The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-18

small coterie, ne said. lhe peORfc VI Alabama, generally. were behind 1t. This was shown, he said, by the last election when by an overwhelming vote a Legisla- tive pledge to an elective Railroad Con- | mission was elected. The Commission, he said, had been made elective because the people he'd not received relief from an l appointive Commission. The movement | would go on. he said. It could not be stopped.
 He said that the unequal freight rates bore especially heavy upon the farmers. He recounted his own experience in ship ping farm products, saying that excessive freight rates had been charged. MT. Nesbitt Speaks. W. D. Nesbitt a prominent mill and cotton man of Birmingham. submitted to the Commission the result of his investi- gation of the rates on cotton and manu- factured cotton good, results which l showed that the Alabama rates were higher than those in Georgia, South Caro- lima or Texas.
 MT. Eesbitt is a young man, tall. well dressed and good looking with black hair and black moustache. He made a clean | cut business-like argument There was an. utter absence of any attempt at orato- rlcal effect. The remarks of Mir. Nesbitt were submitted calmly and dispassionate- ly. It was the talk of business man before business associates.
 He approved, he said, as . middle man." one who stood between the buyer and the seller. As such, the question of cotton rates was not of special constdera- ton to him.
 He had become convinced. he said. that the rates in Alabama on cotton were toN high and thorough investigation had strengthened that conviction. This in- AA hAA Aho fa Nf "A said, that rates on cotton in Alabama were higher than in South Carolina or Georgia. difference in the rates as | charged in Alabama had persuaded him | that the railroads made the rates inde- pendent of each other. He had particu- l lariy investigated the cotton rates of the | Southern Railway and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. He quoted figures to | show the difference of the George and Alabama local rates for cotton. On a l twenty-mile haul he said on the Louis- | ville and Nashville. the Georgia rate was IS cents and the Alabama rate Il cents. | On the Southern, the Georgia rate was 1s l cents and the Alabama rate Il cents. l Going farther he compared the cotton | goods. rates for Georgia, Alabama and | South Carolina and Texas, for haul be- | tween forty and sixty miles The rates were:
 l Georgia, 1s cents: Alabama, 36.H cents; Texas. 24 cents. and South Carolina. 70 cents.
 He said he supposed that the railroads | must have had some good reason for the | difference of the Alabama and Georgia rates but he had been unable to discover it.
 with this condition" said Mir. Nesbitt.
 "the mills of Alabama are at disad- | vantage in competing with the Georgia l mills. The Alabama mills are confronted
 with the necessity of paying more for the l hauling of their cotton and the hauling 1 of the products of their mills. The con- l dition has resulted in a much greater Tn"
 crease in the number of cotton mills Tn
 Georgia than in Alabama. It makes very
 little difference to the railroads as to | where the high rates are effective but 1t
 makes a great deal of difference to the l people of Alabama. It means that the
 present rate makes the Alabama man pay tax of N on his bale of cotton that ts
 net paid by the Georgia man."
 Addressed by MT. Hines.
 The railroad men put forward Walker D. Hines, First vice-President of the ! Louisville and Nashville Railroad as their first speaker MT. Hines made the prin- ! cipal speech for the railroads. which were
 In the position of the defendants In the | hearing.
 The various petitions which had been
 
 had been sent out in blank form from Birmingham and Talladesa. These peti-
 tons had been gotten up by solicitation.
 Their signers, he said. had nothing at
 stake.
 II do not agree that the railroads in
 Alabama fix rates at the highest possln,e figure" said Mir. Hines. The railroads l could have raised them to higher figure
 but they have remained reasonable. We do not expect you to reduce rates De- cause some gentlemen express willing ness to pay lower freight rates.
 "The Georgia rates" MT Hines son- tinued ''are the lowest in the South. They are unreasonably low. It has been final Iy determined by the courts that railroads | have the right to make rates. The courts
 have the right to make judicial review | of railroad rates, but the Georgia rates
 have never Ieen approved by the courts.
 All virtue of railroad legislation does not rest in Georgia. The railroads of the
 South do not pay fair return on their
 investment"
 MT. Hines quoted figures on the prop
 ertv of the Louisville and Nashville In
 Georgia to show that the roads owned or
 leased by it in Georgia and not paid a
 profit except in two years In the past Alabama Not Decadent.
 Mir. Hines took issue with the statement
 of MT, Conner that Alabama had shown
 aerfcuitural decadence. He submitted fig ! ures to show that Alabama had In agri-
 culture grown much more rapidly than
 Georgia. The figures were quoted from
 the census report of 1900. According to
 the figures Alabama had shown in the
 past an increase in the value Of farm
 products of S41 per cent, while Georgia increase had been 62.1. The Alabama in-
 crease for twenty years in the value or
 farm property had been 6S.4 per cent and
 the Georgia increase 69.5 per cent. Live
 stock in the same period had increased in | Alabama SIS per cent and in Georgia SS s
 per cent The average gross income from
 farms per acre had increased in Ala
 bama $3s3 and in Georgfa, $S57.
 Tn agriculture, Mir. Hines said, Ala hama had almost caught up with Geor- Ria. It was not fair to class Alabama as A back number State. Wages had in- creased as had the value of farm prod ucts, and Alabama was not going back l ward.
 "It has been asserted, said MT. Hines, that the Alabama rates were fixed by unrestrained private interests. deny that We have a very lively apprecia- ton of the fact that the interests of the community are our interests. There Is hardly an article upon which the rate l could not be raised. In the making of rates, the railroads are restrained by | their own interest. Public interest re- strains us The Alabama. Kentucky and I IFF.-