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1present time ? The iocal Cham- i~t N.enr f otk limes. duct a company study for her Wall Street finn went home, to MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1964. report, "It's the friendliest city I've ever; ever seen." Today Atlanta is scrambling to ·b ecome "a national city." In typically aggressive fashion, the city is building an $18milllon sports stadium 1n an effort to obtain the baseball franchiso of the Milwaukee 1 Braves. This move has set . the beer homeland to foaming, but Atlanta's leading citizens are con1 I fident of their ultimate triumph. "Just think!" exclaim!! an advertising man. "The world series in Atlanta!" An equally Impressive buildIng was constructed much earlier here at more modest exBy VARTAN IG G. VARTAN pense. This is the state capitol, Specia l to The New York Time$ completed 1n 1899 at a cost of $1 million and modeled after the ATLANTA- "The city of Atcapitol 1n Washington. lan ta, Mills B. Lane Jr. asToday the spirit of business se rts, "is a commercia l venis the spirit that moves Atlanta ture." Mt·. Lane, who charges a bout and the tell-tale sounds abound. For one thing, a surprising this city with th e unabashed number of business leaders drink powe1· o·f a bnllclo ze r, i., a bald. martinis Instead of bourbon. One C'h unk y banker who k nows what he's t a lking about. He serves a s political figure ls partial to a President of the Citizens & Scotch mist with a twist of Southem National Ban k, the lemon peel at lunch time. But Coca-Cola is still known bi ggest bank in Georgi:1. He is a third - generation ' locally as "Georgia champagne" Georgia banker who wa s gradu- and some people in Atlanta a ted from Yale in 1934. He owns drink it for breakfast. It is significant that the man 50 vintage automobiles and he wPa ni a tle bearing the slogan, now serving his first t erm as mayor-Ivan Allen Jr. -has a "Jl's a wonderful world." But setting a sid e a fl a ir for business background in running the unu sual, Mr. Mills and other a family-owned office supply · Atlanta executives are dea dly company. Atlanta has been fortunate serious about the role of thi s city, the home of Coca-Cola a nd over the last three decades inJ "Gone With the Wind," in the the leadership provided iby its bankers who are friendly to business world. When they talk about Atlan- business, The First National t a, some local businessmen r efer Bank, !lecond largest in the to it as "Mecca. " It has the city, is preparing to put up a reputation of a congenial place U-story skyscraper. It will add to live, and one pretty research luster to Atlanta's growing analyst who came South to con· 21kyline and loom as the tallest building 1n the southeast. The Trust Company of GeorMills B. Lane Jr, heads Citizens & Southern National Bank gia, sometimes known as "the Coca-Cola Bank," also has played an -active role 1n the city's rapid growth. Thanks to these and othe<r banks, as well as a complex of insurance and financial institutions, Atlanta regards itself as "the Wall Str.e et of the South." \ . Atlanta Rushes to National Role Many Consider City a Business Mecca I for the South I I ber of Commerco unblushingly begins its description as follows: "Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, is the commercial, industrial and financial dynamo of the Southeast." A Chamber of Commerce, of course, tends to emphasize the good points of any given area while omitting the fact that, say, a city is built on the lip And Other Things 'of a smouldering volcano. One businessman paid the But the key to the Chamber ultimate compliment tt> Char- of ~ 0 m.I?-erce 1n Atlanta is its lotte, N.C. by describing it as donuna1:i,on by . the city's most "a little Atlanta" aggressive busmess leade,:s. But when you ·bite below the One brokerage office man11kin of the peach, there are ager who has worked In the other things to be found. Some East describes his schedule as l.nfurmed persons, for example, follows: will acknowledge the deepAn 11-Bour Day rMted rivalry between Atlanta "My friends in New York and the small towns and rural City think it just great that I a..-eas of Georgia. "There is a can drive from home to the oftremendoUB jealousy here," de- fice in 20 minutes. What they clin-es one leading citizen. "The don't realize, however , is that plain fact 1s that Atlanta has I'm apt to get into town at got to quit looking down its 6:30 A.M. for some civic comnose at the rest of the state if mittee meeting and then go to all Of Georgia is going to pros- another meeting for breakfast. per. At :night I usually attend a This rivalry 1s basically both fundi"aising meeting or another economic and political. For decl session of some kind before I ades, Atlanta has been the drive home. Portal to portal, shopping Mecca for well-heeled it's an 11-hour day. G~orgians and the most prom- Atlanta-based companies ismg youngsters _h ave left such range from Scripto, makers of places as Amencus, the se~t ballpoint pens, to Rich's, a deof Sumter County, for the big partment store that is approxiclty of Atlanta. mately Nieman-Marcus Macy's The_ ~olitical rift s!ems kom and Lord & Taylor lih rolled Ge?rgia s ?aunty urut system, into one. There is also Oxford which, until recently outlawed, Manufacturing, Atlantic Steel, meant that the rural_ parts of and the Southern Company. the state _could dommate AtThere is manufacturing done la.nta d_espito the vast gap in in Atlanta, but this is characterpop1;1Iabon. istically a city that puts togethFmally, Atlanta today is the er parts rather than producing most liberal city in the South- parts. The assembly plants of east 1n its attitude toward the General Motors and Ford s erve Negr~. The basis for Atlanta's as examples. _ behaVIor reflects th~ ha rd-~ead- But Atlanta has gained a mix ed aw~eness of i_ts buslll6llll 1n its economy that is lacking, commuruty. But !Jtis compara- for example, in 11. city such as ttvety liberal attitude for the Birmingham, which is so heavily South has se..-ved only to whet dependent upon its iron and the animosity of much of rural steel complex Georgia toward_ Atlanta. One 9-year-~ld boy who -grew Just what did Atlanta have up in New England until the at t~e st~rt? . second grade sums up his main First, it had location. This reaction to Atlanta as follov.-s: brought ~e first r~lroad cross- "It's got space." Ing here m the mid-19th cenA Government economist tury and transportation has takes a somewhat more sobeen booming ever since. phisticated view. The economics Second, it had as one leader of conglomeration are at work frankly puts it, "no bugs." This here," he explained. "The fact meant that its altitude kept the that Atlanta is already a center town kee from yellow fever for regional offices will attract dangers. similar offices from other comI - ~at has A!.lanta go at the panies." , I �