Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-07-08
The Legislature and
The CAPITAL Question
~HE wandering knights of the capitalize

FK@HE wandering knights or the capltdi-Te-
moval scheme are now riding an argu-
ment as curious and woboly as Don
Quixote's nag. Asked to show why's TOT tneir
project and failing to find one which Will
mass muster they fall back upon the gro
tesnue contention that regardless of reason
or expediency the Legislature should supnlt
the case to a plebiscite. Would shifting the
capital from Atlanta to Macon oenent inc
State? In no wise Nevertheless, say our
removal friends, the question should be car
ried to an election. Would this whimsical
extravaganza injure the Site? 1t assuredly
would if the w"ste of millions of dollars, the
imposing of needless and burdensome taxes
and the raising of feuds that would rankle
for decades are to be accounted injuries.
Nevertheless cry the removal promoters, the
matter should be taken TO the polls. This
being the Hindenburg line of defense, so to
say to which our innovating neighbors have
retired and being also the very cruX OF the Is
sue upon which the Legislature must pass, 1t
will be we'll to consider the point somewhat
closely. F...
All will agree at the outset, we take it,
that the Legislature is by no means bound to
submit to a popular. vote any and every CON
stitutional amendment which may be pro-
nosed Should some 3olshevik brother whom
political accident might cast upon the House
bring forth bill to repudiate the States
bonded debt or to declare null and void all
chance to move the seat of Bibb county
government from the charming city of Macon
to a frog pond nearer the countys geographic
center-would the General Assembly be bound
to submit these matters to the people! VI
course. the eccentric member WOul protest
that the people had right to pass upon his
proposition and that 1t was gross violence 10
democratic institutions not to permit them
to do so. But there would be no revolution
fancy, when the House or Senate commit
tee quietly disposed of his chimeras and pro-
ceeded to business of real import.
The Legislature is supposed to use its dis
erection to the extent not only of rejecting
foolish dangerous amendments to the Con-
stitution but also to the extent of Icing con-
WINGED, before submitting an amendment that
if passed it would make for the public good
Otherwise. there would be no use or signif1-
canoe to the Constitution: and our system O
government would change from representa-
tive democracy to sort of political whirligig
Even in communities where the referendum
and recall perform many of the functions
which in Georgia are left to the Legislature
a proposal must have some semblance of justi-
fcation and must be backed by substantial
number of pettioning citizens before it can
get to the polls Assuredly, then the Cen
eral Assembly of this State Is not called upon
to submit Constitutions amendment for
which there is no need and in which there is
menace to the public veal On the contrary,
every member of the Louise and Senate is
obligated by his oath of office to vote against
an amendment which he does not believe will
conduce to the States interests and prosper
ity. Some few gentlemen, it seems, have been
under the impression that although they OPP
posed the removal of he capital they should
assent to the proposals going to an election
and then vote against it in their home pre-
cincts. But surely It'll reflection will show
them that in such a course they would ue
giving Legislative Endorsement to PROPOSE
inn in WI haliaV1
be failing in their bounden duty by not voting
at every stage to protect the Commonwealth
against threat of i'll. They owe it to their
constituents, they owe it to their conscience
they owe it to their State to vote their
reasoned convictions on this matter here and
now For right is right from first to last
and wrong is wrong.
This would be true of the mildest Constitu-
tional amendment that might be proposed. It
is emphatically true of one radical as that
which the Legislature now is asked to in
dorse. Even were there no positive perils in
this proposition, its extraordinary character
should subject it to the keenest scrutiny, and
it's very uselessness mould condemn it. To
cut into the States organic law and uproot
the whole system Of its business merely to
satisfy an overweening ambition would be an
excuseless act, though the material conse-
quences were ever so slight.
But the capital-removal amendment is not
only radical and useless it is radical and
dangerous. IL would transplant the seat or
Government from the place where it was es-
tablished for permanency by an overwhelming
vote of the people to point farther removed
from the center of population and less con-
veniently accessible to the State as a whole
70 do this it would leap higher the tax bur-
dens under which the people alread sweat,
and would sink in sheer extravaganza mil
lions of dollars which re needed for schools
highways health and other great public
necessities Furthermore, 1t would destroy
the peace and goodwill in which Georgians
of all counties and regions now work together
for their common prosperity, and would
arouse instead such strife and bitterness as a
generation could not heal.
Far from being in any wise obligated to in
dorse such a bill and pass it on to the people
as if it were sound and safe, the Legislature
owes it to the people to stop this assault
upon their interests without further ado. The
wheedlng cry that the proposal, regardless
its merits should be submitted to popular
vote is nothing but clap-trap. The Genel al
Assembly was elected partly for e purpose
of dispOsing Of just such issues, and as body
truly representative of the people it cannot
fail to safeguard the J,oples welfare 1t has
the responsibility of saying here and now
whether the citizens of Georgia should . ,
taxed millions for foolish whim, whether the
State should be torn -.sunder for an idle am
bftion. Let the members vote sq1arely upon
this issue as reason and justice dictate. and
so save the Commonwealth from needless
and destructive strife.