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EDITORIAL RAGE
The Atlanta Georgian
THE HOME RARER
TIIE ATLANTA. Georgian N ever Mind the Knotholes, Get in the Game
Published by THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 10 Eaat Alabama Htreot. Atlnr fa Gi
BntartMl M Mrand-oleu bu m *i pMiofflc* ai Atlanta. under a< t of Marrtt I.
The President’s Note to
Germany
The President s note to Germany, delivered to the American
Ambassador in Berlin last night, may be an epoch-making chap
ter in American history. Its possible results baffle imagination.
Some protest was compelled by circumstances growing out of the
European war. The property of the citizens of the United States
on the high seas has been menaced by both belligerents, but the
lives as well as the property of our citizens have been destroyed
by Germany. It was necessary, therefore, as repeatedly sug
gested by The Georgian, that vigorous representations be made
to that power of the illegality of its procedure and of the deter
mination of the United States to protect its citizens in the pur
suit of their peaceful business in unarmed merchant ships, either
neutral or belligerent.
The President’s letter is undeniably vigorous, BUT IT IS
POSSIBLY DANGEROUS AS WELL. The nation desired that
its rightful demands should be laid before the German Govern
ment, but it did not anticipate that the President would go so
far beyond the plainly and soundly rightful scope of those de
mands as to invite a rebuff.
In reiterating his purpose, expressed first in the note of
February 18, to hold Germany to "strict accountability” for in
juries to American lives or property done in violation of inter
national law, the President is wholly right. Nor can there be
aqy question of his justification in classing as such violations of
international law the cases of the Falaba, the Cushing, the Gulf-
light and the Lusitania. He is right in demanding reparation
for the injuries done in those instances and in noting that repara
tion will not suffice without the taking of steps "to prevent the
recurrence of anything so obviously subversive of the principles
of warfare for which the Imperial German Government has in
the past so wisely and so firmly contended."
The statement of the offense, the demands for reparation
and the insistence upon assurances that the offense would not
be repeated were wholly justified, but were all that was justified.
But the President goes on practically to protest against the
use of submarines by Germany in the war that country is wag
ing on British commerce.
This offers Germany the opportunity to retort that, so far as
we are concerned, the method of her warfare against England
is none of our business.
We call the attention of readers to these paragraphs in
which the President seems to overstep the necessities and pro
prieties of the occasion:
"The Government of the United States, therefore, desires
to rail the attention of the Imperial German Government with
the utmost earnestness to the faet that the objection to its pres
ent method of attack agninst the trade of its enemies lies in the
practical impossibility of employing submarines in the destruc
tion of commerce without disregarding those rules of fairness,
reason, justice and humanity which all modern opinion regards
as imperative. It is practically impossible for the officers of a
submarine to visit a merchantman at sea and examine her papers
and cargo. It is practically impossible for them to make a prize
of her, and if they can not put a prize crew on board of her, they
can not sink her without leaving her crew and all on board of
her to the mercy of the sea in her small boats. These facts, it
is understood, the Imperial German Government frankly admits.,
"We are informed that in the instances of which we have
spoken time enough for even that poor measure of safety was
not given, and in at least two of the eases cited, not so much
as a warning was received. MANIFESTLY, SUBMARINES
CAN NOT BE USED AGAINST MERCHANTMEN, AS THE
LAST FEW WEEKS HAVE SHOWN, WITHOUT AN INEVI
TABLE VIOLATION OF MANY SACRED PRINCIPLES OF
JUSTICE AND HUMANITY."
The submarine is the only weapon available to Germany for
use upon the sea. With foresight and precaution, with that
recognition of the duty of national preparedness with the United
States equally possessed, the Germans prepared and continually
are adding to the only naval force with which they can meet
Great Britain on the high seas.
It is not our business to sympathize with Germany because
her naval weapons are inadequate to meet the overwhelming
power of the British navy, but it is certainly not our business to
protest against the use by Germany of such weapons as she pos
sesses. And it is not likely that the protest will meet with very
respectful consideration.
In opening the broad question of the legality and propriety
of a submarine blockade the President has abandoned the safe
and firm basis of obvious and unquestioned American rights and
ventured upon the debatable ground of international exigency
and morality, and opened the way to a retort which it will be
difficult for the United States to bear calmly. We may be sub
jected to an affront which we have invited or forced into a posi
tion of undue and undesired aggression. The issue will depend
entirely upon the German Government's present difficulties, and
its unwillingness to yield to its complications.
This is the more unfortunate because in its fundamental
demands the President is wholly right, and expresses the senti
ment and the desire of the whole people. All the rights that
international law and custom assure to neutrals must be enjoyed
by our people. Neither belligerent must be permitted, without
vigorous protest, to rewrite the law of nations to suit its own
ends, though both have tried to do it. And the President did not
overstate the convictions of this people when, in closing, he said:
"The Imperial German Government will not expect the Gov
ernment of the United States to omit any word or any notion nec
essary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining the
rights of the United States and its citizens and of safeguarding
Jheir free exercise and enjoyment. ’’ j
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A Little Journey to San Mateo County
By ELBERT HUBBARD= - -
HERE are five reasons for
I human migration: The first
is the need of food.
Second, religious and political
liberty.
Third, the search for the
springs of perpetual youth.
Fourth, just plain desire for
novelty and change.
Fifth, ihe search for gold.
The Persians, who overran
Greece, were actuated in their mi
grations by hunger.
The Huguenots and the Pilgrim
Fathers were in search of reltgi-
ious liberty.
Ponce de Leon was in search
of the fountain of perpetual
youth.
Marco Polo, Columbus and Bal
boa were navigators, explorers
and gentlemen adventurers.
The Argonauts sought for gold.
Recently I made a little Journey
to the place where the five objects
of migration abound, if anywhere.
And the discovery supplied me
more joyous thrills to the acre
than anything that has come my
way for many a moon.
San Mateo County, California,
is the place!
Different in situation, unique,
peculiar—the locality where
mountain, sky, sea, bay, lakes
and meadow’s blend into a topo
logical symphony.
We have heard of the Utopia
that lacked only two things—
water and society; but here these
two things abound.
In San Mateo County I found
In abundance everything that hu
man beings crave and require.
In San Mateo County there is
liberty—religious, social, political.
And the high cost of living has
no terrors.
In San Mateo County repair
equals waste—if anywhere in the
wide world. Happiness abounds,
because the conditions are right
Here is gold galore, If you
work for it—and 1 am told that
that is the only way to get it
We appreciate things b. con
trast. San Mateo County i. prac
tically a suburb of San Francisco.
I discovered this modern Ar
cadia in a motor as we trav
ersed a roadway mudless, ddst-
less, skidless.
This roadw'ay ran eagerly un
der our automobile, without
bump, jump or jounce.
The sunshine was glorious; the
breeze from the ocean fanned our
cheeks.
On one side lay San Francisco
Bay; on the other was the Paci
fic Ocean.
In less than an hour's ride from
the hotel we saw wild deer.
Jackrabbits and cottontails
crossed the road, indifferent to
“safety first.” Bevies of quail,
with their gorgeous topknots,
scorned our approach.
In the rushing, dancing moun
tain streams we saw a fisherman
who had more than the proverbial
fisherman’s luck, which was
“nothing to the size of those that
got away."
• • •
San Mateo County is a place
where the modern Franciscan
Friars frolic.
Just here let me explain a
great natural phenomenon which
is the secret of the wonderful
growth of fruit and flowers found
In California.
Love and labor collaborating
set science to w r ork and apply
water to land, and the result is
that the sun makes the earth
laugh a harvest.
In the tropics the air is close,
muggy, depressing, enervating.
But In San Mateo County mias
ma is unknown, the hookworm is
never in evidence, and all the
stimulation you need is in the at
mosphere.
Here is perpetual summer, and (
yet each day has its seasons.
In the middle of the day the
sun is hot, and if your thermome
ter is sheltered from the wind it
may show 70 to 90 degrees; but
if you are out in the open there
Is a cool breeze that fans your
face.
At night the thermometer will
drop to SO or 60 degrees, and
w’oolen blankets are acceptable.
Old Wine in a New Bottle
News of Atlanta Five and Ten Years Ago
MAY 14. 1905.
SUNDAY.
• • •
MAY 14, 1910.
Wallace Rhodes, superintend
ent of malls, for 40 years attach
ed to Atlanta postofflee, resigns
when salary cut Is proposed.
• • •
D. R. Phillips held without
bond following hearing In con
nection with mysterious death of
William M. Holland, night watch
man.
• • •
Judge R. B. Russell, of Geor
gia Court of Apj£*al3, announces
that he will run for Governor on
local option platform.
• • •
Hoke Smith answers delega
tion of supporters with state
ment that he will not run for
Governor. Gives personal rea
sons.
• • •
Montgomery’ beats Atlanta, 9
to 3.
• • •
Mr. and Mrs. D. J. Anderson
announce the engagement of
their daughter, Annie Maybelle,
to A. E. Blackstone, Jr.
• • •
Fred J. Paxon announces for
mally he will not run for Mayor.
The cool breeze from the ocean
and the warm, caressing sunshine
are what give fertility, plus.
Vegetation at night needs a
rest exactly as man does; in fact,
man is brother to tree and flower.
The source of life is one.
And when we discover exactly
what life is we will find it a mat
ter of electricity—at least that is
what that electric wizard, Dr.
Steinmetz, says. And I am in
clined to think he is right.
The intermittent current gives
us power, heat and' light. The
secret of the telephone is the
broken current.
The secret of San Mateo Coun
ty is the variation experienced
every day in temperature. It is
the cool breeze mated with the
warm sunshine.
• • •
Here is a strip of land that
runs up to a point touching the
city of San Francisco, so that
weary residents may take a run
out from the busy, bustling, hus
tling, ambitious city to the cool
country’, where the fruits and the
flowers invite, where the brook
trout lure and the mountains
beckon.
Practically, San Mateo County
is one great park, laid out by na
ture in a Joyous mood
I know that wonderful district
known as “The Trossache,” in
Scotland, where tired citizens of
London and Edinburgh come to
view nature; but nothing in the
Trossachs equals the mountain
roads of San Mateo County, as
they wind in and out among the
redwoods, where the hurrying,
scurrying streams dash over the
rocks hastening to the sea, and
the road clings to the mountain
side, overlooking valley and
wooded hills, with glimpses of the
great Pacific on one side and
San Francisco Bay on the other,
with the haze of the great city
only twenty miles away.
The Truth About Atlanta’s
Public Schools
(This it the first of a serlet of six authoritative and oarefully con
sidered articles on Atlanta’s public schools, as compared with the
public schools » : n other cities of approximately the same population. The
second article will appear on Tuesday, May 18.)
By A GEORGIAN CORRESPONDENT.
Having been commissioned by
The Georgian as its special cor
respondent to visit several repre
sentative cities of or near Atlan
ta’s class in population, investi
gate the school systems of each
and present impressions gathered
to the readers of The Georgian,
in a series of educational articles,
the writer devoted two weeks of
earnest inquiry to the cities of
Indianapolis, Ind.; Columbus,
Ohio; Washington, D. C., and
Richmond, Va.
These cities were selected on
account of their varying systems
and organizations, representing as
they did singly and collectively
the best that there is in educa
tional work.
The purpose of the Investiga
tion was to lay before the people
of Atlanta a panorama of what
other cities have done and are do
ing in school improvement, in
comparison with what Atlanta has
done and is doing with her
schools, in order that community
interest might be so impressed
that an aroused public sentiment
w’ould demand the best in local
school efficiency and equipment,
at whatever the cost.
If Atlanta shtAild be show’n to
be lacking in any essential of
school progress, the fact was to be
made known in a just exposition
of the need to be supplied, or the
delinquency that demanded cor
rection.
It will not do for children rep
resenting the strongest American
type to go a-hunger on account
of a system that may need to be
improved, a condition that may
need to be eradicated, or facilities
that are confessedly inadequate to
the growing demands of an ex
panding metropolis.
Representing, as our children
do, generations of inherited vigor
and brilliancy, it would be noth
ing short of a community crime If
the best In building, equipment
and teaching w-’ere longer denied
them in their eager waiting for
knowledge.
One has only to visit other
cities that stand out as represen
tative types In educational growth
to be Impressed with the w’oeful
neglect that has been permitted to
canker—certainly the physical
side of Atlanta’s system.
A resident of either of such
cities, knowing anything of
schools in his own home, would,
upon inspecting Atlanta’s system,
be tempted to inquire: Where is
the Atlanta spirit? Is it confined
to things material—to the gath
ering of great crowds—to noisy
display?
Is there no Atlanta spirit back
of your public schools?
These thoughts unwillingly
crowded upon the mind on my
recent investigation of the cities
named. Buildings of strength and
comfort, each department splen
didly equipped and all so well sup
plied with modern conveniences,
mutely appealed to me to tell the
people of Atlanta to keep up the
agitation of school needs until the
renaissance shall become a com
plete triumph of rAodern thought
over antiquated custom.
It is not pleasing to some peo
ple to hear these things. It is
never comforting to the citizen to
tell them. It is always best, how
ever, for the city to be confronted
with a true statement of her
needs.
If there was ever a condition
against which the people of At
lanta should revolt, it is that con-
More Truth Than Poetry
By JAMES T. MONTAGUE.
Soothing the Savage Breast
Music, it Has been found, is An effective pr even tit* of crime
T IME was when a cop was called In to arrest
A man with a violent jag on,
He would rap on his roof as a passing reproof
And turn In a call for the wagon.
And when the offender was lodged In a cell,
Where victims to slug were denied him—
Though his dome was stove In—the original sfn
Was st i 11 unextinguished inside him.
B UT now when a man starts to rough house the town,
With a night-stick his skull Isn’t cloven;
The cop chants a lay from Berlin or Bizet
Or whistles a bar of Beethoven.
And If these do not melt the most criminal heart
The Judge, in the place of a sentence,
Will soften his soul with a barcorolle
’Till the roughneck sheds tears of repentance.
R ED JAKE, who committed a cycle of crimes,
Has just been awarded a pardon;
He saw a great light when they played him one night
A solo by Miss Mary Garden.
And Lop-Eared McGrorty and Porch-Climbing Pete,
Rough Rawson and Michigan Mawruss
Joined the Anti-Crime League when the music of Grieg
Was sung by the Sing Sing Male Chorus.
I NSTEAD of with locust and handcuffs a cop
Now wars on the forces of sin
With the subtle toot-toot of an ebony flute
Or the wail of a young violin.
They play 'em In haunts where the crooks hang their hats—
And If the performers are clever—
The thugs, with a sob, swear they’ll lay off the Job
Of bunking and burgling forever,
dltion brought about by the ad
ministrative and appropriating
power that has denied the schools
of Atlanta their Just share of the
taxes of all the people.
If there was ever a time for
such a revolt, that had for its
purpose the relegation to private
life those men who stand* as
stumps in the broad road of edu
cational progress, and the sup
planting them with those men
who stand for schools first—ma
terialism next—that time is now.
This is the day for getting ready.
Let the revolt come quickly, and
its munificent results will be ail
the more sure.
Think, people of Atlanta! There
Is not a school building in your
city that would not excite the
surprise and challenge the pity of
the people of Indianapolis, Ind.;
Columbus, Ohio; Washington City,
and Richmond, Va. Not one.
I did not tell these people, as
I Inspected the splendid houses
for their children. I felt too
much for our Atlanta children to
thus humiliate home pride.
I smothered the dismal, mental
comparison in my own troubled
bosom!
Listen, people of Atlantal I in
spected a building in Richmond,
Va., that was set apart for the
education of negroes. It was not
so large as some of the buildings
that are used for the education
for our white boys and girls in
Atlanta, but it was better venti
lated, better lighted, better heat
ed and had larger playgrounds.
I will not compare the splen*
did building In Columbus, Ohio,
that Is used solely for the negroes
—there is one such, in an alto
gether negro school district, quite
as good as the buildings used for
mixed races—my reasons for
withholding the comparison being
that many would seek to defend
Atlanta’s delinquency with the
statement that this was a North
ern community, and, therefore,
not to be compared with South
ern conditions.
The comparison that I desire to
make and the point that I desire
to drive is not one that applauds
Richmond for building specially
for the negro race—intelligent
people know this is not the case—•
but that Richmond, the Mecca of
Southern sentiment, is building
thoughtfully In erecting houses
not for to-day, but for to-mor
row; not for this decade, but for
60 years hence.
And it is so with Indianapolis,
free of the political yoke, and of
Columbus, though pulling under
It.
For the citizen to allow the
mind that hungers for expansion
to "be imprisoned, or to permit
the soul that struggles for the
higher life to be chilled by any
policy of indifference, or display
of narrow satisfaction with ex
isting order, is for him to commit
an offense against civic righteous
ness.
The people never make unrea
sonable drafts on their own bank
ing house—the government.
Those whom the people elect to
administer their affairs must not
refuse to validate the people’*
will.
This is done when needed facil
ities are denied the education of
the children of the people, by of
ficials whom the people elect to
govern them as their trustees.
Atlanta is building by habit-
other cities by process of develop
ment.