Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-04-06
cost PRICE Of
GOvERNORSH|P!
UP To 100000
candidate Must Be Compare
lively Rich to Reach Georgia's
Executive Mansion.

Startling but true the time has
come when none but a comparatively
rich man can be elected governor Of
Georgia.
why? Because the expenses Of
making the race are so great that a
Big bank account must be accumu-
lated and prepared for the spending
& before an aspirant for the highest
honors the state can bestow can be-
gin his campaign.
Thirty thousand dollars is a faiI
estimate of the modern cost of at
taining the chair of governor of Geor-
gia.
The reason behind it is that poll
tics no longer is a matter of personal
popularity, since the arrival of the
direct primary, but business-and
as intensely a business proposition.
to be successful. as any of the Dig
commercial enterprises of the modern
marvellous, commercial age.
The salary of the governor of Geor-
zia is only $4,000 per year. In his
FERN of two years he draws $4,000.
This, with an expense of 100000 in
reaching the office, he leaves it with
a deficit of $4,000, which represents
the actual cash price he pays for
the honor.
Politics a Business.
politics isn't a gift these days
ifs a business" is the way one of
the shrewdest, oldtime Georgia poll
flcians, who has been Identified with
avery campaign for the last thirty
wears, expressed II.
in Georgia, there is only one party.
The whole race is for the nomination.
The man who seeks a nomination is
an individual, asking for votes upon
personal grounds He has no party
whose duty II is to foot his bills. He
must pay his own way unless inter
asts' back him up, and there is a Sus-
plcion against the adopted child Of
more
at costs $4,000 for postage and Of
fice work to send a circular to every
Registered voter on the state list, and
Mats one of the first steps. There's
the first years salary gone, | might
mention in passing.
Legitimate publicity for three
months viii cost from $1,000 to $40. 600
more. That covers advertising. pub
more.
"Then, you must pay about $4,000
fOr speakers to make tours for you.
Printing circulars will cost you $4,000
Nuore II the campaign is hot ones
by, the letterheads and envelopes
one set of letters will cost close
$1,000. And ON top of those items
4 an expensive Office force for several
.onths, your own travelling expenses.
Hundreds upon hundreds in donations
10 the organization and all that, IN
III the $4,000 / fixed is a moderate
estimate.
Like Selling Goods.
AS | said before, politics is bust
hess. A candidate must organize a
force and plan his campaign like "a
company selling goods. There must
be a personal, direct, individual APP
peal to every voter in the state. This
means a letter addressed to him at
bis home. a letter as nearly personal
In style and appearance as possible.
n he does not reply with a promise
of his vote there must be another
letter and perhaps a third. There
must be card indexes and maps,
checking systems and follow up let
ters. and so forth without end.
mo, the good old days are gone
when some Boy Orator of the Back
woods could leave school, read law
by his tallow dip, win a criminal
case. make a few speeches and go to
the legislature and then break into
the governors chair by a brilliant
burst Of oratory The first thing he
must do nowadays if he wants to be
Governor is to accumulate a good fat
bank balance. And if he has sense
enough to do that he probably has
gained too much wisdom to want to
be governor by the time he can afford
to run"