Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-10-09

Blakely. the well-known educator, has
announced himself a candidate for
State School Commissioner, to sue
coed the present commissioner, M. l.
Britain.
Professor Bowden will have but one
big and insistent plank in his plat
form-State school books, written by
Georgians, printed by the State, to
be furnished the children at cost.
The professor proposes TO go
straight to the people with this issue.
and says he will stump Georgia from
one end to the other-and they do
say he is some stump speaker, more
over.
This issue of State school books
printed by the State was quite a
lively topic in the Legislature at its
summer session, and it seems that the
matter is to be fought to finish be-
tween this time and the primaries
next fall
In his official platform, Professor
bO"ueu says GcSAsid was lllS la -
State in the Union to establish a
State University. A Georgia institu-
ton was the first in the world to
confer upon a woman a college de-
/ gree. Then why should not Georgia
be a friend to her educational serv-
ants and create a market for her
school book writer's by publishing and
adopting school books written by
Georgians?
THE patronage and law of the
State should be jealous Of any COM
petition that would discount in the
least the ability of her educators.
Instead of importing school books
Georgia educators should be encour-
aged by the patronage of her own in
situations to export them.
The next Legislature should pass
a law abrogating all school book con-
tracts where Georgia authors were
not given a preference, and establish
a protected opportunity for her own
educational servants"
No doubt Professor Bowden will
be able to stir up considerable inter-
est through this platform, even If he
does not get elected thereon.
And, anyway. next year bids fair
to be a lively one in politics. and
one can not predict nowadays what
may happen.
The disposition of the Western and
Atlantic Railroad is sure to be one
of the very liveliest topics of discus
sion for the next few months, not only
among statesmen, real and near, but
among business men and taxpayers
generally.
There is a very great and emphatic
diversity of opinion throughout
Georgia with respect to the State
road. Some think it should be re-
leased upon the most advantageous
terms possible; others that it should
be sold outright, and still others that
II should be extended to the Atlantic
Ocean, and possibly operated by the
State itself.
There is no dispute that the road is
the States biggest and most available
asset. In the matter of disposing OF
1t for a new term of years, therefore,
there is bound to arise sharp differ
ences of opinion. and a solution will
not be found without difficulty.
One of the great dangers in the
way of a businesslike disposition of
the road, perhaps, will be the politics
that inevitably will get into the nego-
tiations. There will be subtle jockey
ing for position, to begin whit al
ready has begun-and there will be
strenuous striving eventually to make
capital of the thing before it is fin
ished.
In the past, two schools of political
thought in Georgia have squabbled
over the Western and Atlantic road
interminably-and under the cover
that row still is very much alive!
Any person who doubts that state