Newspaper Page Text
PAGE POUR
THE BUTLER HERALD, BUTLER, GEORGIA, AUGUST 15, 1029.
The Butler Herald
Eatablishcd in 1876
C. E. BENNS,
Editor and Publisher
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF
TAYLOR COUNTY
WRLISHED EVERY THURSDAY
Average Weekly Circulation
Fifteen Hundred Copies
SUBSCRIPTION, $1.50 A YEAR
RICK-RACK
GEORGIA’S POLITICAL DISEASE
Hatered at the Post Office at Butler,
Georgia, As Mail Matter of Second
Clwi.
The home, the community, the
date, the nation—a nation can never
i(fe greater than its homes.
The shadow may be the price we
gpy for sunshine. Tears are the in-
OtresL on the loan for a little while.
in the county are being
sharpened and put in fit condition fur
Jkt ginning season, and engines and
'Wiilers and gin machinery are being
i*crda'jIod and made ready.
hi glancing over the tax sales for
September in the Ft. Valley Leader-
Tribune it would appear that Peacn
vainly is having financial trouble
dUL elicits the sympathy of its
neighbors.
If ever the State of Georgia needed
Statesmanship it is now. And
Judging from whut is being done,
Or ruther, the
Lack of doing, it seems to the
Casual observer, that there is a
Large deficit of
Statesmanship in the present
General Assembly.
Retrenchment and reform were the
Key words in the last
Political campaign and they were
Vote winners too, and with an
Indebtedness facing this
General Assembly of more than
Four million dollars.
Highway contracts unmet and
Unpaid, teachers of
Public schools pleading for
Unpaid salaries; and in the
Face of these unpaid obligations,
Justly due by the
State to the highway department
And school teachers, and in the
Face of retrenchment and reform
Which were promised for 1929. This
General Assembly voted a very
Handsome increase in salaries for
Several departmental officials.
Oh, retrenchment and reform, thy
Cheeks should he mantled with
A blush of shame.
—J. T. A.
That is not putting it too strong.
Georgia is ailing politically and the
observant onlookers the state is go
ing to require medical remedies.
Local pride and a vigorous care fot
local rights and interests are neces
sary, of course, to any country’s
THE LEGISLATURE
8l has been discovered that Geor
gia has the distinction of having two
.ttoros hearing the same name both
fcavng a charter granted by the leg
islatin'. One is Manchester, Meri-
vntAer county, the other Manchester
Baacock county.
A2J indications point to the pass
age by the senate of the 6-cent gas
tax bill just as it passed in the house
nr1 by a large majority. While near
by every newspaper in the state has
■apposed the bill, the Herald is one of
fee few that heartily indorses it.
Col Dan S. Beeland left Saturday
to spend a few weeks at an Army
lamp near Savannah.
Miss Alice May Ellison, of Adrian
is expected in a lew days to visit her
aunt, Mrs. F. M. Carson.
•Jefferson county abandoned the
‘•uvict system on Jan. 1, 1929. A
1npn rative statement for the first
nix months of 1928 and 1929, the
Ysnn*r under the old system of con-
ttmetion and maintenance of roads,
at shown by a recent report of the
■uaty commissioners, shows a sav-
iinj Vi Jefferson county of $28,000.00.
ft ejight he well for Taylor county to
anasidcr the matter of abolishing the
'Hmrict system.
The endurance test has reached the
craze stage. In Boston some days
ago a 14-year-old hoy, not to be out
done by aviators, determined that
there was another way to win the
plaudits of the crowd. So he climbed
up on top of a twenty-foot pole in
his father’s backyard and sat there
for ten days, ten hours, ten minutes
and ten seconds. Thousands visited
the backyard day after day during
the entire endurance test, and when
the hoy finally decided he had had
enough, the mob was so great and so
anxious to lionize him, that it re-
w quired two squads of policemen to
save him from being hugged and
kissed to death. All of which goes to
is show that East and West, North and
SeSouth, people are now thoroughly
wisold to the idea that “endurance
cittests” are the thing and that they
serve the shortest route to fame.
Funny, isn’t it? But it isn’t anything
pew.
Hiss Nellie Turner sent to this of-
1fc* a copy of a Dallas, Texas, news
paper, in which the cotton crop of
Texas is reported as having a very
sMifavorable outlook due to a long
•draught that has struck many sec
tions of the state. The government’s
lastmate of fifteen and a half mil-
aiMm hales may yet he cut to thir-
ffceti or fourteen million hales, which
.ihould increase the price of the sta-
afc.
If Editor J. Doyle Jones, of the
Jackson Progress-Argus, had been
yperwitted to listen in on the many
ewvl things being said about him and
;'ii.R newspaper by friends and neigh-
Sais while visiting in this section i".
laotly, he would have found t :eie
really some reward after all for
a.<viuutry editor who labors so faic.V
AUy and so earnestly for the best
laterest of his community as the Her
ald. has been pleased to note and
appreciate in Bro. Jones for a num-
of years. But few newspapers
,k»Mi rendered to their community
tCaealer service than has the Prog-
aess-Argus, and it does us good to
Aoaw that its effects are appreciated
5* tlie. people it serves so ably.
“One successful crop often makes
a fool of a lot of people,” advises the
Jackson l’rogress-Argus, and which
adds: “South Georgia is likely to be
intoxicated with the success of the
1929 tobacco crop. Likewise Georgia
as a whole, if the cotton crop turns
out as well as expected. Georgia
should continue to grow cotton and
tobacco but at the same time should
not forsake diversified farming.” But
the most deplorable thing that could
happen while in a state of intoxica
tion as the result of u good crop
year, would be for people to he
wasteful and extravagant with their
money by buying tilings they could
do without and neglecting to pay
notes and accounts which the mer
chants, fertilizer people, the hanks
and others have carried for them a
long time. Who can doubt that Prov
idence has had a hand in the matter
giving the people an opportunity to
get an even start once more. If we
fail to take advantage of it, then
what may we expect in the future?
progress. The kinds of public interest
logically and properly eared for by
county government should be well
taken care of.
But it is equally time that certain
other public interests, just as impor
j lant to the individual citizen, can
only be served properly and effec
J t ively by joint action of a whole state
: through a single common agent
j Highways, for instance, public health
, in certain phases, conservation of re-
: sources and educational progress ac-
1 cording to standards.
! The evidence accumulates daily
I that Georgia unluckily ran too much
| to petty county units during the past
I years and that local-mindedness ov
er-shadows state-mindedness today.
With 161 counties the state is utter
ly overwhelmed with little county
political machines, determined to
take care of their own, whatever be
comes of the state at large or the
other fellow’s interests elsewhere in
the state.
It seems well nigh impossible to
j get broad statesmen-like handling of
state needs, obligations and interests
at the hands of a legislature swarm
ing with members and “their
friends” who think mainly in terms
of back-home local schemes and ad
vantages.
To be sure, other states are not
exempt from this, heaven knows. But
Georgia has disease in such aggra
vated form as to threaten state-wide
needs.
The state is sinking apparently in
to a financial quagmire with a big
deficit, that forces heavy borrowing,
the highway department in a tangle,
the school teachers not paid prompt
ly, pensions for the veterans shame
fully inadequate, state institutions
forcing severe and crippling cuts in
support. Deep beneath it all is the
political disease above mentioned.
The history of such situations
shows that the radical remedy re
quired to cure this disease is never
applied until the rank and file of
voters become at last aroused to res
olute mass action by unbearable
evils, so plainly visible that no petty
political maneuvering can further
hide the facts in dust clouds. Then
petty local rings, little grafters, nar
row horizoned leaders find them
selves overwhelmed and kicked out
of power by a public, long patient
and befooled, hut at last fed up.
The fair State of Georgia, while
an aggregate of 161 county political
units have their way and slowly hang
themselves.—Spartanburg Herald.
The Herald appreciates the Uni
versity of Georgia and wishes it
nueh success, but our first interest is
in the poor children of Georgia be
ing given the opportunity of at least
a common school education. Here’s a
n*y of hope in that direction in the
AAlowing from the Bainbridge Post-
Searchlight: “The University lobby
disappears out of trie capitol and
they will find that their cause will
-.lather more strength. When colleges
I» to lobbying for big appropriations
heavy taxes, against common school
■alters, they are getting on thin ice
*•= sure as you live. The common
folks had to serve notice on
the college crowd to stay in their
xwn hack yard if they expected any-
'hdng in the way of help. It is about
iuie that they were taught that oth-
folks had some rights in the af-
’Stirs of the state aside from Athens
wM her lobby.
Representative C. H. Neisler from
Taylor county is one of the new
members of the Georgia legislature.
He has won universal popularity with
both old and new members of that
body. His advice is often sought
when matters of large proportion to
the state at large are up for con
sideration, and on the various com
mittees^ eleven of which he is a mem
ber, he is a leading factor. He de
votes his entire time to the study of
the hundreds of bills that have been
introduced at this session, and is
recognized as one of the best posted
men in the House on affairs of the
State as a whole. Mr. Neisler was
heard from in an address on the floor
of the House Friday when he spoke
for nearly an hour in support of the
only fertilizer hill introduced at this
session, and which is directly in the
interest of the farmers. This bill pro
vides penalties for misbranding and
for the use of foreign substances in
the manufacture of commercial fer
tilizer. His address before the House
turned the tide in favor of the hill
which at one time was in grave dan
ger of being lost. The final vote was
125 to 6. The provision of the bill is
one of the host pieces of legislation
in the interest of the farmers of the
state passed in many years. Mr.
Neisler was showered with congratu
lations at the conclusion of his
speech, many voicing the opinion that
it was one of the ablest and most
convincing ever heard on the floor of
the House.
Take life just as though it were
as it is—an earnest, vital, and im
portant affair. Take it as though you
were born to the task of performing
a merry part in it—as though the
world had awaited your coming,
Take it as though it were a grand
opportunity to do and achieve, to
carry forward great and good chanc
es to help and cheer a suffering,
weary, it may be heartbroken, broth
er. Now and then a man stands aside
from the crowd labors earnestly,
steadfastly, confidently, and straight
away becomes famous for wisdom,
intellect, skill greatness of some sort
The world wonders, admires, idolizes
and it only illustrates what others
may do if they take hold of life with
a purpose. The miracle of the power
that elevates the few is to be found
in their industry, application and
preservance under the promptings of
a brave, determined spirit.—Mark
Twain.
THE THINGS THAT COUNT
Not what we have, but what we use
Not what we see, but what we
choose
These are the things that mar or
bless
The sum of human happiness.
The things nearby, not things afar,
Not what we seem, hut what we
are
These are the things that make or
break,
That give the heart its joy or ache.
Not what seems fair, but what is
true,
Not what we dream, hut what we
do,
These are the things that shine like
gems,
Like stars in fortune’s diadem.
Not as w’e take, but as we give
Not as we pray but as we live,
These are the things that make for
peace
Both now and after time shall
cease.
(NOTE—The public deplores the
failure of the Georgia legislature to
accomplish uny constructive legisla
tion especially since the opportunity
lor leadership and statesmanship
was never quite so favorable. The
present session is about to go on
record as one of the weakest in sev-
.‘iul decades. The Macon Telegraph
on Sunday last gives its editorial
views on the situation and which
points a dark picture for the law
making body and one that its mem
bers will dislike to have hung upon
the walls for future generations to
look upon. Let us hope that the re
maining days of this session will
have a brighter ending. The editorial
referred to is published below:)
Twelve days of the 1929 session of
the Georgia general assembly re
main. Forty-eight days of the session
have gone. In all that time, not one
single major piece of legislation has
been completed and sent to the gov
ernor. The state stands still. Survey
the results of the session so far and
one can find only that the general as
sembly has changed the name of the
South Georgia Woman’s college and
amended the charter of hundreds of
small communities.
When this assembly began its ses
sion, it was confronted by problems
well known to everybody who reads
a daily newspaper. The highway de
partment was badly in debt, so much
in the hole that the federal govern
ment is withholding the $2,000,000
credited to Georgia for 1928 because
Georgia has not acted honorably in
discharging her highway obligations.
That department does not have a cent
to spend between now and the end of
the year and even then, it will have
a deficit of $1,500,000.
The state was behind $2,500,000 in
its educational funds. Some of the
school teachers in Georgia have not
been paid since the beginning of the
year. There is another deficit for this
year; it has been estimated that the
educational deficit on Jan. 1, 1930,
will not be less than $4,500,000. It
was necessary during the past year
for the governor to reduce appropria
tions for education and a few other
causes by the arbitrary figure of 30
per cent. In spite of these facts,
Georgia's system of education stands
condemned as the worst in the Unit
ed States and her percentage of il
literacy is higher than any other in
the Union, save two.
It has been demonstrated to this
legislature that our governmental
structure was wasteful and extrava
gant and bureaucratic; that great
savings could be effected by the re
organization. It has been demon
strated to the legislature that our tax
system was woefully inadequate to
the needs of the state; that it was a
system that “put a premium on per
jury and penalized honesty” and fail
ed utterly to provide revenues suf
ficient to maintain state institutions
under any standard of decency.
It had been demonstrated to the
legislature that our prison system is
inadequate and brutal. It had been
pointed out that the insane asylum .s
disgracefully inadequate to the
needs; that 700 insane persons guilty
of no crime except mental illness lie
in the common jails of the
while the disease further
rates the mind and removes all hope
of cure.
The legislature knew all these
things; it knew a great many more
things that are wrong in the state.
Consider, then, how it has approach
ed those problems.
It has voted down a bond issue for
highways that would have paved the
roads and one branch has passed a
six-cent gasoline tax that is of such
doubtful legality that even the legis
lator acknowledge it. While the
Telegraph does not oppose the meas
ure that has been passed by the
house and even favors it, in the ab
sence of better legislation, it frankly
believes that if it is attacked, chaos
will result with the stoppage of all
highway work.
The house has defeated the gross
income, or sales tax and passed a
statutory income tax of doubtful con
stitutionality. The Telegraph also fa
vors the income tax, hut it believes
if the net income tax is attacked, it
will he thrown out—and it is certain
to be attacked. The aenato, however, |
has so far refused to accept the
house’s income tax hill and the com
mittee has substituted for it the
gross income tax that was defeated
in the house. The two bodies are at
loggerheads with only the possibility
that they will come together.
The legislature has not completed
the bill providing for a survey of thte
states’s educational system so that
some order may be brought out of
the chaos; it has not completed the
bill providing for the reorganization
of state government to bring some
order into that.
The general appropriations hill,
the most important of all measures,
has not even been read the second
ginate. The senate will have only
about ten days to complete its work
on that bill even if the house passes
it without a fight, which is extremely
unlikely.
We tome, then, to the last days of
the session with the worst situation
a legislature has ever faced in this
state, when everybody believed at
the beginning of the session that the
legislature promised more than any
other. It is needless to say that the
legislature will pass some major
measures before it adjourns, but it is
equally needless to say that whatev
er it passes will be hasty and ill-
considered legislation that will only
leave chaos more chaotic than when
the legislature began its work.
the
state,
deterio-
For those who have followed the
legislature, it is not difficult to de
termine the causes for its gross fail
ure. It is entirely lacking in any sort
of leadership. It is commonly re
ported that the speaker of the house
and the president of the senate are
candidates for the governorship. If
that be true, it helps to explain the
situation. It helps also to explain
why they waited for ten or twelve
days after the session started to
name their committees, when both of
them knew as far back as Jan. I of
this year that they would occupy
their positions. Had they chosen to
do so, the speaker and the president
could have started this legislature to
work the day pfter it convened. Had
they chosen also to exercise the lead
ership delivered into their hands,
they and the chairman of their rules
committees could have held the legis
lature in session for a reasonable
time every day fighting every move
for adjournment and every trivial
motion, until it had accomplished
something approaching solution of
these major problems. The Telegraph
would be less than frank if it failed
to say that both Speaker Russell and
President Neill have been a disap
pointment to the state. If it is true
that both have their eyes on the gov
ernorship, they have sacrificed the
good of the state to building up per
sonal fences. If it is not true, then
they should never have been given
leadership, because they did not
know how to use itfor public good.
Another situation has contributed
to the failure of the geneeral assem
bly. As we pointed out early in tne
session, there are able men in both
branches. As a whole, we believe this
legislature to be as intelligent as any
we have ever had and more intelli
gent than most. The weakness lies in
the fact that the important commit
tee chairmanships, for the most part
are in the hands of the “older crowd”
that is, those who have been going
to Atlanta year after year. The older
crowd, which was responsible for cre
ating the chaos in state’s affairs, was
incapable of bringing order out of it
—incapable or unwilling to make the
sacrifices of personal conviction nec
essary to do it. The new crowd, upon
the other hand, had not attained the
seniority necessary to influence in
legislative body. It is anxious to
solve these problems and it is willing
to do what is necessary, but with the
machinery of the legislature
hands of the old crowd, its hands
have been tied.The hope of the situa
tion is not immediate; it lies in the
future, in the possibility
younger men will not sacrifice
anxiety to handle problems in a
•statesmanlike way to personal am
bition or the petty polities that in-
tesL the legislature.
two-platoon system or
salary cut-—how absurd it is for
Georgia legislature to fix the 8& |
of the mayor of Macon and (; rav
Unadilla and Ty Tyl—or he
want the corporate nam e of hi.,
lage” changed to “town” or he
want some other silly and ttival
put through. What he does i s to
roll among members of the uen
assembly upon the ha i--, “if you
for my bill I’ll vote for yours.”
members of the assembly are „
more feverish in their anxiety
the pussage of local bills than
the passage of really important
legislation.
The Burgin bill provides that
legislature may have the right tu
the method by which countfe
cities will govern themselves, if
can get to the point where the 1
lators can go to Atlanta to give
attention to measures that affect
good of the whole state, and no;
fling, trivial bills that mean noth
one way or another, we niaj
to see a workmanlike solution
public questions.
A MAN AND HIMSELF
that the
their
The whole situation suggests the
urgent necessity of at least two
measures now before the legislature,
designed primarily to effect reforms
in the legislative machinery itself.
One of them is the lieutenant-gover
nor hill introduced by President Neill
himself. It provides for the election
of a lieutenant-gpvernor who shall be
president of the senate. It has the
effect of giving the governor; who has
just been chosen by the people an al
ly in the legislature and it also has
the effect of setting up a presiding
officer without making it necessary
for him to trade his soul away to
senators.
Not since Hoke Smith was gover
nor has it been possible for a gover
nor to put through his measures in
Georgia. That is primarily because
the legislature feels no obligation to
| follow the governor, although the
people make him their leader. If the
lieutenant-governor is also elected by
the people on the same ticket with
the governor he does have the re
sponsibility for pursuing policies
whose advocacy resulted in his elec
tion.
A man might fool the public;
might fool his friends; he might
his family. But he can’t fool
self.
He has to live with himself
hours every day in the year. He c
get away irom himself, and
matter what people think he is,
matter hoyv successful he may
making people believe he is
thing that he isn’t he himself w
ways know just what he really
Some men know this. Some
them think of it. Some of them
just selfish enough to want to t
well of themselves, and to know
deserve the respect of other.-,
they so conduct themselves tc
their fellow men that they
thoroughly enjoy self respect.
That is enlightened se.fishn
And it is the kind of selfishness
the world can stand. For it
men good because they want l
good and enjoy being good,
beats being good because some
says you must be good, ami th
ens you with punishment if yo
not!
The hypocrite can’t be really
py. People may think he is.
may think he is all he pretends t
He may lead in prayers, say-
before meals, pose as a pious C
tian and still rob and cheat
lows. And may keep on fooling
fellow churchmen, but he can't
himself. And he can’t fool God.
When he gets through his
work on fooling other men in
marts of trade, and then get:
fooling his neighbors at church,
still has to ileal with himself,
when he goes to bed he knows,
boijy else does, that he is going
sleep with a thief, a robber an
hypocrite. And he knows that
ingenuity of hell can’t separate
from that thief, robber and hypo
during the remainder of his n
life.
No man can be truly happy
he be at peace with himself,ab:
ly knows he is what he pretend
be and what he wants others to
lieve him to be; and that mea
good. For none of us wants
people to believe him to be di.-b
evil or unjust.
How do you stand with yoi
—The Dallas New Era.
-The Outlook.
Tlie other bill is that which pro
vides for giving the people uacK
home a measure of home rule. It
known as the Burgin bill. Every man
who goes to the legislature now rep
resents some local faction back
home that wants his charter amend
ed or some other change in local gov-
Dorothy Dix got her
praise from many a man. She
for thousands when she said:
me a flirt, give me a red-heade
tar, give me a bargain chaser,
me a woman who doesn't
whether an egg ought to boil
minutes or two houl's. bring or
lecture platform ladies
Lucrezia Borgias whu are hand)
but, good
the woman
the poison bottle,
deliver me from
whines, “says the man who is
ried to the woman who is a
good industrious complainer.
a whining woman in the Gar
Eden, and she’d have all the
kicking and biting and scrato
each other in five minute
, M
complaining woman and si
matrimony into a howling des
fore you can say Jack Robins'
that's* the reason that I -u> •
whiner is the most aggravate
in married life.
eminent, i lie stage’s main problems
are only secondary to him. He may
time in the house, where it must ori- s "'ant the police and fireman put on a
The Albany Herald says
right to have difference- of '
and to discuss them, hot 1
wrong when discussion of ho"
ferenees of opinion lead- to
ness of feeling and expression
Rags make paper, P 8 P® r
money, money makes bank-:
make loans, loans make
poverty makes rags. I hat s
cuit—rags to rags; shirt ' ,l
shirt sleeves.