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leges shall be abridged and restricted in the enact
ment of sumptuary laws. I believe that the present
law is too drastic, for it prohibits the manufacture
or sale of any of them (except pure alcohol) for any
purpose. This law should he so amended as to per
mit the people to have these stimulants in their
homes for use in their families for medicinal pur
pose's if they desire, as they have been from the
earliest history of the human race. But the law
should be cheerfully obeved. and observed, or strictlv
enforced so long as it remains unchanged upon the
Statute Book of this State.
11th. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Consti
tution of the ITiited States should be repealed, and
the Fourteenth Amendment modi lied. These provi
sions of our organic law were written into the Con
stitution bv the hand of sectional hate, fevered bv
the horrors of four years of cruel war, maddened
by the glamour of victory. They were never con
templated by the founders of our Government, and
have no part or place in it. and the only purpose
of their enactment was to further crush and humi
liate. or destroy the defeated and helpless people of
the South.
12th. 1 believe in “Government of the People,
by the People, and for the People,” and in the enact
ment of such laws as will insure ‘‘the greatest good
to the greatest number," as will protect the weak
against the encroachments of the powerful and
strong; as will guarantee to the whole people the
continuance of the blessings and rights of our Free
(Constitutional Government.
The right of franchise is the most sacred right
which the people under our form of government en
joy. It is their only defense against fraud, corrup
tion and imposition upon their rights and privileges.
And yet we are confronted with the fact that this
priceless heritage of the fathers was bartered for
the furtherance of personal ambition.
People of the First Congressional District of
Georgia: I appeal to you, is it not time that you
rise in your might and place the seal of your con
demnation upon such flagrant disregard of your
rights and privileges and such extravagant traffic
with vour franchises? What right has Kinch to
dictate who the next Congressman from this district
should be? Did it relieve Charlie from the cul
pability of accepting an office with such conditions
attached? Aly fellow citizens, this is yours, not
theirs, not mine. What right had they to enter into
such a deal with that which belonged to you? If
they confiscated your rights and entered into such
deals in order to accomplish their purposes and fur
ther their own personal political ambitions, what
might they not do, if you by your ballot, grant the
desire of either of them now? Remember, fellow
citizens, that it will be your ballots that will either
grant or deny them their desires now, for trades
and intrigues can play no important part in in
fluencing the ballots of honest, upright men such as
I esteem, the white citizenry of this district to be.
It is true that I was a candidate at that time and
am a candidate again for the nomination to this ex
alted office, and some may say that this letter is
actuated by a selfish purpose, but I say to you I
bore my disappointment then with fortitude, and
I can do so again if it is so decreed by the righteous
will of the sovereign people, but I do say that as I 1
THE REASON
went into that race with clean hands and a clear con
science. so did 1 emerge, and so will 1 in this.
Verv sincerely yours,
WALTER W. SHEPPARD.
Opportunities for Investment of Money at Home.
For its advent into the Georgia newspaper field.
The Reason lays claim to no more exalted motive
than the promotion, so far as shall lie in its power,
of the prosperity and advancement of the interests
of the people of the whole State. If. by reason of
the general forward movement of home business
and enterprise, this paper is swept along with the
tide, its gratification will be measured according to
the extent to which it feels conscious of having con
tributed to the motive power.
It ought not to be necessary to keep constantly
urging the people to bestow their patronage where
it will do the most good to the greatest number of
citizens of their own State. But there are still
those about us who need to be reminded that it is
the dutv of every Georgian to encourage in every
way possible those who found and conduct affairs
in his own State, involving industry and investment
of capital.
There! is no need to go outside of Georgia for
scarcely any necessity of lite, or, indeed, any
luxury. Very few people there are who fail to
recognize this truth in so far as the older industries
and institutions are concerned, but it is pertinent to
inquire, how large is the proportion of our people
who are cognizant of the fact that about seven mil
lions of dollars go out of Georgia annually to the
great financial centers of the North and East in life
insurace premiums? This drain reached that as
tounding figure, or thereabouts, during last year, and
it is reliably estimated that not less than seventy
millions have gone the same route during the last
twenty years. That is quite a respectable sum of
money and no one can compute the value which such
funds would have accomplished for the development
of Georgia if they had been invested through good
local life insurance companies.
It must be added, of course, that for a greater
1 part of this time, the applicant had no alternative to
buying his life insurance outside of Georgia, for the
very good reason that there were no home com
panies in existence. Now, however, and for five
years or more past, the contrary is true and the citi
zen has at his verv door as sound and substantial
institutions of this character, to whom he can give
his business with equally as great advantage to him
self as can be offered by any foreign company, and
certainly with infinite helpfulness to home enter
prise.
There are now in this State several life insurance
companies, organized under the laws of Georgia and
managed by representative Georgians, which are
thoroughly equipped to provide the best life insur
ance protection. One needs to go no farther than
Atlanta, where will be found the Empire Life In
surance Company, now about five years old. or to
Rome, Ga., the home city of the State Mutual Lift',
which has been in existence only about two and a
half years, both of which are prosperous and mak
ing wonderfully rapid strides in extending the scope
of their operations. The preliminary statement re
i cently issued by one of these companies gives the
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