The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-27

Eation was made. and developed the facts
 as set forth above I further stated that
 these irregular shipments were continued
 aver a period of several months before
 they were discovered by the Louisville
 and Nashville Railroad Company. until
 the undercharges amountedAto sf2Ss6. ana that all these irregular shipments were billed to Mir. B. B. Conner or his Bir- mingham mills collect" and that Mir. B. B. cOMER OR THE BIRMINGHAM
 MILLS PAID THE FREfGHT ON SAID | SHIPMENTS AT THE MEAL RATE, when the shipments were in fact FLOUR, l I had no information with, reference to
 whether the flour was sold delivered in Birmingham or not. The positive infor-
 nation I have, however s that 1t was | loaded in MEAL SACKS FURNISHED BY MIR. COMER AND BEARING HIS | NAME AND BRAND as above describ-
 ed; and that upon the assumption that It
 was MEAL IT WAS so BILLED BY
 This cOMPANY's AGENT, and that the BILLS OF LADING ISSUED FOR THE | SEVERAL SHIPMENTS described the contents of the several cars as Meal, and
 thnt our Investigation developed the fact l that these several cars dld NOT contain MEAL. but that they contained FLOUR IN MEAL SACKS, and Mir. Conner ac- cepted said shipments as MEAL and paid
 the MEAL rate of freight at that time
 on the same.
 I have also stated that was informed that about that time Mir. B. B. Conner made boast that he intended to con- trol the flour market of Birmingham. Now with regard to the fifth paragraph of your letter. In which you state In ef- l feet that "Mr. Conner showed them," q suppose you mean the Louisville and
 Nashville representative who investigat- ed the matter at the time and collected the undercharge of sl29.S6). ''telegrams purchasing the four his invoices show ing that the miller in Tennessee got the
 benefit of cents per barrel in freight" (you mean 4 cents per hundred pounds. or
 s cents per barreD. land further told the Louisville and Nashville representative that he owed the miller for a car of l flour, and If he desired it would pay
 them the 1 cents per barrel" (you mean per 100 pounds). Ion all shipments and
 charge back to shipper, which he did:"
 and with regard to the next paragraph
 of your letter In which you state in effect. Mir Conner took the pains to show the representative. of the Louisville and Nash
 vile Railroad company in Birmingham,
 copy of his letter." etc, as tending to
 establish that The reaped no benefit by the false billing. and had no interest in it.. desire to say:
 I have, since the receipt of your letter,
 had A conversation over the long-distance telephone with Mir. F. A. deFuniak, the
 Birmingham representative of the Louis vile and Nashville Railroad company. above referred to, which conversation de- veiops the fact that Mir. B. B. Conner
 did NOT show Mir deFuniak any tele-
 gram with reference to the purchase of this flour, nor any invoices showing that
 the miller in Tennessee received the bene- fit of the cents per 100 pounds, and Mir.
 Conner did NOT tell Mir. deFuniak that
 he (Comer) owed the miller in Tennessee
 for a car of flour, nor that if he desired
 1t, he would pay the cents per 100
 pounds, and charge it back to the ship per, etc. Neither did MT. Conner show the Louisville and Nashville representa-
 tive in Birmingham, a copy of a letter in which 1t was shown that he (Comerl
 charged back to the shipper in Tennes-
 see the amount of the undercharge paid by MT. Conner to Mir deFuniak for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad com pany.
 My information is that Mir. Conner has
 never, up to this date. explained any ot | these transactions to MT P. A. deFuniak
 and the only effort at explanation I have ever heard offered was a communication | from MT. Conner some time after these | irregular shipments had been detected | (and the amount of the irregularity. viz, | $129 S6 collectedD, addressed to Mir. c. E. | Compton. who was at that time general | freight agent of the Louisville and Nash | vile railroad office at Louisville, Ky,
 which fell very far short of satisfac- l tory explanation. and did not deny re-
 sponsibility for this manipulation. On
 the other hand, he admits that the num- | erous shipments were irregular. The only thing he does deny in this letter was that | the irregular shipments were of any bene- | fit to him or designed to be.
 In this you will note he speaks of ''de-
 sign" I am glad he used this term be- | cause It opens up the thought that if he
 was not the beneficiary, these irregular
 shipments must have been designed for
 some ones benefit. The question now is, | who was the beneficiary? Of this you. | at that time being his competitor and | being undersoid in the flour market of Birmingham by MT. B. B. Conner, are
 better able to judge than I am. And if | you were not suffering by some irregu-
 larity why did you complain to MT de- 1 Funiak that Mr. Conner was able to un- 1 dersell you in the Birmingham flour mar | ketf In further confirmation that MT.
 CCmer does not deny that these shipments | from Mir. Hunters mill at Carters Creek, | Tenn some twelve years ago. were | irregular, is borne out by the fact that
 h letter addressed to me by MT. Co.,
 mer. dated Birmingham, March 12, 19O4
 he made use of the following
 ''The entire correspondence in this mat
 ter was referred to Mir. deFuniak and of
 hts own knowledge he can say that had
 no interest or benefit from this irregu-
 lar shipment"
 You will note that MT. deFuniak in
 second paragraph above makes full de-
 nial with reference to telegrams, in-
 voices and letters, and he advises me
 today over the long distance telephone
 that he can not say of his own kowledge
 that MT. Conner had no interest or ben
 eft from these irregular shipments, on the other hand he Is inclined to believe
 that Mr. Conner did have some pecuniary
 interest, either directly or indirectly.
 You will further note from MT. Co.,
 mer's quotation of March 12th that he does not deny that the shipments in question were not irregular and his fail ure to deny that the shipments were ir-
 regular imputes knowledge to him of 1 to any falr-minded man would indicate
 that he in some way was beneficiary either directly or indirectly.
 Further, my information is that after | the investigation instituted by the L. and | N. Railroad had developed as far as pos sible the extent of the Irregularities, the bill for undercharges was presented to | MT B. B. Conner, who instructed one of
 his clerks to draw a check covering the
 amount, to wit, $l29S6. Our MT. deFun-
 iak received thls check and turned same | 0yer fO I the aqanf of