The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1916-03-30
OPEN LETTER TO GOV. HARRIS

that you and DR.. Hardman are OPP
posed to illiteracy in Georgia. Ger
tainly all patriotic men and women
will shake hands with you and the
doctor on this issue. 1t is not so
gratifying, however, for the voters
of Georgia to understand from your
published interviews and speeches
that neither DR.. Hardman or yourself
has offered any remedy for the evil
of illiteracy.
For several years | have given
this question no little consideration
and study and my observations and
Investigations have convinced me
that thousands of white children do
not attend school because their pa
rents are too poor to buy books for
them.
When General Toombs framed the
Constitution of 1877 he foresawa the
dangers of illiteracy; he knew that
Northern fanatics who had more
money than brains would establish
schools for the young Africans" in
the South; and in order to meet this
situation he wrote into our Constitu-
ton provision whereby every white
child in Georgia would have an OPP
portunity to become trained in the
elementary branches of an English
education"
1t was intended by that pEoFision
to include free books as we'll as the
school house and the teacher.
For more than a generation the
white children of Georgia have been
denied their constitutional rights,
and thousands of white children are
not in school today because their
parents are too poor to pay the eX-
tortionate prices demanded for books
by the Yankee school book trust.
AS Georgia lawyer, you remem-
Der the time when you paid 81 for
you Georgia Supreme Court reports.
The Legislature provided in 1873,
one year after the adoption of the
present Constitution, that the law
yers should have their books pub
lished by the State and sold at the
actual cost of publication. But they
did not protect the school children
in like manner. After that Act,
Georgia reports cost but $3.50 per
volume.
When bill is introduced in the
General Assembly the purpose of
which is to do for the school children
what the State has done for lawyers,
we find the book trust bowling
through it's agents of the Ed Nc
Michael and M. L. Britain type
I have figures to prove that on
First Readers alone the school chill
dren are robbed to the extent OF
$35, 111.92; on Primers alone they
are robbed of more than $4,000.
could illustrate this robbery through
the entire list of books, but the two
named will answer my purpose, which
is to show that by furnishing books
to the children at cost Of publication
thousands now out of school would
be attending school and illiteracy
would be decreased.
The purpose of this open letter to
you as Governor of our State, and
candidate for reelection, is to ask
if you will in the event of your re-
nomination recommend in your next
message to the General Assembly the
enactment of law whereby the State
will be AUTHORIZE to publish school
books and sell them at cost of pub
lication.
1t is easy for any candidate to
declare his opposition to illiteracy
and it is also easy for him to declare
himself opposed to the crimes that
lead to lynching," but why is it that
you stubbornly avoid any positive
position whereby a remedy for the
disease can be applied?