Z7:54\ i>atn«H ^ifitxittx NOV ^- ■•'' GIFT LIBRARY University of California. Class \ ^^ \ IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER EXERCISES AT THE UNVEILING OF THE MONUMENT ERECTED BY THE EMPLOYEES OF THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY " ATLANTA, GEORGIA MAY TWENTY-FIRST, NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TEN NOV 3 Ibil GIFT A GEORGIAN, A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER, THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY. ERECTED BY THE EMPLOYEES OF THAT COMPANY. — From Inscription on Monument. 223771 SAMUEL SPENCER. Samuel Spencer was born March 2, 1847, at Columbus, Georgia, and died November 29, 1906, at Lawyer's, Virginia. He was the only child of Lambert and Vernona (Mitchell) Spencer. His father was the son of Lam- bert Wickes and Anna Spencer. His mother was the daughter of Isaac and Parizade Mitchell. Lambert Wickes Spencer was a son of Richard Spencer, who was a grandson of James Spencer, who emigrated from England in 1670, and settled in Talbot County, Mary- land, and of Martha Wickes, sister of Captain Lam- bert Wickes of the United States Navy. After attending the common schools of Colum- bus until he was fifteen years old Samuel Spencer entered the Georgia Military Institute at Marietta. The following year, though but sixteen years of age, he en- listed in the Confederate service as a private in the " Nelson Rangers," an independent company of cav- alry. His first service with this command was scout and outpost duty before Vicksburg. He subsequently served under General N. B. Forrest, the famous cav- alry commander. He served with General Hood in Atlanta, and during the campaign against Nashville, [5] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER and remained in the service until the surrender of General Johnston's army in April, 1865. As soon as the war was over he again took up his studies, and, entering the junior class in the Univer- sity of Georgia, he graduated from that institution in 1867 with first honors. In the autumn of that year he entered the University of Virginia, where he took a course in Civil Engineering, and graduated in 1869 with the degree of C. E., again at the head of his class. Mr. Spencer began his railway career with the Savannah & Memphis Railroad Company, serving successively as rodman, leveler, transitman, resident engineer, and principal engineer, until July, 1872, when he became clerk to the Superintendent of the New Jersey Southern Railroad at Long Branch. In December, 1872, he went into the transportation department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, with which Company he remained for four years in charge of one of its divisions. For a short time in 1877, he was Superintendent of the Virginia Midland Railroad, and in January, 1878, he became General Superintendent of the Long Island Railroad. In 1879 he returned to the Balti- more & Ohio as Assistant to the President, from which post he was advanced to the offices of Third Vice- President in 1881 ; Second Vice-President in 1882, [6] IN MEMORIAM SAMUKL SPENCKR and First Vice-President in 1884. In December, 1887, he was elected President of the Baltimore & Ohio, and piloted that Company successfully through one of the most trying and difficult periods in its history. In March, 1889, he entered the banking house of Drexel, Morgan & Company (now J. P. Morgan & Company,) as railroad expert and representative of their large railroad interests. In July, 1893, Mr. Spencer was appointed re- ceiver of the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company, and of the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Rail- way Company, and in June, 1894, when the Southern Railway Company was organized to take over the properties of the old Richmond Terminal and East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia System, he was made its President and served as such until his death. The Southern Railway System, under his administration, was built up from 4,391 miles to 7,515 miles of directly operated lines, and controlled subordinate companies, operated separately, with 2,038 miles of line. At the time of his death Mr. Spencer was at the head of an organization of more than 40,000 men in the employ of the Southern Railway Company alone. He was President of the following railway companies : The Southern Railway Company, Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company, [7] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company, Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Rail- way Company, Georgia Southern and Florida Railway Company, Northern Alabama Railway Company. At that time he was, in addition to the above, a member of the Boards of Directors of the following companies : Alabama Great Southern Railway Company (Lim- ited) England, Central of Georgia Railway Company, Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway Company, Erie Railroad Company, Old Dominion Steamship Company, Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company, The Standard Trust Company, of New York, Hanover National Bank, of New York, The Trust Company of America, New York, Western Union Telegraph Company. Mr. Spencer was married on February 6, 1872, to Louisa Vivian, daughter of Henry L. Benning, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Georgia and a Briga- dier General in the Confederate Army, and is survived by his widow and three children, Henry Benning, Ver- nona Mitchell, and Vivian. [8] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER He was a member of the University and Union Clubs, of New York ; the Tuxedo Club ; the Metro- politan Club, of Washington ; the Jekyl Island Club ; the Capital City Club, of Atlanta ; the Queen City Club of Cincinnati, and the Chicago Club. He was also a member of the New York Chamber of Com- merce ; the American Academy of Political Science ; the American Forestry Association; the Metropoli- tan Museum of Art ; the Municipal Art Society and the American Museum of Natural History, of New York ; the New York Zoological Society ; the Associa- tion for the Protection of the Adirondacks, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. Mr. Spencer had rare capacity as an executive officer and organizer. He was an excellent judge of men, and, a tireless and energetic worker himself, he had the faculty of securing the efficient co-operation of his subordinates. He was a man of the highest integrity and was noted for consistent honesty of pur- pose and fair dealing. He was uniformly just and gen- erous in his dealings with his subordinates and always had their fullest confidence and their highest respect. With his friends he was jovial and companionable and won their affection. As a writer and public speaker Mr. Spencer ranked high. His addresses on public questions, and more particularly on the relations of the railways to the pub- [9] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER lie, were admirable examples of clear thinking and sound reasoning, and stamped him as an economic statesman of high order. A Joint Meeting of the Voting Trustees and the Board of Directors of the Southern Railway Company was held at its office in Washington, D. C, on Sunday, December 2nd, 1906, immediately after the funeral service of Samuel Spencer, late President of the Com- pany, Alexander B. Andrews, First Vice-President, presiding. Upon motion of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, the fol- lowing minute was adopted, and was ordered to be entered on the records and published at length in the press upon the lines of the Southern Railway : Samuel Spencer, bom in Columbus, Georgia, March 2nd, 1847, died November 29th, 1906, near Lawyer's Station, Virginia, upon the railroad of the Southern Railway Company of which he was the first and only President. The personal qualities of Mr. Spencer, his integrity in hezirt and mind, his affectionate and genial disposition, his loyal and courageous spirit, his untiring devotion to duty, his persistent achievement of worthy ends and his comradeship on the fields of battle, of affairs, and of manly sport, combined to establish him in the loving regard of hosts of friends in every section of his country, and nowhere more securely than in the affection of his fellow workers in the service of the Southern Railway Company. The importance of his service to this Company is matter of common knowledge throughout the railroad world, but the character, the extent, and the consequence of that service are and can be appreciated at their full worth only by his associates now gathered here to attest their regard for him, and to record their high estimate of his life and work. Upon June 18th, 1894, on the completion of the Richmond Terminal Reorganization conceived by J. Pierpont Morgan, and conducted by his part- ner, Charles H. Coster, the first meeting of the Southern Railway Company was called to order at Richmond by Samuel Spencer as President. [10] IN MF.MORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER In the first fiscal year the Southern Railway System embraced 4,391 miles of road, with 623 locomotives and 19,694 cars, which carried 3,427, 858 passengers, and 6,675,750 tons of freight and earned $17,114,791. In the last fiscal year the Southern Railway System embraced 7,515 miles of road, with 1,429 locomotives and 50,119 cars, which carried 11,663,550 passengers, 27,339,377 tons of freight and earned $53,641, 438. The number of employees had increased from 16,718, June 30, 1895, to 37.003, June 30, 1906, and the wages paid from $6,712,796 to $21,198,020. The full details and the impressive character of this remarkable advcmce, too extended for present recital, are exhibited in the masterly communication which, upon February 1st, 1906, Mr. Spencer addressed to the Voting Trustees as the basis of the Development and General Mortgage. In this progress every step had been initiated and conducted by Mr. Spencer with the cordial concurrence of the Voting Trustees and the Board of Directors ; and it is significant of the conservative and cautious disposition of Mr. Spencer and his supporters that this phenominal enlarge- ment of the System and its business was not made the bcisis of any incre2ise of stock, or even of any increase of dividends beyond the amount contemplat- ed and stated in the Plan of 1893 with reference to the properties originally reorganized. Every dollar that could be borrowed under President Spen- cer's management was put into the property in the effort to enable it to meet the ever increasing demands of the vigorous and wonderful growth of the South and its industries. The mighty fabric which for twelve years he has been moulding must continue under others to develop, and to improve in the service that it shall render to the public, but never can it cease to bear the impress, or to reveal the continuing impulse of the master mind of its first President. In the height of his usefulness and his powers he has been called away, but the inspiration of his shining example and his lofty standards must ever animate his successors. To many other corporations conducting the commerce of the country, as well as to the Southern Railway, did Mr. Spencer render invaluable ser- vice, and all of them will share in our sense of loss and personal grief. As their chosen spokesman in the tremendous agitation culminating in the Con- gressional action of 1906, his mastery of his subject, his dignity of bearing and his integrity of character commanded the confidence and approval of the vast interests whose constitutional rights it became his duty to assert and to protect. To the great public not less than to the commercial interests did he rec- ognize his obligation. How well he conceived, how admirably he performed that duty, was indicated in the last of his public addresses, his last message [11] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER to his friends in the South, delivered at Montgomery, Alabama, on October 25th, 1906; an address which deserves wide circulation and close consider- ation, not only in his own South that he loved so well, but throughout the whole country which he had learned to know far better than most of its citi- zens wherever bom. His chosen career has closed, but the wisdom and the virtues that char- acterized that career will abide as long as there shall be a regard for duty bravely done and for high service gallantly rendered. To his family we extend our deep and most respectful sympathy, and our assurance that for them, as well as for his associates, honor <utd happi- ness will ever result from their relation to Samuel Spencer, that just and upright man and officer. [12] HOW THE MONUMENT WAS BUILT. The high esteem in which Mr. Spencer was held by the employees of the Southern Railway system was evidenced when, within a few days after his death, suggestions were received by the executive officers of the Company from many individuals, that the whole body of employees be permitted to testify to their appreciation of him as a railway executive and their affection for him as a man, by the erection of a suita- ble and enduring memorial. This suggestion met with the approval of the ex- ecutive officers who promised their aid and co-opera- tion, with the understanding that no employee was to be urged to contribute, but that the memorial was to be a voluntary and spontaneous expression of the regard in which the contributors held their great leader. The matter was taken up enthusiastically by the em- ployees of every department on all parts of the system. Meetings were held and resolutions were adopted. After a careful consideration of several propositions as to the character of the memorial to be erected and [13] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER its location, it was decided that a statue of Mr. Spen- cer would be most appropriate and that the ideal loca- tion for it was on the plaza in front of the Terminal Station in Atlanta. The selection of Atlanta wcis governed by the fact that it is the Capital of the State of Georgia, in which Mr. Spencer was born, and a central and important city on the Southern Railway system. In order to systematize the movement, a General Committee of employees was appointed, under the Chairmanship of Mr. J. W. Connelly, Chief Special Agent, and embracing the following representatives of every branch of the service : STATION AGENTS. G. A. Barnes, Chattanooga, Tenn. C. L. Candler, Norfolk, Va. D. L. Bryan, Columbia, S. C. T. L. Hill, Birmingham, Ala. E. H. Lea, Richmond, Va. FREIGHT CLAIM DEPARTMENT. J. J. Hooper, Washington, D. C. FREIGHT TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT. F. H. Behring, Louisville, Ky. Randall Clifton, Atlanta, Ga. L. L. McClesky, Atlanta, Ga. PASSENGER TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT. George B. Allen, Atlanta, Ga. L. S. Brown, Washington, D, C. J. C. Beam, St. Louis, Mo. J. L. Meeks, Atlanta. Ga. LAW AGENTS' DEPARTMENT. W. F. Combs, Macon, Ga. M. H. Dooley, Washington, D. C. SPECIAL AGENTS' DEPARTMENT. J. W. Connelly, Washington, D. D. P. G. Cropper, Louisville, Ky. RIGHT OF WAY DEPARTMENT. C. J. Shelverton, Austell, Ga. [14] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER TIE AND TIMBER DEPARTMENT. C. A. Slater. Washington, D. C. DINING CAR CONDUCTORS G. L. Best, Charlotte, N. C. TELEGRAPH OPERATORS. O. R. Doyle, Calhoun, S. C. A. L. McDaniel, Forest City, S. C. C. G. VVhitworth, Bon Air, Va. TRAIN CONDUCTORS. C. T. Laughlin, Princeton, Ind. R. W. Moore, Washington, D. C. TRAINMEN. M. V. Hamilton, Knoxville. Tenn. ENGINEERS. J. I. Whiddon, Macon, Ga. FIREMEN. C. A. Loftin, Atlanta, Ga. ROADWAY DEPARTMENT. H. D. Knight, Greensboro, N. C. C. J. Murphy, Louisville, Ky. A. P. New, Birmingham, Ala. CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. Thomas Bernard, Greensboro, N. C. W. B. Crenshaw, Knoxville, Tenn. BRIDGE AND BUILDING DEPARTMENT. Bernard Herman, Washington, D. C. MACHINISTS. A. McGillivray, Birmingham, Ala. BLACKSMITHS. A. Gledhill, Birmingham, Ala. George E. Saywell, Sheffield, Ala. BOILERMAKERS. T. J. Garvey, Manchester, Va. M. W. Harris, Birmingham, Ala. CAR REPAIRERS. Frank A. Jones, Richmond, Va. S. L. Shaver, Atlanta, Ga. E. S. Smith, Princeton, Ind. COPPERSMITHS AND PIPEFITTERS. W. L. Allen, Birmingham, Ala. W. F. Bronson, Atlanta, Ga. [15] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER STOREKEEPERS. W. M. Netherland, Washington, D. C. LAND AND INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT. H. E. Waernicke, Washington, D. C. AUDITING DEPARTMENT. F. B. Clements, Washington, D. C. T. L. Shelton, Washington, D. C. LAW DEPARTMENT. Daniel Kelly, Washington, D. C. SURGEONS. Dr. W. A. Applegate, Washington, D. C. PURCHASING DEPARTMENT. Joseph Angel, Washington, D. C. J. A. Turner, Washington, D. C. GENERAL YARD MASTERS. R. L. Avery, Spencer, N. C. J. A. McDougle, Birmingham, Ala. W. W. Barber, Columbia, S. C. J. J. Patton, Knoxville, Tenn. J. Fritz, E. St. Louis, 111. W. W. Waits, Atlanta, Ga. GENERAL OFFICES. E. D. Duncan, Atlanta, Ga. Guy E. Mauldin, Washington, D. C^ J. L. Edwards, Birmingham, Ala. L. C. Ullrich, Washington, D. C. This Committee formulated a plan by which each employee, from the President down, was afforded an opportunity to contribute in proportion to his rate of compensation from the Company. Many employees were anxious to contribute much larger amounts, but they were not permitted to do so, it having been found that, by reason of the large number of contributors, a sufficient fund would be provided by strict adherence to the plan adopted and it being desired that among all the thousands of subscribers each should feel that, in proportion to his earnings, he had contributed as much to the erection of the monument as any other.. [16] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER Each employee who wished to contribute sent an order on the Paymaster requesting him to deduct from his pay the amount he was entitled to give under the plan adopted. All moneys were paid to Mr. H. C. Ansley, Treasurer of the Southern Railway Company, who, at the request of the employees, consented to act as Treasurer of the fund. The names of all contrib- utors were listed for a permanent record ; two copies of this record being made, one being given to Mr. Spencer's family and the other filed in the office of the Chairman of the General Committee. When the base of the monument was being built the thousands of slips bearing the original signatures of the em- ployees were securely sealed in a metal box and placed in the corner stone. After the fund had been collected, Mr. Daniel Chester French, of New York, was commissioned to execute the bronze statue of Mr. Spencer, and Mr. Henry Bacon was employed to design its pedestal. The beautiful monument as it stands today bears tes- timony to the wisdom of the selection of these men as sculptor and architect. The monument having been completed and placed in position, arrangements were made for unveiling it on May 21, 1910. Invitations in the following form were sent to railway officers and other prominent citi- zens of the United States : [17] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER The Employees of the Southern Railway Company request the honor of your presence at the Unveiling of the Monument to Samuel Spencer First President of the Company at the Terminal Station Atlanta, Georgia Saturday afternoon, May twenty-first nineteen hundred and ten at two o'clock. [18] UNVEILING THE MONUMENT. At the hour fixed for the unveiling there was a large and distinguished gathering of invited guests, and several thousand employees of the Company were present as hosts. The programme of the unveiling exercises was as follows: MUSIC. Introduction of the Presiding Officer Mr. J. S. B. Thompson, By Mr. J. W. Connelly, Chairman of the General Committee. PRAYER. Rt. Rev. Cleland Kinlock Nelson, Bishop of Atlanta. Address on the Life and Character of Samuel Spencer, Hon. Alexander P. Humphrey. Unveiling of the Monument, Miss Violet Spencer. MUSIC. Presentation of Monument on Behalf of the Employees, To the State of Georgia and City of Atlanta. Mr. W. W. Finley. Acceptance for the State of Georgia, Hon. Joseph M. Brown, Governor. Acceptance for City of Atlanta, Hon. Robert F. Maddox, Mayor. BENEDICTION. Rev. John E. White, D. D., Pastor Second Baptist Church, Atlanta. MUSIC. [19] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER Just before the exercises began, one hundred little girls, daughters of employees of the Southern Railway Company, led by Mrs. E. E. Norris, wife of Superin- tendent Norris, of the Atlanta Division, carrying arm- fulls of cut flowers and wreaths, marched across the plaza and deposited the flowers at the base of the monument. The assembly was called to order by Mr. J. W. Connelly, Chief Special Agent of the Southern Rail- way Company, as Chairman of the General Commit- tee, who, introducing Mr. J. S. B. Thompson, Assistant to the President of the Southern Railway Company, as the presiding officer, spoke as follows : ** Ladies and Gentlemen : We have met here to- day to do honor to the memory of our beloved First President, Samuel Spencer. ''It would be impossible to say who first sug- gested the erection of this monument. Within a few days after the death of Mr. Spencer, suggestions for the erection of a suitable memorial were received by the management from individual employees. The idea spread spontaneously. It was taken up in meetings of employees and resolutions were adopted. The man- agement gave the movement its hearty approval on condition that contributions should be made freely and voluntarily. The movement took shape in the organ- ization of a General Committee of Employees of which [20] IN MEMORIAM SAMUKL SPENCER I have had the honor of serving as Chairman. From the start its success was assured. A plan was devised which gave every employee from President down an opportunity to contribute in proportion to his wages. That this method of collecting the funds was a proper one is evidenced by the thousands of slips bearing the signatures of employees which were received and which have been sealed in a metal box and placed in the corner stone of the monument. The necessary funds having been raised, and the movement having been carried to a successful conclusion, I wish to thank all of my fellow employees, and especially those who served with me on the General Committee, for their support and co-operation. '' We have erected a monument that is a fitting testimonial of the high regard in which our First Presi- dent was held by the entire body of employees. Our task is done, and I now have the pleasure of present- ing to you, as the presiding officer on this occasion, one who needs no introduction to a Georgia audience, Mr. J. S. B. Thompson." Rt. Rev. Cleland Kinloch Nelson, D. D., Bishop of Atlanta, offered the following prayer : " Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, Thine unworthy servants, do give Thee most humble and hearty thanks for all Thy goodness and loving kindness to us, and to all men ; we bless Thee for our creation, [21] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for Thine inestimable love in the redemp- tion of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ ; for the means of grace and for the hope of glory, the benefit of mankind and the peace of the world. We humbly beseech Thee to guard and protect this nation. Grant to our rulers righteousness and true holiness. To our judges wisdom, justice and truth. To men in every department of life honour, probity, virtue and rever- ence. Root out all vices and wickedness from among us and grant us consideration one of another, with fer- vent charity among ourselves. And, we beseech Thee, give us that due sense of all Thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful ; and that we show forth Thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to Thy service, and by walking before Thee in holiness and righteousness all our days ; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen." Hon. Alexander P. Humphrey, General Counsel of the Southern Railway Company at Louisville, Ky., a friend from boyhood of Mr. Spencer, delivered the principal address of the day on " The Life and Char- acter of Samuel Spencer," speaking as follows: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : On every such occasion as this there comes to [22] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPKNCER me the Latin line, which holds a note musical and solemn : " Vita enim mortuorum in memoria vivorum posita." It is difficult to give an English equivalent com- plete at once in voice and sense. It is sufficient to express the thought. In the memory of the living is the life of the dead, not all of it, we trust, but much of it. Let us think of the converse. The life of the liv- ing is in the memory of the dead. There is no one of us to whom this does not apply. As we pass the half-way line of life given by nature and measured by the Psalmist, year by year, with increasing volume, our life seems filled with the memory of the dead. It could not be otherwise. It is well that it is so. It is a primal source of inspiration. Themistocles, upon thinking on the deeds of his ancestors, could not sleep. The touch of the vanished hand still leads us ; the voice may be still to sense but it guides our life. More than forty years ago I was a fellow-student with Samuel Spencer at the University of Virginia. The Civil War had closed only two years. One-half of the students had been soldiers in the Confederate Army, a preparatory school quite out of the ordinary, but one which taught many things well worth knowing and useful in the conflicts of life. While he was a student of one professional school and I of another, yet circumstances threw us together, and impressionable [23] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER youth easily took the mould of boyhood friendship. As many miles separated our homes and diverse pur- suits our lives, we did not again come in dose relations until 1894. From that time until his death there ex- isted an intimate friendship. In my memory of the dead, then, I have youth and hope as well cis mature life and famous achievement. From this it follows that, were the choice open, it were much simpler for me to speak of him in terms of affection than of admira- tion, and to recall and dwell upon those things which bound him close to his home and his friends, rather than those which enabled him to rank as peer with the great men which the South has given to our common country. To borrow the thought and, in some degree, the language of Pericles — when a man's deeds have been great it is enough for him to be honored in deed only. This gathering, this assembly of people — those who have been lifted into high office and public gaze, and those who, in the daily round of toil, no less perform the public service, the statue here to be unveiled — this tells his story in the simplest and most effective way. When there is an attempt to add speech to this we im- peril great reputation " on the eloquence or want of eloquence of another, and virtues are believed or not as such one may speak well or ill. For it is difficult to say neither too little nor too much. The friend of the [24] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER dead who knows the facts is likely to think the words of the speaker fall short of his knowledge and his wishes, and another who is not so well informed will suspect exaggeration." But, as we are here to accomplish the erection of a monument which shall still exist when all of us shall have ceased to be, custom requires that we justify to ourselves, to the American people and to posterity the singling out of this man for so high honor. It is natural, in beginning what is to be said of the life of Samuel Spencer, that we should recall that he was born in 1847 and died in 1906. This is, indeed, to say very little. A famous writer, in describing a visit to Westminster Abbey, recalled how many tombs were there upon which were recorded simply the date of the birth and the death of him who slept beneath, as if there had been, perforce, nothing to record except the two circumstances common to all men. Such a life, he says, is aptly described in Holy Writ as the path of an arrow which quickly closes and is swallowed up. But when we go further and say that he was a Confed- erate soldier ; that he was the first President of the Southern Railway Company, and that this statue is erected by his fellow-employees you at once see that this is an outline of a life pregnant with interest. In what has been aptly called ** Samuel Spencer's Last Message to the South," he said : [25] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER " Born and reared in the South and identified by my life's work with Southern interests, I feel I have a right to speak to you as one of your own people." He was born in Georgia ; he was taught in her schools ; he served in her army ; and here he found the helpmeet whom God had ordained for him, and who is present with us to-day with their children and their children's children about her knees. As Paul boasted that he was a citizen of no mean city, so Samuel Spencer was an imperial son of an im- perial state. It is altogether meet that his present- ment should be placed here in this Capital City of his native state — a city once reduced by the heat of con- flict literally to a heap of ashes. You need only to look about to see how like the day-star new risen she " flames in the forehead of the morning sky." When a mere stripling he dropped his books, put on his uniform and rode away to battle. How absurd it is to suppose that this multitude of gallant lads had grave consultation of the right of secession, or held high debate as to the correct interpretation of the Con- stitution of the United States, He was a Georgian and he saw her invaded by an armed force. He was of the South and he saw her resisting a fierce attack. Some there are who suppose that the young men of the South came from the battle-field and camp broken in spirit and crushed under the burden of defeat. This [26] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER is far from the truth. Recall what was said of an an- cient people and see how aptly it pictures the Southern soldier of which he was the best type : *' Bold beyond their strength, they run risks which prudence would con- demn, and in the midst of misfortune are full of hope. When they fail in an enterprise they at once conceive new hopes and so fill up the void ; and they deem the quiet of inaction to be as disagreeable as the most tire- some business." He was eighteen years old when the debacle came. Time would fail if I attempted to recite how he prepared for his life work and how from stage to stage he moved steadily forward, never hasting, never rest- ing. From rodman to president took many years, much labor, infinite patience. Every opportunity found him ready, and every task of increased import- ance found him equcd to it. In 1887 he was at the head of the Baltimore & Ohio Company ; then, for a season, he filled the place of railroad expert in a great banking house ; then, in 1894, came the final call. This was to become the first President of the Southern Railway. It was a task no less grateful than difficult. The South had become like Samson's lion. He left it dead by the wayside, but when he came that way again lo, a swarm of bees had made of its body their hive. *' Out of the [27] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness." With an eye that could look through the veil of the future, Samuel Spencer saw that this was but a beginning, and that there was in this, his native state, and these other states of the South, a promise and a potency of industrial development undreamed of in the olden days. The need of the hour was the creation of a strong, compact and coherent system of transpor- tation which should bind together every state south of the Potomac and the Ohio, from the Atlantic Sea- board to the Mississippi, in a confederacy of commerce, industry and peace. The materials to his hand were numerous short lines of railroad, bankrupt in credit and of whose track and equipment it could only be said that they were fitly mated. There were also to be met and satisfied the diverse claims of disappointed holders of conflicting securities and the jealous and not always reasonable demands of rival communities. The task, I repeat, was a grateful one to him. It called into play every faculty of his mind and character. Imagin- ation, will, courage, tact, justice, perseverance, patience. What an inspiring thing it is to see a strong man put forth his strength — his many-sided strength — of imagi- nation, to see in the material the building ; of will, to bend others to it ; of courage, to be afraid of no man ; of tact, to yield where gentleness demands ; of justice, [28] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER to regard the rights of others; of perseverance, to push on against every obstacle ; of patience, to chal- lenge the verdict of time. The twelve years that elapsed from 1894 to 1906 were strenuous years, no one without its peculiar diffi- culty to be encountered or obstacle to be overcome. In the accomplishment of this great work his fame is secure. For it is a work that takes hold not alone upon the present day but upon a future of broad ex- panse. It belongs to few men to have such an oppor- tunity, and to only a handful to meet and fulfill its every demand. There is something more than this. Samuel Spencer was not only a man of thought, of imagina- tion and of action ; he was a man of speech— timely and sympathetic speech. Born in the old order he grew up and was a leader in the new. It is only the present generation that has known an industrial South. It is the men of his time that have created and fos- tered this change : an absolutely necessary one if the South was to continue to hold a place of influence in the national life. So long as there existed here a dis- tinct system of labor there also existed a distinct sys- tem of leisure. I do not mean by leisure, idleness, but freedom from toil and money-getting. In the old days of the South the publicist, the law- yer, the preacher and the soldier well-nigh had the [29] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER monopoly of admiration, power and influence. There were few great merchants ; no great railroad ; and our minercil wealth was practically unknown. In 1904 Samuel Spencer was called upon to speak to the students of the Georgia School of Tech- nology. No one can read this address without seeing what was his power of sympathetic speech. Uncon- sciously the speaker unfolds his own life. His hearers could mark him as one of their own number, then as enduring with patience the time of small things ; then the slow promotion with no retrograding step, the sure making-ready for large opportunity. There is, in all he says, no depreciation of literciry pursuit or culture ; no vaunting of the practical above the spiritual. After stating what had been the industrial progress of the nation since 1870, he shows how much more marvel- ous in proportion had been that of the South. From pointing out how, in one section, there had been con- stant effort to make ready for such tasks those fitted for it, he passes to the necessity of the South's doing likewise ; and at the last he strikes the highest note. "In all your purposes and dealings be true. There is a truth in action ; a truth of achievement, a truth of execution — all included, of course, in moral truth. There is a truth of accuracy, of soundness, of genuineness. See that every article you make and every action of your lives are all they purport to be. [30] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER Apply in your individual lives the great moral injunc- tion which years ago the then honored Chancellor of the State University impressed upon his audience: ' Let truth be the spinal column of your character, into which every rib is set and on which the brain itself reposes.' " There belongs to every really great man, whose character is built on sure foundations, a certain moral shyness which accompanies his every word and work. Such an one makes no appeal for himself, no claim to public gratitude or manifestation of personal approval. He thinks and works and speaks for his cause alone, and is content for that to stand as his interpreter. And at last it is true of every man who has served his generation, that we must arise " from the knowledge of what he did to the knowledge of what he was." It was, as I have stated, in 1887 that Samuel Spencer became President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. Whether he took any part in the discussions which preceded the enactment that year of the Interstate Commerce Act I do not know ; but, when the question was again opened in 1905 and 1906 and the Hepburn Bill was under consideration, he made most notable contributions to the debate which preceded its passage. There is one thread which runs through all his argument. This is that the railroads of the country are entitled to justice. He [31] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER did not dispute their public character nor yet that there had been abuses, nor yet that the great power which attends strong organizations had been some- times misused. Against rebates and every form of dis- crimination he set his face ; but, on the other hand, he pointed out the great part which the railroads had in building up trade, and showed how absolutely essen- tial to the development of the nation it was to increase their efficiency and their ability to keep pace with the country's growth. He showed that, exactly like other business enterprises, neither time nor money would be embarked except upon the promise of adequate returns. In every instance he asked his hearers to believe that railroad men and railroad companies were not things apart ; that there was here no more greed of wealth and no less integrity of management than is common to all commercial life. He sometimes seemed to fear that his voice was as one crying in a wilderness, but for all that he had such strong faith in his own truth that he could not believe, if the people only under- stood, they would refuse justice. There was some- thing more than this. What he argued for with con- stant insistence was a right understanding of the relation which existed between those who needed and those who furnished transportation ; that it was in no way different from the ordinary relation of buyer and seller, consumer and producer ; that beyond an assur- [32] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER ance of honest dealing and fair and equal treatment — enforced by law, if need be — there was no reason for popular prejudice or governmental interference. His effort was to bring every man to think what would be his attitude if, instead of being engaged in some other activity, he were a railroad manager or a rail- road investor— not a selfish or grasping one, not a rude or arrogant one, but one who had conscience and justice as his business guides. From such a stand- point he welcomed discussion, invited suggestion and did not shrink from criticism. We are always to remember that, although Samuel Spencer was a leader and a guide in the new order, he was born in the old. No man entirely gets away from his ancestors. So that there was ever present with him a degree of sentiment, of emotion, of aspiration, the spiritual unsatisfied by the practical, which gave character to the old order. There also belonged to him a spirit of independence and of individualism which struggled hard against the contrary force so marked in the day of his greatest activity. Tacitus declares that an unhappy period in the life of a state when there are many laws. We may interpret this that as offenses multiply so must increase the " thou- shalt-nots" of the law. But this is not the meaning of Tacitus. It is that the state has become prone more and more to interfere with, guide, govern and [ -'^3 ] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER prescribe the life and activities of the individual man. In the last twenty years our transportation lines have been especially selected for this profusion of govern- ance. Subject as they are to a dual control, the states are exhorted to use their full power, under the threat that any unused portion will be added to and employed by Federal enactment. Against this ten- dency Samuel Spencer put forth all his opposing strength. He did not, I repeat, object to any regula- tion which secured equality and justice; but he insisted that what the public was entitled to have the public was bound to give ; and especially he showed that, while the older sections might endure these at- tacks, yet they made absolutely unsafe the struggling commercial life of the new. It is a good thing to bear the yoke in one's youth, and in the time of great things to remember the day of small things. So Samuel Spencer never forgot that he too had been at the bottom of the ladder ; and he also recognized that among other changes in the world of industry there has come a marked change in the relation of employer and employed. Especially is this true in the case of a great organization such as one of our railroads. The engineer, the fireman, the conductor, the brakeman, the mechanic, the section man — are all parts of one great whole, just as much a part as the higher officials; and they have come by [34] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER common consent to have a tenure of place quite as secure, and a full right to fair return for honest labor. Yonder statue is erected by the employees of the South- em Railway. This lays emphasis upon two facts — one that the employees of the Southern Railway feel con- fident that Samuel Spencer recognized that he was at last only one of them ; the other fact is that we are all bound together in a strong but sacred fellowship when that fellowship is one of respect and honor to our be- loved dead. This place was chosen for the erection of this monument not only because it was within the native state of Samuel Spencer and midway of the line of the Southern Railway but also because this site for a sta- tion was chosen at his instance and this building erect- ed according to his plan. Here we may imagine him through the years, calmly seated while before him passes the whole drama of human life. For this shall be a place of joy and of sorrow, of laughter and of tears, of hope and disappointment, of meeting and of parting, of hearts made glad in coming home, and again made sick by leaving all that makes life dear. Here will come the bridegroom and the bride, circled by a happy throng ; and here again will walk alone the figure clothed in black behind the truck which bears all that remains of of what was once strong and loving support. Every- [35] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER thing that makes life dear ; everything that makes life a burden; success, anticipated or achieved; failure, foreshadowed or pronounced, will be represented in the multitude that passes by this silent figure. But if here there are eyes which see not, and ears which hear not, we revert to the question I asked at first : Is the life of the dead in the memory of the liv- ing and nothing more ? May I relate to you a simple incident which brought before me this question in a way that has never faded from my memory ? Some years ago I was at a railroad station in Pana, Illinois, waiting for a train. A newsboy sold me a local paper. In glanc- ing through it I came across a telegram which told of the sudden death of one with whom I had a lifelong friendship. Walking along with the thought of my friend filling my mind, I came to the edge of the plat- form. It was a beautiful afternoon — the sun almost at its setting and the heavens full of light, clear and soft. Below there was the throbbing of a stationary engine, the steam rising like a pure white cloud in the still air. Beyond was a high platform and on it ap- peared, from moment to moment, dark figures, each with a small twinkling light. The figures were miners coming out of the mine after the day's toil, and the lights were the little lamps carried in their caps. As each came within the circle and the influence of the [36] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER day he at once took off his cap and blew out the little lamp. It seemed to me that there was something typical in this. Down there in the dark and narrow mine the miner had this little lamp, which lighted only a narrow circle. Coming into the day, as his eye took in at a glance the wide horizon, he was in the midst of and bathed in an ocean of light. If by death light and immortality are indeed brought to life how must the lamp by which our steps have been guided while on this earth seem dim and insignificant in comparison with the glory of that supernal effulgence into which we shall be ushered when once we have passed the dark portal of the grave! And so, in conclusion, may we not say of him as was said of a great king, that, '* having served his gen- eration, he fell on sleep and was gathered to his fathers." At the conclusion of Judge Humphrey's address, the monument was unveiled by Miss Violet Spencer, daughter of Mr. Henry B. Spencer, and grand-daughter of the late Samuel Spencer. After appropriate music by the band of the Fifth Regiment of the Georgia National Guard the presid- ing officer, Mr. J. S. B. Thompson, introduced Mr. W. W. Finley, President of the Southern Railway Comp- any, saying: [37] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER " Ladies and Gentlemen : " In this age of great undertakings, that close personal contact between man and man which charac- terized the smaller enterprises of former times is impossi- ble. Especially is this true of a great railway system with its employees distributed over thousands of miles of line. The directing head of such an institution can come into personal relations with but relatively a very few of his co-workers. Many of them may never even see him. That, under such circumstances, Samuel Spencer should have so administered the affairs of the Southern Railway Company as to inspire in the vast army of employees who worked under his direction the high respect and the personal esteem of which this beautiful monument is the visible expression marks him as no ordinary man. No higher tribute could be paid to his character than this evidence in lasting bronze and marble that his death was felt as a personal loss by thousands of employees throughout every branch of the service. " This monument is the result of a movement that had its inception in the ranks of the employees of the Southern Railway system and it was strictly their affair from its inception to its successful completion. The officers of the Company bore the same relation to it as the men in the ranks. They were given an opportunity to contribute on the basis of the plan [ 38 ] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER adopted by the General Committee. Friends and ad- mirers of Mr. Spencer outside our ranks asked for the privilege of making contributions but their cissist- ance was declined with thanks. This was exclusively a family affair of the employees of our Company from which all outsiders were excluded. When sufficient contributions were assured the Committee selected Mr. Daniel Chester French, one of the foremost sculp- tors of the United States, to execute the statue of Mr. Spencer, and Mr. Henry Bacon, an architect of high reputation, to design the base. The wisdom of their selection is evidenced by the splendid work of art before us; and in this connection I know that I voice the sentiments of all my fellow employees when, on their behalf, I thank most heartily the members of our General Committee and especially their energetic and efficient Chairman, Mr. J. W. Connelly, for the capable way in which they have carried out the wishes of the many thousands of contributors to the monument fund. " When the selection of a man to present the monument to the keeping of the State of Georgia and the City of Atlanta was taken up it was the unanimous opinion of the employees, speaking through the repre- sentatives of all departments on the General Committee, that the man who could most properly speak for the entire body of Southern Railway workers was he who [39] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER was one of Mr. Spencer's trusted lieutenants. Their unanimous request, voiced through their Committee, was presented to him and he gladly consented to per- form this service. " I have the honor to introduce Mr. W. W. Finley." Mr. Finley, acting at the request of the whole body of employees, expressed through their General Committee, and on their behalf, presented the mon- ument to the State of Georgia and the City of Atlanta in the following address : "Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: " I appreciate most highly being selected by my fel- low employees as their representative to present to the State of Georgia and the City of Atlanta this monu- ment to Samuel Spencer. " There have been monuments erected to great military chieftains by their followers in war, but this is one of the few instances that I know of in which an industrial army has thus honored its leader. This monument testifies not only to the high esteem in which President Spencer was held by his associates but also to the loyalty with which he was followed by the body of employees which he had organized and which his genius directed in the building up and oper- ation of one of the most important railway systems of the South. It symbolizes the ideal relations between the manager of a railway and those who serve under [40 J IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER his direction, in which each one, in his particular sphere, gives to the property the best service of which he is capable and co-operates loyally and intelligently with his fellow employees to secure the best general results. " The management of the Company appreciates at its full worth the spirit of co-operative loyalty that per- vades our organization and makes it one that any man might be proud to lead. It is an organization which, man for man, I do not believe has its superior on any railway in the United States. It is an organization in which men are constantly showing high capacity and in which vacancies occurring in the service, including the more responsible posts, are being filled by promo- tion from the ranks. ** To all of us in the service of the Company this statue of our great organizer and leader will be a con- stant inspiration to more intense loyalty and higher efficiency. Standing as it does at a central point on our system, in the midst of the busy commercial life of the South, it will symbolize for us the identity of our interests with those of the communities traversed by our lines, and will ever remind us that our value to the Company is measured by the efficiency of our service to the public. " It is fitting that this monument to Samuel Spen- cer should have been erected in Atlanta— the Capital [41] IN MEMORJAM SAMUEL SPENCER of his native State and one of the principal cities on the Southern Railway system. It was the flag of Georgia that he followed into war, and throughout his administration of the Southern Railway Company the transportation needs of this State were among his chief concerns. It is fitting that his statue should be placed before this terminal station, which is the result of years of close personal study by him of the problem of providing for Atlanta adequate terminal facilities. It was a problem to the solution of which he brought his ripe experience and great knowledge. It was he who selected the location and determined the charac- ter of the building with a view to providing a terminal that would afford adequate and convenient accom- modations and that, at the same time, would be an architectural ornament to the city. This passenger station is only a part of the great terminal scheme which Mr. Spencer had planned for Atlanta and which involves the utilization of adjacent property for the development of a great freight terminal. The only things that have prevented the carrying out of this plan in its entirety have been the later development of the necessity for providing facilities for increasing the carrying capacity of our lines and the business de- pression which made it necessary for the Company to postpone this and other projected improvements. It is peculiarly appropriate that I should be able, at this [42] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER time, to announce that the immediate completion of this great project in its entirety, so dear to the heart of Mr. Spencer, has been authorized. " Mr. Spencer was essentially an organizer and a builder. His highest ambition was the development of the Southern Railway into a more efficient trans- portation system, and thus making it a still more im- portant factor in the upbuilding and prosperity of the South. It was to this problem that Mr. Spencer was constantly devoting the best energies of his construc- tive mind, and, as we, his successors, carry forward the great work which he had planned, I believe that the people of the South will recognize, even more fully than they do to-day, the inestimable value to our en- tire section of the crowning work of his life. " Standing before this terminal station, this monu- ment will be seen daily by thousands of the citizens of Georgia and the other Southern States. It will stand as a perpetual inspiration to the youth of Georgia and of the South — portraying a Georgian who, by patriot- ism, strict integrity, a high Christian character, and untiring industry, won honor and success in life and a reputation that endures after death. " And so. Governor Brown and Mayor Maddox, on behalf of my fellow employees of the Southern Rail- way Company, I present to you, as representing the State of Georgia and the City of Atlanta, this monu- [43] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER ment to Samuel Spencer — a Georgian, a Confederate soldier, and the first President of the Southern Rail- way Company — in full confidence that it will be cher- ished and safeguarded, not merely as a beautiful work of art, but as a memorial of one of Georgia's most dis- tinguished and most useful sons." Hon. Joseph M. Brown, Governor of the State of Georgia, in accepting the monument on behalf of the State, said : " Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : " Honoring the devotion of the tens of thousands of employees of the greatest railway system of the South to the memory of their President, and honoring the brain-power, the indomitable energy, the partiotism and the fidelity to trusts placed in his keeping, in the name and in behalf of the people of Georgia, I accept this monument to one of Georgia's greatest sons — Samuel Spencer." Hon. Robert F. Maddox, Mayor of the City of Atlanta, in accepting the monument for the City of Atlanta, said : '' Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : '* From the beginning of historic times, we have record that nations, states, cities and individuals have exemplified a happy custom of making enduring me- morials, in some fashion, of their illustrious dead. [44] 1^^ A Georgian" A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER. AND THE FIRST PRESIDLNT ' OF THE ' SO.UTMERN RAILWAY COMP^^ tRiCTED BY THE EMPLOYEES OF THAT COMPANY m MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER " It is unnecessary in the presence of this enlight- ened gathering, to dwell at length upon celebrated memorials of times that are far distant. It will suffice here to recall a few of the more recent and most striking instances of the kind, and to apply them to the memory of the man whom to-day we are met here to honor. "Trafalgar Square in London is a noble testimonial of England's pride in her brave sailors, and upon the tall shaft which ornaments its center, stands the figure of that country's greatest admiral, Horatio Nelson. " No one who has ever visited Paris, fails to search first for the great white marble sepulcher with the golden dome which keeps the dust of Napoleon Bona- parte. ** Our own Capital city of Washington, one of the most beautiful cities of the earth, is made doubly at- tractive by the monuments and squares and circles which commemorate the valiant deeds of Washington, of Jackson, of Lafayette, of Kosciusko, and of others whose names are chiseled on Fame's everlasting tablet. The unique city of Richmond, Va., ever redolent with the tender memories of the Lost Cause, has adorned herself with immortal bronzes and marbles commem- orative of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, and others who have shed im- perishable luster on American valor. IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER " In the National Hall of Fame in Washington, Georgia has shown her appreciation of statesmanship by voting the first place to Alexander H. Stephens, who, throughout a life of physical suffering and constant bodily infirmity, maintained a mind so clear and a logic so relentless as to place him forever among the foremost statesmen of America. " By the side of Mr. Stephens, Georgia voted its second place in the home of the immortals, to Dr. Crawford W. Long, who made the revolutionary dis- covery of anaesthesia or of making surgical operations painless. "In the City of Atlanta there now stand three mon- uments to distinguished men, erected by their fellow- Georgians. The first is that snow-white figure of the illustrious Ben Hill, which bears silent testimony to the life he lived and the record he made while repre- senting his State and section in the Halls of Congress. The next is that splendid figure in bronze of Henry Grady, " who died literally loving a nation into peace," which was erected by his friends and admirers in ap- preciation of the good work he had accomplished in bringing about cordial relations between all sections of our common country, and for the cheerful and wise editorials written to an appreciative world. The last monument was erected to that brave hero in gray, General Gordon, whose gallant service as a soldier of [46] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER the Confederacy, was enough to endear our people to his name and memory. '* These three Georgian heroes played an impor- tant part in the history of their times — the one a gal- lant soldier, another a splendid statesman, the other a journalist and philanthropist of the highest and best type. But it remains for this day and hour to have unveiled in this, the Gate City of the South, a monu- ment to another famous Georgian, but not especially for his service as a soldier, not for his work as a journal- ist, nor his statesmanship, but for his gentlemenly character, his ability as a captain of industry, and for his universal kindness to the thousands of men employ- ed by the Company of which he was the official head, this monument is to-day unveiled in the heart of a sec- tion for which he labored so long and loved so well. " He had seen the South in ashes, her manufactur- ing plants destroyed, her farms a wretched wilderness of weeds, and her people defeated but still undaunted, after a long and terrible war. But from out the gloom and desolation of that hour, he caught the vision of the dawning of a better day, for he knew that the cour- age and spirit of the people which followed the Stars and Bars for four long years, would not rest in idle mourning, but would in God's own time, rebuild a greater South, to the glory of this section and to the credit of the nation. [47] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCES "He knew that an Omniscient Hand had given us a soil and climate the equal of any on earth. He knew that the rivers and harbors of the South would again send our products to all the world. He knew that our people were honest and industrious and would again create credit and capital out of the shaken but not shattered Southland. It was, therefore, indeed fortunate that, during the years of such rebuilding, the South had such a messenger as Samuel Spencer to go with his optimistic heart and courageous hand to the strong financial interests in the East and lay be- fore them the possibilities of the New South and secure their co-operation in its commercial reconstruction. He told them that the God-given supremacy of the southern planter to raise the cotton crop of the world, would not be neglected, but that in a short time it would require many more miles of transportation facili- ties to market this great crop. He told them that it was at the door of the plantation that the cotton mill of the future would be built. He explained to the people of the North that the furnaces of Alabama and the forests of Georgia and the mines of Tennessee would not be left sleeping in idleness, but would soon ring with the music of commercial progress and prosperity. He prophesied that the villages of this section would grow into great cities and that the cities would in time become great manufacturing centers of trade and [48] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCr::^ traffic, and, with the wisdom of but few men of the South, he went about to do all in his power to bring about the reality of this dream, and, thank God, he lived to see it come true. " Mr. Spencer was a native Georgian. He was born in Columbus. He was fourteen years of age when the great war broke out, and had reached but eighteen when General Lee laid down his stainless sword at Ap- pamatox. Yet, in spite of his youth, he gave two years of hard service to the Confederate Army. While his great heart swelled with pride at the complete reunion of his once disunited country — a reunion in which he himself was one of the principal factors — he still was proud of the fact that he was a Confederate soldier, and these words, so simple, yet which speak so much, are cut into the marble base of this monument where they may be seen until the statue crumbles into dust. " After the war Mr. Spencer entered the University of Georgia, and was graduated from that institution in in the class of 1867 with the first honor. Continuing his studies at the University of Virginia, he there took the degree of Civil Engineer in the class of 1869. " Soon afterward he married Miss Louisa Benning, daughter of General Henry L. Benning, veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars, and later a distinguished member of the Georgia Supreme Court. IN MliMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER "Mr. and Mrs. Spencer literally started life together, and the noble woman sitting to-day upon this platform shared all her husband's early trials, encouraged him at every moment of his career, and finally tasted with him the sweets of deserved success. " Mr. Spencer commenced his railroad work as a rodman. From one position to another he steadily advanced, always as a result of his own work. He never got a promotion on account of " pull " or out- side influence, but every advance was won by him from his superiors as the result of his personal fitness for the place. " In a recent conversation with one of his close friends and business associates, Mr. S. M. Inman, him- self universally and properly known as the first citizen of Atlanta, Mr. Inman said to me : ' Mr. Spencer's en- thusiasm for the upbuilding of the South amounted to a pzission. Day and night he worked for the pro- motion of his native section by improving the farming and transportation facilities and stimulating the build- ing and development of mining and manufacturing plants. During the last seven years of his adminis- tration, there were located along the line of the Southern Railway, nearly 5,000 new manufacturing and mining industries, or an average of one industry to every one and one-half miles of the system proper. Of this number, 300 were textile miles. At one stretch [50] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER of 300 miles, from Danville, Va., South, it is said there is an average of one cotton mill for every mile of the road.' ** One of Mr. Spencer's most striking traits was his kindness of heart, and no higher tribute to his make-up can be paid here to-day than the following excerpt from a letter of Mr. J. W. Connelly, of date January 1st, 1907, which Mr. Connelly, as Chairman of the Committee which built this monument, address- ed to the employees of the Southern Railway, in which he said : * Mr. Spencer's kindness of heart ever led him to treat with the same consideration his humblest employee and his highest officer.' "Mr. Spencer was one of the most accurate of men. In the study of any subject which interested him, whether historical, esthetic, or business, he went to the bottom, and when he spoke, it was " ex-cathedra." He was distinguished for a justness of mental vision and decision rarely possessed by men concerned with such a diversity of large questions. He was one of those men who sought to find the just path, and having found it, he walked straight forward. There were times when he lamented to his nearest friends about the bitter attacks against some of his railroad policies, but he always said that the time would come when the Southern people would understand him. "The splendid line of railroads, amounting to nearly [51] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER 10,000 miles, which he reunited and constructed, now operating successfully through the southeastern part of our country, with its chief business, if not its home office, in Atlanta, which, as a compliment to this sec- tion, he called the Southern Railway Company, to- gether with the growth of that other splendid Company which another fellow-Georgian organized and called the Southern Express Company, I believe are two of the best illustrations to be found of the rapid develop- ment of the New South, and I think these two Com- panies, carrying daily the very name " Southern " into the heart of the East and West, have done much to encourage friendly relationships, easy commercial inter- course, and profitable business between these three great sections of our common country. ** The South in her splendid struggle during the past forty years, has had but little time seriously to con- template the means and men through which our vic- tory has been won, but, now that we have passed through the days of doubt and danger, we may well pause and think over the reasons for the marvellous progress we have made, and measure without partiality the men who have led us in our matchless march from poverty to prosperity, and it is especially fortunate that, while heretofore in Atlanta we have erected mon- uments to those whose splendid services, cis a soldier, statesman and journalist, have been appreciated by a L52] IN MEMORUM SAMUEL SI'ENCEK grateful people, we can to-day unveil another monu- ment which is to be a fitting tribute to a plain business man who ever had the interests of this section at heart, and, through his influence with his associates in the North, did perhaps more than any other man in com- mercially rebuilding this section. ** It is well that this and future generations should know that a man by honest endeavor can operate a commercial enterprise to the credit of himself and for the benefit of his fellow-men. This should be an en- couragement at a time when the press of the country and the people generally are too apt to think and say unjust things of all men engaged in the large commer- cial enterprises. "Atlanta is known as the ' Gate City of the South,* and is proud of the twelve lines of railroad radiating from here to every point of the compass, and I take this occasion to say that the construction and operation of the railroads entering Atlanta have done much to make this City what it is to-day, and we wish for each and every one of them, success. "We are especially grateful that the 30,000 friends of Mr. Spencer among the employees of the South- ern Railway, selected Atlanta as the point where this splendid monument will stand. " Now, Mr. Chairman, as Mayor of this City, and speaking for all of our citizens, I accept this monu- [63] IN MEMORIAM SAMUEL SPENCER ment to the late Samuel Spencer, and assure the donors, each and all, that Atlanta will always be proud of it, and we hope that the city will prove ever worthy of their choice. Its location in the heart of the South, in the Capital City of the State in which he was born, facing the splendid terminal station which he build- ed, is ideal. " I trust it will sit upon this beautiful plaza for in- definite years to inspire every young Georgian who sees it to achieve something for himself and his fellow- men. I sincerely hope that this city, this section, and the road which Mr. Spencer served so well, may con- tinue to grow in influence and in strength, to the glory of God and the nation." Rev. John E. White, D. D., Pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Atlanta, pronounced the following benediction : ''Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, in whom we move and have our being, from whose hand we receive all life and opportunity, we seek Thy gracious benediction upon this occasion. We thank Thee for the great Southerner and good man whose large work for his people and whose noble qualities we have hon- ored to-day. May his career be an inspiration to those who are left to carry forward the progress he dreamed and planned for our people. Bless, we entreat Thee, the thousands of employees who have so lovingly con- [54] IN MKMOKIAM SAMtKL SPENCER tributed to this worthy memorial. Grant grace, mercy and peace to the family and children's children who witness to-day the testimonial of honor we have ded- icated to their beloved dead. Send us forth from this place in Thy favor and guard us from all evil into the paths of righteousness and peace. And this we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen." [55] ^D 05897 /