Tuesday, 12th August 1930: Rivers Lays Debts Aside To Attack Sales Tax Plans, The Atlanta Constitution

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Candidate Charges "Special Interests" Are Attempting To Lower Exemption; Senatorial Candidates Speak.

Plans and promises of Georgia's gubernatorial candidates for financial relief from the state were supplanted momentarily Monday by a vigorous attack on a plan for lowering gross sales tax exemption, delivered by E. D. Rivers, one of the five men seeking the state's highest office.

Charging that certain "special interests" were attempting to lower the sales tax exemption from $30,000 to $5,000, Rivers at Alma, Ga., said he was "calling upon the people of Georgia, especially the merchants, to unite and fight the insidious purposes of the special interests, now maneuvering to endanger the financial security of every merchant in the state."

Perry Cites Record.

All five candidates took up their speech making early Monday and will continue throughout the week. James A. Perry took to the radio as a means of reaching the voter. Speaking from Rome's new broadcasting station, Mr. Perry defended his record as a member of the public service commission, declaring that if his record as a member of that commission "was made an issue in this campaign, I can, before an impartial, understanding public, lick the whole quartet to a frazzle."

Maintaining his position that the payment of debts due by the state will continue to be the main issue of the gubernatorial campaign, George H. Carswell, spoke in the interest of his candidacy at Ashburn.

He urged that his plan to use the automobile license tag tax for one year to pay school teachers, veterans and state institutions be accepted as the best solution. Carswell discussed plans advanced by other candidates in the race and said that some of them had already abandoned their original proposals.

Richard B. Russell, Jr., in a speech at Clarksville stressed reduction and consolidation of departments, tax revision, distribution of school books at cost and completion of the state highway system.

John N. Holder, at Eastman, spoke of the state sanitarium at Milledgeville, declaring that "many of our mentally unsound have been crowded into jails due to the sanitarium being unable to receive them." As governor, Holder said, he would "not leave a stone unturned" to remedy this situation.

Harris and Slaton Speak.

In the race for United States senator, both candidates delivered speeches on Monday.

In an address over the radio from Atlanta Monday night former Governor Slaton made a concise summary of the reasons that actuated his commutation of the sentence of Leo Frank, declaring "The path of duty is not always easy. If I had been willing to listen to those who advised me to play politics about this matter of life or death, I might have avoided prejudice and enmities and misrepresentation, but I would have been unworthy to stand before my fellow citizens and look them in the eye, with a conscience at rest."

Senator Harris, in an address at Blue Ridge, defended his vote against Judge Parker and defended his position on "white supremacy."

He was "particularly proud" of his vote against Judge Parker, he said, as his appointment "was not made on account of fitness but as a master political stroke by the republican administration to aid the republican rule in North Carolina."

Speaking at Forsyth, Slaton asked his audience "if there is an institution in Georgia more thoroughly typical than a barbecue," and answered with the statement that if there was "I don't know what it is."

The reference was an answer to Senator Harris, who has charged that the chief accomplishment of Slaton's political career in Georgia "was a series of barbecues for the Georgia legislature."

The former governor said that if giving a barbecue unfits a Georgian to hold public office, "then all of us might as well retire from politics and give Senator Harris a monopoly of the field."

Senator Harris, he said, "has been eating so long in the senate restaurant that he must have lost his taste for Georgia barbecue if he ever had any."

Record Defended By Senator Harris.

BLUE RIDGE, Ga., Aug. 11. Senator William J. Harris in an address here today discussed his record of service during the twelve years he has been in the United States senate.

Answering ex-Governor Slaton on the question of white supremacy and his vote against Judge John J. Parker, the senator said:

"When I was appointed census director by President Wilson, the first order passed by me was the one segregating negro employees in the census bureau from white men and women. This was the first official order of this kind, separating the races in any department in Washington."

When President Harding appointed the negro leader in Georgia, Henry Lincoln Johnson, recorder of deeds in Washington where many white women held positions in that office, it was Senator Thomas E. Watson and I who defeated the confirmation of this negro boss. When Ben Davis, the negro national republican committeeman from Georgia had Judge Tilson appointed United States Judge Tilson was defeated for confirmation. I held that no foreigner or non-resident should be appointed to the responsible place of United States judge of a people in whose district he never resided.

"Senator George and I are authors of the law adopted by congress to investigate and prevent the sale of postoffice or any other federal appointments in Georgia at that time."

"I voted against the confirmation of Judge John J. Parker, of North Carolina for supreme court justice, because the appointment was not made on account of ability or fitness, but was 'a master political stroke' by the republican administration in order to aid republican rule in North Carolina."

"I have been consistently for white supremacy all my life and the intelligent public of this great state realize how ridiculous and preposterous the claims of Mr. Slaton that I at any time or place thought or expressed an opinion other than for unconditional white supremacy everywhere and at all times."

Slaton Discusses Frank Commutation.

In a radio address delivered in Atlanta Monday night, former Governor John M. Slaton, candidate for the United States senate against Senator William J. Harris, explained his commutation of the sentence of Leo M. Frank. He declared he made the statement in response to a number of requests that he do so, following his first radio talk a week ago.

After reviewing the Frank case up to the time it was brought to him on an appeal for commutation of sentence, Slaton said:

"After the most careful and painstaking examination of all the evidence, I had so much doubt of the guilt of Frank that I felt it my duty to both God and man to commute the sentence to life imprisonment, following the recommendation of the judge who tried the case.

"In this action I merely discharged the duty imposed upon me by the constitution and laws, according to my honest opinion, and if I had not done so I could not have retained my self-respect or have been entitled to the respect of others.

"After the judge had recommended to me commutation, on the ground that he doubted Frank's guilt, I could not arrogate to myself that which belongs to God alone, to look into the heart of a self-confessed and repeated liar and tell when he was lying and when speaking the truth. There is no case known to me where any governor took upon himself the responsibility of having a man executed when the trial judge urged commutation.

"The path of duty is not always easy. If I had been willing to listen to those who advised me to play politics about this matter of life or death, I might have avoided prejudice and enmities and misrepresentation, but I would have been unworthy to stand before you and look you in the eye with a conscience at rest, as today.

"As between Frank, the white man, whose guilt I greatly doubted, and Conley, the negro, with whose guilt I was profoundly impressed, I sided with Frank and sent him to the penitentiary for life.

"That is the Frank case."Governor Slaton also repeated charges against Senator Harris made by him in his other radio talk, and urged him to deny them "categorically and not in mere generalities."

Replying to attacks from Senator Harris, he itemized the high points of his service while a member of the legislature and later as governor. These included prompt payment of appropriations, reduction of tax rate, sale of state bonds, negotiated at record low rate of interest and the lease of the W. & A. railroad.