The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-23

| nS Tdl& OD COfn lkoAA 450 miles. to Birmingham, is 17c; from | Nashville, 226 miles, is 13c; from Deta- | tur, 80 miles, 13c. The rate from East | St. Louis to Birmingham, 55e miles, Is 2lc: from Memphis to Birmingham | 256 miles. is 16c: from Sheffield to Bir- | mingham, 120 miles, 16c. This diner- | ential against the Tennessee river makes it no use as a passing point, pre- vents interstate traffic, gives the towns on it's banks the aegros cur dog chance and furnishes the only American ex- | ample of a navigable river furnishing | no freight competition, and last year al the meeting of the Industrial Conven- | tion at Decatur when MT. Shepherd of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad gave a banquet on the Louisville & Nashville boat, he offered the motion | that Congress be petitioned for further appropriations to the Tennessee river. This amendment should have been of- | fered: That Col. Richardson should | ask the cooperation of every politician | in Alabama to demand of the railroad companies to give the railroad cross | ings of the Tennessee river the same | distributing advantages that are given | the Cumberland. the Ohio and the Mis- | sssippi, and thus afford North Ala bama an opportunity to take advantage  that every rule of commerce comedies Of No Force.
 "The Commission at one time put in a rate from Sheffield, but the rail- roads refused to recognize it, and this is the only important rate they ever at tempted to manipulate, and was met with square refusal. The claim that the railroad companies acquiesced in the Commissions rulings (which is busily circulated during the sessions of the Legislature and Convention) comes from the fact that the Commission makes no rulings. and since the time of Captain Bragg, who attempted as 1t was designed, to make 1t useful to the State. and who was fought to the death. the Commission has degenerated into a sinecure and junket. This has no reference to the personnel of the Commission-no doubt they would be very different men If clothed with power and responsible to the people.
 "As to the petition for restraining power. the State has got to decide be- tween arbitrary power for itself, sub- ject to court revision. and arbitrary power for the franchised foreigner, subject to no revision. Every State around us-practically every one in the Union, has decided that safety. DOtu TUT luc cldtC anu tUC II dHClllSC, was with the States.
 No Reflection.
 Neither is this article intended to reflect on Colonel Falkner. He Is the trusted employe of the railroad com panies, with unlimited discretion. If the State could have the benefit of his unbiased wisdom. he would be a worthy leader. but from the nature of the case this cannot be-'No man can serve two masters When he limits the complaint to a few gentlemen at Birmingham. nothing could be more misleading. The Tennessee valley suffers the worst. because they not only pay excessive local rates, but are disbarred from using their great nat ural advantages. water competition. When at every crossing of the Chat tahoochee or the Georgia State line. when throughout Alabama the local rate to the business man and consumer is 50 to 100 per cent more than the same roads charge in Georgia; when at every cotton factory, the owners meet adverse local rates. when these excessive rates aggregate more than the annual interest on 0,000,000 bonds -four times the interest required to pay the State debt-then the assertion that there is no freight discrimination in Alabama is absurd and the threat to bring 6,200 employees to intimidate the State Is the vagary of an unsound condition.
 Does not Colonel Falkner know that he does not pay his Alabama em- ployes more than his Georgia em- ployes and will he assert, that if we would tamely submit to a still further tariff increase, that it would increase the pay of our fellow citizens, his em- ployes one cent. In 1893 there was railroad wreckage. there was bank and property wreckage everywhere, and de- crease in wages and suffering through out the land. The charge of this to the Georgia Commission Is far fetched, and We will venture the assertion. there is not a railroad in Georgia, whose bonds and stock have escaped the water Vats. but which are worth above par. On the Georgia road. on which he states there was million loss, the stock is worth 226, and as the leasing of this road by the Louisville and Nashville is voluntary, and has con- tinued through many years, and lately renewed at an increased price, and as both the State and Western. also leas- ed by the Louisville and Nashville and subject to the same state espionage
 
 ditions, would 1t not be well to import without delay. these conditions into Alabama for the benefit of the rail- road and the people, as both seem to prosper under it.
 If the reverse of this Is true, and the railroads are recouping In Ala bama their losses in Georgia, and that we are sustaining the Georgia system, to put 1t mildly-we are either the most liberal people or the biggest fools on earth.
 Trammell Letter.
 "The Trammell letter is genuine was sent by him to B. B. Conner. and he vouches for its absolute copy and also vouches for a conversation with Colonel Trammell just before his death, in which he reiterated the state ment of the letter. and the continued improved relation between the com mission and the railroad companies, There was published in The Atlanta Constitution some time ago an inter view with MT. Culp, Traffic Manager of the Southern system, in which he stated that the relations between his road and the Georgia Commission were Harmonious and satisfactory.
 Some two years ago. when Colonel | Falkner, in an open letter charged the | conduct of the Georgia Commission as | revolutionary, tyrannous. and as hay, Ing wrecked the railroads of Georgia | he was replied to by Mir. Atkinson. | President of the Georgia Commission. in most masterly manner. showing |