The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-14
SUGGESTIONS FOR MR.. ABRAMS.
The Railway Employees Protective
Association Reply to Him.

Association Reply to Him.
Editor Morning News: l notice by your
paper of Sunday that a Mr.. Abrams, of
Florida, has taken it upon himself to at
tack the Railway Employees Protective
Association. According to his speech at
Ocala, as published by you, he charges
that the railway employees have joined
this association because they are afraid
not TO Join it. ! do not know who Mr..
Abrams is, or what grievance he has, or
what Office he wants. Knowing nothing
about him, | shall give him the benefit of
presumlng that he is a man without q
grievance, a man who is truly patriotic a
man who is not out of a Job and hunting
for an Office, and man who would like to
| possess and disseminate truth, and not
| fasehood. put him on this pedestal, be-
cause if l err ] wish to err on virtues
side.
do not know anything about the sit
uation in Florida, but | DO know some
thing about IL in Georgia. Nearly all the
railroads in this state are now being
| operated by receivers. The reason for
this is that they are unable to pay fixed
! charges. The fixed charges of a railroad
| are, first, the cost of operation, and sec
| ond the interest on its bonds. Whenever
| a railroad suffers a diminution of its reve-
nue., the managing officers are compelled
| to reduce expenses or cost of opera
| ton, because they cannot re-
! duce interest on a bonded debt
! The consequence is, the first
man to feel the burden of a reduction is
the railway employee. just as long as the
necessity for reducing expenses exists
must be discharged. The next man to
feel the burden is the stockholder; and
the last man to feel it is the bondhOlder.
| Now, in Georgia the local rates on our
railroads have been so greatly reduced as
that our railroads have for years been
compelled TO reduce operating expenses
| and TO accomplish this, wages have been
cut, and the list of employees greatly
diminished. This policy has thrown
hundreds of men out of work, many
of them men who have so long
been in railway service that they
are untitled for any other line OF
work. AS these men are discharged,
those who have gro cries TO sell are af-
fected, because they lose good customer
those who have houses to rent, because
they lose good tenant. This downward
tendency of rates has not only brought
distress and want to hundreds, yes thou
| sands of railway employees, but it has
gone so far as to bring disaster to hun
dreds and TO thousands of railway stock
| holders in this state.
In the presence of this splendid devasua-
tion our railroad commission stands up,
and with pride claims that it has saved to
the people of Georgia, by the reduction of
rates, millions of dollars.
In order that the farmer might save an
| Insignificant sum a year in the trans
portation of mis- goods, this great distress
has been brought upon the state; and this
| peculiar fact rises above the din and
noise made by our commission, namely,
that the farmers are not prosperous; that
they do not realize and locate the great
blessing which the commission has
brouRhtito them, but thatthe railway en-
ploye and the railway stakeholder have
been cramped and brought TO want
The merchant has had his volume of
trade reduced; the landlord has lost his
renter; and that if this great saving has
been made to the people Of Georgia. it has
been made at the expense Of the people Of
Georgia
Now. this movement for the organiza-
ton of Railway Employees Protective
| Association is the child of the Georgia
Railroad Commission, and grows out Of
the fact that we. the railway employees,
and our friends look upon the claims Of
the railroad commission as solemn and
! cruel mockery.
We have organized in Georgia not TO
] run candidates for ohice, but simply TO