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EDITORIAL RAGE
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Publish Ml by THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East Alabama Street. Atlanta Ga.
Gnt#r«4 u nailer at poatofllr* at Atlanta, under act of March t. itTJ.
Self=Restraint of America
The entire absence of any excitement among the people or
in the press of the United States over the sinking of the Armenian
is a striking evidence of the judicial fairness with which the na
tion has come to view the incidents of the war.
There was every superficial reason for violent outbreaks of
resentment when the news of the sinking of this ship first reached
the public. Nearly a score of American citizens lost their lives.
The exploit was committed by a German submarine before Ger
many had made amends for the lives of Americans lost on the
Lusitania, and even before a satisfactory rejoinder to the repre
sentations of our Government on the subject of that disaster had
been made. Moreover it came at a moment when it was under
stood by our people, perhaps without adequate reason, that sub
marine attacks of this character were to be abandoned, pending
a satisfactory conclusion of the Lusitania correspondence.
Despite these facts, which might readily have inflamed the
public mind, it is quite apparent that the press and public have
withheld judgment on the Armenian affair. The most pronounced
German sympathizer could not ask of the people a more judicial
attitude. It is recognized that the nature of the service of the
ship, whether or not she was under admiralty character, and
whether she was endeavoring to escape when struck down, are
all matters of importance the establishment of which will take
time. That time American public opinion is quite willing to grant.
It would be an error, however, for the German Foreign
Office, or any other foreign office, to look upon the quiescence of
the American people in this instance as indicative of resignation
to whatever may happen to American ships or American goods,
or American citizens on the high seas. No such complaisance
exists. The people only have learned that there are services on
the high seas which our citizens can not undertake without mak
ing themselves, in fact, belligerents and incurring the risks of
war. Perhaps handling a contraband cargo on a ship under ad
miralty charter is such a service.
But to sail the ocean highway on their own legitimate busi
ness is not such service, even though they embark on a boat be
longing to a belligerent. And most emphatically to sail on neu
tral ships on business wholly disconnected with belligerent affairs,
is a course in which our citizens should be protected by their Gov
ernment.
The German response to the Lusitania note is still incomplete
and unsatisfactory. The British answer to our complaints of
cargo seizures and the delay of our ships bound to neutral ports
is thus far evasive and dilatory.
While there is every reason for pride in the calm and self-
restraint shown by our people in the face of the sinking of the
Armenian, the belligerents need not construe it as evidence of
indifference to our rights on the high seas. Public sentiment will
be expressed clearly enough when the two nations from which
we are asking explanations and assurances shall make their an
swers.
Are You Spending Money?
If So, Read This and Reflect
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Those that are extravagant excuse themselves with the re
mark that spending money ‘‘does good to the poor.”
Unnecessary expense HURTS THE POOR.
Whenever you waste a DAY'S LABOR you waste what
labor produces.
If a man keeps fifty other human beings waiting on him, the
fact that he pays them is no excuse. Others must work to feed
THEM.
The TIME of the fifty is wasted. There is no real VALUE
in the world, and, therefore, no real WASTE in the world except
that of HUMAN LABOR.
You need not take our feeble word for it, but if you are
thinking of buying another large yacht or spending other money
that you do not NEED to spend, we recommend that you cut out
and carry with you this quotation from Lecky's ‘ Map of Life:”
But nothing in political economy is more certain than that
the vast and ever-increasing expenditure on the luxury of osten
tation in modern societies, by withdrawing great masses of cap
ital from productive labor, is a grave economic evil, and there is
probably no other form of expenditure which, in proportion to
its amount, gives so little real pleasure and confers so little real
good.
‘‘It is the colossal waste of the means of human happiness
in the most selfish and most vulgar forms of social advertise
ment and competition that gives a force and almost a justifica
tion to anarchical passions which menace the whole future of
our civilization.
‘‘It is such things that stimulate class hatreds and deepen
class divisions, and if the law of opinion does not interfere to
check them they wall one day bring dgwn upon the society that
encourages them a signal and well-merited retribution. ’ ’
Fortunately for this country, it may be said that as yet
stupid squandering that takes the form of wasting other men’s
time has not become a great menace.
Our richest men are too busy to be bothered with dozens or
hundreds of servants. They do not “ride out” as the ancient
rich men did with troops of mounted men going before them.
They play their little game of golf, sip their milk and seltzer,
and when they get a few extra millions put them into some busi
ness that will make more millions for them.
But it is wf 11 to remember that this republic is young, well
to watch the direction in which we are going and to keep pasted
sup where we can see it occasionally the wise saying by Proud
hon, ‘‘Monarchies are destroyed by poverty; republics are de
stroyed by wealth.”
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The Atlanta Georgian
THE HOME-RARER
Welcome to Our City!
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• REVELATION
By JANE M’LEAN
o
UT of the mountain fastnesses there came
A youth; we know not what might be his uame,
But in hand he bore a hollow reed,
And when we started he gave no seeming heed
To aught about him. Down we followed him
In his strange, garb, his figure straight and slim,
To where-the dank, lush river grasses grow,
Where bronze-tipped eat-tails waver to and fro.
And then he played; songs with the shivering thrill
Of pain, high echoed in the reed’s clear trill,
Love and a longing born of endless dreams,
Of stranger moods still unfulfilled, of gleams
Of light and shadow, dreamily portrayed.
And when one of us asked the song he played.
He smiled that strange smile through the wild refrain
And said, ‘‘Some call it love, others pain.”
But we who heard the notes of pride, of strife.
Of longing, knew it for the Song of Life.
STARS AND STRIPES
When hubby does most of the
cooking: it is a sign that mar
riage is not a failure, so far as
the wife is concerned.
• • •
It is possible to perform a lot
of good deeds and never receive
a round of applause.
V • •
Upon the whole it is better to
be the friend of the good fellow
than the good fellow himself.
With the auto victim it is usu
ally a case of “did not know what
it was loaded with.”
* * *
The fool seldom se^ms to hear
■*he answers to the questions that
he asks.
* * •
Occasionally We meet a grouch
miserable enough to be en
tertaining.
A
More Truth Than Poetry
By JAMES T. MONTAGUE.
EVOLUTION.
You’d never think to see him,
Tiny little chap,
Drowsing to a lullaby
On his mother’s lap;
That ere you know the years are
gone,
Pretty curly locks
Will be adorned in purple ties
And green silk socks.
You never could imagine
The dimpled atom there.
Tugging with his chubby flst
His scanty silken hair—
Before you ever dreamed that
time
Could Journey.on so far—
Would be composing love songs
on
A big guitar.
THERE ARE MORE SATISFY
ING AMUSEMENTS.
“If the American people,” says
Henry M. Pindell, **could see the
horrors I saw', they would not go
to war except as a last resort.”
The American people, Henry,
have no intention of going to war
merely as a means of recreation
to the tired business man.
STILL IN AN EXPERIMENTAL
STAGE.
The mud spouted from the cra
ter o? Mount Lassen has been
found extremely fertile, but it will
be some time before farmers be
gin the regular use of volcanoes
for subsoil operations.
HOPELESS.
Despairing of ever knowing so
little about ships as the present
incumbent, Senator William Al-
den Smith has given up his am
bition to be Secretary of the Navy
and has decided to run for Presi
dent. And it may be stated with
out fear of successful contradic
tion that the Senator knows ex
tremely little about ships, and can
prove it by the records of his con
duct of the Titanic investigation.
NO INTERFERENCE WITH
THE SCHEDULE.
The Germans sometimes post
pone a battle, but they always
fight a double-header to make up
for it
REAL STRATEGY.
The campaign of silence waged
by tht suffs is sure to be effective.
In war nothing succeeds like sur
prise.
A BUM DIPLOMAT.
Lloyd-George never for a min
ute hesitates to make a statement
merely because it happens to be
the truth.
FAR-SIGHTED.
How w’ise it was of Italy to wait
till the spaghetti crop had been
planted before going to war!
AND THAT IS READY FOR
ANYTHING.
Our only military force that is
in a real state of preparedness is
the Salvation Army.
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Editor The Georgian:
Generally the cause of a war is
far remote from its beginning.
The beginning is«open to the eyes
of all, loud without restraint,
while the cause is most often hid
den and siledt. The lightning and
thunder are poor travelers com
pared to the silent message over
the wire, but very spectacular
beside the unseen current. Like
it, the cause of war runs unseen
through the years and over the
leagues, but when a nation bo-
comes overcharged th6 thunder is
heard. The seeds of our own
Revolution were brought over
from England and planted at
Jamestown in 1607, and later
scattered liberally all along the
Atlantic coast, germinating in the
minds of seven generations of
Americans before they sprouted
visibly at Lexington.
Isabella wanted the gold of the
Indies, therefore she borrowed
from the treasury of Aragon
.money to buy for Columbus the
Nina, the Pinta and the Santa
Marla; wars upon top of wars
that one voyage has fathered.
When man walked out of the
Garden of Eden and thoughtlessly
shut the gate behind him he left
peace within, and there it stayed.
So man walked forth a fighter,
and a fighter he will remain until
he is by force returned to Eden
and securely locked within.
The sum of the desires and pas
sions In the human breast count
up the causes for which he will
fight. Since he has been covered
with a fragile veneering of civili
zation he will put off the begin
ning of a fight longer, for fear of
injuring the veneer, but the im
pulse Is there ar.d the fight wrill
come with the ripened occasion.
The impulse to fight for pos
session and for love are far older
than man: it goes back to the
brute in ‘he jungle and through
the jungle down into the depths
of the yea. Neither has time, nor
civilization, nor religion, abated
one jot or tittle from its potency.
Surely so long as that all-per-
vadtng passion endure will there
be wars and rumors of more
wars.
Should England then fight for
her trade? She should; for with
out trade her people would hun
ger. The Bible says, “He who
provideth not for his household
Is worse than an infidel,” and
surely England could not provide
except her ships plow the distant
seas. When Neptune no longer
smiles on fickle Britannia, then
will she show herself as an old
hag whining only of the past. No
longer enchantress of the Seven
Seas, but sitting disconsolate on
her lonely isle mumbling of all
but forgotten conquests.
England's very existence rests
in not allowing the approach of a
rival. Her statesmen realize that,
but they having been so long suc
cessful with bluster and diplo
matic bluff that real fighting had
almost slipped beyond their cal
culations. England has a great
navy—if the clock could be turned
back ten years-—but, like all co
quettes, she had not taken note
of time.
Ten years ago when she sud
denly waked out 1 of a blissful
dream of an “empire on which
the sun never sets” to a realiza
tion that taxes were climbing
faster, much faster, than wealth,
she sat up with a start and began
to look about for bolstering alli
ances.
On the hitherto despised Jap
she cast loving eyes, hoping thus
to put off the evil day in India.
Then she cajoled France, telling
her that all things French had
ever been dear to the English
heart; telling her that it was im
modest for her to even look at a
Uhlan uniform. Poor, brave, de
luded little Belgium was told that
gold and steel and concrete would
render her impregnable so that
she could never be an open path
way to the sea. But the most
amazing thing of all was her sud
den desire to pet the Russian
bear; that was, of course, because
he had his ,front paws on the
eastern border of Prussia. Think
of England, whose every terri
torial interest is so utterly an
tagonistic to Russia, doing this:
nothing but a horrible trade scare
could have made her think of the
bear at her hearthstone. England
gflures ^hat trade means money,
and money can do anything;
therefore, she is willing to lie
down affectionately with her his
toric enemy, France, the Japa
nese dragon, or the cold-pawed
Russian bear, if they keep out
from her dreams the nightmare of
Prussian trade.
The hard-ridden British tax
payer, grown used to having “set-
fasts*’ on his back, plods on, hop
ing some day the politicians will
grow surfeited on aggrandize
ment. We see the common peo
ple’s despair in the Socialistic
laws recently enacted, laws that
the paternalistic Germany gave
her people years ago, are lately
being forced through by the Eng
lish labor party.
Several years ago when the
Government realized that it must
inevitably fight or acknowledge a
trade rival in Germany, she be
gan. as Mr. Asquith in a speech
In Edinburgh a week ago said, to
frantically prepare for war. But
she was so long unused to fight
ing, except by purchase or diplo
macy. that she flow in her great
est crisis since the proposed visit
of the Invincible Armaida, finds
herself woefully lacking in muni
tions and men.
England worked hard and ex-
pensrverv to shape this war to her
liking. Her part In making the
war was the forming of alliances
that seemed to render It impossi
ble for Germany to win; she
made ardent love to susceptible
France, subsidized Portugal and
Belgium, bought vain, shallow
Japan with promised influence
and “recognition,” played on the
cupidity and treachery of Italy.
Did France lend a cause for
war? Only secondarily; she was
weak and vain enough to be be
guiled by England into involving
herself so heavily in making
Russia ready to fight
Next to the causes furnished by
England. Russian intrigues were
the most powerful determining
factors in making war inevitable.
For a long time Russia has re
garded Constantinople as ulti
mately hers, but German influence
has been a steadily rising barrier,
and that, with a united Austria,
was doubly hard to surmount. It
is conceded by all that the Aus
trian Empire will remain united
under Teutonic leadership as long
as the Emperor lives, but should
he die leaving no acceptable suc
cessor she would totter, If not
fall. Killing the accepted heir wae
a great Pan-Slav State stroke.
Possibly there may be a counter
stroke.
Serbia has been a battle field
and a melting pot from time im
memorial. Overrun and partly re
molded so often that history is
almost befogged. Some of the
noted invaders were the Macedo
nians, 400 years B. C.; then the
Scythians, followed by the Ro
mans; later the Magyars, Turks
and Slavs. Running through all
was a strain of Gypsy blood.
Finally, In 1876, with the help of
Austria, she emerged from Turk
ish rule an autonomous State un
der her own Prince. Within the
near memory of us all we have
seen the present Peter Kare-
georgevitch mounting unblush -
ingly the slippery steps of the
throne, not even having the grace
to lift the ermine out of the not
yet dried blood of the late King
and Queen, shed to make a vacant
throne for him to fill with his un
scrupulous but ambitious schemes
When Austria demanded, in the
name of humanity, that at least
the show of an effort be made to
punish the assassins, Peter look
ed around, and because the now
honored assassins crowded about
the throne so closely that he could
not ev’en see the blood stains on
its pedestal, coolly «aid: - “I can
see no evidences that ajiy crime
has been committed.”
The integrity of the heteroge
neous Austrian Empire could only
be preserved by a freedom from
outside adverse intrigues, and an
acceptable unbroken line of sue-
* cession to the crown, while its
dissolution would make wonder
fully rich pickings. Is It anywon-
der that her neighbors should look
with hungry eyes at the old man
wearing the dual crown? It would
take wonderful moral strength
not to covet the gushing oil wells
of Galicia, the fertile plains of
Hungary and the valley of the
Austrian Danube, teeming with
cities and wealth.
The Austrian Crown Prince
stood in the way.
Italy contributed to the cause*
of the war by giving the Allies to
understand she would not be true
to’ her own obligations. Her na
tional existence dates back less
than 50 years, so she is extremely
hungry. She feels that she must,
have some good land and some
fair-skinned people in her domain,
else she may lose, her voice from
among the council of nations.
The rulers of Italy know that
there is very little of the blood of
the off-colored slaves of ancient
Rome north of the River Po.
Surely the future hope of Italy
lies toward the north. And could
she ever hope for a more likely
season than now? She looked at
the question of entering the war
from a purely unmoral point of
view—treaty obligations and the
matter of right and wrong rarely,
if ever, enter into the plans of
Italian statesmanship. Cavour
and Garibaldi, the greatest mod
ern Italians, and probably the
best, never indulged in thoughts of
right or wrong. The paramount
need of Italy is to get better citi
zens and more land, especially
land that does not stand on end.
She is fighting under the law of
the jungle—that and nothing else.
The German Empire is young
and full-blooded, with many rosy
day dreams. She believes herself
to be the big brother of all civili
zation, and that civilization can
only attach itself to a fair skin.
Is it any wonder that when the
cannibal pot began to boil for her
little brother, Austria, she should
at once break a lance or two?
Germany is fighting because she
conceives It to be her Teutonic
duty.
France, poor France, the home
of the most industrious, thrift
iest people the sun ever shone on,
is cursed on every page of his
tory by diplomatic* blunders and
ill advised war. To England she
lost an empire in India, where
Clive wrote with adventurous
sword across the map, “England;”
and on the Heights of Abraham
the dying hand of Wolf blotted
with his sword point dipped in
FTench blood the name of France
from a truly lordly realm. And
then Napoleon sold to the United
States for less than one-half cent
an acre 1,000,000 square miles of
garden land. As if one Napo
leon had not spilled blood enough
and done damage enough, she
must in a short half-century bur
den herself with another, whose
meddlesome intrigues In Italy,
Spain, Mexico and finally In Prus
sia brought fair France to the
verge of ruin. The French are
Celts, therefore given to Impul
sive blunders—for example, the*
Russian alliance and the Russian
loan.
We are having this great war
because It is man’s normal state
to fight for what he desires. And
why should there not be wars?
Surely the killing of a few million
men is no reason, for men have in
eons past been the most plentiful
and most easily replaced of all
earth’s creatures. When the earth
becomes old, arid and shriveled,
man will be fighting man for the
last few drops of moisture.
Now, to sum up: Nations do
not war for mere Incidents; they
only fight for vital interests. The
killing of an Archduke did not
make a cause for war, but it was
the last argument proving to Aus
tria that the selfishness of her
neighbors would hesitate at noth
ing leading to her dissolution. And
Germany and Turkey knew that
they must fight and live or die
With Austria. *
This war will go down in his
tory as the great struggle for
trade ajid land. A struggle for
racial prosperity and growth.
After It Is over, material civili
zation will go forward in leaps
and bounds. Further, the reac
tion from this war will go a long
way toward establishing the so
cialistic brotherhood of man.
Historians will say that It was
a war for the readjustment of
crowded and competitive Europe
on a better and more equitable
basis. H. J. SPRATLDW*
Atlanta. , ]
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