Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1893-01-19
4 Potent Voice from Georgia.
THE RAILROAD COMMISSION
THERE A SUCCESS.
No Injury to any one, but Saving to
the People.
ATLANTA Journal. |

an extensive and decidedly courteous
editorial, takes issue with the statement
of the Journal that the Railroad Com
mission law has worked well in Georgia.
The Neus and Courier attempts to
prove the contrary by showing that
more than half the railway mileage OF
Georgia is in the hands of receiTers ap-
pointed by the courts"
Unfortunately this is true, but the
News and Courier fails signally to con-
meet this fact with the existence and ope-
ration of the Railroad Commission.
If our contemporary were more famll-
lar with the history of railroad legisla-
ton and railroad development in Georgia
it would not be guilty of such mon
sequitu" as is embodied in its argu-
ment
For its benefit we will give few facts
relating to the question in dispute.
The Railroad Commission OF Georgia
was organized on the 18th of October,
1879. Since its organization very large
reductions have been made in freight and
passenger charges.
All the railroads in Georgia, except
one, before the establishments of the COM
mission, charged FIVE cents a mile. The
rate has been reduced to three cents a
mile The reduction in freight rates has
been very heavy, greater in fact than the
reduction of passenger fares.
It is easy to understand, therefore, why
the Railroad Commission is exceedingly
popular in Georgia. 1t has saved The
people of this State millions of dollars.
Still we do not believe the people Of
Georgia would favor the Commission if.
as the Neps aud Courier seems to think,
it has been the agency by which the rail
roads OF this State have been oppressed
and wrecked. There is among our peo-
Pile just regard for the rights of prop
erty and all that has ever been provided
for in our railroad legislation is reasona-
BILE regulation.
Let us see how the railroads have
Jared under the Commission. Very soon
after its organization the Commission
adopted and enforced regulations which
have not been materially changed. If
this policy were damaging to railroads
its bad effects would have been apparent
pretty soon after it was inaugurated.
But wha. did happen9
We heard then just such gloomy pre-
dictions as our Charleston contemporary
makes for the South Carolina Commis-
sion law. but events falsifed them in a
most striking manner.
a new era in railroad development
dawned in Georgia soon after the Com
mission began its work. For five years
previous to the establishment of the
Commission there were built in this State
less than one hundred miles of railway,
an average OF less than twenty miles a
year. Since 1870 there have been built in
Georgia more than twenty-five hundred
miles of railway, an average Of nearly two
hundred miles year.
While millions of money were put into
these new lines and many sections of the
State were developed by their construc-
ton, the old lines prospered as they
rever had before This is proved by the
increase in the prices of their stocks.
Georgia Railroad stock in 1875, the year
before the Commission began, sold at IS.
In 1890, after the Commission had been
in operation eleven years, Georgia Rail
road stock scld at POL Central Railroad
stock rose from 10 in 1873 to 12l in 1890.
During this period the Atlanta and West
Point Railroad doubled its stock and has
ever since paid regularly good dividend
= A fair examination OF railroad opera
tons in Georgia since 1879 will convince
anybody that the Commission at least
did the ads no harm.
Those of our roads which are now in
trouble must attribute their woes to very
different causes.
They are due. in great degree, to the
spirit of speculation. which has seized
and squeezed the best railroad properties
in the State. Then there has been gross
mismanagement of some railroads which,
under proper control, would have con-
tinued to flourish as they did for ten
wears under the Commission. Did our
space permit we could give some illus
trations of this act that could not fail to
impress our alarmed South Carolina con-
temporary. Some of our roads have
been loaded down with bonds issued on
extensions and connections that had no
justification for their construction.
Fixed charges have thus largely increased
without corresponding increase OF
income. Extravaganza il: salaries and
other expenditures have added to the
unjust burdens Of our roads. The iafiu-
ence of Wall street manipulators has
been the bane OF railroad property IN
Georgia, while there is nothing what
ever to show that the effect of the Com
mission has been other than salutary.
If the -Nesrs and Courier holds the
Georgia Commission responsible for the
fac. that more than half the railroad
mileage in this State is in the hands OF
Seceivers. how does it account for SINH
lar condition of things in South Carolina,
where there has been nothing that could
be called railroad regulation?
The law recently enacted in that State
is very much like that under which ou1
Commission operates, and we can see nc
reason to apprehend that it will injure
railroad properly in that State.
Union Meeting.