The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-14

there were different views held as TO
the adviSability of the establishment
Of 4 Railroad Commission with rate
making powers. but there is now but
one opinion that the enforcement of
the law has accomplished great good.
am sure Mr.. Cox will agree with
me in this, for by reference to page
17S, Commissioners Report for the
year 1901, I find that Mr.. Cox petit
toned the commission, alleging that
the freight rate on rough logs, name :
ly: dogwood hickory, persimmon and
gumwood, over the Seaboard Air
Lines roads was excessive, and that
unless the commission would require
the defendant to transport logs at q
lower rate, he would be compelled to
remove his different mills from along
the line of said road. The commits
sion, after hearing and careful con-
sideration in this case, issued an or
der granting the relief he asked for
that is, reducing the rates some 20
per cent; and, subsequently, an over
charge of $55S.14 was refunded on ac-
count of overchargeS on shipments 70
one of his mills located at Sanford,
and on all subsequent shipments Mr..
Cox got the benefit of the greatly re-
duced freight rate and l have not
heard of the railroad complaining
that the rate put in effect by the com :
Why the Sudden Inconsistency?
From which it will appear that, al
through Director Cox is perfectly sat
isfied in his business to let the South
ern Railway fix the rates of freight
Call mis- factories being now located
on the line that transportation
highway he was yet hot in the col
lar about Seaboard charges in 1901
so hot that he took the whole thing
into the court of the Railroad Com
mission, raised a stir, brought for
ward testimony and yelled for his
rights and his rates like a calf two
days in the weaving pen-and got
what he called for!
Which inevitably places the facts
in row to circumstantially indicate
one or two unpleasant or humiliating
alternatives with reference to the Mr..
Cox then and the Mr.. Cox now-the
one invoking the aid of the Com
mission, the other stating with the
gravity and absoluteness possible only
to one OF large affairs that the manu-
facturers and the important shippers
wanted no rate regulation.
Did Mr.. Cox, when he appealed to
the Corporation Commission, drug his
conscience to the point of asking an
arbitrary interference with the rights
of the Seaboard to make rates? Sure
ly, Mr. Cox is not that sort of a man,
his sweeping declaration to the con-
trary Notwithstanding.
Perhaps. though, Mr.. Cox meant to
be understood as testifying merely to
the beneficient policy of the. South
ern Railway, on which all his factories
are now located.
Good Southern or Bad ScabOard?
In that event-and having found
the Seaboard an oppTessor-is it quite
fair for Mr. Cox, himself situated on
the line of a public benefactor, to state
that all railroads, including that
which he himself had forced by law
to toe the scratch. should be left free
to work their wiles in the matter of
Interstate rates which the State Com
missions cannot-or it is doubtful
whether they can-control?
Is it not selfish in Mr.. Cox, himself
enjoying al the Kindness and justice
and equity of a conscientious system
like the Southern, to seek to force
other manufacturers, unfortunately
located on the Seaboard, to put up
with the unjust determinations and
high rates against which he himself
had so recently and successfully IN
Weighed in the courts?
Mr. Cox, out of his own mouth in
dubitably finds the Southern an ac-
commodating servant working to haul
his goods at a very reasonable rate.
On that he is qualified to speak and
he would be heard with interest. AS
director in the High Point, Randle-
man, ASheborO and Southern Rail-
road Company, he doubtless knows
of the integrity and pureness of heart
of that twenty-six mile corporation,
whose trains run from High Point to
Asheboro and back sometimes twice
day But it is hardly just to predl-
cate opinions on Interstate Com
merce rates or that connection. The
Fl p. r. A. and S. r. r. Co. couldn't
be bad if it wanted to-as Mr.. Cox
himself demonstrated in the matter OF
intra-State rates against the Seaboard.
when he forced : it to refund.
OF course it would not be bad if Il
could, with Mr.. Cox on the director
ate. Mr. Cox is a trustful gentleman,
for che himself hath said it, and its
greatly to his credit'-but isn't it just
barely possible that the Southern sys-
tenn over which Mr.. Cox rides and
which he observes under the fine ad-
vantage of free pass-iSnt 1T just
possible that the Southern system is
especially good to MIR. Cox because it
is afraid he will find opt something
by reason of his opportunity for in
innate knowledge through his direc-
torship and get it, also, before the
railroad commission?
What Harm in Regulation?
OF course the Seaboard is bad-for
Mr. Cox has said so. And, by the
same token, the Southern is good
witness Mr.. Cox's testimony.
Wherefore, freight regulation could
not hurt the good Southern, which al
ready so tickles its shippers that they
travel to Washington to say word
in its behalf: why, then should Mr..
Cox object to a regulation of the bad
Seaboard which could not possibly in
lure the good Southern?
No Quaker ever cared about the Sc
verify of Sunday laws. Nor could the
Southern fear freight rate regu
Why, then, so hot, Mr.. Cox?