Dublin Core
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Che New Bork Times.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16,
1964.
Atlanta
Mills B. Lane Jr. heads Citizens & Southern National Bank
Rushes to National Role
, |to it as
Many Consider City)
a Business Mecca |
forthe South |
|
By VARTANIG G, VARTAN
Special to The New York Times
ATLANTA—"The city of At-
lanta,” Mills B. Lane Jv. as-
serts, “is a commercial ven-
ture."
Mr. Lane, who charges about
this city with the unabashed
power of a bulldozer, is a bald,
chunky banker who knows what
he's talking about. He serves as
President of the Citizens &
Southern National Bank, the
biggest bank in Georgia,
He is a_ third-generation
Georgia banker who was gradu-
ated trom Yale in 1934, He owns
50 vintage automobiles and he
wears a tle bearing the slogan,
“It's a wonderful world."
But setting aside a flair for
the unusual, Mr, Mills and other
Atlanta executives are deadly
serious about the role of this
city, the home of Coca-Cola and
“Gone With the Wind,” in the
business world,
When they talk about Atlan-
ta, some local businessmen refer
“Mecca.” It has the
reputation of a congenial place
to live, and one pretty research
analyst who came South to con-
duct a company study for her
Wall Street firm went home to
report, “It’s the friendliest city
I've ever, ever seen.”
Today Atlanta is scrambling
to become “a national city.”
In typically aggressive fash-
jon, the city is building an $18-
million sports stadium in an
effort to obtain the baseball
franchise of the Milwaukee
Braves.
This move has set the beer
homeland to foaming, but <At-
lanta’s leading citizens are con-
fident of their ultimate triumph.
“Just think!” exclaims an ad-
vertising man, “The world series
in Atlanta!”
An equally impressive build-
ing was constructed much ear-
lier here at more modest ex-
pense. This is the state capitol,
completed in 1899 at a cost of
$1 million and modeled after the
capitol in Washington.
Today the spirit of business
is the splrit that moves Atlanta
and the tell-tale sounds abound.
For one thing, a surprising
number of business leaders drink
martinis instead of bourbon, One
political figure is partial to a
Scotch mist with a twist of
lemon peel at lunch time.
But Coca-Cola is still known
locally as “Georgia champagne”
and some people in Atlanta
drink it for breakfast.
It is significant that the man
now serving his first term as
mayor—Ivan Allen Jr.—has a
business background in running
a family-owned office supply
And Uther Things
One businessman paid the
ultimate compliment tb Char-
lotte, N.C. by describing it as
“a little Atlanta.”
But when you bite below the
skin of the peach, there are
other things to be found. Some
informed persons, for example,
will acknowledge the deep-
rooted rivalry between Atlanta
and the small towns and rural
areas of Georgia. “There is a
tremendous jealousy here,” de-
clares one lea citizen. “The
plain fact ig that Atlanta has
got to quit looking down its
nose at the rest of the state if
all of Georgia is going to pros-
er."
This rivalry is basically both
economic and political. For decl
ades, Atlanta has been the
shopping Mecca for well-heeled
Georgians and the most prom-
ising youngsters have left such
places as Americus, the seat
of Sumter County, for the big
city of Atlanta,
The political rift stems from
Georgia's county unit system,
which, until recently outlawed,
meant that the rural parts of
the state could dominate At-
lanta despite the vast gap in
population,
Finally, Atlanta today is the
most liberal city in the South-
company,
Atlanta has been fortunate!
over the last three decades in|
the leadership provided by its
bankers who are friendly to
business. The First National
Bank, second largest in the
city, ig preparing to put up a
east in its attitude toward the
Negro. The basis for Atlanta's
behavior reflects the hard-head-
ed awareness of its business
community. But this compara-
tively Iberal attitude for the
South has served only to whet
the animosity of much of rural
41-story skyscraper. It will add
luster to Atlanta’s growing
skyline and loom as the tallest
building in the southeast,
The Trust Company of Geor-
gia, sometimes known as “the
Coca-Cola Bank," also has
played an active role in the
city’s rapid growth. Thanks to
these and other banks, as well
ag a complex of insurance and
financial institutions, Atlanta
regards itself as “the Wall
Street of the South.”
Georgia toward Atlanta,
Just what did Atlanta have
at the start?
First, it had location. This
brought the first railroad cross-
ing here in the mid-19th cen-
tury and transportation has
been booming ever since.
Second, it had as one leader
frankly puts it, “no bugs.” This
meant that its altitude kept the
town free from yellow fever
danger:
present time? The local Cham-
ber of Commerce unblushingly
begins its description as fol-
lows: “Atlanta, the capital of
Georgia, is the commercial, in-
dustrial 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
of a smouldering volcano.
But the key to the Chamber
of Commerce in Atlanta is its
domination by the city’s most]
ageressive business leaders.
One brokerage office man-
ager who has worked in the
East describes his schedule as
follows:
An 11-Hour Day
“My friends in New York
City think it just great that I
can drive from home to the of-
fice in 20 minutes. What they
don't realize, however, is that
I'm apt to get into town at
6:30 A.M. for some civic com-
mittee meeting and then go to
another meeting for breakfast.
At night I usually attend a
fundraising meeting or another
session of some kind before I
drive home. Portal to portal,
it’s an 11-hour day.”
Atlanta-based companies
range from Scripto, makers of
ballpoint pens, to Rich's, a de-
partment store that is approxi-
mately Nieman-Marcus, Macy's
and Lord & Taylor all rolled
into one, There is also Oxford
Manufacturing, Atlantic Steel,
and the Southern Company.
There is manufacturing done
in Atlanta, but this is character-
istically a city that puts togeth-
er parts rather than producing
parts. The assembly plants of
General Motors and Ford serve
as examples,
But Atlanta has gained a mix
in its economy that is lacking,
for example, in a city such as
Birmingham, which is so heavily
dependent upon its iron and
steel complex.
One 9-year-old boy who grew
up in New England until the
second grade sums up his main
reaction to Atlanta as follows:
“Tt’s got space.”
A Government economist
takes a somewhat more so-
phisticated view, “The economics
of conglomeration are at work
here," he explained. “The fact
that Atlanta is already a center
for regional offices will attract
similar offices from other com-
ers,
| What has Atlanta go at the
panies.” |
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16,
1964.
Atlanta
Mills B. Lane Jr. heads Citizens & Southern National Bank
Rushes to National Role
, |to it as
Many Consider City)
a Business Mecca |
forthe South |
|
By VARTANIG G, VARTAN
Special to The New York Times
ATLANTA—"The city of At-
lanta,” Mills B. Lane Jv. as-
serts, “is a commercial ven-
ture."
Mr. Lane, who charges about
this city with the unabashed
power of a bulldozer, is a bald,
chunky banker who knows what
he's talking about. He serves as
President of the Citizens &
Southern National Bank, the
biggest bank in Georgia,
He is a_ third-generation
Georgia banker who was gradu-
ated trom Yale in 1934, He owns
50 vintage automobiles and he
wears a tle bearing the slogan,
“It's a wonderful world."
But setting aside a flair for
the unusual, Mr, Mills and other
Atlanta executives are deadly
serious about the role of this
city, the home of Coca-Cola and
“Gone With the Wind,” in the
business world,
When they talk about Atlan-
ta, some local businessmen refer
“Mecca.” It has the
reputation of a congenial place
to live, and one pretty research
analyst who came South to con-
duct a company study for her
Wall Street firm went home to
report, “It’s the friendliest city
I've ever, ever seen.”
Today Atlanta is scrambling
to become “a national city.”
In typically aggressive fash-
jon, the city is building an $18-
million sports stadium in an
effort to obtain the baseball
franchise of the Milwaukee
Braves.
This move has set the beer
homeland to foaming, but <At-
lanta’s leading citizens are con-
fident of their ultimate triumph.
“Just think!” exclaims an ad-
vertising man, “The world series
in Atlanta!”
An equally impressive build-
ing was constructed much ear-
lier here at more modest ex-
pense. This is the state capitol,
completed in 1899 at a cost of
$1 million and modeled after the
capitol in Washington.
Today the spirit of business
is the splrit that moves Atlanta
and the tell-tale sounds abound.
For one thing, a surprising
number of business leaders drink
martinis instead of bourbon, One
political figure is partial to a
Scotch mist with a twist of
lemon peel at lunch time.
But Coca-Cola is still known
locally as “Georgia champagne”
and some people in Atlanta
drink it for breakfast.
It is significant that the man
now serving his first term as
mayor—Ivan Allen Jr.—has a
business background in running
a family-owned office supply
And Uther Things
One businessman paid the
ultimate compliment tb Char-
lotte, N.C. by describing it as
“a little Atlanta.”
But when you bite below the
skin of the peach, there are
other things to be found. Some
informed persons, for example,
will acknowledge the deep-
rooted rivalry between Atlanta
and the small towns and rural
areas of Georgia. “There is a
tremendous jealousy here,” de-
clares one lea citizen. “The
plain fact ig that Atlanta has
got to quit looking down its
nose at the rest of the state if
all of Georgia is going to pros-
er."
This rivalry is basically both
economic and political. For decl
ades, Atlanta has been the
shopping Mecca for well-heeled
Georgians and the most prom-
ising youngsters have left such
places as Americus, the seat
of Sumter County, for the big
city of Atlanta,
The political rift stems from
Georgia's county unit system,
which, until recently outlawed,
meant that the rural parts of
the state could dominate At-
lanta despite the vast gap in
population,
Finally, Atlanta today is the
most liberal city in the South-
company,
Atlanta has been fortunate!
over the last three decades in|
the leadership provided by its
bankers who are friendly to
business. The First National
Bank, second largest in the
city, ig preparing to put up a
east in its attitude toward the
Negro. The basis for Atlanta's
behavior reflects the hard-head-
ed awareness of its business
community. But this compara-
tively Iberal attitude for the
South has served only to whet
the animosity of much of rural
41-story skyscraper. It will add
luster to Atlanta’s growing
skyline and loom as the tallest
building in the southeast,
The Trust Company of Geor-
gia, sometimes known as “the
Coca-Cola Bank," also has
played an active role in the
city’s rapid growth. Thanks to
these and other banks, as well
ag a complex of insurance and
financial institutions, Atlanta
regards itself as “the Wall
Street of the South.”
Georgia toward Atlanta,
Just what did Atlanta have
at the start?
First, it had location. This
brought the first railroad cross-
ing here in the mid-19th cen-
tury and transportation has
been booming ever since.
Second, it had as one leader
frankly puts it, “no bugs.” This
meant that its altitude kept the
town free from yellow fever
danger:
present time? The local Cham-
ber of Commerce unblushingly
begins its description as fol-
lows: “Atlanta, the capital of
Georgia, is the commercial, in-
dustrial 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
of a smouldering volcano.
But the key to the Chamber
of Commerce in Atlanta is its
domination by the city’s most]
ageressive business leaders.
One brokerage office man-
ager who has worked in the
East describes his schedule as
follows:
An 11-Hour Day
“My friends in New York
City think it just great that I
can drive from home to the of-
fice in 20 minutes. What they
don't realize, however, is that
I'm apt to get into town at
6:30 A.M. for some civic com-
mittee meeting and then go to
another meeting for breakfast.
At night I usually attend a
fundraising meeting or another
session of some kind before I
drive home. Portal to portal,
it’s an 11-hour day.”
Atlanta-based companies
range from Scripto, makers of
ballpoint pens, to Rich's, a de-
partment store that is approxi-
mately Nieman-Marcus, Macy's
and Lord & Taylor all rolled
into one, There is also Oxford
Manufacturing, Atlantic Steel,
and the Southern Company.
There is manufacturing done
in Atlanta, but this is character-
istically a city that puts togeth-
er parts rather than producing
parts. The assembly plants of
General Motors and Ford serve
as examples,
But Atlanta has gained a mix
in its economy that is lacking,
for example, in a city such as
Birmingham, which is so heavily
dependent upon its iron and
steel complex.
One 9-year-old boy who grew
up in New England until the
second grade sums up his main
reaction to Atlanta as follows:
“Tt’s got space.”
A Government economist
takes a somewhat more so-
phisticated view, “The economics
of conglomeration are at work
here," he explained. “The fact
that Atlanta is already a center
for regional offices will attract
similar offices from other com-
ers,
| What has Atlanta go at the
panies.” |