Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-03-13
MAYOR CALLS CITIzENS'
MASS NEE TING |NPR0TEST
ON POLITICIANS CHARTER
Urges Atlantans to Stand Emphatically
Against Actions of Oficeholders at
Auditorium on March 2O--Declares
People Have Lost Control.

Mayor Woodward today issued
anging call to the people of Atlanta 4
attend a great mass meeting in tn
Auditorium on Thursday evening
March 20, to express their views on tn
necessity Of charter revision Here i
the call;
Fellow Citizens:
II was plainly brought out last
fall. to a degree at least, the condi-
tons Of the city government and
the way 1t was being handled.
During that campaign I very
plainly placed before the people the
necessity of a more comprehensive
form OF carrying on the city's bust
ness; that under the present sys-
tenn of petty politics and ring rule,
there was too much lost motion,
ineficiency, incompetenCy and
waste: that the peoples tax money
and bond money was being eX-
pended without them securing a
dollars worth of benefit for a dol
lars worth of supposed improve
ments.
Repeats Campaign Pledge.
It was plainly put to them that
they should demand a better form
Of government in order that they
might place responsibility and find
out where the different leaks were
located. promised the people that
# l were elected would bend every
energy possible to see that they re-
receive better charter conditions
by which they would know more of
the business transactions of the
city and could hold some one re-
sponsible for the defects.
When l entered office I expected
10 find matters in a pretty bad
shape, but had no idea that con-
ditions were really as bad as they
are. have only been in the may
or's office a little more than two
months, but it is long enough TO
disclose many important things. /
find that many illegal contracts
have been made without any war
rant OF law, to the extent of several
hundred thousand dollars; that 1t
was easier to get one Of this class
Of contracts for some one in the
future to pay. passed up by the
general council, than it was to get
a hole patched in the street.
Raps City Pavements.
I also find that sewers we're laid
on streets without water, and water
mains without sewers; that most of
your streets are unpaved, and
where paved at all, badly paved;
that your school houses are badly
constructed and that rain seeps
through. and the plastering has
fallen even before they are occu-
pied; that there is continuously
complaint about the heating condi-
tons of some of the schools; that
they are practically little less than
ovens in the summer time and
storage plants in the winter.
Further, 1 find that valuable
property of the city has been de-
stroyed without reason; that al
most universally improvident con-
tracts are made for public improve
ment that are ridiculously excessive
when the price of work is taken
into consideration; that almost
endless extensions are granted
greedy contractors without refer
ence to the contract, reason or pub
lie welfare; that many of the main
thoroughfares are torn up and left
Ga a 4 +1
limits, or the enforcement of
any penalty, leaving helpless adult
ing property owners with only the
Intangible hope that they may be
completed in the distant future.
Sees Waste of Money.
In addition, bond money has been
wasted in building sewers that will
not take care of the drainage and
sewage; that the laws of the city
are largely ignored when 1t comes
to buying supplies and equipment
Tor the different departments; that
the system of permanent improve
ments that you had reason to be-
ueve would be produced by your
bond money has not materialized,
therefore naturally entailing a
large waste of both your bond
money and your tax money. and
Tor all of these ills, when you try
10 make investigation, you find no
Where to place responsibility.
have attempted to carry out my
pledges to the people of Atlanta in
securing for them changes in her
CHARTER that would bring about a
more competent handling of the
eltys affairs. The only true solu-
Ton of this question is, to my
mind, the adoption of a charter
mat will completely abolish the en-
TIRE city council and city boards
and cast adrift the petty. hungry,
incompetent politicians who mis-
manage your affairs. The charter
prepared by the citizens committee
OF 20 was drawn in your interest
alone. 1t is a good charter and will
give you a modern. effective
Falue-returning municipal govern
ment, vesting in you the final
dominant control of your agents
and affairs.
Urges immediate Action.
II seems evident that the general