Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-08-24


in behalf of the owners of the Georgia
Railroad. While professedly giving the
meat of his logical and candid statement
of the merits of the question, it sand
witches it between an attempt to dignity
the slight delay in the House into a
formidable opposition, and an Gd captain
dun appeal to the prejudices and fears
of the advocates of the bill. Our con-
temporary remarks:
cit is manifestly impossible for a new
road to enter the heart of q city without
coming in over tracks already laid
opening new and dangerous avenues by
demOlishing private and public buildings
II is undeniable that there is room enough
on any of the tracks for Colonel Coles
cars TO run into the depots. Why then
should he be forced to tear down costly
buildings, cut new streets, and virtually
close up old ones. when there are open
tracks already laid that he might safely
and easily occupy by paying the value
of such use? What justice is there in
saying that any mans home may be con-
demned and torn down for right of way.
while railroad track, itself laid by suf-
ferance of the State, must not even be
subjected to use by a new company?
Hasn't the humblest citizen the same
right with the richest railway company?
The matter Of crossing existing tracks
is of little consequence, save in the light
of added risks, and General Alexander
covers this point in the claim he makes
that the new road ought to have tangi-
bic solidity sufficient to discharge the re-
spOnsibility it might incur. As to tear
ing down buildings, ETC., the structures
of Atlanta are not so costly that they
could not readily be replaced. 4 mans
house can be condemned for any useful
purpose of society. ArailrOad. too, may
be condemned, but so long as it performs
not be condemned for the sake of allow
ing another railroad to come in and share
the work for which it is chartered it can
in benefits which its enterprise and capital
procured for it. The State may charter as
many competitors as its wisdom or folly
may suggest, but it cannot cripple an
institution which is fulfilling the obliga
tons and ends of its charter. The Georgia
Railroad has terminal facilities which il
acquired by virtue of being first conner.
If Col Cole cannot obtain equal facili-
ties, it is his misfortune.
The Cole charter provides that the use
of the Georgia Railroad track shall be
paid for. What is the value Of that usei
a jury of condemnation that could esti-
mate the value of mans house with
the utmost equity, could not determine
the value of the privilege which Col.
Cole seeks. The owners Of the Georgia
Railroad would have difficulty in esti-
mating it. 1t would depend upon the
business of the new road, and
other elements that the future
alone would reveal. 1t might be fixed
at so much now, and it might be worth
ten times as much in a dozen years.
Just as Col. Coles expenditure of capital
in building road without terminal ia
cilities would be thrown away, so COM
polling the Georgia Road to admit him
on equal terms. would impair its advan-
tages and cripple its ability to reward its
owners. While the Georgia Railroad
might, if it chose, agree to share its
privileges with a competitor, or surren-
der them and seek new locations, there
is no principle of justice. no demand of
equity, no public necessity, which would
warrant the State in commanding that
road-chartered by its consent, pro-
tected by its faith, and full
filling all the requirements
which it is called upon to discharge-to
share its privileges, which it has paid for
in service to the community and en-
HANGED by its money and sagacity, with
a rival road which may crush it out of
existence or cripple it and, possibly, fail
to discharge its share of the responsible
ties which the joint use of its tracks
would entail.
Our contemporary says that it seems
to be the object of the opponents of Col.
Coles system to emasculate it by pre-
venting him from coming into the pas
senger depots of the cities. If Col. Cole
took it for granted that he could get all
the concessions he desired from the
Georgia Legislature, he may or may not
have erred in his calculations.
But he was too shrewd to put
his plans in such a shape as to lose his
money should the Georgia Railroad. by
objecting to encroachments on its guar
anteed rights, as 1t obviously would do,
block his game entirely. He will get
into any city in Georgia on the line of
his road whether he shares privileges
with other roads or not. The game is
worth the candle or it would not have
been entered upon.
Our contemporary further thinks it
incredible that there should be any OPP
position to gentlemen, who are going to
invest $4,000 in the State, to lay
their track and run their trains II our
contemporary alludes to General Alex
ander's objections. there is nothing in
credible in them at all. On the con-
trary. Colonel Cole could not but expect
them, and is fully prepared for them.
That opposition is so justly founded
and so ably presented that our contem-
porary would be at a loss to rebut it.
and if the Senate does not heed the plea
of the Georgia Railroad it viii be but an
added evidence of truth made clear by
recent railroad legislation in Georgia
that our own roads have incurred the
hostility of the people and their repre-
sentatives to such an extent that the
plighted faith of the State is no longer
shield to their vested rights. The House
has recognized the necessity of the Cole
charter, and it is likely.a it was from the