The Atlantian (Atlanta, Ga.) 19??-current, April 01, 1911, Image 4
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THE ATLANTIAN
lie feels under obligations to the people of Georgia to carry out the
implied contract. It is probable, however, that under the condi
tions now existing, the people at home would hold him blameless
should he decide to go to the Senate.
There are some mighty battles to be fought in the United States
Congress in the next few years. Conservatism is making a despe
rate stand to maintain the thing that is. All over the country there
is insurgency. Men have learned that the thing that is does not
inure to the advantage of the masses of the people, and they are
rising against it. Party lines are weakening. A big, strong man
in the United States Senate who has got the wisdom to see that the
real interests of the people must be consulted and has got the cour
age to stand for those interests against the powerful reactionary
forces, can make his mark in the history of our day and serve his
generation well. Mr. Smith has that opportunity. But if from a
sense of duty he should decide to let it pass by, it can not be doubted
that the people of Georgia will later on give him another opportun
ity, for he is yet a comparatively young man.
Atlanta and Destiny
Destiny has marked Atlanta out for a great city. To the extent
of their intelligence, the people of Atlanta are helping destiny—
but their intelligence is small. It seems to be absolutely impossible
for them to get away from the “rule of thumb”—to take a large
view of any question; and every little move for public betterment
involves an amount of talk sufficient to build the Tower of Babel—
or come to think of it, we believe it was to pull it down.
Let’s consider briefly a few cases. Through the center of the city
runs a hugh gutter in which is located, more or less, a dozen rail
road tracks. Up and down these railroad tracks, all day and all
night long, come puffing and blowing engines, with hideous noises
and villainous smoke which discolors,, damages, and in some cases
destroys whatever it touches. An ordinance is proposed to remedy
this. The evil is so patent, the nuisance is so great, that one would
think the council would fall over its own feet in its hurry to pass
this ordinance. But what will happen: It will take six months,
even if we get it then! A great city of one hundred and fifty thou
sand people must be damaged and annoyed, in order that the rail
roads may be permitted to save a few dollars.
The fly-screen ordinance is another sample case. The same old
story. Everybody sees the need—but council will have to have it
bored into its head with a gimlet before they can ever get up their
courage to act—because, forsooth, it might cost some fellow a few
dollars. Suppose it should cost a thousand men a few dollars?
There are one hundred and fifty thousand others of us that are
suffering—and we ’re entitled to some consideration!
Take the matter of fire escapes. It required the dreadful calamity
in New York to wake our authorities up to the fact that our Atlanta
buildings are either illy provided, or not provided at all with suffi
cient fire escapes—notwithstanding the facts that there are plenty
of laws to have had every building in Atlanta properly protected.
The writer of this has for several years wondered when Atlanta
would wake up to this patent fact, and is rather surprised that we
did not wait to have a deadly fire of our own before waking up,
because that seems to be the fate of men trusted with public affairs.
They can see a club standing up iir a corner for ten years—but you
have to knock ’em in the head with it before they know it’s a club.
These are but sample cases in our administration of affairs. Let
us look at a bigger matter. The men who had in charge the bond
issue made a most egregious blunder—they did not provide a suffi
cient fund for proper sewers. As a matter of fact, the bond issue
should have included a sufficient sum of money to have carried every
trunk sewer to-the city limits as they now are. Every year of delay
adds to the number of undesirable settlements, because the extension
of the city forces people beyond the present settled limits, and these
sewers opening into suburban old fields create,an undesirable en
vironment. The pressure from within forces poor people to settle
in these localities, hence we get undesirable settlements.
The one eternal cry is: “Money! We have no money to do any
thing with.” The city of Alanta today as it stands could not be
duplicated, with all its property values, real and personal, for two
hundred million dollars. The increase in real estate values within
the city limits is easily ten millions of dollars per year. The ordinary
revenues of the city may be rated at about one million and a half
dollars—just about three-fourths of one per cent of actual values
in the city. It does look as if a city doubling every fifteen years,
increasing its property values by ten millions yearly, could afford
to forsake the “rule of thumb” and plan in a larger way. But
you can’t put a No. 7 brain under a No. 6 hat—and probably that
is the trouble. It seems to us that the one thing that Atlanta lacks
more than anything else is an energetic body of vicious kickers.
Our Little Hatchet
The Atlantian has the right to plume itself a little on the prospects
of the successful establishment of a Peoples’ Loan Bank for merito
rious people in need. In season and out, since its first issue, The At
lantian has cried out for this much-needed reform, recognizing the
fact that only by this means can we hope to drive out the piratical
loan sharks who have no more bowels of compassion than had the
blood-thirsty “Blackbeard.”
It has always been a mystery to us why men who have money
insist on following in a few beaten paths with their investments
when there are useful, safe and profit-making institutions so much
needed.
The scriptures tell us that “to him that hath it shall be given.”
and we seem to favor that idea in business, for it is no trouble at
all to establish strong banks to lend to the big men, while it takes
years of struggle to secure an institution of even small size to cater
to the needs of the little men, who are so much more numerous
That the business is profitable is proven by the host of “loan
sharks” that fatten on it.
Why should not decent men, then, prosecute it decently and make
from it a decent profit ?
Banking in Atlanta
Atlanta has gained in population 73 per cent in a decade. In the
same period its bank clearing have gained 300 per cent. The writer
can recall when some eight years ago he totalled up the bank assets
of Atlanta and they looked pretty good at something like $15,000,000.
Today the bank assets are around $35,000,000, and we accept it as a
matter of course not stopping to think of what a tremendous gain
it shows in such a brief period.
This is not due altogether to the growth of the city, for the in
crease in bank assets has far outstripped the growth in population.
The explanation is found partly in an unusually capable lot of
bank officials who confine their banks to a legitimate and safe bank
ing business.
It is found, also, partly in the fact that we have not that bane of
the banking business a great multiplicity of small banks, each with
its full corps of officials, struggling each for a share of the loaf.
Six big banks, fully established, with a profitable business, together
with two climbers, which will ere long be in the big bank class,
represent the strength of our banking institutions.
Then we have three savings banks and a couple of trust compan
ies, all conducted along prudent lines. Despite this tremendous in
crease in banking business, there has been no corresponding increase
in number of institutions.
And this is well, for what the community needs, above all else,
in banking, is safety. It has been demonstrated over and over that
a few big banks are better than many little ones, when it comes to
large cities, for the big banks can withstand storms which topple the
little ones over, bringing destruction to many unhappy borrowers.
Atlanta is to be congratulated on many things, but on no one
thing more strongly than on the banking situation.