Message of Governor Clifford Walker delivered to General Assembly of Georgia, February 24, 1926

MESSAGE OF
Governor Clifford \Valker
DELIVERED TO
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA
FEBRUARY 24, 1926

Ladies and Gentlemen of the General Assembly:
Business men of America are a unit in the thought that the next great current of population and commercial development will be toward the South. As a matter of fact that current has already set in with tremendous force presenting an opportunity to the South unequalled in all its history. While many speculative and some otherwise undesirable people have followed in its wake, many thousands of good citizens, realizing our unequalled natural resources and seeking our favorable climate, are coming South to make their homes. Other states are capitalizing this psychological situation and I have been unable to escape the conviction that without delay Georgia should adopt a forward-looking constructive program which will attract the favorable attention of these investors and home-seekers, and, at the same time, give to our own home people the advantages and comforts of modern life. Therefore, I have called this extraordinary session of the General Assembly and now submit to your consideration, in terms provided by the Constitution, the matters which I believe to be of vital importance in the future of our State.
1. Payment of pensions to the Confederate Veterans. Fortunately upon the first item of the legislative program I have found no material difference of opinion. Both by Constitutional provision and by statutory enactment the people of the State have voluntarily assumed additional obligations to the Confederate heroes. If they are to enjoy these pensions, provision for payment must be made without a moment's delay. I have taken the liberty of suggesting for your consideration a bill providing for discounting the income from the State's railroad, the same to be refunded from future proceeds of the Cigar and Cigarette tax. The discounting of future income is not sound financing and should be resorted to only in extreme emergencies. Certainly if there ever was an emergency, one is presented here. The issuance of bonds or other processes of ordinary legislation would involve a delay of from two to three years when those most in need would not be in life. So far no better plan has been
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suggested. If in your deliberation a better plan is presented, I will be very happy to approve it.
2. ff_ modern twe!ve-montlis, dependable State Highway System. As I made plain to you in the regular session, for many years Georgia has endured and suffered from an intolerable favoritism, a system of aristocracy in taxation, a system under which one-half of the people owning onehalf of the property enjoy all the blessings of government and escape taxation while the other half of the people who own the other half of the property pay all the expenses of government. I also assert that Georgia has at the same time endured and suffered from a like system of favoritism and aristocracy in education under which one-half of the boys and girls of the State enjoy practically every educational opportunity while the other half are given practically no educational opportunity.
The present plan of road building is strikingly similar in sectional favoritism, aristocratic by inequality in location and by injustice in the distribution of its benefits. Under the present plan of road building, exactly as in the case of our schools, the favored few have secured their paved roads, a favored few more will secure their paved roads within a reasonable time while the unfavored majority of counties, those counties not on the main highways, those not blessed with unlimited resources and high taxable values for county bond issues must be content with indefinite delay, with no welldefined, dependable, business-like system on which they can base a hope at any fixed time in the future. In the meantime the entire State is paying the price of good roads while receiving the worst possible advertisement through the present patch-work system or lack of system. We have had an aristocracy in education; let us have no aristocracy in highways.
I approach this discussion with no desire to criticise the
Highway Department. In the actual construction of
roads it is probable that members of the Board could now
profit by their past experiences. It is also true that bricks
cannot be made of straw. We have not provided sufficient
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funds for paved highways. Our roads are greatly im proved as compared with those of fifteen years ago. But we still have no dependable system to which we can look with confidence for state-wide, fairly distributed paved highways within a reasonable time.
Such a system we must have if we secure the nine-months, high-grade consolidated schools, and such a system we must have if we capitalize the current of development in the South. It is this that the people of the State are demanding and for this I appeal at the hands of this session. So strong is this demand in every section of the State that whenever given an opportunity the people have voted to bond themselves so overwhelmingly as to be practically unanimous. We are agreed that we must have paved roads on our main-traveled highways. How are we to secure them?
Unfortunately there are two schools of thought; the one urging the continuation of the present pay-as-you-go plan of construction; the other urging the issuance of bonds to be retired by the present income from gasoline and tag taxes with no addition to ad valorem taxes. The issue is thus sharply drawn:
Assuming that we all favor paved roads at the earliest possible moment consistent with economy, what plan of financing will procure that end most satisfactorily? As I have given serious thought to the subject every passing hour has strengthened the conviction that the bond issue is the only feasible plan.
It is claimed that we can complete the paved system as rapidly with the present income of the State allocated to construction work as we could with bonds and yet simple calculation will demonstrate that an income sufficient to pave the State system in twenty years will amortize or retire an issue of bonds (both interest and principal) sufficient to pave the State system in five years and not add a dollar of ad valorem taxes.
But we are told that we can not spend more than ten to twelve millions a year economically. Yet in a signed
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statement Governor McLean tells you that the State of North Carolina, much smaller in area, with far less population, than Georgia, is spending 28 millions a year with no complaint of lack of economy. It is likewise claimed that such construction would interfere with labor conditions and yet we have no complaint of labor conditions in North Carolina.
The State of Illinois paved every primary road and of greater width than Georgia's standard in 7 years. The construction road record shows: 1923, 1085 miles; 1924, 1230 miles; 1925, 906 miles, a total of 3221 miles in 3 years.
Again the pay-as-you-go plan contemplates that the cost of roads shall be paid as follows: 50% by Federal aid, 25% by State aid and 25% by the counties. I am advised that in the recent past 21 counties have voted a total of $7,580,000 for road purposes on the above plan. I am further advised that hundreds of thousands of dollars are now in the treasuries of other counties previously voted on the same plan to be matched by Federal and State aid. These favored counties will exhaust the Federal aid of two millions annually for eight to ten years! What will become of paving for the other 140 counties?
With these favored counties under this aristocratic system of favorites exhausting the State aid funds for years to come what will the other hundred or more unfavored counties do for State aid?
Will the counties which have already provided the money by voting bonds be satisfied to wait four or five or six or seven years for Federal or State aid necessary to build the roads which they are expecting in the next year or two? If so, will the other counties which are paying gasoline and tag taxes every day be willing to wait twelve, fifteen, seventeen or nineteen years for their paved roads? What assurance has your particular county under the present system that you will get paved roads in four, fourteen or nineteen years?
If your county is unable to bond itself to meet State and Federal aid, every time you drive in a filling station
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you pay to pave some county which is able to bond itself. Can any one seriously defend any such aristocracy as that?
If you are one of the favored few, if you are on a main highway and have the assurance that you are to get pavements this year or next, do you want to live in a land, do you want to be a party to a system, under which your neighbor county must wait fourteen years to get its pavement?
I can interpret this falling all over themselves of these 21 favored counties to bond themselves and voluntarily subjecting their people to advalorem taxes, counties who need their own money to pave their 93 per cent of other roads and to build consolidated schools and high schools,-! can see in it only a race to qualify for the 75 per cent State aid and Federal aid before other counties recognize the good pickings and exhaust these funds, leaving out in the cold the poor counties which cannot match. Any such system is nauseatingly aristocratic, unspeakably discreditable to those who, after proper reflection upon the effect of their position, are willing to take the first monies thus allocated and then fight the issuance of bonds necessary to equalize the benefit with their less fortunate neighbors.
In God's name, men and women of Georgia, hasn't the time come when we should cultivate a state consciousness, develop a state-wide vision? For once let's set the pace by cutting out selfish sectionalism and petty provincialism and rise to heights of State pride worthy of this imperial State!
Up to October 15th last, under the pay-as-you-go plan, only 332 miles had been paved in the entire State. While our laws provide that the roads shall be paved from county site to county site, to date only five county sites are connected and of these only three have been connected by the State Department alone. This is not said to discredit the Highway Department but to demonstrate the unreasonable time when a State system can be completed under the present system. Up to this date not one continuous connected road has been paved. Only one such highway is promised for the next year, perhaps the most important, the
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Macon-Atlanta highway and yet we are informed that even this highway could not be built until Bibb county had financed Monroe county's portion of the cost! What is to become of the large number of helpless counties which have no Bibb county to act as their Good Samaritan?
I do not even intimate that there will be corruption in the allocation of funds or the adoption of an order of construction as between the counties of the State under the present plan. I do not charge that there will be undue favoritism, the favoring of friends or sectional interests. But I do say that any system or lack of system under which one county is to secure paved highways this year while another and an adjoining county must wait from twelve to twenty years is wrong in principle. It is a rule in all branches of government that each county shall participate proportionately in the blessings of government. Yet every month funds are now being drawn from the State Treasury for the benefit of a few favored counties, while the others who pay their equal share of taxes receive no benefits. The system is unjust, it is unfair and it should be so amended as to provide equal benefits to all counties.
I realize that even under the bond plan a road must be
built in some counties before others but that which the
people of the State demand is a carefully worked out de-
pendable State plan of connected paved roads which will give to each county in the State a guaranty on which it can rely of its full share of highway construction within a reasonable length of time. The smaller state of North Carolina built 1,544 miles of road last year. The smaller state of Illinois built 3221 miles in 3 years. Georgia can do the same and more and complete her system in five years.
There are many other considerations leading to the adoption of the bond plan. Time will not permit even the cataloguing of all these. Highway engineers tell us that sand-clay roads wear out at the rate of one to two inches a year. If the pay-as-you-go plan takes 20 years to complete-and eminent engineers advise me it will take twenty-five years-two-thirds of the sand-clay roads will be worn out before they are reached for paving and millions of dollars of the counties' monies will be wasted
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Authorities tell us that the saving in the cost of the maintenance of a paved highway over the cost of the maintenance of an unpaved road will pay the interest on bonds necessary for paving. When you add to this saving the saving on wear-and-tear of vehicles, gasoline, oil and repairs, time and human nerve, hundreds of millions will be lost while waiting for the paving under the pay-a~you-go plan. The State bonds have always been floated at a much lower rate of interest than county bonds and other millions will be saved to the people in interest charges.
Objection is made that the provision to refund to counties which have bonded themselves in the past will largely increase the amount of bonds. Only such sums as have been expended in good faith on State aid roads under the supervision of the State Highway Board will be refunded and these sums under terms which the Legislature is to define as equitable and fair and this only after the entire State system is completed. These amounts can be refunded exactly as the original paving funds are provided by amortizing the gasoline and tag tax income after the State system is completed. As a matter of fact few counties can complain for with only five or six exceptions every county will share in these refunds. The big city counties will participate only as to their two State aid roads and some of these counties received no State aid. The actual amounts will be much less than indicated. To any objection which may continue to exist I would say that both by provisions of the law and by moral obligations to refund these monies the people of these counties have been induced to bond themselves and construct these roads to be enjoyed by all the counties of the State. Personally I had rather continue in the mud, let Georgia become backward-even the laughing stock of the nation in its lack of progress, if this be necessary to maintain the honor of the State. As a matter of fact there will be no .great loss, if any at all, in refunding these monies. It will but place all the counties on an equality. Much of the monies will be immediately expended in more and better paving and schools. Some apprehension is felt that the big city counties will receive an undue portion of these refunds.
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There are only five or six of these counties. Most of these have regularly used their gasoline income in building road~ for their less fortunate neighboring counties. All of them have expended millions in paving not the two State aid roads alone but all of their highways. The people of every other county enjoy these paved roads every day in the year. Moreover, these big counties bear a very large proportion of the tax monies which go into the State Treasury from every source. For these and other reasons I feel that this apprehension is not well founded.
The "pay-as-you-go" plan is predicated upon the indefinite continuation of Federal aid. It is known that the President is opposed to the further continuance of thi~ fund and there is no assurance that it will not be discontinued. Notice has been given to Georgia that it will be discontinued {fa State system of connected highways is not projected.
In a recent public address State Highway Engineer Neel earnestly advocated the issuance of State bonds to complete the connected State system and said: "It is not fair to other counties to use State funds to build roads in only those counties that are able to issue bonds to match State and Federal funds. The State should build its own system and the money the counties are now using to aid construction of State roads should be used to build the 93 per cent of the highways which are known as 'feeders.' " He estimated that fully 60 counties lack sufficient funds to match State and Federal funds for highways and stated that those who oppose issuance of State bonds should remember that the bond system is being used now by the counties to furnish money for the system and at higher interest rates than the State would have to pay. He asserted that if the present plan- the "pay-as-you-go" plan-is followed it will take 20 years to build a connected paved road system.
Mr. Thos. H. MacDonald, Chief of Bureau of Public Roads at Washington, the highest authority on the subject under consideration, after extended study of the experience of all states, makes a statement of conclusions
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indicating the necessity for drastic changes in legislative and administrative highway policies. Among these conclusions I quote:
4. There is a direct relation between bonds anci progress in the construction of durable roads evidenced by the fact that only those states which have issued bonds have made any considerable progress in the mileage of durable pavements built. At the end of 1924 of the surfaced highways reported 66% were of low type, 24% medium and only 10% of more durable form of pavement.
5. The pay-as-you-go policy is having two principal effects. First, they tend to an increase of inadequate types of surfacing and second they force upon the counties bond
issues. In 24 states which have no state bond issues upwards
of one-half billion of county bonds have been issued in five years.
7. The financing of the State Highway program through contribution from the counties is wrong in principle and will cost the public more in the end.
10. The State Highway Department should be financed without recourse to county contributions and a greater percentage of highway funds should be expended in more durable construction.
Mr. McDonald's views are perfectly reflected by a road map of Georgia which demonstrates absolutely that the contribution-from-counties system does not provide a connected system which Georgia laws require. Up to 1925 no two county sites were connected.
Illinois is considered the standard for State system of paved highways. That State completed 3,221 miles of primary paving in three years. Mr. Frank I. Sheets, Chief Highway Engineer, in a letter dated February 10, 1925, says: "Rapidity of construction makes possible cheaper price per mile than if only a small program were built each year."
Surely no more reliable authority can be found on the questions at issue.
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And now, finally, what is the General Assembly to do
with this vital matter? What is the logical, common-
sense, statesmanlike pos1t10n to take? What is involved in this question? What is the record?
In the past few months the people of 21 counties have
been given a chance to express themselves on the question of voting bonds. to build roads, of bonding themselves, involving ad valorem taxes. With a single exception they voted bonds so overwhelmingly as to 'be practically unanimous. The distinguished representative of the one exceptional county advises me that his people were not opposed to bonds but decided to await the State bond issue. So we can say that the people are overwhelmingly for road bonds. Again, I have made public addresse~ to citizens representative of the towns and the country
in 25 counties. In 20 of these a poll was taken and the
program I have submitted to you was approved by rising votes, practically unanimous-in a majority of instances
not a man failing to endorse it. I haven't the slightest
doubt that when it is explained that no taxes ad valorem is involved in this State issue of bonds, that they are to be retired from gasoline and tag taxes only, an overwhelming majority of the people of the State will be recorded in its favor. Then why should not the General Assembly allow the sovereign people of this State to vote on this state-wide question? You would by this act vindicate the democratic majority rule which is the foundation of our government. The ballot would be taken at the regular November election and would involve practically no expense. You are not asked to saddle a new system upon the people. You are asked simply to let the people speak for themselves declaring by their own voice whether they wish to adopt a new system. This is the only way under ou,r law that the people can be given an opportunity to speak. Having in mass meetings in 20 counties and in elections in 21 counties spoken so ominously and so unan-
imously approved the principle of bonds. for roads, how
can a refusal to submit the matter to the people be justified, living as we do under a government based upon the majority rule? If back home you should feel con-

strained to oppose bonds you can with perfect consistency vote here to submit the issue to a vote of the majority of the people. I am not asking you to vote for bonds here and against bonds back home as a critic of mine by an unfair deduction has charged. I am asking you here as a representative of the people to vote simply and solely to submit the matter to a majority vote of the sovereign people of this State under the democratic rule leaving you perfectly free as a citizen to vote your own convictions back home. If this matter involved a moral issue or if a vicious proposition were suggested the situation would be different. The plan can not justly be termed vicious in principle when good people in every county where they have been given an opportunity to express themselves have practically unanimously approved the principle. The plan is almost identical with that now in force in North Carolina working such unprecedented wonders in that great State and therefore it could not be vicious, and if not vicious why not let the people settle it? Year by year more and more people advocate bonds. More and more they see governmental units and commercial enterprises use their credit for great constructive programs by voting bonds. As a matter of fact this question arises every year and it will continue to arise. No question is ever settled until it is settled right and a vote expressive of the majority will is the only way it ever can be settled. Why not settle it now, once for all? If bonds are not voted then we can proceed finally to establish and perfect the pay-as-you-go plan or some other plan.
Much confusion has arisen over this matter. Records, figures and deductions therefrom sharply conflicting in nature have been quoted. Unfortunately division of thought in some instances has followed the lines of past partisan and political alignments. The issues involved arc far too vital in importance to be determined by any such narrow measure. The patriotic representative of the people will not become a party thereto. Eight months will elapse before the people will be called upon to vote. They can thoroughly inform themselves in the meantime. They can hear acguments of representatives of both sides of the
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issue. They will be given full opportunity to clear up the maze of conflicting figures, to advise with those who are really informed and make their own deductions. Then why should you deprive them of this democratic right? In the meantime no harm can come to the advocates of the pay-as-you-go plan. That system is in effect and will continue unless and until the majority of the people ordain a new system. Then can the advocates of the present plan justly complain that you propose to leave the whole
matter to the people themselves? To do so would be
undemocratic in principle. If in fact roads can be graded and paved as efficiently and as rapidly under the pay-asyou-go plan as under the bond plan, the proponents of the pay-as-you-go plan will have the amplest opportunity to demonstrate the fact by November. If they can, I will gladly lead the fight to reject the constitutional amendment providing for bonds. There should be no bonds if the roads can be built as rapidly and as efficiently without bonds. But by the same token, by every principle of democracy, if it can be demonstrated that a more satisfactory system fair to every county, efficiently and economically constructed, can be provided within reasonable time limits, then the people should be given a chance to ratify the bonds. They cannot have that chance unless you by your vote here submit to them the constitutional amendment now under consideration.
3. A System of Universal Education. I have presented to you the present system of highway building, a system of favoritism, a system aristocratic in sectional advantage, by inequality of location and injustice in the distribution of its benefits. We now, finally proceed to a realization that we have also endured and suffered from a system of education peculiarly alike in favoritism, a system of aristocracy as to one-half of the territory and one-half of the people of the State.
You can best approach the proper consideration of this third proposition to establish a system of universal education by providing equal educational opportunities to every boy and girl in the State by a study of the historical background, the conditions existing through the years leading
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up to the present educational state in Georgia. For a hundred years our people submitted to a system almost solidly aristocratic. In the seventeen eighties provision was made for a State University. The only other legilative enactment-in the eighteen thirties, establishing a meager foundation for high schools-was repealed three
years later. In those first hundred years the rich man em-
ployed a tutor or a governess who became a member of the family and taught the children of the home. No provision was made even for children of the tenants on the same farm. Later high schools were established but these were located in widely distributed centers. The favored few who happened to live in these centers had access to these schools. Only the other favored few, whose parents were able to send them to board in those distant schools, had a real chance of an education.
In 1877 the first step was taken to democratize the schools when under General Bob Toombs the Constitution provided for teaching the elementary grades. It will be noted, however, that even this constructive and democratic constitutional provision left two grievous weaknesses in the State educational system:
First, a great hiatus, a material gap, between the elementary grades and the University which was bridged only in the last ten to fifteen years by the present incomplete but highly creditable high school system, the development of which will mark the history of Georgia for the past decade. But unfortunately the second great weakness yet exists and Georgia is still handicapped by that remnant, far too potent, of the original aristocratic system. Today, with isolated exceptions, we are operating our State schools under a system which provides practically every educational opportunity to one-half of the boys and girls who live in the towns and cities while practically no educational opportunity is given to the other one-half of the boys and girls who live outside the towns and cities. I propose to you that this session correct this aristocratic, unfair, unjust and undemocratic system with the least possible delay by providing equal educational advantages for the children in the country.
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From the mountains of North Georgia, from the most modest of homes, from the humblest surroundings, have come down our Bleckleys, our Browns, our Bells, our Millers, our Reeds, our Wellborns, and our Truitts.
From the middle section of the State, from the same modest, humble circumstances, have come out William Henry Crawford, our John C. Fremont, our Sidney Lanier, our John B. Gordon, our Joel Chandler Harris, our Cobbs and our Lamars.
From the sandy slopes and coastal plains to the south, from like humble surroundings, have come up our Le Contes, our Troupes, our Berriens, our Brantleys, our Turners, our Estills, our Pendletons and our Mclntoshs.
With a record of such illustrious heroes of war and heroes of peace, coming from humble homes, from the body of the common people, what right has any man to place his impious hand upon the tousled head of any boy anywhere in Georgia, however humble his circumstances; and say that lhal boy has not in him the making of a great man?
If education is the bringing out-the literal meaning of the word is "the drawing out"-of the good which God Almighty saw fit to put into a boy, what right have we, what code of morals can justify us, to continue to submit one moment longer to a system of laws which gives to onehalf of the boys and girls who live in the towns and cities practically every educational opportunity to develop but which gives to the other one-half of the boys and girls who happen to live outside the municipalities practically no opportunity to develop the good which Almighty God saw fit to put into them?
Speak in terms as extravagant as_ you will of the untold physical wealth, the unlimited natural resources or the unequalled climatic advantages of Georgia, our greatest assets are still the brains and hearts of our Anglo-Saxon children, the man power of the future, one-half of which like our natural resources are undeveloped, going to waste!
If there be found one Georgian to whom these humanitarian sentiments, these spiritual values do not appeal, let

me say to him that even the lowest, the meanest, the mercenary, the dollars and cents values should lead him to support this proposition of universal education.
Recently I had an opportunity which I long had sought, to drive with a friend through New England. I had wanted to know how those down-east Yankees live. I need not remind you that those people are not only intelligent but they are practical and successful in busiess, Do you know what was the most significant observation of that entire trip? It was that without exception, in every municipality, village, town, small city and large city, the best located, the best built, the best equipped and the best maintained buildings were the school buildings. An eminent industrial leader of New England is quoted by a reliable authority as saying that the manufacturers of the North recognize the tremendous natural advantages enjoyed by the South and realize. that their only hope of competing successfully with the South in the future is to educate the coming generation a step ahead of the people of the South.
Still addressing ourselves to the man of mercenary motives, let us carry him up to the North and let him find the line separating Georgia from North Carolina. South of that line is a series of towns, Blue Ridge, Blairsville, Young Harris, Hiawassee and Clayton,-towns of good peoplethe best in the world-brave, patriotic, hopeful peopletowns which will come but now small and with few civic improvements. Go to the North only a few miles and what do you find? Murphy, Franklin, Hendersonville, Asheville, cities more remote from centers of population and commerce, but thriving, prospering, glowing with electric lights, paving, sewers, every modern civic improvements, with farm lands selling five times as high as the same type of lands south of the State line. And how is the difference explained? With the Georgia side far better located, in one-day auto drive of the millions of wealthy pleasure seekers of Florida, with the same marvellous scenic beauty with the same unequalled mountain climate, with purest water, the most invigorating atmosphere, with every
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natural advantage-there can be but one answer-the difference is good schools and paved roads!
The representative of a large insurance company reports only one foreclornre out of loans of millions on farm lands in North Carolina in 1925.
Let our mercenary friend make a map of any county; call in the Solicitor General; have him place a painted pin at the site of the crime represented by each bill of indictment pending in that county and invariably those pins will clutter about that section of the county where the schools and the churches are least efficient. Go to the source of crime; drive out ignorance and superstition and prejudice; train the youth to think straight, to respect the churches, the courts, the law; then you will
reduce crime; you will reduce your court trials, you will
reduce your expenses and you will reduce your taxes!
In this hour which should be freighted with the most
serious solemnity for us all, I hear ringing down the centuries that age old question: "Where is thy brother?" To our forefathers, who pledged in blood an equal opportunity for all, this body of Georgians in legislative assembly today must answer as representatives of our people. Far too many sons of our State are in the coves of the mountains of North Georgia, hemmed in by mud-bound roads with little or no school advantages; far too many others are sluggishly existing on the slopes and plains below with undeveloped brains of unknown potentiality going to waste; some have recently mounted the gallowssent into the beyond, ignorant specimens of humanity, unreached and untaught. Others are filling our jails, clogging our courts, straining the walls of our detention homes, and over-crowding our penitentiary system. From the executive branch of the State I appeal to the legislative body of my fellow Georgians and beg that you do not evade this momentous question with the age-old shifting of responsibility: "Am I my brother's keeper?" Instead may you treat with scorn any attempt to further delay the march of educational progress in our great State.
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We must provide this universal system of education, we must have high class schools in the country as well as in the towns, if we save Georgia! While the development of our hydro-electric power promises the very brightest industrial future for Georgia, this State is still, and, in my judgment, will continue to be essentially and primarily
an agricultural state. If developed to its destined place we must preserve its agricultural interests. If I would build
up any town in Georgia I would first go out and build up the agricultural interests of the territory around that town. To be more specific I would first go to the County School Superintendent and ask for a map of the county. I would ask him to draw the lines of the districts already provided with efficient schools; I would then ask him to locate on the map lines of districts where consolidated schools were needed and I would go out of that office and never rest till those consolidated schools were established, until every boy and every girl in that county were given access to one of those nine-months high grade schools.
Again I say if Georgia is to remain the "Empire State of the South" without a moment's delay we must set about reversing the current which started some years ago, that current of education of the boys and girls from the farm to the town and city. And how is this to be done? Let us examine present conditions of average farm life. What advantages are enjoyed by the farmer of today? He has at least a chanc;:e of a daily mail- if it does not rain and the mail-carrier is not stuck in the mud. He has a chance of a telephone, of the radio, of some kind of lighting system and some kind of water system. Now add to these the two modern conveniences, the two essentials to modern home-life for which I am appealing and you will permanently reverse that false current and begin to educate the children from the cities and the towns back to the farm.
And now we come to the moral and the spiritual values-the soul of the man-power of the future. With supreme reverence I assert that God established civilization upon the foundation of the home and when he founded that sacred shrine, the home, he ordained that a Christian mother and a godly father could raise
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their own children in the curtilage of their own home, by their own fireside better than in any boarding school or in any home of relative or friend in any town or city. I submit that it is the inalienable right, the right ordained of God, of every child to be raised in its own home, around the knees and under the inspiring hands and the sacred touch of its own mother about her own hearth-stone without penalizing that child by depriving it of a fair chance of an education. I assert with all the earnestness of my soul that any system of laws which robs any child of that natural right of living in its own home, deprives it of the enjoyment and the inspiration of the sacred sentiments and traditions of home life and sends that child out into the world of boarding life or imprisons that child for life in the shackles of ignorance, superstition and prejudice, is an unjust, undemocratic, aristocratic and poisonous system which every patriotic citizen should join in correcting without another hour's delay.
Then give to farm life access to a school system, the equal of that of the towns, place every boy and every girl in reasonable walking distance of a consolidated school or a bus-line to that school; let them live at home and get an education, give them the modern, twelve months dependable highway system over which they can be carried safely and economically to those centralized schools, giving them reasonable access to and contact with their friends more favorably located, contact with inspirational addresses, elevating lectures, uplifting musical concerts, informative moving pictures, recreational games and contests-in other words, give them a chance to live in a modern progressive atmosphere and enjoy the comforts, the conveniences and inspiring blessings of modern life-give them such a chance and you'll start the current from the city and the town back to the country and you'll save the country, you'll save the town, you'll save the city and you'll save the State!
Ladies and gentlemen of the General Assembly, I could multiply the argument till sundown but to add a.nother word would insult your intelligence.
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Many of you are Master Masons. In all the realms of
literature, aye, in all the sphere of imagination, no more striking spectacle, no more impressive lesson can be found than that first lesson in that first degree of Masonry which teaches that all mankind comes into this world on a level plane. The spirit of Masonry demand an equal chance for every boy and every girl.
And call the roll of all other fraternal ord~rs, Rotary, Kiwanis, Civitan, Lions, Exchange and the rest-all with mottoes in different words but with the same substantial objective-the service of the underprivileged fellowman. The spirit of every such club and every otherfraternal organization demands an equal chance for every boy and girl!
The law of our land was founded on the Constitution and that Constitution was founded on the Declaration of Independence. The first expression of that immortal charter of human liberty, declares that "all men are, and of right ought to be, free and equal." The spirit of the law demands an equal chance for every boy and girl!
The Church of God, to which most of us belong and for which I trust all of us have supreme respect, the religion of Jesus Christ, is founded on the golden rule. "That which ye would that others should do unto you, do ye likewise unto them." The spirit of Almighty God demands an equal chance for every boy and girl.
Any man blessed with unusual advantages who is unwilling to share those advantages with his underprivileged brother is unworthy even the name of man!
Along with this system of consolidated schools must go the other elements of equal importance in the well~ rounded educational program. We would be wasting millions of money if we establish the system of centralized schools and do not provide for an adequate supply of competent, trained and consecrated teachers for these schools. This means that we must enlarge and better equip our Normal colleges. We must train our boys to develop the untold natural resources of the State and that means that we must .enlarge and better equip our great School of Technology in
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Atlanta and the technical departments of other schools. We must build a great university at Athens to train and develop leaders of thought and public sentiment to maintain a great State after we have builded it. We must foster the agricultural interests, the foundation of our business system, by training our farm boys to combat and conquer the modern enemies of modern agricultural and that means that we must enlarge and better equip the State Agricultural College and the District Agricultural schools. We must train our girls in the cultural arts as well as in domestic science and home economics for true womanhood in modern life and this means that we must make ample provision for the girls' colleges. Thus we approach the scientific, unified, well-rounded educational system from the public schools to the university, and for such a unified system, with its preservation of American ideals, every loyal son of this Southern State should bend his highest efforts to-day, now! Shame, shame upon the voice that cries "delay!"
The establishment of better schools and better roads will inevitably be followed by a demand for better health. The efficiency of the man-power of the State is reduced onethird by sickness, two-thirds of which is preventable; malaria, dengue, hook-worm, typhoid, tuberculosis must be reduced to a minimum. The economic loss from preventable diseases measured in dollars is stupendous-mounting into millions annually.
Will you follow me in this last argument as I present to you the deliberate conclusion of the best thought of which I have been capable, the profoundest thought of my official life. I ask that you do not commit yourself now on this; Sleep over it; give it the maturest reflection and make your response as the roll is called on the several items of the program.
The eyes of the world are on the South; the current of population and business development is now running this way. The business world is a unit on that score; thousands of good people are coming to the South each week. Then consider the effect if you could truthfully advertise to
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the world that Georgia had actually adopted the constructive program now submitted, if we could capitalize this opportunity of opportunities for Georgia, this the psychological hour in all its history, if we could challenge the attention and arrest the interest of the world in Georgia's unequalled advantages. Let's see just what we could now truthfully advertise. First, that Georgia is the greatest in area of any State in the Union; that Georgia has the very finest climate of any State in the Union; a Stat(! free from the extremes of heat to the South and the extremes of cold to the North; a State which on the hills to the north raises apples which take the prize at the Spokane Washington apple shows; which on the coastal plains to the south raises Satsuma oranges and other tropical fruits and which on all the slopes between raises every agricultural product in profusion unequalled even by California; with a practically twelve-months agricultural and pasturage year; a State with 23 of the 26 types of soil, more than any other State; with 45 of the 52 merchantable minerals, more than any other State; with hydro-electric power going to waste; with a long coastal shore line of unparalleled beauty and unexcelled utilitarian potentialities of fish and oyster and other industries of the sea; with scenic beauty in the mountains to the north majestic and sublime, with the most salubrious atmosphere, the best water, and above all and over all, the purest AngloSaxon blood of any State in the Union! Now, ladies and gentlemen, in the calmest deliberation, assume that we could truthfully add to these glories of a land blessed of God as no other land the three elements of the program you have before you; suppose that it should be announced to the world that Georgia, the State which has been slandered in the four-quarters of the earth as a State benighted, a State of narrow provincialism, that that Georgia, through its General Assembly in the good month of March, 1926, had made ample provision for a system of education under which a settler could establish a home even in the remotest section of the remotest county with a nine-months high grade school accessible to his children and a unified well-rounded educational system from the public school to the university for their further advancement; that the same general
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assembly had made ample provision for a modern, dependable state-wide system of connected paved highways to be completed in from five to seven years and laid the foundation for a modern health department reducing disease and sickness to a minimum-tell the world that Georgia had adopted that constructive and progressive program and no power on earth could keep an army of good citizens from other far less favored states from coming here to make their homes and to join us in making Georgia the greatest State in the Union! I measure my .words when I state as a deliberate conclusion that the same program announced by North Carolina five years ago has been worth in advertisement to that State the 85 millions of dollars involved in its first bond issue. I state without hesitation as the profoundest conviction of my life that the announcement within the next thirty days of such a program of construction in Georgia would be worth 85 millions to this State even if the expenditure of that sum carried no other intrinsic value and no class of men would profit more by this advertisement than would the farmers of Georgia!
Georgia is grievously handicapped by an aristocratic system of laws covering the three great governmental elements of taxation, highways and education, those civic subjects of more potential possibilities than all others combined. We suffer from a system of favoritism, an aristocracy in taxation, under which one-half of the people and one-half of the property pay all the taxes, while the other half of the people and the other half of the property, the privileged half, enjoy all the privileges of government but escape taxation entirely. I call you all to witness that this administration has exhausted all honorable means, has exerted. every possible effort to induce this legislative body to relieve the suffering people of this burden.
No one questions the aristocracy of an educational system, a system of favoritism, under which one-half of the boys and one-half of the girls, the privileged half, are given almost every educational opportunity, while the other half are given practically none.
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And just as perfect an aristocracy of transportation is our system of favoritism in highway construction under which the favored few counties, whose wealth and taxable values will stand local bond issues are hastening into line to qualify for the 75 per cent aid in the cost of construction of paved highways from Federal and State aid funds, making no provision for the less fortunate counties, the un-favored majority of counties, which have not qualified and which from lack of taxable values never can qualify, to share equally these funds.
So clear is this aristocracy of favoritism, so marked, so unjust are these governmental inequalities, that as year by year legislatures come and turn deaf ears to the pleas of governors who are sincerely interested in the progress of the State; as well-meaning and honest representatives of the very people and the very counties which suffer most, and in number sufficient to carry the balance of power, allow themselves to be confused by the studied tactics of the enemy, the big tax-payers and special interests
with their highly-trained, soft-speaking and alluringly
amiable legislative agents, by the multiplied amendments
of over-zealous friends-confused by the specious argu-
ments of over-eager partisans, with their pride of authorship, jealous of their political fences-partisans who refuse to "give and take" with statesmanlike regard for the views of others, confused by the jealousy between the House and Senate, almost continuous and highly discreditable-as year by year this well-meaning balance of power allows itself to be thus confused and thus faits to give relief to the underprivileged half of the people who continue to bear the burdens of an aristocratic government, many men of thought are losing respect for the legislative branch of that government. Most of the opposition to the calling of an extra session was based upon this idea-the oft repeated thought that the Legislature would do nothing if it were assembled. More and more is heard the expression that representative government is falling down; that if this general assembly, convened at a period of perfect tranquility, when no local, partisan or political issues should confuse, with only three subjects to consider, with
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only three problems to solve, should fail to give relief to the suffering people; if the brain and the patriotism of this legislature, unequalled, as it is, in personel by any of its predecessors, is incapable of solving these three problems and of working out a plan of relief, then it should solemnly resolve to go back home with an open confession, that representative government had in fact broken down.
Relying only on the power of logical reasoning, of cooperative and constructive advice, I approached your body in the regular session with an appeal for the abolition of the aristocracy in taxation, presenting for your consideration the views of the leaders in business and industry, successful men of affairs whose counsel I believed would be of material assistance to you. In approaching your body with this last appeal for the abolition of the aristocracy in education and the aristocracy in highway construction, I have been mindful that the people must ratify both measures of reform and I have therefore been constrained to confer directly with the people. I have gone out in person to every section of the State and discussed this program of universal education and fairly distributed modern highways to be built in every county within the earliest possible time consistent with economy and good business judgment. Wherever I have gone, with the exception of four or five places where embarrassing political or other peculiar conditions exists, I have polled the people present and without a single exception when given an opportunity the people have endorsed this program by a practically unanimous vote, in most cases the vote being absolutely unanimous. In 21 counties the people have voted practically as overwhelmingly to bond themselves for paved highways.
I have no hesitancy in concluding that when given an opportunity the people of the entire State will vote overwhelmingly to endorse the program of universal education and highways. Are you willing to give them that opportunity? Can you afford not to give them that chance?
Personally I have not the slightest doubt that the reforms submitted to you will be enacted into law. The
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only question is shall they be delayed while Georgia loses the golden opportunity to capitalize the psychological conditions so gloriously favorable at this moment, those conditions which our neighboring States are capitalizing every hour? Is it possible that there is a single Georgian here who amid these God-given opportunities of development and progress will consent to leave here without capitalizing these wonderful opportunities simply because the suggestion comes from the present Governor? If so, as another has said, the tragic joke will be upon the people of Georgia, upon the children, born and unborn, for this program presents no plan of mine; it is a program born twentyfive years ago in the mind and heart of that great educational governor of North Carolina, Governor Aycock, in whose administration a new, modern schoolhouse was built for each day of that administration; it is the program which in 25 years has brought North Carolina from the most backward, darkened State, the "Tar Heel State," to be the most enlightened, the most progressive and the most prosperous State in all the South; it is the program which in substance was approved by the Georgia State Teachers Association before the present executive was thought of for Governor.
My confidence in the coming of a day of real democracy in Georgia, a democracy of equality in education, in transportation and in taxation, is not disturbed by carping criticisms. I recall that Governor Aycock too was denounced as visionary, as a Don Quixote, as the Mussolini of his day. And yet to day the most prominent monument in all Carolina standing on the crest of the Capitol Hill at Raleigh, honors the name of Aycock, the best beloved name in the old North State and as in North Carolina along with his the names of those educational leaders, Mclver and Alderman, have gone and will go sounding down the annals of time so in Georgia the names of those educational statesmen and progressive teachers who have fixed the ideal and established the goal of a unified wellrounded educational system with a foundation in a consolidated high-grade nine-months school in reach of every boy and girl in Georgia, their names will be honored and
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revered in this great State when the names of carping critics and technical objectors have long been forgotten!
Yes, the day of democracy is coming! I have seen the dawn of that day as I have gone about over the State! If carping critics and re-actionary objectors will leave their steam-heated offices and their comfortably appointed homes, enjoying the blessings which followed their college diplomas, forego for a time their closed cars on their paved highways, and go with me, they too will catch a vision of that dawning day! They may be disturbed by the sight of women and children in distress along the road-side while their less favored fellow man struggles to get out of the mud; their aristocratic habits may possibly be shaken for a moment at least by a view of the other half of the world, that half living in the remoter sections with no highways, with one-room three months schoolhouses and little if any real educational advantages for their children. But I'll show them a vision! Go with me to the most distant counties, Camden and Charlton, with the smallest taxable values, with inadequate buildings and insufficient equipment, yet with all their schools consolidated, with a high-grade nine-months school in reach of every boy and girl. Go with me to that other distant county, Decatur, that royal county of real democracy, which has already builded and equipped a brick, modern, up-todate, nine-months high-grade school in every militia district of that county. Go to Hart county and to Sumter and to Glynn and to Bibb and to Troupe and to Lee and to Bulloch and to other counties which are rapidly approximating that goal; go with me .over the State and catch the vision of the army of tens of thousands of sons and daughters of patriotic Georgians, already mustered in for future service in the battle against aristocracy; listen to the ominous foot fall of that army already on the march from the one-and-two-room schoolhouses to the consolidated school and from the consolidated school to the high school. In five years that army will begin to reach college and burst asunder the walls of every college building in this State, now already crowded. In ten years or less that army will reach this building, it will storm these
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walls; in grateful acknowledgment of the opportumt1es they have enjoyed, in the name of the Democracy we profess, they will demand that equal opportunities of an education be given their less fortunate under-privileged neighbors back home, that equal rights be accorded every class and every section in taxation, in highways and in education. No carping critic will be here then. Truth will be here and justice will be here and victory will be here, for "thrice armed is he who hath his quarrel just." The people of Georgia are rapidly coming to see that no community is stronger than its weakest home; that no county is stronger than its weakest community; that no State is stronger than its weakest county. Our people are developing a State pride.
Yes, the day of democracy, of real democracy, has dawned. The question of this hour and the only question which disturbs me is, shall this legislature, shall you have a part in that glorious consummation? Shall that day come in full meridian in our administration or a later?
If it does not, I call High Heaven to witness it will not be my fault!
Yes, that day is coming. May it come in your day and mine! Full opportunity will be given each of you to make your contribution to its early coming as after a few days you will be privileged to vote for constructive measures which will finally break the shackles of aristocracy which have long fettered our beloved State. The list of those so voting will be a list of immortals! It will constitute a roll of honor, a roll of duty, a roll of freedom! In the name of Georgia, in the name of a greater Georgia, in the name of the Georgia of Hill and Toombs and Stephens and Grady, in the name of the unborn children of Georgia, I call you, each one of you, to inscribe your name upon it!
Atlanta, Ga., February 24, 1926.
CLIFFORD WALKER.
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