Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-25
IN HIS FAREWELL MESSAGE, ASSALS LABOR UNO
Legislature Asked Provide State Hiqays

ted. IN munlclpdA courts persons are
deprived Of liberty without the verdict
Of juries. She, therefore. ordains such
court procedure as she deems fitting to
he crime, the local conditions OF the
emergency.
In her law governing the case under
review she did not choose to fix a status.
half fish and half fowl, to adiudicate
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 a free people; they made the
status themselves.
There was no degradation Of their
manhood. That manhood is as upright
and as self-respecting in decreeing the
temporary supremacy of tue military to
stamp out anarchy as 1t is in times
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.
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
supremacy over the hydra Of anarchy.
And, while l hold in high honor the pa
citizens who have deemed the use Of
the military as a menace to the Sc
curity OF our Institutions, yet I must
say firmly that the man at headquar-
tiers, who, the Constitution declares,
shall be a conservator 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
I 0an a n q QOf
its members are not foreigners or hire
lings. They are not the Governors SOL
diers, organized by his order to display
his 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 OPP
Grafton Of your statutes, leave their &C.
equations, sometimes losing their pres
ent income, and submit to inconven-
ready to sacrifice even life itself to
shield. you and to uphold the dignity Of
Part Of Government.
Instead therefore, of being held as
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-
derbolt.
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
15-1S) 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 epltaph which ms
countrymen placed over Leonidas and
the Spartan band who fell at Thermopy-
Lee in defense of their country, viz:
CO. stranger. tell it in lacedamon that
we died in obedience to her laws"
Let ME say, therefore, that Georgla'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 unselfshly
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 twenty.-,year-
old youth. standing in uniform with gun
in hand for the projection 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 militarism in its formal sense,
but he is the ultimate resort of the law.
UNFOLDING the Law.
Inc present law prescribing the man.
ner Of using the militia of the State was
passed unanimously by the Senate and
almost unanimously by the House of
Representatives. Both factions united
more than year. Undoubtedly a pot
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 emery
encies demand. The General Assembly,
therefore, does not have to apologize
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 1t
for law. 1t is for you to say whether
you are going to allow one class, with
less than 30, 900 members, preferential
privileges to the detriment and danger
Of the remainder of the public with IN
wards Of 100000 voters or whether YOU
will enforce your process against all
law breakers alike.
Mobs and Lynchlngs.
IL 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 Iaborers; and whether you viii
allow mobs to force sheriffs and jailers,
Defore the muzzles of guns, to surrender
prisoners IN the States custody, who are
then taken out and unlawfully killed
I is Tor 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
have portrayed
respect when l say: Do not make ii the
Governors duty to enforce a law and
hen condemn him for doing it, ANY
governor, true to his oath, will enforce
L regardless of condemnation And do
not, even by inference, command a mil
ltlaman, sheriff or other agent of the
state. to imperil his life and possibly
lose II, to protect your lives and prom
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 Won
intend shall not be enforced. or which
YOU would allow to be tampered with
mere is no middle ground between law
and anarchy.
The people of Georgia are ieaIous of
their liberties, but they are net eroinar