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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published by THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 Fast Alabama Gtreet, Atlanta, Ga,
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A Bailot f;; Human}—t;m;]d
Sound Policy
This is the week big with fate to the children in the fac
tories.
The argument is complete, and it is unanswerable. Day by
day The Georgian has stated and advocated the reasons for the
Sheppard child labor law now before the Legislature. There
is no answer to its conservatism, to its consistency and to its
absolute necessity.
Humanity, common sense and the high example of other
Commonwealths are behind it. The appeal is to the individual
legislator, pledged to humanity and consecrated by his oath to
the best interests of the children of the State.
Each member of the Legislature fronts in the ballot on the
Sheppard bill a distinet moral and civic crisis in his life. The
men who vote against this measure must answer in the future to
their consciences and to their constituents.
Upon this great question of humanity and justice, of citi
zenship and of sound policy, no member of the Legislature will
fail to plant himself upon the side of humanity of the children
and of the State.
The argument is exhausted. Let us appeal to the baliot.
Actually Begging for Admit
tance to School
The spirit of higher education is in the very air of Georgia,
and its institutions of note and merit are multiplying on every
side.
We have before us a pamphlet from the Georgia Normal
and Industrial College, of Milledgeville, of which Dr. Marvin M.
Parks is president, and headed ‘' The Truth About This College."’
The matter between these pages is one for serious consideration,
as well as fervent admiration.
The Georgia Normal and Industrial College is one of the most
remarkable institutions in all the South. It is one of the State’s
colleges for women. It was started upon the same conditions as
other colleges, but by steady progressive merit and consecrated
intelligence it has forged to the very forefront of female colleges
in all the South, and is so regarded by educators, and, as these
pages show, is so sought for by parents and their children
throughout the State.
By actual statistics Professor Parks shows that the demands
for admittance to the Georgia Normal and Industrial College are
so great that it becomes a preblem. Within the eight years since
its founding it has been compelled by the lack of room to TURN
AWAY 4,000 GIRLS SEEKING ADMISSION!
During the present year ALREADY 1500 GIRLS HAVE
APPLIED FOR ADMISSION TO THE NEXT SESSION,
WHEREAS THERE IS ONLY ROOM FOR BETWEEN 700
AND 800. Already the college is crowded to its utmost capacity.
Whereas the State provides room for 311 girls, the college is en
deavoring to meet the pressure by providing extra room, under
somewhat crowded conditions, for nearly 320 more. The total ad
mittance for the past year was 781.
The three things which these facts make notable are—
First. The cause of the State for congratulation that it has
a teacher so active, tactful and masterful as Professor Parks, to
command such widespread admiration for his work, and such
a widespread desire to receive the profits of it.
Second. The splendid interest in and desire for education
which is filling the minds of the parents of the young women of
Georgia, and of the young women themselves. Dr. Parks pub
lishes in this pamphlet a list of several hundred letters, from
young ladies and from their parents, making appeals for admis
sion, which are pathetic in their eloquence and their earnestness.
Incidents like these and conditions like these make one appeal to
those who are making the laws and dispensing the money of
Georgia.
The State has no higher interest than the education of its
young, and the education of its young women has now become as
important as the education of its young men. The great schools
whose merits commend them to the country are not able to accom
modate and answer the eager zest for education in the State to
day, and the State’s high duty, by whatever heroic route it may
be reached, is to provide for the education of all who desire to be
educated in the State of Georgia. This may call for other appro
priations. Be it so. That is what the public moneys are for.
At any rate, these 4,000 girls who within the decade have
been kept out of the great Milledgeville school, and the 800 who
are put out for the ensuing year make a claim upon the intelli
gence, patriotism and the public interest of Georgia, which can
only be answered by an appeal to the treasury.
The State Board of Health
Editor The Georgian:
I note that great surprise and
chagrin are expressed by the
State Board of Health on account
of the lLegislature refusing, with
scant consideration, its demands
for $lO,OOO
To those who have some knowl
edge of how the affairs of this
boarq are conducted this action
appears more significant than
singular
For years adverse criticisms
have been leveled at this board.
and. unless a clean bill of health
is forthcoming, the probability is
that some more of the people’s
money will be withheld from it
The recent bitter and belittling
fight made by this board against
the enactment of a vital statistics
law, through the press and other
wise, and its sudden change of
front when it became almost a
certainty that the real friends of
vital statistics would place such
4 law on our statutes will not be
he forgotten, and 1 apprehend
that when those Senators who
wers prevailed upon and unwit
tingly consented to the placing of
a good law into the hands of its
enemies find out the facts thers
will bhe another and decided
change of front
W. C. BRYANT, MLD.
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
The Money Tree of Child Labor
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Money at the top, and sorrow under
ground.
Money waving in the sunshine, chil
dren ground in the Dark, the Damp, out of
sight.
The old legend tells of the famous
tree Igdrasil, that had its roots in hell
Why Waste Time on Calculations?
Metric System Makes Arithmetic Mere Play
NE of the greatest fights in
O the world; one that goes on
and on, and shows no sign
of ending; one that is as ridicu
lous as it is flerce, is the strug
gle between the advocates of the
metric system of weights and
measures and those who uphold
the old British system, which has
been discarded by every scien
tific body in the world.
Strange That Men Won't
Break Tradition That
Is Mere Incubus.
] see by the English scientific
journals that another hot period
in this fight has just occurred,
leaving each pariy as determined
as ever
It is amazing what endless
trouble men will give themselves
rather than break some lichen
covered tradition that has be
come an incubus upon them wita
out their recognizing the fact.
People will fight for the old moss
back as if it were their god!
These things waste time, squan
der money, exhaust patience and
use up brain force for nothing
Let us look a few facts in the
face. There is no doubt that the
bitter opposition to the universal
use of the metric system in Great
Britain (and our inheritance of
prejudices of this Kind is not yet
exhausted) is largely bhased upon
the fact that the system took its
shape in France, and was set
upon its feet there during the
revolutionary epoch The mere
names “French Revoiution” and
BY GARRETT P. SERVISS
“Napoleon” are always a red rag
to the British bull.
Nevertheless it appears that
the suggestion out of which the
metric system grew was born
from an English brain. It is said
to have been first offered by
James Watt, in 1783, in letters
which he wrote to French sa
vants and others urging the adop
' tion of an international unit of
weights and measures for the es
pecial use of scientific men who
found themselves wasting a great
deal of time in turning their cal
culations from one system into
another. The idea was taken up
in France and pushed by the
Government., and France had the
honor of really creating the new
system. If it had been created
in England, there never would
have bheen any opposition to it
and the world would long ago
have forgotten the cumbersome
British units, with their base ra
tio of 12 (the duodecimal sys
tem) and their absurd arithme
tic complications.
Metric System Is Taught
in Schoolbooks as Side
Issue Only.
The metric system is taught in
our schoolbooks only as a side
issue. Popularly, and in ordi
nary business affairs, we still
reckon in feet, inches, vards, rods,
roods, acres. in pounds, ounces
{(two Kkinds'!), tons (of various
kinds), and in quarts, pints, gai
lons, pecks, busheis and all the
inextricable tangle of wet and dry
and its branches in heaven.
: The roots of this tree of child labor
money are planted in the hell of suffer
ing and misery. Would that the branches
might reach to heaven and stir up an
avenging justice that would end the sys
tem.
measures, giving ourselves and
imposing upon our children an
amount of unnecessary intellec
tual labor that would make an
intelligent horse from the planet
Mars laugh at us!
British Method Given Up
by Scientists Many
Years Ago.
fiveryvbody who has to read
scientific books or to do business
with foreign people other than
English must necessarily learn
the metric system in addition to
the British, because scientific
men long ago discarded the lat
ter with contempt, and practi
cally the whole clvilized world,
outside Angio-Saaviadom, uses, or
is beginning to use, the metric
system exclusively.
1t only requires a glance 10
show the inherent superiority of
this system. In the first place, it
is based on the decimal ratio of
numbers, or ratio of ten, instead
of the duodecimal, or ratio of
twelve. As Alexander Siemens
has remarked: “All people on
earth who count count by tens”
The ease with which calculations
made by tens and multiples and
sub-multiples of ten can be per
formed is evident to everybody.
Arithmetic becomes play in such
a case, Then the metric system
is so contrived that all its units,
whether they represent ienkth
and area or weight, are derived
from one commaon base. This base
is the meter. By squaring the
~ meter or its subdivisions you get
the unit ‘measures of surface; by
cubing the meter or its subdivi
sions, yvou get not only the unit
measures of capacity, but those
of weight. They'are all linked
together.
Thus a gram, the metric basis
of measures of weight, is the
weight of one cubic centimeter
(a centimeter is 100th of a meter)
of water, and all the other
weights are related to the gram
by multiplying or dividing it by
ten or multiples of ten.
The fact that the French un
dertook to make the meter a pre
cise fraction of the circumfer
ence of the earth (one ten-mil
lionth of the distance from the
pole to the equator), and failed,
because nobody- has ever suc
ceeded in making an exact meas
urement of the earth’s girth, does
not affect the practical value of
the metric system, because the
length of the meter is now fixed
by a standard bar of metal Kkept
under the care of the Intefnation
al Metric Commission.
Basal Unit Unimpor
tant as Long as It Is
Convenient.
1t doesn’t really matter what
the basal unit is so long as it is
convenient to use. The meter is
but little longer than the yard,
and both are arbitrary lengths
chosen for convenience. But the
gvstem based on the yard is com
plicated, confusing, irregular, and
mentally wasteful, while that
based on the meter is simple,
straightforward, consistent and
mentally economical.
THE HOME PAPER
Ella Wheeler
Wilcox
N
The Behavior of Children---
There is a Vast Difference
Between Liberty and License,
---a Fact Which More Amen
can Mothers Should Consider.
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Written Especially for The Georgian.
MERICA is old enough now,
A to know that the word lib
erty does not mean license;
that freedom does not mean law
lessness. American mothers have
a large duty confronting them;
the duty of teaching their chil
dren the fine distinctions which
lie between these words.
Ask any man or woman who
has seen many lands and many
people, and you will be told that
American children are the most
lawless and ill-bred” of all the
children on earth.
On any ship, or in any hotel,
the children who make them
selves obnoxious by their loud
voires, their impertinent man
ners and their failure to show
courtesy to their elders are in
variably American children. It
is not an unusual sight to see
American children walk or stand
before strangers, siaring at them
rudely, and whispering or titter
ing as they move away.
Two yvoung girls made them
selves so obnoxious on one of
the large ocean liners, by their
impertinent manners to passen
gers in the dining saloon, that it
became necessary to ask the-chief
steward to reprove' them. These
children were daughters of a New
York banker. Their mother was
on board with a retinue of attend
ants, but she haa never taken
time tp teach her children refine
ment or even common decency of
deportment.
When Rich Are 111-Bred
Small Wonder That
Poor Are Also.
When such examples of ill
breeding can be found among the
rich, one can not wonder that the
poorer classes have not reached
a standard where they understand
the importance of including good
manners in the curriculum of ed
ucation,
A lady who employs boys of
all work at her country home was
surprised to discover that chil
dren of Americans who came to
her for work were nearly always
lacking in the little polite habits
which it would seem every moth
er would teach her boys and girls
as soon as they were able to
talk.
For instance, boys of 16 came
into her presence without remov
ing their caps; and often when
reporting to her for directions
they bolted into her private
apartments without knocking or
in any way making their presence
known.
It became necessary for her to
teach her employees good man
ners before she taught them their
other duties.
Every mother should train her
children to show good taste and
delicacy in their treatment of
herself. Then it would follow as
a matter of course that they
would treat others with courtesy.
From the time a boy is able to
walk he should be taught to rap
before entering a room, and girls
ghould be taught the same act of
courtesy. b
There is too much freedom in
Little Mischief
By JAMES J. MONTAGUE.
EAR little Mischief, awake with the sun,
D Busy all day with your frolicking fun,
Playing your pranks in vour own little way,
Laughing at rules you were told to obey,
Father may scold you and mother may frown—
But they kiss you good night when the darkness comes down.
They kiss you good night and they see you asleep,
And sad, always sad is the vigil they keep,
For they think, as the lights flicker feeble and low,
Of a Dear Little Mischief that went long ago.
They put him to bed where the other cot lies;
He slept with his tovs and awoke in the skles,
They think of the bitter and wondering pain
And how all their tears could not bring him again.
They scold you a little, and sometimes they frown—
But they kiss you good night when the darkness comes down.
most American homes. It does
not indicate affection. or mu
tual undersianding, or good
comradeship; when people bolt
into the presence of another
member of the family with no
word or sound to prepare the
way, It merely indicates lack of
thoughtful consideration,
The refinements of life do
much to keep the affections alive.
A delicate code of manners, ob
served between husband and wife,
helps to keep them out of the
divorce court.
A gentle tap on a door, even
if the door is open and a word
indicating who is coming, makes
the advent of a ioved one no less
welcome.
Neglectful Mother Is
Serving Ends of
Discourtesy.
The mother who does not train
her son to show to her the little
courtesies like this is sowing
seeds of annoyvance for others
who will be irritated by this lack
of thoughtfulness.
No matter what position a man
occuvnies in the world, whether
he employs or is employed, or
walts upon others, good manners
and courtesy and politeness will
be of incalculable value to him.
_A lady had occasion to call at
the office of a prominent lawyer
in a city of colleges.
The lawyer was absent, but his
secretary was present, a well edu
cated young man, of good Amer
ican family. The lady \\;ho called
was one fer whom he unques
tionably felt respect, yet he per
mitted her to stand for five min
utes in his presence while she
told her errand; and he lounged
comfortably in his chair, with a
cap on his head which he never
thought to remove.
He seemed most anxious to be
of service and in every way tried
to help her; no doubt he would be
greatly astonished and deeply
pained if he knew she thought
him discourteous. Such conduct
is not at all uncommon ir Amer
ica; it is to be met with every
day; and it is always the fault
of the mother. >,
Father Not Blameless
but Chief Duty Is
With Mother.
The father, too, comes in for
his share of blame; but it is the
mother who has the child near
her hour in and hour out, during
those early vears when habits are
formed; and it is to the mother
a child should look for right
training in deportment.
Little girls, as well as boys,
need careful coaching. They
should never be allowed to en
ter rooms without previous an
nouncement; they shoulid not hs
permitted to. break into ¢ nver
sation without apolegy; and they
should not lounge or sit while
their elders stand. .
Teach vour children these little
refinements, good mothers,
It i& better than leaving them
a legacy of hard-earned money.