GEORGIA. 



GERMANY. 



323 



do all in their power to prevent crime and put an 

 end to mob violence. He said: "The ordinary 

 processes of the law are amply sufficient to pun- 

 ish all crimes. Our judges are pure and incor- 

 ruptible. Our juries are composed of our most 

 intelligent, upright men, who seldom make mis- 

 takes." 



Political. A conference of the Populist lead- 

 ers in the State was held in Atlanta in August. 

 The object of the meeting was said to be " to 

 ascertain the strength of the party, and see just 

 how the people of the State stood in regard to it. 

 The principal affairs discussed, with the excep- 

 tion of party standing in the State, were the 

 declaration against fusion, the arrangement for 

 complete State organization in every militia dis- 

 trict, and the indorsement of the presidential 

 candidate." 



By unanimous action the members declared for 

 " middle-of-the-road " populism and against fu- 

 sion with either of the older parties. They ap- 

 proved the candidacy of Wharton Barker for 

 President and Ignatius Donnelly for Vice-Presi- 

 dent, and decided to nominate a full State 

 ticket. 



Legislative Session. The annual session of 

 the Legislature extended from Oct. 26 to Dec. 16. 

 The Governor devoted several paragraphs of his 

 message to crime and mob violence. He is re- 

 ported to have said that the unusual amount of 

 crime by lawless negroes and the consequent 

 vengeance by mobs is due, in part at least, to in- 

 termeddling in newspaper articles and incendiary 

 letters, which serve to aggravate the trouble. 



The bills introduced numbered 392, and the 

 resolutions 145. More than 200 were passed. 



The Tax Commission, whose appointment was 

 provided for by the Legislature of 1898 to con- 

 sider the question of taxation, reported at this 

 session, recommending an income tax, a collat- 

 eral-inheritance tax, and the imposition of a spe- 

 cial State tax on all quasi-public corporations; 

 also the creation of a State board of tax com- 

 missioners, with large powers over local assess- 

 ments and exclusive authority to assess railroad, 

 telegraph, telephone, and express companies. The 

 House disposed of the proposed measure by refer- 

 ring it to the Governor for transmission to the 

 next Legislature, as it could not receive proper 

 consideration at this session. 



A law was made prohibiting the sleeping-car 

 companies operating in the State from furnishing 

 berths to negro passengers, except in coaches used 

 exclusively for negroes. 



An act, intended to enable farmers to hold their 

 cotton and other crops for better prices, permits 

 warehousemen to give bond in amount equal to 

 the capacity of their warehouses, and to issue 

 negotiable warehouse receipts. 



It was provided that the State militia shall 

 be reorganized. All commissions of officers in the 

 service are to expire Feb. 1, 1900, when new offi- 

 cers shall be elected by the companies. The field 

 officers are then to be elected by the line officers. 

 Commissions are to expire regularly at the end 

 of three years. 



A bill was passed providing for a State board 

 of examiners in osteopathy; but it was vetoed, 

 having been opposed by the Atlanta physicians 

 on the ground that graduates of the only school 

 of osteopathy were practically without knowledge 

 of materia medica. 



^ Among bills defeated was one for biennial ses- 

 sions of the Legislature and a franchise act simi- 

 lar to the one passed as a proposed constitu- 

 tional amendment in North Carolina. This also 

 was proposed as an amendment to the Constitu- 



tion. It provided that no person should be al- 

 lowed to vote in Georgia unless he should be 

 able not only to read arid write any paragraph 

 of the State Constitution, but also to ' 4 under- 

 stand " and " give a reasonable interpretation " 

 to any paragraph of it. The election officers were 

 to be the judges of the voter's understanding and 

 interpretation of the paragraphs of the Constitu- 

 tion proposed to him as tests. This provision, 

 standing alone, gave the election officers power 

 to disfranchise any voter, white or black, in their 

 discretion. But the rights of most white voters 

 were protected by a proviso that no person who 

 was entitled to vote on or before Jan. 1, 1867, 

 in the State in which he then resided, and no 

 lineal descendant of any such person should be 

 disfranchised, even if he could neither read, write, 

 understand, nor interpret any paragraph of the 

 State Constitution. This was defeated by a vote 

 of 137 to 3 in the House. 



A bill for absolute prohibition of the manufac- 

 ture, sale, keeping for sale, giving away, or fur- 

 nishing intoxicating liquors, except as medicine 

 by orders of physicians, passed the House by a 

 vote of 93 to 65, but was defeated in the Senate 

 by a vote of 26 to 14 after a debate lasting three 

 days. The author of the bill, Mr. Willingham, 

 asks to have the measure made an issue to be 

 voted upon at the Democratic primaries. One 

 of the strongest arguments against the bill was 

 that showing how much the school fund would 

 suffer by the loss of. the liquor tax about $150,- 

 000. The counties now have local option. 



GERMANY, an empire in central Europe 

 composed of the federated German states. The 

 King of Prussia is German Emperor, and in this 

 capacity has supreme charge of political and 

 military affairs, with power to make war and 

 conclude peace, except that for an offensive war 

 he must have the consent of the federated states 

 and princes. There are two legislative bodies 

 with concurrent powers the Bundesrath, repre- 

 senting the federated states, and the Reichstag, 

 representing the German people. The acts on 

 which they agree become law upon receiving the 

 Emperor's assent and being countersigned by the 

 Chancellor of the Empire. The Bundesrath has 

 58 members, appointed by the governments of 

 the federated states. The Reichstag has 397 

 members, 1 to 124,500 of population, elected by 

 universal manhood suffrage and by secret ballot. 

 In the Bundesrath Prussia is represented by 17 

 members, Bavaria by 6, Saxony and Wiirtem- 

 berg by 4 each, Baden and Hesse by 3 each, Meck- 

 lenburg-Schwerin and Brunswick by 2 each, and 

 the other states each by a single member. In 

 the Reichstag there are 236 members from Prus- 

 sia, 48 from Bavaria, 23 from Saxony, 17 from 

 Wurtemberg, 15 from Alsace-Lorraine, 14 from 

 Baden, 9 from Hesse, 6 from Mecklenburg- 

 Schwerin, 3 each from Saxe- Weimar, Oldenburg, 

 and Brunswick, 2 each from Saxe-Meiningen, 

 Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and Anhalt, and 1 from each 

 of the other states. 



The German Emperor is Wilhelm II, born Jan. 

 27, 1859, who succeeded his father, Friedrich III 

 of Prussia, on June 15, 1888. The heir apparent 

 is Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, born May 8, 1882. 



The Chancellor of the Empire at the beginning 

 of 1899 was Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst, ap- 

 pointed Oct. 29, 1894. The following secretaries 

 of state were in charge of the various depart- 

 ments: Minister of Foreign Affairs, B. von Bulow; 

 Secretary of the Interior and Representative of 

 the Chancellor in the Reichstag, Graf Posadow- 

 sky-Wehner; Secretary of the Imperial Marine, 

 Rear- Admiral Tirpitz; Ministry of Justice, Dr. 



