The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-18

route from Atlanta, Ga, through Dir
mingham to Meridian, Miss, and There
bv as effectively debars the Seaboard
Air Line from sending its passenger
cars on to New Orleans by that route
as if the ownership of the Southern
extended every foot Of the way
"But to bring the matter TO its last
ANALYSIS, I ask you this question: As
YOU do notuse your route from Atlanta
TO Meridian for through cars between
Atlanta and New Orleans, are you will
ing to make q through connection for
passenger business to New Orleans
with the Seaboard Air Line over this
route. upon the same terms which you
have. over the Atlanta and West Point
and the Western Railway of Alabama
Or viii YOU still insist upon mOnopoliz-
ing the route via the Atlanta and West
Toint and the Western Railway of Ala
bama, and in excluding the Seaboard
Air Line from your lines via Birming-
ham?
THE ATLANTA AND FLORIDA.
81 understand from your letter that
you admit the ownership 10y the South
ern Railway of the Atlanta and Florida
Railroad, also of the old East Tennes-
see line. If / am correct in the asset-
ton that, stripped of all form, the
ownership of the capital stock of the
Central Railroad rests with the South
ern, and if you were correct in Nonr
statements in Savannah. that the Cen
trail had passed under the control OF
the Southern. as such stakeholder, then
I am unquestionably correct in my
statement that the Southern Railway
owns and controls these competing
lines between Atlanta and Macon,
Ga. and | submit that | am not only
correct in that statement that such
ownership is in violation of the con-
stitution and laws of this State above
quoted, but that it is specially in vio-
lation Of the law under which you OPP
crate the main line of the Southern
Railway between Atlanta and Macon.
Il am informed that YOU operate
the line of railroad from Rome to
Brunswick under the powers concen-
trated in a charter granted by the
State of Georgia i'm 1881; that portion
of the road from Rome to Macon was
built under that charter. THAI charter
expressly provides:
(" No railroad or express company or
companies. or a combination of either,
controlling or running a competing
line of railroad, either as owners, les
sees or otherwise, nor yindividual or
individuals, having a controlling inter
est i'm any other competing company or
companies, shall be, or become, at any
time, owner or owners of a controlling
interest in the said railroad herein
chartered, and should such company,
companies, individual or individuals,
at any time become so interested, then
the charter herein granted shall be
ipso faeto null and void, and the fran
chises, powers and privileges thereof
shall cease and determine absolutely.
IF these facts do not substantiate
the assertions of my letter of July 23rd,
then / submit that the legislators of
the State of Georgia in the constitution
and laws prohibiting monopoly and
encouraging competition merely utter
ed a lot of meaningless sentences,
which corporations may defy at pleas
IRE, with impunity,
GEORGIA SOUTHERN AND FLORIDA
SIT is not my purpose to take up
seriatim each of the assertions of your
letter. The intelligent public will per-
ceive that if the statements which !
have controyerted are incorrect il nee
essarily follows that the rest of your
letter is mere argument based there
on and must necessarily fall. / desire,
however, to briefly challenge your
statement as to the railroad situation
at Macon, Ga. Concerning the attitude
of the Central and the Georgia rail-
roads do not care to say more. How
ever, ask whether you can produce a
single instance in which the Georgia
railroad or the Central of Georgia have
adopted measures or taken action con-
trary to the expressed wishes of the
Southern Railway Company. I am
quite sure that if they ever have the
public has never been appraised there
of So far as the Georgia Southern
and Florida and Macon and Birming-
ham railroads are concerned, in regard
to the former, I simply desire to quote
from your letter of July 10, 1895 writ
ten to the Macon chamber of COM
merce, in which you say, AS regards
the Georgia Southern and Florida, the
Southern Railway Company and its
friends control not all, but only a ma
jority of the securities When and
how have the Southern railway and it's
friends ceased to control the majority
of these securities? rs it not true that
you are the president of this company
and is it not true that you control its
operations? In regard to the Macon
and Birmingham railroad, it is we'll
known fact that shortly before the sale
of that railroad under foreclosure a
large portion of it's bonds were sold
and purchased in the interest of the
Southern Railway Company. Tt is also
known that those same bonds were
rendered by the purchasers, Edwards
and Parsons in part payment for the
Macon and Birmingham railroad. 1t is
also well known that the confirmation
of the sale was resisted by the COM
plainants in the suit under which the