Thursday, March 17, 2005
FEATURE
Southern Cross, Page 3
Through Warm Springs and editorial integrity,
Thomas W. Loyless served both his
country and the Catholic Church
homas W. Loyless was born
into a Methodist family in
Dawson, Georgia in 1871 and
died a Catholic in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
in1926. Between these two
happenings, events occurring
in Loyless’ life impacted both
the Catholic Church in Georgia
Rita H. DeLorme and the United States itself.
According to the 1880 U.S.
Census, Tom Loyless evidently lived in Alabama
with his grandparents, Elliott and Nancy
Loyless, when he was growing up. A further
record indicates that he married a Catholic,
Margaret St. Clair Neal, in Bibb County,
Georgia on July 27, 1892.
As a young man, Thomas Loyless chose newspaper work for a career. Working for a newspaper was a taxing job in the early 1900s, particularly in Georgia. Politicians like state Senator
Thomas E. Watson were mining political gold
from bigotry that was as endemic to Georgia as
the red clay that clings to its northern hills. It
was during this period that Thomas W. Loyless
wrote for and/or edited the Dawson News, the
Atlanta Journal, the Atlanta Constitution, the
Augusta Chronicle, the Columbus Enquirer-Sun
and the Macon Telegraph.
Because of his talent and integrity as columnist and editor, Loyless loomed large in the state.
Significantly, a book (Georgia’s Public Men,
1902-1904) which he wrote during his years as a
newspaperman is still considered a valuable reference for anyone interested in the history of
Georgia. Concerning the caliber of the writing
and editing done by Tom Loyless in defense of
the Catholic Church, a writer for the Atlanta
Journal declared years later: “Mr. Loyless never
did more brilliant or more courageous work than
in his mighty and fruitful efforts to break down
the wave of anti-Catholic hatred and prejudice
that was engendered in the state by demagogues
seeking political advantage.”
FDR comes to Georgia
In addition to his efforts as editor and newspaperman, Loyless was responsible in 1924 for
what turned out to be a noteworthy event in
United States history. Learning that the natural,
88-degree waters at Warm Springs, Georgia had
benefited polio victim Louis Joseph of Columbus, Loyless casually mentioned the springs’
therapeutic effects to philanthropist George
Foster Peabody. “That gives me an idea,”
Peabody purportedly said, “I’ll get my friend
Franklin Roosevelt down here if I can.”
Following a conversation on the subject of the
Georgia springs with Loyless, Roosevelt, a former senator and assistant Secretary of the Navy
and a victim of the crippling polio virus himself,
rented a cottage at Warm Springs. He arrived
there on October 3, 1924, ready to give the
Photo courtesy FDR Library.
T
President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to Warm Springs
at the behest of Georgia editor Thomas W. Loyless.
soothing Georgia waters a try. Loyless and
Roosevelt took up residence in adjoining cottages near the Warm Springs Hotel, with Loyless
acting as guide to the springs and to other
Meriwether County sites. Franklin Roosevelt’s
immediate reaction to the baths he was exercising in at Warm Springs was enthusiastic. “I am
deriving wonderful benefit from my stay here,”
he told a friend. “This place is great.”
By 1925, Roosevelt was starting to think that
Warm Springs, Georgia, could be both a resort
and a treatment center for those with polio. He
formulated plans for road improvement and
additional buildings and turned to his friend,
Loyless, for help. As Warm Springs’ chief owner
along with Charles Peabody, and as editor of the
Macon Telegraph, Loyless was already carrying
a heavy work load. Roosevelt, displaying the
shrewd charm he would later use to advantage as
president, agreed to lighten some of this load by
writing the Macon editor’s column for him. For
nine weeks, April 16-May 5, 1925, the future
president of the United States wrote editorials
for the Macon Telegraph.
In his first piece for the Telegraph, Roosevelt
wrote facetiously that, although he was writing
the column, the newspaper was sending money
to Loyless and added: “So far I don’t even get a
postage stamp.” Roosevelt’s stand-in editorials
dealt with many problems he would face later as
a national leader: the role of the press in a
democracy, unemployment, conservation and
foreign relations. Concerning Georgia’s newspa-
pers and those in other parts of the United
States, Roosevelt wrote: “It seems to me that, for
the good of the average man and woman in this
country, it is better to have papers carry the individual opinions of their owners and editors—as
they do in Georgia—than to be the mere
hirelings of a well-oiled political organization,
as they are in the North.”
Franklin Roosevelt’s good friend, Tom Loyless,
knew all about such matters, being used to
expressing his opinion freely and forthrightly as
writer, publisher and editor. The Bulletin of the
Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia termed
Loyless “an arch foe of intolerance.” An Atlanta
Journal tribute called him “a courageous writer”,
adding that Loyless always “shot straight” when
hunting, but that his real specialty was shooting at
intolerance and oppression in any form.
“The decline of intolerance…”
Loyless continued his crusade for tolerance in
a state riddled with “anti’s” throughout his entire
newspaper career. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the
man who introduced Al Smith, Catholic presidential candidate at the1924 Democratic convention, came to Georgia at Loyless’ urging and
later built his “Little White House” there.
(President Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the “Little White House” in 1945.)
When Thomas Loyless died in Philadelphia in
1926, after going there to seek medical help for
his failing health, an editorial in the Bulletin of
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