1941
1941 N OT since the prosperous years of the mid-twenties had Atlanta greeted the new year with such exuberance as it showed in bringing in 1941. It was almost as if the people knew that before this year was out they would be at war and they were determined to have one last fling. Not only in the private clubs, but all over town the revelers gathered. Traffic jammed the downtown streets and in the mild winter night the parties were crowded long past midnight. The passing of longtime county coroner Paul Donehoo not long before Christmas, 1940, had its curious aftermath. Fifty-four persons, the largest number ever to offer for a single office in Fulton County, entered the race, among them lawyers, doctors, preachers, and one newspaperman. Byelection day, January 15, the list was down to 48—but one name had been added— that of Mrs. Paul Donehoo. She was an easy winner in a light election. Not elections, but inaugurations, the swearing in ofthose already elected, were the big news in the early months of the year. On New Year's Day the Fulton County Commission gathered in the Commissioners Room in the courthouse to hold their organizational meeting for 1941. Charlie Brown, newcomer to the board, and I. Gloer Hailey were sworn in on a four-year term by Judge Thomas H. Jeffries, county ordinary, and Troy Chastain was named chairman, succeeding retiring chairman Ed L. Almand. The commission soon found itself busy with matters dealing with the threat of war. On January 4 the Fulton County grand jury warned Atlanta that the waterworks must be guarded against sabotage. On the evening of January 6 the year's top local political event took place. Roy LeCraw, with his wife and five sons looking on, was inaugurated as the forty-fourth mayor of the City of Atlanta. In his farewell message William B. Hartsfield extended "every good wish to LeCraw." In his inaugural address the incoming mayor pledged a lean and hungry financial policy. He reiterated his promise to reduce water rates to $1 for the first 800 cubic feet for city users, and to $2.50 for the same amount for out-of-the-city residents. This, he said, would save water users a quarter of a million dollars a year. He also said he would eliminate "hiding police," and would no longer require each policeman to make a certain number of arrests. He promised that he would make war on tax dodgers and that he would push hard to raise funds for a new and better Grady Hospital. Doctors' fees and private hospital rates, he said, had increased to the point that Atlantans making less than $200 a month could not pay them. At least one-third ofAtlanta's population, he said, should be cared for at Grady. Sworn in along with LeCraw were the members of Atlanta's bicameral municipal legislature. Aldermen included G. Dan Bridges, Ed A. Gilliam, L. O. Moseley, Lester R. Brewer, Frank H. Reynolds, and Raleigh Drennon. 54 ATLANTA AND ENVIRONS, 1941 Councilmen were Roy Bell, James E. Jackson, Jr., Cecil Hester, William T. Knight, George B. Lyle, J. Allen Couch, Joe Allen, John T. Marler, Paul Butler, John A. White, Howard Haire, and Frank Wilson. Alderman Bridges and Councilman Lyle, whom Hartsfield had tried to purge, were given high committee positions by LeCraw, and Councilman John A. White was named mayor pro tern. Eugene Talmadge took the oath as governor onJanuary 14 and immediately wielded the ax on twenty of Governor Rivers's employees, whom he replaced with loyal supporters. Like LeCraw at City Hall, Talmadge in the capitol nearby was wrapped up in money matters. He was determined, he said, to pay off the state's debt of $32 million and to do this without raising taxes. To begin with, he said, he planned to cut state salaries by $3 million. Talmadge also aimed at the state colleges. He was determined to remove from office and responsibility all educators, no matter how distinguished they might be, whose idea of the teacher's role differed from his own. By mid-July his actions had driven the war headlines off the front pages. Charging that Dr. Walter R. Cocking, dean of the School of Education of the University of Georgia , and Dr. Marvin S. Pittman, president of Georgia Teachers College at Statesboro, were advocating interracial education, he ordered the regents to dismiss them. The regents voted 8-4 to...
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