The Grady County progress. (Cairo, Grady County, Ga.) 1910-19??, September 14, 1911, Image 4

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

and will arrive JJotnan e;w r.ivi. i 1 ncjr Vi, tion OI previous y- "y .-.m— S6e Grady County Progress ROBERT H. HARRIS ROBERT L. KINCAID Associate Editors. Entered as mail matter of the second-class at the Cairo, Ga Post Office, July 22, 1910. GREAT DANGER! LOOK OUT! Present symptoms do not, in our humble judgment, adequately indicate the terrific political ferment into which Georgia is going to be thrown, after the prospective re signation or the governorship by Senator-elect Hoke Smith. Some incipient frothings may be observed, before that date; but the stage of most violent commotion will not be reached until the approach of the nominating primary. People, look out! We are not a politician—nor a political augur; but we venture upon some political prognostications, m order to justify some timely warnings. Here they come. Two gentlemen have already announced their candid acy for the position about to be vacated: Judge R. B. Russell, of tne state court of appeals, and Hon. J. Pope Brown, late treasurer of Georgia. In addition to those candidates, there will probably be others; of whom we shall speak, in due time. As to the two named, there is, aside from all other considerations, a direct issue between them, upon the liqucr question. Judge Russell has declared unequivocally for local option, upon the ground that, as he alleges, “prohibition is a failure”; Mr. Brown has pronounced, un qualifiedly, for prohibition. As to the position, on that question, of other prospec tive candidates, we shall see what we shall see, whenever they announce. In the meantime, we feel constrained to offer some plain comments upon Judge Russell’s attitude. Before doing that, however, we must remark that while, as possibly some of our readers may remember, we predicted, six weeks or morp ago, that the liquor question would be “bound to come to the fore,” in connection with prospective political conditions, we lament the fulfillment of the prophecy.. Sorrowfully, and not boastfully, we record that the prediction has come to pass. And very regret fully, we must add that this deplorable condition is due to the culpable indiscretion of one whom, in some respects, we have heretofore greatly admired, , , Alas! and alas! For two reasons, we believe the injection of the pro hibition question into the presently impending guberna torial contest to be a calamity: First, because it will 'augment existing difficulties in the way of enforcing the prohibition law as it now stands; Second, because it will arouse bitter animosities, ex cite hostilities, provoke dangerous antagonisms and preci pitate homicides. Now, let our readers fail not to remember the words just uttered. And let them not forget, at the polls, who caused those words to be written! . Let another thing, also, be remembered. Even had it been proper for the local option liquor question to be precipitated into the gubernatorial contest, at this time, the wrong man has injected it—and in the wrong way. It is the business of a judge to enforce law, except when required in judicial proceedings to pass upon ques tions of constitutionality; not to decry it, to undermine it, to bring it into contempt. The fact that Judge Russell may have enforced the prohibition law, as alleged, while upon the superior court bench, cannot excuse his extra judicial aspersions upon that law, in a political campaign. Furthermore. While, as claimed, Judge Russell, if elected governor, might not be able, during the official tenure of the present legislature, to secure any change in the prohibition law, as it stands, yet his pronouncements “upon the stump” will encourage malefactors in violating the law that he has discounted; and he may at times find himself facing appeals for pardon in behalf of offend ers who can plead that they have merely disregarded an empty statute, practically declared to be nulla lex, by the very man who holds their destiny in his hands! Moreover, as we shall indicate, further on, t change may .be expected! Fellow citizens, give ■ heed and take warning! The great poet- philosopher has said, “Idiots alone are cozened twice; Once warned is well-bewared.” But there are other dangers attendant upon Judge Russell’s candidacy, against which we would give warning. Listen! Listless, indifferent, apathetic prohibitionists, wake up! There is great danger involved in carelessly permittin: a man of Judge Russell’s avowed principles to be electee governor, upon the erroneous idea that he can do no harm during the official lease of life of the present legislative body; composed, as it is, of members a majority of whom are understood to be prohibitionists. Who knows, how many of those legislators mav be men whq can be “influenced”? y There is such a thing as being taken “up into a high mountain.” . Allow not yourselves, people, to be deluded into the vain belief that the liquor men are going to use no effort and spc . .1 no money in the interest of Judge Russell’s candidacy. Be not deceived by the indifferent tone as sumed by the anti-prohibition papers. That is but a part of the game;—like Mr. Mann’s unstudied question, which elicited Judge Russell’s unpremeditated anti-prohibition announcement, in his Swainsboro speech. Effort Hercu lean will be made. Money in profusion will be And there are “susceptible” men'; devoid of “back-bone.” There are many human oysters in the world walking a- round with trousers on. And some of them may be mem bers of the Georgia legislature. The promise of support for some future office, or the “judicious” bestowment of fluent currency, or both, may be found of great weight in the cases of not a few molluscan bipeds. The election of Judge Russell, upon a local option platform, should such an event occur, will induce many an invertebrate, now posing as a prohibitionist to change his complexion. Further than all that, should Judge Russell be elected for the remainder of Senator-elect Smith’s term, he will have a decided political advantage over his opponents in the next general primary, when candidates for legislative positions, as well as the gubernatorial aspirant, will be nominated upon the very issue that Judge Russell has so unfortunately sprung; with what results who knows? —in the midst of the confusion which will by that time, in such an event, have become a wild turmoil! Finally, (for this occasion), we warn the public of another great evil that will inevitably follow upon the triumph of anti-prohibition; by whatsoever name called, under the leadership of Judge Russell, or of any other person whomsoever. We mean the quadrennial recurrence of the same fight. Under local option, the six or eight “wet-city” coun ties in Georgia will, every fourth year, force the one hun dred and thirty eight or forty “dry” counties into an ex pensive, irritating, business-disturbing, bitter fight, in which friends will become estranged, neighbors will be made enemies, men will be shot and stabbed to death, schools will be demoralized and churches be rent with I'll ft" At* Qfvifp U People, Mind What You Do! H. GRAND JURY PRESENTMENTS We, the Grand Jury, drawn aijid., sworn for. the September term of Grady Superior Court, beg to submit the following report: Our Committee appointed to investigate the condition of the Public Buildings of' the County report the Jail in good conditioh with the exception of some trash in the corner!? and there is some spitting on the floors. The Court House is in good condition with the exception of floor in Justice Court room which needs some repairs and we recommend that same be done. This building is neatly kept but we find that dur ing court week there is consider able ,spitting on the walls and floors. Cuspidors are provided for this purpose and we certainly think the public should use them or that they should be fined for not doing so. The buildings recently erected for the use of the poor of tne county are very neat and well arranged. The convict camp is in very good shape. In regard to the roads of the county and the way they should be worked we have 'found this one of the most difficult problems with which we have had to deal. We realize that, Under our present system, we will, never have good roads unless some means are used to enforce' the law. We have discussed the al ternate road system pro and con and we are persuaded that it would be a mistake to saddle this on our people at this time. All things considered we think the old system now in use had better be continued for awhile and so recommend; but we want to go further and recommend that the Road Commissioners of the Coun ty be given until, fall term of court in 1912 to get their respec tive roads in good condition and tion be taken as will result in our roads being speedily put in good condition. We find the following roads and bridges in very bad condition and recommend that same be looked after without delay: bridge over Swamp Creek on the Calvary and Bainbridge road; the road from Cairo to Whigham is in very bad shape and most of the roads in the Whigham district need work badly; the Lime Sink bridge is in very bad shape and has been condemned and should have 1 im mediate attention; bridge over Sofkee Creek on the Hawthorne Trail needs some repairs; the road opened up about a year ago from Pine Park to Duncanville is hardly in a passible condition'in some places; there are stumps that need to be gotten .out and rough places leveled up and in one place there is a fence that should be moved. We have a committee to ex amine the books of the various officers of the County and find those of the J. P.’s, Ordinary, Treasurer, Tax Collector and Clerk of the Court neatly and, so far as we are able to deter mine in the limited time in which we have to examine them, correc tly kept. We find what appears to us to be some little irregulari ties in Tax Receiver’s book but we feel sure that the Tax Receiv er should have been present and gone over the books with our committee, that it could have been explained satisfactory. We recommend that a thorough ly reliable and competent auditor be employed to make a full and complete audit of the books of the various county officials and that said work be complete be fore the convening of the Grand Jury for fall term of Court next year. We recommend the appoint ment of Neel Hollingsworth as. N. P. and Ex-off, J. P. for Spring Hill District. We recommend be paid $2.00 per day for his ser vices, this amount to be an addi tion to his regular pay as Juror, We have elected D. G. McNair on the County Board of Educa- spent. tion to succeed N. G. Christop- " her, resigned. We desire to thank Judge Park for his able charge to this body and also our solicitor Col. Wooten for his advice and help during our deliberations. W. H. Collins, Foreman. J. T. Booth, E. J. Dickey, R. L. Vanlandingham. J. H. Hudson, W. B. Brown, T. J. Watts, E. A. Alderman, C. E. Stringer, P- W. Buasey, C. H. Vickers, J. T. Larkins, D. C. Haire, A. L. Wamble, E. A. Norton, H. D. Payne, T. M. Duggar, J. R. Garland, B. B. Martin, J. A. Gainey, F. J. Miller, W. B. Godwin, C. E. Vanlandingham. Grady Superior Court, Septem ber Term, 19J.1. - The foregoing General Present ments received in open court and ordered filed and spread on the minutes. All recommendations, nominations and elections therein contained are hereby ratified and confirmed. Frank Park, j. a. c. a; C. The Invariable Rule. In all well-regulated printing offices, there is an inflexible rule that requires every communica tion to be accompanied by ther name of some responsible person; not necessarily for publication, but for the protection of the managing editor. In many cases, such a rdle would appear un necessary; but if anonymous ar ticles of a harmless character were allowed, the same privilege could be claimed for those of an other character. Therefore, no deviation from this universal rule can be permitted. H. that if our Commissioners of j that Jurors and bailiffs be paid Roads and Revenues are not now j the sum of $2.00 per day for their clothed with the proper authority j services and that the Grand Jury to enforce the above that the bailiff be allowed to draw his pay proper steps be ffiken to so'clothe along with, the Jurors and not them.' We are of the opinion .have to wait until .the. meeting of that we have the law, which,. if. the County Commissioners. . We enforced, will accomplish results also recommend that our Grand and we recommend that such ac-, Jury Clerk, R. L. Vanlandingham- Knowledge and skill avail him nothing if his prescriptions'Jfare not carefullyfilled. The potency of a drug depends on its quality. We recognize that fact in compounding our prescrip tions. All Drugs and icines sold by us are of absolute purity, fresh and of the pro per degree of strength. When used as directed or- prescribed the result is al ways satisfactory. & Browne Leading Druggists Phone 14. Ga,