Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-08-08
EDITORIAL DIGEST

/ Admittedly, eight hundred thousand dol
lars isn't great deal of money in these days
of national debts indemnities and S2-cent
gasoline But properly utilized it draw
a lot of interest-not from the bank, but
| from the press and the public. At any rate
that is true of the 100000 that Charles
! Garland has proved he didn't want by Civ
ing it away.
Garland's money has had it's day in Amer
lean editorial columns on three different oc-
casions-first, when he refused the legacy Of
a million dollars from his fathers estate
because, he said, no one had right to
money he hadn't earned; second, when he
changed his mind and, third, when he
turned over four-fifths Of that million "for
the establishment of a fund to aid agencies;
of public service (which are so new or ex-
detrimental that they do not command general
public support" And interesting as the first
two occasions proved to the newspapers the
| third has fired the editorial imagination even
more. For, as editorial writer's point out, the
| field is SO wide and so vaguely outlined, and
| further, the radical and eccentric Mr.. Gar
| land has once more stood by his convictions.
Judged by some of the names of those
| interested in the fund for public SERVICE"
! the Hartford Courant concludes that "the
distribution among new and experimental
agencies will be for the benefit of what are
called radical movements" So radical indeed
does it appear from the list Of trustees an
nounced in the press that the Rock Island
| (Ill.) Argus sees the fund administered by
| a group of Greenwich Villagers and in the
| opinion of the paper the administration Of
| 81 900, 900 fund by Greenwich Villagers for
Greenwich Villagers looks like a deal in
clap-trap publicity that Ill have but little
influence on the inte1a9ctual, artistic or NOR
al life of the nathsn,' since "little in the
way of public service has come out of Green
witch Village except bobbed hair and a mys-
terious fire that destroyed some of the tea.
| hoses"
| But many people, the Providence Tribune
suggests, are laboring under a similar false
| impression that the Garland fortune is to be
used for the purpose of making crazy and
faky Greenwich Villagers more crazy and
faky,' while as matter of fact that idea
is entirely erroneous for granting that "the
incorporators list contains the names of
some pretty doubtful men, such as Scott
Nearing and William z. Foster" it also Sim
| cludes such men as Professor Robert Morse
| Lovett, Professor Harry Ward, of the Union
| Theological seminary, and James Weldon
| Johnson, Of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People"
| The New York Post also lets in some cold
white light on the dark picture of a Wash
ington square orgy of "modernity" financed
by the Garland money. "It would be hard"
the Post says, 'to fit all the fund officials
into the type-moulds of either Greenwich Vii.
lage or the radical world. Take Mary Nc
Dowell, for instance. She is a Methodist and
| abhors jazz. She wouldn't bob her hair for
! all Garlands money. OF course, Miss Me-
| DoweH does not see things eye to eye with
grating contractors, gang politicians or re-
| dictionary capitalists, but she Is not the
/ Greenwich Village sort of radical in the
| least" Rather, the personnel of the new
| foundation is not such as Will stir New
York's imagination as profoundly as the Hap
pers and budding geniuses Of the traditional
| village" but the Post believes they are sure
| to do something interesting with the funds
entrusted to their care" Indeed, the direc-
tors of the fund "inspire the hope" in the
South Bend (Ind.) Tribune "that it will be
used in way which will react to the public
welfare"
''In it's essential character" as the Boston
Traveller sees it, there is little to distinguish
| Garland's act from the act of a Rockefeller
| or a Carnegie. The only difference is that
| Garland has put his money where it may be
applied to the shocking and disturbing Of
society, while most other bestowers of large
| gifts see to it that the world shall be helped
| along without being too severely logged on
its axis" But even that difference need not
Of necessity condemn the new venture, the
Providence Tribune thinks, for America Is
receptive to new ideas that are sane, and If
| the level-headed among the incorporators do
take step in graduating some of the social
evils and stamping out injustice where they
see them, the Garland fortune will be real
| benefit to this country"
|
supposed to benefit from the money" hence
''the task imposed on the directors Of the
fund Is tremendous. . Society is somewhat
| complex, and few people agree on what is
best for society as whole" Further, the
Eagle points out, "pldtocrats, reactionaries
and Mrs. Grundy belong to the human fam
lily. Are they to benefit along with the Rand
school, the Civil Liberties union and other
minority interests?" Advancing unpopular
causes" appeals to the Rocky Mountain News
| (Denver) precarious game, and it fears
that "a Rockefeller fortune would be insult
| ficient to do what Garland intends to do"
for while "the minority is always right, 1t
costs like the dickens to support something
which the public refuses to take to-"
| To the New York Herald the chief interest
in the matter is Garland himself, for che Is
to be admired because he had courage to do
what most people of his place would have
found reason for not doing" and pitied be-
cause che apparently lacks the spirit to take
that 100000 and build and fight with it
according to his lights. Instead he leaves the
execution Of his ideals to Others"