The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-07-09

plies or merchandise, as the case may
be, from these favored cities, outside
| of the State, rather than from each
| other within the State. Take, Tor
| illustration: If a Western man wants
| to purchase . car load OF corn IN
eastern Carolina, he cannot do so, be-
cause freights are higher than from
some favored city beyond the borders
of the State. 1t is a shame that east
ern North Carolina cannot trade with
western North Carolina and Vtce Uersd,
each section of the State being forced
to trade elsewhere beyond her Dor.
ders. If we have general prosperity,
we must be allowed to exchange trade
with the several sections of the State
and dispose of our surplus products
beyond our borders. We want a
market and must depend on the rail-
roads to give US a market for our pro-
ducts. If they deny us this, then We
must retrograde. If the products OF
our farms or manufactures sold out
| side the State exceed our purchases,
then we have the advantage of trade
and general prosperity will follow. 1t
is said we have no surplus. Whether
this be true or false-one thing is
certain, our railroads offer no induce
ments to our farmers to raise a sur
plus, because they deny them a mar
ket by reason of their discrimination.
Does this not need a remedy? 1t is
a sad fact, and one to be deplored,
that freights are higher in North Car
DINA than any State in the Union
subject to a Commission and less pros
porous. If other States have tried a
Commission and prospered, why need
we hesitate =? And of all the States
that have adopted a Commission, none
have aver been abolished. l remem-
Der an instance in Iredell county,
when one of her citizens, at Moores-
vile, brought seventy-fve or more
suits against the Atlantic, Tennessee
& Ohio Railroad (now under the con-
troll of the Danville system) for the
$500 penalty under the statute for
discrimination in freights, and soon
thereafter the freight was increased at
Statesville Il think ten cents or more
on the hundred). This increase of
freight cost our people more than a
Railroad Commission would cost North
Carolina in four Or FIVE years.
Last summer / purchased a irst-class
ticket from Statesville to Asheville, a
distance of l20 miles, for $3.50, and
ten or twelve days thereafter l pur-
chased a irst-class ticket at Marietta,
Ca, to Chattanooga, Tenn, a distance
of l2O miles, for $3.50. Why this
difference for the same distance In
Georgia they have a Commission, in
North Carolina none. On inquiry, l
found that to be the reason. Now, if
you will make investigation, you will
find the freight rates in Georgia to be
less than in this State in about the
same proportion as the passenger rates
just related.
The opponents of this bill tell us
that the bill creates four new Offices
at a cost of ten or twelve thousand
dollars. This is true, yet the cost of
a Commission will be insignificant in
comparison with the saving it will be
to the people and the advantage it
will offer to our farming class to raise
a surplus and furnish a market for
their products.
1t will encourage, rather than dis
courage, the building of railroads
within the State, as it will check, to a
large degree, railroad combinations
and the gobbling up of the smaller
and weaker roads by the larger and
more wealthy roads, and giving to
such new and independent roads or
projects a security against unjust dis
examinations. The stronger roads dis
criminate against the weaker ones and
place them at a disadvantage. A
Commission will check this, and there
by be an encouragement to the build.
ing of new roads.
In North Carolina, without
a Railroad Commission, we
have built about l,4OO miles
of railroads in the last twenty
or twenty-five years, while, in Georgia,
with a Commission, they built during
the year 1888, 457 miles of railroads,
more than one-third as much as we
built in North Carolina in twenty-five
years. Not only this, but in ten years
in Georgia their railroad property In
creased from ten millions to about
thirty million dollars in valuation.
Yet they tell US that a Commission
will stop the building of railroads.
Let US profit by the experience OF
other States. Twenty.six States In
the United States have a Railroad
Commission and nine of these have
stronger and more stringent Commits.
sions than this bill offers. If it has
not been beneficial to these States.
why is it that none of them have
abolished their Commission ? This