The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-15
Georgia Legislature Will Tackle
 Lease System
STATE NEEDS MORE MONEY
Abolition of the Convict Lease System Would Cause a Loss of $1 900 1000, Which Would Be a Con-
 siderable Burden.

this week, and, with an insistent demand for abrogation of the lease system on the one hand and an empty treasury on the other, 1t is problem which the legislators are not approaching with any degree Of positive enjoyment.
 The house of representatives Is just now in the midst of the discussion, and thers are almost as many shades of views as there are members.
 The state treasury has just lost a 1 quarter of million dollars through prohi- , bition, and the complete abolition of the lease system would take as much or more annually from the state treasury. Some of the legislators are coming to the con clusion that while morality is a very good thing, it don't go very well with low tax rate. Or, perhaps it would be bet i ter to put the converse of the proposition.
 The liquor tax went into the state school fund; the present income from convict leases goes, largely, to the common schools, and the common schools are one institution which the general assembly f will not permit to suffer in its appropria , tions. When they lost the liquor tax the | legislature immediately tackled on as much or more from the general fund.- giving the schools larger appropriations for 1908 and : 1909 than they had ever before enjoyed.
 If the precedent counts for anything t is safe to say that if the present general assembly abolishes the lease system the l.ext one will make good the loss to schools by an appropriation from the gen. eral fund whether there is any money III the treasury or not.
 Complete abolition of the lease system, in addition to stopping a certain present in- come, would involve large expense to the state, unless the various counties ! could be persuaded to take all of the felony convicts and pay the expenses of their keeping for the privilege of working them on their pubic roads. It would mean that the state would have to work them and pay for their guarding, feeding and keeping. The states present expenses for caring for the convicts, notwithstand- ing the fact that their quarters and food are provided by the lessees, are $150,000 d year, and the gross income from the con tractors is reduced to that extent. It is eadily apparent that this would be large ly increased if the whole expense were upon the state, and the cost has been con- servatlvely. figured at something like S50o,0oo
 Therefore complete abolition of the lease system and the working of the convicts hy the state itself following the enact Inent of state prohibition, would result in a net annual loss to the state of some thing like s1OO0,0O0.
 Georgia's present income from all sources is about $4,OoO,o0O. The state is now living slightly in excess of it. There is no present possibility of col lecting any more by direct taxation, owing to the constitutional limit of five mills, nor has the state any other source of income that can be drawn upon. If it had it would have been drawn uponNlong ago, for the Georgia legis- lature is notorious for appropriating to the limit
 The legislature may agree.to give up the $250,000 or more which the state is now getting from the lease system for distribution to the common sch ools, but the finding of half a million dollars to inaugurate a new system is another matter.
 Possibly there may be found solu- tion of the problem in the measure pro- posed by Senator T. S. Fielder of the Twenty second, who proposes to get this half million or the greater portion of it by continuing the lease system for a period of IS months, and using the fund thus raised for the purpose of state farm upon which to work the convicts, making cotton and other agricultural products. This is very much after the Mississippi plan, which is said to have worked very satisfac- torily.
 The convict question, just now, is the livest issue in Georgia. The legisla- ture has found in it about as big a subject as it did in prohibition, and, though there won't be quite so much hysteria as there was over that meas ure, there will be no lacking in enth us- iasm nor in warm debate
 Woodward for Mayor.
 The Atlanta business men and others who don't want to see Jim Woodward elected mayor again, have failed SC far to come forward with any proposi- tion that might give promise of his defeat, and it looks now like it will ba Mayor Woodward once more. following | the primary now near at hand.
 Several names of prominent Allan tans upon whom union of forces might be made, have been suggested. but so far 1t has appeared impossible to get any of them in the field Busi- ness men of ability and prominence don't like to gst. into politics, and par ticularly into factional politics The opposition has, therefore, failed up to the present time to get a satisfactory candidate, and here seems little likeli- hood that it will.
 While the mayoralty will not go to Jim Woodward exactly by default, even in case his opponents do not finally succeed, present indicat tions point strongly to his return to the office. Ask any Atlanta politician who is go- ing to be the next mayor, and the prompt reply is Jim Woodward"
 Thomas H. Goodwin whom Mayor Joy ner defeated by only a comparatively small majority two years ago, has an- nounced his candidacy against MT. Wood ward, and so far these are the only two formal entries in the race MT. Goodwin Is lawyer and quasi-reformer. whose former campaign was made largely on the basis of some alleged exposures. H. H. , Cabaniss. Mayor Pro Tenn F. A. Quillan and Alderman James l.. Key have been 1 prominently mentioned in connection with the race, but none of them has formally announced, and report has it that they are somewhat doubtful of the result In A contest with Woodward.
 Everybody admits that Jim Woodward made Atlanta a good mayor that his two administrations evinced splendid bus l mess qualities, and that as an executive he gave satisfaction But it is his per sonal record that is against him, and | mi l-