The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-17
LEGISLATORS MAY
 HAVE HEAVY WORK Second Extra Session Is Now
 Barely Possible CONVICT QUESTION ALIVE Georgia Lawmakers Have Hard Prob Iems Yet To Solve and Political
 Affairs May Cause Long,
 Session This Fall.

Atlanta, August 16.-There is a bare
 possibility, according to some, of
 second extraordinary session of the
 Georgia legislature before the end of
 the year. This would happen in the
 event Georgia failed to give ma
 jority vote to any of the presidential electoral tickets in the field. But according to Representative Joe Hill Hall of Bibb and one or two oth- CTS, such an extra session could not be called for the reason that the life of the present general assembly expires in | October, and the new general assem- bly does not exist de facto until it has first met and organized, which would not be until June. 1909.
 State officials do not consider this point well taken. As matter of fact they hold that it is essential that the state shall have at all times a general assembly which can be summoned to meet any extra ordinary emergency such
 as invasion, loss of revenue and the 1 like.
 | There is little likelihood of any diff | ficulty in getting an extra session should it be made necessary to name an electoral tick ct to cast the presiden- l tial vote of this state. Under the law, | as has been shown, there can be no election of presidential electors by plurality vote and unless some ticket
 receives a majority, the electors must
 be chosen by the general assembly. IL. S1 at the recent session of the general as
 sembly failed because of other press ing business, including the convict ! question. Nobody seemed to deem it of sufficient importance to amend the law so as to make election possible by
 plurality vote, although the state dem
 ocratic committee urgently requested
 such an enactment.
 Possibly the legislature thought it.
 would be undignified or bad politics to
 make an official confession that there
 was a chance of the national democratic
 ticket falling short of a majority in
 this state, where it has always re-
 ceived a good one.
 However, there are not a few who think the usual democratic majority in
 Georgia will, this year, turn out to be no more than a plurality, in which
 event the legislature will have to be
 summoned to name the Georgia elec- tors.
 Atlanta officials have fallen in line with the local street railway in sup port of the regulation adopted by tn @ company looking to the separation of the races on the street cars Under this regulation the white people are required to take seats from the front toward the rear, and the negroes from the rear toward the front.
 The other day a white man, J. w. Mathews, occupied a seat in the DOT
 tion of the car reserved for the negroes
 through there were seats vacant fur
 ther up, in the part reserved for whites. As there were some negroes standing the conductor requested Mathews to take a seat nearer the front in order that the negroes migh t have that portion of the car allotted 1 to them Mathews promptly and indig- udnIiy iCluSCd. All ditCltolion lOiloW cu in which the conductor and motormai took part and Mathews was forcibly made to do that which he had refused I A case was made against Mathews I in police court, while Mathews filed i charges against the conductor and mo l torman for assault and trespass The
 recorder upon hearing the case, sus-
 
 ployes and fined Mathews s15.75 for his
 refusal to abide the regulation. | For similar offenses a number of negroes have been fined in the past and the recorder considered that com | mon justice demanded punishment in this case, a position in which he is l generally uph cid by the better class of people The regulation is regarded as a good one, and it is believed it's l just and fair enforcement will rath CT tend to keep down conflict and irrf-
 tation.
 Greater Atlanta" is pluming her | feathers feeling that she has already | spread. After a hard fight in whicE | it looked up to the last moment as if | the charter amendment would fail of passage in the general assembly, ow- l ing to opposition on the part of tn
 Fulton county delegation, the bill was l finally passed in accordance with the wishes of the great majority of Allan | tans.
 l Through this enactment Atlanta | takes in II additional square miles of | territory giving her 23 square miles in all. adds $16 100000 of new taxable | property and, it is claimed, some 50, 900 | new population. It is estimated that the population of the city under tn e census of 1910 will be not less than 1 150, 900.
 The result of the passage of the bill 1 will be that Fulton county will annex
 A considerable slice of DeKalb. For | the towns of Edgewood and East At lanta lying wholly in DeKalb are taken l into Atlanta's corporate limits. Now, | under a certain state law the entire voting population of Atlanta will be | permitted to pass on the question as l to whether the wh ole city shall remain l in Fulton or go into DeKalb county. | The result is, of course, foregone | conclusion, and the Dekalb territory l will be brought into Fulton.
 The Dekalb county portion comes l into Atlanta January l, l909. 1t has E7W K TfW