Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1914-07-16

John NJ. Slaton tonight accepted the
challenge made him on the score OF
the tax equalization act. Though his
speech was non-political, being before
the Georgia Weekly Press Association.
he made it clear that he has not reced-
ed an iota in his advocacy of tax re-
form and will stand to the last ditch
by the bill he caused to be enacted
last year.
While admitting that the law may
and will be improved, he declared that
it would not be repealed. Answerin g
the charges of those who have CRITICS.
ed the law he gave assurance that the
extra money raised will not be wasted
and promised that the expenditures of
the State government will be less in
1914 than they were in 1913, and that
if increase of revenue came up to ex-
pectations there would be a reduction
of the tax rate this year.
| Governor Slaton spoke to the ed
! itors on "The Empire State" He said:
Gentlemen Of The Weekly Press:
The basis of all patriotism is the
love Of some place, some locality. The
scenes of childhood, the associations
which bring to mind the tender recol-
lections of home and fire-side and give
joy in the twilight of life when all IS
memory-these are the forces which
make the patriot. l have never for
gotten the warm afternoon in Septen,-
| Der when our Professor of Bellies Let
tres at the University was about to
/ lecture and he said with calm, sweet
accent: Mr.. Slaton please hoist the
window" knew him to be graduate
of the University of Virginia and of
more famous Heidelberg. His homeiy
language puzzled me.
A few days later, he spoke to US of
words" In the course of his address
he said: Young gentlemen, you will
often find that l depart from the form
and pronunciation of the dictionaries.
Words present to my mind images, and
when l hear them uttered as they are
in the valley of Virginia, l think of nv
+ father and my people and my child
hood and of that civilization which |
believe was the most glorious the
world ever saw" The word may have
been provincial-the pronunciation
uncouth, but the heart from which it
come would have given it's last drop
for Old Virginia, and its possessor
would never have bothered a thought
or committed an act unworthy of his
mother States Ioftiest ideals.
In this spirit do l respond to the
subject: THE Empire State of the
South" To me there is but one such
State Born within her borders,
brought up amidst her fields of cotton
and waving grain, educated in her
schools, bound by every tie of affec-
ton to her people, I love her and find
virtue even in Ger faults.
AS Governor of your State, speaking
for her nearly three million people,
proclaim her the richest in citizenship
and the most splendid in natural re-
sources which the sun shines upon.
In the words of a former Federal
Commissioner of Agriculture Georgia
is the one State which, though cut off
from the rest of the world by an in .
vincible Chinese Wall, could and would
prosper in comfort.
All that is needed for creature
comfort, most that is desirable in
the way Of luxuries, can and does come
from our mines, forests, fields and
streams. Of coal and iron, our State
Geologist says, we have enough. slowed
in our hills to supply our needs for
perhaps a million years. For a. cen
tury our cotton has furnished employ
ment to hordes of Britain and protect
IL. n1y ne u,