Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-25
What's the Matter With Our
Legislatures?

!
that they are going to put an end
to the wasteful extravaganza of
former legislatures-they will re-
duce the big salaries of state Off
GERS and they will lower taXes-and
they will promote economy with
good government. Not a mothers
son of them would be elected or re-
elected if they did not pledge them
selves to do those very things year
| after year.
But the Atlanta atmosphere seems
to bring on some sort of political
malaria that makes them weak on
their pledges and they are easily led
astray by designing politicians
who boss them. q
1t is as plain as the nose on ones
face that they are not the same peo-
pie in Atlanta that they promised to
be when elected in their own baili-
Wicks.
I would hesitate to- say they were
paid in bribes-or that they traded
votes in defiance of common fair
dealing with the people at home, but
it is an obvious fact that they do
not vote down big salaries they do
not curb extravaganza; they do vote
for bloated appropriations, and they
do nothing to relieve the tax bur-
dens thus affixed, and thus perpet-
uated on the people at home.
1t goes without saying the people
at home are more than tired-they
are Disguised. There seems to be a
few men in the senate and a few
more in the house, who can say
Thumbs up" and nothing doing"
When they say "Simon says thumbs
up they flop like catfish in muddy
Water-in ready obedience.
1t is very serious outlook for the
plain people in the state Of Geor-
gia. 1t means revolution or it
means serfdom. Either one will
mean fatal damage to business and
a setback for fifty years to real
prosperity.
The people Of big business, of big
landed estates, or with big incomes
from salaries, are well pleased with
| the workings Of the present tax
equalization law, which leaves cut
their invisible property or saIaried
incomes and puts an iron hand on
the, small land owners, the little
merchants and the small enter
prises.
In my own county there are large
tracts Of land kept in virgin timber,
growing more valuable every year,
and these lands pay only a trif1e Of
tax on the wild land digest, while
little farms are taxed with higher
values than they would bring at
public outcry under the sheriff's
hammer. For instance, I own a lot
of land near Gainesville, forty
acres, and 1 returned it at SIS per
acre. The same lot, same number,
same section, was also assessed to
an estate as wild land. I was order.
ed to pay tax assessment of $40
per acre and the other party paid
on ten cents per acre.
We were. paying three equalizers
Sc per day, allowing them taxicabs
to go out and see what they were
doing Zone county commissioner tells
me they spent, in 1921. $400 in au-
tomobile hire to look at the lands
they were raising in taxes), and the
plain facts are shcUn that they did
assess the identical same lot of land
to two persons with the tyranical
display of pernicious favoritism.
The wild land digest shows that
the aforesaid estate only paid $50
on 300 acres Of land, while my I'M
cleared and uncultivated land was
hoisted to $40 per acre, and I was
thus raised and thus injured and in
suited by three Indifferent men in
my county who were picked out as
assessors by county commissioners
to protect the Dig interests and
coerce the helpless widows of the
county. Did the senators regard
any prediction promises and
pledges who voted last week to pro-
tect the pernicious equalization bill
some of them said to own very
many thousands Of such acres?
I know of two adjoining farms
on the EtoWah River in my coun-
ty-one owned by a big farmer,
former state commissioner Of agricul-
ture-and a trustee of some agri-
cultural school, under the chaperon-
age of the University of Georgia. He
owns $40 acreS-asseSsed for years
at the low rate of $3.50 per acre.
Alongside this fine Etowah River
plantation lies the small farm of a
WidoW-Who inherited it from her
grandparents IT'S acres-assessed
by these men, called equalizers, at
81, 000-nearly $23 per acre.-640
acres at $4,000 to the politician! 175
acres at $4,000 to the widow!
Go to the digest in the state capitol
and see for yourself. I took the
liberty to lay this case before Tax
Commissioner Fullbright last Deem
Der, along with dozens of similar dis
equalization figures.
But the "big bugs" like it the way
it now stands. And the weakened
legislators follow their lead. There
are 500 tax gatherers in Georgia,
lectors. Count up what it costs to
utilize this expensive political ma
chine, add Commissioner Full
bright's salary and establishment,
and you can see what it meant to
defeat the repeal of this tax equali-
zation law in the senate. In 1913
Hon. Thomas w. Hardwick beat
Gov. Jack Slaton for q. S. Senate
on this identical issue in Georgia.
In 1920 Hon. Thomas E. Watson
and Governor Hardwick were over
whelmingly elected on this identical
repeal issue. Our legislators prom
Used to repeaI>it in 1921, yet in 1922
| the senate's rich men voted down
| this mandate of the people of Geor-
gia. I will call attention to the
enormous Wastefulness of tax money
| later on.
What is the matter with the men
elected to our legislature?
! What Are Our Greatest Benefits?
! I listened to a sermon last Sun
! day on the benefits enjoyed by
| the people of God, and for which
we should return the gratitude of
honest hearts, redeemed by saliva
| ton, through Jesus Christ, our
| Lord. 1t was a timely discourse. 1t
has an infinity of subjects, en-
! braced in the word benefits. Be-
ginning with the enjoyment of civ
ilized homes in our infancy, we
have only to remind ourselves Of