Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-10-11

What is here said of East Tennessee will
apply with equal force to all points in
Middle and West Tennessee, and as fully
80 per cent of all the traffic moved by rail
in Tennessee goes beyond the border of the
state to find a consuming market, the peo-
pie have here practical Illustration of the
feast to which the farmers of Tennessee
were to be invited by the gentlemen aspiring
to act as commissioners if they had been
allowed TO perfect their plans. 1t is for
tunate thing for the farmer and the people
in general that the court granted an injunc-
ton and stopped the wrecking process which
would have involved every interest in
Tennessee. OH but, say these gentlemen,
we were not going TO apply our Tennessee
tariff upon through traffic. We would make
special rates on such business. Special rates,
Ell? IL you admit that special rates are a
necessity, and that through traffic will not
bear the same rates per mile that are APP
piled to local business, then all of your ar
guments fall 10 the ground and your COM
mission plan is an admitted failure. 1t is
upon the theory of %away with special
rates and competitive through rates" that
you have secured hearing at all. Adam
don that and your occupation is gone.
Adopt IL under your own plans, as shown
by the foregoing tables, and you ruin the
state. ftFl Ea# sfa
But, say the commission, we are not GO
ing to let you make our figures. Beg pardon,
gentlemen, have not done so. The fore
going tables are based upon the figures
printed in your tariff, copy of which is
now before me. E rfEgrsE. Z.
The general interest in this railroad ques-
ton demands little further investigation
of the work of the Tennessee commission,
for which the people have paid six or seven
thousaQd dollars and received not a dollars
worth of benefit. Messrs. Savage, Turley
and Gordon were appointed in March, 1883.
Their salaries date from that period.
After lapse of about eight months, dur
ing which time no visible service was per-
formed except to endeavor to persuade some
people that the railroads great, grinding
monopolies, so-called, were doing the peo-
pie great damage, they went to work to
make tariff. True, the roads were charg-
ing but cents per mile on passengers, while
their charters allowed them 5, and 20 to so
per cent. less upon freight than the char
tered rights gave them. But what did they
care for chartered rights! They must make
capital, political capital, out Of their posi-
ton, and the only way to do 20 was to plunge
in TO destroy the railroad regardless Of char
ter or any other right.
Well, to work they went. They made
tariff, looked it over, found it would not do,
and tore it up. They made a second, which
shared the same fate; finally in utter des-
pair and realizing the importance of doing
something and their inability to do il, they
fell upon the plan Of taking up the Georgia
tariff and making it fit the business of
Tennessee. When we consider the charac-
ter of traffic in Georgia and compare it
with Tennessee, the ridiculous attitude Of
the Tennessee commission becomes appar-
ent. The products which Georgia exports |
consist mainly of cotton goods, turpentine,
resin, fertilizer and pine lumber; the products |
by Tennessee consist of wheat, !
corn, -four, live stock, coal, pig iron, hard |
wood, lumber, copper, marble, etc. The |
attempt TO make the Georgia tariff fit the |
business of Tennessee was like making q |
hay wagon carry q load of shelled corn.
Yet the gentlemen went right along. |
with the first class, they went |
through the entire Georgia tariff, and |
adopted class after class and figure after |
figure until they reached the end. Looking |
it over, they evidently concluded that the |
state prison (Mr. Cherry's wagon and |
furniture factory had not been provided |
for. True, the Georgia tariff had provided /
for wagons and furniture, but this would
not do for Mr.. Cherry. He must have
special rates. They, therefore, created
special column for the products of the peni-
tertiary, and reduced the Georgia rates TO
Dne-haif
This sudden extraordinary departure
from the Georgia basis was, however, likely
TO lead to trouble. So, to appesse somebody,
the railroad, perhaps, for the extraordinary
of penitentiary rates, they put up
The rates on farmers' products, such as
grain, bacon, -four, etc, assuming, take
i, that this would satisfy the railroads, and
As the farmer was not familiar with rail-
road tariffs, he, perhaps, would never find
it out. Herewith find the figures: