Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-04-02
The True Enb;re of GEORGIA

I is the interesting computation of the
Boston Transcript that if there were as
many people to each square mile
throughout the Union as there are in .Iassa-
chusetts, there would be in the continental
United States one billion four hundred and
tWenty-three million two hundred and forty
two thous nd two hundred and nine inhabi-
tants, which number is not far short OIL the
present population of the entire planet.
similar reckoning will give an idea of
Georgias sp..ciousness and indicate some
thing of her immense possibilities of develop
ment.' Massachusetts, with an area of 5000
square miles, has 3,S52,356 people, or ap-
proximately 10 to the square mile Georgia.
with an area of 5S,725, has 2,S94,6S3 people,
or about 40 to the square mile Thus Geor-
ga, if her density of population were the
same as Massachusetts, would lumber twen-
ty-seve million nine hundred and thirteen
thousand seven hundred and twenty-five in
habitants.
Whether toe United States could comfort
ably support, out of her own "eso rces,
population lmost as great as that of the
whole world today might be questioned by
the more conservative economists, but there
can be no manner of doubt that Georgia, if
her potentialities in agriculture and industry
were turned duly to account, could support
twenty-eight million people without stint or
difficulty. If Massachusetts, can maintain
four hundred and seventy-nine to the square
mile cannot Georgia, with natural treasure
inccmparably richer, do as we'll or better?
Certainly she cannot unless her resources
of soil and stream and forest and mine and,
above all, of human skill and character are
utilized. She cannot develop and prosper
q nj opjan f1Jrn
with unscientific and unbusinesslike methods
of farming, nGr with lack of facilities for
marketing the fruits of her fields. She can
not attain her due m asure of indu trial
growth if the. vaster part of her water-power
goes to waste or is in the grip of monopoly
bent upon private gain rather than public
service. She cannot give her 'hildren the
power to create and conserve wealth and to
translate it into forces for human good, with
out schools and colleges and universities. To
the extent that Georgia has looked to these
fundamental interests in the ltst, she has
gone prosperously forward 20 the extent that
she has neglected them she iagge.. Her
future upbuilding depends almost entirely
upon the extent to which she cultivates them.
Suppose this wondrously endowed Common
wealth had, not twenty-eight million, but
half that number of nhabitants-fourteen
million Industrious, educated, thriving people.
What an increase there would be in funds
for the construction of highways, the promo
ton of schools the drainage of wet lands and
marshes, the development of rivers, the
scientific study of the practical problems of
agriculture and manufacturing, the conserva-
ton of health and all human a,ues. the
richment and lifting UP of life! Tax rates
could be eat il half and eventually reduced to
1.-THE, or less, Of what they are, and
still give the public treasury ample means for
all such improvements and enterprises.
This is obviously true when We consider the
wealth-producing power of single we'll
stored, well-trained mind One chemist may
add millions of dollars to the value of cotton
by one discovery; indeed this has beer actual
~ done time and again. One thinker may
alter the whole drift of current opinion and
so solve problems which elsewise would w"x
dangerous or overwhelming. One sucu insti-
tuition as the Georgia Tech Emory or
Agnes Scott or Oglethorpe will add incalcula-
bly, to the co mon fund of progress and ha0-
piness. if only given an endowment equal to
its needs. Nature has made Georgia en-
pire in things material; education will make
her an empire OF human richness and power.