The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-07
TO PURIFY ELECTIONS.
REPRESENTATIVE CLIFTON IA
voRS THE AUSTRALIAN BALLOE


.voRS TIE AUSTRALIAN BALLOT.
Chatham County's Legislative Dee
cation to Leave for Atlanta To hight
Maj. Ryals' Salary Fill Expected 70
Create q St!r-The v hitfeld BIZ 70
Come Up Agsin-Mr. Clifton TO In
troduce a Bill for q New Voting Sys'
tenn in Elections
Chatham county's legi lstive delegation,
Hon. William Clifton, Hon. G. NJ RyAls
and Hon. Gazsway HartridEe, will leave
tonight for Atlanta They viii be aocon-
panied BY the representatives from adloln-
ing counties
The legislature meets tO-uoTrOT morning.
Several important measures, IN which
Chatham county is directly interested viii
be acted upon. There are 2S3 bills from the
last session remaining 70 be acted upon snd
any number Of new ones will be introduced.
Mr.. Clifton said yesterday that he intends
20 introduce bill providing for the Aus
tralian OF some other system for toe protec-
ton Of the ballot. He thinks the public Is
tired Of the corruption that has been carried
on IN opal and county elections, ana
he wants to throw such a safeguard around
the ballot that the purchase Of votes viii be
matter Of impossibility. Mr.. Clifton Is
opposed 10 the use Of money in electionsi
and he wants TO have a general state law
adopted to prevent it. He is not particular
about the system. Either the Australian or
one of some what similar character. which
will protect the pc lple and insure an honest
and interrupted use OF t5e ballot, is what
be wants placed on the statute books.
THE OFFICE SALARY BILL.
Mai. Ryals will probably introduce bill
20 make the county offices salaried. He is
opposed to the fee system as 1t imposes an
unnecessary tax upon the people. Maj
Ryals is IN favor of giving county officials
reasonable salaries. de doesn't want the
state TO be niggardiy in the matter, but he
doesn't believe it just tine proper thing TO
have men making $4,000 and $1,000 year
out of the tax payers by the fee
system. Maj. Ryals doesn't believe in
paying q country treasurer or other county
official more than that OF a bank cashier.
His bill will not be local measure, but
will be general, taking in the entire state.
Under a recent decision of the supreme
court no local measure which is already
provided for by a general law Is valid.
As the general law at present on the stat
ute books puts nearly all the county officers
under the fee system, local measure,
therefore, would be Of no avail. Maj
Ryals Is in favor Of either putting the
difference between the salaries and fees
into the treasury or the common school
fund
Representative Clifton is heartily in
favor Of Mai Ryals' salary bill. He thinks
II provision is made to turn the difference
into the common school fund the measure
will go through like a fash, as the country
representatives will heartily favor anything
looking toward an improved school sys-
TEN.
THE INSURANCE FIGHT.
A bill which will come up for considera-
tion at the coming session and which
has a ready attracted considerable
attention throughout the state is
the Whitfield Insurance bill. This
measure seeks TO remove the requirement
to put up SOS 900 with the state treasurer
by insurance companies before being al
lowed to carry on business. The friends Of
the bill claim that the present law fosters
monopoly, and keeps out other insurance
companies than those who can comply
with the law, and causes excessive rates in
Georgia. Representative Clifton says that
the Whitfield bill will provoke good deal
of discussion. but he declined to prophesy
the final result The insurance companies
are fighting the measure with every means
in their power. Circulars have been sent
out to members Of the legislature de-
failing the probable disastrous results
that will follow the passage of
the bill Unprincipled companies
the circulars claim, will come into the state
with cheap rates, but when the day Of
reckoning comes the insurer will find that
instead Of the substance he has but the
shadow Of that he relied upon for indem-
nifty.
Page Jack Murphy will accompany the
legislative contingent. He lie a pOrtege OF
Representative Clifton, who says Chatham's
first page knows as much about running
the state as any member of the legislature,
and is one Of the brightest boys in the House