The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-23
|FR EIGHT MEN APPEAL
 TO THE CONVENTION
ASk for Change in the Mode of the Selection of Members of the State Board of
 Railroad Commissioners.

voter, whether at the ballot box, Leg isla ture, or. Constitutional Convention, is more dangerous than the negro of the black belt or the unlearned voter of North Alabama, and last year when Colonel McIvis, President of the Mis- sissippi Commission called meeting of the Southern Commissioners at Lookout Mountain to devise means to estop the Attest move of the railroads to increase freight rates by a transfor- nation of classes, and there were ap- peals both to Interstate fand State Commissions, our Commission excused itself from attendance on the plea of a previous engagement, that engagement consisting in touring with their families the Rocky Mountain and Pacific slope in the private car Iolanthe under the care and tutorage of Colonel Falkners assistant.
 ''The increase was not put in Geor- gia and Mississippi, but was in Ala bama.
 Assertion Proved.
 Colonel Falkner's comparison of Alabama rates with those of Ken l lucky. Tennessee, Louisiana and Mis- sissippi proves just what we assert, the absolute necessity of State supervis- | ion and all those States recognize this l fact. having within the last two or three years made supervising commits sions with power, who are at work by persuasion, and otherwise to secure for | their States reasonable charges, and equitable relations between shippers, | and carriers If all the States surround ing us have placed the powers of the State between the franchised powers | and the citizens to guarantee equity is | ! txric f,, IAt~ izens to a proven imperative arrange ment? The comparison Is justly made with the Georgia freight con- l ditions, as that State has had an authoritative commission for l twenty-four years and has fully demonstrated its great capacity for good. besides the Georgia system of | roads, crossing into Alabama, with the same construction and management shows the most remarkable difference between a State controlling its fran chises and a State being controlled by l its franchises.
 Railroad Collections.
 "We roughly estimate that the rail- roads of Alabama collect between one and half and two million dollars a year excess charges more than they collect on same tonnage in Georgia, as a result of high uncontrolled rates It has been claimed that the rate per ton in Alabama is less than Georgia. | To secure this they have lugged in the | ore, coal, rock and iron tonnage of the | Birmingham district which constitute | three-fourths the tonnage of the State, and is a separate factor and as such | is sought for on it's own merit. With modesty the Birmingham district could | pat Colonel Falkner on the head and | claim wonderful benefit to every road | which touches it's freight creating borders. Colonel Hanson President of | the Central Directory, in making his annual report called attention to the i increased earnings of the Columbus and Western as a result of the tonnage | from the Birmingham district. and the | greed of the Louisville and Nashville | Tn securing the lion share of this ton mage is too manifest, to sustain the claim that 1t is done for charitable or sympathetic purposes.
 Some Comparisons. | "-he Louisville and Nashville con- | trols through the Nashville, Chatta- nooga and St. Louis and itself in Georgia, the road from Chattanooga to Atlanta from Atlanta to Augusta, and from Atlanta via West Point and Montgomery to Selma. Its local rate
 
 and South divisfon-Decatur to Mont | gomery-is 60 per cent more than it's | local rate on the Georgia roads, At lanta to Augusta. Its rate on the Western road from Opelika or Mont gomery, to the Georgia line, is 70 per cent more. The freight on the neces- saries of life from Montgomery, to- wards Clayton and Ozark. is so to 100 per cent more than it Is across the river towards Macon. At Columbus the rate across the river in Alabama | towards Union Springs, Troy, Opelika, | Dadeville or Alexander City shows the same fearful discrimination.
 At Anniston and Oxford the freight toward Atlanta and Rome, to the Georgia line, is 80 to 100 per cent. high CT than from Atlanta and Rome to the Alabama line. The same conditions prevail throughout the two States, only in Alabama there is no such thing as a standard of rates, each road being largely allowed to make It's own tariffs
 "Colonel Falkner states that Georgia has a standard. and allows differen- tials up to 50 per cent. This is true, and right, and should be the same in Alabama. Traffic managers of the different roads. in their inevitable at tempts to satisfy the stock gamblers Of Wall street. should not be allowed to assess local rates at the highest. ] instead of a dlfferential on a standard rate. The consumers on the Southern Central and Mobile & Ohio pay so to | 100 per cent. more than similarly situ- | ated consumers in Georgia. Those on the Alabama Great Southern and Louisville 6 Nashville, 60 per cent | more. The Georgia & Alabama for | merly charged the Georgia rate in Alabama, except to Hurtsboro, but un- derstand they have been forced by the other roads to higher rate.
 Local Cotton Rate
 The rates into and out of the towns | In which live the different members or the Alabama Commission, being as they are on the railroad systems nam | ed. compared with rates into and out | of towns similarly situated on the | same roads in Georgia, will verify the | above assertion. The local rate on cot ton to any of the Alabama mills is So | high that it practically abolishes the | advantage of nearness to the fields. The Louisville & Nashville, from Montgomery to Sycamore or Birming- ham is Soc per 100-to the Carolina mills 45c; to Liverpool, 65c to roc. From ('ullman