudden bends, observing
where they issue into plains and
spread themselves into lakes, and
animating their shores with im-
aginarv cities, finds a higher
pleasure and a better exercise
for his imagination than in read
ing ’ Robinson CTusoe.” He makes
a whole world of his father’s
farm, with its mountains. Its
prairies, its great capitals, and its
warring nations The day is too
short for him.
The life of Galileo, or Napoleon
or Peter the Great, or Isaac New
ton is more interesting than any
story that was tver written. The
accounts of the spectroscope, the
telescope, wireless telegraphy,
aviation, far exceed, in genuine
1 int- rest, tu» Umg of the “Arabian
Writes on
Concentrated Wealth
If the world’s riches were divided
per capita, he says, Progress
would he instantly suspended.
Written For The Georgian
By the Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst
S HORTLY after the celebra
tion of the late Cyrus
Field’s golden wedding I
happened to meet him somewhere
downtown and our conversation
naturally turned upon the public
event which had just transpired,
and which had meant so much to
him, especially because of the
large number of cablegrams
which he received from notable
people in England congratulating
him on his success in laying the
first oceanic cable.
Obstacles He Encountered.
He went on to speak of the ob
stacles which he had encountered
in the course of that achievement,
the large amount of money which
had been required in order to car
ry it through, and wound up with
the emphatic declaration that it
takes a great deal of money to
accomplish large results and that
even then the undertaking will be
a failure unless the large money
is at the disposal of a single mind
and is principally the contents of
one man’s purse, and not an ac
cumulation of pennies collected by
passing around the hat among a
crowd of the impecunious.
There is among us a rather
widely prevailing feeling of an
tagonism toward those who are
immensely rich, and that feeling
is very often thoroughly justi
fied.
It is Justified when their wealth
has been accumulated by dishon
orable means and is the sum total
of what has been overbearingly
extracted from the pockets of
those having small holdings.
And He Was Right.
It is justified also when the
money &hich has been accumu
lated—whatever the process in
accumulation, hone3t or dishon
est—is employed and expended in
accordance wdth the unchristian
principle that a man may do what
he will wdth his own.
But the feeling of antagonism
is not justified on any such
ground as that a. man has wealth
and a vast amount of It, for we
never should have reached our
present stage of civilization if we
had not had such men and a great
many of them.
Cyrus Field was right.
His doctrine is guaranteed by
his own achievement.
He made it possible for people
to talk to each other across the
sea without their communication
being subject to the delay of go
ing by sailing vessefl or steamer.
He was able to do it by means of
the concentration of capital sub
ject to his own disposal and mode
of expenditure.
If a man wants to go West he
is no longer obliged to go on foot
or to be transported in an emi
grant caravan. The reason why
such tedious method of travel has
ceased to be necessary is that
certain aggressive pioneers have
had the control of enough money
to track the continent with iron
roadways and equip them with
steam carriages.
We aTe all of us every day en
joying advantages that have been,
put within our reach by men that
were immensely wealthy. If we
are of a Jealous disposition it may
maks us uncomfortable to realize
how dependent we are upon what
has been done for us by those
who are infinitely more favorably
circumstanced than we. If eo, the
best -thing w-e can do Is to get
over our jealousy and not convert
our blessings into curses by being
soured by the way in which ©nr
blessings, many of them, have
come to uj.
Good in Use; Bad in AbiuJe.
We ought rather to be grateful
that there aje so many in the
world who have honestly acquired
large money and who are making
so considerable a part of it accrue
to public advantage.
Were we all of us to throw our
entire property Into one huge
melting pot and then divide up
per caipita, everything In the
shape of progress would be In
stantly suspended and the suspen
sion would be continued till some
progressive spirits were able to
rise above the dead level of finan
cial equality and set the wheels
of progress to rolling again.
There is nothing in the forego
ing that contradicts the fact that
concentration of capital may
work to public disadvantage; hut
that is only in keeping with the
principle that whatever is good
in the use may become bad in the
abuse.
Getting Advice From “Successes”
By JAMES J. MONTAGUE
I DECIDED to he a lawyer. I
thought it would be pleasant
to sway juries like reeds and
to move even the grim, gray judge
to tears as I pleaded for the life
of the innocent boy before him—
the pallid victim of circumstan
tial evidence whose untimely tak
ing off would mean the serious
annoyance of his aged mother.
I went to Judge Bunker, there
fore. and told him of my purpose.
He scowled. "Nonsense!” he said.
“Go into any profession but the
law. There are three hundred
lawyers to one client now. You’d
starve."
I ventured to suggest that
Judge Bunker himself, padded out
with three hundred pounds of
avoirdupois, looked anything but
a “starveling.”
“Yes,” he admitted, “I’ve been
moderately successful. But I had
—er—some native ability, and to
that I have added unremitting
study, privation, self-sacrifice, la
bor such as the slave in the gal
leys never dreamed of in his most
laborious hours. NO, young man,
you must not try the law.”
Plumber’s Lament.
Giving up the law, therefore, I
cast about for something else. I
found a plumber sitting on the
• doorstep of his unpretentloushouse
reading the evening paper and
puffing a very good cigar. It oc
curred to me that since I could
not be a lawyer, a plumber’s life
would suit me reasonably well. I
confided to the plumber my ambi
tions.
“Not a chance." he said, kindly.
“Any other business, yes; mine,
no. Kicks from customers, burn
ed fingers from gasoline furnaces,
,, jokes in the newspapers—profits,
nothing. The bnslneas lg over
crowded. Go to dootoring If you
want to get rich. Book at this
fellow Friedmann, selling medi
cated turtle soup for a hundred
dollars a cani I wish Td thought
of that when I started out In
business.”
I didn’t want to be a doctor. I
have an aversion to .night work.
So I applied to a policeman.
"Sir,” I said. “I would like to he
a hero like yon. to best with ear
stick on the pavement and com
mon the reserves and then lead
them on a thrilling and anooeer-
ful attack on a squad of taodeah
bandits. How can I go about «T“
“Don’t," said the policeman.
"The business is overcrowded.
Wot with the newspapers knock
in’ ye with wan hand an’ forget-
ting to tell of the good ye do wKh
the other, the game Is no good.”
Painter’s Special Talent
Apparently there was no hope
on the force. But I had to live.
On the corner was a painter, pa
tiently massaging a house, his at
tire. considering his vocation,
neat; his face a picture of con
tentment. I asked his advice
about joining his useful profes
sion.
He leaned on his brush, lit his
pipe, frowned, and said:
“Any business but this. It’s
overcrowded. Besides, it’s hard
work, arid there’s few can do It
right. Yes. I stuck, of course, but
I got a talent for this business.
You can’t go Judging yourself kg
me.”
Now, It was apparent by this
time that nobody was going to
advise me to go into his own
profession. So I made up my mind
to shift my tactics. I did. I
asked a college professor what he
thought of deep sea fishing as a
vocation. He enthusiastically ad
vised me to embark upon it. And
some day, perbgps, I shall.