The San Francisco call. [volume], September 05, 1913, Image 10

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
EDITORIAL PAGE
THE £f CALL
F. W. KELLOGG, President and Publisher
JOHN f). SPRECKELS, Vice President and Treasurer
France Always the Friend—England
Usually the Enemy—of This
Country and Its Progress
Distinguished Commissioners Come to Dedicate Site for Their
National Pavilion and Prove Friendship Which
Has Lasted Since 1776.
Copyright, 1913, International News Service.
There is being dedicated today the site of the French pavilion
i, at the Panama-Pacific international exposition. The distinguished
£ commissioners are being honored by San Francisco.
France, a nation of thinking men, a people that has taught
other nations for centuries, is friendly to the United States, and
will share in the great exposition OF CIVILIZATION in San
Francisco in 1915.
England, hostile to the United States, irritated because the
United States presumes to control its own canaL, is not friendly to
American progress and refuses to share in the Panama exposition.
This does not irritate the people of the United States. It inter
ests and amuses them.
The situation now in 1913 is about as it was in 1776.
Then, as now, the French people and her ablest men sympa
thized with the Americans and shared in their fighting.
Then, as now, England disliked the suggestion that this coun
try should manage its own affairs.
In those days, when we announced our intenticn to govern
ourselves, the English, badly advised, decided to fight us.
With help and sympathy from France, we did what was neces
sary, and England's authority moved up to Canada and across the
ocean.
Today again the United States declares its intention to man
age its own affairs, and specifically the Panama canal, built with
our money, through territory which belongs to us.
England doesn't like the idea of our managing our canal in
1913 any more than she liked the idea of our managing our govern
ment in 1776.
But she is wiser now than in those ancient days.
Instead of sending over ships and gentlemen with red coats,
TO MAKE US BEHAVE AND TAKE HER VIEWS, she sulks
like a nice little Eton boy and will have nothing to do with us, and,
above all, won't exhibit in California.
The attitude of England is childish and undignified. But for
some time to come probably no other attitude can be expected.
This country is amused and instructed; it is not annoyed by
the English refusal to share in the exposition.
Indifferent to the attitude of England, based on the childish
notion that she ought to be able to do in 1913 what she couldn't do
in 1776, this country is delighted with the friendly attitude of
Prance that has lasted through so many years.
To have the friendship and sympathy of the French nation
tnis country may well be proud.
A very great people are the French, genuine democrats, MEN
ABLE TO GOVERN THEMSELVES IN THE REAL SENSE
OF THE WORD, thinking men, and teachers of other men.
The French people for centuries have taught the rest of the
world to think and to act.
Our statesmen in 1776 re-echoed the sentiments that the
French leaders had been uttering since the days of Louis the Four
teenth.
Our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and our
rebellion against England were really the fruition of French think
ing and French teaching, part of the work of the French encyclo
pedists, grafted upon the mixed race on this North American con
tinent.
Today, as of yore, the French are leaders and teachers, and to
day, as in the days of 1776, the American people are proud to have
the French as friends and sympathizers.
They will be welcome indeed at the great exposition which
wfll celebrate the opening of the canal, the close union of the east
and west coasts of the United States, and which will emphasize in
1913 the determination which we expressed in 1776 TO MANAGE
THIS COUNTRY IN OUR OWN WAY.
A Poet's Preaching to the Rich
It Will Interest You for a Change—Although Prose Is
Usually Better Than Poetry in Our Day.
Copyright, 1913, t.y Star Company.
The most tiresome of living creatures—and that is saying a
good deal—is the prosperous man or woman who lectures the
poor on their shortcomings.
A woman, very comfortable in her well padded automobile,
with a footman to open the door and a maid waiting when she gets
home, will say to some unhappy woman with a half dozen children
nnd a worthless husband, "You might at least keep your house
CLEAN; surely, water does not cost anything."
And you will hear her tell the mother of the children that she
could at least teach the children to be polite, for politeness also
"costs nothing." She goes away giving or not giving some trifling
sum as the humor seizes her.
And the successful man, excited with his business, full of eager
int&rest, busy every hour of the day, conquering other men—you
see him solemnly preaching total abstinence to some poor devil
who has nothing in the world, perhaps, to keep him from insanity
or suicide but the momentary forgetting of anxiety and poverty
that drink gives him.
Prosperous stupidity refuses to recognize the fact that it is
POVERTY THAT CAUSES DRUNKENNESS, not drunken
ness that causes poverty.
The days of useful poets in our opinion are gone. Poetry is
childishness, an aid to memory, a substitute for thought that relies
upon no fancy trimmings for its power.
But occasionally, as we are still children, a thought expressed
in rhyme is pleasing.
For those that dislike the solemn preaching of the rich to
the poor, we print today some lines from John Masefield's "The
Everlasting Mercy."
Masefield tells of hypocritical, ignorant charity as it is in
England.
It is not very different in San Francisco or in any other city.
The rich and prosperous know as little about the miserable
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL
"LET ME MAKE YOU ACQUAINTED!"
poor as the elephant "knows about the insect that he crushes as he
walks along.
Luckily the human race need not depend upon charity or the
silly advising of poor men «by rich men.
What charity can not do, KNOWLEDGE WILL DO.
What solemn advice from self-satisfied prosperity can not ac
complish, JUST LAWS TAXING PROSPERITY CAN AC
COMPLISH.
Here are the lines from Masefield. You will like them:
"And you whom luck taught French and Greek
Have purple flaps on either cheek,
A stately house, and time for knowledge,
And gold to send your sons to college,
That pleasant place, where getting learning
Is also key to money earning.
But quite your damndest want of grace
Is what you do to save your face;
The way you sit astride the gates
By padding wages out of rates;
Your Christmas gifts of shoddy blankets
That every working soul may thank its
Loving parson, loving squire
Through whom he can't afford a fire.
Your well packed bench, your prison pen,
To keep them something less than men;
Your friendly clubs to help 'em bury,
Your charities of midwifery.
Your bidding children duck and cap
To them who give them workhouse pap.
O, what you are, and what you preach,
• And what you do and what you teach
Is not God's word, nor honest schism,
But Devil's cant and pauperism."
AN EMERGENCY CALL
fe? Evening Calls &
Cal Ewing's delay in locating the new baseball park is probably due
to the fact that he doesn't kno wyet whether the team belongs in a cellar
or on a hilltop.
* * *
The commercial high school, in transit to its- new site, is moving
pretty well, considering, but we hope that no lagging schoolboy will pat
tern his speed after it.
'* * *
Let the war in Turkey proceed—Tulare county now raises tobacco.
* * *
"Doc" Cook has heeded the call to Chautauqua. But not to earn
money to entertain foreign dignitaries.
* * ♦
California ranks fifth among the states in banking. That's not so
rank.
* * *
The dispatches tell of the arrival in New York of Sir Augustus Fitz
george, S. K. C. V. O. C. C. B. Anyone sending in the correct explanation
of the cipher at the end of the name and 1 cent, will receive an Evening
Call.
* * *
An English earl has gone on the vaudeville stage in a playlet, "A Point
of Honor." If the earl wants the vaudeville salary to pay his debts the
point is well taken.
* * •
There are 7,318 Johnsons in Chicago—not to mention the Chicago
Johnson ndw in Paris. _ .....
SEPTEMBER 5, 1913
! Ella Wheeler Wilcox
-ON— (
Militant Suffragettes—Sup
porters Disgusted and
Cause Is Materially In
jured by Vandalism and
Hysteria of the Militants
in Their Efforts to
Maintain Interest
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
Copyright. 1913, by Star Company
THAT the cause of suffrage
has been materially injured
by the actions of the mili
tants in England seems evident
to almost every observer.
Where ten people spoke with
favor of equal franchise a year
ago (even when not actively in
terested in the work) nine of
that number today are too dis
gusted and disturbed with the
vandalism and hysteria of the
militants to maintain their in
terest.
And yet it is a curious fact
that many people who dwell in
the inner circles of English po
litical life and who claim to
know the history of all progres
sive movements there declare
there is no way to gain a point
where habit and tradition must
be changed save by brutal and
violent methods.
A former member of parlia
ment said: "You must first
knocß your English law makers
down; you must kick and beat
them on the head, and then they
will rise up and ask you what
you want. But until you do this
they will not even listen to you."
That is the only way, he de
clared, that Ireland has ever
gained any point with England.
But the speaker was himself an
Irishman and a violent agitator.
Speaker Actuated by the
Views of His Militant
Daughter
His daughter was an active
militant. So one must not take
his views too literally.
But many other people have
expressed similar views regard
ing the absolute indifference of
the English law maker to any
new progressive idea, and the
necessity for drastic methods if
one wishes to be heard is quite
widely acknowledged.
Several people claim that the
militants are nearer gaining the
goal they seek than ever before,
but to the outside observer it
seems far less hopeful than it
was a year ago.
Those who declare any inter
est in the cause now hasten to
explain that they are opposed
to militant methods, and every
where there is a murmur of dis
approval and discontent over re
cent occurrences, and in all pub-
lie places the suffragists meet
with less consideration and more
insults than previously.
It seems incredible that women
of good birth and good breeding
and with good brains can per
form such acts as pouring paint
into letter boxes, cutting and
tearing vehicles and breaking
windows and blowing up houses.
The methods of the American
suffragists seem wonderfully dig
nified and admirable in com
parison.
When an American refers to
this fact, however, and says the
cause is gaining ground with us
by the dignified mode of pro
cedure, we are again confronted
with the statement that, the
American law maker is quite an
other being from the English
man, and that to be heard at all
\ THE FOUR MILLION .*
WILLIAM F. KIRK
THERE is a small Four Hundred, more or less,
Amusing folk who yearn to be amused;
They love their dinners and they love their dress;
Their minds are minor and their lives abused.
Seldom they think. 'Tis easier to guess.
As through their little lives they flit enthused.
Newport and nothing, froth and discontent-
It is not there that I would pitch my tent.
There is a great oFur Million on an isle-
Four million beings milling to and fro;
The fathers sweat to make the babies smile,
And much they strive, and many things they know-
Few are their frolics, scant the hours they while,
But there is joy in watching something grow '
Nobly they toil, and gratefully they pray
To Him who rested on the Seventh Day.
The butterfly that basks upon a flower
Can never love a brother buttery,
Alone flit its last brief hour;
Alone it looks its last on the blue sky.
I would not take a titled prince's power
To live*serenely thus, and thus to die.
Of the Four Million ere my span is spent—
Yes, it is there that I would pitcii my tent
the English suffragist must be
violent.
Homes are divided and society
agitated over this matter.
A bright and cultured woman
indulged in some strong anti
suffragist expressions at a lunch- |
eon one day, and then, almost
in tears, explained that her mar
ried daughter had become a suf- j
fragist and a militant.
Beautiful Wife Is Utterly
Changed Through
Suffrage
"She was such a sweet girl, !
and came up believing woman ;
had only two duties in life," the
mother said, "to be kind and to
look pretty. Now, since her mar
riage, she has gone off on this
tangent, and makes speeches in
public, and forgets to take care
of her appearance, and we are
all quite heart broken. There is
no pleasure in seeing her any 1
more.''
One could not help feeling
sorry for this mother, as one
might feel sorry for the mother
hen who sees the duckling she j
has hatched swimming away I
down the river! And the end |
not yet.
For vain is the cry of the Mas- |
ters, and vain the plea of the |
hearth,
As the ranks of the strange New i
Woman go sweeping over the |
earth.
They have come from hall and |
hovel; they have pushed thro' j
door and gate;
On the world's highway they are j
crowded today, for the hour is i
the hour of fate.
I
Let no man hope to hinder, let j
no man bid them pause;
They are moved by a hidden |
purpose, they follow resistless j
laws;
And out of the wreck and chaos, j
of the order that used to be, |
A strong new race shall take its
place in a world we are yet
to see.
Oh, ever has man been leader,
yet failed as woman's guide.
It is better that she step forward
and take her place at his side.
For only from greater woman
shall come the greater man;
Through life's long quest they
should walk abreast, as wa£
meant by the primal plan.
Congratulations
For The Call
Editor Call—As a citizen of dear
old San Eraneisco kindly accept my
heartiest congratulations on the suc
cess of the new evening Call. This
is one of the most important steps
for a cleaner and better San Fran
cisco.
It is a long needed want and a
necessity, and now that The Call has
started in a businesslike way, let it
continue printing nothing but tha
truth and continue printing a paper
that we can let bur daughters resd
without putting bad ideas In their
head. Let us ail. citizens, all of us,
stick by the only- paper of its kind in W
the country. Let The Call continue its M
present work and by 1915 we will
have a paper with a circulation larger
than any paper in the state.
Yours truly,
GEORGE PETERSEN.
Sacramento and Stelner streets Sep
tember 3, 1913.