Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-12-30
JUDGE SPEER'S APPEAL TO
REASON.
THE Atlanta Constitution

Strong, clear, enthusiastically elo-
quent are the utterances, reproduced
elsewhere on this page from The Ma
con Telegraph, in which Judge Emory
Speer sets forth the facts regarding
the Mercer-Capitol removal discussion
and appeals to his townspeople Oh
Macon to leave intact the status quo
by preserving to the Central City the
splendid Baptist university and giving
over the vain vision of securing the
state house.
With judicial accuracy, Judge Speer
disregards the irrevelant clamor of
the moment and goes to the root of the
controversy. He shows that the de-
mand for the removal of Mercer Uni
versity-not to Atlanta or any point
specified, but from Macon-originated
not in Atlanta, but in the Baptist con-
vention at Elberton.
This is simple justice to Atlanta 1t
should not, additionally, be forgotten
that the removal idea was born among
the South Georgia contingent, that It
received the unanimous support of the
South Georgia vote, and that it was
by authority of the whole convention
that the committee was instructed 70
probe all phases of the situation and
report back to the convention.
In a matter possessing large his
toric potentialties, it is we'll to keep
the record straight And the record,
made up of the testimony of the most
upright Baptist ministers and laymen
in Georgia, many of them from South
Georgia, absolutely associates the city
of Atlanta from the faintest sugges-
ton of responsibility for the proposed
change.
No amount of current furore can al
ter the primary truth that ATLANTA has
not raised one penny toward the Sc
curing of Mercer, has not even pro
posed to raise it, and has merely kept
herself in the attitude of receptivity
inspired by the dictates of common
hospitality and local patriotism.
Judge Speer etches in, bluntly and
honestly, the retaliatory motive back
of Macon's capitol chase
From the depth of a wide career, he
sounds warning against the bitter
ness, the long-lived malignity, the
business loss and decentralization that
are the inevitable accomplishments of
removal campaigns of any nature.
His plea that Mercer be left where
it is, and the capitol be left where it
is, and that Georgians return amicably
to the affairs of the New Year is based
on the common sense that is the pro-
duct of a seasoned mind and of com
prehensive experience
In other words, he is contending,
gently, with his fellow townsmen to
cease trafficking in impossibilities
For it is soaring into the realms Of
the non-eXistent, to imagine that the
state house is going to be removed
from Atlanta
The constitution requires a two
thirds vote of each branch of the gem
eral assembly to give such an idea
vitality.
No one that keeps a steady head,
dreams that such vote is even APP
proXimately possible.
That is why ATLANTA is not con-
cerned regarding the more serious as
poets of the situation, but is concerned
in keeping the peace with a sister city
whose interests are, or ought to be,
largely identical with her own inter-
ests
So far as removals, per Sc, go, the
transplanting of Mercer would be far
the simpler undertaking. Atlanta
undertook or thought to undertake it.
Atlanta contemplates neither pro-
cedure-but will get back of Macon in
what should be the mutual ambition
to give to Macon, in Mercer, one of the
noblest institutions in America.
These are plain statements of fact,
in holiday spirit of ultimate friend
| liness
Judge Speers' advice has the tang of
hard sense, as well as the fragrance