Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-22
THE COUNTRY HOME
BY MRS. w. H. FELTON,

present tax equalization law before
the house committee on appropria-
tons, week before last, had to
wait until the pension situation
had been explained by Pension Com
missioner Lindsay and Ex-Governor
N. E. Harris, who seems to be act
ing generalissimo of the vast pen
sion army in Georgia.
The committee was gravely in
formed that it would require four
and a half millions of tax money
to settle the pension claims up to
1924. One half of 1922 has come
and gone; $25O,O0O per month!
Query:
If it takes four and a half mil
lions of cash in hand to settle the
pension claim for one year and a
half, one thing is certain, 1t will
leave the state bankrupt, when.
ever it is done, and then what?
General Lee surrendered in 1865,
in April. There are more pension
claimants, men and women, than
surrendered with Lees army, in
this good year 1922. They seem to
grow with their growth and grow
violent in their demands. Nobody
has yet undertaken to tabulate this
immense host of pensioners. No
public list has ever been seen. The
Soldiers home requires $4,000 to
keep it going at high tide, and the
pension claimants are. all the time
increasing. To demand Is one thing,
to squeeze this money out Of tax
ridden farmers is another. A large
number of tax sales were publish
cd in, Toffnrca,,xyiI11
and the lands were exposed to sale.
Not a bidder appeared. Not a dol
lar was offered as purchase money
Absolutely no sale. Do you under
stand where this thing is going to
end up? You can't get blood out
of a turnip. Where are we drift
ing?
Why Have Any Criminal Courts?
When that poor creature, Dupre.
ran amuck in the heart of Atlanta,
| was getting a meal in the Kimbali
House cafe. He was full of booze,
OF course, but he planned robbery
and killed detective-stole a 800
diamond to please a vamp woman,
who melted him to 1t rushed
into the Kimball House, shot down
the city comptroller like he was a
dog-and reached the taxi that had
been already secured for his escape.
Within fifteen minutes I walked
over the spot where Mr.. Graham
West fell-and got clear vision of
what bandit might do in any place,
where he desired to rob and kill
If ever a human \being deserved
the fate that the state affixes to
such convicted desperadoes that
miserable Dupre merits 1t. It is be-
yond dispute.
Already he has cost the state of
Georgia thousands of dollars in
courts Of law. He has widowed a
good woman, and made her children
fatherless. Mr.. West lay in the hos.
pital for days and weeks, lowering
between life and death. Dupre did
not pay dollar towards the expense
and loss entailed upon innocent suf.
ferers by his bloodhtirsty greed for
what did not belong to him.
Sorry am I for his living parents
but in common with people who
pay heavy taxes for protection to life
and property, I say, we might as
well abolish all criminal courts II
this desperate escapes the laws de-
cree, and it speaks poorly for the
good common sense of the people
who are striving to turn loose on the
community such convicted bandits
or contemplate vamp adventuresses
What about the innocent man who
had his valuable life snuffed out, or
the honorable comptroller of the city
Of Atlanta, whose life hung on a
hairs breadth, for days and days?