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T \ EDITORIAL RAGE THF ATLANTA GEORGIAN Publl*h«s1 Every Afternoon Except Sunday By TIIE GEORGIAN COM!'ANY At 20 Eaat Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga. Entered a# eeoond-clas* matter at postofflce at Atlanta, under act of March 3.1*7.* Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mall, *5.00 a year Payable in Advance Millions of Americans Are Savings Millions of Americans Need to Borrow-Farmers Especially Isn’t It Possible for the Government to Put AreSAVING In Touch With Those That Need to BORROW. Must the Blood-Sucker Always Play His Game of Usury Between I hem. (Copyright, 1813.) The Atlanta Georgian In the Movies In Real Life THE HOME PAPER In this country millions of industrious, careful human be ings, anxious to provide for the future, are willing to save—and it is practically impossible for them to get a decent rate of inter est on their savings and NOT risk being robbed at the same time. In this country, where the millions are anxious to save, you have millions of farmers and small business men who are compelled to borrow—as their operations for the year exceed necessarily at one time or another the amount of money that, they have on hand. You have the savers on the one hand getting only 2 per cent if they put their money in the United States Postal Bank. And even then they are limited as to the amount they can put m. They get 3 per cent if they put their money in private savings banks-and take the usual risk of having the money lost through dishonesty or withheld from them in time of panic. You have the farmers, upon whose labor and intelligence the nation depends, compelled to borrow for the purchase of seeds, of machinery. And, while the SAVING, careful American who accumulates his earnings can get only 2 per cent or 3 per cent interest, THE FARMER MUST PAY, ON THE AVER AGE, EIGHT AND A HALF PER CENT FOR THE MONEY THAT HE BORROWS. Isn’t there some way of getting the AMERICAN WHO SAVES and the AMERICAN WHO BORROWS closer together? Is it not an outrage that the hundreds of millions that the careful American saves should be lent to the hard working farmer with SOME BANKING ORGANIZATION BETWEEN THE TWO GETTING A “RAKE OFF’’ OF FIVE AND A HALF PER CENT ON THE MONEY? That is exactly what happens. The money that the bankers are lending is simply the money that others have SAVED. And the money that the farmers are borrowing is simply the money that the savers have deposited in the banks. The people who save in this country get 3 per cent at most on their savings. And the farmers who borrow pay 8 l / 2 per cent. And in the process 5y 2 per cent goes to build up a non-pro ducing class THAT IS NOT NECESSARY. Why should not the Government of the United States pay a decent rate of interest to the American citizen for his savings, and lend to the farmers at a fair rate of interest when the farmers need to borrow? It doesn’t cost per cent to handle money, to take it in with one hand and lend it with the other. The United States Government might well afford to pay the careful, saving American 3 per cent on his money and LEND THAT SAME MONEY TO THE FARMER AT 4 PER CENT. This would give the Government a margin of 1 per cent to cover expenses. Why isn’t it possible to do this? It isn't possible for various reasons. The first reason is that the finances of the United States are usually run by bankers for bankers. The second reason is that the banking class represents Gov ernment, which in this country means money. The little man who is saving his few hundred dollars and who must be content to get 3 per cent and risk losing it, and the fanner who is borrowing his few thousand dollars and who must go almost on his knees to get it, AND THEN PAY EIGHT AND a half per cent-those two classes are not the Government. The Government of this country is the banking class, the money class, the money itself. And therefore the man who saves must accept 3 per cent Interest and worry about his money's safety. And the farmer who borrows must pay 8y 3 per cent and worry about his payments promptly on time, and pay a commis sion for extensions, and find himself sold out in time of panics. And those who profit are the middlemen, the NON PRO DUCERS, the parasites, the blood-suckers of the community. When will the people find a leader big enough and able enough to hand the savings of the frugal workmen in the shape of a loan to the equally frugal and valuable farmer, and take from both of them ONLY ENOUGH TO PAY FOR THE TRANSACTION? They do these things in other countries. In Germany and France they lend thousands of millions to the farmers at 4 per cent a year and less. The farmers of this country borrow thousands of millions of dollars THROUGH A PRIVATE EXTORTIONATE BANK ING SYSTEM AND THE AVERAGE CHARGE IS EIGHT AND ONE-HALF PER CENT. Eight and one-half per cent on one thousand millions is eighty-five millions of dollars. And this is, at the least, FIFTY MILLIONS MORE THAN THE FARMERS SHOULD PAY. Money is as much a TOOL in these days as any other. If you make money, the most important tool, expensive for the farmer, YOU MAKE LIVING AND THE COST OF LIV ING EXPENSIVE FOR ALL. This nation should let the farmers have cheap money, and at the same time give to the saving mechanic a fair rate of interest AND ABSOLUTE SAFETY WITH A GOVERNMENT GUARANTEE. That can be done, if MONEY will permit the people of this country to run the Government and the finances of the country for the benefit of the people—and not for the benefit of the blood sucking middleman, called the banking system. Mysteries of Science and Nature / Horses and Camels Lived in Frozen North, Once a Mild Tropical Region, and Believed to Have Been Original Home of Man. By GARRET P. SERVISS H ARDI,Y have the eyes of the world been opened, as nev er before, to the fascinating mysteries of the South Pole and its wonderful surrounding con tinent, than its great rival of the north makes new claims upon our attention. North Pole Once a Mild, If Not Tropical, Region. One of the strangest problems that science has to face is that presented by the fast accumulat ing evidence that. In former times, possfcbly before man had de veloped into his present physical form, a mild, if not a tropical, climate prevailed in those vast northern regions which are now buried, most of the time, under snow and ice. There is even rea son to think that this strange condition may have existed up to the very Pole! The period generally fixed by geologists for the existence of this state of things within the Arctic Circle is what is known as the Pleistocene (from the Greek pleistos, ‘■most,” and kainos, “recent,*’ the meaning being that it was the most recent period of the great Tertiary Age). Any at tempt to tlx in years the distance of that time from ours is merely guesswork. It has been said that history reckons by years and geology by ages. It may be that the Pleistocene dates back a hun dred thousand, and, perhaps, two or three hundred thousand years. Anyhow, in Pleistocene times animals and plants, some of which are extinct and others of which are now found only in temperate or tropical regions, existed, apparently in abundance. In the polar regions of the north. The latest discoveries concern ing these vanished inhabitants of a land that has now become frigid and inhospitable relate to camels and horses. The presence of the camel in Alaska, not as a curiosi ty In a traveling menagerie, but as a regular inhabitant of the land, is astonishing to think of. We know the camel as a desert animal, a lover of the Sahara, with its waterless expanses of wind-driven, sun-blasted sand, but here he appears, dwelling be fore the two-legged animal that was to become his master had been Introduced upon the planet, In a region which, in its present condition, would be almost as in appropriate a place of residence for him as the moon would be for men! But he has left his fossilized bones there, and science has dis covered them. We can not con tradict such evidence. Science Discovers That Horse Lived in Alaska. Then, too, the horse existed In • Alaska in that same strange age. Its remains have beeh found in so many places that it is Impossi ble to conclude otherwise than that horses ranged freely over Im mense expanses within the Arctic Circle where now the sub-soil Ip a frozen mass that never melts. At that time great prairies of lus cious grass must have existed # there at nearly all times of the year, for horses do not store up food to last through a long, piti less winter. Mammoths and Bison Roamed Frozen North. Somewhere about the same time mammoths, bisons and other strange animals also roamed that part of the world, finding an abundance of food about them. If there were men in existence at that time, they, too, may have been polar inhabitants! The great question now is: What caused the change? Why were the Arctic regions warm and genial at that (ime, and how have they come into the state which we now find? Some have suggested that the earth has partly tipped over, its axis of rotation, or the line Join ing its poles, assuming a different position. But this would involve a tremendous catastrophe, throw- The Mad Monarch By WILLIAM F. KIRK. H IS subjects may be found in every clime; From' every source they crawl to lick his hand. His home in Hell is wonderfully planned To welcome slaves that die from time to time. His nag daughter is Lust. His son is Crime. He has a solid throne in every land. And what with hearts to break and serfs to brand. He goes but seldom to his couch of slime. He slays men's brains and deadens baby lives. Oh, the vast pyramids this king could build Were he to use the bones of starving wives Who sigh to join the victims he has killed! Mockingly glow in his grim diadem Three bloody ruby letters—R-U-M. ing the oceans out of their beds and producing disastrous changes all over the globe, and evidence of such a universal catastrophe is lacking. Moreover, there Is hardly anything known to science more stable than an axle of rotation. Once set a body spining about a particular axis and it is extremely difficult to change the direction or slope of that axis. The whole form of the earth plainly indi cates that it has been turning for countless ages about the same poles, and must have begun to so turn when it was yet plastic, or molten, for it has bulged at the equator, just as any mass of that kind must do under the influence of centrifugal force. A more probable hypothesis is that the change of climate has been caused by elevations and subsidences of the earth’s crust. The presence of horses and cam els in Alaska has been ascribed to the former existence of a great "land bridge" connecting Asia with North America. Horses did not exist in America at the time of its discovery, and camels have never inhabited this Continent, except in Pleistocene times. In view of the facts that I have been reciting, one can not but think of the strange theory, which has been strongly advo cated in the past, though never accepted by science. Many Believe Home of Race Was North Pole. Not a few students believe that the original home of the present Inhabitants of our hemisphere, and perhaps of the whole human race, was around the North Pole, from which they were driven by climatic changes. If that were so, then what is now the Arctic Ocean must have been a land “flowing with milk and honey,” in the old Scriptural sense. WINIFRED BLACK Writes on Certified Brides and/J Bridegrooms “I Know Dozens of People,” She Says, “Who Would Never Have Been Born If This Health Idea Had Been Strictly Carried Out —and Somehow I Don’t Think the World Would Have Been Much Better Off For That.” By WINIFRED BLACK. O NCE there was a clever little boy who was always taking clocks to pieces and med dling with locks and making wheels, and inventing ways of shutting the old door so that it wouldn’t be locked and yet the dog could spring the latch—such a clever, clever boy—but I al ways hated to have him come to visit at our house. You see, he could take a clock to pieces wonderfully well and put it together—just moderately well. The clock would go after he had put it together again, but somehow there was always some thing wTong with it some way. Sometimes it told the time all right, but struck w’rong. Some times It struck all right, but told the hour wrong, and then again it was the alarm that never quite got over the clever boy’s hand ling. Sometimes I wonder about him —he’s a doctor now, a very suc cessful surgeon; always taking people to pieces. I wonder if they run quite so well w’hen he is through with them as they did before he touched them—he and his “science.” Wants to Regulate All the Marriages. I see he read a paper at a great medical convention yester day—it was all about "eliminat ing the unfit.” He doesn’t want anyone to mar ry but people in perfect health. He thinks physicians should reg ulate marriage—and regulate it legally. No one should be allowed to marry at all without the “yes, indeed,” of the whole medical pro fession. F*ine idea, progressive, and all that. I wonder if it is quite practical? Now, there’s the doctor himself, for instance. I happen to know that his mother was an old-fash ioned consumptive. She took twenty years a-dying, and one of his brothers died of the old- fashioned illness out In Colorado not so many weeks ago. The doctor is alive yet, and very lively, too, thank you. He would not be here at all if his advice had been taken thirty years ago—and just think how we should have missed him and his experiments with th^ clocks and with people’s internals. We knew a good many of the same people, the doctor and I, when he was taking clocks to pieces. One of them died of cancer; her mother died of it, too; and she married and had three children. One of them is the cleverest, all- around w’oman I know, one is mediocre and one has made a for tune in a country town and is spending it helping sick babies get well. Now If thafwoman had not been allowed to marry, what then? The best family in the town where we both lived had three sons—every one of them has turn ed out a failure. One’s an invalid, one’s a criminal and one’s a drunkard. Father was sound as a hickory nut, and mother never had an ill day In her life. How about that family? How far back have you got to go to get at the source of infec tion and who’s going to do the “going?” “Somebody ‘Queer’ ^ Ir. Every Family.” ] "I can find enough degenerates in any family on earth to get any client off for murder in the first degree," said a clever lawyer to me just the other day. “I don't suppose there's a family in Amer ica without somebody ‘queer’ in it.” Just how “queer” have you got to be and who’s going to decide about it when you try to get a marriage license and can’t? "Eliminate the unfit”—well, well, Mr. Physician, who are the unfit? There’s Robert Louis Steven son, for instance. He never drew a breath of good health in his life. Would you have "eliminat ed" him? How about Julius Caesar, how about Napoleon, how about Mo hammed, how about Daniel Web ster, how about St. Paul? . Unfit—every one of them—from the doctor’s point of view, and there are still more illustrious examples of th e unfit who sur vived and made the world over just to suit their own ideas while the "fit” stood around and look ed on and wondered about it. It’s a glorious idea you have, doctor, and one that every civ ilized nation should study careful ly but are you quite sure how you are going to manage it? I got the "sterilized” fad once and wouldn’t let anyone have a drop of water that wasn’t boiled; till my old doctor came along and told me I had boiled all the life out of it, and he said he'd risk a few germs if he were me— on the principle that he’d rather be an aquarium than a cemetery —and I got over my fad. "Drink water all you can," shouts the water-cure fiend. “Don’t touch water till you have to,” insists the new special- ' ist. "When your brain is tired, work your body,” advises the doctor who is supposed to know. "Don’t overwork a tired sys tem,” says his neighbor. “Rest is the only thing to cure fatigue." Owe Their Existence To Old-Time Laws. And so it goes—we’re all so interested—in this "eliminate the unfit” idea, and yet when I look around, among my friends, a pretty decent lot of people as the world goes, I can see dozens of them who would never have been born at all if this idea had been strictly carried out, and some how I can't think the world would have been much better off for that. Take the old clock to pieces, doctor, all you will, but please, good friend, be quite sure you know how to put it together again so it will strike twelve at mid night and not at eight of morning. th< Marshal D’Ancre By REV. THOMAS T HE execution, 296 years ago, of Leonora Galigai, wife of the Marshal D’Ancre, was the wind-up of one of the most remarkable life stories in French history. In 1610 the fanatical Ravaillac plunged his dagger into the heart of Henry Fourth, and Mary de Medici was proclaimed Regent. At the time of her marriage to Henry Mary brought wlfrh her from Florence her nurse’s daugh ter, Leonora Galigai, and her husband, Concino Conclni, son of a Florentine notary. By these creatures the Regent was com pletely hypnotized, and in a trice the nurse’s daughter and the no tary’s son became the most con sequential personages In France. Mary, besides making the pair her confidential advisers, gave them every opportunity for ad vancing their material fortunes, with the result that, in addition to wielding great power at court, they grew immensely wealthy. The well-filled strong box left by the great King was pilfered right and left, and in a little while Con- cini was able to say: “When I came to France I was not worth B. GREGORY. a sou, now I am worth eight mil lions.” His wife also laid by a splendid wad of the "needful,' besides supplying herself with the plate, wardrobe and jewels thal were the wonder of her time. Purchasing the Marquisate oi Ancre and a marshalship, the no tary’s son was now the Marshal D’Ancre, and as for the nurse*! daughter—she was pretty nearl j the “whole thing,” for she domi nated both Mary and D’Ancre. But alas, for the "best lai< plans of mice and men!” On< day, after some seven years oi prosperity, the Marshal D’Ancr( was shot down like a dog by th< order, or with the consent, of tht young King. Louis Thirteenth and not long thereafter the courf creatures seized D’Ancre’s wldo« and took her before the bar the Parliament, by which bodj she was unceremoniously sen tenced to the block. The last words of the. dashing adventures.^ as she looked out upon the sea o( humanity that had gathered to witness her execution, were: “What a lot of people to look at one poor creature dial”