GEORGIA: A Political Suicide

On a bleak, chilly day last week, as Samuel Marvin Griffin was inaugurated as the 72nd governor of Georgia, the Capitol flags flew at half-staff, in mourning for Georgia's 60th governor, John M. Slaton, who had died in the fullness of his 89th year just nine hours before the inauguration. Slaton's death recalled a story of rare political courage.

Festival Day. April 26, 1913 was a legal holiday in Georgia—Confederate Memorial Day—and Mary Phagan, a pretty blonde girl of 13, dressed carefully for the occasion. She was wearing her best dress, her blue hat with the flowers and ribbons on it...