The Great Mule Mart Drama

History Repeats Itself

This story got its start in 1922, but it might as well have been 1910. The following story plays out in a way that resembles the downfall of the Atlanta Speedway. If you haven’t read about that drama, you can start here.

In 1919 the Candler kids sold Coca Cola for a cool $5mm each, which, in Asa Jr.’s case, paid for a mega-yacht and Briarcliff Mansion’s construction. When the house was complete in 1922, Asa Jr. started looking around for new investment opportunities. That year, a man named William H. White approached Buddie and asked him if he would be interested in buying some stock in his meatpacking company, White Provisions Company.

This wasn’t their first meeting. In fact, a few years earlier William White had made an investment in Candler Field, expressing an interest in learning how air mail might benefit the livestock business. When he approached Buddie in 1922, he found that Buddie was primed for opportunity and looking for a way to turn his wealth into something big.

In 1923 Asa Jr. put together a plan to dominate the agricultural industry and make Atlanta an unstoppable force in the Southeast. He planned to combine the Candler Warehouses with a new cotton compress system and a stockyard system, which would make Atlanta a consolidated trade hub and bring in business from everywhere. In November of 1923 he and William H. White announced that they were partnering to bring Buddie into White Provisions Company. Together they incorporated the Atlanta Union Stock Yards in early 1924, of which White Provisions was a subsidiary. Buddie then pumped money into building out a huge, state of the art livestock complex, complete with auction blocks and leased office spaces for sellers to set up headquarters on site.

But things went wrong quickly. In July of 1924 Buddie leaked information to the press about a merger between two major livestock dealers, the Smyths and the Maxwells, and that they would relocate their consolidated headquarters to the Atlanta Union Stock Yards.. This was huge industry news and had the potential to impact the markets in which both companies were headquartered at the time. To hold off any possible panic, the Smyths made a statement claiming they were only considering a temporary move, nothing permanent.

Behind the scenes the deal must have been in turmoil, because William White then did the unthinkable: he turned on Asa Candler, Jr. In public, no less. He went to the papers and said Buddie’s impulsiveness had embarrassed him, and that he had no part in the decision to release the news of the merger and relocation.

Never Cross a Candler

William White should have known that you don’t cross Asa Jr., and get away with it. That’s a lesson Edward Durant learned in 1910 after he and Buddie had a falling out following the 1909 inaugural races at the Atlanta Speedway. Following a similar pattern, Buddie called a meeting of the board of directors while White was out of town, and voted him out of White Provisions Company’s leadership. It was the Atlanta Automobile Association ejection of Ed Durant all over again—and in fact both events happened in December of their respective years. This time it was arguably worse, because White was out of town attending a livestock event in Chicago that Buddie had insisted he attend. By the time he arrived back in Atlanta it was all over. Buddie was now the President of White Provisions and Atlanta Union Stock Yard.

The stockyard business operated under Buddie’s leadership through 1925, and then in early 1926 the situation escalated further when William White was charged with embezzling funds from White Provisions Co. The charges alleged that he had cooked the books every year until 1925 and had taken more than $200k from the company’s holdings for his own personal use. He was accused of using the ill-gotten money to speculate on cotton, cattle, and other agricultural exchanges.

If you’ve paid close attention to the patterns, you’ll see another one here. Back in the 19-aughts Asa Sr. sent Asa Jr. up north to Hartwell, GA, to manage a cotton mill owned by family friend William “Billy” Witham. The business struggled and never found its financial footing. When Asa Sr. asked Buddie why the mill was losing money, Buddie accused Billy of cooking the books, borrowing money, and speculating on stocks. Asa Sr. believed him, and in the absence of historical documentation of the mill’s finances it’s impossible to know whether his trust was misplaced. The mill was certainly struggling before Buddie got there. It’s why Asa Sr. agreed to buy the mill from Billy in the first place. But its struggles grew worse, not better, after Buddie was appointed as Treasurer and Secretary. Asa Sr. even sent Buddie to New York to investigate Billy’s activities. And then sent Howard to check up on Buddie.

Here’s a refresher:

The 19-aughts encompassed a period of big spending and reputation-building for Asa Jr. It was when he discovered cars, started a family, and bought his first house. In the 1920s he entered another big spending phase, the real estate maneuvers coincided with reputation-building efforts, and he built a house. Coincidentally, the financials went badly again. Perhaps a coincidence. Perhaps a pattern. Either way, both in the aughts and the 20s, Buddie’s business struggles were attributed to a partner falsifying records and using company money to speculate.

As a former bucket shop frequenter, perhaps it took one to know one.

Back to William White. In July of 1926, the prosecution said he had bought on margin and juggled the debt by rolling various loans into each other and mis-recording the financials in the business’ records.. He held three different accounts with his broker, one of which was under his secretary’s name. Prosecutors recounted various dates and dollar amounts that simply didn’t add up. The case looked solid.

In August, Asa Candler, Jr., took the stand and testified against his former business partner. In simple terms he explained that White had approached him to buy stocks, that White had asked him to go into business with him, that White had asked him to lend the money to get their operations improvements started, and that White was solely responsible for mismanaging the money, unbeknownst to him. There were no asides to soften his testimony with praise for White’s character, as would have been expected. He left no room for interpretation: he wanted the jury to come back with a guilty verdict.

The prosecution rested and William White took the stand in his own defense. He gave a long, rambling, sometimes confusing explanation for the financial questions the prosecution had raised. He pointed out multiple occasions in which he had personally financed expenses because the business wasn’t able to cover its costs. He pointed out that he was never insolvent, never in enough debt to need embezzled money. He talked candidly about the way he and the board of directors criss-crossed business and personal funds to help grow the company, not always recording transactions with complete transparency. He had invested twenty years of his life in White Provisions Company, starting out as a jobber and rising to the presidency of a major market meat processing concern. His question was plain: why would he rob the business he had poured his life into?

The jury entered deliberations on August 7. Moments after they left the courtroom, the judge discovered that they had taken two pieces of paperwork that were never submitted into evidence. He called them back and asked the defense if they wanted to make a motion in light of the error. The defense declined. So the judge instructed the jury to only consider the submitted evidence and reminded them of the charges. They were to only decide whether William White was guilty of embezzling funds from White Provisions Company.

The verdict returned quickly: Not guilty.

In spite of the questions the prosecution raised about William White’s activities, the consensus seemed simple: he was just a lousy bookkeeper.

No Really, Never Cross a Candler

Acquitted of the charges against him, William H. White left court a free man. He won the lawsuit, and that’s what mattered, right? Well, just ask Ed Durant. Ed Durant took Asa Jr. to court when he evicted Ed from the Candler Building. Turns out he didn’t have the legal right to do so. Ed won the lawsuit and regained access to his office, but in the end it didn’t matter. Soon after that Edward Durant disappeared from the social scene. His name disappeared from events rosters and social pages, and history recorded nothing of him past 1910. It seems Asa Jr. successfully squashed him.

William H. White also won his court case. He was vindicated, although exposed as a poor financial manager, perhaps. He should have been able to resume his life and business, right? But he didn’t. He didn’t even stay in Atlanta. He packed up his life and by October of 1926 he made the decision to join up with a stock yard in Montgomery, Alabama. And the story of William H. White’s life and trial has faded from history. It seems Asa Jr. successfully squashed him, too.

And what about the company itself? Asa Jr. continued the expansion in 1927, and in early 1928 Atlanta Union Stock Yards reported record business, more than they had the capacity to accept. Business was booming…

…And then in July, out of the blue, Asa Jr. announced that he was shutting the whole thing down. No reason given, just a statement that he would be repurposing the land for other uses.

And then he evicted the Smyth Brothers, which ended their right to auction livestock on site. This was a major blow to their regional business. The Smyth Brothers protested the decision and refused to leave. Asa Jr. insisted. The Smyth brothers took him to court. But by now Buddie was well into the great real estate sell-off, and nothing would stop him from shedding expensive investments from his portfolio. The court case dragged into 1929 and made its way up to the Georgia Supreme Court, but in the end, Asa Candler, Jr. won. The court upheld his right to evict his tenants, and that was that.

By the end of 1929 the Great Mule Mart drama was over. The great sell-off was over. And Asa Jr. retreated from the public eye briefly, burying himself in his hobbies as he typically did between cycles. He walked away from his big plans and focused on two things that brought him joy: flying and magic.

But it wouldn’t last long. Just 2 years later he would start a new cycle, and this time it would start with building a zoo.