Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, May 09, 1913, Image 20
EDITORIAL. RAGE
The Atlanta Georgian
THE HOME RARER
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Evzry Afternoon Exctpt Sunday
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If You Are in Debt, You Are a
Fly Glued to the Flypaper.
The More You Struggle, the Tighter You Stick. Soon Your
Courage Is Gone and You Are a Dead Fly.
Copyright. 1913.
The picture at the top of this page is a picture for more than
half of all the people in this country.
More than half the people are in debt—that is to say, they
are living beyond their means, or they are spending every cent.
And the man who is spending every cent he gets is actually
in debt and running in debt, for he is running in debt TO HIS
OLD AOE, when he won t be able to make, and won’t be able
to spend, and when the spending of to-day means debt later.
Those that are in debt know what debt is. There is no need
to tell them about it.
First you owe $60 if you are a little man, or $60,000 if you
are a big man
And then you owe $100—or $100,000 if you are big.
For a while you struggle and plan. You are going to pay
it off soon. It is a good thing to use “0 P M," that is to say,
other people's money, in the effort to get ahead.
You tell yourself that all the big men have used their credit
and borrowed and gone ahead rapidly.
It all sounds very nice and plausible
But remember that YOU KEEP GETTING IN DEEPER
The fly lights on the fly paper, perhaps with only one leg at
first. He says this is nothing, and puts down the other leg to
push himself off.
AND THEN HE IS STUCK FAST.
And then he says to himself: “ I will fly away from this fly
paper,” so he begins flapping his wings. And both of his wings
stick to the paper.
There he is with his feet stuck and his wings stuck and only
his head free.
That fly feels about as independent and hearty as you do if
you are in debt. And he says: “I can get off of this paper easily
enough when I get ready. I'll just put my head down and push
myself off.”
He buzzes for a while. THEN HE PUTS HIS HEAD DOWN
ON THE FLY PAPER. TO PUSH HIMSELF OFF
Then his head sticks tight; he begins to choke.
By and by he rolls over on his side, he sinks into the sticky
surface—AND THERE IS ANOTHER DEAD FLY.
The Flypaper of Debt
Are you stuck on this flypaper? Are your hands and feet glued with debts? Fight. You will find no happiness while debt holds
you prisoner (SEE EDITORIAL.)
So it is with men in debt. So it will be with you if you stay
in debt.
The only hope for the fly, the moment he feels one foot on
the fly paper, is to use those wings and fly away, not putting in
the other foot; flying off as quickly as he can.
And a million times wiser and better is the occasional rare
fly, who sees the other flies sticking to the fly paper and says:
“I don't like the look of those flies; I’ll stay away from them.”
Look at the people in debt. See their worry. See the anx
iety of the mother, reflected in the children.
See the lack of standing, the extravagance and the poverty
mixed together.
You can’t mistake the human fly stuck on the fly paper of
debt.
Since you cannot mistake him, why not keep away from
that fly paper?
Debt makes everything worthless.
If you owe a thousand dollars, it seems rather foolish to
save ten or twenty.
You feel that you might as well spend it; it won't make any
difference.
And so it goes, if you owe two thousand. And then it isn't
worth while to save twenty or forty.
And you become a failure. You put down your feet, and
then your wings, AND THEN YOUR HEAD, WHICH IS AM
BITION, and by and by you roll over and you are a dead fly.
Keep out of debt.
it t tt
Lord Welby, speaking in
London at the annual dinner
of the Oobden Club on the pros
pects of free trade, said that
the members might congratu
late themselves on President Wilson's new tariff bill. There is
the bare truth about what is thought of the bill by the out-and-
out free traders of England.
Richard Cobden died in 1865. The population of Great
Britain has almost doubled since. Railroads were in their in
fancy, and it took weeks to cross the Atlantic. Telegraphy had
just begun and ocean-spanning cables did not exist. Cobden
could never have even dreamed of the cheap and vast transpor-
tation systems, by land and sea, of to-day. He could never even
have dreamed of the year when the United States would prac
tically consume all the wheat it would grow. He could never
even have dreamed of the development of machinery, changing,
as it has, the whole face of world trade.
Yet they did dream in those days. Cobden s associates
dreamed and prophesied, too. They prophesied, and loudly,
that within fifty years every civilized nation would have adopt
ed free trade, and they were exactly wTong.
It would take many volumes to tell the whole difference
between the conditions of the world 's business in 1865 and 1913.
There are some congratulations that may be paid for too
dearly f » __
Congratulations
i We Do Not Want
Cheer Up---Summer’s a-Coming a.
Rivalry in Religion !
Written for The Georgian by REV. JOHN E. WHITE. ]
Pastor Second Baptist Church
T HE disappearance of secta
rian bitterness is one of
the most observable facts
of to-day. Whatever may be
thought of it, no man can regard
it possible to check the move
ment which is breaking down the
old denominational antipathies.
It is Interpreted by many as the
best modern evidence that a
Heavenly Power is at work in
the world. They believe that the
Spirit of its Divine Founder is
prevailing in Christianity over
the human passions of men, and
that the gospel of love is at last
conquering completely the hearts
of those who preach it.
The large front of this move
ment appears in religious conven
tion^ and in the current religious
literature. In reiterated proposals
of church federation and mission
ary co-operation not a few relig
ious leaders qrdently believe that
the amalgamation of denomina
tions in one great inclusive
church is not only desirable but
Inevitable.
Protesting the Movement.
But this rosy view has Its
checkmate and counter-blast.
There are very many—probably
at this time the majority of
church communicants, who do not
view the loss of the sectarian
spirit with sympathy. Large
numbers of leaders are flung in
violent reaction against It. With
in each denomination there are
organs, and therefore an orga
nization, of protest. A keen eye
observes that the internal antag
onisms in the different denomina
tions on the subject is really
helping on the movement of fra
ternity as between the denomina
tions themselves by transferring
the emphasis of the old conflict
between them as sects to mere
family disputes.
The question of denomination-
alism will not be settled wisely in
this fashion. There are profound
reasons for the existence and
maintenance of divergent groups
in Christianity. There are many
of the best men in each denom
ination who observe the tendency
of the times, feel its power, and
are drawn into it, who still stout
ly question, if it is not liable to
cost the cause of Truth and the
energies of religion more than all
its compensating amenities can
amount to. The man in the street
does not see very far into the
problem of denominationalism. It
appears to him a plague of wick
ed envies and a useless waste of
power.
The Real Values.
Why is it, then, that those in
side the churches, as leaders and
laymen, who are manifestly con
secrated men of the finest good
sense, are strong in their support
of separate denominations, espe
cially their own? It is because
they know the real value of de
nominationalism. It Is not a nar
row sectarian meanness on their
part. They lend no encourage
ment to theological strife and re
ligious bad feeling. They lament
the wounds which persecution
and bigotry have made and
would make again. But they
know that after all there ere
convictions of religious truth
worth fighting for, and that the
great loyalties of conscience have
been the levers of salvation for
the human race. As students of
church history, they know that
the stubborn quality of soul, the
heroic mold of character and the
magnificent manhood which have
fallen out of that history, are not
to be lightly set aside or inter
preted apart from the great com
petitions of religion in which they
were generated.
New Denominationalism.
So the rapidly evaporating sec
tarianism of our time, if full of
promise, is full of peril also. It
Is our task to provide a relation
of religious groups to each other
and toward their common cause
which will conserve consecration
and aggressiveness, while at the
same time it encourages their
basal fellowship.
I believe it can be done and
that it will be done.
As Christianity stands to-day,
the demand for an arrangement
of its group forces in a provok
ing attitude toward each other,
but with the supreme objective
clear enough to cure the evils of
sectarianism. The suggestion for
a “New Denominationalism” Is
offered therefore as a substitute
for the tendency toward “No De
nominationalism.” It is that the
theological quarrel shall be subor
dinated to the logical contest of
religious groups engaged construc
tively for the kingdom of God on
earth. It should appeal to anyone
that the rivalry of creeds giving
way to the rivalry of deeds will
he infinitely better than the mere
subsidence of all rivalry which is
threatened.