Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-06-29
THE HOXE SMITH
ADMINISTRATION
Macon News.

Macon News.
With this week the Hoke Smith admin
istration comes to an end.
In many respects it has been the most
remarkable in it's history that this or ana
Other state has ever witnessed.
1t was remarka Die Tin its success and 81
its reverses. II went in on an unantio-
ipated tidal wave of revolution, and IL
went out on a still more astounding ebb-
tide of reaction. And it suffered this re-
verse despite the fact 1t came nearer car
rying out absolutely the pledges made Ia
the people than any administration Of
which we have cognizance.
| 1t was remarkable for the multiplicity
and magnitude OF the constructive
achievements that It crowded into the
brief space OF it's existence practically
into the work of one session OF the legis-
lature.
I The Hoke Smith administration
Abolished the convict lease system.
Enacted the prohibition law.
Brought the railroads and other public
utility corporations under legislative and
administrative regulation.
The axe was laid to three prime eco
nomic evils, rooted in the very bedrock
and fiber of the state, in the course Of
one legislative year
Can anyone recall from experience or
point out in history a parallel for it in
yeoman service?
What part of this was due TO Governor
HoIze Smith primarily and what part to
the determination of the long-suffering
people who had reached the limit Of for
bearance we shall not undertake to say
It remains that it was accomplished UNI
der his administration, and II il be said
that he did more than he was elected
to do and in so much was unfaithfui
to some who supported him, still il was In
h. - he OIL a Oh -
to that of the servant who said he would
not perform a certain task, yet went and
did IT,
All great revolutions are attended with
temporarily untoward or disastrous conse-
quences. All great revolutions by reason
Of the momentum necessary to impel them
overshOot the mark of wise moderation.
Desperate diseases require heroic RENE
dies. The people have seen and felt more
of the discomforts and criticisms arising
from the new adjustments and the dis
turbances occasioned by the movements
made both state and federal. to control
and regulate the railroads than thew have
seen and felt of the benefits. which are
largely in the nature of the negation of
growing evils. for the curbing of which
present and future generations will have
cause to bless the railroad movement OF
the twentieth century TO the end Of time
The unrestricted power of the railroads
to make rates, issue stocks and float
bonds that practically existed in Georgia
and the other states prior to the Hoke
Smith campaign was one Of the possibili-
ties for the abuse of which were as Him
table as the temptations to abuse II were
inevitable and Irresistible. II invested the
railroads with the power of government
to tax our entire southern country with
out the responsibility OF government to
tax It wisely or Justly. When frenzied fl
nanciers found themselves in position to
issue bonds ad libitum. put the money in
their pockets or bi'y other railroads with
Il and saddle the debt as a fixed interest
charge on the earnings of the road TO all
future time 1t was inevitable that there
would be found those TO do 1t. as we'll
authenticated railroad history has shown
that there were those who did do II. and
the result must necessarily have been
/ either 10 wreck the railroads or to have
drained the life blood out of the country
through which they ran in eXorbitant and
confiscatory traffic charges to answer for
revenues from which they had received
no benefit.
If the Hoke Smith administration had
done nothing more than to place upon the
statute books OF Georgia the law which
will forever. in it's present or in amend
ed shape. stand between the people of the
state and the possibility Of such oppres-
sion and abuse ii would have commended
itself to the lasting gratitude of the peo-
pie.
The Macon News does not take any
stock in the suggestion that the Joe
Brown, or any other administration will
repeal or in any way emasculate this law.
Revolutions do not go backward in essen
tials and we have faith in the substantial
patriotism of any Georgia administration
to believe that this statute will only be
changed TO strengthen and improve ii.