Editing Rome, Georgia (section)

=== Twentieth century ===
[[File:Sign at bus terminal in Rome, Georgia.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Sign at the Rome bus station from 1943]]
[[File:Capitoline Wolf, Rome, GA, US.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Romulus and Remus]]]]

In the early 20th century, the Georgia Assembly approved a charter for the city to establish a commission-manager form of government, a reform idea to add a management professional to the team.

In 1928, the American Chatillon Company began construction of a [[rayon]] plant in Rome; it was a joint business effort with the Italian Chatillon Corporation. Italian premier [[Benito Mussolini]] sent a block of [[marble]] from the ancient [[Roman Forum]], inscribed "From Old Rome to New Rome", to be used as the cornerstone of the new rayon plant. After the rayon plant was completed in 1929, Mussolini honored the American Rome with a bronze replica of the sculpture of [[Romulus and Remus]] nursing from the [[Capitoline Wolf]]. The statue was placed in front of City Hall on a base of white marble from [[Tate, Georgia]], with a brass plaque inscribed:

<blockquote>This statue of the Capitoline Wolf, as a forecast of prosperity and glory, has been sent from Ancient Rome to New Rome during the consulship of Benito Mussolini in the year 1929.</blockquote>

In 1940, anti-Italian sentiment due to World War II became so strong that the Rome city commission moved the statue into storage to prevent [[vandalism]].<ref name=":0" /> They replaced it with an American flag. In 1952, the city restored the statue to its former location in front of City Hall.<ref name=statue>{{cite web |url= http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/statues/romulus.htm |title=Romulus and Remus Statue |work=Georgia Info |year=2010|publisher= Digital Library of Georgia |access-date=March 8, 2011}}</ref>

====Great Depression====
In Rome, the effect of the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]] was significantly less severe than in other, larger cities across the United States. Since Rome was an agricultural town, food could be grown in surrounding areas. Rome's [[textile mill]] continued operating, providing steady jobs for whites as a buffer against the economic hardships of the Great Depression.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title= Great Depression |date=November 8, 2007 | encyclopedia=New Georgia Encyclopedia |access-date=September 14, 2010 |url= http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3540}}</ref>

The Great Depression was preceded by the "Cotton Bust" across the South. This reached Rome in the mid-1920s, and caused many farmers to move away, sell their land, or convert to other agricultural crops, such as corn. Farm workers were displaced, and many African Americans left the area in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]], seeking work in cities, including those in the North and Midwest. Cotton crops were being destroyed by the [[boll weevil]], a tiny insect that reached Georgia in 1915 (invading from [[Louisiana]]).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2088 |title=Boll Weevil |encyclopedia=The New Georgia Encyclopedia |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-date=June 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606233827/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2088 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The boll weevil destroyed many fields of cotton and suppressed Rome's economy.

Many families struggled through hard financial times. Jobs were scarce, and prices of food and basic commodities went up. The federal "postal employees took a fifteen per cent cut in pay, and volunteered a further ten per cent reduction in work time to save the jobs of substitute employees who otherwise would have been thrown out of work."<ref>Battey, George Magruder, 1887–1965 – ''A History of Rome and Floyd County, State of Georgia ..'' (Volume 1) Page 412</ref> Among fundraising activities for the poor, wealthier residents bought tickets to a show put on by local performers; the fares were paid to grocers, who made boxes of food to sell at a discount price to needy families.<ref>Battey, Page 409</ref>

In a private "works project" to provide employment to men out of work, S.H. Smith Sr. decided to replace the Armstrong Hotel. After demolishing it, he employed many people to help build the towering Greystone Hotel at the corner of Broad and East Second streets. The ''[[Rome News-Tribune]]'' reported on November 30, 1933, an increase in local building permits for a total of $95,800; of this amount, $85,000 were invested by S.H. Smith Sr. in the construction of the Greystone Hotel. He added the Greystone Apartments in 1936.<ref>Battey, pp. 412 and 415</ref>