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THE HOME RARER EDITORIAL RAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published by THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 Kant Alabama St. Atlanta O* Fnrered as saronrt-class matter at poatnfflca at Atlanta, ndcr act of March S. 1**3 TTF.A RST'S SUNDAY AMERICAN and THE A TEA NT A GEORGIAN will he mailed t° subscribers anywhere In the United <tat« > Canada arid Mexico, one month for $.60: three months for $1.76, six months for $2 F.O and one year for $7 00 change of address made as often as de- red. Foreign subscription rates on application. We Learn BY TRYINO And a Little Child Must Learn to Walk SOME TIME. This ! Refers to Government Ownership. (Copyright. 1013.) — The Hearst newspapers, year after year, talked and urged parcel post—which means government ownership of the coun try's express business. Some said that parcel post would be criminal. Nearly every body said it was bound to be a failure The express companies explained that the people were not intelligent enough to do what the express companies did. But parcel post is here AND IT EARNED FOR THE GOV ERNMENT ABOUT THIRTY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS THE FIRST YEAR And as a result of parcel post, the postoffice of the United States is now on a paying basis for the first time since 1883. To put government work on a paying basis is, of course, not the most important thing. The most important thing is good work and ECONOMICAL SERVICE FOR THE PEOPLE. The people could afford parcel post because of its conven ience, usefulness and economy, even if it didn't mean a profit to the government. But the fact that the government makes millions our of par cel post and now runs its own express business in such a way as to make the whole postoffice profitable ought to convince some of the doubters. We are through advocating parcel post, for it is here. We are still advocating government ownership, and municipal own ership of other things. And municipal and national ownership will come. THERE WILL BE MISTAKES MADE, BUT WE LEARN BY TRYINO. Some things are done by private individuals, spurred on by love of power and money, a little better perhaps than the gov ernment will do those things at first. But the government WILL DO THEM. It would be foolish to send a little child q,ut to walk in a crowded street at first, but it must learn to walk some time. And eventually the crowded street will not frighten it. It would be a mistake, undoubtedly, for the government, national or municipal, to try to run every public service AT ONCE, but the government, that is to say, the people, must learn to do these things, and will to them. The people will own and manage for their benefit all of the NATURAL MONOPOLIES that have been misused by private individuals for private benefit. And you may make up your mind to that. The government will own and run railroads, telegraph—and in time many other things that need not be suggested at present. Meanwhile, observe that the first thing actually tried, the parcel post, is a success. And get over your pessimism about the power of the people | to do things instead of having them done. The combined intelligence of the people in the long run is better and abler than the individual. Letters From the Readers of The Georgian HIS VIEW OF ATLANTA. Kditor The Georgian: Atlanta! New York of the South’ Prosperity personified! Home of hospitality, broad-mind edness and good business! With these thoughts prominent and foremost in my mind, I made the step that brought me here from a hustling Northern city. 1 had come ir. contact with many in fluential business men -who praised the city for its prosper ous activity. Thus it was with the most pleasant anticipation that 1 and my family came to Atlanta. Colonel Faxon and Mr. Adair have been quoted as saying that as resultant of the “vice war” the evil has been scattered in stead of exterminated. Having average good sight. 1 agree with these gentlemen. Furthermore. I may add that the fair name and prestige of Atlanta is becoming besmirched by the “vice crusade" methods at present here in vogue. That 1 have settled in Atlanta is a fact. I have bought a home here. I have invested consider able money in my business. 1 have brought from up North workmc n, employees. They are good workers, and during their hours are industrious and well meaning as could be wished for. but after hours their time is their own, and. being average men they desire relaxation in the av erage way. They find little of enjoyment here After the day s work they are naturally tired enough to desire their home and rest. On Sunday morning they go to service. Perhaps aft er dinner they wish to indulge in a game of billiards, and later a movie.” But the doors to these harmless amusements are closed to them. To use their words, “The town is closed up tighter than a clam ” Now, these men are necessary to my business, as men of their trade are scarce in Atlanta Al though 1 pay them, perhaps, bet - ter wages than they could receive up North, still it is a question of only a short time before they leave It is only by strong per sonal feeling that they hold on here with me. With average men of average habits it is a matter of enjoyment of life, as well as dollars, that counts. Ami thus, although this Is-in a way i personal matter, 1 feel sure that I do not alone hold these views. Again quoting Mr Adair legarding the vice crusade: “If it were put to a vote, an over whelming majority of the citizens of Atlanta would decide to return to a condition of sanity." I. LESTER. No 55 Stokes avenue. Atlanta, Ga MR. ADAIR AND CHIEF BEAVERS. Editor The Georgian: In reading The Georgian i see an attack begun by business men on the vice crusade, which I highly indorse. I am glad, as well as many others, to see the commencement of this tight, and earnestly hope it will he fought to a finish. It has not only hurt the respectable residence sections of the city, but has put our girls in the hands of every man they go out with Vice is something that has been since the world be gan. and will be till It ends. It seems that Mr Adair Is at talk ing our right honorable Thief Beavers about catching some of the criminals, it is true that he catches them, but what does he do w ith them? Tuke, for instance, the pickpockets caught in the Winecoff Hotel—where are they now ? 1 know positively that at least two of them have left town, and he has a “swell” chance of getting them back. There are also immoral houses all over this city, and if he doesn’t know of their existence he is about the only man who doesn’t. Mr. Adair and Mr. Paxon are on the right track, and I want to see this movement pushed to the flnish. I think this is the senti ment of nearly all our citizens A SUBSCRIBER i Atlanta, Ga. mm us The American merchant marine has almost vanished from the seas, thanks to our shipping laws. The passage of the proposed Seamen’s bill would lay up what is left of it altogether. OUT OF BUSINESS! Copyright, 1013. International X*w* 8errice y v\ - v v'CWI ** 1 % - \ ..Aft' ■ ■ v\ - ■ A Clock That Keeps Time for the World It Is Located on the Eiffel Lower, Paris, but, Being East of Green wich, Must Receive Its Time from That Station. i ■mu i i i ill ii ii By GARRETT P. SERVISS T HE electric world-dock into which the Eiffel Tower in Paris has been transformed continues to excite the liveliest in terest in western Europe, where i( Is easy for anybody, witli the aid of very simple wireless tele graph apparatus, to receive the time signals radiated at fixed hours over sea and land. Eiffel Tower Makes Fine Station for Wireless Signals. The Eiffel Tower has been chosen for this purpose because its immense height, nearly a thou sand feet, gives it a distinct advan tage as a sending station for wire less signals. But at the very mo- ! ment when this finger of steel pointing skyward out of the heart of Paris becomes, as it were, a clock-hand for the whole planet, the meridian of Paris is officially j abandoned. The order has just gone forth that henceforth the Connaittancr rtr* Tempt, the famous trench astronomical almanac, shall have its calculations based on the me ridian of Greenwich—the prime meridian that all the civilized world now recognizes as the start ing line for the reckoning of time. The world's standard wireless telegraph timepiece does not keep htep with the houri as they flit across the world's standard merid ian of time, and an allowance for difference of longitude has to be made by everybody who receives the signals from the Eiffel Tower, , If he wishes to know what the true world-time is What he gets Is | Paris time i It is the observatory ot' Paris | which automatically, by an electric clock, transmits to the Eiffel Tower the time signals that are radiated over the globe, and these time signals are regulated by the passage of stars across the merid ian of Paris, and not that of Green wich. But Paris is situated 2 de grees 20 minutes and 15 secAnds of longitude west of Greenwich, corresponding to a difference of 9 minutes and 21 seconds of time, which must be either added to or subtracted from the indications of the signals in order that standard world-time may be obtained. If the observer is west of Paris he must add the extra time to get the hour at Greenwich, and if he is east, he must subtract. It is true that such calculation is not difficult, but It is annoying and may lead to error, so that the ideal will not be attained until a great central transmission station for wireless time signals has been erected on the prime meridian of Greenwich, and electrically con nected with a master clock which is kept regulated by the transit of stars over that meridan and no other. Then when the noon signal drops out of the sky upon the waiting antennae of a ship in the middle of the ocean, or upon the impro vised receiving apparatus of an explorer in the midst of the polar snows, or the heart of a tropical jungle, it will be the standard noon of the world, and whoever hears it will be able, without any preliminary calcula tion. to read his longitude from the face of his watch. A striking example of the sim plicity of the apparatus required in order to receive the Eiffel Tower signals has just come to my atten tion. A commercial traveller in eastern France, who has a liking for scientific experiments, had oc casion to regulate his watch to the exact hour of Paris. He took a pair of bone isolators, such as are employed in setting up an electric bell apparatus, and attached them to two telegraph poles, at a height of about six feet from the ground. Between them he stretched an electric bell wire to form an an tenna. An ordinary spade, with some freshly cleaned wire wound round the metal and driven dbep into the ground, served for the “earth." It only remained to at tach a pocket telephonic wireless receiver to the antenna and the "earth," and then wait for the sig nals. They w-ere perceived with out the slightest difficulty, al though the distance from Paris was about 250 miles The invention of the so-called pocket receivers foretells the time when not only chronometric sig nals but news of all kinds may be transmitted and received by elec tric waves. With such a system perfected a man at the South Pole might sit in his fur-lined, wind- proof tent, while the Antarctic blizzard raged without, and. press ing his wireless telephone to his ear, cheer his loneliness by listen ing to the voice of the faraway civilized world, gossiping to him of its latest amusements. Expeditions, 800 Miles Apart, Correspond in the Antarctic. Something like that has already 1 been done In the Antarctic, where : Dr. Mawson’s expedition has been keeping In communication with Australia. The Geographical Society of Victoria recently sent him a congratulatory dispatch and received almost immediately a i reply. Two branches of the ex pedition, although 800 miles apart, have constantly corresponded with r out mother through the ether. DEATH OF THE YEAR •; By LILIAN LAUFERTY. W HEN' the snows grow bold and the stars are oold. And the Winter night-winds prey. When the Ice holds fast and the world is cast In a mold of white and gray; Then the gloaming falls on the sky's soft walls, And the lights of the dark are hung. While the hushed year lies under brooding skies Where the censer moon is hung. Then the silence speaks over plains and peaks. And the hush of life draws near. Till the screaming wail of the wind and hail Sounds the death song of the year, Money In the Bank Is the Best Gift to a Child Save Money for Your Little Ones and So Teach Them How to Save—It Will Put the Boy or Girl Through College Some Day. By DOROTHY DIX ~ T HE wise and worldly wise | financial editor of this paper has recently written an article in which he urged the giving at Christmas, or at birth days, of baby bonds, or a share or two of some good stock in place of foolish and ephemeral presents that are worn out, soon broken, and of which the recipient quickly tires. He pointed out that a bond, or some interest-bearing stock, is a perpetual present, for every year the dividends come in, thus keep ing the giver’s memory green, and being a constant source of pleas ure and solace to the recipient. In particular, the writer called attention to the fact that if parents would start, at the time of a boy s birth, to systematically saving up a little money every w'eek, buying a hundred dollar bond with it as I soon as they could, and leaving ) the interest on this to compound, | almost without knowing it a j fund could be accumulated that | would send the lad through col lege. It is a pity that this sagacious article cannot be printed in type a foot high, and hung on the walls of every home in the land. It is one of the ghastly ironies of our American family life that, while we have, money enough for the little things that dbn't matter, we so often have not enough money for the big things that do matter. Enough Is Wasted on Toys to Start a Child in Life Properly. People in moderate circum stances cannot afford to send ! their boys to college, or to keep j their girls from having to go out ! of their homes to work, but they have wasted enough money on bicycles, and ball-bearing roller skates, and expensive mechanical toys, and over-fine clothes, and the movies, to have started their chil dren out in life properly. Certainly nobody will deny that thriftlessness is our besetting national sin. We don’t spend our money. We throw it away. We don’t even know what value we ought to get for it, and as a peo ple we live on a perpetual finan cial see-saw, where we are first up in the world, and then down. Also as parents we are at once the most slavishly devoted and the most cruel and unnatural in the world. No children are so spoiled, so petted ‘and pampered as Ameri can children, and no other chil dren among civilized people are so ruthlessly thrust out Into the world to sink or swim for them selves It is no uncommon thing for an American father to bring up his sons and daughters as if they were millionaires; to accus tom them to every imaginable lux ury. and then to die, leaving them | without a single cent to live upon, ! and no knowledge of how to make one. It does not seem to occur to such parents that their worst enemy could not be malignant enough to do their children such a deadly harm as they are doing themselves, and that it is nothing but common fairness and giving the children a square deal to bring them up to know how to work and save, or else provide them with an inexhaustible for tune. We all know that thrift is at the bottom of all the happinees are success In life. The man or worn. r who saves fire cents out of every dollar will always be Independent, prosperous, and have a respect able place In society, while those who spend a hundred and five cents for every dollar will always be in debt, be cringing, and bor rowing, and parasites and dead beats In the world. Therefore there is nothing more important than to teach young people In the formative years of their lives how to save, when they can establish the thrift habit as easily as they can the wasting habit. Start a Savings Bank Ac count for Each of Your Children. In order to do this no way I* better than to establish a saving, bank account for a child Let your next birthday present to your little girl or boy take this form. Let the child have the account in its name, go to the bank and personally deposit its dollar or two, and explain to it how this money will grow and make other money if It is not spent. Another advantage of eaca child having its own little bank ar count is that other people will add to it also. There are lots of us who are uncles, and aunts, and godfathers and godmothers, and friends, who love some little child, and love to give it presents, yet who are in a quandary about what to give at every recurring anrl versary. Most of us feel that it is nothing short of a crime to throw money away on a complk cated mechanical toy, or a Fronch doll that costs five or ten, or fif teen dollars, that will be trokon the next day. It Will Send Johnnie to College or Mary to Europe. We would infinitely prefer to add something to the bank account that would one day send Johnnie to college, or Mary to Europe, or give him or her a chance to ge into same little business. So I add my voice to that of the financial editor, and entreat every father and mother, and especially those in moderate circumstances, to start a savings bank account, or postal savings bank account for each of their children. You haven’t any idea how much money children waste until you start them to saving their pennies and nickels. The amount in the bank grows as if by magic. And the money saved is the least part of the value. You teach the child to do without the little thing wants at the moment for the big thing that it may have hereafter. And you teach it thrift, and tin is the beginning of all prosperity STARS AND STRIPES Answers to the question “What Is Mother?” given by supposedly feeble-minded schoolchildren of New York: She’s what you chop wood for. She’s what feeds you. She’s what puts clothes and shoes on you. She keeps cars of you. She's who’s good to you. She’s your creator. She’s what’s dead on to me. Best composite portrait of a mother ever painted. Welsh tin-plate managers have booked orders for 40,000 tons of tin-plate to be delivered in the United States before June. Doubt less to can the American tin plate industry. • * * North Dakota swains play po ker for girl. Loser elopes with her. showing that he knows more about love than cards. President Wilson having been married in Georgia, we wonder whether army and navy officers can longer sing that insulting song about marching through it. • * * Denver mothers won’t let then daughters wear jewelry, paint, or silk stockings. In other words, they want schoolgirls to look like schoolgirls. • * * Mexican revolutionists are said to be using cannon balls made or silver. The odds against the ru mor, however, are more than 16 to 1. • * * San Domingo objects to “obser vation" of its elections. ^ er> strange if the Dominicans court ed observation. Few murderers do. • * • The principal effect of the cuu rency Mil will be—wei-*- 7*^ us the