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EDITORIAL RAGE The Atlanta Georgian Published by THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St.. Atlanta. Ga. Entered as second-rlass matter at postofflce at Atlanta, under act of March S 1171 HEARST'S SUNDAY AMERICAN and THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN 'wJli be mailed t<» subscribers anywhere In the United States, Canada and Mexico one month. *.80; three months, $1.75: six months $3.50 and one year, $7 00 The South and the Negro: Solving the Race Problem (The following editorial, which is by John Tempi* Graven, in printed simultaneously in Hearst newspapers 'hroughout the country, and consequently is to-day bring read by millions of persons ) The evidences are many and gratifying that the people of the new South are realizing and meeting in a very high degree the obligation and duty they owe to the negro. The negro problem is the South’s greatest problem. It has passed through the era of passion, and is passing safely through the era of radical prejudices. The idea which so long a time had currency in the South was that the negro had no qualifications for living and competing with the dominant and superior race that he complicated all of their problems of industry and society; and that the wise thing to do was to help him to enter another country, where, after two hundred years of contact with this people, he might work out his own destiny by their counsel and co operation, but with absolute independence and in his own right. That idea has entirely passed away. Every thinking man now believes that so long as our republic endures, the white and black races will dwell side by side in'the South. It was therefore both logical and h umane that the more advanced and better developed race must, as a matter of policy and prudence, help the negro and develop him along the best lines, and co operate with him in every worthy measure, with helpfulness and consideration. They must build up the negro to the higher concep tions of his duty to himself and to them, and establish the understanding that SINCE THEY MUST LIVE WITH HIM, THE WHITE RACE MUST HELP HIM to be worthier of citizenship and association. More and more the Northern people, whose philanthropy has been lavish and well directed, are holding off their hands and their money in the developing of the negro, and are coming to trust the South more and more completely in dealing with problems looking to his welfare. This feeling and spirit are entering the minds of both races, and it is safe to j say that THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO RACES OF THE SOUTH HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE FRIENDLY AND SAFER THAN NOW. From April 25 to 29 of the present year in Atlanta, the Southern Sociological Congress, made up of leading university presidents, with other noted publicists and thinkers of the South, discussed with rare courage, great moderation and remarkable ability the religious, educational, hygienic, economic and civic conditions of the negro of the South and the white man’s relations to him. The speeches at the congress were epoch making because of the accuracy and abundance of the data, and because of the startling frankness of stating the de ficiency disclosed in the program of the whites of the South in dealing with the negro problem. An especially striking feature of the congress was the fact that the negro dele gates were invited as a body, for the first time in the history of any program of a similar character, to seats on the floor in each of the seven conferences held simulta neously in seven different white churches of the capital of the South. On December 14, engineered and directed by W. Woods White, philanthropist and progressive thinker, there was gathered in Atlanta the most notable and epochal meeting of the negroes ever held in the South, if not in America. Between eight and ten thousand representative negroes of Atlanta, thirty-two churches and pastors of all denominations, meeting for a common joint religious purpose, assembled in the great Atlanta Auditorium and were addressed by leading preachers of their own race, by leading preachers of the white race of Atlanta, by Governor Slaton,, of Georgia; by bankers, business men and editors. The object of the meeting was to persuade the negroes, out of their own means, to erect a Y. M. C. A. building in Atlanta, with the assurance that if they did this thing the general public would co operate with them more liberally than they have ever done before. The great objective lesson was TO PERSUADE THE NEGRO TO HELP HIMSELF in this matter, and the speeches were the best ever made in Atlanta in many years. Negroes themselves contributed $4,000. The most valuable result of the meeting was the education of the negro in THE GREAT POLICY OF SELF HELP, AND OF CONFIDENCE in the good will of the white race. The results have already been remarkable and inspiring. The Southern Baptists’ convention at Louisville passed resolutions pledging faith to the new organization of Southern sentiments to the help of that new race. The white preachers of Atlanta frequently leave their own pulpits on Sunday morning to go out and preach the saving grace of character, thrift and self help in the negro churches. The effect of this better spirit is widespread throughout the South. It has al most revolutionized the feeling between the two races. It has inspired the negro to greater expressions of sacrifice and industry than he has ever shown before, and he is accumulating both property and public institutions in a gratifying way. So far as the South is concerned, the problem is in process of wholesome and certain solution. The future of the negro has never seemed so promising and bright As a laborer, citizen and a man, the negro, under this bright and beneficent policy has advanced and is advancing day by day. Tl*ere is no greater people in the history of nations than the people of the South. And in view of the history of the Civil War, and of the reconstruction period that followed, the Southern people have never been greater and wiser than in their present splendid attitude toward their former slaves. ALL QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC! Oopyrlftot, 1913, InternAtwuftl Newg SarTto*. Real Intent of White Slave Law T M-IE Department of Justice has been compelled to is sue a denial of the state ment so persistently repeated that important changes have been made in the administration of the Mann white slave law. The press has been led to believe that since the close of the Diggs-Caminetti trials orders have gone forth from the Department of Justice forbidding prosecutions under the Mann act unless the element of gain has entered into the offense. The public has been sedulously indoctrinated with the belief that the Mann act is to be treated as a white slave law pure and sim ple; and that where there is no question of profit made from vice it is henceforth to be ignored. Not a word of this is true. The official denial says: “No order to stop white slave prosecutions in cases not involv ing commercialism has been is sued. and no new regulations as to the enforcement of the act have been made since the incum bency of the new Attorney Gen eral.” And the statement proceeds. “On the contrary, the Department of Justice has adhered to the practice adopted immediately aft er the passage of the law and fol lowed during the previous Ad ministration.” Fresh legislation would be needed to exclude from the view of the criminal law offenses now’ made crimes. And whether the offense is committed for the sake of gain or not it is covered by the Mann act. It is proverbially difficult to overtake a misrepresentation. It is all the more difficult when the misrepresentation grows out of an honest misunderstanding of the facts. y§ome persons, to be sure, have an interest in misrepresent ing the act. A vast majority of those who complain of the act have seized upon two or three facts, and for lack of the essen tial fact, which they have never known, have innocently blunder- By REV. C. F. AKED, D.D. ed. Without meaning to misrep resent they go on asserting the things that are not so. And the misunderstanding spreads. It is perfectTy true that the law is called “The White Slave Traf- REV. CHARLES F. AKED. fic Act.” It is perfectly true that originally it was intended to pen alize transportation of girls from one State to another for the sake of money profit. It is perfectly true that Mr. Mann, who intro duced the measure, in his report to Congress stated that this was the object of the bill. On this report the greatest stress is laid by those who condemn the act. But the thing they do not know—only a few of them know: the greater number are innocent of intention to deceive—is that the report was made by Mr. Mann upon the bill as introduced by him, and before changes wera made in it by Congress. Amend ments were introduced during the passagp of the bill through the House, amendments which broad ened its scope and made it appli cable to all offenses, w’hether commercial or otherwise. They became part of the act. And Mr. Mann's statement about the scope of the bill was made before these were embodied in it. The name which he had given to the bill remained. This has cre ated all the confusion. Another^ critcism of the act grows out of the curious delusion that the meaning and purpose and scope of a law’ can be gath ered from the speeches made in Congress hv those, w’ho vote for it w’hen it is before them as a bill. This is, of course, ludicrous. The meaning of an act must be gath ered from the act Itself. If there is any doubt about its meaning when it is before the lower courts, there is only one authority under the Constitution which can set the doubts at rest—the Supreme Court of the United States. This has been made clear by a long line of judges of the Su preme Court, reaching back as far as Chief Justice Taney in 1845. His words are w’orth quoting: “In expounding the law the judgment of the court can not in any degree be influenced by the construction placed upon it by individual members of Con gress in the debate which took place upon its passage, nor by the motive* or reasons assigned by them for supporting or opposing amendments that were offered. The law’ as passed is the will of the majority of both Houses, and the only mode in which that will is spoken is in the act itself; and we must gather their intention from the language there used.” Individuals who believe that the law is a bad law and ought not to have been passed are entirelv within their right in agitating for its repeal. Rut it is time they cea®ed protesting that the act does not mean what it say* Ella Wheel er Wilcox —ON— Operations—Try Everything Else Before Resorting to the Knife—Not More Than One Operation in a Score Is Needed By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX Copyright, 1918, I F you, sir, or madam, are think ing about undergoing a surgical operation in order to drive away uncomfortable feelings or to cure maladies which you are confident you possess and which your sur geon says can only be cured by the knife, wait a bit. Try fasting for a whole day, drinking only water; then a diet of barley water for two days; then hot milk and water for a few more days. Then take a course of osteopathy, vnd live out- of-doors as much as possible and eat nourishing, simple food. After two months, perhaps, you will abandon your idea of an oper ation. Baths, external and internal; violet and X-rays, deep breathing and regular outdoor exercise (with the persistent belief that you will avoid the knife) will do miracles for you. Here arq some true stories which are worth perusal by all who con template surgical operations: A gentleman in England became 111 through worry over his wife, who had undergone four hospital operations. His case was diag nosed as "pernicious anemia,” whatever that may mean. Finally a Burgeon was called and said there must be am immediate oper ation for duodal ulcer. This is a dangerous malady, and the man says: “I was told that the only alter native was to go on being ill until I had no strength left, so I sub mitted. The case having aroused great interest, six doctors put in appearance when the operation was performed. It got so hot that we were afterward told by the nurses that one of them had to spend her time mopping the face of the operator. What am I to say as to the result of this oper ation? Finally, the doctors felt quite certain that I should not sur vive for more than forty-eight hours. (The surgeon some months afterward told my brother this.) "We were, before all, given to understand that he was going to perform a ‘short circuit’ operation, and afterward I had been told that this had been done, but my wife and friends were told that they had found a duodenal (?) ulcer, and that It was as large as half a crown, but that It had healed Itself, undoubtedly under the gastric ul cer treatment of a few months earlier, but that they had found that my appendix was "peculiar" so that it had been removed. "Imagine me lying In bed and feeling this pain at my side, and continually telling the nurses and my friends that I was sure I was going to have appendicitis, and think what an idiot the doctor was not to allow them to tell me what they knew! "To cut a long story short, I did get sufficiently well to go away, but when I got home again I was soon as 111 as ever. This time I found myself under another doctor and he naturally wanted to know all about the first illness. Then a cool letter came from the surgeon saying when he operated he found that there was a small wrinkle In the peritoneum, which at that time he attributed to a duodenal ulcer, but He now thought that It had no significance! 11 I was aghast, and could only say what a lot of liars they were. "The whole thing, you can see, was a plot. Firstly, I think that my case so interested them that they could not resist the temptation to open me up and have a look to sat isfy their curiosity, and then when It was done they decided that I could not survive it, so that all they had to do was to satisfy the anxiety and curiosity of my friends, so they made up these lies and persuaded my wife that It was best for me not to know the truth (which I am afraid I never shall), hut I do know that I required no snrgical treatment at all, and that they lied when they made up the uleer-the-slze-of-kalf-a-crown story. "Why my appendix was taken away for being ’peculiar’ I don’t know. Anyway, I am rather glad It was. because It would have been an excuse for another operation if It hadn't been, when I was 111 again. "This time another consultant visited me, who advised arsenic injections and a diet of sour milk only, and In ten weeks 1 was about, and since -have been keeping fairly well. "What was and still perhaps Is the matter with me I don’t know, but the second specialist said It was pernicious anemia. I only wish I had the money that I wasted owing to the curiosity of those in fernal surgeons, to say nothing of •11 the pain I suffered.” Prom the same country comes this letter from a lady. She says: "I was told when I was bother ing with a critical period that I would die unless I had a major aperatton. At last I found a human by Star Company. doctor who attended me for some time, and am thankful to say that, as. regards that matter, 1 am per fectly sound now—in fact, better than for fifteen years back, all without such a fearful operation, which I feel certain would have killed me In the weak condition 1 was In at the time. You see I got better without the agony of an operation. “I think a great many doctors and nurses have too little patience and perseverance to try alleviating the suffering first, and resort to the knife immediately. 8o many of the trained nurses I had did not take much Interest In my case be cause it was not an operation, and told me they hoped I would soon have done with them, as they llkeo ‘a grand case’—it was worth talk ing about. I thought It was funny they never seemed to think It was grand to save any one from the agony of such a fearful operation as the one they wanted me to have. A lady who was not so ill as I was underwent It, and died three months afterward." Another says: "My sister has just had an operation, and the sur geon found a perfectly healthy organ after he removed It. She will probably he an Invalid for i life.” The rage of vivisection has made Burgeons more rabid to operate upon human beings. Doctors and nurses all become more or less under the Influence of this modern medical mania, and excitement and lore of experimentation take pos session of their minds to the ex clusion of human sympathy. Because wonderful operations are performed and lives saved and health restored by the skilled use of the knife land surgeons crowned with wealth and fame) the desire to operate has become a menace to motherhood and to life itself. There are malignant growth* which only the knife can cure (and usually these operations even have to he repeated, and quite fre quently the patient dies within a few' months after the second oner But there are numerous growth* which yield absolutely to the X and violet ray treatment, and simple blood remedies, and the building up of the bodily strength and vitality. ( The writer intimately knows a lady who suffered from two Inter nal growths for a period of years; and they vanished after a time through treatment of nourishing food, baths, massage, and a course in a school of physical culture Ten years have passed since they disappeared and the lady is In perfect health. A woman who found a small growth of a similar nature was advised to have It removed, and went into a famous hospital for that purpose. She and her hue band were assured that It would be a most simple matter. Yet tha physicians performed a majer op eratlon on this woman, without consulting her husband, and sirs died the third day afterward. The physician now admits that similar growths have been known to be come absorbed and vanish with out treatment. Yet this woman was killed, by an unneceseary operation, and the husband is unable to obtain an' reparation because the physicians belong to a regular school and the hospital Is a famous one In Penn sylvania. The woman who was killed was in the prime of life and had never suffered any pain from this slight growth, but w’ae a<1 ' vised to have it removed before It made her any trouble. With such cases as these occur ring continually all about us. Is h not time that women oalled good common sense to their command, when suffering from maladies pe cullar to their sex; and before they put themselves in the hands of surgeons that they should de cide to use all of Nature's simp s methods first? And then turn to the light and its beneficent rays and to th“ sensible, sane treatment of the spine through osteopathy; ana with all these that they ghou l learn the vast power which lies In their own minds? Scores of women turn to tha hospital operation as a means of diversion. They are disillusioned with. life In some way; they ate lacking an object, an aim, a pur pose; and through worry and self oentred habits of thought they grow 111; soon the thought of an operation presents itself aa an es cape from monotony. Afterward it Is their delight to talk of what they have passed through Hut frequently "afterward cornea on •nother plane; for the percentage of women Who die within two years after an opera tlon would astonish it« were ve to know the statistics. Not more fhan one operation In a score is needed. Be awe vrnir case Is the exoep tlon before they add one more to i he foolish women who rush upon the surgeon a knlX*.