The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-09-17
FIELDER REFUSES TO Be GOAT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT WON'T BE
TOOL IN FIGHT ON GOVERNOR.
Declines TO Give an Opinion for Those
Trying to Inject Partisan Politics
in State School Board.

Trying to Inject Partisan Politics
in State School Board.
LANTA.-Attorney General T.
S. Fielder has declined to render any
opinion concerning the validity of the
old and the new state board of edu-
cation without a specific request
from Governor Joseph M. Brown.
No such request has been made by
Governor Brown, and is not likely
to be made.
This position is assumed by Attor-
ney-General Fielder in replying to the
request of State School Superintend-
ent M. L. Britain, of day or SO ago,
in which the head of the educational
department specifically set forth that
the request for an opinion had come
from Prof. Jere NJ. Pound, who was
replaced on the board through Gov
ernor Brown appointing Dr. G. r.
Glenn.
Colonel Fielder assumes the posi-
ton that it would be an improper
use of my office" to render any such
opinion lin the absence of a request
from the governor. He says:
ton presented by Professor Pound
would require that l review and pass
upon the legality of an executive or
Ger of the governor and certain of
his acts as chairman of the state
board of education. To do this, in
the absence of a request from the
governor, would be an improper use
of my office. Indeed, l am without
authority of law to give the opinion
unless a request for the same should
come from the governor"
Another Hard Fall Down.
Thus another effort of the Atlanta
Journal to foment trouble and try
to force state officials to go into this
affair, regardless of either their per-
sonal inclination or legal authority
to do so, falls very, very fiat.
The Journal made a desperate at
tempt to reach the governor through
the stae school superintendent and
the attorney general. Both Of these
officials declined absolutely to be
used as mediums of the Journals
personal venom towards Governor
Brown.
Professor Britain assumed the
+cAlOCI pOOAL4OA tLdJ l4S NOu4u
quest no opinion of the attorney
general unless Professor Pound Or
Professor Langston desired to know
of him their status on the board. AS
is we'll known, Professor Langston |
accepted his displacement gracefully |
and so wrote Governor Brown.
Finally Professor Pound did write |
Professor Britain for an opinion cas- |
to the validity of his membership on |
the state board of education" Pro-
lessor Britain made the request of !
the attorney general as from Profess
sor Pound and not as his own.
Now the Encouragement emphat-
ically declines to be wrawn into the
controversy by rendering an opinion.
The whole shameless plan of the
Journal has fallen as fiat as a pan
cake, and even its efforts to get
school Official In a North Georgia
county to stir up trouble by writing
every other county school official in
the state has petered completely out.
Journals Great Stunt.
To date the Journal has carried
exactly three communications in re-
ply to that move, and one of these
was from the man who started the
thing!
l. is beginning to simmer through
many people that there is a niger
in the wood pile behind all this agi-
tatiOn. Next year a new book con-
tract for five years is to be let, in
volving more than a half million dol
lars for the period
No one believes that any man on
ns4 ha n h. hoard ic in |
anyway concerned with the book peo-
pie, but the activity of rival book
trusts in this state has been more or
less generally known and notorious
for years past.
On August 18th, 1908, Governor
Hoke Smith vetoed a resolution. in
troduced by Senator Henderson of
the 39th, which provided for two
year extension of the regular five
year contract under which the state
has operated for years. He set forth
as one of the reasons the unusual
activity of book concern.
No one has ever questioned the
ability of Professor Pound or Pro-
fessor Glenn. Both are clean and
widely known educators at the head
of important state institutions. Coy
ernor Brown has never made the
statement, but probably the impell-
ing factor in replacing Professor
Pound with Dr. Glenn was the fact
that Professor Woofter of the state
university was a member of the
board and reappointed by Governor
Brown. and that it would be better
not to have two men from Athens /
on the board, when there were 9TH |
ers Just as capable and patriotic.
1t is the opinion of many here that /
the entire matter will now be
dropped.