Newspaper Page Text
EDITORIAL PAGE
Southerners Are Enthusiastic Over Stone Mountain Monument Plan
Strong Letters Indorsing
John Temple Graves’ Sug
gestion From Gen. Andrew
J. West, Joseph A. McCord
and Mrs. W. L. Reel.
In last Sunday’s American an article by John Temple Graves
was printed suggesting that a grand monument to the Confederacy
be carved in the side of Stone Mountain. Following are some of the
indorsements of Colonel Graves' idea which have been received
by this paper:
Shaft Would Inspire Youth
Of South, Says Gen. West
By GEN. ANDREW J. WEST.
Editor The Georgian:
MORE unique, original, pa-
A triotic and appropriate
suggestion never came
from the pen of man than the re
markable pro
duction from
Colonel Graves g
in Sunday's 3"‘....‘\
American urg- b el
ing a Confed- P e
erate monu- | "s o
ment on Stone ‘ } b
Mountain. b i
Sucha mon- [[EERN ©
ument would i
not be sur- EEEEEEEEIEE
passed by any - & S,
in this world,
not even
equaled by GEN. A, J. WEST,
Cleopatra's
needle, which has stood on the
banks of the Thames, in the city
of London, for nearly sixteen
hundred yeers,
Such a monument would attract
the attention of travelers at home
and from abroad--not overlook
ing the fact that this tremen
doéus pillar would be uniike other
equally high columns, as this one
would not be built up to its great
height by stone being laid upon
stone or block being placed upon
block, but would be hewn out of
the great quarry placed there by
the hand of the Almighty.
Could Not Be Excelled.
Such a monument would not
be excelled by the one ancient
Athens erected twenty-four cen
turies ago over the graves of her
warriors who died for her glory.
Atlanta's widening skirts al
most reach now the base of Stone
Mountain, and Greater Atlanta
and this proposed monument
would be the first to greet the
dawn in the east.
For a thousand years such a
monument on Stone Mountain as
Colonel Graves' fertile brain orig
inates will answer such questions
as these: Can you wear rags?
Can you eat crusts? Can you
endure bitter cold? Can you
know sleepless nights? WIII you
give in exchange your youth, your
health and all you love? llf to
STEVENSON
N tinkling verse and limpid prose
I He sketched the offspring of his brain
And left a heritage for those
Who love to read and read again.
The boy whose uncle wrought him ill,
Brave Alan with his sword adroit
He gave us—and the cunning will
Of Alain, Sire de Maletroit.
We read “A Lodging for the Night,”
And greedily we read it o'er—
The cards, the knife-thrust and the flight,
And Viilon tapping at the door. »
He wrote in sickness and in pain,
And all too soon his work was done
But what he left was golden grain,
Dear Robert lLouis Stevenson!
A skylark fluttering against the blue,
Beating the air with all its feeble might,
Eager to try its wings so small and new,
Pain lessened in the quickening joy of flight.
A pale soul groping in the wide unknown,
Called by some force to tread the wider way
QOut of the knowledge it had made its own,
Think you that soul was not full glad to pay?
these questions the answer “yes”
is glven, then this wealth and
this niche in my Temple of Fame
is for you.
Such a monument will inspire
the youth of to-day to emulate
the great deeds of yesterday.
Men are moved by tales of suc
cess and inspired by tales of love;
but such a monument would
transform and redeem them by
its tale of herolsm,
The stories of heroism that
crowd our memories, as told by
the rapidly lessening ranks of the
Confederate soldlers, would be
retold again and again by the
Stone Mountain monument,
Time, nor age, nor death can
diminish the radiance of the tra
ditions handed down by the
Confederate soldiers whose deeds
and virtues this monument would
perpetuate.
To Glory of Valor.
Yes, build it! Such a monu
ment would proclaim to genera
tions yet unborn the unfaltering
devotion of the Confederate sol
dler to the cause of the South.
Such a monument would pro
claim the glory of the matchless
hero of the past, who, with a
heart of oak and nerves of steel,
rode in majestic splencor upon
the lurid crest of battle undaunt
ed by carnage and death.
1t will proclalm that the Con
federate soldier, actuated by sen
timents of purest patriotism, un
hesitatingly threw himself upon
the Ssacrificial altar of his country
and died in the sublime faith that
her cause was just,
Such a monument will perpet
uate the deeds of the soldiers who
wore the gray.
It will stand through succes
sive ages, unharmed by winter's
blast, unacathed by the summer's
forked lightning and unshaken by
the deep-toned thunders of the
earthquake's shock, proudly pro
claiming to the world that the
manifestation to the young men
of the country of such man as
John Temple Graves, who origi
nated the idea, is no small com
pensation for the cost of its erec
tion.
A SONG
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Suggestion .llppeals to the W hole South,
Declares Myrs. Williain Lawson Peel
By MRS. WILLIAM LAWSON PEEL.
(e .
g, .58l My Dear Colonel Graves:
O A S the daughter of a Confederate
- As, veteran and a Southern woman
e H whose kinsmen without excep
. &AW (i followed the great Lee, I thank
SR vou for your noble suggestion, which
W should be well under way before an
eBs other day.
et All the universities of earth could
MRS. W. L. PEEL. 10t tell such a story, nor teach such
a lesson, nor paint such a picture of character and
loyalty and deathless courage, as that figure stand
ing there before which even the celebrated Lion of
Lucerne would hide his head.
McCord Urges an Association.
To Carry Out Memorial Plan
By JOSEPH A. M'CORD.
Editor The Georglan:
READ in last Sunday's Amer-
I lcan, with a great deal of
Interest, the most excellent
editorial of our good friend, Hon.
John Temple
Graves, in @
which he sug- '
gested the cre- ) g";
athng of & 3 :
memorial to e
the Confedera- e
cy by placing 3 (
a statue of RMy
Robert E. Lee B
on the steep )
side of Stone QI
Mountain, D 4 Ry
We are In- —
debted to Mr.
Graves very JOS. A. M'CORD.
much indeed
for this splendid thought and
suggestion, and I do hope that
our people will take up this prop
ositlon at once and erect this well
thought out memorial to the
“Lost Cause of the Confederacy.”
Truly, the prophecy made by
our lamented Senator Benjamin
H. Hlill is coming to pass. T will
briefly call your attention to thg
The Strange Worship of K ngs
HE old World worship of
Kings and Queens is a very
wonderhp thing. We who
live under a republican form of
government and have to lock
across continents and oceans be
fore we can see it at its best are
familiar with it. Not many of us
have taken the trouble to under
stand it
Some few American men and
women—only a few, a mere
handful lost among ninety mil
lions—hate with a perfect hatred
the whole business of monarchs
and courts and adulation and
sycophancy, and the lowering of
the ideals of manhood and wom
anhood which goes with it. The
great majority of persons rather
like it—at a safe distance. It is
picturesque, quaintly interest
ing, mildly amusing.
Few persons know to what
length the worship of Kings and
Queens has been carried by the
brawny brained, liberty-loving
nations from whose loins we
have sprung. It is safe to say
thet not many people nowadays
read Spencer's "“Faery Queene,”
and those who do probably skip
the dedication.
But there it is, an offering to
that red-haired, imperial, but de
cidedly bad-tempered lady known
in fable as “good Queen Bess”
The “Faery Queene” is dedicated
to “the most high, mighty, and
magnificent Empress, renowned
for plety, virtué and all gracious
government, Klizabeth!™
- . .
This is nothing compared to
the language in which the bish
ops and other notable divines who
gave the Authorized Version of
the Scriptures to the Inglish
speaking world dedicated their
work to King James. This dedi
cation 18 a curfosity of litera
ture. Editions of the Bible print
ed in this country and editions
imported from England have been
prepared without it. But for two
hundred and fifty yvears British
printers would just as soon have
omitted the Beatitudes as the
dedication to King James.
This James, it must he borne in
mind, was as contemptible a per
son as the world ever saw in a
conspicuous position, and illus
trations of this kind of worship
abound.
The explanation is pleasing
rather than otherwise. King
worship supplies proof of one of
the brightest and happlest, even
it at times pathetlie, traits of our
human nature. It represents the
ideallstic interpretation of life.
We see the good which is not
there, which we should llke to see
there. The good which is there we
exaggerate and magnify and glo-
first lines of this utterance, which
reads thus:
“When the future historian
shall come to survey the charac
ter of Lee, he will find it rising
like a huge mountain above the
undulating plain of humanity,
and he must lift his eyes toward
heaven to catch its summit. He
possessed every virtue of other
great commanders without their
vices,” etc.
We could not select a Dbetter
subject or a better place in which
to perpetuate the memorial of a
cause so dear to us all. Let me
says, with Father Ryan, that “A
land without memory is a land
without liberty.” If we have done
nothing which we can memorial
ize, certainly we can not look for
ward to liberty; but in this case
we certainly have every reason to
memorialize the gallant deeds of
our great and good men who lost
their fortunes and lives in per
petuating Southern rights and
Southern iiberty.
1 suggest that this matter take
on tangible form; that a memo
rial assoclation be established;
that public subscriptions be taken
to carry out the plan and purpose
as outllned by Mr. Graves.
rify almost beyond recognition.
As time goes on we forget the
terrible discount to which it was
subject.
It is beautiful, exquisitely beau
tiful, and that man or woman is
to be pitied who does not see and
feo] the beauty and come under
the spell of it.
“Think of me at my best,”
says poor Seaforth to David Cop
perficld on the eve of his flight
into darkness and guilt—"think
of me at my best!” It Is the cry
of our frailty; it is the pitiful
prayer of weakness conscious of
itself. Yea; but it is the cry of
the reality within us which
knows that our “best” is there,
and feels it grope for a ‘“best”
beyond that wlll reinforce it and
bring It one day to Its own,
“Think of me at my best,” our
human nature crles through the
vears and the generations and
the centuries; and the ages an
swer back that the selfishness,
the cruelty, the sin, were acci
dents, born in time, now dead and
buried; the “best” was the es
sential ME, and it is this which
endures.
It is depressing to llve only
amid moral defeats. It is devi
talizing to move constantly
among broken vows and broken
hopes and broken lives. If the
eve of the soul forever looks upon
the obvious fact and failure and
never sweeps the vast horizon
and rests in the far distance upon
mountain peaks of promise, a
spiritual near-sightedness results.
The soul ltself is threatened with
blindness.
. . .
We live by aspiration, awe,
wonder, admiration, worship and
love. A deep damnation has
fallen upon the young man oOr
young woman who is cynical,
blase, contemptuous of virtue
ard aspiration and beautiful sen
timent. It is life to love.
Idealization is not misrepre
sentation. It i{s not prevarica
tion. It is not suggestion of the
false by suppression of the true.
It is a transference to a person
whom we know or have known of
{deal charms and graces which,
though we do not possess them
ourselves, we know to be the real
wealth of the world and the abld
ing glory of humanity. 'lghe old
King worship is not for us. We
have passed beyond that stage of
evolution. But that man needs to
cry with Robert Louis Steven
son'
“Lord. thy most pointed pleasure
take
And stab my spirit broad awake,
if he has lost the capacity for
fdealization out of which such
worship grew.
Some years ago I came in an automobile tour
from New York to Atlanta, seeing many grand and
beautiful sights. But here on the threshold of my
home there broke upon our ravished gaze that
matchless declivity of which vou spoke, and with
awe, veneration, almost ecstasy, [ })elt like taking
off my hat, although I was only a woman!
1 have often seen and ever cherished Stone
Mountain, but never that northern side.
Surely the whole Southland will rise up and
adopt your suggestion.
1339 Peachtree Street.
Suggests That People Have
Chance to Erect Monument
Editor The Georgian:
EADING your inspiring edl-
R torlals from day to day
and week to week—in
prose, poetry and pictures—
which are endeavoring always to
encourage, entice and exhort men
and women everywhere to lift up
their heads and THINK, with the
thoughts filled with ENTHUSI
ASM; and we realize that when
a thought, even though partly
developed, is more than half
the battle in securing the work
of realization.
Why had not SOMEBODY be
fore to-day thought of the
GRAND IDEA OF MAKING AN
ENDURING MONUMENT TO
OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD
FROM (RATHER ON) THE
GRANITE SIDES OF HISTORIC
STONE MOUNTAIN? The pub
lished article in the last issue of
The Sunday American by Hon.
John Temple Graves, we believe,
will go down {in history as the
beginning of one of the world's
great achievements. To say it
can't be accomplished is mere
talk, for when did Atlanta in re
cent years ‘“go after” anything
that she has failed to land? Not
only is Atlanta in this deal, me
thinks, for {f I am not much
mistaken the whole State will
wish to contribute something
to so grand and glorious an
enterprise. While there are some
of us who are not In position to
help much financially, we could
not resist the enthusiasm of try
ing to write some of the things in
our minds for the noble under
taking
The IDEA of Colonel Graves,
or anyone else who might have
helped him {n formulating said
IDEA, is the great thing in this
deal; and we believe the NAMES
of the parties, with that of Colo
nel Graves, who makes such an
IDEA a realism, should be placed
I‘© More Truth Than Poetry ®
The Tellers.
H E'S always glad to see you; it seems well worth the whils,
To hear his softly cordial voice and watch his genial smile.
He calls you promptly by your name, which deftly flatters you,
And how it does delight you when he calls you “Mister,” too.
You feel that for his tactfulness you never quite can thank
The man who takes your money at the bank.
BUT at the other window is a fellow with a grouch,
Who can't fulfill his duties without seeming to say, “Ouch!”
He looks at you suspiciously, as one with the belief
That you must be a forger, a “con-man’ or a thief.
He always is a misanthrope, a doubter and a crank;
The man who pays out money at the bank.
FELLOW SUFFERER.
The New Haven stockholders
are not the only victims of bad
judgment. Over in Ulster a mov
ing picture man bought the rights
to photograph the war.
EASY ENOUGH.
All those college professors who
want more pay need to do Is to
add the tango to their curricu
lum and they will soon be going
to and from their classrooms in
their own automobiles.
JUST THE PLACE.
Perhaps when Mr. McAdoo re
turns from his honeymoon he will
have the Treasury Building fitted
up for his residence. It is large
and roomy, and right across the
street from the residence of his
father-in-law.
BEGINNING RIGHT THIS TIME.
WALDORF ASTOR TO SELL
PAPERS IN LONDON.—Head
line.
There is a descendant of John
Jacob who may make a name for
himself.
in some place upon or within sald
monument, whereby the names
might be preserved to the future
generations for their information,
and possibly to encourage the un
born genius of the future to “be
up and doing.” Let the names
be preserved so long as the gi
gantic monument shall be recog
nized as the work of a loving
people. Talk of a popular sub
scription years ago for the memo
rial to the late beloved Henry
Grady, and the response which
came from the people! Let them
have a chance at this through the
daily and weekly newspapers,
and watch the result.
'Tis a pity that more of us can
not achleve some of the lasting
gratitude of the human race, for
we believe the GREAT RULER
OF THE UNIVERSE, with His
all-seeing eye, will sanction such
great accomplishments as our
people are to-day doing. When
we do the great things that are
being done, and glve to Him the
glory of allowing us to do these
things, we believe it will meet
with His blessings; especially
such gigantic things as building
the Panama Canal, the wonderful
flying machines which are now in
the process of development, the
desires of leading nations to set
tle thelr difficulties without war,
and a GEORGIA LEGISLATURE
WHICH WILL GRANT AND
DEMAND LIBERTY FOR THE
CHILDREN OF GEORGIA.
We may not be like the funny
man in the Legislature or like
some Socrates, Homer of Dante
of ancient times, but we could
not resist r-iting a letter to you
upon a subject which is so pro
foundly interesting to us.
Here's hoping for, great suc
cess, and may the financial re
sponses be all that you could
wish. Yours truly,
Atlanta, Ga. Jiß. B
MODERN ACHIEVEMENT.
Time was when the cow was
content to jump over the moon.
Now, judging by the new beef
prices, she has got the ¢raze for
altitude records and is cavorting
over Arcturus.
FAIRLY GOOD MEASURE,
Organized baseball may have
nothing to fear from the Fed
erals, but that 21-inning game in
Pittsburg shows that they at least
have been forced to give specta
tors their money’s worth,
MORE TROUBLE FOR THE
A. B. C.
Now that Huerta has quit, it
will, of course, be necessary to
call a special session of the Me
diation Court to determine
whether Villa or Carranza shall
have the looting privilege in Mex
ico City.
CALL A CONSULTATION,
The prospect of a suit against
the New Haven directors indi
cates that William Rockefeller's
doctors will have a fairly pros
perous season.
THE HOME PAPER
Big Business and
Publicity by Default
By ELBERT HUBBARD
Written Especially for The Georgian.
fI‘HE blg business men of this
country should get togeth
er and take lessons in the
fine art of publicity from Dr.
Raitman and Colonel Berkman.
In the way of publicity pur
veyors these parties certainly de
serve our sincere admiration.
If big business {s willing to ac
cept the services of Ida Tarbell,
instead of hiring a good publicity
agent of its own, it must expect
to be put in a slightly prejudiced
light before the world at large.
The thing that lives in history
is not the event., It is the writ
ten account of it
Just let enough of the voters of
the United States become con
vinced that Judge Haywood is a
great and worthy man struggling
for the good of the downtrodden
masses, and they will elect him
President of the United States,
and then we will get this:
President, Willlam Haywood.
Vice President, Charles Moyer.
Secretary of State, Upton Sin
clair.
Secretary of War, Mother
Jones.
Secretary of the Treasury, Em
ma Goldman.
Attorney-General, Frank Tan
nenbaum.
And when thl§ comes about, do
not forget that the gallows tree
will bear fruit, and that you can
listen anywhere and hear sounds
as of men with hammers building
a scaffold. And the men who will
hang first will be big business
men.
Haman’s plant will run time
and a third, and hemp will com
mand a price as never before.
. . s
THE stupidity of big business
in being perfectly willing to
leave publicity to its enemies is
almost past belief.
When it comes to educating the
public to what intelligent organi
zation can do, big business sleep
{ly says, “Let George do {t!"”
The press of the country is
willing, I believe, to tell the truth,
but if the men who have most
at stake will not pay for the paper
and ink they will see the opposi
tion get to the public first.
Because men have money is no
reason they have brains.
Most millionaires have spent
their lives In a circumscribed
sphere. They are speclalists.
They know finance, but they do
not know psychology. And psy
chology is a matter of the tides
that play through the great hu
man heart.
To-day clvilization lis sitting
on the crust of a crater, dangling
its heels and whistling ‘“Annie
Laurie.”
Blg business would do wesll to
come out of its comatose state,
organize a bu}'eau and teach the
world a little economic truth, In
stead of delegating pedagogics to
the prejudiced and the unfit.
Leaving things to George is a
sure way to let them go by de
fault.
If big business is a beneficent
thing, why not buy pages in the
dally press and advertise the
fact?
History is reaching a pivotal
Could We Live Without Dust?
OW does dust diffuse the
H sun's rays? How does
dust give the blue appear
ance to the sky? How does dust
act on the sea? Could we live
without dust?
It was not known that dust has
an importance almost beyond
conception until within a few
years. But now a number of the
ablest physicists have made re
fined and very accurate Investiga
tions. Here is thelr startling dis
covery: If there were absvlutely
no dust in the earth’s atmosphere,
there could be no fog, mist, dew
or rain. Without dust we could
not live.
Fog, mist. clouds are made of
separate spheres of water. But
in the center of each there is a
particle of dust. Without dust as
a central nucleus, no separate
particle of water can form. When
very minute, these globes of wa
ter float in alr as mist and clouds.
point. A new deal is at the door,
and as Alaric overran Rome, so
is anarchy ready to engulf us,
Attila, the “Scourge of God,”
with his whirlwind of fire and
sword, is not far away, but this
time he comes with the ballot as
his bludgeon. His minions are
even now at the capital, and we
see Ostrogoth sentiments incor
porated into statute laws.
. . .
P OLITICIANS who wear their
opinions pompadour read
speeches into the Congressional
Record and mail at public ex
pense a million copies to the pee
pull at a cost to the taxpayers of
many thousand dollars.
But big business is so inert, so
obtuse, so obese, that it dare not
state its own case, lest it be ao~
cused of malntaining “an insid
fous lobby.”
There is no legal reason why
big business should not hire ready
writers and publicize its position,
just as the Government does its
attitude,
But big business pleads guilty
before it is accused, and fears
the fact will come out that it has
paid for legitimate services ren
dered.
Let Brandels jump out of &
dark corner and shout “Boo!™
and big business blubbers foe
mercy.
It {8 idle to berate Washington,
The men at Washington reflect,
chameleon-like, the opinions of
the pegple who sent them there
The only way to reach Washing
ton is to effect a change in pub-
Hec opinion.
As long as a majority of the
voters imagine that the employer
is the enemy of the employee, big
business is going to have fire
crackers attached to its coat tail,
and eventually it will be driven
by its tormentors into nervous
prostration.
Already 1t s suffering from
monetary senilis.
. . s
O N the backs of their time-table
folders, the New York Cen
tral and the Pennsylvania carry
a page of peevish apology.
This is about the extent of their
advertising, save that they have
tacked up in all stations a whin
ing placard begging that the pub
lic will interfere in their behalf
and importune Washington to
give them forty lashes instead of
a hundred.
They will never get a fair deal
until they meet the falsehoods of
the agitators and give blow for
blow.
If the rallroade are going down
in the general crash and wreck
of things, why shouldn’t they go
down with colors flying and band
a-playing, instead of peeking
around searching for a dishon
orable grave!
There is no going back to “the
rule of the competent few.”
Popular government i{s here. If
we are ruled_ by the worst, we
must, through education, evolve
that “worst” into the best.
As a matter of self-preserve
tion we must make the “worst”
tolerable and tolerant. Also, we
must be tolerant.
But when the spheres become
large enough they fall as rain,
But at times the sky is red,
vellow or violet. Then blue is
sifted out, does not reach the eye.
Water, vapor and dust cause the
dispersion or quenching of waves.
But air i= slightly blue even when
pure.
This problem is obscurse,. for
there are waves both shorter and
longer than blue, and the sizes
of dust particles must be careful
ly determined by Nature to allow
only blue to traverse the aerial
envelope and reach the earth.
The fact is: Science has not
proved all causes of the blue of
a pure noonday sky., There may
be very light gases high above the
alr as composed of oxygen and ni
trogen; so rare that they rest in
layers on the upper alr; so light
that they can not fall to earth by
gravitation. If so, then these
gases could not be known to
chemists, Gt e