Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation.
About The Columbia sentinel. (Harlem, Ga.) 1882-1924 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1923)
> Vcf. 41 Give The Children Free School Books and a Square Deal September 11, 181)1, Thomas E. Watson went to Canton, Georgia, to expound Popu¬ lism. An immense throng had gathered in the little town, that day of Indian Summer,'to hear Tom Watson’s message. The speaker reviewed National .and State platforms of the Populist Party. Since 1894, much has happened; nearly thirty years have passed by; and nearly every phmk in the Populist National platform is now a law of this Republic, as Senator T. ti. Caraway points out in his Memorial Address on the Life and Public; Services of Thomas E. Watson. Hr. Watson long championed the cause of the masses, against the classes. He was close to the common people. 1 never heard Tom of a capitalist who hail a kind \tord for Watson; and l never heard of a plow-hand who had not. 1 hold a copy of The People’s Party Pa¬ per, containing Mr. Watson’s Canton speech. Every demand of the Populist Htatc Platform of 1894 is now a law of Georgia, with one exception; The children are still denied free school books, guaranteed by the Constitution of 1877. Many of the boys and girls who hoard Mr. Watson’s Canton speech-—thirty years ago— have grown up, married off, anil now have tots of their own. These tots, like their fathers and mothers were, are victims of the National School Book Trust. In the Georgia General Assemlhy 1913, McGregor of Warren; MeCrory of Schley; Beck and Spence of Carroll; and Edmondson of Brooks, urged that Trust-controlled Legis¬ lature to adopt the so-called State publication plan. That law would have furnished our people school-books at cost. We cited the Act put through the General Assembly, years ago, by the lawyers, whose text-books are supplied by the State for what it costs the State to publish them. But, the National School Book T rust con¬ trolled Speaker William 11. Bunvell (now a citizen of Miami, Plorida), so our Book Act had no ciumre in that Assembly. scrvE . rnfsTs in r forffla, it may he possi blc for us to persuade the General Assembly to enact into law Hon. Clifford Walker’s free school-book plank. Senator Watson endorsed that plank, last year. i u / The incoming administration is pledged to credly that principle; committed” Governor-elect it; and Walker, The Sentinel is ‘‘sa¬ to petitions the Legislature to give our people free books for the common schools. Nearly every School other State has broken the yoke of the Book Trust which charges two prices for books, and of the grafting offi¬ cials who change the text-books so often. The Governor of Tennessee signed that State’s free text-book law, April l-i, and the School Book Trust no longer rules Tennessee. The Tennessee press fought free text-books, and strong influences - were brought to bear upon legislators to kill t-lie Free Book Bill. But, it won in spite of the Trust-controlled daily press. Georgia can do what her sister States have done. The Trust must not be allowed to gorge itself thirty more years, on the mer¬ ciless terms prescribed by itself, and by its tools in the State’s service. Watch the. lobbyists who appear before the Legislature, next June, to fight free school books. Senator Watson’s Canton speech—deliv¬ ered thirty years ago—furnishes food for thought at this time, and The Sentinel repub¬ lishes the following extract: GIVE THE CHILDREN A SQUARE DEAL. “We Populists claim that in the State of Georgia there should he a monthly payment of the school teachers of the State, and the State ought to furnish primary school books to the school children. Mr. Atkinson says he is opposed to that. He says it would cost the State $800,000. I deny it. Let us' see what it would cost: Let us see what are the principles it involved; and let us see whether is right that the school children of Georgia should have primary school books—their read¬ ers, and spellers and arithmetics, and a gram¬ mar, gia. perhaps, Let furnished by the State of Geor¬ us look iiround us anil see what the public is doing in the way of furnishing books to other people; and then let us see how vio¬ lent a contrast it is to deny them to the little boys and girls who wilt be the future rulers of this land. In the great city of Washington, the fede ^Continued on Page Three.), to (Mint Bt j mM BE I o If am. -m Q «/se «fie :;i Price $1.50 Per Year THE RELIGION , By T» (1) You want a religion which does h j defy your common sense, nor forbid you exercise the mind which God gave you. Then you don’t want to become a pa,] and kiss the toe of an Italian impostor. > (2). You want a religion which spiritif lea4| you in' possession of your mental arid independence, subject only to God. papf '©J Then you don’t want to become a and humbly surrender your God-given tellect to the keeping of a priest. , (3) You want a religion which does j dwarf you into arrested development; which encourages you to enrich your by varied research, by wide range of bVitfi ing, and by a manly readiness to hear sides of all questions. Then you must shun Roman Catholic! because the Italian’ pope claims the right, dictate to you what yon shall read, what shall listen to, and what you shall never l»f$v —the pope being afraid for you to hear other side. (4) Yon want a religion that has no etons in its closets, and no secrets which not he told to YOU. Then you had better keep out of the man of church', whose cellars and closets are trill tire bones of the dead, and whose secret j cieties crimes of conceal which hideous will designs and horr| you never he told. I • (o) You want a religion that is at lea's 1 as old as the Christian era, and which you Lai find for yourself, in the New Testament. Thei. you don’t want Romanism and pery, which began ils usurpatory and career, three hundred years after Christ, which never completed its monstrous until tlie year 1870, when it decreed the 4in fallibility” of the popes. (15) Yon want a religion the Golden Rule, the Sermon the. M and the Lord’s Prayer. Then you don’t want a diabolical , , , . mmexiri WlWJIlk'it The wealth and power of the papal hierarchy, than the warriors of. MabPmef;, the hordes of Tamerlane ever shed. Crnn.tv 61 7' l foi-pa i?. n8 r Legislature ey V ? f , Fl0 h to d adopt A , lus Quad-remual ,, . Election Law. Senator W. W. Mundy, of the thirty-eighth district, fa xms Bi-emual sessions of the General Assem *Vri + ia ot “f ™ a ;«»t «S^»st , Ri S fan ° I'd tfi As 4 a mle, too n i d tinkering with -lu f funda- , mental law and established principles is harm The average Legislature meets yearly, on ly to waste public funds and enact a batch of foolish regulatory laws. The United States is the world’s most LAW-RIDDEN COUNTRY! State Congress does for the Union what the Legislatures do for the States, that is to say, the commissioned representatives of the American people enlarge public burdens by enacting new laws. The citizen can’t plead ignorance of the law. He can’t go into court with the plea, “I had no knowledge of this new statute; I vio¬ lated this new rule, not knowing that my leg¬ islators, acting for me, ebmmitted me to it; I throw myself upon the mercy of my Judge.” As a matter of fact, his Judge is not able to keep up with the constant stream of new regulations. The legislators themselves can’t give a clear statement of what took place at proceed¬ ing sessions of the Nalionril an<j State Legis¬ latures. ISinee the World War, Congress has en acted thousands of new laws. State .Legislatures .have turned out hun¬ dreds of thousands of new laws. The National Code weighs EIGHTEEN pounds! If. put together, the Codes of the 48 States would confound a sot of railroad scales. . How is it possible for Dir. Citizen to keep up with this mad procession-? N ou may walk into Mr. Lawyer’s office, seeking advice. Your dilemma is stated to your Counselor, and the Lawyer himself is forced to spend hours, running down what is commonly called “The Law.” After plowing rendered. through volumes of “Acts,” an opinion is Another lawyer, across the street, is waiting for an opportunity to combat Thomson, Georgfr mum m m j . V X,] g‘iutr v rv PS 'IP k\ h Wf, M PjfeiifAGi mm i; keep HistOpitvi i- : i • • B e horn ,#ain ■Wi H |M||: Then you t # if **'< • rowti p.irewafl I ABaotudonipipS M V <9) , V, Knd .When your str.ei uu iWJI: j |s^cl,o hell.’jj W: S-. ipanism. m* fe:; : ■:. 9 |fc:ion i fas roa divorce 0 Rm : Tim ■ 5 SB piigkhJSE se | to >'i’ . S3 I mm* III ■ (i W. tors ^6- that npuis , can be n m .yvfhose bachelor fried women ale under lock ana l children ‘killed imv 'V«t S'-sF. ' 4 •*. ■*.* fi which opens ^ '■li 4 gand h ;iw V Uad i,, ,ia, among .loy.4tie:wife’ the bull-fight: among ItWafeb* ;< nd( and,- ff vrrTj W 1 '^i • y)IWWW'fi?! miraculous virtues t of the BLACK —the. negro Mary, and THE NEGRO CHRIST DO WE NEED THE RECALL? opinitm ’ The result is, a test case, at your expense. baffle Frequently the contending parties the ludo-e Recently, hundreds of corporation Judges and lawyers from all parts of the United States assembled at the National Capital, to launch the “American Law Institrffe. 1 1 For what purpose? “To detei .uine what the laws are, and what they mean ” Chief Justice Taft-idio draws $10,000.00 yearly allowance from the Steel Trust— en¬ dorsed this new drive. And Eliliu Root— chief legal advisor for the House of Morgan —used this blunt language: “If anyone gets in the way of this reform, he will be run over.” Another speaker declared that Judges hail messed things up to such extent that DO lawyer could “with confidence advise his cli¬ ents as to his rights.’’ A Committee was named—twenty-one cor poration Judges Country’’!' and lawyers —to “re-state the laws of the The daily newspapers neglected to tell you about this remarkable convention of-Legal Luminaries and Corporation Judges. baffled Congress and State Legislatures have said Important Ones, and now the pub¬ lic is to-be given a re-statement of The Law of the Land* The Steel Trust and the House of Morgan will write this new Code. of By ail means, give us Bi-ennial sessions the Legislature. Quad-rennial elections would tie the p eo pie’s hands for a period of four years. Oi nce stuck, there would be no relief for Old Man Peepul until the expiration of that four year commission. The pledge-breaker would feath¬ er his nest during that first term, Once feathered, his ambition for the customary second term might, disappear. At any rate, there would be no way for Sol Beeswax & Wife to punish that oath-breaker during the life of his four-year contract. Mr. Langley suggests four-year terms for the Governor anil State House officials, for certain-reasons. I will let Mr. Langley speak for himself; here is his argument: “We do not observe the unwritten law, allowing a Govern r a second term without opposition.” Wiq have our people violated that so JLContiimacl on Page Four .Jf - s ■% 23? ■Tf".- % m 1 ; ./3p5J ; nSm '‘•Hammy &iCo-op srspa 'erg a* <& itn t.h.e Hu LfeparAs.it,Sif m ; fte Federal f% send: its. Exports o&Ggorg to. mspeet our dirt roads,, to re* *WM ?-av developmentCin this negfected. i mm •tioi Hf! lam-C'Y life; abit ..is O* m rp Z ' i nd j.m ent m ■ m* m Ifct VL jPIP’gL adminis!-ratioji-'pf-tjrie Ji of Agriculture m Aug ipaiui , , ^^pner Jitet forget Braf^and tJifl wl a.. Chair p(pilp*i^TK%Bnu- s last veaifyf^i; 7 ’ J ' ? Lefe|sfeture. npiit8 •gia , In t - c • ol .Cora: K BrtNen, $C%. S, apj v a - vent ,trom. tteK.. V( to ail pr-ts-of block Epiriesenlhtiva tlTS'.Politic.;I .Brown’s eftorfc mainf&ilf toil tigate .• hie the State apyrai - ,L ,f. "rovfn. his subordirifl ., i v ay , pn tjfili ... mm mm hsheiWa th!ri'#sup fof■ Th i ‘o .ritaf : wfe . eearriy.i^lff- 11 ®^ cm the m j ' | wm ■ ; Department’s good standing at Washington City. Chairman Holder is of course willing for Uncle 8am. to send a platoon of Crosslands to Georgia, to probe his Department, but ho is not willing for the Georgia Legislature to han¬ dle this internal affair. Why? Simply because the Machine and all. the HIGHWAYMEN CONNECTED WITH IT HAVE NOTH¬ ING TO FEAR, IF THIS INVESTIGATION IS CONDUCT¬ ED BY THEIR OWN ACCOMPLICES. Chairman John N. Holder is shrewd: he is foxy; anil he is possessed of no mean amount of cunning: he knows Crosslaud, and Cross¬ land knows John Holder; and neither Cross¬ land nor Holder has explained that Elbert County deal. Why should the Georgia Highway De¬ partment fear Federal Inspector Crossland, who stole fifteen thou-and dollars of the State’s money, which loot Crossland invested in a Peachtree Street home, in Atlanta? The Highway Department distributed sev¬ enty-five per cent of the road fund among sal¬ ary-grabbers, both State and Federal, and they have the impudence to suggest that their accomplices conduct an official investigation of this public swindle and write a verdict in their own favor. Nice scheme, is this Holder-Crossland flank movement! Chairman Holder fools only himself by thinking that our tax-payers will tolerate this fraudulent attempt to whitewash the Georgia Highway Department. They can’t hide behind smoke-screens, this year! The Moguls* must tell the people their reasons for permitting Crossland to defraud the State. They must furnish the General Assembly- and and th public -an accounting; those fraudulent “maintenance” state¬ ments furnished by Mr. Neel shall be itemized, as. required by the Act of 1921. ; How many people know that Chairman Holder and his co-workers are publishing a political issued newspaper, similar to the Market Bulletin weekly by the Department of Agriculture? By what authority does Chair¬ man Holder spend the road fund, in this man-, nor? Who authorized the llighwa; Depart¬ ment and the Department of Agriculture to enter the newspaper field, with the State’s money and credit? A member of Jhe General has Assembly mailed writes ino that the Highway "Board to each member of the Legislature, a copy of the Highway Bulletin. You sea AConttuued pa Page PourA
