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4 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.