Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-05-17
OLIVE CRITICIZES
GOVERNOR DORSEY
FOR HIS PAMPHLET
Continued From Page ~

score. as it is to charge that Geor-
gia murder negroes generally now.
THE governor mixes that ,situa-
ton all through his report He
negro butchered eleven other negroes,
the only question in the transaction
being whether the employer told him
to kill them or whether he did it all
by himself. Within thirty days after
the discovery, the employer was un-
der life sentence, and the negro
has not been tried. There is a sharp
division of sentiment as to the guilt
Of the employer, but everybody in
Georgia wants the full measure of
punishment melted out when guilt is
fixed.
The governor suggests various
disgrace and obloquy,' which he Fix
els unto Belgium in the Congo
None of his panaceas are worth the
paper they are written on, in my
opinion. The governor wants what
to both races: The gospel of mercy,
! justice and mutual forbearance for
all Nobody objects; it couldn't
hurt and it might help. I want to
add a few texts: The wages of sin
is DEATH AS We sow so also shall
ye reap Thou shalt not kill Thou
shalt not covet.' The only radical
cure for lynching is a cessation of
rape and murder.
Georgia is eighty per cent rural
| in population. Its principal business
is agriculture. The so-called race
problem is also an agricultural prob
lem. People who have never resided
in rural community in the south
know next to nothing of conditions
planter is right new having the
hardest time he has had in this
generation. His situation is serious.
He has to hire his help by the year.
When he plants and fertilizes his
crop, and furnishes his hands with
the necessaries of life for several
months, he cannot allow things to
stop without financial ruin. He is
obliged to exercise some control over
his labor. He is going to exercise
some control over his labor.
False peonage charges at this
time serve no good purpose. In
stead of throwing the mantle of
martyrdom over outrag eous crimi-
nails, and calumny over white people,
teach the negro that while the peon.
age law will protect him or anybody
else from involuntary servitude. it
was never intended to facilitate the
Breaking of honest contracts; that
when a man makes a contract he
must keep it; that no man can
fraudulantly get another mans goods
and escape obligation to pay. In
stead of hystericaI denunciation. it
is Tar better to urge harmony and
cooperation.
Negro Easily Led
''The negro is not inherently bad,
but he is easily led. The average
negro is happy so long as he is not
hungry. hurting, or in Jail. The idea
conveyed that Georgia is a seething
mass of racial hatred and oppression
is ridiculous. The race problem
proper lives largely in the newspa-
pers. If agitators will not try to
correct evils they know not Of,
believe the race question will solve
itself. But if any more reports are
to be published, real trouble might
| arise. This incomprehensible act of
the governor will cost the farmers
hundreds of thousands, if not mil
lions of dollars. The negro is emo
tional and there is no conception of
from such visionary statements as
those made by the governor.
Let the farmer handle his labor
! this season above all others. With
| the boil weevil and gubernatorial
disquisition descending upon him,
how can he live? The race situation
| is all that could be desired by both
| races-spealling by and lage-but
| there is no telling what will happen
if abnormalities are held up for
morbid gaze. WnlIe the rest OF the
world has been plowed up and turned
under by social evolution and revolu-
| ton, we have pursued the even tenor
! of our way. The south is freer to-
| day from isms than any other part
| Of the world. Despite the hard times
1 believe our people are the most
| contented. Let us stay that way.
Governor Dorsey has beyond the
| shadow of a doubt made an awful mis-
take He should correct it at once or
specify his definite facts so that
! Georgia may have opportunity to dis
| prove them.
SAN L. OLIVE.
"PraSident of the Senate of Georgia u