GEORGIA. 



240 



schools for the higher education of the negroes, 

 supported by churches and other organizations, 

 are richer than those for the higher education of 

 whites. The value of the property of the negro 

 schools of Atlanta alone, it is said, is greater than 

 all the endowments of all the schools and colleges 

 in the State for the education of the whites." 



Prisons. The State Prison Commission has 

 abolished the county camp of Coffee County, where 

 inhuman treatment was shown to have been exer- 

 cised. With this removal, the last camp under the 

 old convict lease system disappears. 



Banks. The annual report of the State banks 

 shows that there has been no failure among them, 

 while there has been an increase of $2,305,000 in 

 loans and $1,824,000 in deposits. The report has 

 the following: 



Products. The official statement, Sept. 1, 1900, 

 gives 1,309,000 bales as Georgia's cotton crop for 

 the year. It was late in maturing, and fell some- 

 what below that figure. 



In 1899 an effort was made to diversify the 

 industries of the State, with some success. The 

 following is the estimate made in May, 1900, of 

 the fruit industry in and near Floyd County: 

 Peach trees, 600,000; apple trees, 100,000; pear 

 trees, 25,000. These trees will produce in a good 

 year 1,000,000 crates of peaches, 300.000 crates of 

 apples, 25,000 crates of pears, which will load 

 2,000 cars of peaches, 150 cars of apples, 15 cars 

 of pears. This list does not include Japanese 

 plums and grapes. There are magnificent vine- 

 yards, and it is probable that 10,000 gallons of 

 wine are made yearly. One grape grower experi- 

 mented last year on producing clarets, and had 

 wonderful success. 



The La Grange Creamery received a medal for 

 butter exhibited at the Paris Exposition. The 

 company is four years old, and is doing a profitable 

 business. The sugar-cane crop of the State was 

 the largest ever raised, and the Williams Manu- 

 facturing Company report a good demand for 



imp. 

 Within a year or two there have been estab- 



ished in Georgia a broom factory, a cigar factory, 

 in electric-light plant, a flouring mill, ice factories, 

 ind a cheese-making plant; but the cotton-mill 



idustry has made the greatest progress of any. 

 Tifton, Quitman, Cochran, Hampton, Pelham, 



loultrie, Dublin, Cordele, and Columbus mills 

 are either newly erected or in process of construc- 

 tion, while there are three new ones in Atlanta. 



These are being fitted with machinery for doing 

 ill kinds of work, from the weaving of cotton 



ibric to the manufacture of oil from cotton seed. 



The railroads have been active in assisting colonies 

 to settle in districts especially favorable to manu- 

 factures or farm industry. 



Political. The Democratic State Convention 

 was held June 14, in Atlanta. The platform ap- 

 proved the State administration, and commended 

 the chief executive and each of the State officials; 

 congratulated the people of Georgia on the present 

 system of public schools; favored an amendment 

 to the Constitution limiting the power of the Gen- 

 eral Asembly to levy and assess taxes exceeding 

 a specified percentum; favored an amendment to 

 the Federal Constitution providing for election of 

 United States Senators by direct vote of the peo- 

 ple; favored immediate construction and control of 

 the Nicaraguan Canal by the United States; re- 

 newed belief in the allegiance to the principles of 

 Democracy as contained and enumerated in the 

 national Democratic platform of 1896; denounced 

 trusts; adhered to the doctrine of a tariff for rev- 

 enue only; and demanded repeal of the tax on 

 State bank issues. 



The following ticket was nominated: For Gov- 

 ernor, A. D. Candler; Secretary of State, Philip 

 Cook; Comptroller General, William A. Wright; 

 State Treasurer, Robert E. Park; Attorney-Gen- 

 eral, James M. Terrell ; State School Commissioner, 

 G. R. Glenn; Commissioner of Agriculture, O. B. 

 Stevens; Prison Commissioner (full term), Clement 

 A. Evans; Prison Commissioner (unexpired term), 

 Thomas Eason ; Associate Justices Supreme Court, 

 Henry T. Lewis, William A. Little; United States 

 Senator, A. O. Bacon. 



The Republicans met in State convention in 

 Atlanta in March, and nominated a full ticket. 



The Populists held a State convention in Atlanta 

 in April, and named a full State ticket. The plat- 

 form declared : " As the fusionists who betrayed 

 the People's party and our own gallant chieftain, 

 Thomas E. Watson, and thereby demoralized our 

 hitherto impregnable band of patriots, have them- 

 selves been shaken off and our ranks cleared and 

 purified by their expulsion from our party, so 

 have our once broken ranks been reformed, re- 

 vived by the spirit of loyal hope and confidence. 



" The People's party yields nothing in its oppo- 

 sition to licensed saloons as a public nuisance. 

 The gospel of Christ is the solution of every human 

 problem and the correction of every evil. We ap- 

 peal to the Christians of Georgia to unite W 7 ith us 

 in our efforts to suppress this monster evil, so long 

 fostered and nourished by the Democratic party 

 as a means to acquire office at the expense of 

 Christianity and to the degradation of man. 



" We favor an amendment to the Constitution 

 of this State providing for an initiative and refer- 

 endum and the imperative mandate in legislation, 

 submitting to the people for ratification or rejec- 

 tion all important legislative enactments. 



" We emphatically condemn the convict law 

 passed by the Legislature of 1897 as being the 

 enactment of a system more iniquitous than the 

 old lease act. 



" We denounce the present fee system and de- 

 mand that all public officials, where practicable, 

 be placed upon salaries proportionate to the de- 

 pressed financial condition from which the laborers 

 of the country suffer. 



" We denounce the Democratic party for its ex- 

 travagant administration, increasing the burden of 

 taxation upon the people from year to year, until 

 the people groan under the oppression of high 

 taxes." 



At the State election, in October, Allen D. 

 Candler, Democratic candidate for Governor, re- 

 ceived 90,445 votes ; George W. Trayler, the Popu- 

 list candidate, 23,235. A constitutional amend- 



