Читать книгу Atlanta And Its Builders, Vol. 2 - A Comprehensive History Of The Gate City Of The South - Thomas H. Martin - Страница 9

The Atlanta of today is a growth of thirty-five years. Twice has the upbuilding of a city on this site demonstrated its natural advantages. The rapidity of the growth of Atlanta is illustrated by the fact that, since it was blotted from the map, the city has spread over twelve square miles of ground. Starting with no business in 1865, it receives one-third of the freight delivered in Georgia, and its post-office receipts are also one-third of those of the State.

The question, Wherefore Atlanta? naturally arises, for communities are not effects without causes. Atlanta is the result of a combination of advantages, on a commanding geographical location, turned to the best account by a spirit of transcendent energy, which surmounts all obstacles and builds even on disaster the fabric of success. The growth of this unconquerable spirit has been promoted by a unity of purpose which has prevented the domination of factions. Whatever local interests may clash, the good of Atlanta is always a rallying cry. The Atlanta spirit, which has accomplished so much in the upbuilding of the city itself, is happily contagious, and has much to do with making Georgia the Empire State of the South. The spirit of new life has spread from this to other Southern States which are the most active in the development of their resources, and the spirit of the Southeast is the spirit of Atlanta.

For this moral and material eminence Atlanta is fortunately situated on a ridge which divides the water-shed of the Atlantic from that of the gulf, and at a point where the natural barrier of the Appalachian chain is broken by great gaps in the mountains. This is the natural point of intersection for railway lines from the West with lines from the East.

This geographical vantage ground is accompanied by a topographical eminence, from which the great climatic advantages of Atlanta are derived. More than 1,000 feet above sea level at its lowest point, and from eleven to twelve hundred at other places, Atlanta enjoys a cool, bracing atmosphere, with breezes that blow over the foot-hills of the Blue Ridge. The exhilarating air is a kind of natural tonic, so different from that of the coast and gulf regions that an inhabitant of the low countries, coming to Atlanta during the heated term, feels a stimulus as if he had been drinking great draughts of aerial champagne. The rolling surface of the country, which slopes in almost every direction from the city, affords easy drainage and keeps the surrounding region free from malaria.

Atlanta's public buildings typify the solid character of her institutions. Most conspicuous among them is the State capitol, which was erected at a cost of $1,000,000. This stately structure, the custom house, the county courthouse, and other public edifices, make up an aggregate of seven to eight millions invested in public buildings.

Outside of public buildings, the architecture of Atlanta is of a pleasing character, and has steadily improved during the past thirty years. Few cities in any part of the United States can show more attractive residence streets or architectural designs indicating more culture and good taste. Peachtree street, the principal one for residences, has a number of elegant homes which would be ornaments to any city.

Atlanta is a city of homes, and this is apparent not only in the appearance of the houses, but in the statistics of the United States census, by which Atlanta is accredited with a larger percentage of home-owners than any city of its size in the Southern States.

Architecture has had a notable development in the business edifices of Atlanta during the past ten years, and buildings which were notable in 1890 are insignificant in comparison with the great office structures which have been erected since then. No city in the United States can surpass the group of office buildings erected in Atlanta during the past decade.

As will more fully appear in the chapter devoted to municipal affairs, the street improvements and public works are of a substantial character. The business streets are paved with granite blocks, and much of the residence portion of the city is similarly improved, while other streets are paved with asphalt and vitrified brick. Extending from the city limits there are graded roads macadamized with granite or chert, which give an ideal drive for some distance north and south of Atlanta, affording a smooth and solid roadway for twenty miles.

The water supply for domestic and manufacturing purposes and for sanitary use is hardly equaled in any city of Atlanta's size, and the rates per thousand gallons for families or for manufacturing purposes are merely nominal, and probably lower than any on record.

Conditions in Atlanta are highly favorable to manufacturing industries, and this is attested by the great variety of articles made here. More than 150 establishments are in successful operation, employing about 8,000 operatives at good wages, and pouring into the channels of trade an annual pay-roll of $2,500,000. The value of the raw material consumed is more than $6,000,000, and the product between fourteen and fifteen millions. The factories of Atlanta take the cotton crop of four average Georgia counties.

The manufactures of Atlanta in their variety have a guaranty of stability not to be found in those of any city where industry is confined to one family, as of iron or cotton, however important that may be, and the extent of this variety is to some degree indicated in the chapter on this subject. Among the articles made here are many specialties, for which there is a demand in almost every State in the Union, and concerns making them have enjoyed prosperity through a long series of years.

The trade of Atlanta covers more or less all of the States between the Ohio and Potomac rivers, the gulf, the Atlantic ocean and the Mississippi river, and in some lines extends to the far Southwestern States and into Mexico, while in a few it covers the entire country. The tendency of the jobbing trade of the Southwest is to concentrate in Atlanta, and little by little the business of other centers gravitates to this city.

Atlanta's commanding geographical and topographical situation was, at the outset, one of the causes which led to the development of a great railroad center, at which powerful systems from the East, the West and the Southwest regularly compete. As a distributing point Atlanta enjoys facilities hardly equaled elsewhere in the Southwestern States, and as an accessible place of rendezvous for all kinds of organizations and interests, it is a favorite, and has come to be known as the Convention City. The terminal facilities of the railroads centering in Atlanta are very extensive.

Atlanta's financial institutions are of the most solid character, and among her banks are several whose phenomenal success is indicated by the very large surplus they have accumulated and the handsome dividends they regularly declare. Atlanta is the financial center of Georgia, and much business from the surrounding country is cleared through the banks of the city. The clearings represent a larger business, in proportion, than those of cities whose exchanges are swollen by cotton receipts, the margin upon which is very small. Atlanta's exchanges, on the contrary, represent a broad variety of business, on which a fair, conservative business profit is made, and therefore present a far greater degree of activity and prosperity than clearings composed largely of cotton business. This city is steadily developing the type of financial institutions known as trust companies, and some of these have under way important operations involving millions of dollars.

Atlanta is the third city in the United States in the amount of insurance written and reported to agencies. It is the Southern headquarters for a number of fire and life insurance companies, and agencies of old line and every other type of insurance are numerous. The financial and social standing of the insurance men of Atlanta is high, and they wield a great influence in the Southern field. Besides the outside companies represented, there are several strong local concerns which have developed within the past twenty years and are doing a very large and prosperous business.

The educational facilities of Atlanta are fully treated in a separate chapter, in which it appears that this city is abreast of the times in this as in other respects. Atlanta early established a system of public schools, and before almost any city in the South, turned its attention to technical education. The Technological School was established by the State of Georgia upon inducements offered by the city of Atlanta, which bore half of the cost of the original plant, and contributes largely to the support of the institution. There is ample opportunity here for technical instruction of other kinds, and Atlanta has three medical colleges, whose attendance averages 600, to say nothing of the students of the dental colleges. Technical instruction in business methods is not neglected, and two large and flourishing business colleges have maintained themselves here for many years.

With the system of public instruction in elementary and higher branches and in the technique of various pursuits, Atlanta has facilities for a broader and more liberal culture in the libraries and lecture courses open to the public.

The religious and social atmosphere of Atlanta is wholesome and invigorating. It is a city of churches and the home of church-going people, and the community is honeycombed with fraternal organizations.

The social intercourse of the people, as well as the facility for doing business, is greatly aided by an ideal system of rapid transit, not only from the residence and suburban sections to the city, but from one residence portion to another. The neighborly spirit is enhanced by the nearness thus artificially created.

With all these advantages, and many which appear more fully in subsequent chapters, Atlanta has a wholesome and inspiring public spirit which never fails to respond when the interests of the city are at stake. This is perhaps the most distinctive thing about Atlanta, much as there is to say of her various advantages and magnificent institutions. These, after all, are the creation of the people of Atlanta, and the result of that same spirit working out its marvels in physical form. This is the spirit which has made Atlanta a household word in every city, town and hamlet in the United States, and has carried her fame to almost every community in the old world.

With this admirable esprit de corps there is a broad and catholic spirit born of the cosmopolitan character of the people. The population is principally composed of the best elements of the Southern States, with an admixture of enterprising and progressive people from the North and West, all striving with generous rivalry for the upbuilding of the city. All creeds and cults and political faiths are represented, and for each there is not only toleration but welcome and sympathy, according to his individual deserts. The people of Atlanta are hospitable, broad, liberal, big-hearted, fair and free.

Enterprising newspapers have much to do with the growth of any community, and this is especially true of Atlanta. For twenty years the daily newspapers of Atlanta have led the van of the Southern press and have had much to do with the development of the surrounding country. There are two daily newspapers in Atlanta, The Constitution, which is the morning paper, and The Journal, which is the most important evening newspaper in the Southern States. Another afternoon paper, the News, will start on August 4th, edited by John Temple Graves. The Atlanta Constitution has an interesting history, and has been the means of bringing into prominence several men of national reputation. It was on this paper that Henry W. Grady did his great work. It is unnecessary to speak of his career, for it is known to the whole country. In his hands The Constitution was especially powerful as a developer of the resources of the Piedmont region, as well as a strong factor in politics. Grady's genius has left its impress on the literary circles of the city, and The Constitution under its present management is one of the leading morning papers of the country. Other writers of national reputation who have developed on this paper are Joel Chandler Harris, whose stories are read in every English-speaking country, and Frank L. Stanton, whose verse is probably more generally quoted and read than that of any poet now writing for the American newspaper press.

The Evening Journal fills a unique field, somewhat broader than that usually occupied by evening newspapers. It is an enterprising newspaper of large circulation, and has been a powerful factor in the politics not only of this State, but of the entire country. It had much to do with bringing about the nomination of Grover Cleveland for president in 1892, and its then principal owner, Mr. Hoke Smith, was selected by Mr. Cleveland as the man to represent Georgia in the cabinet.

Atlanta, the capital of Georgia — "The Empire State of the South" — is situated nearly centrally in the great unsurpassed agricultural and mineral quadrilateral forming the Southeastern section of the Union — hounded by the Ohio and Potomac rivers on the north, the Atlantic ocean on the east, the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and the Mississippi river on the west — seven miles southeast of the Chattahoochee river (and 300 feet above it), on the southernmost crest of Chattahoochee Ridge, which divides the waters which flow and empty on the east, within the Georgia coast line, into the Atlantic ocean, and on the west into the Mexican Gulf.

Captain C. C. Boutelle, a distinguished officer of the United States Coast Survey, who, some years ago, was engaged in astronomical and geodetic observations, stated that the climate of the Atlanta plateau was not only healthy, but ranked among the most salubrious on the globe.

The superior natural drainage within (and far beyond) the city limits: the extraordinary topographical configuration of the surface in and for miles around the city; the almost constant and general brisk current of air, and the absence of fogs and humidity, together with absolute exemption from malarial exhalations, render Atlanta unsurpassed for healthfulness.

It has been satisfactorily demonstrated that epidemic? cannot be engendered or prevail here. Cholera and yellow fever brought here from other places failed to become epidemic — but ran their course, ending in death or recovery; and in no single case did the disease ever spread, nor was it ever communicated to any individual. When, in 1888, Jacksonville, Florida, was visited by yellow fever, and when, in 1893, Brunswick, Ga., and Pensacola, Fla., were even more seriously scourged by yellow fever, and coast and inland cities quarantined against them, Atlanta generously and fearlessly opened wide her gates, hearts, purse and homes to their stricken and fleeing citizens, and invited them hither — becoming a veritable "City of Refuge."

Considering the many superior advantages possessed by Atlanta (natural and artificial), her geographical position, unsurpassed natural drainage, supplemented by skillful sanitary engineering; her salubrious climate and healthfulness; her extended, widely ramifying external railway connection, and internal electric street car lines; her general business facilities and well-graded and well-paved streets; her many churches and well-equipped schools — public and private; her beautiful and attractive recreative resorts, and mineral springs within and near the city limits; it is not at all surprising that Atlanta should have outstripped her sister cities in extraordinarily rapid increase in population and wealth.

Within a radius of fifty miles of Atlanta there is a greater variety — and in some instances a greater abundance — of minerals than can be found so near any other city in this country, if not in the world — iron ore (of wide extremes as to quality and richness), manganese, gold, silver, copper, granite, marble, slate, lead, graphite, soapstone, limestone, flexible sandstone (the matrix of the diamond), mica, talc, kaolin, asbestos, corundum, etc., and other gems.

One hundred miles radius will include, in addition to the above, coal measures almost inexhaustible, and water-powers more than sufficient to manufacture all the cotton made in the United States.

Raw materials of every description — iron in the ore or pig, and other metals and minerals; cotton; long-leaf pine, hickory, oak, ash, maple, beech, black walnut, yellow poplar, dogwood, and other hard and soft woods; all vegetable and animal fiber, hides, pelts, steam coal, and all other raw material needed for the successful prosecution of every branch of manufactures and mechanical industries known to man, are either kept here heavily in stock, or can be had quickly from points on the many lines of railway centering here, within easy distance, at a low cost of material and freight, while within the city limits, and in close proximity all around, are extensive beds of the best clay suitable for terra cotta work, sewer pipe and brick making.

Published statements show that Atlanta has much more banking capital than any other city in Georgia; has a much larger surplus and undivided profits; exceeds any other in the amount of deposit; that her banks have very much more cash actually in their vaults, and that they have nearly three times as much due them by other banks as they owe other banks.

Atlanta is a charitable city. With all her impetuous commercialism, her heart is in the right place. The city is the seat of several noble institutions of philanthropy and benevolence, prominent among them the Georgia Soldiers' Home. This worthy charity (and the word does not sound right in such a connection) recently suffered a sad blow from fire, the building being . entirely consumed; but a new and more beautiful soldiers' home is to be built at once.

There is a probability of a United States subtreasury being established in Atlanta, and of a magnificent new federal building being erected here.

Atlanta is practically, and nearly geographically, the center of the most richly endowed area of territory — in natural resources — of any in the world of equal compactness and limited extent.

Twenty-four hours' ride by rail from and back to Atlanta will take one through and around long leaf pine forests of standing timber estimated to contain more than 30,000,000 feet of the best yellow pine lumber in the world.

Twenty-four hours' ride by rail from and back to Atlanta will take one through and around tens of thousands of square miles of the best hard wood timber in the Union, and the only area of any considerable extent in the United States.

Less than twenty-four hours' ride by rail from and back to Atlanta will take one through and around ten thousand square miles of coal fields the quality of whose product cannot be excelled.

Twelve hours' ride by rail from and back to Atlanta will take one through and around an area of minerals (precious and nonprecious) and gems, which for variety and abundance cannot be excelled in the same space.

Two hours' ride by rail from and back to Atlanta will take one to a mountain deposit of granite of unsurpassed strength, showing more than 10,000,000,000 cubic feet above the surface.

Six hours' ride by rail from and back to Atlanta will take one over deposits of marble covering hundreds of square miles of unknown depth, of all shades, and of unexcelled beauty and quality.

Twelve hours' ride by rail from and back to Atlanta will take one through and around water powers (in Georgia), of large volume and constant flow — unchecked by drouths and freezes — of sufficient power to manufacture all the cotton made in the United States.

Atlanta is nearly 1,100 feet above ocean level — the highest point (save one) in the United States, of equal population, and railway and other facilities.

Atlanta is absolutely exempt from miasmatic influence, exhalations and malarial influences.

Atlanta has unsurpassed natural drainage. Atlanta cannot be surpassed on the globe for salubrity of climate and healthfulness.

Atlanta can carry full lines of every description of merchandise, and transact business uninterruptedly the year round.

Atlanta's facilities for communication with the world, by steam and electricity, equal those of any other city.

Atlanta has a water supply ample, at the present rate of consumption, for a population of 50,000,000 people. Atlanta has a paid fire department not surpassed (if equaled) in the Union.

Take four strings and stretch them thus: Place one end of the first at Richmond, Va., and the other end at New Orleans, La.; one end of the second at Cincinnati, O., and the other end at Apalachicola, Fla.; one end of the third at Chicago, Ill., and the other at Tampa, Fla.; one end of the fourth at St. Louis, Mo., and the other at Brunswick, Ga., and it will be found that they all cross each other at Atlanta.

Take three other strings and stretch one from New York to New Orleans — it will pass very near Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, and a few miles west of Atlanta; another stretched from Charleston, S. C, to Memphis, Tenn., passes just north of Atlanta; and the third, stretched from St. Louis to Jacksonville, passes a few miles south of Atlanta.

A circle describing a radius of four hundred miles will include within it Wilmington and Raleigh, N. C, Danville and Lynchburg, Va., Charleston, W. Va., Cincinnati, O.. Louisville, Ky., Evansville, Ind., Cairo, Ill., Memphis, Tenn., New Orleans, La., and Tampa, Fla.

No better indication of the growth and enterprise of Atlanta could be desired than is reflected in phenomenal strides of The Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company.

A little more than two decades ago — in the days when the hopes of the South were centered in the prospects of Tilden and Hendricks — the telephone had its birth. It was exhibited first as a scientific toy at the Philadelphia Centennial, and the feat of being enabled to talk electrically from one end of Mechanics Hall to the other, went round the world like a flash and was written upon the honor roll of time as one of the new wonders of the new world. The toy of 1876 was not long in finding its application. Within two years telephone exchanges, with subscribers running into the hundreds, began to spring up in all the commercial centers. Telephony was a fact, though a feeble fact at that time. Among the first cities to secure the benefits of the telephone was Atlanta, and we find here in 1879 an exchange, in one of the upper rooms of the old Kimball House, with fifty-five subscribers! Today Atlanta boasts of one of the best equipped and up to date telephone systems in the world, with a telephone to every twenty people of her population.

Of all the industries for which America has become famous, none have had such phenomenal development as the arts of applied electricity, and of the electrical arts, the art of telephony has by far outstripped its compeers both in point of development and financial investment. As a result of which one may talk today from Atlanta to any point within a radius of one thousand miles with far more ease and satisfaction than was possible from one block to another fifteen years ago.

For this Atlanta owes much to the Southern Bell Telephone and Telephone Company and its progressive management, whose territory covers the South Atlantic States below Pennsylvania, and whose general headquarters have recently been removed from New York to this city, where their various departments are located in their large and elegantly appointed building on the corner of South Pryor and Mitchell streets.

During the past six years this company has devoted its best efforts to the establishment of a long distance system connecting together all of its various exchanges, and has today more than twelve thousand miles of wire in operation, and lines under construction which will bring the mileage near the fifteen thousand mile mark before the end of the present year. The Southern Bell adheres to the very highest standard of construction and equipment, using only pure copper wire in their long-distance construction, which ranges from three to five hundred dollars per mile of pole line, varying with the conditions of the country to be traversed.

In addition to the General Offices and Exchange on South Pryor street, the company have a factory on East Mitchell street, where about one hundred men are employed, and branch exchanges in Decatur, East Point, and North Atlanta operating into the main exchange:

The officials of the company are:

Edward J. Hall, president, New York City.

James Merrihew, vice-president, New York City.

D. I. Carson, secretary and treasurer, New York City.

W. T. Gentry, general manager, Atlanta.

J. W. Gibson, auditor, New York City.

T. I-. Ingram, general superintendent construction, Atlanta.

E. H. Bangs, electrical engineer, Atlanta. W. H. Adkins, traffic agent, Atlanta.

C. H. Connoley, supply agent, Atlanta.

John D. Easterlin, special agent, Atlanta.

M. O. Jackson, special agent, Atlanta.

D. M. Therrell, wire chief, Atlanta. J. C. Gentry, special agent, Atlanta.

H. W. Burton, jr., manager Atlanta Exchange, Atlanta.

Each of the above officials and heads of departments have under their direction from scores to hundreds of employees, barring, of course, the general manager, who has direct executive control of the administrative affairs of the company.

In addition to the above officials there are five district superintendents, with districts covering one or more states, who are charged with the superintendence of the various interests of the company in their respective districts. These officials are:

Hunt Chipley, superintendent 1st District, Richmond, Va.

Robert L. West, superintendent 2nd District, Atlanta, Ga.

D. C. Sims, superintendent 3rd District, Montgomery, Ala.

Morgan B. Speer, superintendent 4th District, Charlotte, N. C.

J. W. Crews, superintendent 5th District, Savannah, Ga.

In 1896 another telephone enterprise was started in this city under the name of the Atlanta Standard Telephone Company, but the company was not equipped for work until 1899, when operations began. At the present time the company has 2.500 telephones in active operation. The officers of this company at this writing are: Albert Baltz, president: L. J. Bauer, vice-president: Otto G. Wolf, treasurer, and F. V. L. Turner, secretary.