The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1921-10-14
ETardwick Makes
Interesting Address
AT WrightsviIle.

State OF Georgia is one Of the rich
est and fairest domains God ever
gave to man. declared Governor
Thomas w. Hardwick in a speech
he delivered 10 a record breaking
crowd here at the johnson County
Fair 1T has within its limits an
unsurpassed variety Of soil and
climate. The agricultural experts
tell MS that there are twenty.siX
elemental soils in the United States:
Of these twentY-six Georgia has
twenty-three within her borders,
her closest rival, in this respect,
being California with nineteen.
"The mountains Of our state
TEEN with mineral wealth, as yet
largely undeveloped. Her fields
groan the rich largess Of a generous
and bounteous nature. Every year
they whiten with a ricner fabric
tLan the tabled fleece that Jason
sought. The richest and most lus-
cious fruits spring almost spontane-
ously from her soil until she is
famed, far and wide, as the Peach
State" and the Watermelon State
The boil weeYil, in his destructive
march across Georgia, has under
mined and almost overthrown King
Cotton but in his stead his Majesty,
the Hog, and her Majesty the Cow
have come into power, and with
our splendid facilities for pasturing
and with our halmly climate that
permits our cattle to Craze all the
wear round we are now challenging,
and will soon destroy the supremacy
Of other sections Of the republic,
less favored by nature, in the cattle
raising business, and in all Of It's
branches.
"God was good to US when he
gave us Georgia, the land that IS
flowing with milk and honey, and
surely we may say, with the Proph-
ct Of oil, "Now are lines cast IN
pleasant places" ! know pracli
cally every foot Of Georgia's soil,
and love its every inch, from tow
ering mountains that pierce her
towering mountains that pierce her
crystal skies to her rolling plains
that stretch in richness and beauty
from river back to river; from her
red old hills, ribbed with eyerylas-
ting granite, 10 her shining coast
line, where the roses never Wlther
and the flowers never cease to
bloom. Yes, l know and love
every inch Of her sod, beautifed by
nature and glori6ed by history, rich
with the teeming products OF an
uarivaled soil, and richer still with
the heroic blood shed upon it by
the fathers who died that you. and
| might be free.
The governor also paid a high
tribute to the people Of Georgia,
refuting imputations Of their alleg-
ed mistreatment of negroes, which
he termed vicious propaganda to
shame and discredit Georgia through
out the county,. He asserted
"that in no land, in all history,
have two wholly separate and dis
tinct races ever lived side by side,
in almost equal numbers, with les;
trouble and less friction, in more
harmonious and peaceful relations
than the white and black races II
Georgia anil the ether Southern
States at the present time" liz
also asserted that the people o
Georgia have never denied or sough
to deny, to any person in the STATE
freedom OF religion.
Governor Hardwick reviewed il
detail the fiscal affairs OF the State
He showed that when lie was inau
gurated governor last June the Stat
treasury was actually facing q defici
Of Approximately two and one lia!
millions of dollars. He then show
ed that in order to preserve th
credit of the state that provision
was made for the discount OF til
rental of the Western and Atlanil
railroad for a period Of five years