Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-10
GOVERNOR TURNS
DOWN FUND PLEA
FOR SCHOOL AID

! VII UUlaUUA Till
| Governor Hardwick stated Satur.
day that he will not draw a warrant
on the treasury for the excess APP.
preparation claimed by the depart
ment of education for the common
| schools.
The treasury could not pay it if
! he drew it, the governor said; there
| fore, he will not draw it.
! The general appropriation bill for
/ 1922 Dassed at the 1921 session, es-
timated the states revenue at 49,
| 600, as it came from the apprO-
| priation committee. 1t contained a
| provision that half this amount. or
| $4,250,000, should go to, the com
mon schools. and a further prCvi-
| sion that if there should be an ex
cess of revenue above $S,500,000, one
half of the excess should go to the
| common schools. The committed S
| bill carried appropriations to the
| amount of $8,5C0,000.
I ! The house and senate added APP
| preparations which carried the
amount to $4,000 900, but did not
strike out the provision giving one
half the excess to the common
schools, so that the bill in it's final
| enacted form contained provisions
! that were directly in conflict with
each other.
On top of that, the Legislature at
| the 1922 session passed deficiency
appropriations amounting $500
600 TO be paid in 1922. and these
/ IN
| tons for the year to $9,S00,0 600.
| AS the money came into the treas
ury from month to month, Cover
nor. Hardwick paid it out for the
VARIOUS appropriations which were
after the bill came from the com
mittee.
The school department now claims
one-haIf the excess. Since the ex
cess over $8.50O,O0O will be approxi-
mately $1,3OO,O0O, or just about
enough to pay the specific appro.
priations carried in the act. the
! amount claimed by the schools is
about $3.50, 900.
But this excess has not been held
| in reserve. No part of it has been
| held in reserve. 1t has gone out OF
the treasury about as fast as it came
| in.
DR.. M. M. Parks, state superin
| tendent of schools, has drawn a
rcquisition on the governor for a
part of the excess claimed for the
schools. The governor stated Sat.
urdav that he would not be able to
homer the reQuisition.
Il would be delighted to see the
schools get his money he said.
but the legislature appropriated 1t
for other purposes, and it has been
disbursed for other purposes. The
treasurer informs me that if I drew
a warrant for this excess he could
not honor the warrant. IL would be
foolish, therefore, for mo to draw it.
The legislature ought to have speci-
fled The amount it wanted the com
mon schools to have, and stopped
there, instead of putting into the
appropriation act a provision which
it was impossible to comply with"
drunk. He did not premeditate any
crime at all. This is shown by the
fact that he almost got into trouble
with the travelling man on the train,
and with the conductor, and with
the depot agent. These men did not
take him very seriously, but old
man Morton made the mistake of
snatching out his pistol as soon as
George staggered up to him and
slapped at him. If he had told
George to go on as the conductor did,
there would have been no homicide.
"Ralph Baker had Georges gun
in his hand and was trying to pull
him away from Morton. When Nor
ton snatched out his gun and COM
menced to shoot, he shot both at
George and Ralph, and Ralph, who
is just a boy, fired in self-defense.
That is our contention and we sup
ported it by the testimony of eye
witnesses. Fourteen witnesses saw
the shooting. Eight of those four
teen sWore that George had no pis.
toll and fired no shot. Some of those
eight swore that Morton fired the
first shot.
"Thare was no bloody. plot as the
state has tried to picture. These
boys didn't plot to murder anybody.
George was drunk and had a pistol
and almost got into trouble and
Ralph took his pistol away from
excitement
he killed Morton to prevent Morton
rom killing his brother. When you
boil down the argument of the state
i'll this case it amounts to a demand
for these boys to be hanged to salts
fy Il mob. They want you to hang
tle5e boys because somebody else
was murdered without a hanging.
They want you to hang these boys
on the grounds that the time has
come to have a hanging in Walker
county, and that's all it amounts to-"
George and Ralph Baker were SEN
fenced to hang next Friday, April
IS, for the murder of j. w. Nor
ton, deputy sheriff, seventy-five
years old, whom they shot to death
at the mining town of Durham. in
Walker county, about two years
ago.
The prison commission has rec
commended Communication of Ralph
Bakers sentence to life imprisou-
ment because of his youth. The
commission concluded, after investi-
cation, that Ralph's present age is
about seventeen years.
The commission declined to recon-
mend clemency for George Baker on
the ground that there was no ex-
tenuation in his case whatever. He
was over tWenty-One years old when
the murder was committed. and the
commission found nothing to sub
stantiate his plea of weak-minded-
ness.