The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-07-01
NEW COUNTIES.

in limiting the number of new coun-
ties TO eight. The claim was made
by some of the advocates Of the bill
that there was need for thirteen, and
they insisted that provision be made
in the bill for that number. The
statement was made, however. that
after careful consideration it was
found there was need for only six,
and it was finely agreed to make the
number eight.
There are many small counties in
the state, some of them not having
an area of as much as 200 square
miles, one not having as much as 100
and quite large number not as much
as 300. On the other hand there are
seven that have an area of more than
! 1000 square miles. 1t will be seen
from these figures that the people of
some of the counties, in the matter
of nearness to their county seats, have
a great advantage over those of other
counties.
The people of this state, however
are about as well supplied with coun-
ties as are those of adjacent states.
Georgia has an area of 59,475 square
miles, a population of 2,2l6,331, and
1877 counties. Alabama has an area
of $3.50 square miles, population Of
!, S28. 697 and sixty-six counties and
South Carolina has an area Of 30,570
square miles, a population of 1,34o,316
and forty counties.
From any point of view, therefore,
the people of Georgia are better off
in the matter of counties than either
Alabama or South Carolina. If it
were practicable, it would be a good
thing for the state if county lines
could be wiped out and new ones
made, limiting the number of counties
to about 100 and making them pretty
nearly of the same size, but of course,
such a change as that is out of the
question.
Naturally an increase in the number
of counties means an increase in the
tax burden of the people of the new
counties and of the counties from
which territory will be taken to make
the new tOulllltS. II diSO ilGclio ftii
increase in the burdens on the state
treasury, because there will be adj
ditional members of the Legislature,
judges and other officials to be
paid. At present there are more than
100 counties which draw more out of
the state treasury than they pay into
it. In fact, the greater part of the
burden of supporting the state govern
ment falls upon about quarter of the
counties.
The Legislature, therefore, ought to
be sure that it is legislating for the
best interests of the people before
enacting any measure that increases
the cost of supporting the government.
In the course of the debate on the
bin providing new counties it was in
timated that some of the counties were
wanted for political purposes. The
people cannot afford to have their tax
burden increased for the benefit of
men who want offices.
The bill to increase the number of
senators from forty-four to seventy
five may have justice in it, since the
poor counties have a fuller represen-
tation i'm the upper branch of the Leg
islature than the populous ones. but it
is probable that the people wouldn't
grumble if the number of senators
were not increased until they are bet
ter able to pay the cost of the in
crease. AS the pension burden de-
creases it may be possible to increase
the cost of the Legislature, though it
is beginning to look, from the intro
duction into the House of another
widows pension bill, as If the PEN
sion burden were going to be kept
at pretty near it's present size for
many years to come. If the pending
bill should become a law all of the old
unmarried veterans might take a no
ton to get married. As their
widows would get a pension they might
have no difficulty in getting wives.
Is the state really under obligations to
pension widows who became wives of
veterans after the close of the Civil
War?