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the home paper EDITORIAL PAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Fverv Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 Kaat Alabama St . Atlanta. Oa Kr^ered ns Hcrond-clas* matter at postofrtre at Atlanta, under act of Man'ti .1. fcubscrlpUon Price Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week By mall, $0 00 a year Payable in Advance. France Always the Friend England Usually the Enemy—of This Country and Its Progress However. Americans Fee! Quite Cheerful About It. Certain Kinds of Dislike Are a Pleasing Tribute to Success. Copyright. 1913, Internationa) News Service France, a nation of thinking men, a people that has taught other nations for centuries, is friendly to the United States, and will share in the great exposition OF CIVILIZATION in Cali fornia. England, hostile to the United States, irritated because the United States presumes to control its own canal, is not friendly to American progress and refuses to share in the Panama Exposi tion. This does not irritate the people of the United States. It interests them and it amuses them. The situation now in 1913 is about as it was in 1776. Then, as now, the French people and her ablest men sympa thized with the Americans and shared in their fighting. Then, as now, England disliked the suggestion that this coun try should manage its own affairs. In those days, when we announced our intention to govern ourselves, the English, badly advised, decided to fight us. With help and sympathy from France, we did what was nec essary, and England 's authority moved up to Canada and across the ocean. To day again the United States declares its intention to man age its own affairs, and specifically the Panama Canal, built with our money, through territory which belongs to us. England doesn’t like the idea of our managing our canal in 1913 any more than she liked the idea of our managing our gov ernment in 1776. But she is wiser now than in those ancient days. Instead of sending over ships and gentlemen with red coats, TO MAKE US BEHAVE AND TAKE HER VIEWS, she sulks like a nice little Eton boy and will have nothing to do with us, and, above all, won’t exhibit in California. The attitude of England is childish and undignified. But for some time to come probably no other attitude can be expected. This country is amused and instructed; it is not annoyed by the English refusal to share in the exposition. Indifferent to the attitude of England, based on the childish notion that she ought to be able to do in 1913 what she couldn't do in 1776, this country is delighted with the friendly attitude of France that has 1 istod through so many years. To have the iriendship and sympathy of the French nation this country may well be proud. A very great people are the French, genuine democrats, MEN ABLE TO GOVERN THEMSELVES IN THE REAL SENSE OF THE WORD, thinking men, and teachers of other men. , The French people for centuries have taught the rest of the world to think and to act. Our statesmen in 1776 re-echoed the sentiments that the French leaders had been uttering since the days of Louis the Fourteenth. Our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and our rebellion against England were really the fruition of French thinking and French teaching, part of the work of the French encyclopedists, grafted upon the mixed race on this North Ameri can continent. To-day, as of yore, the French are leaders and teachers, and to-day, as in the days of 1776, the American people are proud to have the French as friends and sympathizers. They will be welcome indeed at the great exposition which will celebrate the opening of the canal, the close union of the east and west coasts of the United States, and which will emphasize in 1913 the determination which we expressed in 1776 TO MAN AGE THIS COUNTRY IN OUR OWN WAY. Those Shadow Gowns Next in importance to the Mexican situation, the Tariff and the Currency bills comes the shadow gowns. The attitude of different parts of the country toward this diaphanous draping of the human form divine is so varied that the question has become a vexing one morally as well as a tangled one legally. The spirit which closed the United States mails to "Septem ber Morn" has worked to the disadvantage of the wearers of scarcely more material—and man has smiled. But now comes a Judge of the Golden West and fines an on looker ten dollars for following a diaphanous maiden. The lady Demg haled to court, it was proven that under the beneficent rays of the declining sun, her gown was even as a veil. The erring man was attracted by the novelty. ‘‘I had never seen one before,” he said, "and wanted to get a good look at it,” Two prosecutors and a patrolman examined the gown and agreed that it was almost like glass. Nevertheless, the Judge was inclined to fine the seeker after truth twenty-five dollars. He compromised on ten because the offender was married. Diaphanously speaking, it does look as though mere man is up ^jainst it. ' A WORD CONCERNING UNNECESSARY NOISE BY AUTOMOBILISTS The Problem of Creating Pleas ant Homes Is One of National Importance. Cheerful Surroundings Affect One Mentally, Morally and Physically. France Is Solving the Problem Through Gov ernment Aid. By GARRETT P. SERVISS G OOD health and good cheer produce good work. Man did not begin to be come civilized until he had learned to build houses and to practice the first elements of hygiene, a science that takes its name from a Greek word for health. When men and women live in pleasant homes, amid cheerful sur roundings, they are twice as effect ive, mentally, morally, and physi cally, as when they are herded in gloomy hovels, like the peasants of the Middle Ages, and like, too, many of the working people in mod ern cities and manufacturing towns. These statements are so self-evi dent that they hardly need to be made; and yet it is only quite re cently that their truth has been so generally recognized that some thing has begun to he done on a large scale to remedy the evil ef fects of bad housing and of un sanitary and uncheerful surround ings. “Good houses, at a slight cost,” says Senator Paul Strauss, of the French Senate, "is the problem of the day, occupying the first place in public interest.” Pleasant Home Building Promoted by Society in France. In France there is a “Society of Cheap Houses,” whose object is to promote and assist the construction of healthful and cheerful homes for those upon whose daily labor the maintenance of civilization and the progress of humanity depend. About 375 minor associations have been formed there upon the same basis. There is also a law which enables the Government to aid in the work by offering credit on easy terms, and by granting cer tain advantages in regard to taxes. Recently the Municipal Council of Paris has voted a credit of two hundred million francs (about $40,- 000,000) “to procure decent homes for those who are without them.” The same families which were formerly compelled to pass their lives in the long row of gloomy, melancholy barracks, with a single roof for a dozen dwellings, with doorways resembling entrances to tool houses, with sills on the level of the dirty sidewalk, without proper lighting, without trees or shrubbery, or any green thing about, and without cheerful color or ornament, can now dwell, with no greater cost, in clean, bright, well-made and well-lighted sepa rate cottages. The uplifting effect of this change is plainly evident The whole at Biosphere is altered. When the workman returns from his daily labor, he finds a real home from which he feels no temptation to flee In order to seek the abasing pleas ures of the cafe and saloon. Hi* family has become more attractive to him because now they are mors cheerful and happy, and less sub ject to the attack of disease. Take Pride in Preserving the Attractiveness of Home. A hundred better instincts awake in all of them. The children have a decent place to play, and more things to interest them. The wife has well-lighted rooms, which she can adorn and keep In order. They all have more respect for them selves and for their neighbors. They begin to feel a proper emu lation. and take pride in preserving and increasing the attractiveness of their home. One detail that I observe in these French homes for working people Is worth special attention. Every effort Is made to avoid a dead uni formity in the 6tyle of the houses. They are not all built precisely alike. Each has an individuality of its own. The variety thus produced in the appearance of a group of houses is extremely pleasing, and the effect of this variety is felt by the dwellers themselves. It gives them a sense of Independence. It promotes the social instincts by affording something novel to the view of visitors. Each housewife is enabled to find expression for her personal tastes, and to take pride In her own manner of arrang ing things. Time Fast Coming When All Who Labor Will Have Homes. The societies of which I have spoken also interest themselves in rendering it easy to procure good furniture at moderate prices, and in encouraging the adornment of the interior. The time is fast coming when an who labor will have pleasant, cheerful homes to live In. and when that state of affairs has been at tained, the work of the world will be doubled in quantity and halved in difficulty. The Shadow Before By LILIAN LAUFERTY. Editor The Georgian I am glad to see that you have called attention to the manner 1n which the city’s ordinance con cerning cutting: out the muffler on automobile* within the city lim its Ub being enforced. And 1 am aJso pleased that Chief Beavers has taken immediate steps to see that the law is enforced. You have taken the right line and merit the applause of all citizens who have had their night’s sleep disturbed bv thoughtless Lautoists who wanted to make in air machines just because they could. I am afraid that there are a good many people in the world, and At lanta has a goodly share of the number, who fall to think of the duty they owe to their fellow cit|- «ens. They seem rather selfish, to int that the law is to be looked after more keenly I am expecting to enjoy these nice cool nights on my sleeping porch, serene in the. thought that w hen my fortunate friends in their au tos pass my door they will do so with the soft pedal on. ^ SLEEP I HE./ \ A LITTLE maid wrote tragedies, And all the people questioned, "Lo, She is a child, a very child! How comes It she has suffered so?* She wrote of life, in accents dark. The sufferings of a woman’s heart. Of love, of passion’s bitter throe, Of things from her young life apart The people marveled it was so, “She is a child—how can she know?* She was a child, but womanhood Came, as it does, unbidden quite; She was a simple-hearted child, But grew a woman overnight. The cruel words, the bitter thoughts So strangely born from that young mind Were understood—she knew at last The heritage of womanhood. Then bitterly she ma rveled, “Lo. I was a child—{low did I know?” And now again she wrote—but now Her knowledge sacred was. and so It must be hidden from the world Lest men should look, and looking know— So lilting songs came from her pen— “What pretty little things she writes!* The people marveled once again. Still older grown, she’s lost her power.* ! wonder too—do you suppose Our hearts have their prophetic hour?