Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-02-21

| endorsement
I HI Observer GOGN e W
| significantly says: 0A
The teachers of Colquitt county
! are paid, as they are in Lowndes,
/ when they complete their work. The
county school board borrows the
| money needed when there is any
| considerable sum due, and the in
| terest is paid by the board out of
| the expense fund.
AS a matter of fact, 1t has been
our private opinion for many years
that the cry about the poor teach
| ers waiting for their pay and mon
| ey sharks getting big discounts on
scrip with which they are paid was
largely political clap-t trap.
The relatively satisfactory situations
that exist in Lowndes and Colquitt
exist likewise in many other counties
| In Franklin, for instance, in the other
end of the state-but the same condi-
lions co not exist in a very large num-
Der of the counties. Certainly not In
half
The Dawson News, one Of the ablest
weeklies published in the state, finds
conditions satisfactory In Terrell coun-
ty, too, but says
Many county school boards, by
extravagant expenditures and &C
cumulation of debts greater than
their incomes, are largely RESPONSE
BILE for the fact that they do not
have the money with which to meet
their obligations when they become
due.
In numerous instances, their pro
rata part of the state school fund
has been spent before the taxes
were even levied.
The real truth Of the alleged deplora
BILE methods employed by the state IN
paving the common school teachers lies
perhaps. about midway between those
who contend that the payments are
made as satisfactorily as could be eX-
pected and those who contend that they
are made in an outrageously unsatis-
! factory manner
In other words, while the state might
do worse, it should and could do bet
| ter.
Those county boards that finance the
| teachers. after their services are rem
dered, and in advance Of the states
payments, unquestionably render the
state and the teachers fine service
but they do it by discounting the funds
due them by the state-which is dl-
rect. and unnecessary. tax upon the
county
The cry that the teachers suffer I'M
told hardships by reason Of the states
slowness in paying them doubtless is
exaggerated, but that exaggeration still
does not relieve the state of all fault.
The legislature will be asked mex
| summer to arrange the payments to thu
| teachers, via the county boards, in sucf
wise that neither the teachers nor any
of the counties will be hurt.
That. so many think, is the consum-
nation most devoutly to be wished.
Being insurance commissioner o.
| Georgia has It's drawbacks, and Gen
eral William A. Wright is finding tina
| out, all right enough!
! Under the new law, every agent So
liciting insurance in this state, whether
life. fire, accident, plate glass, boiler
or what not, is required to have GER
tificate from headquarters in the capt.
toll. to the effect that he is man OF
| good moral character. and entitled t
the respect of the insurance purchasing
public
The department is preparing to senc
out these certificates now, and there
are approximately $4,000 Of them
EVERY one of which must be signed by
the state insurance commissioner!
General Wright has figured that he
can not sign more than ten minute
perhaps less-and that 1t will take, al
that speed, over % hours to sign then
| all.
He thinks he viii have seven OF
eleven different varieties Of writer's
cramp by the time he gets that buncf
of certificates signed and ready for de-
Iivery--if ever he does
| The governor sits as a Court-or sor'
of court, anyWay--more frequently thar
the average Georgian thinks perhaps.
Hardly a week passes that he is moi
called upon to hear arguments and de-