Federal bench, but an act was passed creating a new judgeship in the Southern District of Georgia, to which Hon. W. W. Lambdin, of Waycross, was appointed by President Wilson. At the time of this investigation, Judge Speer was just beginning to recover from a long illness, the result of which for weeks was involved in grave doubt.

On the eve of the European war, when Governor Slaton's administration had entered upon its second year, prosperity in Georgia registered high water mark. The golden horns of plenty were filled to overflowing. Cotton, the staple product of the Southern planter, was bringing an unprecedented price in New York. There were large shipments to Liverpool and to other European ports; and farmers throughout the state were exulting in an era of good times. Governor Slaton's annual message to the Legislature, in the summer of 1914, portrayed conditions. in the following paragraph. Said he:*

"I rejoice with you in the general prosperity which has blessed the State during the past year. Since our last session the people have enjoyed the favors of a generous Providence. Their crops have been bountiful, their industries have flourished, to a degree hitherto unknown. The farmer, the merchant, the manufacturer, has utilized with ceaseless energy his opportunities, unrestrained in effort by the hampering effect of unwise laws. The schools and institutions of learning are giving to the children and youth the keys of knowledge and providing them with that equality of opportunity which is all the worthy can demand; and, more important than all, the church in every community is teaching the lessons of Him upon obedience to whose statutes rests the welfare of all nations.'

* House Journal, 1914, p. 92.

CHAPTER XXXIV

OUTBREAK OF THE EUROPEAN WAR-THE MOST TITANIC STRUGGLE IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY-PRESIDENT WILSON'S FIRM STAND FOR NEUTRALITY-FINANCIAL CONDITIONS BECOME ACUTE AS A RESULT OF THE WAR-COTTON DROPS IN PRICE AND BECOMES A DRUG ON THE MARKET-NO MOVEMENT OF THE CROP BUSINESS STAGNATES—— INDUSTRY IS PARALYZED-Federal Reserve Banks Prevent a PANIC -THE "BUY-A-BALE" MOVEMENT SMALLER COTTON ACREAGE PLANTED IN 1914-AN UNEXPECTED DEMAND SENDS COTTON UP AGAIN A WAR LOAN OF $500,000,000 NEGOTIATED BY THE ALLIES IN THIS COUNTRY STIMULATES INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY— GERMANY, THOUGH HER PORTS ARE BLOCKADED, ALSO BUYS COTTON, STORING IT FOR FUTURE USE THE LUSITANIA IS TORPEDOED—ÖVER 1,000 LIVES LOST SOME OF THE VICTIMS ARE AMERICANS OTHER AFFAIRS AT SEA ADD EMBARRASSING COMPLICATIONS-GERMANY'S SUBMARINE POLICY-PRESIDENT WILSON HOLDS KAISER WILHELM TO A STRICT ACCOUNT-WRITES A SERIES OF LETTERS ENDING IN THE MOST BRILLIANT DIPLOMATIC VICTORY ON RECORD-SECRETARY OF STATE WM. J. BRYAN, FAILS TO SHARE IN THIS ACHIEVEMENT, HAVING RETIRED FROM THE CABINET, IN PROTEST AGAINST ITS WARLIKE MESSAGE TO GERMANY-AN EXTREME ADVOCATE OF PEACE— GOVERNOR SLATON'S FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS BEFORE RETIRING FROM OFFICE, HE COMMUTES THE SENTENCE OF LEO M. FRANK FROM DEATH TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT-TURBULENT DEMONSTRATIONS—A REVIEW OF THIS HISTORIC CASE-LETTER WRITTEN BY JUDGE ROAN, THE TRIAL JUDGE, ON HIS DEATH BED, PLAYS AN IMPORTANT PART— REASONS FOR COMMUTING THE SENTENCE SET FORTH IN A LENGTHY STATEMENT-FRANK TAKEN ΤΟ MILLEDGEVILLE AT MIDNIGHTSHERIFF MANGUM, ON HIS RETURN, ADDRESSES AN ANGRY CROWD AT STATE CAPITOL GOVERNOR SLATON'S LIFE IMPERILEDMR. WATSON'S BITTER CHARGES THE GOVERNOR'S PARTNERSHIP WITH ROSSER, ONE OF THE COUNSEL FOR FRANK, IS FULLY SET FORTH-NO GROUNDS FOR IMPUTING SORDID MOTIVES TO GOVERNOR SLATION THE STATE SEVERELY CENSURED BY NEWSPAPERS OF THE COUNTRY FOR DENYING FRANK A NEW TRIAL-GOVERNOR SLATON UPHELD BY THE NORTHERN PRESS FOR COMMUTING THE SENTENCE, BUT MOST OF THE HOME PAPERS ARE SILENT-ON RETIRING FROM OFFICE, GOVERNOR SLATON LEAVES FOR AN EXTENDED VISIT TO THE PACIFIC COAST HIS PARTING WORDS A DRAMATIC CLIMAX.

THE

But an era of depression was at hand. On the European horizon dark clouds of war were beginning to gather. Events were moving rapidly toward an Armageddon. Within a week's time five of the

greatest powers of Europe had become engaged in the most colossal conflict of all history: Germany and Austria-Hungary, on one side, with England, France and Russia, on the other. Later the Turks were to join the Teutons, while Italy, withdrawing from the Triple Alliance, was to cast her lot with the Triple Entente. When a few months more had elapsed it began to look as if the contest might eventually be decided in the Balkan cock-pit.

seas.

For years these great powers had been anticipating a rupture; and such were the convolutions of inter-related interest that no eye could detect its ultimate issues. German militarism was a menace to the peace of all Europe. England, with her eyes fixed upon the growing power of the Germans, across the Channel, began to tremble for her foreign trade and to devise measures for bolstering her supremacy upon the Russia sought an outlet for her commerce on the Mediterranean, where her Balkan provinces were clustered. France was eager to reclaim her long-lost but still loved Alsace and Lorraine. To involve the whole continent in one titantic struggle it was only necessary to apply a match to the European powder magazine. This was supplied when the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria, was murdered at Sarajevo, in Bosnia, by a Servian student. It precipitated a worldconflict. All Europe became engulfed in the bloody vortex which fol lowed.

Tremendous strides in the art of war had been made since the great civil conflict in America. Engines of destruction had become more. deadly. Guns had been invented with power to decimate and destroy great armies by turning upon a simple pivot. Asphyxiating gases had been discovered with which to poison the atmosphere of extensive areas, involving slow death to thousands. Navies had grown in size, efficiency, and fighting-power; submarines had multiplied in number; while to the list of death-dealing engines on land and sea had been added a new terror of the skies: the dreaded air-ship. This last named instrument of destruction had been foreshadowed by Tennyson in Locksley Hall, when he

"Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,

Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a
ghastly dew

From the nations' airy navies, grappling in the central blue."

Within six months after the European war began, all records had been shattered. In no conflict of history, had such wanton and widespread destruction both to life and to property been witnessed. This is not the place to recount the causes nor to recite the tragic details of the great European war. Its final issues may reach far into the future; and when it ends the whole map of Europe may need to be reconstructed. The Turk may be driven back into Asia. The Holy Land may be rescued from the grasp of Mahomet and the cross of Christ lifted again on the site of the ancient Temple. But these are only idle conjectures; we must deal with facts.

President Wilson's firm stand for neutrality alone prevented this nation from becoming involved in the European war, at its very outset.

He first averted a clash with Mexico and then turned a placid countenance to the battling powers beyond the Atlantic. The Gulflight incident threatened a rupture of relations between this country and Germany and had a man less evenly poised than Woodrow Wilson occupied the President's chair in Washington serious consequences might have resulted. But Mr. Wilson's wise diplomacy, without sacrificing the nation's honor, resulted in maintaining its peace. At the same time, war's inhuman barbarities were rebuked and due respect exacted for the American flag. As the greatest of neutral powers, this country occupies a unique position. Its influence is far-reaching; and when the European war comes to a close it will be this country which will largely dictate the terms on which its issues will be adjusted, its boundary lines fixed, its indemnities measured, and its lasting peace established.

But the immediate effect of the European war upon Georgia's industrial fortunes was most disastrous. It swiftly sent down the price of cotton. It checked the wheels of business. It put an end to the activities of capital. There followed a general paralysis in trade circles. Bankers became slow in advancing money and debtors found themselves unable to meet maturing obligations. There was no movement whatever in the cotton crop; and the fleecy staple which in 1913 had brought as much as 15 cents per pound became this year, at 6 cents per pound, a drug on the market. Such conditions were ominous of disaster. The new currency system of the Wilson administration, with its chain of regional banks, reaching from ocean to ocean, alone prevented a panic. The "Buy-a-Bale" movement was not without its stimulating effect, but what served more than anything else to compose the minds of people and to restore the financial balance was public confidence in the clear thinking, in the sound judgment, and in the philosophic calm of our great President. England's order of council making cotton contraband of war and her blockade of German ports denying the South access to German markets continued to cast its baleful shadow upon the cotton fields of Georgia, but the ability of our people to adapt themselves to a trying situation was slowly but surely asserting itself in a gradual return of better times. Before another year elapsed cotton was bringing 12 cents per pound, with the prospect of reaching an even higher figure. The farmers had planted a smaller acreage in cotton, in the hope of keeping up the price, and to help in the upward trend to better condi tions a war loan of $500,000,000 was negotiated in this country by the allies, with the understanding that every dollar of this amount was to be expended in this country for needed supplies. Georgia's share in this wind-fall was $23,000,000, all of which was to be expended by the allies in the purchase of cotton. Germany, though her ports were blockaded, also became a purchaser of cotton in large quantities, storing it in this country for future use-a policy of wisdom.

But this is anticipating. On May 7, 1915, there occurred an event which threatened once more to destroy the nation's peace. The steamship Lusitania, of the Cunard line, one of the largest passenger boats then in existence, en route from Liverpool to New York, with 1,800 passengers on board, was torpedoed by a German submarine, just outside the harbor of Queenstown, with the result that less than half of its passengers escaped. Though flying the English colors, there were 188

Americans on board, most of whom found watery graves. Among the victims of this frightful holocaust were: Alfred G. Vanderbilt, a multimillionaire; Charles Frohman, a well-known theatrical manager; and Elbert Hubbard, a noted editor. These Americans knowingly incurred a risk by engaging passage on a ship flying the English colors, at a time when England was at war with Germany, and at a time when the latter country, held in a state of blockade, was obliged to retaliate upon England in what seemed to be an assassin's cowardly method of attack. In this particular instance no notice whatever had been given to passengers on board, among whom were many women and children. The vessel carried no munitions of war. It was coming westward from the sphere of hostilities. Against such an inhuman method of warfare President Wilson protested in a series of notes which resulted in one of the most brilliant diplomatic victories recorded in American annals. While this correspondence was in progress, another English vessel, the Arabic, with Americans on board, was torpedoed, thus gravely complicating the situation; but in the end Germany was forced to disavow her acts, to modify her methods of submarine warfare and to make a complete surrender to President Wilson's contention, viz., that attacks upon unarmed vessels without notice must cease. For sinking the Arabic, a vessel flying the American flag, Germany agreed to make full reparation, stating that in this case the submarine commander had gone beyond the instructions. of the imperial government. To quote a terse commentary upon this wonderful diplomatic coup:*

"President Wilson's part in this perplexing and dangerous issue will stand always among the most brilliant and beneficent chapters of our nation's foreign affairs. From first to last he has been at once thoughtful and firm, patient and unflinching. A policy less courageous than his would have sacrificed the country's honor; a policy less careful would have sacrificed its peace. The Wilson policy has preserved peace with unblemished and unquestioned honor, and has achieved results as fruitful to the cause of civilization and humanity as to the interests of the United States."

Though secretary of state, in President Wilson's cabinet, for more than two years, Mr. Bryan did not share in this brilliant triumph of diplomacy, having retired from the cabinet in protest against the warlike character of President Wilson's notes to the German Government. Mr. Bryan was an extreme advocate of peace. Some of his views were, in fact, Utopian. But in withdrawing from the cabinet, he did more to comfort Germany and to hinder the cause of arbitration than he could possibly have done had he acted from an entirely opposite point of view. Moreover, he failed to share in the splendid victory for peace achieved a few weeks later by President Wilson.

Governor Slaton's last message to the Legislature, transmitted on June 23, 1915, reviewed at some length the salient features of his administration, dealing especially with its two greatest achievements, the refunding the state's bonded indebtedness and the passage of the tax equalization act. He referred to the European war, then in progress, to its paralyzing effect upon business conditions and to its depreciation

* Editorial in the Atlanta Journal, October 10, 1915.