The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-13
ATLANTA TAKING
STEPS To SECURE A
CHARTER REVISION
Business Men Strongly Be-
hind MOvement-Started
Crusade in Nineties

Atlanta. January 12.-6Special)- AT
lanta has been trying for close on to
10 years to get a new charter. and
all it has succeeded in bringing out
of the storm is few patchwork amend
ments. much on the order of those
which have been tackled onto the state
constitution
The beginning OF new administra-
tion--of the James G. Woodward ad-
ministration--was seized upon as an
auspicious time to begin about the ninth
| fight for charter revision.
More than ever was 1t considered
auspicious because Mayor Woodward
himself is favorable to the movement.
surprise to some, he came out strong
| ly in his inaugural urging charter re-
INSTRUMENTATION of a radical sort Then.
too. retiring Mayor courtland winn
urged it in his valedictory
And now Atlanta IS going at 1t ham,
mer and tongs again--responding to
an encore. as it were. The machinery
was set in motion at meeting OF
prominent business men held at the
Kimball House Friday. when 1t was
decided that-"Carthago delenda east"
Atlanta must have a new charter. and
committees were appointed to take hold
of various features of the proposition
and push it for all it is worth.
Set the Ball in Motion
Perhaps it would be more nearly
correct to say that the ball was set
! in motion when Councilman w. G.
! Humphrey. al the first meeting of the
city council this year. introduced a
resolution providing for the appoint
ment by the mayor of a committee of
five council members and 10 citizens
to draft new city charter. or to go
even back of that and give due credit
to the recommendations of the retir-
ing and the incoming mayor.
But to get to the bottom of the new
charter proposal it would be necessary
to go back something like 10 years or
more. Atlanta started the charter re-
vision crusade way back in the early
'90s. A committee OF 40 citizens was
appointed and spent days and weeks
in drawing up a new city charter.
Finally 1t was all done and when the
| finishing touches had been put on 1t
and it was the very prettiest little char
ter you have ever seen. the opposi-
tion got busy and smashed 1t all to
smithereens before 1T ever got within
| hailing distance of the legislature
About two years later came along
another agitation and another commit
| tee of 49, every member of which en-
! joyed the pastime of eating up old
charters for breakfast every morning.
This committee did even a prettier job
than its predecessor; 1t made charter
that nobody could object to, one that
would put the city in shipshape from
the very outset. But the objectors,
many of them city politicians, soon
came out from hiding and when they
got through with 1t II was "a worse
case of mince meat than the other pne.
Both times the charter frevisionfsts
| had to be satisfied with simple amend
ments that patched up one or two hig
holes and then to walt for another
| chance.
So it went on until the commission
government dispute burst on the city
couple of years ago. This was an
other case of talk finally resulting in
a compromise charter enacted by the
Legislature with the understanding that
it was to go to vote of the people.
Politicians Are Strong
| Inc pOl1tlcldnS proved themselves
amazingly strong, for when the votes
were counted the commission govern
ment proposal was little bit deader
than the tabled Hector
| This in brief has been the history
of charter revision in Atlanta, which
| is still in the process of history maxi
ing.
When the Humphrey resolution was
offered in council the other night the
anti Woodward element and the anti
| charter reyisionists were nearly all on
their feet at once. They mustered s
out of total of 30, and sent the reso-
luton to the table.
| There is little question, however,
that the Humphrey resolution will be
passed, probably al the next meeting
of council. Some of its more liberal
! opponents cannot afford to take stand
| against permitting the new charter TO
| be drawn and II is certain that the
process will be gone all over again, at
| least up to the point of framing a
document of some sort and presenting
| 1t to the Legislature. But that does
not mean at all that new charter will
| be finally adopted, as experiences has
| shown.
| Atlanta's present charter was drawn
| in 1874 1t is now pronounced obsolete
and antiquated. chief among the OBJ
| jections to il are the multiplicity of
1 boards named by council for the gov
ernment of each OF the departments
| There is the park board, the police
| board. the health board. the board of
education, the bond commission and
various other boards, some of which are
| continually in more or less of po-
! litical turmoil.
| Too much politics and too little bus
mess in the administration of the citys
affairs has been the general complaint
and large part of the trouble has
1fa r<da
| the boards have fought for their lives
and will continue 10 do so: and that
is one thing that has made it so diff
cult to get the city new charter.
MAN WHO ESCAPED