The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-08-21

being warned by those peripatetic teach
ers that to escape the wrath to come of
their master they must accept this new
political doctrine of state control by for
eign railroads and submit Internationally
to Captain Falkner's political circum-
cision, and If Immediate signs of repent
ance and faith are not forthcoming they
are told that the patronage of railroad
employees will be instantly withdrawn
and threatened with the establishment of
rival stores to be conducted under the
auspices of this railroad company, with
ample capital and discriminating rates In
their favor, and from this financial death
It will be impossible to fee. Similar
methods were adopted by this road few
years ago when the Southern Wholesale
Grocers' association undertook to obtain
a reduction of freight rates from the L.
and N. railroad. At that time one of our
merchants was offered by this company
the use of unlimited capital and was
promised freight rates that would drive
the other merchants out of business If
he would withdraw from the association
and join the railroad in its fight against
the association When he could not be
induced to desert his fellow merchants
rival store was established In Montgom-
cry under the name of the Alabama Mer-
camille Company, which carried on the
fight for the railroad against the whole
sale merchants of Alabama
Dragooned Employees.
Our people are besought by the dra-
gooned employees of this corporation to
desist from their efforts to obtain relief,
pleading that the lowering of freight
rates will result in a reduction of their
wages. Is 1t true that the stock gambling
owners of this railroad never yield any
part of their vast profits never bear any
of the burdens? Can the people only get
Justice at the expense of the helpless en-
ployes of this corporation? Must the bur-
den which they lay down be taken up and
borne by its laborers? Have these own
ers no sense of justice, no conception of
right; are they deaf to the appeals Of
hunger? VIII the bread be taken from
the children of these toilers? VIII not
their pleading voice be heard. their tear
full eyes be seen by J. W. Gates and J.
Pierpont Morgan, whose boundless
wealth now startles the world? Instead
of Withholding the bread from these chill
d en- in order to further swell their fabu-
lous fortunes, why not use a portion of
the twenty-five million quick assets which
Gates recently found In the treasury of
this road which so excited his cupidity
and inhamed his avarice as to cause him
to buy a majority of Its stock at enor-
nous prices? Are these means being
used by this railroad considered fair In
political contention? We were promised
that none other should be USED. Or is this
the method employed by 1t for informing
the people?
People UNIFORMED.
Captain FallSner in his interview said
that from years of experience and OBJ
servation l say that the people OF Ala
bama will always do the right thing
when they are fully informed" Does he
mean that the people of Alabama are so
uniformed, so ignorant that they will
not do right and that 1t is necessary to
fully inform them before they can be
trusted to discharge the duties imposed
by the ballot? Has 1t come to pass that
the people of Alabama can be told to
their faces by railroad corporation that
they have not enough intelligence to
vote until they are fully Informed" by
it? 1t appears from what he says that
this benighted condition has not sudden
ly fallen upon them, that they have been
in need of information for years, for
he says he has reached that conclusion
from years of experience and observa-
ton. Holding this view, I can see why
his railroad has had Its employees quiz
work and open political ldndergartens
on the streets of Birmingham for the
enlightenment of our business men. This
want of information on the part of the
people having been filtered through these
teachers, accounts, no doubt, for some
of the arguments being useo by them.
as they would not be addressed to people
who were informed.
Should Open Schools.
Looking to the future, would 1t not be
well. for this road to open permanent
high schools throughout Alabama and
put It's employees in charge of them, for
1t may become tired of exercising its po-
litical functions and want 10 go out on
the governing business, and If 1t should,
the people ought to have some knowl-
edge of the affairs of government at
least, enough to know how to select an
other masterl 1t would, no doubt. be
helpful and inspiring to these beginners
If Captain Falkner himself would attend
on some public examination occasions
and give them some fancy touches on
the science of running the state govern
ment, especially the legislature.
What People Would Learn.
If these schools should be made a
permanent feature of the Louisville and
Nashville company's business. and have
the people fully informed, they might
be made to understand the justice of rail-
roads charging a Pickens county farmer
10 cents per bushel to ship his potatoes
to Birmingham, 100 miles, while the Mich
igan farmer is charged only 81 cents to
ship his to Birmingham, distance of 500
miles; or justify q rate that requires a
farmer In south Alabama to ship his
crop to Georgia and there ship 1t back
over the same road in order to reach the
markets of Alabama; or how Is II fair for
the same road to charge $3.50 on a carload
of brick from Bessemer to Akron, a dis
lance of seventy miles. and then charge
for shipping the same car from Akron
to Greensboro, a distance of twenty miles,
$780, or why is 1t that a carload of cot
tonseed meal or hull5 can be shipped from
Rome, Ca, to Early, Ca, distance of
fifteen miles, for ST. and when shipped
on in the same car three miles further
to Farrill, Ala, a charge of SIS is made?
Why in Georgia, for the same distance,
meat Is shipped at cents per 100 pounds,
and in Alabama u cents Is charged; or
grain in Georgia at Az cents, in Alabama
II cents; or -four in Georgia at 0 cents, in
Alabama % cents; why cotton can be
shipped over the Southern Railway to
Georgia mills for forty miles at S5 cents
a bale, while Alabama mills pay S1.30 per
bale for the same distance, causing Ala
bama mills using 10000 bales to lose each
year $4,000; or why cottonties can be
shipped forty miles In Georgia over the
same road for cents per 100 pounds,
while in Alabama It costs 10 cents per 100
pounds, under which rate an Alabama
mill making a million ties distributed
over a radious of forty miles would lose
$4,000 year Why the people of Oneonta
on account of unjust rates, were forced
last year to haul 10000 bales of cotton in