Newspaper Page Text
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
5
GEORGIA—ITS GREATEST LIABILITY
By THE EDITOR
Georgia is the Empire State of the South. It is
one of the thirteen original colonies. There is no
state in the Union richer in our country’s history.
It is the largest state east of the Mississippi. It
is the second cotton producing state in the
Union. It ranks seventh in agricultural pro
ducts. It probably has greater natural resources
than any other state of comparative area. It has
some of the finest farm land in the world. It has
forests of pine and cypress and hardwood. It has
almost unlimited fields of iron ore, clay, ochre,
bauxite, granite, marble, aluminum ore and mica.
Its water power, if harnessed, could turn every
industrial wheel in America.
And yet Georgia is on the verge of bankruptcy.
Our legislature does not know where to get the
funds to pay the debts the state is obliged to
incur. Taxes are high; there is better prospect of
them going higher than coming down. Yet states
poorer by billions in natural resources are in com
paratively good condition financially.
Some time ago one hundred and twenty seven
of Georgia’s leading citizens, men with the inter
est of their state at heart, made a trip through the
North and East. The party was headed by the
governor of the state and the president of one of
Georgia’s leading institutions of learning. The
purpose of the trip was to show these men what
states less wealthy in natural resources were do
ing, that they might come back to Georgia and
urge the people of the state to do likewise.
In Cincinnati they found an internationally
known soap manufacturing establishment taking
Georgia cotton seed oil, working it into cooking
fats, and shipping a large part of it back to
Georgia to be sold here at a very good profit. The
profit in manufacturing went to enrich Ohio.
Georgia could very well have manufactured the
fat and pocketed the profit.
At Cincinnati, too, they found Georgia clay be
ing molded into expensive vases and pottery
clay purchased in Georgia at rock bottom prices.
That such, manufacturing can be carried, on in
Georgia as successfully as in Ohio has been dem-
onstrated on a small scale in various parts of the
At Pittsburgh the Georgians found a great elec
ts? company using not only unbelievable quan
tities of Georgia asbestos and mica and other raw
products of our state, but young men trained in
the Georgia Technical School carrying on the work
as well.
Georgia Loses Millions
The members of the party were told by a manu
facturer that he estimated Georgia’s loss at $12 -
000,000 each year because it is not using its iron
and steel. They found New England cities pros-
permg by manufacturing Georgia cotton into
cloth. Wherever they went, they saw Georgia pro
ducts, purchased in their raw state for a song
turned into manufactured goods and sold in
many cases back to us, we paying the freight both
ways, at a profit which, to avoid argument, we
shall merely call very nice.
The members of the party were given a great
deal to think about. They could see no reason
why Georgia’s raw products could not be manu
factured m our own state instead of one thous
and miles away. They could find no satisfactory
explanation for a system which enriches the mid
dleman, the manufacturing state, instead of the
producer, Georgia. And while thinking over these
things, searching for the explanation, they were
told that the whole trouble lies in the lack of
technically trained men.
We will not say that this is not so, but we wish
to point out that no matter where these Georgians
went, they found Georgia boys, trained in the
state’s technical school, working to enrich other
states. They found them in Boston, New York,
Cincinnati, Buffalo, Pittsburgh. So this cannot
be the only reason why Georgia is not getting
what is her due from her resources. Georgia has
the natural resources. Nothing is needed to make
the state first among the states of the Union but
the working of these natural resources. Georgians
know of the existence of these resources. Since
they have not taken advantage of them, it may
be assumed that they are in no position to do so.
Outside assistance seems to be desirable.
What is there in Georgia to attract outside capi
tal? Natural resources? Yes. Man power? Yes.
Then why does it not attract? The answer is: IN
TOLERANCE.
Intolerance
As long as Georgia politicians think more of get
ting into office than of serving their state, so long
shall the state’s growth be stunted. As long as
there are found men in public life who strive to
set the people of the state at each other’s throats
instead of welding them into a powerful whole, so
long will men of means be unwilling to risk their
capital in enterprises that would build up the
state as well as bring profit to themselves. As
long as men who pose as Christians preach the un-
Christian doctrine of hatred of fellow-man, so
long will Georgia be deprived of the growth that
is her right.
Georgia loses $12,000,000 annually because her
iron and steel resources are not worked. That is
a great deal more than enough to pay the running
expense of the state each year. Add to this the
losses she sustains by the neglect of her other re
sources, and the total, which amounts into the
hundreds of millions, is sickening.
There is only one remedy and the people of
Georgia have that in their hands. Make the
preaching of religious hatred unprofitable, and it
will cease. Judge a man by his services to his
community, his state, and his country, and not by
the zeal with which he hates fellow-Georgians,
whose creed differs from his. Then the deep hat
red in our political life will cease and gradually
:One by one other barriers dividing our people
will melt away and we will stand united and
strong. Then will the idle acres of Georgia be
green with growing crops. Then the long delayed
mills and factories will rise up in every town and
hamlet. Then will the wealth of Georgia grow;
she will take her proper place among the states
of the Union and she shall be more properly
called the Empire State of the United States in
stead of the Empire State of the South.
Georgetown has been named by the United
States War Department as one of the 34 “dis
tinguished honorary military schools.” The rec
ognition gives the University one appointment
to the regular army each year.
In Boston recently, five squares were named in
honor of five boys who died in the service of their
country during the world war. The five boys were
all Catholics.