Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, December 31, 1913, Image 12

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J ajnueo I&TNTF.S VJjNao EDITORIAL RAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE HOME PARER THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published hy THE GEORGIAN COMP Af 20 East Alabama 8t. Atlanta ■ n> iMond*eltll matter at postnfflr* at Atlanta. HEARST'S SUNDAY AMERICAN and THE A l be mailed to aubacribera anywhere in the Unit! i <>r i 00 t the for 81.To, all i f <7 on choree ot arid res? made as often at* desired, rates cr. application. • a^t of March 3. 1*71 M \ GEORGIAN will Gnsda and Mexico for J .0 and one year Foreign subscription We Learn BY TRYING And a Little Child Must Learn to Walk SOME TIME. This Refers to Government Ownership. (Copyright. 1*15.) Letters From the Readers of The Georgian HIS VIEW OF ATLANTA. Editor 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. I 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 Paxon and Mr. Adair have been quoted as saying that as resultant of the “vice war’* the evil has been scattered in- *•« ( i of exterminated. Having average good sight, I agree w ith these gentlemen. Furthermore, I may add that the fair name and prestige of Atlanta is becoming besmirc hed by the “vice crusade" methods ut present here In vogue. That I 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 workman, 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 passable 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 uee their words, “The .t wn is closed up tighter than a V Now, those men are necessary to my business, as men of their trade axe scarce in Atlanta. Al though I pay them perhape. bel ter wages than they could receive up North, auli it is a question of 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 TT 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. Wo 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 TRYING. 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 out 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. 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. And thus, although this is in a way a personal matter, I feel sure that I do not alone hold these views. Again quoting Mr. Adair regarding 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 1 see an attack begun by business men on the vice crusade, which I highly indorse. 1 am glad, as well as many others to see the commencement of this fight, and earnestly hope k will be fought to a finish. It has not only hurt the respectable residence sections of the city, but ha* 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 attack ing our right honorable Chief Beavers about catching some of the criminals. It Is true that he catches them, but what does he do w ith them? Take, for instance, the pickpockets caught in the Winecoflf Hotel—where are they now? I know positively that at least tMo of them have left tow n, 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 r of their existence he Is about the only man who doesn't. Mr. Adair and Mr. Paxon uYe on the right track and I want to see this movement pushed to the finish. I think this, is tho senti ment of nearly all our citizens. A SUBSCRIBER. I Atlanta, Ga. OUT OF BUSINESS! Oorryrlftit, 1®1S, International New* Serrics 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. A Clock That Keeps Time for the World It Is Located on the Eiffel Tower, Paris, but, Being East of Green wich, Must Receive Its T ime from That Station. By GARRETT P. SERVISS T HE electric world-clock Into which the Eiffel Tower In Paris has been transformed continues to excite the liveliest In terest In western Europe, where It 1s easy for anybody, with 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 heen 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 slt^ward out of the heart of Paris becomes, as it were, a clock-hand for the whole planet, the meridian of Paris Is officially abandoned. The order has Just gone forth that henceforth the Connaissoncs do* Temps, the famous French astronomical almanac, shall hare Its calculations based on the me ridian of Greenwich—the prime meridian that all the civilized j world now recognizes as the start- [ Ins line for the reckoning of time. \ The world's standard wireless telegraph timepiece does not keep •tep with the hours as they flit across the world's standard merid ian of time, and an allowanes for difference of longitude has to bs 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 u the observatory Paris which automatically, by an electric clock, transmits to the Eiffel Tower the time elgnals 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 sehonds 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 or the signals In order that standard world-time may be obtained. If the observer Is west of Parts 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 tho 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 exaot hour of Paris. He took a pair of bone Isolators, such as are employed In setting up an electric DEATH OF THE YEAR By LILIAN LAUFERTY. W HEN the snows grow bold and the stars sre cold. And the Winter nlght-wlnds prey. When the les 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, TH1 the screaming wall of the wind and UaU Sounds the ddftth song oi t^ 9 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 deep 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 were perceived with out the slightest difficulty, al though the distance from Paris was about 260 miles The invention of the so-called pocket receivers foretells the time when not only chronomotric 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 Antaretlo 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 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 reply. Two branches of the ex pedition, although 800 mllee apart, have constantly corresponded with C£« another through the ethan. 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 tn, 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 week, buying a hundred dollar bond with It as soon as they could, and leaving the interest on this to compound, almost without knowing It a 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 don’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 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 property. Certainly nobody wfll 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 tip 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 t» 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 happiness and success In life. The man or woman who saves five cents out of every dollar win always be independent, prosperous, and have a respect able place in society, while those who spend a hundred and five cents for every doHar will alway, 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 peopl* in the formative years of their lives how to save, when they can establish the thrift hahlt as easily as they oan the wasting habit. Start a Savings Bank Ac count for Each of Your Children. In order to do this no way Is better than to establish a savings bank aooonnt for a child. Let your next birthday present to your Mttle 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 each child having its own little bank ac count to that other people will add to It also. There are lots of ns who are uncles, and aunts, and godfathers and godmothers, and friends, who lovs some little child, and love to give It presents, yet who are In a quandary about what to give at every reourrtag am,. versarv. Most of us feel that It Is nothing short of a crime to throw money away on a compli cated mechanical toy, or a Frooeh doll that costs five or ten, or ftf teen dollar*, that will bo broker 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 ehanee to go into some 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 n.aglc. 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 tha; Is the beginning of all prosperity STARS AND STRIPES Answers to the question “What Is Mother?" ffiven by supposedly feeble-minded schoolchildren of New York: She’s what von 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 card*. President Wilson having becu married in Georgia, wor.ne' whether army and o*vy erdeers can longer sing ttsat Insulting song about marching througn L • . * Denver mothers won’t let their daughters wear Jewelry, paint, or silk stockings. In other words, they want schoolgirls to look like schoolgirls. • • • Mexican revolutionists are sari to be using cannon balls made or silver. The odds against the ru mor, however, are more than l* to 1. • * • San Domingo objects to "obser vation” of its elections. ' et” si range if the Dominicans court ed observation. Few murderers da • * • The principal effect of the cur rency bill will be—well, yon us then.