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THE ATLANTIAN
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going to swipe the stakes. There are just “lugeons” of farmers in
Georgia, and they all know, and most all like Brother Tom. Then
there is gaining ground the idea that the lawyers who have governed
this country for a century or more have not achieved such a conspicu
ous success as to justify a perpetual lease, and so the folks are begin
ning to believe that it might be just 4s well to try an occasional change.
Brother Tom is said to be n gbod farmer. Now, as we see it, it
takes more sense for a man to be a good farmer than for any other
occupation on earth.
A good farmer must know how to buy everything from a naxe or a
set of harness, up to a blooded mare, or a high-class boar. He must
know how to sell everything from a bunch on “ingons” up to bales
of cotton or carloads of fruit.
He must know how and when to plant and cultivate, to guard
against adverse weather conditions, to know enough of science to
improve his fields and increase their production. He must have a
knowledge of clothing, of blacksmithing, of carpentry, of house
building and two Or three hundred other little things.
A goo^ farmer has sense enough to fill acceptably any office, and
they do say Tom Hudson is a good farmer. There is a tradition in
. Georgia that one of the best judges the State ever had was a farmer
whom an old-time governor insisted on making a judge, possibly
because he had tried out lawyers and knew when he had enough.
The City Campaign
With the coming of spring, candidates for mayor are blooming out
along with the jonquils, violets, lilacs and other fragrant spring flow
ers. Notwithstanding the rainy season which has much interfered
with other crops the mayoralty crop is booming. Brother Winn, pres
ent incumbent, likes the job so well that he has added more unction
to his manner and more expansiveness to his always expansive smile.
Brother Brown, doctor and legislator, thinks that he can doctor
the city’s ills quite as well as he lias his patients and believes that
he knows just when the city ought to have calomel and the size of .
the dose.
Brother Baylor, with his maps under his arm, is apparently doing
the gum shoe act and is slipping around in a smooth and easy way
that would do credit to “Gum Shoe Bill Stone.” £
Brother Chambers -has organized him a little “Tammany” of his
own and thinks lie knows just how wide to open the throttle, and just
when to pull the levers that will bring his little engine into the com
fortable round house labeled “Mayor’s office.”
Brother Candler is gazing in a thoughtful fashion at the plum and
wondering if it is big enoiigh and juicy enough for a man of his
political stature—far be it from us to cast any slur on his physical
stature.
Last but not least, Bro. McClellan has like the great Teddy cast his
hat into the ring and swinging his clubs of equalization of taxation
and the public ownership of certain public utilities with some satis
faction to himself and the approval of. a constantly increasing con
stituency. John is a good fighter and somehow the cockles of the
heart warm up to a good fighter, the more so if his cause be just.
In the meantime the folks are looking on and getting more fun
out of these campaigns than they do out of the so-called funny papers,
forgetting for the moment, that evfen as they have to pay for the funny
papers, so they have to pay for the political campaigns.—Blessed
forgetfulness! .
Marcellus Anderson
For ten years past Marcellus Anderson has been chief clerk in the
Ordinary’s office, and now feeling that he has.earned a promotion,
is seeking the nomination as Ordinary.
Mr. Anderson is a young , man of irreproachable character, en
tirely capable and has a personality which has gained for him a
host of friends in Fulton county.
A most pleasing feature of the contest for Ordinary’s place is the
fact that neither candidate is predicating his campaign on the de
merits of his opponent, but each one is conceding to the other good
citizenship and good capacity. The county is to be congratulated
on such a campaign, for the defeated candidate will find ho sting
in a defeat due solely to the fact that the successful man has" rather
more friends. Marcellus Anderson has been known to the people
of Fulton county from his youth up, and has never been found want
ing in any case where responsibility has been placed upon him;
Should he be elected to the position he seeks, the people could rely
upon efficient and honorable service.
GEORGIA AND PROSPERITY
THE LESSON OF DENMARK
All of us want to see Georgia prosper and grow strong. Some
of us are so short sighted that we conceive the right way to bring
this about is to build up huge cities.
A more fatal policy could not be devised. In the last analyses
the prosperity of Georgia must rest on its broad acres.
With this in mind it,is not hard to understand that our strength
should be devoted to building up the country sections, the farming
districts, when we do that the city growth will automatically take
care of itself. A few great souls like Branson, Soule and Parks,
v who have a correct appreciation of real values are doing more for
the future welfare of the State than all the Chambers of Commerce
and Boards of Trade within its borders.
Among the numerous brochures which Professor Branson is get
ting; out on Farm Life Conditions in the South is one entitled, “Den
mark’s Remedies: Education and Co-Operation.” It would be of
untold value if every man in the State pould assimilate the tremen
dous. facts incorporated in this little tract which can be read in
thirty or forty minutes. Let us summarize some of them for you.
Denmark has an area of some ten million acres against'Geprgia’s
thirty-eight million acres. It is but little more than one-fourth the
Size of Georgia, but it supports ^population equal to that of-Geor
gia. Denmark has a naturally poor and barren soil with a harsh
climate .while Georgia has a fairly good soil and a favorable climate.
An acre of Georgia land can be brought to the highest productive
ness at one-lialf the expense and labor that an acre requires in
Denmark.
,Up to 1845 conditions in Denmark were desperate and even up
to 1865 the central section of the country was a barren waste.
The building up of the country is therefore practically contem
poraneous with the rebuilding of , Georgia since the Civil War.
The Danes, wiser than we, concentrated their efEorts on land
improvement and home ownership. Today in Denmark eighty-nine
persons out of every hundred own their own homes.
The little country has been made a very garden. The people have
on deposit in savings banks more than 280 millions of dollars. It
is the richest country per capita in Europe. The farmers work
entirely along co-operative lines. They have more than one thou
sand Co-Operate Dairymen's Associations. There are more than
500 co-operative banks.
They ship each year to foreign countries ninety millions of dollars’
worth of butter, cheese and eggs. It is the most Democratic country
in the world. A majority of the legislature and a majority of the
cabinet are uniformly farmers. And the cities have prospered also,
and miraculous, to tell have no slums
Copenhagen, , the capital which with its environs has over 500,000
population is far in advance of any American city of similar size
in those things-which contribute to the public welfare. There is
One city of .50,000, one of , 40,000, one of 30,000, two of 20,000 each
and these with the capital represent nearly the whole urban popu
lation, practically all the rest of the people belonging to the country
districts. Thirty-nine splendid agricultural schools train the peo
ple, and the State University is a wonder. Illiteracy is unknown,
and the mpral standard is high. But this is enough. Here is a
people who with not one-quarter our advantage have done a won
derful work. That we lag behind is due either to our lack of