Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1909-11-05
GOV. ]. M. BROWN AT
TIE TAFT BANQUET
Spoke at Savannah With
Georgia As Theme.
Tells Eloquently of the
Greatness of the State
He Loves.

Savannah, Ga, Nov. 4.-Governor
Joseph NJ. Brown was one of the
speakers at the Taft banquet here to-
night, and responded to the toast,
Georgia" The governor spoke as
follows:
Mr.. Chairman, Mr.. President Taft
and Other Gentlemen of Georgia and
Her Sister States-In responding to
the toast, Georgia" 1 will only refer
to the fact that this Empire State of
the South" has the greatest land area
OF any state east of the Mississippi;
that her population is the greatest Of
any Southern state east of that grand
river; that she produces more cot
ton than any state of equal area in the
world; that Savannah, her greatest
seaport, exports more cotton than anv
other port on the Atlantic ocean, and
the greatest amount of naval stores of
any port in the world
She has more railroad mileage than
any other Southern state east Of Tex
as, which has four times her area;
that Georgia marble is building state
capitOls upwards of one thousand
miles beyond her borders; that the
Georgia peach and Georgia water
melon shipped in thousands Of car
loads, are the standards of excellence
in America; that she produces a
greater variety of combined minerals
and resources, or fruits of the orchard,
quarry, forest, and field, in large
quantities, every chapter of American
achievement.
| prefer to dwell for a few moments
rather upon her people than upon her
area, her soil, climate and material
productions.
The Georgian As He Is.
The Georgian is self-reliant, law
loving and brave; he originated at
and near Savannah in the combina-
tion of the charity doing Englishman
and the God-serving Salzburger. He
has developed on the lines of enter
prise, courage, generosity and devo-
ton to the ideals of culture and the
moral graces.
He is in general conservative At
times he is taken off his feet by im-
pulse, but invariably he RECEIVERS him
self ''by sober second thought" and
If he finds that he has done any one
an injustice in the hour Of his un-
balancing, he hastens to restore to the
injured one his own fourfold multi
piled In other words, justice is the
handspring of his character, and he
not only demands but will enforce fair
play
And that enforcement of fair play
is based upon his innate reverence for
the law, reverence which exacts of
the individual citizen obedience to its
mandates of peace. protection and
good order and of the officer the per-
formanee of duty, even though that
performance, through sympathy,
brings to him a heart-tragedy, scarce
ly second to that which prostrates the
souls of the loved ones of the male
factor upon whom the law demands
that officer shall enforce its just de-
cree.
Now, speaking of the Georgians
collectively, let me say that in no
other American state is there a great
er-if, in fact, as great-proportion
of evangelical church members as in
this commonwealth, of which we are
so justly proud.
In no state is there more homoge-
neous thought; and this is not a
strange happening, for in scarcely any
state is there so great a proportion Of
it's population of the unmixed stock
which fought with varying success at
Cow Pens, Camden, Savannah and
Kings Mountain and triumphed with
Washington at Yorktown. Hence, in
no state have Jeffersons ideals of
local f-government been more jeal-
ously and vigorously safeguarded.
Ruled by the Sovereign People.
In no state do the masses in the city
and the country keep themselves more
thoroughly advised of current events
and of matters affecting the common
interests than in Georgia. In no state
do the masses take the initiative in
determining the public course so in
dependently of self-considered leaders
as they do in Georgia. In fact, as
anomalous as the assertion may seem
in her boundaries the people lead, the
politicians follow Hence, in no other
state more than in Georgia can we
turn them-endowed with common
sense, animated by justice and guild
ed by conscience-the sovereign peo-
| pie.
In Georgia we have pure democ-
racy, with no public preference save
for the good, no aristocracy other
than that of merit, no reward except
those for honest endeavor. In Georgi7