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EDITORIAL PAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE HOME PAPER
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published by THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 Kant Alabama St. Atlanta. Oa
Entered ** second-clans matter at postofflce at Atlanta, under art of March a, llTJ
UKARST'S SUNDAY AMERICAN and THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN wHl
be mailed to subscribers anywhere In the United States, Canada and Mexico,
one month for 1.60: three months for 11.75, six months for S'? 60 and one year
for $7.00; change or address made aa often aa deal red. Foreign aubacrlptlon
rates on appflcafton
We Learn BY TRYING
And a Little Child Must Learn to Walk SOME TIME.
Refers to Government Ownership.
(Copyright, 1913.)
This
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 wm 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 postofflce 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 oonld afford parcel post because of its conven
ience, usefulness and economy, even if it didn’t mean a profit
to tho 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 postofflce 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 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.
OUT OF BUSINESS!
CoprrlXtet, In*«rnat4onal N«wi S^rrlc*. t
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.
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-
idriess and good business! With
these thoughts prominent and
foremost In my mind, I made the
»tep that brought me here from
a hustling Northern city. I had
come lr. 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 I and my family came to
Atlanta.
Colonel Paxon and Mr Adair
have been quoted aa saying that
aa resultant of the "vice war"
the evil has been scattered in
stead of exterminated. Having
average good sight, I agree with
these gentlemen Furthermore, 1
may add that the fair name and
prestige of Atlanta Is becoming
besmirched by the "vice crusade"
methods at present here In vogue.
That I have settled In Atlanta
la a fact. I have bought a home
here. I have Invested consider
able money In my business. I
have brought from up North
workmen, 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 nay. 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 eervlce. Perhaps aft
er dinner they wish to Indulge In
e game of billiards, and later a
“movie." But the doors to theee
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
’rade are scarce In Atlanta. Al
though 1 pay them, perhaps, bet
ter wages than they could receive
up North, auil u 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.
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 Atlantn would decide to return
to a condition of sanity."
I. LESTER.
No. 65 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 light, and
earnestly hope It will be 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 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 with them? Take, for instance,
the pickpockets caught In the
WinecotT 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. Faxon are
on the right track, and 1 want to
see this movement pushed to the
finish 1 think this is the senti
ment of nearly all our citizens.
A SUBSCRIBER.
Atlanta, Ga
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 Time from That Station.
By GARRETT P. SERVISS
T HE electric world-dlock Into
which the Eiffel Tower in
Parts haa been transformed
continues to excite the liveliest in
terest in western Europe, where
it is easy for anybody, wtth the
aid of very simple wireless tele
graph apparaitv s. 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, glvee 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 Parts becomes, as it were, a
clock-hand for the whole planet
the meridian of Paris la officially
abandoned.
The order has Just gone forth
that henceforth the Ccmnalrtanc«
den Tempt, the famous French
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
•ter with the hours 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
Parts time.
It is the ocaorvauixj $1 Paris
which automatically, by an electric
clock, transmtts to the Eiffel
Tower the time signals that are
radiated over the globe, and these
time signals are regulated by the
passage of stare across the merid
ian of Paris, and not that of Green
wioh. But Paris is situated 2 de
grees 20 minutes and 16 seconds of
longitude west at 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 he 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 ths 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 electrlo
DEATH OF THE YEAR
By LILIAN LAUFERTY.
W HE V the snows grow bold and the stars ars cold.
And the Winter nlght-wlnds prey,
Wi en uie ivs bolds fast and the world Is asst
la a mold of .mite 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 wall of the wind and hail
Sounds the deftth song oi *>•£,
bell apparatus, and attached them
to two telegraph poles, at a height
of about six feet from the g-round.
Between them he stretched an
electric bell wire to form an an
tenna. An ordinary spade, wtth
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 chronometrlc 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 furlined, wind-
proof tent, while the Antarctlo
blizzard raged without, and, press
ing his wireless telephone to his
ear, cheer his lonellnees by listen
ing to the voice of the faraway
civilised 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-
petition, although 800 miles apart,
have constantly corresponded with
one another through the ethav
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 parenta
would start, at the time of a boy's
birth, to systematically saving np
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 ths 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 matteT,
wo 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 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 lire on a perpetual finan
cial see-eaw, where we axe first
np 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 axe 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 t»
work and save, or else prorid,
them with an inexhaustible far-
tune. r
We all know that thrift is at th,
bottom of all the happing, Md
success in life. The man or worn*,,
who saves five cents out of every
dollar win always be independent,
prosperous, and have a respect'
able place in society, while the,*
who spend a hundred and the
oents for every dollar will aiwsy,
be In debt, bo cringing, and bor
rowing, and parasites and dead
beats in the world. Therefore,
there 1* nothing more Important
than to teach young people in the
formative years ef their live* how
to save, when they can establish
j 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 is
better than to establish a savings
bank account for a ohild.
Let your next birthday present
to your little girl or boy taka 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 is that other people will add
to it also. There are lots of ns
who are unoles, and aunts, and
godfathers and godmothers, and
friends, who love some Mttle child,
and love to give it presents, yst
who axe in a quandary about what
to give at every recurring anni
versary. Most of ua feel that It
Is nothing short of a crime te
throw money away on a compli
cated mechanical toy, or a French
doll that costa five or ten, or fif
teen dollars, that will be brakes
the next day.
It Will S«nd Johnnie to
College or Mary
to Europe.
w ’ e 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 gt
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 cinoumstances
to start a savings bank account, or
postal savings bank account for
each of thedr 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 f I
the big thing that it may have
hereafter.
And you teach it thrift, and that
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 know# more
about love than oard#.
President Wilson having befn »
married in Georgia, worker
whether army and navy officers
can longer sing that insulting
song about marching through it.
• * *
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 said
tn be using cannon balls made of '1
silver. The odds against the ru
mor, however, are more than 10
to 1.
• • •
San Domingo objects to “obser
vation” of its elections. Ver>
strange if the Dominicans court-
ed observation. Few' murderers
do.
The principal effect of the cur
rency bill will be—well, you $•«
us then.