The Augusta Courier

Infuriated People Of Georgia Turn On Atlanta's Mob Bloc Vote Gang

The events of the past few weeks have now made it impossible for the Atlanta newspapers to elect a Governor in Georgia during 1962, regardless of whether the Democratic Primary be held on a County Unit basis or on a popular vote basis.

As a matter of fact, the Atlanta newspapers have cut their own throats and destroyed any chance of their electing a Governor.

They have led the campaign for many years against the County Unit System and, by a continuous barrage of propaganda, they have sold a lot of people over Georgia on the idea that the County Unit System has been unfair to the urban centers.

False Statements

The Atlanta papers have presented the fact that only a small percentage of the people live in the rural areas and that, since most of the people live in the urban areas, that they are greatly discriminated against.

A lot of people have accepted this propaganda without question.

Now, since we are faced in Georgia with a suit in the federal courts to destroy the County Unit System and to reapportion the membership in the legislature, the Governor has called an extra session of the legislature to deal with both problems.

Atlanta Newspapers

When the members of the legislature and the politicians, as well as other interested persons, have begun to study the matter, they find that the Atlanta newspapers have been talking about the urban areas surrounding Atlanta and these areas only.

As they begin to study the details of reapportioning representation in the legislature, as well as the counting in the County Unit vote system, they find that towns like Griffin, Albany, Valdosta, Waycross, Dublin, Athens, Rome, Gainesville, LaGrange, and many others,

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Infuriated People
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will take a severe licking in most any reasonable scheme of reapportionment.
As a matter of fact, thirty counties in this state have two members of the legislature each and if reapportionment is made on a population basis, twenty-six of these counties will lose a member of the legislature.
These twenty-six counties have been squawking as loudly as they can about reapportionment on a population basis trimming them down to just a one-representative county.
Atlanta Machine
It is only when they begin to study the details that they find that the urban areas are not discriminated against as a whole and that only Atlanta, and one or two other places, are discriminated against in the present system.
They have found out that the Atlanta machine is attempting to dictate to the rest of the State and this fact is causing resentment from one end of the State to the other.
As a matter of fact, the Atlanta machine has cut its own throat in this deal. Any man who gets-elected in Georgia in 1962 will speak for the urban areas but not for the Atlanta area.
Thinking Much Alike
Any man who gets elected Governor, for instance, will be representing the thinking of the average urban area throughout Georgia.
There is very little difference between the thinking now in all of these urban areas over Georgia and the thinking of the people who live on the farms in this State.
The farmer's interest in every community is tied up with the interest of the people who live in the towns in his county and will be governed accordingly in the voting.
So, the picture that Atlanta has painted of Georgia's being controlled by hicks living on the rivers and creeks in Georgia is an inaccurate and untrue picture.
Georgia has, for twenty years, been controlled by the people who live in the towns and cities.
Urban Area Vote
In every county in the State, with possibly a half dozen exceptions, the votes in the urban areas have been controlling.
So, the issue now is not between the rural and urban areas.
The issue now is between the urban areas.
The issue is: Will the people who live in the small towns and the small cities of the State surrender control of their State to one urban area?
The people who live in the smaller urban areas over the State fear the mob vote in Atlanta and control of Georgia by the organized minority mobs who elect mayors in Atlanta.