Newspaper Page Text
TRUTH, JUSTICE
Let’s Not Blight the Flower
Of Our American Manhood
HEN the armistice was signed the
VJ world began to talk about ‘‘recon
struction.”” It is talking yet, but
there has been a maximum of spoken and
printed piffle and a minimum of practical
performance so far as returning soldiers and
sailors are concerned,
There has been no dearth of brass bands,
daneing parties, donghnuts, flag waving, patg
on the back and heroie speceh-making. DBut
there IS a dearth of jobs. There IS discon
tent and resentment among discharged serv.
e men. And there IS a large void in the
poeket. of the boy who is being dumped back
into eivil life to take his chanees under topsy
turvy basiness conditions on a sink-orswim
basis.
Any man who objects to granting six
months” extra pay to disecharged men cither
i 8 not a patriotic American citizen or he is
deficient in judgment.
The boys need that money——it is only SIBO
—4O tide them over their own personal ‘“re
adjustment’’ period. And it is to the interest
of the population at large that they should
have it
They need money for living expenses
while they are “getting their feet under
them.”™ "They need money for clothes and
for army insurance dues. And they need
money to meet payments on the Liberty
bouds which smug gentlemen in bombproof
offices urged them to byy out of their S3O a
month, while the war was still on and each
boy was not without thoughts of a grave in
Franee or in Davy Jones’ locker.
Many of them peed ready cash to feed
wives, mothers or children. Thousands of
Ameniean families cheerfully reduced them
selves to a Spartan basis of living that their
men might go to war. Now there are those
who would say to these self-sacrificing
womens
“You did very well. We thank you. But
the rest of us are too busy reconstruetihg
Czecho-Slovakia and ledjaz and our own
eomfortable affairs to be interested in what
beeomes of you now.
“You have your son hack. That ought to
satisfy you. If he can’t find the kind of job
he had before, let him take a pick or broom
and go out and carn his living that way.
There is plenty of work for men who want
work. Look at the streets that need cleaning.
‘“Besides, we have a lot of nice commit
tees that are discussing his case. You don’t
‘seem to appreciate all the time we are giving
amfewuce& We would have you know
are theorizing upon some very beautiful
plans. Some day we may be able to do some
thing for you. Meanwhile, little mother of
a soldier—forget it 1"”
They ma&have other excuses, but that is
fi what, in effeet, the people who object to
the six months’ bonus are saying.
‘What are the arguments against the pro
posalt If there are any, doesn’t it seem
strange that no newspaper of standing has
been brave enough to print them in its edi
torial eolumns? -
First, there is silenee in plaee of open
diseussion. But the chances are good that
when the day of reckoning comes those who
are remaining silent will be asked to explain
why and AT WHOSE SUGGESTION they
Tobacco Next—and Then Pie, and
Maybe Buttermilk! Who Knows?
The worst enemy of prohibition could wish
nothing better than the people who have
been working to abolish the saloon should
now turn their attention to abolishing the
eigar stand. For there is obviously no telling
where Dr. Franklin Hall and his associates,
who are now endeavoring to wipe out Lady
Nicotine, will stop. A smoker will admit that
there are regrettable aspeets of smoking.
Some men smoke too much and it gives them
headaches. Others smoke where they should
not and compel people who do not like tobae
eo to inhale it second hand. A few are led
by experienees of this sort to endorse the sen
timent expressed in the earnest lines:
“ will not use tobacco,”
; Said little Robert Reed:
3 “1 will not use tobacco,
' . Rt is a filthy weed.”
But men who are crude in their use of
tobaeco would be erude without it. They
would ehew gum in one’s ear or throw peanut
"shueks in one’s lap. Smoking is a handy way
‘of hurting one’s health and sometimes bring
ing fliseomfort to others, but it is only one
way among many. If Dr. Hall got rid of
‘smoking he would probably start a crusade to
coffee. Coffee, taken in execess, does
,w It puts one’s nerves on edge, hurts
”P' tiver, and makes one lie awale nights
and-plan murder. TPie, too, is a serious evil,
M New England would have been without
‘pie one can only eonjecture, but undoubtedly
it , Puritanism would have taken a less dys
peptic east. .
~ But when tobaeco, eoffee and pic have been
prohibited constitutional amendments it
{h-flhdgflut the evil of over-eating still
refused to help the nation’s fighters when
they needed help.
One of the questions that may be asked
is whether they believed it would be a good
thing to depress the labor market at this time
by compelling every returned soldier to take
the first job offered him,
There 8 one “‘argument.”’ It was heard
in Congress. It is, *“ We don’t want to make
beggars out of the nation’s defenders.”’
What sniveling drivel! What sort of rea
soning is it that says:
“Don’t pay a penniless man what is justly
his—what he has earned by offering every
thing he possesses, even life itself becanse
if he is no longer penniless he will be a
beggar’’?
What member of Congress or other ob
jeetor to the bonus will stand up and lodk
one of our soldiers in the eye after he has
collected his SIBO and say : ““ Young man, you
are a beggar’'?
We don’t know who would try it, but we
can guess what would happen to the insult
ing civilian. He would get a good, swift
punch in the nose.
We can not believe that the obstruetion
ists, active or passive, have given proper
thought to the six months’ pay matter.
More than TWO MILLION signatures
already have been attached to the petitiom
cireulated by the Hearst newspapers urging
Congress to grant the bonus. And there is
a strong probability that Congress will listen
to the voices of the fair-minded people of this
country, without regard to polities or other
unrelated eonsideration, and provide the just
and reasonable reward.
There ig plenty of talk abont “giving him
a wood job instead.”” Yes, but it is talk. The
time is past for that sort of thing. Thousands
of the boys are ont of jobs now and have been
out of johs for weeks.
The plain truth is that they are not get
ting the jobs as fast as they are released.
High-sounding promises and suggestions that
get the boys nowhere constitute merely a
cheap and yellow-hearted avoidanee of the
issue, .
A situation exists. We must deal with
facts.
Wise men and men not wise are offering
~eures for ‘‘labor unrest,”” antidotes for Bol
shevism, and expressing fear lest radicalism
gain pecruits.
Still, we are poisoning the very heart of
our national structure—its pieked and se
leeted manhood-—if we deny to it that which
it believes is just, and which is just.
“The flower of the eountry,” we called
them when they marched away. They are
still the flower of the eountry. And let no
man, in Congress or out of it, make a mistake
about this,
The flower of the country is not in the
best of moods this morning. Talk to one of
the discharged men if you have any doubts.
Much of the damagé already has been done.
There is proof in the letters flowing into this
office every day. Some of those letters from
soldiers contain threats against society at
large. -
Is it worth SIBO to keep a good citizen a
good eitizen?
If you think so, sign the petition to Con
gress you will find on another page of this
newspaper. If yon don’t think so, stop the
first man in uniform yon see and tell him so.
But pick your hospital first.
remains. Over-cating, of no matter what
foods, is a disgusting feature of any highly
civilized life. It could not be attacked di
rectly, perhaps, but it would be possible to
prohibit (by a constitutional amendment) the
use of sugars, spices, extracts and other
means for tricking the carnal man to want
more than is good for him. Publie sentiment
would take some time to accept this drastic
measure ; there would have to be heavy pen
alties for keepers or frequenters of restau
rants, and many a sad eulprit, caught in the
act of preparing or eating strawberry short
cake, would be hauled off to the police sta
tion, beaten to a pulp by the moral-minded
police, denounced by a eonscientious judge
and sent to the eounty jail to mend his ways.
But at least a generation would grow up
which had never seen or tasted shorteake and
consequently would not want any.
This is the disquieting vision which Dr.
Hall’s campaign against nicotine conjures
up. The prohibitionists had one strong ar
gument. It was that oversindulgence in aleo
holie drinks was not a strictly personal sin
and that interference with it was not an in
terference with individual liberty, for the
reason that people who drink too mueh fre
quently do harm to their families and to in
nocent outsiders as wel] as to themselves; and
that- the drink traffic impairs the physieal,
mental and moral health of the people—
which is a legitimpate subjeet of governmental
interest,
There may be good answers to this argu
ment, but it was a real argament. Interfer
ence with other and truly personal habits is
another matter. If attempted it will make it
impossible even to enforee prohibition,
Fight the Good Fight of Faith, Lay Hold on Eternal Life.—lst. 1 imothy, 6:12
(Text for today was selected for The Georgian by 8. R. Belk, Pastor First M ethodist Chureh, Athens)
ATEANTA® GEORGIAN
Monday, February 17, 1919
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Comment
AN HONEST NAVY.
(Columbus Ledger.)
The United States navy is not
only the finest seagoing crown
afloat, but, more, it is honest; it
returns borrowed goods,
Some time ago word was sent
out that the navy would appreci
ate the loan of binoculars and othe~
glasses of similar character, as its
supply was short,
Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Young were
among those who responded; send
ing the Navy Department a pair of
binoculars that in bygone days had
done valiant service at Saratoga.
Mr. Young has just received the
binoculars back from the Navy
Department, accompanied by a
nice letter from Franklin D. Roose-~
velt, assistant Secretary of the
Navy, expressing sincere thanks
for the courtesy of this patriotie
ivan, The glasses were used on
board the Missouri, which was as
signed to duty in home waters, in
the “Atlantic, during the period of
the war,
This is a rather prompt return
of a borrowed article on the part
~ of the Government. The navy
- seems to cut the red tape and go
~ ahead and do things. In that re
\ spect it could even furnish pointers
to that court of claims that has
Just awarded damages for cotton
destroyed in Savd#nnah duriug the
Civil War.
BOTH ENDS AGAINST THE MID
DLE.
(Dahlonega Nugget.)
We have ministers in this county
who do not drink liquor but are
interested in its manufacture, and
ne long ago one who uses the
Bible and hymn book was cuught
making it. Our opinion is they
should quit one or the other, be
cause a man following both is lia
ble to lead some of their congrega
tion up to a still house instead of
the gate of heaven, and before the
mistake could be rectified the gates
of the latter might be closed.
BERATING BAINBRIDGE BEAU
TIES.
(Bainbridge Post-Searchlight.)
Bainbridge has some real pretty
girls, if they would not mess their
faces up with powder and paint,
grease their forehead and eyebrows
with some stuff that looks like beef
suet, It is funny that when God
made a girl very pretty, she is not
satisfied with the job, but must
mess it up with stuff that venders
have to sell. Don't do it, girls,
Some of you look like old Nick
with that stuff on you and without
it, you are pretiy.
Signals From Other Worlds
By Garrett P. Serviss.
NE of the objectiens offered
ky those who scout the bare
sugsestion of the possibil
ity of intercommunication by sig
nals between intelligences inhabit
ing different planets is that the
eleetric waves diminish in intensity
inversely as the square of the dis
tance, just as light does, so that
their power to gbnvey impressions
must become almost infinitesimal
at a distance of hundreds of mil
lions of miles, to_say nothing of
the trillions of miles that repre
sent the distance not of the planets
of our system, but of the stars
which are the suns of other sys
tems.
But this objection ignores the
consideration that by depriving
the electric waves of their radiant
scattering, and concentrating them
in straight lines, like light reflected
from a parabolic mirror, the law
of diminution with the square of
the increased distance would be
avoided, and the intensity at the
reception point would depend only
upon the absorption suffered in the
course of transit, and not upon the
scattering along divflrgmx radial
lines. Thus the ralliant energy
emanating from a considerable sur
face could all be condensed into a
more or less parallel-sided column,
or cylinder, as is actually done in
lighthouse apparatus, and else
where,
How much mechanical energy
would be required to generate elec
tric waves which, if thus sent forth
in a parallel beam, could still re
tain a readily perceptible force on
arriving, say, at Venus, when she
ie between the earth and she sun,
and so not more than 26,000,000,000
or 27,000,000,000 miles away from
us, is a question that Mr. Mar
coni could answer better than any
body else. It may not be susecepti
ble of a definite answer, but still a
fair idea of the energy that would
be needed could probably be
formed, and Mr. Marconi, it would
seem, must have concluded already
from his experiences with wireless
appartus that no insuperable dith
culty would be found in that direc
tion. What might be insuperable
for us would not be so for intelli
gences that have obtained, through
evolution and education, a greater
mastery than ours over nature's
forces, .
OBSTRUCTION EN ROUTE.
Another question is as to the de
gree of sensitiveness required in
order that electrie w‘!;.;s that had
traversed millions Of mles of ether
should be recognizable at the place
where they finally impinged. Also,
supposing them to travel in paral
lel columns and not along radial
lines, how much obstruction, or ab
sorption, would they suffer? Not a
great many years ago Lord Kelvin,
whose academic authority was so
commanding that whatever he said
was generally accepted without
guestion, thought that he had dem
onstrated the impossibility that the
sun could, by its electro-magnetic
disturbances, produce magnetic
storms on the earth. He also
thought that it was scientifically
demonstrable that man could nevegp
achieve mechanical flight.
Very suggestive in connection
with this subject are some thoughts
put forth many years ago by an
unnamed writer, presenetd to the
public by Thamas Hill, who was
president of Harvard University.
Says this interesting thinker:
“The rays of sight diverge from
the eyve, so that a very small body
close to the eye fills up the inter
val between two such rays, while
at a greater distance a much larger
body is necessary to fill up the
proportionately increased space. If
we hold up a quarter -at arm’'s
length, we may completely conceal
the sun with it. If, on the con
trary, an organ of vision was con
structed in such a manner that the
rays proceeded in parallel lines
every object would appear in pro
portion to every other of its own
proper size without any reference
to the distance between it and the
eye.
“We should certainly not see
distant bodies entire, but only such
small portions of them as are pro
portionate to the gize of the organ
of vjsion, constructed after this
fashign: but this little portion
weuld be visible with equal clear
ness at every distance, and a blade
of grass upon the most distant star
could not escape our sight.”
THE CHANGING PROCESS.
This is the principle that we have
already mentioned, viz, that of
changing radiant into parallel
beams, although the writer produces
gome confusion of thought by sup
posing the change to take place in
the eye inatead of in the mannar of
transmission of the light from the
point of beginning. For light, pro
ceeding in parallel lines from a
blade of grass on a distant planet,
substitute electric impulses con
veved in a similar manner from a
transmitting station on Venus, and
you have the other side of the
pieture-—that suggested by Mr.
Marconi, viz, a wireless receiver on
the earth responsiding to impulses
transmitted undiminished, or not
enough diminished to render them
imperceptibile, from a center of en
ergy tens of millions of miles away,
The thing i¢ certainly conceivable.
PUBLIC SERYICE.
Have You Had
The Flu?
JORRESPONDENT takes his
A typewriter in hand and in
flicts the following verse
upon us. This correspondent seems
to feel that the person who hasn't
had the flu is as much an object of
sympathetic public interest as a sol
dier who came back from the front
and didn't write a book about it.
For the benefit of any flu sufferers
who may read this, it is not neces
sary to state that chills and fever
and thermometers and mustard
packs and hot water bags are not
the only implements of torture fol
lowing in the wake of the little flu
germ:
When you're feeling rather sickly,
And your breath is coming quickly,
And your throat and tongue and
mouth are kind of dry;
When you try your best to hobble,
But vour legs begin to wabble,
And you think you'd like to give it
up and die;
Then you have no cause to worry,
And you needn't start a flurry,
For it doesn't make much dif
f'rence if you do,
Just resign yourself to fate, sir,
For I beg to calmly state, sir,
That yvou're just another victim of
the flu,
S 0 you needn’t feel so badly
When your pulse goes throbbing
madly :
And the microbes keep a-running
up your spine.
If you'll only calmly face it
You will find you can outpace it
And go back into the running
trim and fine;
For the doctors all admit, sir,
That you needn't throw a fit, sir.
" If you merely have a simple case
of flu, \
For it's not to vour discredit,
If you simply chance to get it,
But be watchful, sir, and see it
don't get you. g .
Shafts of Sunshine]
The British are putting in a
street railway lin Bagdad, Soon
they may usher in the Arabian
Night-Owls' ecar.
. -
Lady out at Hi?hland Park was
shocked to find an empty sardine
can on her front lawn. Some avia
tor had been eating his lunch, prob
ably.
. . -
Bolsheviki have established a
school of revolution in Moscbw, We
hasten to submit a design for their
college yell: “Fizz! 8-s-8-iz-z2!
Boom! Blooey, Blooey, Blew!”
The American
Girl
By Winifred Black.
66 H, it is good to be homet”
O said a returned soldier
baoy.
“After all, there is nothing like
the good old
United States,
Since I've been
across the wa
ter I lov)y
everything here
better than ever
before; 1 love
the very streets,
and show win
dows that I nev
er looked into
before. Perhaps
one reason I
like the shop
windows is be- -
cause they are
ful of the hats
”':"", iG G B
e
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& S i, Bt
ks 7% "',' vv'_,,&‘v. 5o 1
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and gowns that American girls
wear—ah, now I've said it——
“There is no girl in all the world
like the American girl. She is the
best and the brightest, the pret
tiest, the most enterfiining and the
most practical of all the girls in
the whole world.
“Those French girls they talk so
much about have their charms, it
is true, but not for the American
boy; all the boys over there agreed
with me about that”
And then I asked the enthusi
astic boy in khaki if he had any
idea how much work American girls
have been doing during the last
yvear—knitting and sewing, selling
Liberty bonds, giving days and
weeks of their time ir all kinds of
war work,
The Red Cross can never esti
mate what it owes to the enthu
siasm and devotion of sAmerican
girls. All over the country they
have been at wcrk with such en
thusiasm and efficiency as could be
found nowherec eise, you may be
sure of that. Nothing has been too
hard for them tc do. for their en
thusiasm carried them “over the
top,” no matter what difficulties
they hid t)y cverconie.
Aside from the war work, how
many thousands and hundreds of
thousands of giris have gone out
from the sheltering home roof to
work for those who were depend
ent upon the boys who had gone
to the front.
The history of the great war
could never be written without a
great many pages devoted to the
splendid work of American woman
hood—and always and ever the
girls have been to the fore.
Who has not seen these girls out
in the rain and sleet and snow dur
ing thé winter, selling war savings
stamps, and doing it with such
grace and good will that one could
only buy and bless the young sales
woman as he passed along.
And not alone in the out-of-door
world, but at home, the American
girls have taken upon themselves
the duty and delight of cheering
the lonely hearths from which our
boys haye been gene, and by their
good cheer and ever-present
thoughtfulness they have done
their best to make.up for the ab
~ sénce of those who make the home
dear. -
‘ When it comes to homemaking
and the good cheer of home, no one
can compete with the American
girl.
She knows how to keep every
thing bright, how to rest the weary
by her never-failing fund of good
humor, and when the évening lights
are burning she is ready with mu -
gic and song and story and lively
chat to break the dull monotony
which comes from the heart that
is unable to feel itself while with
every beat there is a stifled note of
anxiety.
We have had for vears now a
vast army of voung American girls
“who are bread-winners. You See
them in every office and in every
shop, from every dark corner of a
place where work is going on, some
competent, friendly young face
looks out at the visitor and looks
quite at home, too. .
Her work in every branch of in
dustry and business has not spoiled
the American girl as a homemaker.
She is the same delightful sweet
heart that she was when shn had no
way of earning her bread but by
housework, sewing or school teach
ing. The business girl, T have often
remarked, when she marries makes
the best wife and homemaker that
can be. found anywhere,
Who does not appreciate break
fast and dinner on time? And what
a joy it is to see the table set,
whether by servant or the mistress
of the house, with the order and
good taste which comes from
thoughtfulness.
The girl who has been going in
and out at her daily work for vears
appreciates the comparative frae
dom of her own home, and the
sunny nature of the American girh
thrives and grows in the ho ‘A’}
mosphere, She 1s ready 3 the
storm, she is able to cope With any
situation of difficulty and even of
danger, but how she blossoms in
the joy and happiness of home
| life!
I agree with the boy in khaki,
and all of his fellows, for they all
have the same tale to tell, in their
pride and appreciation for the
. American girl,
Go where you will in the round
world, vou will not find her equal,
Surely she has proved herself wor
thy of the American boy who has
given himself to his country., Of
couse, they're alike, anfll one wor.
thy of the other. The brief impreg
sion of foreign life will only add to
the appreciation every one of the
returned heroes has for the life at
home,
Of course, we may learn some
thing from the Olld World, its man
ners and customs have been formed
by the centuries, and we have in
herited the best of them, and made
some of them over to snit ourselves,
but nothing the Old World has to
offer can compete with the Amer
fcan girl.