Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-25
VERNON, IN HIS FAREWELL MESSAGE, ASSALS LABOR UNIONS
Legislature Asked Provide Highways Commission

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deprived of liberty without the verdict
of 1uries. She, therefore, ordains such
court procedure as she deems fitting to
he crime, the local conditions or the
emergency.
7 In her law governing the case under
! review she did not choose to TX a status,
half fish and half fowl, to adjudicate
! in civil court acts done under mill
! tary government which the civil author
tiles had requested to supersede their
own. Here was no usurpation Of the
rights of free people; they made the
status themselves.
There was no degradation of their
ranhood. That manhood IS as upright
and as self-respecting in decreeing the
temporary supremacy of tne military to
stamp out anarchy as II is in times
Of peace when the civil process is
properly the only authority. The sup
preston of anarchy is the right and duty
Of a free, law-loving people, and there
come times when they must shoot it
to death just as they shoot down for
, Enemies of Law.
J And no specious pleas by enemies OF
law and no theoretical treatises by
alarmed sentimentalists should weigh
against the logical process which law, in
times of peril, must take to insure its
And, while l hold in high honor the pa
triotic devotion of some of our best
citizens who have deemed the use Of
curity of our institutions, yet I must
say firmly that the man at headquar-
tiers, who, the Constitution declares,
shall be CONSERVATION Of the peace
throughout the State, and the man on
the scene Of danger, are better fitted to
judge whether the soldiery Is needed to
protect life and property, as Is provided
by the Constitution and the statutes,
than can be any people living many miles
from the zone Of peril.
Now, as to the personnel of the mill
tia, call your attention to the fact that
its members are not foreigners or hire
lings. They are not the Governors sol
4 nf,Nrya ~ lie s,v-1a 70
bis power; they are your soldiers by the
mandate of your Constitution, organized
to protect your homes, your lives your
civilization They are your own flesh
and blood, your sons or brothers, who,
thrusting not themselves into the arena
Of danger, but called thither by the op-
Grafton Of your statutes, leave their oc-
equations, sometimes losing their pres
emit income, and submit to inconven-
fence, endure -privations, and stand
ready to sacrifice even life itself to
shield you and to uphold the dignity OF
49, Part Of Government
Instead therefore, Of being held as
a thing apart, the Constitution makes
them an integral factor of your gov
eminent; instead of being an excres-
cence, they are your strong arm never
to be eXerted save when your other ele-
ments of strength are inadequate or
helpless; then, with the force Of thun-
And in their patriotic Willingness to
lay down even life itself to protect
you and your laws, they embody the
: words Of our Divine Lord: Greater
love hath no man than this, that man
lay down his life for his friend" (John
1919 And should any of them lose
lives in the service for which your very
Constitution has ordained their organi-
cation, they merit the paraphrase Of the
simple, yet sublime, epitaph which his
countrymen placed over Leonidas and
the Spartan band who fell at Thermopy-
lse in defense of their country, viz:
60, stranger. tell 1t IN laced9mon that
we died in obedience to her laws"
Let me say, therefore. that GeOrgia's
name should be the synonym of good
faith; that when she guarantees i'm
partial and complete protection she
must make her guarantee good; that
the uniform of a soldier who unselhshly
leaves home comforts and hazards his
life for the protection Of the laws of the
state and the lives Of her people is a
badge OF honor. And a twenty-year-
old youth standing in uniform with gun
in hand for the protection of the law,
Is more to be honOred than are 10000
men who directly or indirectly lift
hands for anarchy. class preference, or
class tyranny, for that youth repre-
sents not mlitarism in its formal sense
but he is the ultimate resort of the law
UNFOLDING the Law.
The present law prescribing the man
ner OF using the militia of the State was
4 passed unanimously. by the Senate and
almost unanimously by the House of
Representatives. Both factions united
in enacting it after considering it for
ent factor in securing the enactment of
the law was the knowledge that, while
many good people are moving into
Georgia, yet there are also elements with
practices and views widely at variance
with these adhered to by our native
population.
Consequently we must assume that it
is the judgment of a vast majority of
the people of Georgia that the military
must be used as military when emerg-
encies demand. The General Assembly,
therefore. does not have to anolOp1Za
for making this law; and the Gov
ernor does not have to apologize for
| ordering its enforcement And the
militia does not have to apologize for
obeying the order the Governor trans
mitted to it. Each performed a high
duty which the people for their protec-
ton had ordained
Some Of the happenings in Georgia
during the present year have trended
inevitably toward bringing your Consti-
tuition into contempt 1t is for you,
therefore, to say whether you are going
to surrender this State to anarchy or
whether you are going to preserve It
for law. 1t is for you to say whether
you are going to allow one class, with
less than 10000 members preferential
privileges to the detriment and danger
of the remainder OF the public with up
wards of $4,000 voters or whether YOU
! VIII enforce your process against all
| law breakers alike.
Mobs and Lynchlngs.
1t is for you to say whether you will
allow barns to be burned, residences dy-
namited and people driven from their
| homes, thus destroying property valua-
! tons and depriving certain counties of
needed laborers; and whether you will
allow mobs to force sheriffs and jailers,
! before the muzzles of guns, to surrender
| prisoners in the States custody, who are
! then taken out and unlawfully killed
| I IS for you to say whether you will
| allow the statutes you enact to be made
a mockery or whether all men in all
classes shall obey them in the same
manner. You have the power to enact
| laws which will control every situation
| l have portrayed.
Yet, l am in the line of duty and self
| respect when l say: Do not make It the
| Governors duty to enforce a law and
hen condemn him for doing It, Any
! Governor, true TO his OATH will enforce
| It regardless of condemnation And do
not, even by inference, command a mil
| itiaman, sheriff or other agent of the
/ state to imperil his life and possibly
! lose 1t, to protect your lives and prop
erty and uphold the dignity of your
! Constitution, and then fire into his back
/ from the State House whence his orders
| came. Do not enact laws which YOU
| intend shall not be enforced or which
you would allow to be tempered with.
mere is no middle ground between law
and anarchy.
The people of Georgia are Jealous of
/ their liberties, but they are net going
I r. -