THE CITY'S PROPOSAL

The following excerpts are from a speech by Jo Frauenthal, president of Conway's 1929 Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Frauenthal was addressing citizens attending a public hearing to consider the city council's proposed solution to keeping Hendrix and Central colleges located in Conway.

"Members of the Chamber of Commerce and Fellow Citizens Generally:

"You recall, of course, the recent occurrences in connection with the contemplated removal of Hendrix College. You have not forgotten the apprehension of disaster that it created. How intense was the premonition of misfortune, and how suddenly the peril was obvious. . . .

"The progress of our city, its future, its very life blood depends upon your action. We talk of other things, we stride for smokestacks, which we hope will come -- we vision derricks and streams of oil -- but we know what we now have.

"To conserve these valuable assets, I beseech you to embrace in principle the plan we offer. . . . Failure would be lamentable, and the retrospect of life, my friends, swarms with lost opportunities. . . .

". . . Thus the importance of immediate action by our citizens is obvious. It is furthermore our information and belief that should the citizens of Conway fail to comply with the conditions of the proposal submitted by them through their chamber of commerce and accepted by the board, the matter of relocation of the merged institution will again be opened and that, if this should occur, an offer from Little Rock that will be acceptable to the board of trustees will be submitted.

"The situation, therefore, which confronts us today is that, unless (the needed) cash be provided immediately, Conway will lose two of its oldest and most valued institutions, Hendrix and Central College. This would be a disaster from which our city could never fully recover . . . . Conway has arrived at a crisis . . . .

"It is the deliberate judgment of this committee and we believe of practically all our citizens that unless the suggested minimum sum . . . is raised here immediately, Conway will suffer financially worse, except for the loss of life, than if visited by a tornado or configuration of the severest type. Following a disaster of flame or wind, a town that is alive will rebuild a better town than existed before. Conway is built around her colleges; to remove any of them would . . . leave her . . . crippled, if not doomed to die and impair, if not destroy, the civic pride and ambition essential to progress . . . .

"In its municipal electric light plant, the city of Conway has an asset of inestimable value -- one which has many times in past years bridged the city over financial crisis. To it, in the belief of this committee, we must now turn in this major crisis. This plant has for several years been showing net earnings, above cost of operation. The suggestion has been made . . . that the earnings of this municipal plant be capitalized over a period of years in the form of a bond issue, which would provide the sum required immediately to retain and foster our educational institutions.

"... to succeed (this plan) must be given wholehearted and enthusiastic support by virtually all of the citizens (of Conway). It must be backed by such a community spirit as has characterized Conway in all her great civic undertakings."