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EDITORIAL RAGE
The Atlanta Georgian
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Everv Afternoon I'xrppt Sunday
By THE GK< >K(1I AN COM I'AN V
At -0 Hast Alabama St. Atlanta, fja.
Entered as aeennd class matter at poatnfllre at Atlanta, under art of Mareh 3. 1*73
Subscription Price Delivered liy carrier 10 cent* a week By mall, $r>00 a year.
Payable In Advance.
Education—the First Duty of
Government
The Most Important Institutions in the Country Are the Public
Schools—the Gymnasiums of Human Brains.
(Copyright. 1913.)
We wish to discuss with our readers in this and in later edi
tions of this newspaper the great and serious question of edu
cation.
It is a question as broad as the ocean, and as deep. It is a
question so vast that organized discussion of it seems hopeless.
The greatest minds of the world have devoted their powers
to the intricate question of development of the human brain, and i
the problem has been scarcely touched.
The greatest works on education in the history of the world
are undoubtedly Plato’s ‘ Republic,” Spencer's "Education”
and Rousseau’s “Emile.” The last is the greatest of all. It
should be read by every father and mother and by every earn
est citizen.
Other works that may be earnestly recommended are
Aristotle’s “Politics,” Pestalozzi’s “How Gertrude Teaches Her
Children” and Froebel’s “Education of Man.”
To Rousseau undoubtedly belongs the high honor of hav
ing thought and written most powerfully, most originally and
most practically on the greatest of problems. His brain is the
cornerstone of the structure of intelligent educational methods.
He foreshadowed in his “Emile” Fourier’s splendid prin
ciple of “attractive industry.”
THE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY DEPENDS UPON THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BRAIN THROUGH EDU
CATION.
The intricate processes of thinking separate mankind from
other members of the animal creation.
Man is far from the animal in proportion as his brain is cul
tivated. Even the animals themselves rank in their kingdom in
proportion to their brain activity.
William T. Harris said truly: “If man had let himself alone
he would have remained the monkey that he was. Not only this,
but if the monkey had let himself alone he would have remained
a lemur, or a bat, or a bear, or some other creature that now of
fers only a faint suggestion.of what the ape has become.”
The elephant and the ape, among our humble animal broth
ers, appear to have reached their limits of possibility in the way
of educational development. They still remain, and always will
remain, vastly inferior to their microscopic comrades—the ants
and bees and other insects.
The human race has barely begun the systematic study of
the problem of application, and systematic application of the
truths discovered and agreed upon. In proportion to our stature
and possibilities we are hideous ignoramuses compared with the
ant in the garden path.
The education of children is regulated not by their brain
formation and possible development, but by the wealth of their
parents, the parsimony of municipalities, the baleful influences
of tradition and the colossally stupid idea that thorough brain
cultivation is in some way antagonistic to material success.
The greatness of a nation depends upon the average mental
power of the nation’s citizens, and mental power depends abso
lutely upon education.
The ignorant man who has succeeded through natural force
and lucky opportunity is fond of asking these questions:
"What is the good of education? ,Of what practical use is j
scientific knowldege?” These men are admirably answered by
Herbert Spencer, to whose work they are referred.
A collection of Englishmen ruined themselves in the sinking
of mines in search of coal. They might have saved their money :
had they known that a certain fossil which they dug up in abun
dance belongs to a geological stratum below which no coal is
ever found. They went on digging cheerfully and wasting their
money. An acquaintance with that fossil and its meaning would
have saved their cash.
Some individuals spent one hundred thousand dollars try
ing to save the alcoholic byproduct that distills from bread in
baking. They would have saved their money had they known
that only a hundredth part of the flour is changed through fer
mentation.
The study of biology is essential in the successful fattening
of cattle.
An "entozoon” seems to the practical man a foolish, imag
inary creature. But millions of sheep have been saved by the
discovery that one of these fancy scientific entozoa, pressing on
the brain, caused the sheep's death. When you know the en
tozoon you can dig him out and save the sheep’s life.
“My son’s going to be an artist,” says one proud father.
“He does not need to study a lot of scientific rubbish.”
This parent does not know that the difference between a
good and a bad sculptor or painter is often based on knowledge
or ignorance of anatomy and mechanical principles.
Education is important to the individual because it means
development of the brain, development of capacity for produc
tion and increased chances of success.
EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT TO THE STATE BE
CAUSE IT MEANS NOT ONLY COMPETENT CITIZENS,
BUT MORAL CITIZENS.
The animal in us yields to the influence of education.
Knowledge and brutality are enemies. They do not dwell to
gether.
The most important institutions in this country are the pub
lic schools—the gymnasiums of human brains. The most im
portant citizens of the nation are the teachers.
The greatest criminals are the employers of child labor, be
cause they deny education, cut down in childhood the citizen's
chance of progress and success.
Work and vote for more and better public schools.
In the Movies - - - - - In Real Life
The SotTrtN
supple T’u.
TO OSMNK.
WATER. WPerH
'This is gone;
Ths last shot
Mysteries of Science and Nature
Is Our Blood in Its Composition and Temperature the Counterpart of the
Water of the Ocean, Whence, They Say, All Life Sprang?
By GARRETT p SERVISS
S CIENCE boasts of Its exact
ness. and properly so. Yet
there is no speculator com
parable in boldness with the man
of science who is endowed at the
same time with the scent for pre
cision and the gift of imagination.
One of the most daring scientific
speculations with which l am ac
quainted is that of a French phys
iologist. H. Quinton, who ventures
to assert that the blood which
flows in the veins of man and
other animals derives its peculiar
temperature (which hardly varies
more than ten degrees in all the
host of vertebrate, or hack-boned,
animals) and its peculiar composi- j
tlon (in which salt always plays a
fixed part) from the primeval sea
that enveloped the earth in those
early ages when life was just be
ginning on our planet!
Take Out Corpuscles, He
Says, and Our Blood
Is Sea Water.
Mail, says this bold speculator |
iu scientific assets, is a kind of
marine aquarium, filled with sea
water resembling that of the an
cient ocean in which his lower ani
mal ancestors bathed millions of
years ago. We call this salty
fluid, from which our living cells
derive their vitality, "blood;" but
deprive the blood of the red and
white corpuscles which have de
veloped in it, and all that Is left Is
a "physological salt solution," pre
cisely like the salty water of the
primeval sea, and retaining the
same temperature.
In other words, the so-called
vital fluid of auimals is nothing
hut sea-water, less salty and hot
ter than the sea-water of to-day,
but retaining the same composi
tion and the same temperature
that it had when, ages upon ages
ago. the first living creatures of
GARRETT P. SERVISS.
our world emerged from their orig
inal home, which was the ocean,
and. with new bodies, henceforth
sealed up, so that the fluid on
which their lives depends can not
escape, crawled out upon the land,
and gave rise, by gradual evolu
tion. to the higher animals of the
present time.
This ancient, life-giving sea
water has been handed on from
generation to generation, for un
told aeons of time, continuing to
exist, age after age, in the veins of
animals, forever the same in com
position and temperature, notwith
standing the innumerable changes
of form it has undergone. in the
ceaseless processes of generation,
growth, decay, death and regenera
tion.
To see how this curious specula-
j tion has arisen, let us consider the
j fact that the first organisms inliab-
I iting the sea (long before there
j was life on the land) were simple
| living cells of protoplasm, open in
; structure and .bathed throughout
j in the warm, salty water which
j maintained their vitality. As the
sea cooled, and became more salty
I through the influx of mineral sub
stances washed (town from the
! land, it was no longer a suitable
abode for many of the progress
ing animal forms which had been
built up by the combination of
tlie original single cells, and these
assumed the shape of closed bodies,
in which the life-sustaining fluid
was locked up, while its original
j temperature was maintained by
physiological actiou.
Having emerged upon I he land
these creatures continued in the
course of evolution, determined by
their new surroundings, and as
sumed a great variety of higher
forms, constantly increasing in
complexity or organization, but al
ways retaining the secret of life
derived from the sea in the form
of a fluid, never varying much
from a temperature of about 100
degrees, nor from a composition
comprising about seven or eight
parts salt to a thousand parts of
water.
it is a strange fact that from the
poles to the equator all vertebrate
animals possess blood of nearly
the same temperature and the
same degree of saltness, and Quin
ton avers that this singular uni
formity is due to the retention in
their bodies, sealed up with mem
branes, of the ancestral composi
tion of the universal fluid that, at
the tjeginning, nourished the life
of their remote predecessors in the
ssa. If this be so, then our blood
is simply an image of the water
of the first ocean, at the time when
life was developed in it. If we did
not possess it we .could not con
tinue to live. In a certain sense,
then, we may be said still to live
bathed internally by the life-giving
fluid of the primeval sea.
Looked at in another way, ac
cording to Quintons hypothesis,
the blood of vertebrate animals
gives geologists a clue to the tem
perature and composition of the
first sea waters. We know that
these have changed with the prog
ress of time, the water becoming
both salter and colder, besides ac
quiring other ingredients which it
did not possess originally.
Many Scientists Accept
This Hypothesis in
General.
This strange hypothesis has met
with a certain degree of approval
from other investigators, whose
criticisms of it relate to details
but do not attack its general cred
ibility. Thus Professor A. B. Ma-
cailum th-riks that the blood of the
vertebrates represents the sea
water at a later period than that
assumed by Quinton, but still a
period millions of years back of
our time, while Dr. A. C. Lane sug
gests that the blood temperature
may have been raised by physio
logical processes above that of the
sea when the animals left it.
THE HOME RARER
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Writes on
Debt
JpS
It Is the Ugliest Monster
Outside of Crime, She
Asserts; It Is a Phase
of Shame.
Written for The Atlanta Georgian
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Copyright. 1913, by Star Company.
A MAN who has made a great
financial success, somewhat
suddenly, is doing much
charitable and helpful work for hu
manity, but he is marring his own
character and making trouble for
himself and others in the future by
one unfortunate habit.
HE NEVER PAYS A DEBT UN
TIL FORCED TO DO SO AT THE
ELEVENTH HOUR.
Every one who knows the man
knows that he is honest and gener
ous. He is sure to pay all he owes
and to liquidate every debt, eventu
ally. But, meantime, he causes un
told discomfort to his creditors
frequently by his delays.
But There Is a Big Leak
in the Life
boat.
Often, while some man to whom
he is owing a large bill is needing
the money to push along his own
affairs, his wealthy debtor is giv
ing liberal sums to aid others or
to help some worthy cause.
But there is a leak in the life
boat of this man which, unless
mended, will eventually ei^ier sink
his craft or damage all its cargo.
No doubt the habit was first
formed when he was struggling
to make his way; before fortune
turned her smiling face upon him.
But his very struggles and needs
in early life should have made him
more consistent In his dealings
with his fellow men after he ob
tained his fortune.
Debt is the ugliest monster on
earth outside of crime.
Every young man or woman who
is setting forth upon a self-sup
porting career should keep his
mental guns charged and ready to
fire upon the ogre the moment it
presents its horrid face at the
door.
If the habit of debt is once
formed, it is almost as difficult
to break as alcoholism or the drug
linbit. The longer it is indulged
in the more difficult the cure.
Every parent should teach a
child that debt is a phase of
shame.
Children Should Be Taught
Horror of
Debt.
Tell your boy or girl that it is far
more respectable to wear old gar
ments and to be unable to present
a smart appearance than to go
about in clothes which are not paid
for, or to indulge in any pleasures
or privileges which have made
debt a necessity.
Then train them in the way of
keeping a careful cash account
each day and of balancing up their
books at the end of each week.
Speak often and repeatedly of the
honor which such habits eventual
ly bring and of the corresponding
dishonor which follows on the
habit of debt.
There are children born into the
world with a tendency to be bor
rowers and even to bd thieves,
because their fathers were parsi
monious and niggardly with their
mothers before their birth. And
the children received the mental
mark of their mothers’ unfortunate
state of mind.
One such woman longed for cer
tain kinds of food before the birth
of her child, and was told by her
husband that her longings were
extravagant and unreasonable. So
persistent were her longings, how
ever, and so small was the ex
pense they entailed, that the un
happy, expectant mother purloined
pennies from the pockets of her
sleeping master, and when she had
obtained the petty sum needed
purchased the dainty she desired.
But her child was born with a
mania for taking things which did
not belong to her; even when she
could have them by asking, or pos
sessed money to purchase them,
she preferred to steal.
Let Them Learn How to
Spend Money
Properly.
Men of that niggardly type often
force their wives and children into
the debt habit. It is astonishing to
find how many men of independent
means, hold tight the purse strings,
and compel their wives to go
empty-handed, while given un
questioned right to buy whatever
they desire, so long as their pur
chases are presented to the hus
band in a bill at the end of the
month. Frequently these men make
no complaint at extravagance; yet
make bitter protest if the wife
asks for a small monthly allow
ance.
Children reared under such con
ditions have no horror of debt.
They have been taught that it is
tfie only way to obtain what they
desire. Every boy or girl ought
to be given a small weekly or
monthly allowance, taught how to
spend it wisely, and made to keep
a strict account.
With such teaching should go a
continual kindly, persistent edu
cation on the nobility of indepen
dence, and the dishonor of debt.
If children form such ideals be
fore they go out into the world,
there is small fear that they will
ever form the habit of debt after
ward.
EYES AND VOICES
By WILLIAM F. KIRK.
E YES and voices of dead friends
Come to me at night and cheer me,
And they seem so very near me
Ere my sleepless vigil ends.
Eyes that once exchanged with mine
Looks of fond regard and feeling
From the earth come softly stealing,
Once again with love to shine.
Voices stilled for many years
Ah, but I can hear them plainly!
Voices that I longed for vainly,
They have broken from their biers.
Every eye a beacon light
Just beyond the shoals of sorrow.
Pointing out the grand To-morrow,
Every voice a soft delight.
Eyes and voices of dead friends
Come when Memory is complaining.
Sweetly soothing and sustaining,
Till the reign of darkness ends.