Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-09-13
Better to Obey Than Sacrifice

Better to Obey Than Sacrifice
BY the time these. lines are printed,
some of the schools may have open
ed many mothers and fathers will
be straining every nerve to get their
children ready. Clothes will be made,
others renovated, work hurried, and
many sacrifices made. All these
things come under the head of duty.
But there is another side that SO
many will ignore-and that is to in
culcate IN every one of those chill
dren the ideas of obedience and re-
Spect for the laws. If the small child
is started right, and that is to re-
Spect the laws of home, there will,
not be much trouble in charging the
mental vision to take in community
and state laws. Only animals should
have to be beaten and cuffed about
when disobedient, yet every child has
to learn that suffering follows dis
obedience. The fear of the law is
the beginning of wisdom" The child
taught to respect the teacher and
the school laws is going to learn
more than the Others.
DR.. Fosdick, in the Ladies' Home
Journal, says: The oyer-indulged
Gus.
1.-The problem, in many homes is
the spoiled father. He is the one
who makes a mystery of his bust
ness and is self important about it.
He must be protected from house
hold worries. He needs a great deal
of bridge and a great many parties
to keep himself refreshed for the i'm
portant work of the world. He
pr1des himself on making quick de-
cisions, and naturally, having no
time for studying the problems of
childhood and growth, disposes of all
such problems with a quick show of
authority. That man will catch you
in the suburban train some day and
out of a deep sense Of self.injury
will confide that he does not under
stand his children at all. Perhaps
he will intimate that their mother
has stolen their affections from him,
or he may believe that the younger
generation is hopelessly unmanage-
able, and that the world is going to
pot.
children haven't much original
ity, few human creatures have for
that matter. And when they tire
of new toy or a new kind of play
and become rather irritable it doesn't
mean that the original sin has come
To the, surface but simply that they
have exhausted the possibilities of
that play, or rather their own ima5-
NATIVE perception of it. They have
ruin down like a clock. The mother.
if she lives closely in her home. Of
ten runs down with them. Tn IA
Their coming in fresh from the stimu.
lating. outside world, is the one to
wind them up
We have heard a great deal about
the breakdown of the church. but
no breakdown so threatens the foun-
dations of social order as the col
lapse of our law. Ex-President Taft
is Of a judicial and cautious mind,
Yet even he uses this strong, urgent
languaie: 1t is not too much to say
that the administration of criminal
law in this country is a disgrace to
our civilization, and that he
prevalence of crime and fraud,
which here is greatly in excess of
that in European countries, is due
largely to the failure of the law
and its administration to bring Grim
inals TO justice
THE movies, our most popular
reNe&tlOn, are q WeatherVane to
show which way the wind is blow
ing in the thinking of our people,
and SO tar as Iawlessness is con-
cerped,, tie direction is obvious.
The Representatives of the law are
habitually at a disadvantage on the
screen. The judge, the detective,
the policeman come off badly in the
plot, and the mere husband is often
in i'll repute with the audience. But,
ali, the attractive murderers, the
high minded robbers, the noble
crooks, the gracious courtesans.
-. In the Tilted States today
probably the most obvious lawless-
ness with which we deal is the
breaking of the eighteenth amend
ment and its enacting laws. That
passage may not be wise. Neverthe-
less attempt to put down summarily
the liquor traffic at one stroke is
on orr statute books. IT is the law
and no man can convincingly main