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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.