Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-08-09

active supporters of the present gov
ernor? I didn't receive his support, and
1 wouldn't want the office Win sucn
support as his. If progressive Democra-
cy stands for anything, 1t stands for
good government and honest officials,
and it doesn't stand for warden who
is perpetually raiding from lessee to
lessee and filing his pockets by the
trades. loud applause and cries of
Tell 'em strong. governori Tell EN-
strong!O No, my friends, I'm not going
to entertain you with strong language.
All 1 want is for you to grasp the fact
that the men who belong to the political
machine that is undertaking to elect my
opponent governor fought for the con-
tinued lease Of the convicts. want you
to remember. too, who were the first
callers at the Brown campaign head
quarters-Joe and Jim. (This sally was
greeted with bowls of delight.)
"Of course, they don't want to give us
credit for abolishing the lease system
In fact, whatever we did that was very
good they claim we didn't do, and that
keeps them busy talking all the time
1 claim that today there are 5000 con-
victs at work today in Georgia building
good roads, as the result of that fight;
and before the end of years every To-
caltty in Georgia will be covered from
end to end by splendid highway 1t is
impossible to over-estimate the value of
this movement. 1t will lessen the cost
Of transportation for the farmers, it
will bring him closer to the churches
and schools, it will take away the iso-
lation of rural life and will do away
with the congested condition of our
cities, 1t will help build I'D that mag
nthcent rural citizenry which is the hack
bone Of the state.
IF 1 had done nothing but abolish
that Ubiquitous system I would not be-
grudge the IA months of my first cam
paign, my two years of service and my
subsequent defeat.
Let us now consider the business
end of the two administrations We add
ed 100000 to the money spent for ed
ucation. We increased by $4,000 the an
nual appropriation for our common
schools, and that appropriation will
stand in the future if 1t is not raised.
Yet at the end of the two years for
which we made these appropriations and
raised the taxes there was not a deficit
of 100000, but instead we had the sum
of $425,0O0 in the state treasury, and
the surplus had been increased $780,
900.
Now one word more as to the status
of the financial affairs of the. state
Your surplus each year is used up the
first of August, and then the state can
not pay any more to the schools until
the money comes in in December. The
recommendation of the present admin
istrat ton is to issue bonds to pay the
providing for it and I know that they
teachers, tn ough don't think they have
taken the trouble to introduce any bill
haven't passed one. They say they want
to pay the teachers, but they haven't
done anything yet in that direction. 1
have a very simple plan to pay them.
Advance the time Of the payment of
taxes and then allow a l per cent dis
count to the taxpayers. They can easily
raise the money then and will have no
trouble in paying it. Then we will pay
the teachers with the money intended
for that purpose and will not have to
borrow at all.
CAMPAIGN LITERATURE.
"a piece of their campaign literature
dealing with the business OF their ad-
ministration has just now been put in my
hands. 1 want to read you some Of IT.
Here's what they say: They declare 1t
has been a wonderful business admins
tration because II has made prosperity
prosper. They don't say how, but they
say that wonderful, wonderful, and they
don't say what it was wonderful, that
they have done. except that prosperity
has prospered.
Now let's look and see what they
already did. The first thing was to pub
fish a statement saying the treasury was
broke. You remember, report was sent
to the governor that IL everything was
checked up the treasury would be to the
good s., 10000 but that report was care
fully suppressed, and presently an article
was published saying that the treasury
would be 100000 short. That was good
V1A his mo
In the audience can best understand how
good II was how much 1t is calculated to
help the credit of a state or Of private
enterprise to advertise the fact that II Is
broke. Oh how that must have made
prosperity prosper.
THE next thing they did was to de-
clare that the state had no money to
buy Chattanooga terminal land, and this
in spite of the fact that we had just
turned in over 100000 of near-beer money
passing up of that opportunity to buy
needed land was a wonderful stroke of
business. No wonder prosperity pros
pered.
THAT SWEET VOICE.
What was the next wonderful stroke
OF business for their administration? You
all know what 1t was. That sweet voice
at Chattanooga called for troops-and
they went. The sheriff knew nothing
about the call, and the law didn't allow
1t. Oh, how that must have made pros
perity prosper. I have no doubt that
voice had a very persuasive influence.
Their relations must have been very
close, for they have told us that 1t was
their convention In 1908 that broke up
the convict lease system.
Now they are circulating another story
that sounds as IL they believed the peo-
pie were fools. They say that farmers
are writing from all over the state that
they are anxious to retain the present ad-
nninistration because 1t has given them
16-cent cotton. Listen: To begin with,
they took those figures from the New
York exchange board, the highest that
they ever got. and no cotton sold In
Georgia at that price at all.
9 But what on earth could this wonder
full business administration have to do
with Decent cotton? They circulated a
false report that the Georgia treasury
was broke. Did that do it? They failed
to buy the terminal land at Chattanooga.
Did that do it7 They answered the tele-
phone message from Chattanooga. Did
that do 1t? And yet these are the three
great business events of their admins
tration.
They don't say anything, however,
about failing to send commissions to
nearly every county in the state, and they