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EDITORIAL PAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE HOME RARER THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published bv TH1? filP'KfilAN fuMI'ANY At 50 Ka*t Alshsmn st Atlanta Or Entered rf eerond-clas* mafrer at |»<>«tnfflre at Atlanta, or der act of Tarcn 3. 1M HRARST’S BVNtlAY AMERICAN ..lid Till; ATLANTA OEOROIAN will !*c maiw.l |u Hnbacrltx*ra artywLrr* In iL<- I'nltcil Canada arid Mexico, one month for J So thrsc months tor »i 7 6. i* m"ntli» for IS.&O and one year fur $7 AO change of uddress made aa often aa desired. horeiga subscription rates or. application. Christmas Is Coming The Wonderful Magnet How Wild Suprrutition .Settles Down Into .Scientific Reality. Oapjrrifbt. 1918. ty Th« Ht«r Company. Everybody knows something of the peculiarities of the mag net. As a boy you led tiny painted ducks around the water basin, held ng a magnet in your hand, or you owned a horseshoe magnet that would pick up nails and needles. You know now in a general kind of way that the magnet is a very useful as well as a somewhat mysterious thing. The old Greeks and Romans simply knew that some remark- sble iron ore found in Lydia, near the town of Magnesia, and hence called magnet, was capable of drawing and holding pieces of metal. The ancients had the wildest theories concerning the magnet, just as we have wild theories about things that are new and strange to us to-day. They thought that the magnet could be used in cases of sick ness, that it could attract wood and flesh, that it influenced the human brain, causing melancholy. They believed that the power of a magnet could be destroyed by rubbing garlic on it, and that power brought back again by dipping the magnet in goat's blood. They believed that a magnet could be used to detect bad conduct in a woman; they believed that it would not attract iron' in the presence of a diamond. They believed much other nonsense quite as ridiculous as the nonsense that we believe to-day. It must have seemed a great waste of time in wise men in the old days to discuss the magnet or think about it at all. Please observe how the apparent nonsense of early speculation finally ripens into actual utility, and learn to respect those who deal as best they can with questions that seem beyond our comprehension. First the magnet was made actually and wonderfully useful in the compass. Who discovered the compass nobody knows. It was probably invented by the Chinese and brought to Europ • through the Arabs. Anyhow, some genius found out that a small needle brought in contact with the so-called lodestone, or magnetic ore, absorbs the qualities of the lodestone, and when placed on a pivot will always point to the north. In the magnet there were and there still are many mysteries. A form of perpetual motion seems to be embodied in the principle of magnetism. One strange fact is this, that the weight of the metal is exactly the same before it is magnetized and after it is magnetized. Early students thought that the magnet pointed toward some particular spot in the sky, perhaps some magnetic star. One genius felt sure that there must be huge mountains of lodestone near the North Pole. This suggestion was followed by ingenious yarns to the effect that in the extreme North ships had to be built with wooden nails, instead of iron nails, as the magnetic mountains would draw the iron nails out of the ship. After this came the more rational conception that our own esrth is a great magnet, and that the little magnet in the compass . -inply obeys in pointing the greater force of the earth magnet. In thousands of ways to-day this magnetic power is utilized. That the earth itself is a great magnet cannot be questioned. /."d there’s no doubt that each of us human beings is a compound magnet on his own account, depending for his welfare on magnetic fo^ce. The millions of red corpuscles in the blood, each with its in finitesimal particles of iron, absorb in the lung3 and distribute tnrougliout the body the electric forces on which we depend, and with which we do our work. When you read of men and women dealing in a blundering ■ kind of a way with abstract, abstruse speculations and problem^ j do not laugh at them too heartily. They are no more ridiculous than the old Greeks who thought that a magnet could be regulated j by garlic or goat’s blood. And their wild theories of to-day may j settle down into great utility centuries from now. This applies to Chnstian Science, faith cures, telepathy, and the many other spec ulations of the present day. There is unquestionably much future lruit and value in many or all of them. © Canopus and Sirius By EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN. % Australian friend writes r\ that Canopus Is more brilliant than Sirius. I’leasr Mac- if this is true. In what part of the world is it visi ble? Has its parallax been accu rately determined?” A. First l fear that your friend ih in error. The results of that instrument of precision, the me ridian photometer, are that Sirius is seven-tenths of h magnitude brighter than Canopus, which • asilv teaches that Sirius is brighter than any other star. Second Canopus, next in bril liancy, is visible from all that portion of the world south of north latitude 37 degrees, since its deelination is south 53 degrees, and 53 is the complement of 37. It therefore never rises above th«- south horizon of an> point 3. degrees north. The latitude of this obst rvatory is 34 degrees 17 minutes, hence Canopus ris.-* vt;nearly 3 degrees above the watery wastes In the Pacific Sor Its low altitude makes it much fainter than higher Sirius, as the light must traverse layers of dust and water vapor near the earth’s surface. Still It magnificent, especially when standing over a calm ocean surface. Third Canopus has no paral lax that the highest-power tele- micrometers that can he made ar able to measure. This Is one of the most overwhelming facts within the entire range of human experience. This means that if one goes to Canopus with the most powerful telescope evt r made, turns and looks hack this way, the base line, (he entire diameter of the orbit of the earth 1S5.764.000 miles -dwindles to a minute point too small to be measured by an> microscope. Some idea may be had of the immensity of the universe by thinking of this fact during each spare minute. Better to s.. think than to waste the precious mo ments. Questions Answered THE GERMAN EMPIRE. J. TV Since 1871 all the States of Germany form an “external union for the protection of the realm ana tin- care of the welfare of th* German people.” For leg- ».du: ve purposes, under the I'm p- or as head, are two Houses of Assembly, the Cpper House of the Federated States, represent ing the individual States and the Lower House, or “Reichstag.'* Tin former corresponds very losely to our Senate, while the latter resembles our, House of Representat;lves. Germany, while heoretically a monarchy, is in substance and practice as demo cratic a country as there is on earth. The Emperor knows, very well, that it is no longer by “di vine right,” but by the right of tiie people that he sits at the head. THE CUP RACE. K. C. 1>.—Sir Thomas IJpton is now building a yacht to race for the America cup. He has com plied with the rather unfair regu lations of the New York Yacht Club, and will race for the cup on their own terms The race will prohabh hi held in New York harbor some time next fall. /% FIFTEEN-GENT pamphlet /A packed with value comes from the Equal Suffrage Association of Chicago. It comes under the title, “Social Forces.” and contains a topical outline, with a lull bibliography, cover ing government methods and ideals, together with industrial and educational types as well as problems of women and children. Libraries, schools, clubs and indi vidual students will find this an awakening little volume. I cull a few wise paragraphs: *‘We should disabuse our minds of the all-too-prevolent idea that what we do Is of no value in the development of the race, tha: certain reforms are bound to come anyway, and wo may as well sit back and fold our arms and watch them come. “Can not women, in the larger field now opening before them, bring to the world as their con tribution to social progress an at titude of mind sufficiently open and unhampered by tradition to shorten the process by eliminat ing at least the time occupied in • »\ dea arpund t he block ?’ “As we think back into the hu man societies that were here be fore wo came, we see in each a few great, struggling. lifting souls; and here and there, among the satisfied folks, a man or wom an who saw the way to a freer, more beautiful social order. And the question at once confronts us: Why did Mencius in China, Gautama In India. Aurelius, Michael Angelo, Francis Shaftes bury. each in his time, see so clearly, try so hard, and succeed so little, in serving real social progress? Why. indeed, when each age has hail Its social re- deemers. has the household of ihe world retained so much of .shift less disorder and dirt, so much of yesterday's left-over untidiness and ugliness and disease-breed ing filth, so much dullness and wretchedness of children and us all? “Edison can work out the plan of a storage battery all by him self. and Burbank can produce a spineless cactus all alone; but the idea of a society without vic tims, the plan of Its realizations and the definite practical program of what to do next to secure it may be perfectly developed in the mind of one of our steady-looking fellows, and It will never do any good, It can never be realized, except through the co-operation of all of us In seeing what he sees, in understanding his reasoning, in uniting with his determining "This is the distinguishing per ception of our time-—that we can have any sort of world we choose, that we can leave to our descend ants any sort of world we will, and that this recreating of social life can not be achieved except through our companionship in co operation, together using all the facts that any of us has learned. This dawning of the creative so cial consciousness Is expressing itself in many particular direc tions, political, economic, artistic; and each of these divides again ‘ like some great limb of a living tree Into its branches.” O NE hundred and one years ago a Berlin publisher an nounced to the world that he had just # published the first two volumes of Niebuhr’s His tory of Rome—a work that was destined to play hovoc with many of the records of the past. The great German’s book made a complete revolution In the method of writing history. In its wide and all-important field It did as much as Sir Charles Ly- ell's book did in the field of geol ogy. or Darwin in that of biog raphy. it was, in fact, the his tory of history, the key that was to admit us to the temple of Truth in matters historical. In Niebuhr's work there ap peared. practically for the first time, the exact facts regarding the Romans and their institu tions—their population, the foun dation of their State, the origin of the Plebs, the real relations between the Plebs and the Pa- CONSTANCY ,* BV LILLIAN LAUFERTY. I LOVED you once—I love you still What soul can bid love nay? Your memory my heart must thrill At this sad far-off day. If ecstasy Is paid with tears. If Joy must end In sorrow; And love comes down through weary years And grim Is each to morrow; If fancy’s hour is paid in woe. If bliss must reap in pain. And still slow days must dully go, I And yet stale moons must wane— Why. I, who loved you. love you still Despite these years apart: No price too great for that wild thrill You once taught my sad hearu Stars and Stripes Dr.Parkhursts Article —ON— The Churches 1 o-day— They A re Not Schools of Theological Dog ma, as One Critic Claims — They Are Dealing Very Directly with Practical Things. By DR. C. H. PARKHURST. How We Can Remould the World © The Great Niebuhr © By EDWIN MARKHAM. By REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY triclans, the nature of the public lands, the character of the vari ous constitutions, and the true meaning of the early law's* and customs out of which came, in the fullness of time, the all-con quering Republic which ended with Caesar. The myths which, up to Nie buhr’s time, had dominated much of our thought about Rome were exploded for all time, supersti tions were wiped out, and the way was cleared for a proper un derstanding of the great people who had stamped their genius so indelibly and permanently upon the world. Nor must the fact be over looked that In clearing up the Roman field Niebuhr cleared the entire field of history. The entire past, beginning with the dawn of recorded events, was now to begin to loom up with something like accuracy of out line and proportion. Rollin and his brother dreamers were to give way to the historians who could see clearly and report faithfully. Fables were no long er to usurp the place of facts, and old tradition was to take back a seat for the reality. And so. what Vico and Montes quieu did for the philosophy of history. Nieubuhr wate to do for Its method, and it is perfectly correct to say that those who have, within the past half cen tury or so, rewritten the story of the past, have done so largely along the lines that were marked out by the great German histo rian. Curtiss airship plant will move to Europe. Rather an unusual flight. • • • That Illinois girl that was jolt ed into the Governor's lap landed eoft. Vaudeville man in "turn " puts stockings on woman partner. An extraordinary feat. C HURCH people, whether of the Protestant, Catholic or Jewish type are sometimes made a little impatient by the way in which writers and de- claimers go out of their way to say ill-tempered and petulant things about the Church and the ministry. It would be in exceedingly bad taste for us to deny the defects of an Institution so evidently de ficient in many of the elements that make for protection; and In telligent and generous criticism will, by every fair-minded and sincere churchman, be received with becoming humility and grat itude; but adverse judgments when pronounced not only ignor antly, but with a certain malig nant reliBh, are a little irksome to the mind even of those who are trying to make it part of their religion to keep even-tem pered and good-natured. The simplest thing that, under the circumstances, can be said, is that it is much easier to say what the Church ought to be than it is to be a member and help make it what it ought to be. It would be unjust to find fault with the ideals that the critic exploits, but better than to stay outside and exploit ideals would be to come in and make them into reality. It would be better, but a great deal harder. There are few lines of busi ness that require so little capital as that of the fault finder, and few that involve so little expen diture of Christian grace as that of the censorious critic. Such Criticism May Once Have Been True, but It Is No Longer; An article in the November is sue of a magazine, entitled “Our Supervised Morals,” would have made better reading and more helpful, if it had not been em ployed to express a little of the vicious animus just remarked upon, for while it says many good things, it is composed in rather bad temper and indulges in two or three slaps which do not rise to the dignity of an as sault. One example is the following. “Perhaps the churches are con sidered the schools of morals, • » • but. no; the churches are schools of theological dogma, a matter totally unrelated to moralB. and only here and there, sporadically, does one find clergy men with definite ethical doc trines. who feel called upon to teach them. “The topic uppermost just now in the ministerial mind, as who may prove who listens to ser mons from Maine to Y irginla, and from Massachusetts to Col orado, is the supremacy and need of the Church. That the Church is not a useless or decadent insti tution is vociferously proclaimed from all the pulpits. Well, is it a school of morals? is it intent upon a,nice distinction between right and wrong?” There was a time undoubtedly when the criticism passed upon preaching by the writer of the article would have been applica ble to the situation, but she has not kept up with the progress of ministerial thought. Is not aware that the pulpit of the present is dealing.- very directly and em phatically, with practical matters of conduct. Like other members of her class, who have a latent antipathy to religion considered as funda mental to sound ethics, she harps upon the old criticism, not hav ing come close enough to the spirit of the contemporary pulpit been in progress, and that the Ten Commandments now fill a very much larger place in pulpit discourse than does dogmatic die cussion. She has let her recollection of what may have been true once, along with an illy disguised an tipathy to the whole religious matter, take the place of an inti mate acquaintance with what ministers are now preaching about (as disclosed by the press and by printed volumes of ser mons) in forming her estimate and shaping her criticsm of cur rent homiletics. Had not her article been col ored by such a prejudgment she would have been saved from the violation of one of those moral principles so ardently cherished by her—-“Thou shalt not bear false witness.’’ Just What Is Meant by “Church?” What Does It Stand For? But her condemnation rests not only upon the clergy but—as shown in the quoted paragraph- just as much upon the church. The writer of the article in ques tion gives no indication as to what exactly she understands by ’’Church.” But if the superficial view she takes of what the preachers are saying is paralleled by her estl mate of what Church denotes, she probably understands by the latter an assemblage of people gathered periodically in the sanc tuary for religious services and in their corporate capacity un dertaking to put some sort of stamp upon the character of the community. There is considerable of that idea abroad and she presumably shares In it, and so far as it goes the idea is not an altogether un warranted one. But the full scope of Church is not appre elated and a just accounting is not made till there have been reckoned in the results wrought by individual members who gather in the sanctuary and who receive from its services and from the inspiration of its fellow ships that inspiration that sends them forth iDdlviduaJly to put their several impulses where op portunity and the love that is in their hearts suggests. Take, if you please, all the nris sions that are being worked in this city; add to them the Young Men’s and the Young Women's Christian Associations; add still farther all the purely humanl tartan efforts that are being put forth for human saving and up lift. They Are Building Men and Women Into No bility of Life. Remember that in almost erei-7 case the moving spirits in these enterprises are Churchmen and Churchwomen that are labor ing not at all along lines of dog matic theology but with a direci reference to building up men and women into practical nobility of life. ln=Shoots Cold feet never carried a man anywhere. • * * The courage of one’s convictions Is more apt to invite a swat than words of approval. • * • It is impossible to be real hap py unless someone is happy with you. • * « If all were forced to practice what they preach there would not be so much preaching. • * * The girl w'hose face never changes color is not always heartless. She may be kaUu- minad.