Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-06

The failure of the National House
of Representatives to provide for
standing committee on woman suf-
frage is largely credited to the sin
cere hostility of Representative
Hardwick, Of Georgia, to such an in
novation.
The proposal, it seems, first went to
the Committee on Rules, of which Mr..
Hardwick is an influential member,
and that committee divided evenly on
favorable recommendation. but
without the vote of the gentleman
from Georgia Mr. Hardwick cast his
vote before a rule WAS reported, how
ever. and he voted against the crea-
ton of the rev committee, thus
| making it a practical certainty that
the issue on the floor of the House
could not be favorable to those advo-
eating the proposed new committee.
Mr.. Hardwick has deep seated con-
victions against woman suffrage, and
no doubt his misgivings as to the
merits Of the same are shared by
many of his constituents; at the same
| time there are, in Augusta, which is
| in Mr. Hardwick's district. as well as
elsewhere in Georgia. a large number
of persons who do believe. quite as
ardently as Mr.. Eardwick disbelieves,
| III that very thing.
Curiously enough, too, in the mat
| ter of woman suffrage, Mr.. HardWlck
| and his Nemesis, the sage o Thomp-
| son-otherwise known as Thomas f..
Watson-are in complete accord. Mr..
Watson has no patience whatever
| with the votes for women idea.
1t isn't often that Hardwick and
Watson get together on anything, but
| that they are ogether in this particu-
lar regard shows conclusively that
| they CAN get together, anyway!
The question of woman suffrage
never has become an acute issue in
Georgia, and the interest displayed in
| it thus far is scattering. and, for the
| most part, passive. At the same time
| it is a fact that the question is COM
| ing more and more into the public
eye every day, and those who observe
| political events closest in the state
are free in their predictions that 1t
will become an issue to be reckoned
| with sincerely before many more
years have passed, just as it has be-
come an issue-and a victorious ls-
| sue, too-in very many States in
other parts of the Union.
|
| a growing tendency in Georgia to OPP
pose capital punishment and the OBJ
| servations Of the Columbus paper are
noted with a measure of cautious APP
prevail by The Augusta Chronicle
The Enquirer Sun, in a recent is
sue, said:
Quite a good deal of discus
sion is INDUCED in these DAYS
concerning the adjustment Of
capital punishment. Sentiment
| in favor of doing so appears to
be growing. Many who formerly
believed that it should be infiict-
ed upon persons guilty of certain
! crimes, now take a different view.
| They doubt whether or not men
have a right to make a law that
| deprives man of bis life.
| A recent hanging in Gaines
| vile furnishes an illustration Of
the morbid curiosity of human
| beings There was n man who
| had been condemned to death. A
| thousand people left their daily
tasks and went to the scene in
order to witness the grewsome
spectacle of a mans life being
taken. The inference is that they
| took pleasure in seeing this man
| die, else they would not have
| been present.
| Noting this, The Augusta Chronicle
| comments after this fashion:
| In Augusta when. in court the
| business of selecting jury to
try a capital case is entered
| upon. numbers of men "go off,
| for the reason that they are con
| scientiously opposed to capital
| punishment. And it is fact that
the number so declining to serve
| on such cases is increasing each
! year.
| All of which shows that the senti-
ment against capital punishment, for
one reason and another, is spreading
| In Georgia, healthily and surely!
! Judge Pavton 8. Wade, named to
succeed Judge Robert Pottle on the
| bench of the State Court of Appeals,
L