On March 15, 1917, President Ayres received a telegram from Dr. H. A. Morgan, who was in Nashville lobbying for the bill authorizing $1 million in bonds for UT and additionally authorizing a revenue stream to UT to pay off the bonds and provide operating dollars. The telegram said: “Senate voted bond bill 27 for, 4 against.”
By March 21, the bill had passed both houses and had been signed by Governor Rye, and a daylong celebration was held, culminating in a large parade that wove through Knoxville. The Orange and White published a special “Million Dollar Number” on April 17. The bill provided a bond issue of $1 million, of which $100,000 was to be used to establish a Middle Tennessee Experiment Station, $100,000 was to retire the existing debt of the institution, and $800,000 was for institutional facilities in Knoxville and Memphis. (Ayres and Morgan were built, and an addition was made to Estabrook.)
The bonds were offered several times during the summer of 1917, with no takers because of the many war bonds offered for sale and especially the Liberty Loan bonds. In September 1917 the bonds were finally sold at par to a consortium of Tennessee bankers, largely through the work of I. P. Tigrett of Jackson, a UT trustee. The bond bill also provided a revenue stream for retiring the bonds by providing a one-half mill tax on all taxable property in the state that was to furnish UT an income of $336,000 (approximately) a year. From the annual revenue, a “sinking fund” for repayment of the bonds was required to be set aside, and experiment stations in Middle and West Tennessee had to be maintained. After the obligations were met, projections were that UT would receive from $200,000 to $225,000 a year.
The passage of the act was a concerted effort of the Alumni Association, and lobbying was led by Dr. H. A. Morgan. In 1929, for the first time, the general assembly appropriation for operation and maintenance of the institution exceeded $1 million. (In 1931 the appropriation fell to $450,000.)