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THE GEORGIAN RUNS AMUCK—DECLARES DRINK DOES NOT CAUSE POVERTY-Page Four
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VOLUME EIGHT
NUMBER THIRTY -NIN E
HON. W. C. VEREEN—“FIRST CITIZEN” of MOULTRIE
“Big-Hearted, Big-Brained, “Big-Ideaded” Mayor of the Colquitt County Metropolis That Will Entertain the Georgia
Baptist Convention Nov. 19-23 —Inspiring Illustration of the Crown Which Plucky Manhood Wears.
ANHOOD—“elemental manhood,”
as Tom Dixon calls it—and that
manhood cabled to the Rock of
Ages—that is the kind of Presby
terian ''Mayor Who presides over
Moultrie, the happy host this week
of the Georgia Baptist Convention.
I measure my words when I say
it —I have known few towns of five
%
thousand people in all the South that can boast
as large a percentage of active, working Chris
tian men, in their citizenship as the town of
Moultrie, and it is only natural that
such a community of meaningful men
should call to be their chief executive a
man of such lofty type of Christian manhood
and superb business ability as W. C. Vereen.
A Democrat—But Not a Sabbath Breaker.
A prominent member of the Presbyterian
Church and a most liberal contributor to all of
its enterprises, with its beautiful new building
and its several representatives in foreign
lands, Moultrie’s popular and beloved Mayor
not only lives his religion in his home town, but
he lives it when he goes off to a national Dem
ocratic convention —and that is saying lots!
As a wholesome illustration: when it was
announced that the Georgia delegation to the
Baltimore convention would leave Atlanta on
Sunday, Moultrie’s sturdy Mayor, who was a
Congressional delegate, quietly announced that
he would leave on Friday before, so he could
be in Baltimore well rested and ready to at
tend worship on Sunday. Don’t say, young
man, that —“He had plenty of money, and
could well afford to spare the time.” To be
sure he is a man of large means, but his wealth
only brings added responsibilities, and there
is hardly a busier business man in all Georgia.
Simple enough is the solution —W. C. Vereen
being a Christian man he simply means busi
ness with his religion, and he did not propose
to desecrate the Sabbath day talking politics
and turning “the Lord’s Day” into a political
revelry such as would have been almost inevi
table on a crowded train of politicians.
Like "Woodrow Wilson his Presbyterian
brother whom that convention nominated for
the glory of our Southland and the blessing of
our nation, Moultrie’s modest but masterful
Mayor “eschews politics on Sunday.”
Thank God for the growing prominence of
such men in the councils of our country.
Came From Palmetto State.
Born in the “Palmetto State” and coming
from Cheraw, S. C., in young manhood, W. C.
Vereen began his Georgia career as a merchant
in Atlanta, but seeing the great opportunities
for fortune-building in the naval stores busi-
ATLANTA, GA., NOVEMBER 21,
ness, he went to Coffee county to operate his
first “turpentine farm”; then he moved to “the
State of Colquitt” to continue the same busi
ness, and for twenty-one years he has been
building about his present home, not only his
magnificent fortune, but a vast constituency of
commercial and personal friends until there is
but one answer now if you ask: “Who is the
first citizen of Moultrie?”
“W. C. Vereen, of course!”
Young Vereen didn’t “ride the woods” in
his turepntine business for naught—up early
W jSliPf' WSHIi
HON. W. C. VEREEN.
and going late, not commanding so much as
he was showing his men how to work, he learn
ed that early and easy mastery over men, which
enabled him to build them while building him
self into the best success.
Successful In the “Son-in-Law Business”
Character building and fortune building
went hand in hand with him, and so forceful
and formative has been his influence that his
sons are “chips off of the same pine tree”—all
heart, with worthy purpose and winning pluck;
and, smile if you will—but this practical “cap
tain of industry” has managed what many men
of means have never learned to enjoy—to be
a rousing success in the son-in-law business.
The common sense and character ideals that
By WILLIAM D. UPSHAW, Editor.
reign in the Vereen home-life have eventuated
thus far in those most delectable and desirable
articles —sons-in-law that are nobly making
good.
It is my good fortune to count two of them as
friends. Col. 0. A. Bell, a rising young lawyer,
of Cairo, has just been elected solicitor-general
of his circuit, while my old friend, Col. J. H.
Smithwick of Pensacola, Fla., disports and
displays a “red-headed” whisky-fighting man
hood that makes his name a synonym of vigor
and victory in all that section of Florida.
President of Many Things.
Mr. Vereen is President of the Moultrie Cot
ton Mills, the Poulan Cotton Mills, the Moultrie
Banking Co., the Colquitt Cooperage Co., the
Yellow Pine Land Co., of Pensacola, Fla., a
large stockholder in the famous Downing Co.
of Brunswick—and goodness knows what else!
But none of these things nor all of these things
keep him from making it his chief business to
look after the building of the Kingdom of God
in Moultrie and “the regions beyond.”
Modest But Masterful.
Zach Clarke, himself, a citizen of no mean
proportions—brave, and masterful, vigorous,
cultured and consecrated, said of Air. Vereen:
“He has been a brother —nay more —a Father
to me. I love him and honor him as Ido few
men that have ever touched elbows and hearts
with me on the strenuous march of life.”
The Mayoralty race, in which Air. Vereen
made his debut as a politician presented the
unique, and these days, unusual spectacle of
the office seeking the man. Air. Vereen is a
man of reserve and almost shrinking modesty,
and has never asked or sought political honors.
But a crisis—civic and political—threatened the
fair and honorable name that Moultrie has so
long borne. The wave of license and loose mor
ality that seems to be sweeping in a tidal wave
in many parts of the country, surged around
her gates. Brave men and true looked for a
leader to step out of the ranks and lead the
forces of righteousness onward. Naturally, and
almost to a man the real, red-blooded, virile
manhood of the community turned to Air. Ver
een, and he, hearing the call of duty and see
ing the path of public service laid open to his
feet, stepped bravely and unselfishly out of his
counting rooms and manifold personal calls to
shoulder the responsibilities of a public ser
vant. And truly he is “to the manner born,”
for with a consecration that keeps him humble
and serviceful at the foot of the Cross, and a
strict Presbyterianism that makes him just and
impartial to "all, he is capacitated to be the Gov
ernor of the State, or to rule the Nation with
honor and credit to Her great fame.
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