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t > EDITORIAL RAGE The Atlanta Georgian home paper THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEOHGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta. Cla. Entered as second-cln; < matter at postoffli o at Atlanta, under act t,f March *1 1n73 Subscription Price Delivered by carrier, 10 cent* a week. By mall. $5 00 a year Payable in Advance Crime Is Dying Out It Seems as Though Misdeeds Were Being Multiplied, Whereas In Reality We Have Simply Increased Facilities for Letting All the People Know What Goes on Among Us. Many of us feel that crime is the striking feature of modern life, that this century sits among the skulls of crime’s victims, and that Father Time, after all his ages of travel, sees no im provement. But those discouraged by modern crime misunderstand the meaning of events and fail to make a just comparison between the past and the present. It is true that crime to-day is shocking in its frequency. Each day we see spread out before us murders. But first of all remember this: We o”ten mistake widespread NEWS of crime for increase in crime itself. The newspapers are multiplied in number by tens of thousands, and they tell all that happens. It seems as though crime had increased, whereas in reality we have simply increased facilities for letting all the people know what is go ing on among us. We are shocked occasionally by crimes of poisoning. Go back a few centuries and you will find men and women making a regular business of selling poison to those who wanted to com mit murder. The crimes that fill us with horror would not have been noticed in those days. We hear of a father killing his own child, and we declare that humanity is going to destruction. Yet but a few centuries back and THE LAW RECOGNIZED EVERY FATHER S RIGHT TO KILL HIS CHILD IF HE CHOSE. We shudder when we hear that a mother has exposed a new- ! born child on a doorstep or thrown it into an ash barrel. That is a horrid and unbelieveable crime. But in Roane, before the days of Christianity, there were ap pointed places^where mothers might legally expose their children to destruction. The wild beasts or dogs ate the children thus ex posed, and no one was shocked. Whoever might care to take such an exposed child could keep that child for a slave forever. That kind of crime we have outgrown certainly. The Presbyterian teaching of infant damnation seems to us ; horrible. We shudder at the statement that God would condemn a helpless baby to eternal punishment simply because it had not been baptized. The idea seems cruel now. But was invented by the well-meaning early Christians in order to make women give up the legal practice of infanticide. The mother was made to believe that her unbaptized child went to hell, and that she must follow later on for not having had it baptized. Thus women were afraid to expose their children secretly, and infanticide was stamped out by a Christian doctrine which now seems so brutal. And note one thing above all: Crime still lingers among us. But it is now LABELED AS CRIME. We no longer have horrible crimes sanctioned by law. We read that a criminal has tortured some old man or worn- j an for money—and then murdered the victim. We scarcely be- i lieve in such atrocity. But only a little while ago—barely two centuries—IT WAS THE REGULAR LEGAL CUSTOM TO TOR TURE OLD PEOPLE AND YOUNG. Poor old women, falsely accused of witchcraft, were burned alive and ducked in this country, while clergymen and magis trates looked on and applauded. All over Europe innocent witnesses could be tortured to make them give testimony at a trial. Men accused of no crime whatever were tortured to make them give testimony against others—often when they had no tes timony to give. They were hung up by the thumbs, the bones of their legs were crushed in a boot of steel, the soles of the feet were roasted in a brazier of redhot coals—to help them convict another. The noble leaders of the French Revolution abolished such torture of witnesses in France, and they were criticised for doing so by the respectabilities. “How are you going to convict criminals if you do not tor ture witnesses?’’ the respectable element asked. We have got be yond that state of affairs. We hear of murders based on jealousy—perverted affection. We hear of crimes based on envy—perverted ambition. All of the best elements in man, when perverted and thwarted, lead to crime. And these perverted passions will continue to breed crime until men shall have learned to regulate society on a basis that will give full and natural play to the forces within us. But or ganized murder on a really vast scale is practically done away with. Caesar. Alexander, Napoleon and others like them had great ambition. To gratify their ambition they forced millions of men to die for them. Human beings have protected theffiselves against the mur derous ambitions of their great leaders. The Napoleon of to-day must get a Congress to give him his soldiers. Public opinion, the ballot and financial science have pulled the teeth of the greatest instrument of crime—the conquering army of ambition. Murder results first from control of the brain by animal pas sions. Almost every animal is a murderer and at stated times murders its own kind. Primitive man is always murderous. Mur der results, in the second place, from misdirected forces within us. Crime will diminish through education, as the mind takes control of us, and through society better organised, which shall, give men a chance to develop normally. Thanks to education and to improving social conditions, crime is disappearing, NOT increasing. Even our despondency is comforting. IT PROVES THAT WE HAVE PROGRESSED SO FAR AS TO BE HORRI FIED AT THAT WHICH WE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN FOR GRANTED A FEW CENTURIES BACK. * In the Movies In Real Life IS* I CoyoTt I SHOULD WORR-V *»Vt‘ jJiURPH'S PlPtCE nmnutm CpfHt 4 »% Tut old o«K€n BuckcT Srtveb from The MYSTERIES OF SCIENCE AND NATURE Chemistry Expert Has Discovered by Marvelous Method an Element Which, It Is Believed, Will Prove Something Hitherto Unknown-to the Scientific World. By GARRETT P. SERVISS. ' ~ I K the traditional "man tn the street’' were suddenly placed In the presence of all the new dis coveries that modern chemists have made within a few years past aud could comprehend fully their sig- ni flea nee he would be amazed be yond expression. He would then appreciate, for the fir fit time, the fact that the human mind has found a field for Its activities of which we who do not dwell in the Inner world of science have no con ception. but which, nevertheless, is closely related to our everyday life and our well-being. The work of these explorers of nature Is as far apart from the confines of Wall Street, of poli tics and of trade and commerce as if it were being conducted In an other world, and yet its results, either Immediately or in the near future, must affect the welfare of all the inhabitants of the globe. New Discovery Based on Rays Influenced by Electric Action. A most interesting instance of the refinements of the methods employed by the “New Chemistry” is afforded by Prof. J. J. Thom son's discovery of what may prove to be an entirely new chemical ele ment—an element whose exlsteuce has been predicted and which has been sought for, but which until now has given no intimation that it is really present upon the earth. Like so many other discoveries in recent years, this of Professor Thomson is based upon the mys terious rays that are given ofT by various substances under the In fluence of electric action. When such rays are caused to pass be tween two sets of plates, one set elect rifled and the other magnet ized. they gre sorted out by the forces acting upon them and each ray Is bent out of Its original course in a direction and to a de gree depending upon the nature of the atoms or molecules of which it consists. in this way the chemical ele ments contained in the substances under examination, even when they exist tn extremely minute quantity, are revealed to the experimenter. He causes the rays to pass over a photographic plate, and on that plate each of them Imprints an Im age of Its curved path. Hydrogen atoms have their characteristic path which no other atoms follow; oxygen atoms have THEIR path, aud so on. The flying atoms of each separate element, no matter how thoroughly they may have been mixed together, branch out when they are subjected to the electric and magnetic forces, and each kind follows its own particu lar course. In experimenting with this aston ishingly powerful and yet delicate method of analysis. Professor Thomson has discovered certain rays which do not correspond with those of any known substance. But the curvature of their path in dicates that this strange element has an atomic weight of 3 on the chemist's scale—1. e.. it is their times as heavy as an atom of hy drogen. Discovery of This Element Long Ago Predicted by Russian. Now, the great Russian chemist, Mendelieff, long ago predicted, from theoretical calculations, that there was, or ought to be, an ele ment of precisely that atomic weight, 3. If It should turn out that the substance discovered by Professor Thomson is really this missing element, and not, as Pro fessor Thomson is half-disposed to think, some peculiar form of hydro gen, then the circumstances of its discovery would recall those that attended the discovery of the planet Neptune, whose existence was predicted and even Its place in the sky pointed out by means of mathematical calculations before any astronomer had ever seen it. It would be a great mistake for the reader to assume that a dis covery of this kind is merely a curiosity of science in which he can have no practical interest To do that would be to fly in the face of all recent experience. When the X-rays were discovered they had at first only a curious interest for the general public, but now they have established their prac tical importance in medicine and surgery. The phenomena of radi um, also, at the beginning only ex cited the sensation due to a novel ty, but at present the streams of particles shot off from that singu lar substance have likewise proved a boon to mankind. No Addition to Knowledge Can Be Uninteresting or Unimportant. When it was found a few years ago that the atmosphere contained four or five previously unknown elements only a few persons fore saw that these rare substances might be of importance in making the air the universal life-sustain ing thing that it is. No addition to knowledge can be uninteresting or unimportant. The Playroom By WILLIAM F. KIRK. T HIS was the playroom. It Is empty now Save that the toys remain like tiny wraiths; Sometimes we fancy that like us they how Before the blow that warps so many faiths. We come here often in the hush of night When we are numb and praying for the day. Hoping like fools to hear the laughter light. Made by the little boy that used to play. lie was so small, and yet he was so brave. White marshaling his forces for the battle; Tlie painted troops obeyed each sign he gave And shuddered when he struck them with his rattle. We sob and almost hear them sobbing, too: And why should not his painted troops feel sad? He was the only chief they ever knew. He was the only baby that we had. DR. PARKHURST Writes on PUBLIC INTELLECT Is the Age of SeriousThink- ing Passed?—Tastes of Reading Public Indicates It Is—Machine Produced Necessities of LifeaBless- ing to Mankind. Written For The Georgian By the Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst I S the American mind growing frivolous? Are we more in disposed than formerly to do careful and serious thinking, and less Inclined to prefer the sincere and searching handling of current questions to a treatment of them that Is more light and airy? The inquiry is a practical one, for, if it be the case that our In clinations are tending toward a skimming of the surface of things, that will mean that we are ex periencing a shallowing of charac ter, for character Is measured by the earnestness of one’s thinking. Men who cater to the intellec tual tastes of people are the ones best fitted to deal with the ques tion just proposed. Colonel Harvey, who has had a long editorial experience, touches this matter in his farewell address to the readers of Harper’s Weekly. He says: “Would people read even Mr. Curtis’ scholarly lead ing articles to-day? We doubt it. Looking over the files the other day. we found no less than twenty long editorials on civil service re form in thirty successive issues, and very little else. They were sound, cogent articles, and, of conrse, admirably written, but how would they take on the news stand of this hurrying age? How many wayfarers would buy them in preference to some one of the great number of lively, entertain ing and finely illustrated maga zines? Not many, we fear.” Writers Must Tickle Dull Intellectual Palate of the Public. Colonel Harvey’s inquiry sug gests, what is probably the fact, that there has developed the same change of taste in this matter of literature, as in that of food, and that, whereas people used to think more about the nutritious quality of what they ate, and less of its seasoning, their principal regard is now given to the condiments and spices and less to the sub stantial stuff into which the spices are put. Writers and speakers find it in creasingly necessary to give at tention to forms of expression, and especially to the introduction of a certain quality of pungency that shall tickle people’s Intelli gence tnto an acceptance of what would otherwise seem to them tasteless. Their dulled intellectual palate demands that truth shall be baited with some succulent attraction that shall seduce them into an un intentional interest in the truth, which the attractive allurements entertainingly disguise. Newspaper reading has therefore come to lie largely limited to the hasty glancing at headlines. This is what explains the in creased use which newspaper men make of cartoons. 1’eople who have to think in or der to understand a paragraph can read a picture without think ing. We are not criticising newspa pers any more than we are criti cising the devices to which speak ers on the platform or In the pul pit find themselves obliged to huve wourse In order to win their way to the mental nerveless ness of so many of these to whom they are trying to bring a mes sage. People who have anything to say, whether by pen or tongue, have got to accommialate them selves to existing conditions. We have to take people as we find them, and if we cannot break into them by the use of one door, try another. But Colonel Harvey is undoubt edly right. Solid thinking is a little out of fashion. There are millions of people to day who would rather not have settled convictions about tlie big questions of life than put them selves to the intellectual ^incon venience of thinking their way through to them. v Rut why? Who is the man who understands well enough the hu man condition as it exists to-day to tell us why? • • . A LMOST every blessing, if turned over and viewed on the under side is discovered to he also a curse. Machines That Produce Cheap Commodities Are a Blessing. Machinery Is a case in point. It produces cheap commodities; that Is a blessing. It also pro duces cheap operatives; and that is a curse, a curse to themselves, the State and the Nation. And by cheap operatives is not to be understood simply opera tives that have to he satisfied with small pay, but operatives that are themselves cheap, deficient in those qualities that constitute per sonal worth. The reason of it is that machin ery reduces tremendously the per centage of skilled laborers. A man, woman or child does not need to know much in order to run a ma chine, and running it will do little or nothing toward making them know more. In fact, the longer they run it the more of a machine they them selves become. Work, under the conditions which existed a half century ago, was generally a means of training. Results produced required thought, calculation, ' ingenuity, a careful adjustment of means to ends. The policy of division of la bor had not been applied. Consequently opportunity was afforded for the play of a variety of faculties which not only gave zest to employment but helped to round out the worker’s develop ment. Tree action engenders intelli gence. In running the ordinary machine there is not free action. As soon think of a horse becoming a philosopher by walking a tread mill. Depression in the quality of the worker draws after it depression in the value of the wages. The smaller the intelligence, the smaller the pay, for there are at ways cheap people waiting arounii to take the place of the discon, tented, and we are bringing then over by boatloads from Southern and Eastern Europe. Manufacturers’ Interest in the Tariff Is a Selfish One. Manufacturers believe in tariff because it keeps the price of com modifies up, and believe in unre stricted immigration because it keeps the price of labor down. We have been taxing imported goods in order to protect us from cheap labor abroad, but have been importing, untaxed, just the cheap labor we professed to be protect ing ourselves from. The foolish ness of the people has not been spry enough to keep up with th« astuteness of the manufacturers Our manufacturers here are just like the Yorkshire people in Eng land, who made money out of the surfeit of operatives ard took no interest in the scheme of draw ing off surplus labor into the colo nies by ctiering it cheap transpor tation. No rational Christian objects to manufacturers making money, pro vided it is not at the expense of the public, and at the sacrifice of the intelligence, health and life of the operatives by whom their gains are accumulated.