 Politically he was an old school Democrat and he was elected mayor of Atlanta in October 1900.The election came in the midst of Atlanta's streetcar war; he was supported by Joel Hurt (Atlanta Consolidated Street Railway Company) and opposed by Henry M. Atkinson (Georgia Electric Light Company).On October 9, 1901 he rode in the inaugural streetcar over the Peachtree-Whitehall viaductbefore then it was a dangerous at-grade crossing of many busy railroad tracks.