Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-04-22
The Railroad Commission.
Correspondence Macon Telegraph and Mes
eenqQr-

Correspondence Macon Telegraph and Mes
senger.
The late Legislature of the State. as
Stunning that the people had suffered un-
Just determinations and intolerable ex-
tertions at the hands of railroad com
panies, proceeded, under a constitution
al provision very broad and distinct. to
enact a law virtually placing the bust.
ness and management of all of the rail.
roads in the hands of q commission COM
posed of three individuals. Now, it may
be assumed as a fact, that the managers
of no railroad in the State would
be willing to turn V e their road
and its business to the management and
control of the employees of any other
road. Though the general principles
observed in the conduct of railroad bust
ness everywhere may be substantially
similar, the difference in the roads them
selves, the character and amount of their
travel and business, their length, grades,
stations, ETC., are so essentially different
that the employees of the road, though
skilled, trained and experienced in their
own duties, would not be considered
competent to assume at once and sue
cessfully, somewhat similar duties in
another and different field.
The men who do manage the business
of the roads of the State have been
selected on account of their skill, train
ing and experience in the particular de-
partments to which they are called. In
the aggregate they amount to several
hundred, perhaps to thousands. If, then,
these men, trained by long service and
experience, are required to exercise the
greatest care and industry and the most
unceasing vigilance to perform their
duties promptly and to the interests of
the people who nave invested their money
in railroads, may not the Legislature be
Justly accused of hasty and unjust legis-
lation, when, by a stringent statute, it
takes away the management of the bust
ness of all railroads from men of skill
and experience and turns it over to three
men, with no check upon their actions
but their own sweet wills?
These commissioners have made a
report or rather the half of one. They
have set forth their difficulties and
doubts, and have furnished a tabulated
statement of how, when, where and to
what extent they have cut the rates of
travel and transportation of the railroads
of the State. So far so good. The in
formation is explicit, if it is not impor-
tant. But have they told the people
where they found unjust discrimina-
tions and extortion? Have they I'M
earthed and exposed to public view those
practices upon the part of railroads upon
which the Legislature justified itself in
passing a harsh and unconstitutional
law creating a commission clothed
with the most extraordinary pow
ers2 If these practices were
common and of such long continuance
as to call for such harsh and repressive
legislation, they should have been easily
found and exposed. The simple truth
of the matter is that there has been a
vast amount of unmitigated bosh indulg-
ed in by those most active in melting
this railroad legislation. If unjust dis
examinations and ~extortion had been the
common practices of railroads, we
should have had evidence of them so
plain as not to demand or require the
keen eyes and unerring noses of a
railroad commission. Cities would
have become way stations, mer-
chants would have become bankrupts,
and railroad men would have accumu-
lated millions. Macon had her day of
complaint against the Central road, and
yet Macon now boasts of her increasing
growth and prosperity. The same may
be said of Columbus, Americas and AL
bany. Indeed, there is not a town along
the line of any railroad in Georgia that
has not prospered and improved, save
the town of Crawfordville. And in this,
perhaps, we may find some reason for
the stout assertion of Mr.. Stephens, to
the effect that ''the people of Georgia
are growing poorer and poorer every
year"
And if so much has been taken from
the people by extortion and unjust dis
elimination where has it gone tor 1t is
only of late that the railroads have begun
to exhibit that prosperity which pervades
every department of industry throughout
the entire country. We have no railroad
kings or nabobs. MI. Wadley, whose
life has been spent at the business, is a
man of moderate means. John ?. King,
ESQ.,, had laid the foundation of his
fortune before his connection with a
railroad. The same may be said of
Governor Brown. Mr.. PhiniZy made
his money in commercial pursuits, and so
with the other gentlemen who are at the
head of the Georgia railroads. Nor have
the roads while yearly adding to their
Indebtedness, turned over to their
stockholders dividends of an extra
ordinary amount or frequency. 1t is a
very fippant and shallow argument to
assume the Commission a success, be-
cause the railroads have done a good
business, and their stocks have risen.
The business season has been unusually |
prosperous, and when it is remembered
that the spectators in Wall street will
gamble their thousands upon the sobriety
of Emmett, the actor, it is not surprising
that anything with a reasonable basis to
rest upon can be run up to high figures
now when stock gambling is as wide
spread and reckless, as it was before
Black Friday announced the coming of
a financial crisis.
The representatives of the people, un-
der a stimulus and excitement not unlike
that Of rising stock market, entrusted to
three men dangerous and unlimited power
over railroads. Their action was hasty,
unwise and unjust. The present Legisla-
ture will be called upon to review, re-
peal and modify the action of their pre-
decessors, and if it has the interests of
the whole people at heart. and has profit
ed by the results of this railroad legisla-
ton elsewhere, it will not hesitate to do so.
ARLINGTNo.