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EDITORIAL rA'GE
r
The Atlanta Georgian THE HOME RARER
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
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The Filipinos Will Welcome
Any Transfer After Harrison
In every quality necessary to the administration of the af
fairs of the eight million upward-straggling Filipinos, Francis
Burton Harrison is conspicuously and superlatively lacking.
Yet by grace of a President whose duty it is to aid these simple
people in their plodding progress out of savagery, Francis Bur-
ton Harrison has been made Governor General of the Philip
pines.
What Wilson reason there can be for this astonishing ap.
pointment can only be conjectured by the multitude whose hearts
will go out in pity to the childlike inhabitants of our insular pos
sessions.
Pressed on all sides by exploiting promoters, the Filipinos
sorely need protection. Harrison is as little fitted to protect
them as a child is fitted to protect a huddling flock of sheep
against the onslaught of a pack of ravening wolves.
Struggling toward citizenship they need the guidance of
one well schooled in the art of government. What murky ideas
of government flit through the Harrison mind were gleaned from
the teachings of Charles Francis Murphy, of New York City—
who holds that government should be by, for and of the corpora
tions most zealous in contributions to the Tammany chest.
In the fight for standards of civilization the islanders need
an example. Harrison supplies only an example of the organiza
tion tool, too subservient to be a distinct leader, too futile to be
permitted in municipal office, too vacant to be granted any or
gnnization favor save a seat in Congress bought by a campaign
contribution.
Opportunities knocked often at the Harrison Congressional
door. The only one he welcomed in was the opportunity to con
tinue a nonenity. The positions were flung to him as pay for
the one service he knew how to render—abject obedience. To
these positions he brought neither industry nor ability, and they
atrophied under his listless hand.
The one conspicuous achievement attributed to him—bolt
ing his party and helping “Uncle Joe” Cannon masthead the re
actionary flag over the House of Representatives—was not Har
rison's achievement at all, but Murphy’s, for Murphy gave the
order that sent Harrison hurrying to Cannon’s help.
Harrison’s single adventure in celebrity was getting him
self barred from the White House at a time when his constituents
could profit most through White House favor.
Such a man, whose equal in unfitness for the task he has
been set could scarcely be found in public life, has been intrusted
with the destinies, the fortunes and the lives of eight million de
pendent human beings.
Why?
Is it because Harrison, by reason of seniority, stands between
Wilson ’s friend Mitchell Palmer and the House leadership, soon
to be relinquished by Underwood?
Or is it part of a Wilson Bryan plan to hand the Philippines
over to the Japanese and make any sort of a transfer welcome to |
the Filipinos?
Summer Is Over. Did You
Waste It?
Catch Up Now and Look Out for Spider Webs of Laziness.
(Copyright, 1913 )
Summer is over. What did it do for you?
Did you get enough rest to make you WORK better?
Did you use the time of rest to build up strength, health and
character for the work ahead?
Outside of your vacation, were you one of those sensible
enough to work and keep hard at it while others were doing
nothing—although they might be pretending to work?
Are you going to try now, no matter what has happened in
the past, to catch up with those that are ahead? Are you de
termined to get started and keep going?
It is fair weather and sunshiny now. But soon the wind
will be cold and it will be snowing.
Life is young now, everything seems easy—but soon old age
will come and the wind of anxiety will be cold AND IT WILL
BE SNOWING.
Look out for idleness and its effects.
Look out for the habit so easily formed, so hard to lose.
Every lazy animal that has lived on this earth is hidden
away in your body, inherited by you during past thousands of
centuries.
The sloth hanging head downward is in you. The turtle
sunning himself on the log is your ancestor, spiritual if not
physical.
Even the fearful spider, feigning to sleep, but so wakeful in
his web, is your direct ancestor, according to the scientists.
All the animals that have spent their lives on this earth, rest
ing in the sun, idling, working only when they MUST, are repre
sented in you.
Your brain has got to fight all of these animal influences.
Your hope is the will power, the capacity for thought, which has
caused the topmost joint in man’s backbone to swell out into the
skull in which man 's brain thinks and rules the world.
How much time do you spend thinking about others, admir
ing what they do or watching what they do?
How often do you think about yourself, and question your
self, AND CRITICISE YOURSELF, as we all ought to do?
Have you let the spider web spread over you during the
summer, when everything seemed so easy and comfortable?
If you have, BREAK it and get to work. You can do it now,
you won’t do it later.
Don’t wait for January first to find you looking back mourn
fully and making the usual solemn resolutions that will be for
gotten before Washington s Birthday. Get out of the web and
work. There are still plenty of chances for workers.
Look Out for That Spider Idleness
Very Pleasant is Leisure and Ease, until THE HABIT is Formed. A very light Web at first, it gets
Heavier. (See editorial.)
Fewer Marriages Because People Think
Cold Logic Has Displaced Sentiment and the Mating Instinct-Intel
ligent Persons Now Glance Into the Future.
By DOROTHY DIX
N EW YORK CONSERVATION
COMMISSIONER E. E. RIT-
• TKNHOUSE asks: "Why
are there more than seventeen mil
lion unmarried men and women In
the United States?”
"Never," he says, "has a nation
been so prosperous or so within
reach of the comforts and luxuries
of life. Yet people do not marry.
There Is something wrong. What
Is It?”
There are many reasons why
people do not marry. One Is the
high cost of living, for while the
nation is undoubtedly prosperous,
the golden stream doesn't wash by
every man’s door to an extent that
enables him to support a family in
any decent comfort.
The main reason, however, that
there has been what Mr. Wegg
called a decline and fall off In mat
rimony is because people have be
gun to use their heads instead of
their hearts in deciding the matter.
Cold logic has superseded the mat
ing instinct in dealing with the
problem.
Men and Women Wed
Formerly Merely as a
Matter of Sentiment.
In former times men and women
married simply because they were
attracted to some member of the
opposite sex. Whether they could
feed or clothe a family, or whether
they were likely to bequeath some
terrible inheritance to their off
spring. did not enter Into their cal
culation. They went it blind, with-
our regard to consequences to
themselves or any one else. Now
intelligent men and women consid
er before marriage whether they
have a right to marry and bring
into the world deformed and dis
eased children, or children that
they will have to sell into child
slavery beoause of poverty.
Also men and women are becom
ing afraid to marry. They see that
nine-tenths of the marriages in the
world are failures, so far as bring
ing any happiness to either hus
band or wife, and so they decide
that single blessedness is better
than double wretchedness.
Only a few days ago a brilliant
young physician, who has already
achieved success, said to me that
nothing on earth, after what he
had seen of matrimonial misery
through the practice of his profes
sion, could ever induce him to
marry. He recognised that the
ideal marriage was the happiest lot
on earth, but the chances against
It were too great. He was play
ing no hundred-to-one shot at hap
piness.
And the same theory holds good
at the other end of the social line.
The other day a large manufac
turer sent me a letter that was as
curious and interesting a human
document as were the letters of
Orare Brown. This letter had been
written by a little untaught mill
girl, who was only seventeen, but
who, in some strange way, had
fathomed the depths of the philoso
phy of modem life. It was written
to her sweetheart, breaking off her
engagement to him, and it fell into
the manufacturer's hands through
one of his stenographers having
written It for the girl on the type
writer, and a carbon copy of it
having been left lying about.
The letter in part is as follows:
"1 have wanted to tell you that I
can not marry you, and you know
the reason. I hope you will not
think hard of me, and will under
stand why under the circumstances
I must refuse. We both have our
living to make, and you know we
could not get along on what you
make now, the way living expenses
are. It was different when our
fathers and mothers married; peo
ple then were satisfied with less,
and there were not so many things
to see. and go to, and to buy.
“I know you think you could do
without some things, and I believe
you would try, but after a little
white you would begin to wonder
if you are getting enough to make
up for what you had given up. You
know our friends are not all mar
ried, and they would still be able
to go and do things when we
could not. You and I would still
be young folks, although we were
married, and I think we would both
feel bad when we saw the good
times our single friends were hav
ing, and which we used to have,
and could not have any more. Why
can not we still be good friends
and sweethearts, and wait until
you can get into some little busi
ness where I could help, and we
would have more to work on?
"I am writing this to you so you
can not interrupt me until I am
through. I know you love me, and
it is nice to be loved, and l think
you know 1 love you, but we can
not marry now. It would make us
both miserable.”
In this letter you have the rea
son why most of the seventeen
million men and women In this
country who are unmarried don’t
marry. They love. They would
like to marry, but they have faced
the fact that it takes bread and
butter as well as sentiment to keep
a house going.
The girl at work can make a
decent living for herself. The man
at work can make a decent living
for himself, but the man doesn’t
make enough to make a decent
living for the girl and himself both,
and the children that they may
have. So they stay single.
Increase in Number of
Bachelors and Spin
sters Explained.
Also the standard of living has
been raised. As the little mill girl
says, “When our fathers and
mothers married people were satis
fied with less, and there were not
so many things to see and go to
and to buy.” It’s folly to Ignore
this, and to talk about going back
to the simple life. We can't do it.
We can't go back to tallow dips
after electric light, or ride on a
stage coach after we are used to
steam cars. It’s unroroantlc, but
true, that It’s easier to do without
a husband or wife than it is to do
without the comforts to which we
are accustomed.
All of which makes it rough for
Cupid, but it explains the ever-
increasing number of old maids
and old bachelors.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Writes on
2? —^
Motherhood
wb
The Duty of a Wife to Her Un-
P
born Children Is Clear-Cut—
Maternitv Should Be the Hol\
Thing It Is Meant to Be.
Written for The Atlanta Georgian
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
(Copyright, 1913.)
THE UNWED MOTHER TO THE WIFE.
I HAD been almost happy for an hour.
Lost to the world that knew me in the park
Among strange faces; while my little girl
Leaped with the squirrels, chirruped with the birds.
And with the sunlight glowed. She was so dear,
So beautiful, so sweet; and for the time
The rose of love, shorn of Its thorn of shame,
Bloomed In m.v heart. Then suddenly you passed.
I sat alone on the public bench;
You with your lawful husband rode In state:
And when your eyes fell on me, and my child,
They were not eyes, but daggers, poison tipped.
God! how good women slaughter with a look;
And like cold steel, your glance cut through my heart—
Struck every petal from the rose of love
And left the ragged stalk alive with thorns.
My little one came running to my side
And called me Mother. It was like a blow
Retween the eyes; and made me sick with pain.
And then it seemed as if each bird and breeze
Took up the word, and changed Its syllables
From Mother Into Magdalene; and cried
My shame to all the world.
It was your eyes
Which did ail this. Rut listen now to me
(Not you alone, but all the barren wives -
Who, like you, flaunt their virtue In the face
Of fallen women) : I do chance to know
The crimes you think are hidden from all men
(Save one who took your gold, and sold Ills skill
And jeopardized his name for your base ends).
I know how you have sunk your soul In sense
Like any wanton; and refused to bear
The harvest of your pleasure planted seed;
1 know how you have crushed the tender bud.
Which held a soul; how you have blighted it;
And made the holy miracle of birth
A wicked travesty of God’s design;
Yea, many buds, which might be blossoms now
And beautify yonr selfish, arid life,
Have yon destroyed because you choose to keep
The aimless freedom and the purposeless
Self seeking liberty of childless wives.
/
I was an untaught girl. Ry nature led,
Ry love and passion blinded, I became
Ah unwed mother. You, an honored wife,
Refuse the crown of motherhood; defy
The laws of nature; and fling baby souls
Back In the face of God. And yet you dare
Call me a sinner, and yourself a saint;
And all' the world smiles on you and Its doors
Swing wide at your approach, I stand outside.
Surely there must be higher courts than earth,
Where you and 1 will some day meet and be
Weighed by a larger justice?
A FTER discussing “The Un
wed Mother to the Wife,”
poem In the August Cos
mopolitan. the girls In the office
have decided to ask whether
yon would be so kind as to ad
vise us, through The Georgian,
whom you consider the greater
sinner, and why? I consider the
wife the greater sinner, but the
girls do not agree with me. They
seem to think when a woman Is
legally married she has the right
to accept or refuse God’B most
wonderful blessing—children. We
would all appreciate a little ar
ticle on this subject.
Thanking you very kindly In
advance, I am,
One of your many girl-friend
readers,
BESSIE HERMANNS.
The poem quoted above, from
the August Cosmopolitan Maga
zine. Is In itself an answer to this
query.
A woman who is legally mar
ried has no right to destroy her
nnborn child. She has the right
to refuse motherhood if she is
conscious that her children
would be liable to inherit virions
or diseased tendencies. That is,
she has the right to decide she
will not plant a harvest of tares.
Rut once the germ of life is
planted, that moment she has in
vited an immortal soul to come
into being, and take on mortal
form; and if she prevents Its
reaching maturity she does a
criminal act.
Girl Who Has Erred Is
To Be Pitied by All
Humanity.
The girl who through lack of
right training and right knowl
edge, or who through loving un
wisely. ltecomes a mother with
out marriage ties, is to be pitied;
she has brought sorrow on her
self and on her child for life. But
she is far less of a sinner than
the mature woman, who in the
shelter of a home, and with the
full sanction of church and so
ciety to be a mother, deliberate
ly destroys her unborn child, in
order to escape the trouble and
expense of maternity.
The girl’s sin is the sin of
weak human nature; the wom
an sins against nature and
against God’s divine laws.
Motherhood, to be the holy and
happy thing It is meant to be—
the greatest privilege given to
woman—needs the blessing of
law and love.
Society Condoning the
Act Doesn’t Lessen
the Crime.
Rut marriage laws, however
they protect a wife from the con-
demnation of society, can never
make abortion anything less than
a crime.
Women criminals of this order
are to be found In every church,
and In high social circles; and
they are accepted and their con
duct Is overlooked because they
are married.
But that does not lessen the
crime. Their acts are deliberate
and premeditated and done
through selfishness and a desire
to escape the responsibility of
motherhood.
The erring girl’s fall is unpre
meditated, and usually the result
of lack of proper training at
home; proper maternal teach
ing; for no girl who is the close
companion and intimate friend
of a wise, loving, sympathetic
mother, ever goes wrong.
Read your New Testament and
see how of all sinners mentioned
Christ gave the deepest compas
sion to the fallen woman. And
then look about you and try to
find one of His true disetpi**.