The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1890-06-19

mile, the Il. roads / cents and the {
roads ) cents. That there are only
two Of the a roads AID all the re-
mainder are b end G.. roads, there
fore nearly everybody in Georgia
has to pay four or five cents per mile
TO ride on train. Now this is Just
Kerr does not know it he should not
try to talk about it. Let him turn
to the last report Of the Georgia
Commission, at page 7G, and count
up tie roads as they are classified
He will find that there are thirty-two
roads (instcad Of two, as he said J
With = $40 miles Of rOad-bed, CLASH
fled as the a roads, which are the
cheap roads. lie will find that there
are only four Of the Il roads with
81! miles Of road-bcd, and five Of
the & roads, with the pitiful sum
total distance of 494 miles of road
bed, while the Western q Atlantic
railroad, 1873 miles, which is longer
by thirty miles thaa every b and G
road III the State put together end
and end, is allowed to charge only
TWO and Onc-eighth cents per mile.
These are facts takon from Mr..
Kerr's own Bible, and If he wanted
to do what was fair and honest, and
he said he did, why did he not tell
you these facts at .Ingold and Clear
Run on last Saturday"
lie also said that the freight rates
i'll Georgia are higher than they
were before the Commission was
passed, and higher than they are
here now. Now, my readers, that
Is a iare statement and he did not
even try TO prove it. Now / make
the statement that it is not so, and
will prove it with facts quoted from
Mr.. Kerr's same Bible. What is the
freight on Il barrel of flour from Viii.
mington to Garland, on the CT. & Y
V.railrOad? | take this point because
the place where Mr. Korr made his
speech is nearer Garland than any
other railroad station.) The freight
is 20 cents per barrel. The di5tanc G
is about A miles. Now let Mr.
Kerr turn to page Il6 of the 18th
Report of the Georgia Commission
and he will see that flour in the bar
rel is put down as class +. Then let
him turn to page Y and look in the
schedule of "StGndard Freigl Tar.
iff," and he will see that it costs only
II cents in Georgia to carry barrel
of flour Al miles.
Mr.. Kerr says that the profits of
the Whining ton & Weldon railroad
is only per cent. w hen he made
that statement he did not know that
we had in our possession the facts
We got the following facts from
Il stakeholder of the road who is our
friend and a friend to the people
and therefore is in favor of a Com
mission. What are the facts? Thi:
person owns 5000 of stock in the
railroad. On this 5000 he has drawn
s per cent. annually, but this was
not all the profits. This left l;.r,rt
surplus not yet distributed. Wha
did the company do? TO fool III,
people and to keep the people from
knowing how large their profit
were, they issued certificates of in
debtedness to each stoc kholder t,
double the amount of his stock. Ii
the case. ofmy friend he got Ger
tificate of indebtedness for 5000 more
then proceeded to draw, and has don
so every year, interest on S400, or jus
double the amount he had paid in
What made his 5000 draw 16 pc
cent? The net profits of this roat
last year was six hundred thousanc
dollars.
Now we have given facts and W
make this statement and challcng,
Mr.. Kerr to disprove it with facts
1t is this: the freight rates in Geor
gia to-day are more than 10 per cen
lower than they are il North Caro-
lima.
Mr.. Kerr says that the railroad
want a Commission. Every one 0
my readers know that that statemen
will not hold water.
He says that there was no railroa,
lobby in Raleigh during the last Leg
islature and that the man who say
so tells lie. When he says this Ii
gives the lie to hundreds of the hes
citizens Of the State, and especial,
to the citizens of Raleigh who were
there and know. Mess. d. B. Me lol
son, w. E. Stevens, Josephus Daniel
and others say. that if the presence o
Railroad attorneys using their infu
ence for or against legislation con
corning railroads constitutes lobby
then there was lobby, and we be
lieve their statement.
That a Commission would driv
all the convicts into the walls of tn
penitentiary and thereby saddl
S25O,Oe0 more tax on the people O
the State, is so absurd that we sim
ply print the statement without com
ment, and leave Mr.. Kerr and hi
statement to the ridicule of all think