Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-05-29
PACE DECLARES H {
WILL REDEEM PRE-
ELECTION PLEDGES
Senator-Elect From Thirtieth
District Getting Ready to
Abolish Useless Offices
NEW TAX LAWS
Invisible Property Now Escaping
Just Proportion of Public
Burden, Must Pay

OF Sunday morning contained the
statement that Senator-elect Ste
phen Pace, of Americus, had writ
ten Governor Hardwick pledping
ms and in the governors campaign
against useless offices and employ
ees, and asking the governor for
copies OF Investigations made of
various state departments by the
experts Governor Hardwick en-
ployed last year. When seen TODAY
by a reported from the Times-Re-
corder and asked concerning his ac-
tivities along this line Senator
Pace said:
Just a few days before the pri-
mary in which l was nominated, |
mailed to the voters of the county
statement Of my position on GER
tain public questions; among other
things, this statement contained
the following:
There are hundreds of thous-
ands of dollars beings thrown away
by useless office-holders inspectors.
supervisors, ETC., the system seems
to be to give men jobs rather than
give the people service; the ma
jority of these offices can be
abolished without loss to anyone
except the job-holder. To this
work | plegde my constant and best
efforts
My election converted this prom
ise into a most sacred obligation,
and it lis my desire, as well as my
duty, to carry it out faithfully and
explicitly. In order to do SO in an
intelligent and efficient manner |
intend to exhaust every possible
source of information and dig into
every available record so as TO as
certain as nearly as possible the
exact duties of every state en-
ployee and Of what service he is
to the people. 1t is in the course
of this investigation that | wrote
Governor Hardwick for copies of
certain records in his office.
'My prediction statement also
contained the followign declara-
ton:
"T do not believe that it is
right for only those of US who have
visible property to pay all the
taxes.l
In other words, l believe the
present tax equalization law is a
failure. While it has, in a limited
way, equalized the respective tax
able values of farm land and 9TH
er real estate, by constantly rails
ing them, it has not, in the slight
est, placed on the books the
great wealth of this state
in the form of invisible property.
I have never been able to under
stand why money, notes, accounts,
and other forms of invisible prop
erty should not bear a just pro-
portion of the tax burden; they
have exactly the same protection
from the laws as visible property,
their value is maintained by the
authority and stability of the gov
erhment, for the support of which
all taxes are levied. Just let a
man refuse to pay his note and
see how quick the holder will re- /
port to the courts, maintained by |
the money, to enforce payment,
and wet that note hasn't paid one
penny of tax to maintain the court.
Believing this so-called 'Equaliza-
ion law has been a failure, | shall
vote for its repeal at the ensuing
session. | know there are many !
who say the repeal of this law will
wreck the state; that we cannot
raise sufficient revenue without 1t.
[ listened to this argument for the
four years | was in the house, and
each year vigorously opposed the
repeal Of this law, but | have now
come to the conclusion that 1T
would be better to entirely discon-
5inue some of the state agencies for
A while, give some of the job-hold-
ars vacation than to longer con-
5inue the present system of MAX
ng one class of property carry all
IF the budren all Of the time. Be
sides, ] have the personal assur-
ance of Governor-elect Walker
hat, in the event the general as
sembly fails to enact a just and |
adequate tax law during the regu-
ar session, he will call an extra
session confined to the tax ques-
ion. Frankly, | believe an extra
session will be necessary; there are
90 many other matters demanding
attention during the regular session
'or the members to come to an h
agreement on tax bill; it required
IN extra session to rid the state
# the convict lease system; it re-
luired an extra session to get a i