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4 EDITORIAL. RAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE HOME RARER THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Publli r»<1 10 vo THE « At 3? East Entered as eei-ond-class matter a Subscription Price l>ellvor« tl h> Pi miller act of March 3.1X73 ek By mail, f5.00 a year. A Merchant Marine Becomes a : Vital Necessity i Congress is Alone to Blame tor the Neglect to Build Up a Great, Powerful, Progressive and Prosperous American Merchant Marine in Foreign t rade. Are Women as Foolish as Men? The lack of American merchant ships for the ordinary needs of our Government has been strikingly impressed upon the at tention of the new Administration. Recent developments made it necessary for the Government to secure possession of a considerable number of American mer chantmen. They were needed as a precautionary measure, to in sure preparedness against any sudden eventuality in which for eign ships could not be used. THE PITIFULLY SMALL SUPPLY OF SUCH AMERICAN VESSELS BOTH ASTOUNDED AND ALARMED THE GOV ERNMENT. Most of the fev; American vessels that are available are old, in many respects inadequate, and scarcely any of these measure up to urgent needs. Not only are American merchantmen few and inefficient, but it is found that, even if American ships were now available in large numbers THERE IS NO CORRESPONDING NUMBER OF TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED AMERICAN MASTERS, OF FICERS AND SEAMEN IMMEDIATELY OBTAINABLE. The possibly grave consequence of our utter dependence upon foreign merchant ships, their officers and men, who would be unavailable for national needs in time of war, is causing the greatest uneasiness and concern. American merchant ships, their officers and men, are re quired in times of emergency for scout purposes, for auxiliary cruisers, to carry troops, coal and ammunition supplies, and for a thousand and one needs for which warships would be neither de sirable nor available. These are serious problems for a new Administration so sud denly to face, and their satisfactory solution is difficult, if not impossible, at the moment. CONGRESS IS ALONE TO BLAME FOR THE NEGLECT TO BUILD UP A GREAT, POWERFUL, PROGRESSIVE AND PROSPEROUS AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE IN FOR EIGN TRADE. THE PUNY PROVISION IN THE PENDING TARIFF BILL to merely make a beginning in the upbuilding of American shipping should be and is likely to be so strengthened and but tressed in the Senate as to lay a broad and solid foundation for the establishment of an effective and enduring American man time policy. The little so far provided has provoked the impudent pro tests of foreign nations that are determined to prevent, if they can, the maritime independence of the United States. The pres ent conditions are far too useful and too profitable for these for eign monopolists to willingly relinquish. EVERY NATIONAL INSTINCT OF PRESERVATION AND PROSPERITY SHOULD IMPEL CONGRESS TO IM MEDIATE ACTION. H *f* *?•*’**}— DID YOU EVER KNOW IT TO FAIL?— ('o;>vrttbU b\ Star A Littli* Flattery Will Make a Man Do Anything I '^OHuTv', llll I || fWOMAN \ Hurt, You PON'T \ catch m]E \ havino Anything to po WITH/ SUCH 1 FLUB DUfV.i ( mOR MtTU y— v eiTrtER',j NOT OM 1 - x Your urty Awake at Last to Navy’s Needs The Treason of Congress Against the Navy, Says .John Temple Graves, Is Not Likely To Be Repeated in This Generation. /^>H. wont you) /march IN OUR PARADE-> / Vwe Want thf. hamp^omest % v ME N WE. CAN GETL. Mg. ^miThYouh march? 1 , XTioW, MR RRown WE VEl ' Wont You Ewt wantJ I 5implYC,o-t T° wavE - N mone @ut goop- r ' 1 \ You in our. paraph, we\ looking me.ni'. . — weep a tau-.tine-lookincY — -■-£) MAM TO CARRY M ©A>JKJtr J " <r LET :: / \ :: \ :: By JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES. T COL. GRAVES. HERE arc sub- Htantial evidences of a reviving: pa* .riotism and •ommon sense In the Amer ican Congress toward the A m e r i c a n navy. When Sec retary Daniels was banqueted week before last in Savan nah one of the speakers was Congre* s m a n Edwards. o f the Savannah district, Mr. Edwards has been heretofore apathetic, if not openly antago nistic, to the ample navy pro gram. On this latest occasion he said that, however indif ferent and economic his views had been toward the navy, the re cent international interchanges with Japan had opened his eyes and fixed him definitely and firmly as an advocate and champion of a greater navy. Others Changed. "Henceforth.“ said Mr. Edwards, “if the naval experts of the Gov ernment advise Congress that we need three battleships, or four battleships, or even five, I am for the navy and whatever it needs to defend our country. The anxie ties aroused by our unprepared- ne.-’s against Japan must never be repeated in America. 1 ’ Savannah is one of the ultra conservative cities of the South, and Congressman Edwards is no tably conservative, cautious and economical. His complete conver sion is in the highest degree sig- nifleant of the awakening of Con gress. It is even so with Congressman Poor, of the Raleigh District of North Carolina, Secretary Dan iels’ district. Mr. Poor has also been among the conservatives on *the naval program of the House. The Japa nese contention and the develop ments of our naval unprepared ness. as exposed by the Hcurst newspapers, have aroused the North Carolinan to the perils' of an undefended country and the necessit.\ for a navy ample for our Western and Eastern Coasts. He is openly and heartily for the ample navy. On the lips of scores of anti navy Congressmen theie are ex pressions similar to these. It Is actually true that the naval in formation and comparisons de veloped by the recent internation al controversy have changed the spirit of the national Congress on this vital question of the national defense. The American Congress and the American people have slept for years upon the idea that our “splendid isolation’’ protected our country, and that in rase of war our navy and army were equal to every demand of defense and of fense. Congress and some of the people have had the same feeling toward foreign nations that the South had toward the North pie- ceding the Civil War. “One Southerner can whip a dozen Yankees,” said some. One Southern statesman de clared in a public speech. "Why, we can whip the Yankees with popguns!” Challenged upon this assertion after the war was over, the orator responded: “Well, so we could, but the d—d feliows wouldn’t fight that way!” Awake at Last. Our country has waked up at last to the fact that it is not im mune from war. that it is not in vincible in war, that it is not pre pared for w?;r. The awakening will do us good. It is worth this flurry with Japan to have educated the American people and their representatives Gatling Philosophy. What Do You Like to Read About? By WINIFRED BLACK. ( i w Should steps be taken at once to remedy our intolerable de pendence upon foreign merchant shipping, it will take years for the United States to reach a state of efficient preparedness in American merchant ships, officers and men, for either the ordi nary or the emergency requirements of our Government and the peaceful transportation of our imports and exports. It is high time to make a beginning. We have discovered shortcomings in several important par ticulars in naval equipment. BUT NOTHING HAS SO PRO FOUNDLY IMPRESSED THE GOVERNMENT *T THIS TIME AS THE PRESSING NEED OF A GREAT AMERICAN MER CHANT MARINE, WISELY REGARDED AND OFFICIALLY STATED BY THOMAS JEFFERSON AS ESSENTIAL TO THE NATIONAL DEFENSE. It would indeed be thoughtless and cowardly if, in this crisis in American affairs, the sinister protests of foreign governments against immediate and adequate legislative provision for the up building of American deep sea shipping should receive the slight est consideration. V. T* We were introduced at a restaurant and four days later we were married and the next day he deserted me and ran away with $4,000 worth of my jewelry and money." This is the unvarnished narrative told by a woman who had a man arrested out west the other day. This same woman would watch *he iceman like a hawk, for fear he would give her only eight cents worth of ice instead of the ten cents worth she paid for. She would inspect her grocery and butcher bill, and the laundress does not wash who could get a penny ahead of her at the Monday suds festival. She submits her agent's reports as to rents or investments to the family law yer, and she even keeps a shrewd and questioning eye on the lawyer himself. But she meets a man in a restaurant, hearkens to his story that he is the temporarily embarrassed heir to a million or two, and hands herself and her fortune over to him without as much care as she bestows on the inspection of the chicken she buys for the family dinner. Ordinarily the victim of the sort of sharper who despoiled the woman quoied above is not an ignorant, unsophisticated girl; on the contrary, sue is commonly a mature woman, and not infrequently one who has had one or two whirls at the mat rimonial lottery. When we shake our heads at the credulity of such women we should not ascribe their misfortune to the feminine type of mind. Remember, when you feel how superior men are to that sort of deception, that the gold-brick swindle and the green goods game, the Spanish prisoner trap and wire-tapping delusion con tinue year after year to earn fortunes for the rogues who have the hardihood to perpetrate them. There arc lots of 1 foolish women in the world—almost as many as foolish men. _ THAT do you like to read about?” said the Man to me. I stared. "I mean,” said the Man. "what sort of folks people in castles. with- retainers and heirs’ birthdays,’ or people on yachts, w ith butlers* and valets, or people out West, with Sheriffs and hail men dropping in to sup per, and the wind blowing in from the desert and the coyotes yelp ing on the great red mountains In the dusky distance?” "Oh.” said I. “I don't like any of those people. I like folks - just plain folks. No, not 'folksy folks’ with dialects the women, with shawls on their heads that run In and gossip all about What made Maria stay an old maid so long?’ and 'Who’s goin' to git Mirandy, now Si's gone?’ bore me to tears; and I can't bear the fair young schoolma’am w ho goes out West and makes the biggest boy fall in love with her. and then they go hack home to visit, and he shocks the whole village by saying ‘Darn it!* and wearing a red cowboy handkerchief instead of a collar. Maids Don't Worry Me. I like to lead about the sort of people 1 know myself, every day in the week the woman with the fussy husband; the woman with the bov she hopes will be a genius, and he turns out to be just a lazy dreamer, the woman with the little girl who won't take music lessors, no matter how she tries to make her; the man with the business down-town, and the rival over the way trying to take it away from him: the girl on the stage w ho “plays real parts and gets real criticisms: the news paper man who doesn’t heat the town the very first time lie goes out on i story: the people who have comfy homes and a decent picture or two. and a lot of good books* and some dogs, and either children or the hope of children. "No. I don’t care for butlers in mine, though if the butler belong* in the story I don’t mind him at ail: 1 only hate to have him dragged in by the heels to prove that tite man who employs him really is no end of a swell. ‘ Y.i'rts Yes. a valet is ail right, if lie isn’t insisted on. Lots of fairly every-day men have valets actors and musician'* and other helpless creature?. 'Maids don't worry me nor chauffeurs- is long as they stay discreetly in the background, hut I must say secretaries and nur- • vry governesses and under-gar- der.erv and special trains and too ’.mtn> yachts do disconcert me a little. 1 always have to stop and add up what it would cost to have an establishment like that, and that interferes with the plot. “No. I hate the Dickey and the Algy story, with the ‘little gell in white’ ami her managing mama. 1 never can quite believe there are V ’ vSfe':- WINIFRED BLACK. such helples? geese in the world as that little gell. and if 1 knew anyone like the ’managing mama I’d have her locked up on a charge of disturbing the peace. "Yes, it’s folks 1 like—everyday folks—plain Americans, with plain American troubles and plain American joys, like buying a ma chine after you’ve saved for it for a >ear; and Daughter's graduat ing essa> ; and Son’s first love af- fa i r. The Chocolate-Cream Age. "That’s why 1 always choose a woman's stories, all other things being equal. I guess.” “The man looked at me more in sot row than in anger. "Are all women like you?” he said. "I don't believe it. • I believe they like to read about ropes of pearls and strings of emeralds and ca bles of real coral and gowns of film*, lace—or a ’’ "That’s the chocolate-cream age.” I said. "They do. of course. That's beta us they are always oping they'd he one of those he roines themselves some day. and th« \ want t*> ha\ •* t if fun of plan ning theit film;* gowns and tmnk- ing how sweet they’ll look in the ropes and chains and things. When the woman is past want ing to read about people like her self, it heals her to realize that she isn’t the only human being who lias trouble keeping the ex pense accounts within scolding limits. What do you like to read about. Mr. Man?” The man took a long pull on his pipe. "I like to read about damsels fair, and shady bowers, and nouding violets, and dashing cavaliers.” he said, "and nob*le heroes, and soldiers of fortune— and quests, and all that. If any one dares to hand me a hook about ’How 1 Made My Money’ or ‘What I Did to Down the Lemon Trust’ I’ll make him wish he’d committed suicide that time he almost wanted to.” And then we both began to re consider and talk it over, and we both decided that we really don’t care so much about who the he ro of the story was. The main thing is who wrote it? There's Bret Harte He could take a hank clerk and cast such a sparkling veil of romance about him that his every pen flourish would meay sentiment. And as for the common little red-haired person he fell ir love with—why, she'd be a wood nymph, a fairy, a siren from the cool green sea, even if she lived :n a hail bed room and ale ’weenies’ and choco late for supper. * ’able! Do you ever hunt up Gable's houses down in New Or leans? Dirty old tumble-down places, s^en with everyday eyes, look through the magic glasses of Gable, and yoi.»?re in Elysia. the land of fair women and brave men. There's even something romantic about a piece of candied lemon peel w hen the right sort of man tells about it. It Isn’t the Subject. No. it isn't the subject, it’s the way it is handled, after all. we agreed, the man and I. There's so and so. the special writer on the Dally Enterprise. He’d write about ;• fire in a boiler factory, and make you hold your breath to find out w'heth* i the Maltese cat got out alive or not. And there’s his brother on the Daily Scream, would tell the story of a plot to assassinate Yve»y beautiful wom an in America, in<^ keep you \ awning ail the way through. It i«n't the story: it isn’t the peo ple in the story—it’s the writer that matters. "But still," 'aid 1 to the Man. "all things being equal. 1 want folks in my stories—folks -that' 1 know." “Gossip,” said the man. And we hoth wen: and got our own particular kind of book and set tled d.wn to our own particular kind ot evening, and were per fect satisfied. What fun it is to talk these things over once ir« a while! Isn’t it? By GARRETT P. SERVISS. A FTER the Panama Canal is opened we may begin to learn the true history of Ancient America. Many readers may be unaware that this new world, as we call it. contains one of the oldest of all historical mysteries, and, in fact the very oldest if as some maintain, it forms a direct con nection with the story of the lost continent of Atlantis. Buried in the tropical jungles of Central America there are the ruins of once splendid cities, whose remains of a gigantic ar chitecture are covered with hier oglyphics more puzzling than those of ancient Egypt, for no man has yet succeeded in dis covering a complete key to their meaning. They guard their secret more jealously than the Sphinx. Ruins of Temples. Their origin is ascribed to a practically vanished race called the Mayas, related to the Aztec of Montezuma's Empire, but far excelling the ancient Mexicans in everything except warlike power. The ruins of their temples at Palenque, Copan, Peten and^ else where. excite the wonder of the traveler, and contain some of the most beautiful and elaborate carving that can anywhere be found. They had not only an exquisite picture language, hut also a writ ten language, of which undeci pherable manuscripts yet exist. They built about forty towns. . connected by stone-paved roads. They had a postal system, con ducted by means of swift-footed Carriers who ran from town to town over the paved roadways. Sometimes they were at war with one another, and then armies marched to battle on the same roads. They were skillful agricultur ists. and cultivated broad fields, which are now overgrown with mos.-'y trees and tangied vines and shrubs They raised cotton and wove it into garments. They made beautiful ornaments of gold and semi-precious stones, and were more skillful even than the Aztecs in feather work. The designs carved on their buildings and ornamental, or symbolic, structures are of great beauty and astonishing perfec tion in detail. They covered the walls of rooms with brilliant paintings on stucco. They Have Vanished. Strange :o say. the people be lieved to be descended from these Mayas are unable to throw any light upon the history of their supposed ancestors. All their civilization har van ished. and with it. apparently, all memory of the ancient splendors of the race. Some of the figures carved by the Mayas bear such striking re semblance to similar things found in the ancient ruins of the Old GARRETT P. SERVISS. World that the suggestion has been made that a connection for merly existed across the Atlantic Ocean, and this is the origin of the theory that the ancestors of the Mayas dwelt on the fabled continent of Atlantis, which Plato heard had been sunk in the west ern ocean ages before his time. One of the strangest facts about the ancient land of the Mayas has recently been called to attention by Dr. Ellsworth Hunington. it is this: At present the whole dis- MR. BRYAN’S TOAST Editor The Georgian: You devote much of your space to .Mr. Bryan. Will you please re produce a portion of his toast at the Arms and Navy Gluh, givtui at the farewell banquet to the Commissioners from Great Brit ain and Canada? Here it is: Mr. Chairman: 1 have delivered three addresses of welcome to our visitors, but will have but one word of farewell, and that is in keeping with the environment which sur rounds us this morning. We are met in the building of the Army and Navy Club, and the fact that we are the guests of those who represent those two arms of the Government suggests the thought whvph I pre sent in bidding you adieu While wc are the advocates of peace, we ate really engaged in the < *>nstru r - tior. of a battles!'in which, is to be the very culminafinn--the climax of the seaman s art. Mar has been to an understanding of our real condition and of our national dangers. 1 feel that the Hearst newspa pers have performed a signal and patriotic service in helping to this national understanding. These newspapers can be indifferent To any criticism of sensationalism in the consciousness that more than any other American newspapers they have taught the people something about their navy. Public opinion is coming to stand for the idea that prepared ness in war L the best promoter of peace. The long centuries of exemption from attack that Eng land's great navy has bought for England is teaching our people that they have a right to expect from their representatives Just such an insurance policy against war. The treason of Congress against the Navy is not likely to be re peated in this generation. The policy of national pre paredness also pervades our na tional officials—always excepting Mr. Bryan, whose “doves” -and "swans and "flowers of rhetoric” delight the Chautauquas. Secretary Daniels said to Mr. Gatling, of tf ? Gatling ~un: “Are you not conscience smitten over your invention? Do not your guns keep you from sleeping be cause of tho people ' hey have de stroyed and may destroy?” To which Mr. . Gatling an swered : "My guns have saved more lives than they have ever destroy ed. The existence j»f them and the knowledge of their destruct- • ivenoss keep nations from war and mobs from bloody riots. The Gatling gun is a peace-maker.” And Secretary Daniels, of the Navy, is tremendously impressed just now with’" the Gatling phil osophy. Perhaps we shall have national cause to thank Japan and Hearst newspapers! the How Opening of the Panama Canal Will Aid Historical Research trict possesses a climate so warm, moist and debilitating that it is almost the* worst place on the globe for human habitation. The ruins of the ancient cities, instead of lying amid deserts, and under a burning sun. as happens with most of the abandoned cap itals of the East, are so overgrown with tangled vegetation and en veloped in feverstricken swamps that some of. them are nearly un approachable. The conclusion is that within the past two thousand years, a vast change of climate has occur red in that part of America, and that in the days of Mayan civili zation the earth's climatic zones were shifted in such a manner that the land occupied by this re markable people enjoyed very dif ferent atmospheric conditions from those that prevail there now. Peten, one of their most im portant cities, which has not yet been well explored on account of the diffic ulties of approach, lies in the midst of a region which is, • at present, very sparsely peopled, and where it would be impossible to cultivate the land as it was cultivated in the days of the Mayas. May Be Read in Full. Only by such a supposition, it is thought, can a rational expla nation he found for the fact that the highest native civilization that this continent had developed before the white man came, was centered about a location which is now a deadened and almost un inhabitable wilderness. When the Panama Canal has become a great highway, and the attentioi\ of th • world has been turned upon its surroundings, fresh light is likely to be thrown upon this fascinating mystery.. Them the Mayan hieroglyphics may be read in full, and a hidden chapter of American history- thrown open. it engaged in the construction of wa ter craft sjnee the flapping sail first whispered ’its secret if strength to the voyager. He has designed ves sels for pleasure, for commerce ard f* r war We liavi had the galley, the viking's ship, the frigate, the ironclad and the dreadnought. But no limit can b£ placed to the ambi tions of nfan as a builder, and ' ask you to join me in nroposing a toast to a ship more iTTr.ent than any which :nnn has thus far employed, in war a ship with whose coming man’s highest hopes will he realized, for there is nothing beyond. Here's to the greatest of ships. Its compass is thp human heart, hs shells are bursting with good-will. Love is the smokeless powder that impels the projectiles .which it sends forth, "he Prince of Peace is its Captain. I propose as the con summation of our desire the en during. the indestructible battleship, whose armor nothing can pierce— FRIENDSHIP. HABERSHAM KING. No. 6S? North Boulevard,