Newspaper Page Text
TRUTH, JUSTICE
Let’s Not Blight the Flower
Of Our American Manhood
‘v HEN the armistice was signed the
v J world began to talk about ‘‘recon
struetion.'’ 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
gailors are concerned
There has been no dearth of brass bands,
daneing parties, doughnuts, flag-waving, pats
on the back and heroic speech-making. But
there I 3 a dearth of jobs. There IS discon
tent and resentment among discharged serv
ice men. And there IS a large void in the
pocket of the boy who is being dumped back
into eivil life to take his ehanees under topsy
turvy business conditions on a sink-or-swim
basix.
Any man who objects to granting six
months’ extra pay to discharged men either
I 8 not a patriotic American eitizen or he is
deficient 1n judgment.
The boys need that money—it is only SIBO
4o tide them over their own personal ‘‘re
adjustiment’’ 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 elothes and
for army insurance dues. And they need
money to meet payments on the Liberty
bonds which smug gentlemen in bombproof
offices urged them to buy 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 need ready cash to feed
wives, mothers or children. Thousands of
American 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
women :
““You did very well. We thank you. But
the rest of us are too busy reconstructing
Czecho-Slovakia and Hedjaz and our own
comfortable affairs to be interested in what
becomes of you now.
“You have your son back. That ought to
satisfy you. If he can’t find the kind of job
he had hefore, let him take a pick or broom
and go NY and earn 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
to conferences. We would have you know
we are theorizing upon some very beautiful
plans. Some day we may be able to do some
thing for yon. Meanwhile, little mother of
a soldier—forget it!”’
They may have other exeuses, but that is
Just what, in effect, the people who object to
the six months’ bonus are saying.
What are the arguments against the pro
posal?t 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 columns?
First, there is silence in place of open
discussion. 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 eould wish
nothing better than that the people who have
been working to abolish the saloon should
now turn their attention to abolishing the
ci%ur 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
co to inhale it second hand. A few are led
by experiences of this sort to endorse the sen
timent expressed in the earnest lines:
“I will not use tobacco,”
: Sald Ittle Robert Reed;
“I will not use tobacco,
It Is a filthy weed "
But men who are crude in their use of
tobacco would be crude without it. They
would ehew gum in one's car or throw peanut
shucks in one’s lap. Smoking is a handy way
of hurting one’s health and sometimes bring
ing discomfort to others, but it is only one
way among many. If Dr, Hall got rid of
smoking he would probably start a crusade to
abolish coffee. Coffee, taken in excess, does
harm. It puts one’s nerves on edge, hurts
one’s liver, and makes one lie awake nights
and plan murder. Pie, too, is a serious evil.
What New England would have been without
pie one can only eonjecture, but undoubtedly
its Puritanism would have taken a less dys
peftic cast. And buttermilk? Horrors!!
3ut when tobaceo, coffee, buttermilk and
pie have been prohibited by constitutional
amendments it will be found that the evil of
refused to hielp the nation’s fighters when
they needed help.
One of the questions that may bpe asked
18 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 is one ‘‘argument.’”” [t 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—because
if he 18 no longer penniless he will be a
beggar’’?
What member of Congress or other ob
jector to the bonus will stand up and look
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 petition
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 consideration, and provide the just
and reasonable reward.
{ There is plenty of talk abont ‘“‘giving him
a good job instead.”” Yes, but it is talk. The
time is past for that sort of thing. Thousands
of the boys are out of jobs now and have been
out of jobs 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 avoidance of the
issue,
A situation exists. We must deal with
facts,
Wise men and men not wise are offering
cures for ‘‘labor unrest,”” antidotes for Bol
shevism, and expressing fear lest radicalism
gain recruits.
Still, we are poisoning the very heart of
our national structure—its picked and se
lected manhood—if we deny to it that which
it believes is just, and which is just.
“The flower of the country,”” we called
them when they marched away. They are
still the flower of the country. 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 afternoon. Talk to one of
the discharged men if you have any doubts.
Much of the damage already has been done.
There is proof in the letters flowing into this
office every day. Some of those letters from
soldiers contain threats agoainst society at
large.
Is it worth SIBO to keep a good ecitizen a
good citizen?
If you think so, sign the petition to Con
gress yon will find on another page of this
newspaper. If yvou don’t think so, stop the
first man in uniform you see and tell him so.
But pick vour hospital first,
over-eating remains. Overeating, of no matter
what foods, is a disgusting feature of any
highly civilized life. It could not be attacked
directly, 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. Public sentiment
would take some time to aceept this drastie
measure ; there would have to be heavy pen
alties for keepers or frequenters of restan
rants, and many a sad culprit, eaught 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 conscientious judge
and sent to the county 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 overdandulgence in aleo
holie drinks was not a strietly personal sin
and that interference with it was not an in
terference with individual liberty, for the
reason that people who drink too muech fre
quently do harm to their families and to in
nocent outsiders as wel] as to themselves; and
that the drink traflic impairs the physical,
mental and moral health of the people—
which is a legitimate subject of governmental
interest.
There may be good answers to this argu
ment, but it was a real argument. Interfer.
ence with other and truly personal habits is
another matter. 1f attempted it will make it
impossible even to enforce prohibition.
Fight the Good Fight of Faith, Lay Hold on Eternal Life.—llst Timothy, 6:12
(Text for today was selected for The Georgian by S, R. Belk, Pastor First M ethodist Church, 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, maore, it is honest; it
returns borrowed goods.
Some (ime ago word was sent
out that the navy would appreci
ate the loan of binoculars and other
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 patriotic
loan. 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
nhead and do things. In that re
spect it could even furnish pointers
to that court of claims that has
Jjust awarded damages for cotton
destroyed in Savannah during 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
not long ago one who uses the
Bible and hymn book was caught
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 stuftf 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 pretty.
Signals From Other Worlds
By Garrett P. Serviss.
NE of the objections offered
by those who scout the bare
suggestion of the possibil
ity of intercommunication by sig
nals between intelligences inhabit
ing different planets is that the
electric waves diminish in intensity
inversely as the square of the dis
tance, just as light does, so that
their power to convey 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 diverging radial
lines. Thus the wadiant energy
emanating from a considerable sur
face could all be condensed into a
more or less parallel-sided column,
or ecylinder, 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
is between the earth and the sun,
and 8o 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 suscepti
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 diMi
culty would be found in that direc
tion. What might be insuperable
for us would not he 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 electric waves that had
traversed millions of miles 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 vears ago Lord Kelvin,
whose academic authgrity was S 0
commanding that whatever he said
was generally accepted without
question, 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 Thomas Hill, who was
presidént of Harvard University,
Says this interesting thinker:
“The rays of sight diverge from
the eye, 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 duarter 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 size of the organ
of vision, constructed after this
fashion; but this little portion
would be visible with equal clear
ness at evéry 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 parailel
beams, although the writer produces
some confusion of thought by sup
posing the change to take place in
the eye instead of in the manner 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
veyed in a similar manner from a
transmitting station on Venus, and
you have the other side of the
pleture—that suggested by Mr.
Marconi, viz, a wireless receiver on
the earth responsiding to impulses
transmitted undiminished, or not
enough diminished to render them
imperceptible, from a center of en
ergy tens of millions of miles away.
The thing is certainly conceivable,
PUBLIC SERVICE
- Have You Had
The Flu?
JORRESPONDENT takes his
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 mugh an object of
sympathetic public interest as a sol
dier who came back from the front
and didn't write a book about it.
FFor 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 your 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 you're just another victim of
the flu,
So 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 your discredit,
If you simply chance to get it,
But be watchful, sir, and see it
don’t get you.
[Shislis of Susthiinie ’
The British are putting in a
street railway in Bagdad. Soon
they may usher in the Arabian
Night-Owls' car.
- - .
Ladv out at Hiehland 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 Moscow, We
hasten to submit a design for their
college vyell: “Fizz! 8-g-s-iz-zz!
Boom! Blooey, Blooey, Blew!"”
The American
Girl
By Winifred Black.
66 H, it is good to be home!”
O said a returned soldier
boy.
“After all, there is nothing like
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the good old
United States,
Since I've been 1
across the wa
ter 1 Jlowp }
everything here
better than ever
before; I love
the very streets,
and show win
dows that [ nev
er looked into
before. Perhaps
one reason I
Mke the shop
windows is be
cause they are
ful of the hate
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 entertaining 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
year—knitting and sewing, selling
Liberty bonds, giving days and
weeks of their timo in all kinds of
WAar work.
The Red Cross can never esti
mate what it owes to the enthu
siasm and devotion of American
girls. All over the country they
have been at work with such en
thusiasm and efficiency as could be
found nowheres 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 difliculties
they had t> 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 the 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 have been gone, and by their
good cheer and ever-present
thoughtfulness they have done
their best to make up for the ab
sence 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 evening lights
are burning she is ready with mu -
slc 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 years now a
vast army of young 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 bunsiness has not spoiled
the American girl as a homemaker.
She is the same delightful sweet
heart that she was when she had no
way of earning her bread but by
housework, sewing or school teach
ing. The business girl, I 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 tahle set,
whether by servant or the mistress
of the house, with the order and
good taste which comes from
thoughtfulness,
The girl who has heen going in
and out at her daily work for vears
appreciates the comparative free
dom of her own home, and the
sunny nature of the American girl
thrives and grows in the home at
mosphere. She is ready for 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 al
have the same tale to tell, in their
pride and appreciation for the
American girl.
Go where vou 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 allke, and one wor
thy of the other. The brief impres
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 Old 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 suit onreelves,
but nothing the Old World has to
offer can compete with the Amers
ican girl.