Atlanta's First

It is not many years ago in U. S. industry that business was thought of largely in terms of great basic commodities. Iron, steel, leather, lumber, copper, flour--these and similar staples constituted almost the entire structure of U. S. industry. That they still remain the backbone, the foundation, of industry is undeniable. Yet many of today's most successful industrial enterprises, remarkable both in their size and in their earnings, belong to the nonessential classifications.

Thus when Asa Griggs Candler, onetime (1889-1919) Coca-Cola King died last week in a hospital which he had founded overlooking a university which he had endowed, the company which he had so long managed belonged unquestionably to U. S. Big Business. During 1928, Coca-Cola showed a net of $10,189,000, an earning of $10.19 per share. At 105,000 soda fountains U.S. citizens were saying "Give me a Coca-Cola." At 600,000 retail outlets the corrugated little Coca-Cola bottle was being dispensed. Thirsty wayfarers in the U. S. and in 75 foreign countries consumed Coca-Cola at the rate of more than two million gallons a year. Every day eight and a half million glasses of Coca-Cola are drained to their sugary dregs. Operating 13 syrup factories, the company is one of the largest single consumers of sugar in the world. Many a railroad, many a steel company makes less profit than proceeds from this 5-c-drink.

It was not Mr. Candler who originated Coca-Cola. Its inventor was one J. S. Pemberton, who, in 1886, made the first Coca-Cola in an old house on Marietta Street, Atlanta, Ga. During its first year Coca-Cola sold only 25 gallons and had for its outlets only Atlanta's three soda fountains. In 1889, however, Mr. Candler purchased an interest in the company (reputedly for $500) started to put Coca-Cola over in a large way. So successful was he that in 1919 the company was sold for $25,000,000, was organized as a Delaware corporation. The present management took hold in 1923. Chairman of the Board is W. C. Bradley, Columbus, Ga., textile man and banker. President is Robert W. Woodruff, who came to Coca-Cola from Cleveland's White Motor Co., where he was vice president and general manager. Popular thirst for Coco-Cola is apparently unabated; pleasing are its prospects for 1929. "Died on --, at Wesley Memorial Hospital, Asa G. Candler. Funeral obsequies will be observed at his late residence, 1428 Ponce de Leon Avenue, at 11 in the forenoon on . Interment will be at West View, private. H. M. Patterson and son in charge."

So, three years ago, wrote Asa G. Candler, composing his own funeral notice with blank dates that last week were filled in. Precise, meticulous, he also left instructions that he should be buried in full dress. He was 77; he died after two years of illness following the paralytic stroke from which he never recovered.

Asa Griggs Candler was born in Villa Rica, Carrol County, Ga., in 1851. He came from an excellent family--his great grandfather had commanded a regiment during the Revolutionary War. In the War Between The States, however, his people were on the losing side, and the family fortunes were swept away in Sherman's famed March to the Sea. He studied pharmacy, worked in Atlanta drugstores until in 1877 he went into a drugstore partnership. In 1889 he bought into Coca-Cola; became sole owner in 1900; in 1902 organized the Coca-Cola Co. In 1911 his son, Charles Howard Candler, succeeded him as active company head, and in 1919 the business was sold to the present Coca-Cola company.

Mr. Candler's public life was marked by a long series of benefactions. An ardent Methodist, he contributed to Methodism more than $10,000,000, particularly to the endowment of Emory University. In 1914, when the World War cut off the European cotton market, Mr. Candler announced that he would lend up to $30,000,000 to cotton growers, later repeated this offer with the limit removed. In 1915, when the State of Georgia found itself saddled with an old bond issue, relic of carpet bag days, Mr. Candler offered to buy the entire issue ($3,850,000).

During 1917-1918, as Mayor of Atlanta, Mr. Candler discovered that the city had no funds to pay for projected improvements in the water supply, therefore advanced to Atlanta $360,000 of his own money. In January 1923 grateful Atlantans presented him with two silver cups, one as the man who had done most for Atlanta during the previous year, the other as Atlanta's First Citizen.

Mr. Candler's estate was estimated at not more than $500,000. In 1919, however, he gave $5,000,000 to each of his five children. He kept about $5,000,000 for himself and later gave most of it to various philanthropies.