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EDITORIAL RAGE
The Atlanta Georgian
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
Hv THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East A la bam n St Atlanta, Oa.
Entered as second-class matter at pi stoffirr at Atlanta, under act of March 3, 1373
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week By mall, $6.00 a year.
Payable In Advance.
Can a Man Educate Himself
in Two Hours a Day?
tyhat Should He Read? Important Questions for Every Man.
(Copyright, 1918.) .
Young boys don’t WANT education. We force it upon them.
Men past thirty long for education and little effort is made to
teach them.
A reader writes:
“Dear Sir: I am a constant reader of your valuable and in
structive editorials and have gained considerable knowledge from
them; but I beg of you a small favor which I hope you won’t re
fute, and that is, how can a man with about two hours a day to
spare become intelligent • and educated? What course should he
pursue in the shape of books, etc., etc.? Please name books and
also advise, which I would appreciate very much.
“Thanking you in advance, and I hope and trust to he favored
with a reply, I remain,
“Sincerely yours, J. H. w
The man full grown longs for knowledge, as the boy longs
for exercise and excitement.
A committee of the most learned and conscientious men in
the country might well devote six months of careful thought to
the answering of such a letter.
Can a man get an education if he has two hours a day at his
disposal for reading?
Yes, he can, provided when the time for reading comes he
has left in his body knowledge and power that will supply THE
THOUGHT, without which reading is wfftted.
A man must THINK his way through a book, and thinking
must digest reading.
He may have mere TIME in which to read, but it is time and
ambition pitifully wasted if he has not also the vitality and en
ergy to give to the mental work.
Man is capable of a limited amount of effort in any direc
tion. If he uses all his force in his regular day's work he can
have little left for mental work when the time for reading comes.
The curse of the world is a system that takes out of men’s
bodies in physical labor all the power that they have, and leaves
nothing for the mental labor which should inspire the individual
and improve the race.
The great gift which organized labor, limiting working ;
hours, can bestow upon the people is STRENGTH RESERVED
FOR THOUGHT WHEN THE WORK IS DONE.
Merely to name a list of books, however valuable they may
be, is silly and heartless, when you know that the average very
good book is written in a style which makes the absorption of
knowledge difficult for the untrained mind, when you know that
the words used by the man of education are not the words of the
uneducated man, and make his reading difficult.
Good bookB, with few exceptions, can not be comfortably
and intelligently read, unless a man begins reading with a good
supply of information or possesses the patience and industry to
look up in reference books, one after another, the historical
names and scientific terms that flow so glibly from the pen of the
educated man.
This world needs an EDUCATION in ten volumes, or fewer,
for the man past thirty. Such a series of books should present
accumulated knowledge simply, and in words that everybody
could understand, identifying each historical personage appear
ing in its pages, making the reading of history and science as
easy as the reading of trash.
A man who wants an education should first make up his
mind what education is. Having determined what it is THAT
HE WANTS TO KNOW, let him, with the help of the public
librarians, always kind and encouraging, get books containing
the knowledge that he wants, and written as nearly as possible
in a style that he can understand.
Man is like a tiny insect, fastened by power of gravitation
to this whirling earth twenty-five thousand miles in circum
ference, flying through space at terrific speed, going around the
sun as it flies, and going forward in a mysterious spiral journey
with the sun.
Man should know first of all HIS PLACE IN THIS UNI
VERSE; he should know something of astronomy. He should
have in his mind a conception of himself as a tiny, thinking
creature on a great planet eight thousand miles in diameter,
heated by a sun one million times as big as this earth, and that
sun flying through space in company with other suns a million
times as big as itself.
The first study for the man of intelligence, industry and am
bition is ASTRONOMY.
Unfortunately, the man who wants knowledge is frightened
by a complicated presentation of that which is really simple.
However, ask the public librarian to recommend to you a
simply written book on astrouomy, and he will do his best.
When a man knows something about this universe, the part
that he and his little planet play in it, he should know how this
planet has developed through millions of years since it cooled off
and since, in the words of Spencer, ‘ ‘ Indefinite incoherent homo
geneity was changed to definite coherent heterogeneity.”
A man should know' something of geology, which means the
history of the earth. Again the public librarian w'ill direct you.
A man should know' something about the development of life
on this planet, commonly called evolution, the different forms of
life as thoy appeared, including the great monsters of the age
when th / coal was forming, and all the mysterious story of life
on the /planet.
Then man should know the history of man himself, from the
earliest days, when a sharp stone was the only tool, to these days
of the rolling mill and the 40,000-horsepower steamer.
The history of man as a race should be studied. Unfortunate
ly it is made needlessly complicated. All that a man NEEDS to
know could be put in two numbers of this newspaper and made
as easy to read as this editorial.
Remember that in history the important thing is not the
date of a battle, or the name of a fighter, but the movements of
human thought which culminated in that battle, and the social
condition that developed the fighter.
All that there is of man is HIS THOUGHT. The reader whose
letter we answ’er here must constantly ask himself, WHAT DO I
KNOW ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT AND
KNOWLEDGE UPON THIS EARTH?
By studying the thought of meu he will stimulate his own
thought in the right direction, and add to his knowledge.
It is better to read a little and think a great deal than to
read a great deal and think but little.
The only thing that helps you is the work that goes on IN
SIDE YOUR OWN BRAIN.
When the Wife’s Away
Are Voters Using the Rights They Have?
! t
If Not, What Is the Sense of Giving Them Any More?---Principles
Should Be Above Love of Office to the Man Worth While in Politics.
By DR. CHARLES H. PARKHURST
rpHER^ Is no patent method
| of getting results. What is
gained by a short cut does
not remain gained and has to be
gained over again. Nothing that
is worth having can be had with
out paying the cost, and the more
it is worth the bigger the cost.
Tricks will not take the place of
methods that are serious and
downright.
We are thinkiug now of cer
tain schemes that are being pro
posed for bringing the control of
political life more completely in
to the hands of the people. The
object had iu view is certainly ad
mirable; for a form of govern
ment professing to be democrat
ic Is surely false to its name If
policies are determined and exe
cuted by a small minority.
And yet the scheme suggested—
that of substituting pure democ
racy for representative democ
racy—hardly ought to be called
fanciful, for it has the approval
of many thoughtful minds, but it
certainly ought not to be called
progressive, for it is retrogressive
rather, and is a return to methods
in vogue many centuries ago, at
which time they were thoroughly
tried out and found unworkable.
Idea Commends Itself.
No fault, certainly, can bo found
with the idea of popular participa
tion in what are called the Initia
tive and the referendum. Simply
considered as an idea, it com
mends itself. For all the people
to get together and act together
In settling questions which all the
people understand, is a mode of
administering public interests that
Is absolutely Ideal.
But without raising the question
whether we all have the intelli
gence and the experience to deal
wisely with more than a limited
number pf the questions liable to
be brought before us by initiative
and referendum, there remains
the equally practical question
whether facts, as we already know
them, are such as to warrant our
supposing that the privilege of
such popular action would be to
any considerable extent perma
nently availed of even were it
granted.
The only way by which we can
meet that inquiry is by discover
ing, if possible, to what degree
people at large are making use of
so much of the freedom of bal
lot as is theirs already. If it
should appear that to any marked
degree they are careless and neg
ligent in its use, there would seem
to be little to encourage the be
lief that the situation would be
improved by enlarging the oppor
tunity for its use. It would only
be widening the area over which
their indifference could extend it
self.
A writer In the current issue of
a reputable magazine has gath
ered some statistics bearing di
rectly upon this aspect of the ques
tion, and it will only be further
ing the purpose he had in view in.
preparing his article to cite here
three or four of the examples
which he has collected as a result
of his research and observation.
He relates that at the primary
eleetjons held in New York State
last fall only 15 per cent of the
voters polled their ballot; iu Little
Kails only 10 per eent, In Water-
town 8. in Ilion only 6. In an
important election held in Ohio in
1912 less than half of the enrolled
voters voted. At the last Presiden
tial election six million voters re
mained at home, and at the one
previous seven millions.
Last fall a State convention was
held in Ohio with a view to draft
ing amendments to the State Con
stitution. Only 25 per cent of the
citizens cast a ballot for convention
delegates That is to say,
only one Ohioan out of four cared
enough about the Constitution of
his State to put himself to the
trouble of going to the polling
booth.
Question of Interest.
Now, if people have as little re
gard as that for such suffrage
privileges as they now have, what
is the sense of giving them more
for them to exercise their indif
ference over? The Progressives
say that citizens ought to share in
determining our politics. Perhaps
so, and perhaps not; certainly not
till they show more interest and
spirit in their use of such share as
they have. All of which indicates
that It is not a question of politi
cal machinery, but of citizens and
of their civic character and patriot
ic interest in w'hat relates to the
public weal.
The best locomotive in the world
will carry a train and all its occu
pants to destruction if manipu
lated by an incompetent or indif
ferent engineer. Patriotism of
the genuine type does not consist
in celebrating the memory of the
heroes of ’70 or of eulogizing
(leorgo Washington, or of becoming
rhetorical and letting off fireworks
on the Fourth of July, but iu mak
ing our iuterests and effort a
steady contribution to the public
needs.
The people who do nothing or
who do it only half-heartedly and
spasmodically are sufficient In num-
l>er to change altogether the tone
of local or State-wide administra
tion.
A people that does not care
enough about a republic to main
tain it as a republic is not fit for a
republic.
* * *
No man will do good work in
politics nor in any other relation
in which he may stand with his
fellows, If he thinks more of the
office which he holds, or what
ever position he occupies, than he
dot's of ills principles. There are
comparatively few people that have
a get)ius for martyrdom, which is
j equivalent to saying thut there are
! few who, when it is a matter be- j
1 tween keeping their position and j
keeping their ideals, will stand by
their ideals.
Clergymen are put to that test
exactly as politicians are. There
are instances, and a good many of
them, probably, where preachers
refrain from declaring their full
religious convictions out of fear
that to do so would cost them the
support of an influential fraction
of their congregation.
I know that the former pastor of
a prominent church in one of our
largest cities declared frankly that
lie could not preach the whole
truth and keep his pulpit. He sub
sequently resigned his pastorate.
Perhaps for that reason, I do not
know.
That is one of a host of tempta
tions that ministers are liable to.
There are racks and torture
chambers now Just as there used
to tie, only of a different sort.
Examples of the same kind are
plenty iu the political field, where
expediency, not principle, is the
rule of action.
The Man Worth While.
The only man in politics that is
worth anything to his city, State,
or nation is the one who does what
he believes to be absolutely right
regardless of consequences to him
self. Which means that he loves
himself and his office less than he
does the public interest that be is
elected to serve. There may not
be many of them, but what there
are of them are the only ones that
count iu tile final footing.
It was said to me recently by a
gentleman, than whom few have
stood so conspicuously before the
national public, that the only one
who can be trusted to render good
service in public office is the man
who does not much care whether
he retains the office or not.
That being the case, the public
does a poor thing for itself when
it elevates to office men who make
it evident that they are hungry for
office mid starving for it and go
about advertising the ferocity of
their appetite,
the: home: paper
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Writes on
The Current Craze
for Surgery
The Knife Should Not Be Resorted
r
To Until All Other Treatments
*■ -
Have Failed to Cure, She De-
dares.
Written for The A.tlcmta Georgian
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Copyright. 1913,
S URGERY has reached great
and wonderful proficiency
In saving human life and
curing deformities and overcom
ing seemingly incurable obsta
cles to health.
Not only does surgery cure
physical maladies, but frequently
it reforms the mentally and mor
ally unbalanced. Dr. Edward F.
Bowers, in a recent article, tells
us how, in Philadelphia, a great
surgeon, “with the human equa
tion keenly developed,” is op
erating from time to time upon
boys who are sent to the reform
school for unlawful acts.
One little chap, with a pen
chant for burning houses and
barns (he burned quite a num
ber of them before he was final
ly captured), came under the
surgeon’s notice.
A trephine operation was
made, a small circular button of
the skull removed, and a silver
plate placed over the opening
and this hoy's pyroman ia was
completely eradicated.
Has Grown Rapidly.
Scientific surgery has grown
so rapidly in the last few years
that Dr. Bowers believes the sur
geon and the hospital may yet be
substituted for the judge and the
prison in dealing with crime.
But with this growth, men and
women, women particularly, have
lost all reason and all sense of
proportion in their craze for op
erations, or in their quick deci
sions in favoring the knife for
maladies which are not of suffi
cient seriousness to render the
expensive risk necessary.
Surgeons are so skilled that
they do not hesitate to perform
a very dangerous operation, even
when they know that other meth
ods might prevail, so long as the
patient desires the knife. Others
of national repute as men of
standing often advise operations,
and no doufit believe them nec
essary, when they ar not.
Three years ago a slight physi
cal disturbance, which refused to
be routed by mental methods,
caused me to ask the opinion of
one of these well established
surgeons, who is at the head of a
large hospital. He advised the
knife, and when I expressed
amazement that such a slight
malady needed so serious a treat
ment, he assured me he was
daily operating upon similar
cases. Yv nen I refused to be
operated upon, he said he washed
his hands of consequences.
The consequences were a per
fect restoration to health in a
very brief time by the use of X
and violet rays, together with
persistent mental affirmations
and sensible adherence to the
laws of good health. An acquaint
ance who passed through the
operatioil which was suggested
to me died a few months later.
Heart Action Weak.
A year ago a friend of mine
was assured by two eminent sur
geons that she must submit to
a major operation within two
months or forfeit her life. The
lady made ail plans to enter a
Philadelphia hospital and sub
mit to this dangerous and expen
sive operation.
At the last moment, however,
her husband decided to ask other
counsel, with the result that she
abandoned her original idea, took
the rays, Some simple herb-treat
ment, built up her system with
nutritious food and outdoor life
and is now perfectly well, able to
by Star Company,
indulge in athletic sports, and to
live a wholly normal life with
all her organs intact, as well as
an undepleted bank account.
Recently I met a lady who,
through having read an article In
the July Good Housekeeping
Magazine, on “Hysterical Surgery,”
was prevailed upon to give up
the operation she had been told
was imperative. In less than six
weeks the lady finds herself free
of the trouble which had men
aced her.
At the same time I met a wom
an who had been declared dying
several years ago with "a nest of
tumors,” and as her heart action
was weak and surgeons said no
operation could be performed,
she must simply await the ap
proach of death. Yet the wom
an is perfectly well now and an
enthusiastic believer in natural
methods, in diet, in internal and
external baths, in osteopathy, in
violet and X-rays.
I have in my address book
the names of these and other
friends who are quite ready to
substantiate my statements—
statements made public out of an
increasing desire that women
cease to be self-deluded or sur
gically deluded with the idea
that they must be operated upon
in order to regain health.
A lady who was made nervous
over a slight growth in the re
gion of the abdomen was advised
to have it removed. She was
enjoying perfect health seeming
ly, and the physicians assured
her and her husband that the in
cisions would soon heal and the
time of her invalidism would be
less than a month. The woman
died the third day after the op
eration.
The physicians have since said
that many similar growths dis
appear and are absorbed if the
woman keeps her genera] health
in good condition. This I know
to be a fact in instances which
come under my observation. The
husband of this lady finds him
self unable to obtain any re
dress for the death of his wife,
because the physicians) were men
in high standing.
Try Other Means.
Appendicitis has become a fad.
The operation is quite likely nec
essary at times to save life. I
recall many sudden deaths of
people in my childhood of a mal
ady known then as “inflamma
tion of the Intestines.” No doubt
these were cases of a diseased
appendix. Yet for every person
whose life has been saved by the
removal of that organ, I am con
fident ten have needlessly died
by being operated upon when
other methods would have saved
them. I have known several se
rious cases to be cured by oste
opathy, many more by X-rays,
and others by nature methods—•
cleansing the system and a strict
diet.
Unless a woman is in the full
grasp of a malignant malady, the
knife should not be used until
she has tried all other methods.
A large majority of the women
who go upon the surgeon’s table
for breast trouble die before the
expiration of two years. A large
majority who pass through ma
jor operations are nervous
wrecks afterward.
Let me beg all sensible women
to avoid the operating table and
the surgeon's knife, unless all
other methods have failed. They
will not fall if employed in time
and persistently followed.
In that dome of Huerta—
please call him YVhirta and be
correct—more uncommon cunning
and diplomacy is lodged, it seems,
than is dreamed of by the Com
moner.
• * *
What Senate golfers need to
learn is how 10 get out of instead
of into a hole.
» • •
It looks as if chilly Canada will
freeze out Thaw*
To preserve the Continent** fur
ther health and quietude the
Powers may have to put a
atraitjacket on the “sick man of
Europe.”
• • •
Hope that suffrage training
school is not to include the
punching bag and putting the
shot.
• • •
Having gotten the conte.nts,
women now demand our pocket*.
■ i
K'