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new institution and entered at once upon his stupendous task of molding a great university for Methodism. There was a distinct preference manifested for naming it Candler University, in honor of the two distinguished men who were jointly, in large part at least, its creators; but the modesty of these men discouraged such a movement, and it was then christened Emory University, for the great school at Oxford, Georgia, which was to be one of its component colleges. The plans for Emory University contemplate an investment of $5,000,000 within the next five years.

Simultaneously with the establishment of this plant, there was launched in Atlanta a movement to revive Oglethorpe University, an institution founded by the Presbyterians at Midway, near Milledgeville, Georgia, in 1835. Two of Georgia's most illustrious sons, afterwards. clothed with the ermine of the Supreme Court, were conspicuous figures in the founding of this institution: Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin and Associate Justice Eugenius A. Nisbet. Oglethorpe University perished amid the wreckage entailed by the Civil war, but not until its list of graduates included Georgia's master-minstrel, Sidney Lanier, a poet of the rarest genius; Joseph M. Brown, a future governor of the state; and scores of men distinguished in every profession. Almost without an exception the students of Oglethorpe University entered the Confederate army; its doors were closed early in the struggle; and so identified was this school with the fortunes of the South that, like the Confederacy itself, it was said to have received its death wound at Gettysburg. At the close of the war, what remained of the institution, after Sherman's destructive march to the sea, was transferred to Atlanta, but in this particular region of the state there was not a sufficiency of surplus wealth for a decade at least after the war, to feed an enterprise of this character and eventually it perished. Its expiring breath was drawn in 1871. The movement to revive Oglethorpe University found its inception in the brain of Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, a brilliant, resourceful and tireless young editor and minister who blended the persistence of a Roman Cato with the fiery zeal of a Peter the Hermit. On January 21, 1915, the cornerstone of the administration. building, a splendid edifice of granite, was laid on the spacious campus just to the west of Peachtree Road, near Silver Lake. The moderator of the Southern General Assembly was present at this time in his official capacity to participate in these impressive exercises; there was also a reunion of all the living alumni of Oglethorpe University; ten of the South's foremost poets contributed odes specially prepared for this occasion; and Dr. James I. Vance, of Nashville, Tennessee, the most eloquent man in the Southern pulpit, delivered the address of the day, taking for his theme Oglethorpe's Resurrection. Doctor Jacobs, who had hitherto been secretary to the board of trustees, was at this time by a unanimous vote made president of the institution, a just recognition of his commanding leadership. This great enterprise will eventually develop into a $5,000,000 institution, if indeed it does not represent. an even greater investment. It is a most significant fact, in connection with this extraordinary crusade, that no congregation before which Doctor Jacobs has brought the claims of Oglethorpe University has failed. to subscribe at least $1,000 to its resurrection fund and to place at least

one member on its board of founders, and he has traveled over a score of states presenting the claims of this great school which he calls not inaptly the Princeton of the South."

Under the new currency system, approved by President Wilson, in an act which received his signature December 23, 1913, federal reserve banks were established at various points throughout the United States, to serve as financial reservoirs. The purpose of these governmental banks was to stimulate business and to avert the possibility of panics by distributing judiciously the nation's surplus money in such a way as to make each reginal bank the center of a well-defined zone or region, easy of access to the commercial public. Most of the important cities of the country were competitors for recognition in the awarding of these capital prizes. But Atlanta was one of the fortunate twelve and was designated as the center of a region including such rival towns as Birmingham and New Orleans. It was due largely to the potential influence of U. S. Sen. Hoke Smith that Atlanta was successful in securing one of these banks. Mr. Smith left his seat in Washington for the purpose of appearing before the reserve bank committee when it met in Atlanta in 1914. This committee, appointed by the President to consider the claims of the various cities, was constituted as follows: Hon. Wm. G. McAdoo, secretary of the treasury; Hon. David F. Houston, secretary of agriculture; and Hon. John Skelton Williams, comptroller of the currency. It was not until the eleventh hour that Mr. Smith was called into the fight, but his timely rush to the rescue, his powerful array of facts and figures, his national prestige and persuasive eloquence all combined at the last moment to swing one of the regional banks to Atlanta; and thus out of an apparent failure came victory. The result was announced on April 2, 1914. Much credit is. also due Messrs. Joseph A. McCord, John K. Ottley, Robert F. Maddox, Joseph K. Orr, Wilmer L. Moore, and J. Epps Brown, who constituted a local committee of business men unremittingly active in its campaign work. Mr. McCord became governor of the new regional bank which his co-operation was an important factor in securing.

This great financial reservoir was designated as the Federal Reserve Bank, number six, at Atlanta, Georgia. The capitalization of the member banks located in the territory was determined on June 23, 1915, at which time the total capital of the national banks in this district was $52,124,840. The total surplus of these same member banks was $28,060,406, making a total of $80,186,246.* From this showing the capital of the reserve bank at Atlanta was easily ascertained, as each member bank was required to subscribe a definite amount to its capital, this subscription amounting to 6 per cent of its own capital and surplus, which made the capital of this bank $4,811,176. The territory covered by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta includes all of the states of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, the whole eastern half of Tennessee, the lower half of Mississippi, and all the southeastern part of Louisiana. The new bank was chartered on May 18, 1914, and was formally opened for business on November 16, 1914. On September 10th, of this year,

* These facts and figures were furnished by Hon. Joseph A. McCord, Governor of the Regional Reserve Bank, of Atlanta, Georgia.

a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta was established at New Orleans, to which adjacent territory was given.

Senator Smith, besides helping to secure for Georgia one of these regional banks, was also instrumental in placing upon the statute books a law which will mean ultimately the expenditure of millions, to be used in demonstrating the possibilities of the average American farm, under modern scientific conditions. From the operations of this law, known as the Smith-Lever act, approved by President Wilson May 8, 1914, Georgia and all the agricultural states, will reap large benefits, on an increasing scale of appropriations. The law requires that an amount equal to what is received from the Federal Government shall be appropriated by each state receiving this donation, the purpose of which as fully explained in the act is "to provide for co-operative agricultural extension work between the agricultural colleges in the several states, receiving the benefit of an act of Congress, approved July 2, 1862."'* In other words, under the operations of this law, the Federal Government doubles what the state appropriates. The Georgia Legislature, at its session in 1914, passed a resolution assenting to the SmithLever act.t

Governor Slaton was authorized by an act passed at the session of 1914 to issue bonds of the state to the amount of $3,079,000, to cover the state's bonded indebtedness maturing in 1915. Detailed reference to this act has already been made in a former chapter. Governor Slaton went to New York where, in conference with the leading financiers of the nation, he arranged all the preliminaries requisite for refunding this amount. When the time came for a sale of the bond issue, authorized by law, the country was facing an acute situation, due to the European war; but Georgia was offered a loan equal to the full amount of her maturing debt, at the rate of 41 per cent, though other states could scarcely borrow at exorbitant rates. On offering her bonds for sale they were overbid five times and commanded a price on a par with those of the State of New York. Several wealthy syndicates sent special agents to Atlanta to secure a part of the issue of bonds, but the best bid was offered by Mr. Asa G. Candler, of Atlanta, to whom the entire bond issue was sold. The ability of a private citizen of Georgia, acting in his own individual capacity, to purchase the entire bond issue of a state, was astounding even to the imagination of the great North, and it served to emphasize in a most impressive way the wonderful recuperative powers of this section. On account of the magnitude of this transaction, the following excerpts from Governor Slaton's message to the General Assembly in 1915, giving the full story in detail, are herewith reproduced. Said he, reviewing conditions produced by the European war: §

"Unexpectedly the tocsin of war was sounded in Europe, and there. began the greatest struggle which has ever sacrificed men or exhausted treasure. No section suffered more than the South. Her cotton and her naval stores lost their character as mediums of exchange

* * *

* Statutes of the Sixty-third Congress, Second Session, Part I, pp. 372-375. Acts 1914, p. 1243.

§ House Journal, 1915, pp. 19-21.

and usual sources of revenue were denied. For a time it seemed that ruin was inevitable and no rainbow of hope appeared above the horizon. During this season it became necessary to refund a large part of the bonded debt of Georgia. It was the first sale of Georgia bonds in any considerable amount for thirty years. No time could have been more unfavorable. * * *

"The legislature of 1914, prior to the declaration of war, and in the exercise of far-sighted statesmanship granted the governor the authority to make a temporary loan in the event the bonds could not be sold advantageously, and it was thought this provision might be utilized. "And yet, when other states could scarcely borrow at usurious rates, Georgia was offered a loan of the full amount of her maturing debt at the rate of 42 per cent, and when she offered for sale her bonds they were overbid five times and commanded a price equal to that of the bonds of the state of New York.

"The governor's office was crowded with investors from the financial centers, but the highest bidder, defeating his nearest competitor by a fraction of a per cent, was a Georgia citizen. Born within the state where he had spent his life, acquainted with her history, knowing the honor of her people, Mr. Asa G. Candler bought the entire issue of bonds, making the only instance where a state, exclusive of the, financial centers, found itself independent of outside aid.

"The bonds to be refunded, excepting $134,000, due May 1, 1914, bore 42 per cent. The bonds sold to refund them bear 414 per cent, and these were sold at a premium amounting to $62,500. They brought $1,017.82 each, with the result that the principal of the bonded debt is reduced, the interest rate is lessened, and it is calculated that, by virtue of this refunding, the state of Georgia has saved $373,000.

"Far beyond this, the advertisement to the world of Georgia's responsibility and resources has been of inestimable value to her.

"Under the refunding act, the governor was authorized to borrow a sufficient sum to care for bonds falling due May 1, 1915, so that the entire issue of bonds might be made as of date July 1, and this sum was borrowed at the rate of 2 per cent."

To the foregoing statement made by the governor it may be added that Mr. Candler rendered a patriotic service helping the South to finance its cotton crop in 1914. He did this by erecting warehouses in which to store the surplus cotton and by making liberal loans to farmers at 6 per cent.

But to return to things political. The death of United States Senator Bacon, as we have already seen, created a vacancy in the nation's House of Peers. Naturally there were many ambitious men in the state who were eager to wear the coveted toga. Friends of these aspirants sought the governor. Some urged Hon. Clark Howell's name. Some urged the appointment of ex-Gov. Joseph M. Brown. Some came in behalf of Hon. John T. Boifeuillet, of Bibb, clerk of the Georgia House of Representatives. Mr. Boifeuillet had also been for years private secretary to Senator Bacon and clerk of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, for which reasons it was argued by many that he was the best man to fill Senator Bacon's place, at least for the unexpired term. He was not only conversant with national affairs, but familiar with the

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