When an institution is around long enough in a city, particularly one as important as the Atlanta Federal Reserve bank, a look at the history of the institution becomes a microcosm for the history of the city. A newly released report, previously unpublished, that was compiled back in 1968 offers a unique look at the Atlanta fed up to that point and indeed a unique look at Atlanta.
Even the author of the report is part of Atlanta history. In the more than 150 years as a city, Atlanta has had one official historian, Franklin M. Garrett. Garrett was also the historian for the Coca-Cola Company for 28 years and his “Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events” is as thorough an accounting of Atlanta from the first settlements in the 1820s through desegregation and the 1970s.
In the description of his report, Garrett said “It is hoped that the history will prove useful to the Bank and to anyone having occasion to examine the background of what is, indeed, one of Atlanta’s most significant business, financial and economic institutions.”
He notes that project was undertaken at the request of the banks late president, Malcolm H. Bryan, and his successor, Harold T. Patterson. Presumably they asked for as thorough a report as possible because it is what some might call extensive. Running a bit over a thousand pages, it’s not exactly a beach read but for those interested in Atlanta or Georgia history, it is a singularly unique document.
The nature of money and the work of the federal bank has changed a lot in the years since the bank’s founding but in those days, being a supplier of cash was the most important role the bank played. The case for the bank being located in Atlanta, as opposed to Chattanooga or Memphis or Birmingham – all cities of relative similar size at the time, was based on several different factors. Atlanta’s still central location as the hub for many railroads was a major factor. It’s geographic location in the relative center of what would become the southeastern section was another. More than half of the merchants in the southeast traded in Atlanta.
Another name that surfaces frequently in the report is that of Hoke Smith, senator at the time and one of the most influential Georgia politicians probably from the end of the Civil War through World War II. Smith was a prominent Atlanta attorney, elected governor twice in 1907 and 1911, and was a senator from 1911-1920.
Smith was part of the “progressive” era Democrats, usually identified most closely with President Woodrow Wilson, who Smith worked with extensively during his time in the senate. This relationship is partly responsible for getting the bank during Wilson’s tenure in the birth years of the bank.
Garrett also recounts the struggles of the economy and what that meant for the bank in the 1930’s, the period during World War II and the subsequent boom of the 1950s. Indeed, every year gets at least twenty or more pages. It is difficult to get as full a picture of the Atlanta and Georgia economy as what is contained in the report. For history fans, it’s really a can’t miss.
