The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-24

g tween AlaL Inc anu AAr aruA ga anu AIN
! nama railroad in order 70 snow that u
/ had been given plenty OF facilities for
] the transaction OF business Ar- Conner
I said Senator Osborne told him ne had a
I substitute for the original Dill prepared,
/ and gentlemen" ne said. that bill will
/ never get through the legislature as at
/ Mr. Conner repeated that the present
legislature would pass no such law allow
ing an existing road TO be paraheled
/ twenty miles from either terminus me
substitute referred 10 by Mr. Conner. II
appeared from a statement made by Mr.
Anderson would be satisfactory 10 ms
client. That substitute provided Tor a
clear Interpretation Of the law stating
! that il applies only TO railroads between
Mr.. Conner was willing to leave all dif-
{ fcrenceS that might arise between the
Central and the Georgia and Alabama by
reason Of the latter building into SaNan-
nah 10 arbitration. the arbltratOrs TO be
selected by savannah commercial bod
les.
Mr.. A. r. Lawton. Jr. as counsel for
/ President Conner. discussed the matter
from a legal standpoint.
There is only one road in chatham
county that is constructed between the
points mentioned" he said. That Is the
Central and that IS the only road there
fore to which the law applies. Neither the
/ Savannah. Florida and Western. nor the
Florida Central and Peninsular run be
tween these points, and they do not come
within the intent and purport Of the law
II Mr.. AndersOu's construction or the law
were correct. Mr.. IaWtOn said. then no
other railroad could get into any city in
the state
The opposition of the Central 10 this
BILL. he said. us not merely because u
would interfere with the business Of our
line, but because It is a part of the gener-
al law of the state of Georgia in which
every railroad i'm the state is deeply inter-
ested. and 10 does incalculable injury TO
a large amount of property should IL be-
come a law"
Mr.. Lawton's objection to the substi-
tute, which provides for constituting the
O. la "a q IN d q
| roads running between the same points,
was that It's passage would mean 10 prac-
ticallv wipe the law Off the statute books,
and make IT a dead letter. as there are
| hardly any two railroads in the state
that are or ever were chartered TO run
| between the same points The law, he
said, had been the settled policy Of the
state for at least fifteen years, ana there
was no reason why it should be changed.
Mr.. LawtOn said he did not believe such
drastic language and such structures az
had been placed on Central railroad OH
Gals in the resolutions, as introduced,
would be allowed to stand, even If the
resolutions We're passed
Capt. c. S. Ellis, who introduced the
resolutions. stated he did not write them,
and while he did not believe that the
Central was trying TO keep the Georgia
and Albania out, IL would rather have II
come in on the Centrafs own terms.
Col. W. w. Gordon made a strong speech
faVoring the resolutions. Col Gordon re-
ferred TO Mr.. Corners statement that this
bill would never pass as very unpOlitic.
lie said he ala not see anything offensive
in the resolutions, but he believed that
Capt. Ellis, or whoever wrote the reSolu-
tlons, would amend them as had been re-
quested. 1T is not policy nor Is II right
for US to confine ourselves to railroads
now existing. 1t is not right TO make
this railroad so way down into the
marshes of the Ogeechee river in order
to get into Savannah. 1t is absurd 10
attempt to scare US with the statemen.
that it is going to destroy vested proper
ty rights by changing this limit to TWEEN
| ~ miles. The main question is getting
this other railroad"
Mr.. Anderson said, in concluding the
argument, that the law ought to be made
perfectly clear. He was glad to hear
that Mr.. Conner is perfectly willing for
the Georgia and Alabama to come into
Savannah.
"Under the construction of the law as
we understand it, however" he said,
other railroads can raise the same point
against us Mr.. Conner has said that the
bill is dead as the legislative committee is
now constituted. There are five Central
railroad attorneys on that committee, /
am told and 1 understand that no amount
of argument can change them as long
as Mr.. Conner says; ! don't want that
bill to pass
did not make a positive statement in the
matter. II was stated there are only two
Central railroad employees on the commit
tee, which Mr.. Conner said consisted Of
nineteen members
Mr. Anderson said, Mr. Conner had op-
posed the Georgia and Alabama on the
| by Mr.. Conner that there would be OPP
position on the alternative bill.
Capt. Purse in referring to Mr.. Comer's
denial of his statement that the Central
was opposed to the Georgia and Alabma
entering Savannah said:
Il leave it for you, gentlemen, to de-
termne whether MIR. Conner has not re-
! ligiously and conscientiously lived up to
the statements in the extract he has de-
Central and other railroads own the leg
isidture of Georgia. President Conner
comes here and tells us before a bill is
| reported and passed on by the Senate or
] the House that it is dead, absolutely
! dead; that IL can never pass the legisla-
/ ture. l trust that the full meaning Of
/ this is not lost and that what has been
said here to-day will be brought to the
/ attention of the Legislature"
Mr.. Conner denied positively that he
/ had any such idea as was attributed to
! him by Capt. Purse in making the state
4 ment he did with regard to the bill.
Messrs. Conner Lawton and Anderson
/ and others not members of the board
| then retired and the discussion of the
! resolution was taken up. Capt Ellis said
/ he did not object to the Verbiage being
/ changed, If the members saw fit TO do so.
| Mr.. Tiedeman thought the resolutions
should be left as they We're. Mr. II. A.
Crane was Of the opinion that the resolu-
tions should be very much modified be-
| fore they were passed and that no stric-
| lures should be made upon any of the
Mr. ]. p. williams agreed with Mr..
| Crane. IF Mr.. Lawton's construction OF
! the law Is right he said, these resOlu-
tons should not be passed. We should
not pass any resolutions at all. We should
not put ourselves on record as being the
/ indOrsers Of an unwarranted and an un-
| just attack on the Central railroad"
| The discussion was continued on this
line at some length. until finally Col
| Gordon read over the resolutions, show
ing what parts should be left out They
were only those sections referring to the
Centrars opposing the Georgia and Ala
bama railroad coming to Savannah The
| resolutions as amended were then adopt
ed without a dissenting vote. They are
as follows:
Whereas, A bill for the amendment OF
section 10 of the general railroad law OF
this state. adopted Dec. II, 1892, is now
pending before the legislature with the
object of increasing the distance out from
terminal points with n which railroads
may approach each other, and. whereas
we believe that the present law in this
particular represents conditions which
have now been physically outgrown gen
orally throughout this state:
And. whereas, The proposed amendment
or some similar change in the law viii
be in our opinion to the benefit of The
people of this state, and at the present
time will be greatly to the advantage ant
! welfare Of the people of this city anC
/ section by facilitating and encOllra pins