Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-08-20
A BUBBLE EXPLODED.

las pCtS4ot6d III Lying 10 lAdhG Il
campaign issue out of the clerical err
rors made with reference to the is,
suance of notary public commissions
from Governor Browns office, has re-
suited in the bringing of counter
charges by friends of Governor Brown
that show that the negligence in the
governors Office during the Hoke
Smith administration was so much
greater than that under the present
governor that the charges against Gov
ernor Brown fade into insignificance.
In an open letter written to Mr.
Smith by B. NJ. Blackburn, the ex-
ecutiye secretary who has been at
tackled by the Smith partisans, few
significant facts are given and COM
mented upon. Mr.. Blackburn shows
that the commission for R. B. Huff,
who was duly appointed as a notary
public for a district in Heard county
in September, 1908, and again in March
1909, during Governor Smiths admin
istration, did not receive a commits
sion at all during the former gov
ernor's administration, but was fur
nish'ed one after Governor Brown went
into office. This single commission
was delayed for two entire years.
Other instances are specifically men
toned and names are given.
But this wasn't all that Mr.. Black
burn discovered. He investigated mat
tiers further and found that the judges
| and solicitors of several city courts
| throughout the state had been COM
| PEELED to wait for Governor Brown
| to go into office before they were
| granted commissions. though they had
been duly elected to these positions
nine months prior to the time that
| they received their commissions. ia
addition to the list of failures to grant
commissions to notaries public which
he publishes, Mr.. Blackburn says that
he is able to furnish forty or fifty
more, if necessary.
The most startling of all the dis
closures made by Mr. Blackburn is the
| assertion that Governor Smith, wha.
| he left the executive office carried
away with him every order that had
been issued during his administration.
Ir speaking Of this high-handed AMI
| domineering act, Mr.. Blackburn says
| There was no precedent for it. These
papers belong to the people of Geof-
| gia. You treated item as your own
private property, justifying the rea-
son given by that able and patriotic
| Georgian, Senator Matthew'S for leay-
ing you and goin to Governor Brown
| You act in such a way as to say: i
am the state'i" Mr. Blackburn then
Investigated the charge made by NJ.
Smiths secretary 10 the effect that
Governor Terrelrs executive orders
could not be found and discovered that
the orders of Governor Terrell and
Governor Gambler were stored in tn.
basement of the capitol.
AS Mr.. Blackburn from his long SER
| vice as secretary to Governor Terrell
and Governor Brown is thoroughly
conyersant with tie affairs of the
executive office, there can be no doubt
that he has punctured completely the
bubble of the Smith partisans who
have been making SUCH a hullabaloo
about the delay in the issuance of
| notary public commissions under tn
| present governor. The former gov
ernOr has sinned far more than the
tpresent one in that particular Fur
| tbermOre, Mr.. Smith has arrogated 10
himself the authority of political die
tator in taking away from the exc
cutiye office valuable documents which
are manifestly the property of the
state. 1t reminds one very forcibiy
of the words of one of the former gov
ernor's enthusiastic supporters il
Savannah, who referred to Mr.. Smi-h
as 'Georgia's uncrowned King" Tic
"uncrowned king evidently thought
he was crowned even after he no
longer held the democratic position OF
governor.
TIE people of Georgia have seen the
mistake they made in ever putting a
man Of such radical and anarchist,c
temperament in the chair as chief ey
ecutive. They have had proof, time
and time again, of which Mr.. Black
burns letter gives the latest evidence,
OF the unreasonable, tyrannical ana
dictatorial behavior of the man wAo
would treat the position of governor
OF the commonwealth as if it w,ae
his personal property to be dealt with
as any passing within might suggest
There is no danger of the people Of
Georgia making the mistake a secc< I
time. On Tuesday they will admin
lister final rebuke to him by re-
alpp+ino TOganb NJ prov-r, ,,ox,o,,..,, i .