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EDITORIAL RAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE HOME PARER
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
rubl1«h«d by THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 50 E**t Alabama flt Atlanta, Oa
Entered a* «t<*rond-rlaa8 matter at poatnfflc* at Atlanta, under art of Marrb 5. H”1
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HOW HUNTER STREET COULD BE IMPROVED BY GRADING
Government Ownership of Tele'
phones and Telegraphs De
sirable and Inevitable
Eight years ago almost to a day, Representative William
Randolph Hearst introduced in the Fifty-ninth Congress A bill
to enable the United States to acquire, maintain and operate
electric telegraphs," etc. The bill very carefully provided a
specific method of fair, legal purchase of "any or all existing
lines," and their operation for the benefit of the people as the
postofiice is.
Rates were to be adjusted to provide a reasonable profit
to pay off the government bonds issued at popular subscription
to buy the telegraph or telephone systems.
A stand pat Republican Congress regarded Mr. Hearst s bill
as dangerous, if not revolutionary.
It was neither dangerous nor revolutionary, nor impractica
ble, but only NEW—like the Panama Canal, election of United
States Senators by direct primaries, income tax, and so many
other things that Mr. Hearst advocated long in advance of their
realization.
Mr. Hearst’s bill of EIGHT YEARS AGO was reintroduced
in substance in the Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses.
TWO YEARS AGO, Postmaster General Hitchcock, a Re
publican, recommended it in a report to President Taft and to
Congress.
TO DAY a Democratic Postmaster General makes the
recommendation the principal feature of his annual report.
President Wilson approves it in principle, although he has
not passed on any bill in detail.
Representative Lewis, of Maryland, to whose energy and
persistency we owe the parcel post law, is at work on the bill
for early presentation to Congress. It will first be submitted to
the Democratic caucus.
WHETHER APPROVED THIS WINTER OR NOT, IT IS
SURE TO BECOME LAW.
The telegraph, the telephone, the mail, owned by the gov
ernment, all operated together, united in one system.
The United States has thus talked government ownership
for eight years, but England has—since Mr. Hearst’s bill was in
troduced in Congress—actually accomplished it. 'fhe method
adopted was substantially that suggested in the Hearst bill. The
Government of Great Britain took possession of all the telephones
last year.
Competition is impossible between telephone companies.
There is no more excuse for two telephone or two telegraph
companies in the same place than for two postoffices side by side.
Duplication of offices is wasteful. The telephone now reaches
more remote and more numerous places than the telegraph. The
postofiice is even more universal. Every postofflee can be the
communicating nerve center of every community—with the
choice always at hand of the slow mails, the quicker telegraph or
the telephone capable of annihilating both time and space.
This combination is inevitable. Its realization is much more
difficult now than it would have been when Mr. Hearst first advo
cated it, because much more expensive. Representative Lewis
estimates the cost at NINE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS.
Where will the money come from? All the money centers of the
world could not furnish so great a sum at the present juncture,
even for the richest nation of the earth.
The development of the telephone has been pushed in the
past decade by men of great genius who have spent more than
$500,000,000, and made it as easy for the New York business
man to sit at his desk and talk to Chicago, Kansas Oity, or Den
ver, 2,000 miles away, as to the man in the next room.
The chief telephone system now has 80,036 stockholders,
and the stocks and bonds outstanding amount to $637,690,278.
The independent telephone companies not identified with the
American Telegraph and Telephone have stocks and bonds
amounting to $322,065,588 more, according to the Census figures.
The total. $1,010,555,836, of the telephone securities alone (ex
cluding all telegraph lines) exceed the total present bonded debt
of the United States, which on December 1 was $966,823,490.
The rate charged for telephones in New York City ($48
minimum for private house or offloe) is more than in London
(£6 or $30), but is LESS than in Paris (400 francs, or about $80).
London and Paris telephones are now both under government
control.
The problem of administration is as certain to be overcome,
in time, as the obstacle of first cost. Our fleetest battleships are
those built by the government, not by the private shipyards, and
our Panama Canal could not have been finished under private
engineers, even at government expense. It took a government
engineer to do it.
The government can employ or train another VAIL or
BETHEL, and it will in time, for government ownership of all
telephones and telegraphs is BOTH DESIRABLE AND
INEVITABLE.
The report that Secretary Garrison has determined upon a
form of government of the Canal Zone and has determined upon
a man to fill the delicate post of governor is disquieting.
It is true that nothing in the Secretary’s utterances indi
cates that the man he has in mind is not Colonel Ooethals. But it
is reasonable to suppose that if the Secretary contemplated an
appointment so thoroughly in compliance with the public de
mand he would not hesitate about announcing it.
Until a few months ago the Canal Commission was very
efficiently guarded against politios, but the appointment as coni
missioner of a Nebraska politician, the editor of Mr. Bryan's
‘ * Commoner. ’' awakened apprehension that this condition would
not long endure.
Commissioner Metcalfe very promptly signalized his acces
sion to office by recommending a commission form of government
for the Zone in place of the present one man power. A less self-
confident person would perhaps have waited until he had learned
his way about the Isthmus, and the difference between Culebra
Cut and Gatun Dam before undertaking a plan for its govern
ment in opposition to Colonel Ooethals.
Mr. Metcalfe was, however, so prompt in recommending a
plan wholly at variance with the views of Colonel Ooethals that
many people suspect that he was sent there to do precisely that
thing.
The people know Ooethals and admire what he has done.
They already look with suspicion upon the hasty and immature
activities of Metcalfe. If the Secretary of War is incubating a
plan for the aggrandizement of the latter, or for the displace
ment of the true builder of the Canal, he had better get ready
for a st«m.
T
TRAFFIC congestion in the
downtown district has be
come so serious a prob
lem that ways and means of solv-
lag It are of paramount Impor
tance. The grading of Whitehall
street between Mitchell and Har
nett. Is an Improvement the Im
portance of which will be ap
parent to everyone as soon as
the work has been completed.
Now comes a suggestion from
John L. Ryan for the grading of
Hunter street between Central
avenue and Forsyth street He
submitted the accompanying
drawing u> Illustrate the Idea. Of
this play be says:
"It will open a level street
from Madison avenue to the
rapidly growing business section
on the east side of Whitehall,
causing a great portion of the
business which now seems to be
so confined to the vicinity of For
myth, Broad and the Intervening
streets on the west side of White
hall to spread toward Central
avenue
“It can not hut help the prop
erty owners who are within the
blocks graded, as It will give
them one or two more floors on
the same land, and will afford
the four large stores on the cor
ners a Hunter street entrance as
well as an entrance on Whitehall
street
"Owing to the lesser frontage
value on these two blocks It
should not cost the city any
thing for damages which may
occur during the process of con
struction to business The pub
lic comfort feature Is of great
importance to the welfare of the
citlsens. and is one that should
not be overlooked.
‘‘As the new courthouse is
now being completed, nothing
coaid give a more Imposing effect
than a level street on these two
blocks.”
MYSTERIES OF THE HEAVENS EXPLAINED—By Garrett P. Serviss
I F two smokers sitting in oppo
site chairs blow each a cloud
of tobacco smoke toward the
other, the clouds will meet and
mingle, formtng a little model of
the starry universe, as It Is rep
resented by some of the latest
investigations of astronomers.
The particles constituting each
of the clouds have a common
movement In the direction In
which they were blown, so that
when the clouds are combined
two opposite motions appear, one
set of particles traveling one way
and another set Just the contrary
way.
In addition to this the parttclea
have Individual motions Inside
each cloud, so that, as the clouds
penetrate one another, going In
opposite directions, their respec
tive particles do not all travel In
perfectly parallel lines, or with
equal velocity. There are strag
glers among them, and some
whirl around in eddies. But. as
a whole, each of the original
clouds retains its genera! direc
tion of movement. No account is
taken of the resistance of the air.
Now. to make thle cloud of
smoke with Its oppositely moving
particles present a striking image
of the universe, as astronomers
are beginning to see it. It Is only
necessary. In imagination, to scat
ter its particles more widely and
to make every one of them shine
like a miniature star.
For the latest studies ol Stella*
motions show that there are In
the heavens two vast star streams,
moving In nearly opposite direc
tions and apparently including, in
motion along with our sun is one
of the chief reaeons why the
doubte sat of star currents was
not discovered long ago
We will not stop to Inquire
what could have bean the reaaon
for the meeting of two clouds of
stars or what was the condition of
those clouds before their encoun
ter. for there are other strange
facts to be considered
To understand these we must
mall that astronomers have been
one or the other of their almost
Innumerable hosts all the shining
orbs, great and small, that the eye
or the telescope beholde In the
immensity of space around us.
Our own sun is on# of these
flying particles, belonging to one
able to tell the relative ages of
the stars by analysing thetr light
Such analysis shows what sub
stances they are composed of and
In what state those subetances
exist In the different stars.
It Is generally considered that
stars containing helium are the
younger or the most recently
formed. As more and more of the
chemical elements appear tn a
star Its age increases. In human
life we have infancy, youth,
young manhood, full manhood and
old age: so In the stars there are
four or five distinguishable ages,
the first of which, stellar Infancy,
Is represented by the condition of
the helium stars.
Now (and this seems very
strange) it has been found that
the velocity of the Individual stars
moving In the two great streams
of the two great Intermingling
stellar currents of which the vis
ible universe consists. The fact
that we ourselves are in swift
or currents varies with the age
of those Individuals.
The older the star the swifter
its motion. Here Is a decided de
parture from the human simili
tude that we have used for illus
tration. since among ua agility de
creases instead of increases with
age!
The helium stars move very
slowly; those of the next older
class more swiftly, and so on.
And then the mystery deepens,
for the helium stars, and their
younger brethren, show a decided
preference for one of the two
great star streams, and the old
er stars exhibit an equally strong
tendency to confine themselves to
just the opposite stream!
So the two mysterious currents
**
THE TRAVELLER
■Y ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
B'
R«TTt«t«J St WrMsIn tm VuUii fw DrtwJwr CapSTlgSt, 1*18. hi Haam
RI6TLINO with steeples, high against the hill.
Like some great thistle in !*>« rosy dawn
It stood; the Town-of-Christian-Churches, stood
The Traveller enrveyed It wtth a smile.
'•Rarely.'’ he eald "here Is the home of pears.
Here neighbor llree wtth neighbor In accord;
Ood tn the heart of all. Flee why tbeee spires?”
(Christmas seeeon. and every bell ringing.)
The sudden shriek of whistles changed the sound
From mellow music into Jsrring noise;
Then down the street pale. Hurrying children cams.
And vanished (h the yawning factory door,
r*
He called to them: “Come back, come unto Me.”
The foreman cursed, and caned him from the place.
(Christmas season, and every hall ringing.)
Forth from two churches came two men. and met.
Disputing loudly over boundary linea,
Hate In their eyes, sad murder In their hearts
A haughty woman drew bar skirts aside
Because her fallen sister passed that way.
The Traveller rebuked them all. Amared.
They asked in Indignation. “Who are you,
Daring to interfere in private lives?”
The Traveller replied. My name is CHRIST.”
(Christmas season, and every bell ringing.)
consist, broadly speaking, the one
of young, slow stars, and the oth
er of old, swift stars. Why do they
keep apart? And why, among the
stars, is youth dashed with grav
ity and age inspired with nim
bleness?
Although it would seem futile
to try to answer such questions,
even if put in a scientific form,
yet Professor J. C. Kapetyn, one
of the original discoverers of the
streaming of the stars, has point-
ew out facts which may even
tually clear up these mysteries
He shows that the sluggishness of
the helium stars is an indication
that they have been formed di
rectly cut of something which he
calls ''primordial matter” and
which Is probably Identical with
the substance of the huge nebu
lous cloud in the constellation
Orion.
This primordial matter seems
to be subject to almost no motion
except that of the great current
in which it lies. As it condenses
into stars, gravitation begins to
act more and more strongly upor
It, and thus the stars, as the'
grow older and denser, acquire
an Increasing motion independent
of the general movement.
In confirmation of this, the fact
is pointed out that the Orion Ne
bula possesses precisely the move
ment characteristic of the helium
stars, and so may be regarded
M % binbpinoe of such MHk _