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.

Atlanta Journal.
The Charleston Meas and Courier, il
an extensive and decidedly courteou!
editorial, takes issue with the statemen
of the Journal that the Railroad Com
mission law has worked well in Georgia
The Ne,cs and Courier attempts tt
prove the contrary by showing tha
more than half the railway mileage o:
Georgia is in the hands of receivers ar
pointed by the courts"
Unfortunately this is true, but the
Neus and Courier fails signally to con
meet this fact with the existence and ope.
ration of the Railroad Commission.
If our contemporary were more famil.
lar with the history of railroad legisla
ton and railroad development in Georgia
it would not be guilty of such a mon
sequttw" 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,
1870. 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 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 Commissi N is exceedingly
popular in Georgia. II 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 Ners oud 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
=. etty 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 oi less than twenty miles a
year. Since 1879 there have been built in
Georgia more than twenty-five hundred
miles of railway, an average Of nearly two
hundred miles a 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 1878, the year
before the Commission began, sold at 1S
In 1890. after the Commission had been
in operation eleven years, Georgia Rail
road stock sold at pol Central Railroad
stock rose from 10 in 1878 to 121 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
tions in Georgia since 1879 will convince
anybody that the Commission at least
did thr ads no harm.
Those Of our roads which az now in
trouble must attribute their woes to very
different causes.
They are due, in great degree. 10 the
spirit of speculation. which has seized
and squeezed the best railroad properties
in the State. Then there has been gross
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 fact 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 in salaries and
other expenditures have added TO the
unjust burdens of our roads. The infiu-
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 che Com
mission has been other than salutary.
If the Ners and Courier holds the
Georgia Commission responsible for the
fact that more than half the railroad
mileage in this State is in the hands OF
seceivers, hcw 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 property in that State.
Union Meeting.