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About The Reason. (Savannah, GA.) 1908-19?? | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1908)
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 The Fifteenth Amendment to the Consti tution of the ITiited States should be repealed, and the Fourteenth Amendment modi lied.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 5
