MESSAGE OF THE Governor of Georgia TO 'rH1<1 GENERAL AssEMBLv. OCTOBER 26, l898. W. Y. ATKINSON, Governor. ATLANTA, GA. GEO. \V. HARRISON, STATE PRINTER (Franklin Prtg. and Pub. Co.) 1898 MESSAGE. STATE OF GEORGIA, EXECUTIVE OFFICE, ATLANTA, GA., Oct. 26, 1898. -Gentlemen of the Gtmeral Assembly of Georgia : In obedience to the requirement of law, I send this -communication to inform yon of such transactions since -the adjournment of your predecessors in office as may better -enable you to discharge your duties as members of the -Oeneral Assembly; and make to you such recommendations as will, in my opinion, aid in the perfection of our laws and promote the growth of our material interests. The reports from each of the regular Departments of -the Government, as well as from each of our eleemosynary and educational institutions, will be printed and furnished to each of you. Coming, as these reports do, from men Of recognized ability, who are thoroughly acquainted with -t~e subjects discussed, I cannot too earnestly urge upon _you the importance of giving careful consideration to -every recommendation made. ELECTION OF JUDGES AND SOLICITORS-GENERAL BY THE PEOPLE. The amendment to the Constitution proposed by tlie -Oeneral Assembly, providing for the election of Judges .and Solicitors-General by the people, was in accordance 4 with the law submitted to the people at the general election this year, and ratified at the polls. On ascertainingthe result of the election, I issued my proclamation declaring the result, and the proposed_ amendment became a part of the fundamental law of the State. SPECIAL ATTORNEY WESTERN & ATLANTIC RAILROAD. For a number of years the State has employed a Special Attorney to look after questi9ns arising in connection with the Western & Atlantic Railroad, and to represent the State in the settlementof a number of disputes which had arisen as to rights-of-way. Having arrived at the conclusion that this office should not be a permanent one, in the early part of this year I entered into a contract with Hon. ,v. A. Wimbish, Special Attorney, in which it was agreed that for the :imount appropriated as salary for this year, he should dispose of all unfinished business. This contract is now of file in the Executive Office. I, therefore; recommend that there be no further appropriation made for the payment of the salary of the Special_ Attorney of the Western & Atlantic Railroad. Whatever legal business may arise in connection with this property can hereafter be done by the Attorney-General. TE\IPORARY LOAN. Early in July I received an offieial communication from the State Treasurer, in which he informed me that, in order to carry out the law providing for the quarterly payment 5 -of the salaries of teachers, it would be necessary for the .State to borrow two hundred thousand dollars. This nondition of the Treasury was due to the fact that the increase in the appropriation for common school purposes of four .hundred thousand dollars would not reach the Treasury un.til the collection of the taxes for this- year, and would not likely be available until some time in December. It became necess~ry, therefore, for me to decide whether it would be better to ignore our obligations to pay the teachers quarterly, or to exercise the authority given me by the last General Assembly to borrow money and meet the demands promptly. I reached the conclusion that it would be better for the State to pay the interets upon this amount than to ignore the obligation to the teachers and require them to discount, at ruinous rates, their claims against the State. Fortunately, the condition -of the Treasury was such that we did not need the entire four hundred thousand dollars, and by making a loan of two hundred thousand dollars, anticipating the revenue which would come in on the collection of the fall taxes, we could meet every demand. I, therefore, went to New York and secured a loan of two hundred thousand dollars at the very lvw rate of 2 per cent. per annum. We had -on hand one hundred thousand dollars, known as the .sinking fund, accumulated for the purpose of paying the public debt, which, under our constitution, could not be used for any other purpose, and consequently was not :available to pay the teachers. vVe had a right to place this money in any on~ of the Stat~ depositories. In the exrcise of this right I left it on deposit with banks which 6 agreed to pay for the use of the loan the amount which the State contracted to pay. The State, therefore, whileborrowing two hundred thousand dollars, paid interest on only one hundred thousand dollars at two and a half percent. per annum, and the banks ha\Ying on deposit the sinking fund paid the interest on the other one hundred thousand. CHICKAMAUGA MONUMENT. I regret exceedingly to be obliged to report to you that the monument for which the State has made an appropriation, to be erected on Chickamauga battle-field, has not been completed. The reasons for this will appear from the report of the Board having the work in charge. I am confident, however, it will be completed and ready fordedication in the early part of 1899, and respectfully recommend that you take such action as you may deem properto provide for the ceremonies of the dedication. TROOPS FOR THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. On April 22d the President of the United States called upon the State of Georgia to furnish, for service in theSpanish-American war, two regiments of infantry and two batteries of light artillery ; and on May 26th another call was made for one regiment of infantry. On the receipt of the call, I at once issued my proclamation calling for volunteers, and am gratified to report that both calls wereresponded to with cominendable promptness. U oder the first call we were the third of the original thirteen States, the- ninth of all the :States of the Union, and the first of the Southern States, in completing our organization and turning them over to the Federal government. The people of Georgia have reason to be proud of the character of the men and officers furnished by this State in response to the calls made upon it. These were splendid bodies of men, which, I do not believe, could be surpassed by any volunteer soldiers in the world. EXPENSE OF ORGANIZING THE TROOPS. Soon after the declaration of war, the Federal government declined to furnish a regular army officer to assist the State in the office of Adjutant-General, as had been done for a number of years. On this account, and because of the large increase of the work incident to organizing the military forces, it became necessary for me to employ some one to aid in the Adjutant-General's department. Colonel W. G. Obear, an able and experienced militia officer, was employed at a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per month, which was paid out of the military fund. This employment has continued up to the present. There was necessarily a large expense to be incurred in raising the troops, and the problem was presented to me of determining from whence this fund should be derived. On account of the expense which would have been incurred by so doing, it was not considered advisable to convene the General Assembly and ask for an appropriation for this purpose; and it was, therefore, determined to use the fund appropriated by the St~te for 8 militar,ypurposes. Itemized accounts of the amounts ex:'pended have been carefully kept by the Adjutant-General's Department, and will in a few days be in a condition to be presented to the Federal government for payment. Most of the expense incurred in organizing the troops will be refunded to the State by the United.States government in a very short time. THE STATE MILITIA. The State militia orgauizations were so much impaired this year by havini:- taken from them officers and men who entered the volunteer forces of the Uniteallots of honest men will certainly control." \ 23 Now that the agitati<:m has . become general throughout the State, and is being adcvo?ate 24 and men 8ek preferment under it. We should not expect a political millennium under any circumstances, butwe can and should seek every opportunity to be rid of uusatisfac~ tory Jeaders and to make the political organization responsible to its voters. Thus far the reformer and the liberal partisan can go together, and in this nnity of purpose lies the hope of better primaries. The growing demand for better party methods was recognized by the Legislature as far back as 1891, when an Act was passed and approved by_ the Governor "to protect primary elections and conventions of political parties in this State, and to punish frauds committed thereat.'' This law was n;iodeled very much after the pattern of our present election laws, with the one glaring deficiency that it was not ~andatory upon the party managers to apply the primary in th~ selection of delegates and nominees for offices; and in practice it has been applied with about the same laxity, .all of its provisions seldom being complied with and none of its penalties ever e~forced, and has long since been outgrown by the movement for better primaries. It may be safely said that the volnnt.eer reforms inaugurated by the democratic conventions in 1894 and 1896, and continued by the convention of this year, and effectively urged in the campaign against the caucus methods into which the populists had fallen in their turn, caused great numbers of the latter party to stay away from the polls; while others returned to their former affiliations. I call attention to these facts to show how the people stand in this movement for better primaries, which is really a revolt against bossism. 25 The present demand for primary reform is not confined to Georgia. }""'ew States have been, or are, entirely without statutory regulation ot' the primaries, but in mos~ cases these, like ours, are ineffectual. Ten important States now have statutes more or lesi;; complete controlling primaries, .and as many more are considering and investigating the problem. Recognized as the most progressive of the Southern States, there is every consideration why Georgia .should lead in this as well as in other improvements in the South. The practice of general primaries upon a stated -day, under fixed rules, which hai:r been found so satisfactory in recent years, should l?e made the statutory law, which cannot be changed at the whim of a committee, or the will of a candidate who may control a majority of its members, and should be binding upon all parties. In framing such a statute, there will be many additional features besides those with which we have been made familiar, the character of which I can only suggest here, leaving the details to the wisdom of your body, should you give this matter the consideration which, in my earnest opinion, its importance demands. In the first place, I cannot too strongly emphasize the statement that the ballot should be made absolutely sncret. No possible opportunity should be given to the briber to .see that the vote corruptly purchased is faithfully delivered, .and thus corruption will be discouraged. Neither should .an employer have any method of ascertaining how bis mployees really vote, and thus the laboring man, whose interest may not always be the same as that of the capitalist, but whose views are equally worthy ofexp~ession in 26 a free government, cannot be successfolly coerced. This. . . becomes more vitally important every year, as indt~strial and corporate factors enlarge their scope and employ in- creasing numbers of intelligent suffragists, whose franchise cannot be too vigilantly protected against any improper influences. So satisfactory has been the practice of holding -State. primaries on one day that I would by all mrums incorpo.. rate this iri the law; and I would also advise that the date of the primary be made a fixed day, at such season as may be most convenient to the masses of the voters. If neces- sary, separate succeeding days might be named fo1 each party, or all could be held on one day. -The first provision prevails in New York, whose Legislature last March unani- mon'lly passed what is generally regarded as the broad- est and most complete law regulating primary elections,. political committees and conventions; the second provision is part of the recently-enacted law of Michigan. Such a proviso would be perfectly just and satisfactory to all can- didates and factions alike, and would remove a serious cause of complaint recently made. Candidates for all offices should, of course, be directly voted for, and provision made for delegates who will ex- press that vote in the convention. In some States, notably the neighboring one of South Carolina, the nominees are .Qamed by tbe consolidated vote of the whole State, a majority of the whole vote being required to nominate. In any qase, conventions would seem to be necessary to promulgate principles, and these conventions, in turn, should be regulated by a provision against proxy and secret, 27 voting, and by proper restrict~ons against interference with the temporary organization. With these safeguards, including also a provision for secu,r~ ing the fair submission of all party questions to the members of that party, we ,vould have a law unexcelled by that of any State in the Union, and our primaries would command the confidence and respect of all .par.tie~. Then party organizations will al ways be responsible to the reople, anq political leaders will become liberal statesmen; advocating beneficial public measures, instead of scheming politici'~ns, caring only for the favor of those in control of tbe machine. EQUALIZATION OF TAXES. A great deal of comment haR been made recently about the high rate of taxation in Georgia. That the tax rateis higher than the people who pay the taxes can well afford is an indisputable proposition ; but I fail to se<:> how theamount of appropriations made can be materially reduced without receding from the position which the State has taken respecting its treatment of the old soldiers and the education of its children, and against this policy of retrogression all a.re mutually pledged. I am as much in favor of economy in State affairs as any one can be, as I think the record of my administration will show ; but the proper and only way to reduce the taxes that everybody pays, is to make everybody pay his taxes. If there were a just and equitable system of tax assessment in the State, instead of leaving each taxpayer to swear to the amount that he is willing to pay taxes upon, according 28 to investigations that have been recently made in different localities and according to the painstaking report of ComptrollE;r-General Wright, to which your careful attention is called, the valuation of property would be so increased--so much additional property would be placed upon the tax books--that the rate of taxation would be decreased onethird, and still afford the same amount of revenue that we are receiving to-day. In 1892 tax values were fixed, not by the taxpayer, who bas a direct interest in omitting to give in .property, or in placing the lowest possible value upon it, and thus burdening his neighbor with a part of the taxes which he should pay, but were fixed hy a board of disinterested tax asse~sors. As a result, tax values increased from $444,000,000 in 1891 to $463,000,000 in 1892. This act was rep~aled in the fall of 1892. The next year there was a decrease of $11,000,000 in the returns of taxable property., and now; after a constant decline, it is $54,000,000 less than in 1892, when valued by tax assessors. If so much good was accomplished in one year, with the experience of this effort, tax values ere now would have been equalized and largely increased, and vast amounts of property, real and personal, which now escapes taxation, would be bearing their share of tne common burden. This law was not a failure, as was claimed by its opponents, some of whom suffered by its operations, and made other people believe that they also suffered, so that there was a general clamor for its repeal, to which a succeeding legislature succumbed. It had its imperfections, as any Ia w which you may enact will have, but these defects should have been 29 remedied by further legislation. I have repeatedly called upon the legislature to enact some measure that would bring about reform in this matter of taxation. In my message to the Geueral Assembly -of 1895, and again referred to iu my message in 1897, I said: " In reference to the value of property as shown by the Comptroller-General's report gathered from tax returns, it is my duty to say to you that it does not approximate thereal or market value of the property of the citizens of the State subject to taxation. Under the present syslem of making tax returns, outside of where the returns are affected by local assessment systems of towns and cities~ each man is hi,; own tax-ass(lssor and places upon his prope.rty such value as he sees fit, even himself in many instances confessing that the amount at which it has been returned by him for taxes bears no approximate relation to the real value of the property. While the legislature nominally fixes the tax rate fur the State tu he collected from her citizens, each citizen has the power to fix his own tax rate, and many of them do fix it at au unjustly low rate by placing a val nation upon their property far below its value, and on a scale much lower than that by which the property of theit neighbors are valued. The man who pays taxes upon property unfairly valued at $500, while on property of the same value his neighbor pays on $1,000, is lowering his own tax rate one-half, depriving the State of its just revenue, and placing an unjust bnrden upon his honest neighbor who values his property correctly. I most earnestly recommend that some plan be devised by which the State can arrive at something like a just valuation of the property of its citizens subject to taxation~ and protect the man who honestly returns his taxes against imposition from those who return their property at an improper valuation. It is well to bear in mind that any plan which you may adopt will, when put into practical operation~ prove imperfect; btit as these defects appear it will be the duty of your successors to correct them and continue to perfect the law. Certain it is that no system which can be adopted can be open to greater abuses or more flagrant in- 30 justice than the law under which our property is now re- turned for taxation. A. proper plan for assessment of proprty for taxation will not only equalize valges, but place' upon the tax-books a vast amount of personal effects which now escape taxation." I now appeal to your body to respond to an awakened public interest on this subject, and am -persuaded that effectual steps will be taken in the direction indicated. SUPPRESSION OF LYNCHlNG. I respectfully but urgently invite your attention to my message to your predecessors, iu which I asked for legislation for the suppression of lynching in this State, and suggested legislation for their consideration. The Democratic platform in 1896 declared in favor of legislation on the line of my recommendation, and I respectfully call attention to the fact that this pledge of the party has not been fulfilled. WORK OF LAST FOUR YEA.RS ADMINISTRATION. In sending this, my last official communication to the General Assembly, I will take the liberty of calling your attention to many results which have been accomplished