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TRUTH, JUSTICE
Wednesday’s Election a Challenge to Civic Duty
THIS IS NOT A DAY AND TIME FOR NARROWNESS AND SMALILNESS OF VISION
The Efticiency of the Entire School Sysiem of Atlanta Is ai Siake
HETHER the public school system of Atlanta is to be devel
\v oped in the future along progressive, enlightened and help
ful lines or to deteriorate and fail of its high purpose in At
lanta’s scheme of things depends wholly upon tomorrow’s—Wednes
day—election.
If the voters of Atlanta decide to restore the tax rate to its former
standard—sl.so on the sloo—then the school system will be safely
and sanely maintained.
If the voters decline to approve the proposed readjustment of the
tax rate, then Atlanta’s school system inevitably will suffer irreparable
mjury—will fail of its high purpose and deteriorate.
If The Georgian did not very frankly and very sincerely believe
these things, then The Georgian would not urge so vigorously the in
crease of the tax rate proposed.
There is no politics in this matter, with The Georgian. We care
not one thrip as to that. All The Georgian is interested in is THE
WELFARE OF ATLANTA—her progress and prosperity. Poli
ticians may go hang—and good riddance to bad rubbish, at that—so far
as we are concerned.
But Atlanta—proud, splendid, always generous and forward
looking Atlanta—HEß fortunes and HER achievements mean every
thing.
The easy thing, the “tactful” thing, the pussy-footed thing, would
be to climb “upon the fence™ in this day of sharp disputes and say
nothing whatever that possibly could mean something calculated to
commit The Georgian one way or the other. But The Georgian can
not entertain that view of the matter—somehow, The Georgian never
seems inclined to a policy of silence, indifference or uncertainty, when
Atlanta’s progress and good name are—or, at least, seem to us to be
—at stake!
WE ARE FULLY CONVINCED THAT THE WELFARE OF
THE SCHOOL SYSTEM IS DEEPLY INVOLVED—IRRETRIEVA.
BLY INVOLVED—IN THIS ELECTION ON WEDNESDAY. AND
THAT TO DECIDE IT OTHERWISE THAN IN FAVOR OF THE.
SCHOOLS WOULD BE A FATAL MISTAKE UPON THE PART
OF ATLANTA. -
We believe Atlanta could do no more stupid, foolish and unen
lightened thing than to refuse this appeal of the Board of Fducation—
only a few weeks ago elected overwhelmingly by the people of this
city, for the purpose of bringing order out of chaos in our school sys
tem and putting it squarely and sanely and safely upon its feet for all
time.
The Board—the personnel of which is splendid—undoubtedly has
considered the matter carefully; the Board gives it as its unanimous
and matured opinion that ONLY through added revenue can the sys
tem be saved; that the only way to provide the needed funds is through
taxation; and that the only form of taxation that will operate to pro
vide this sorely needed revenue is a slight increase of the ad valorem
rate.
These things being so, there is, as we see it, but ONE answer—
and that answer is “YES™ to the Board's earnest request.
What does anything matter, if the boyhood and girlhood of At
lanta are denied proper primary and high school education?
How is Atlanta to hold her heretofore undisputed place of lead
ership among Southern cities if she denies her children this funda
mentally ESSENTIAL thing?
The very “business” men who are fighting this tax raise are, if
they only knew it, standing in their own light. Their bitter opposition
is to be viewed more in sorrow than in anger; they know not what
they do!
The last thing a wealthy man can afford to do—IF ONLY HE
HAS THE FORESIGHT AND BREADTH OF VIEW TO REALIZFE,
IT—is to smother or stifle the education of the young.
Nothing so greatly perils his precious and dearly loved dollar—
his cherished and hoarded dollars—as ignorance; his own ignerance
and failure to understand and appreciate the trend of the times more
surely than all other forms, perhaps.
We look toward Russia today and we grieve; we shudder, and
we then thank God we are NOT as those poer people are.
And yet—THE THING THAT IS THE. MATTER WITH RUS
SIA TODAY IS NOTHING MORE NOR LESS THAN ILLITER.
ACY AND IGNORANCE.
The only reason why the ugly thing that is happening in Russia
can NOT happen here, is because OUR youth and manhood and our
ATLEANTA - GEORGIAN
womanhood so far have been enlightened through education to better,
braver and nobler things than anarchy.
The Czars and Grand Dukes of Russia never have believed in
taxation to EDUCATE people. Not in all Russia’s history—sad and
bloody as it is—was there ever a Czar or a Grand Duke who believed
in THAT. The policy of that shattered Government has been to keep
the people in ignorance, the deeper and denser, the better for the Gov
ernment. We see what such a policy, relentlessly pursued, has brought
poor Russia to.
The men who for selfish or stupid reasons are working to hold
down the tax rate proposed for the purpose of education in Atlanta
are working along the SAME lines these Russian Czars and Grand
Dukes worked upon. Make no mistake about that. The theory and
practice of the procedure is the same.
Bolshevism is a word that gives pause to the thinker nowadays.
It is accepted as meaning chaos in government, anarchy and irre
sponsibility. ;
Whatever it is, we DON'T want it over here—on THIS side the
Atlantic.
We don't really WANT it anywhere, we. American people, for
we are a broad-minded people, and wish the whole world to be happy
and secure in its rights of liberty and pursuit of happiness. But—
anyway, we want no “Bolshevism™ to disturb our thoughts or upset
the orderly process of our laws and customs in America, even though
it seemingly must run its bloody and disheartening course elsewhere.
What is the greatest and surest BULWARK against Bolshevism?
ISN'T IT EDUCATION, ENLIGHTENMENT?
As sure as a gracious and kindly God reigns in heaven, NOTH
ING ELSE bulwarks against it so certainly!
Can we, therefore, in all tolerance and kindly consideration, view
the man who opposes the spreading of education to the utmost cor
ners of the earth in any light other than that of a real ENEMY —may
hap unwitting, but none-the-less dangerous—to society and civiliza
tion?
Friends, these are not idle words; they are not fashioned as cam
paign thunder merely.
They are the words of soberness and candor, said in the deepest
and most abiding of sincerity.
ATLANTA’S SCHOOL SYSTEM IS BELOW PAR: IT HAS
BEEN ON THE DOWNGRADE FOR YEARS.
That is the TRUTH, embarrassing though it may be to utter it!
Our children are housed in ramshackle buildings in many locali
ties; our Girls’ High School in particular is dangersus and shamefully
discreditable to us; in many buildings pupils are crowded to suffoca
tion: teachers in school after school are charged with twice as many
pupils as they can effectively handle.
OUR TEACHERS ARE PAID SALARIES THAT SHOULD
BRING THE BLUSH OF SHAME TO OUR CHEEKS.
~ So universally is THIS appreciated in Atlanta, that only one
“committee” (8o called) fighting the tax raise has had the hardihood
to contend, or pretend, that they ARE sufficiently paid.
In all the bitterness of the other phases of this campaign and its
ramifications, only one little band of opponents has had the nerve to
charge, by a smug parade of figures, THAT THE TEACHERS ARFE.
WELL PAID!
Citizens of Atlanta, we can not have our children properly edu
cated if we employ cheap and inefficient teachers.
We can not have them properly educated if we fail to provide
even good teachers—moved to struggle on, in the face of niggardli
ness and downright meanness—with sufficient remuneration to insure
them against worry and nagging care.
The best teacher in the world would be handicapped hopelessly,
if forever pressed and harassed for the money necessary to pay the
ardinary bills of everyday existence. ;
Business men—REAL enes, not chronic tightwads and selfish
slave-drivers—lisn't it TRUE that the EFFICIENT clerk is the clerk
HONESTLY paid?
lsn't the BEST help the fairly remunerated help?
Isn't the man who DELIVERS the man whe is well trepted?
Can yeu EVER afford NOT te pay a GOOD man what he is
WORTH?
Isnt it a policy of blindness and madness te kill the ambitien and
Tuesday, April 22, 1919
zest of a promising associate with indifference to his MATERIAL wel
fare and lack of sympathy with his struggle to get on?
Neither sophistry nor sneers will serve to batter down the mighty
truths set forth and suggested in these questions!
The school teachers of Atlanta, white and colored, are wretched
ly, even shamefully underpaid.
We can not hope to hold indefinitely the faculty we have, at the
present salaries; and if we are forced, through lack of funds provided,
to substitute incompetent and cheap—God save the mark l—help in
THAT line, the more fools we!
Atlanta CAN pay these teachers adequate salaries, if she WILL.
She can do it—and otherwise amplify and enlarge her school
equipment along lines of crying necessity—lF SHE WILL VOTE TO
RESTORE THIS TAX RATE TO ITS OLD STANDARD.
That will not be much of an increase when weighed against the
good it will do, morever!
Will Atlanta DO it—tomorrow, on election day?
The Georgian has faith to hope and believe Atlanta WILL.
Remember this—
THESE CHILDREN THEMSELVES ARE HELPLESS IN THE.
MATTER.
Whether they are educated as they SHOULD be is a matter for
US to determine. ,
Whatever portion WE serve for THEM, THEY will have not a
word to say—ours will be the blame or the glory.
We may deny them the inestimable blessing of a sound, funda
mental education, that they may cope with the world, equipped for
service as they should be, or we may “give them a lick and a prom
ise”’ and let it go at that! »
THEY can not help themselves.
THEY must take what WE provide—ample and considerate edu
cational advantages, if we will, niggardly, grudging and “cheap" ad
vantages, if we so elect.
It likely will make slight difference in their minds NOW what we
do. They are children—llight-hearted, free of care, unappreciative, in
the main, of the great blessings of education, unable, from lack of ex
perience, to understand now what a tremendous thing education
really IS.
But in the afterwhile, when life's great battle rages about them,
when the stress and storm of existence assails them and the difficulties
of home-building and children-rearing constitute a problem to them—
ah, THEN they will understand what we did for them or what we did
NOT do.
They will bless us or curse us, as we DESERVE.!
Those of oyr citizenship who have had to struggle up from pov
erty and adverse circumstance, lacking in early educational advantage
and school training—THEY will know what The Georgian means.
THEY will understand the mighty and vital importance of a com
mon school education, AT THE HANDS OF THE BEST AND MOST
COMPETENT OF TEACHERS AND TRAINERS TO BE HAD.
THEY know what a terrible and embarrassing handicap LACK
of education is.
Will Atlanta stand by its youth and childhood tomorrow?
Or will Atlanta adhere to a pinchpenny policy of ““cheap” teach
ers, “cheap” schoolhouses—"cheap” everything that goes to make for
educational progress?
God grant that Atlanta be NOT so blind to her own interest and
welfare, that she be NOT so unmindful of the great DUTY that is
upon her, to educate her children, that she be NOT so stupid as not to
know that ONLY in education and enlightenment is the safety of our
most cherished and prized institutions to be found.
Let Atlanta forget tomorrow the small and narrow appeals that
have been made to her unworthy nature, her imagined stinginess and
selfishness,
Let her rise bravely, in the good old Atlanta way, tomorrow,
AND VOTE SUFFICIENT FUNDS TO HER SCHOOLS TO
MAINTAIN THEM AND KEEP THEM, IN THE ONLY WAY
SHE. CAN DO THAT—THROUGH A RESTORATION OF THE,
TAX RATE TO THE OLD FIGURE, AS ADVOCATED AND
URGED BY OUR SPLENDID BOARD OF EDUCATION.
PUBLIC SERVICE