The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1905-12-21
THE SOUTHERN SUBMITS REASONS
WHY IT'S RATES SHOULD NOT


The State Railroad Commission has
now heard from all of the roads whose
rates Mr.. Brewer, of Griffin, and Hon.
l. J. Pope Brown, of Hawkinsv;lle, want
reduced. The roads themselves cannot
tell accurately how much loss thew
wonld suffer, but the Southern figured
that its loss would be at least SIIo,o 700 a
year.
Mr.. l.. Green, Freight Traffic Mana
ger, the official who has charge of the
freight business all over the Southern.
made answer for his company last
week. Mr.. Green, who is one of the
greatest rate experts in the country. be-
gan his argument by showing how
much the Georgia Commission has re-
duced rates in the last TWENTY-FIVE
years. He took up lumber and showed
by the records that the freight charges
on 1t had been reduced in Georgia about
one-tifth? There are various WAYS of
doing some things. One way to reduce
rates is to increase the minimum car
load-that is to make the roads haul
more freight for the same money. This
is one way. Twenty years ago $500
paid for handling 1900 bricks 10 miles.
To-day $500 will move s 900 bricks II
miles-that is, the roads have to haul
twice as many bricks longer distance
to get the same money.
Twenty-Five years ago it cost SI.44 to
ship one ton of fertilizers 10 miles in
Georgia. Now it costs u cents on the
Southern. That is just one-half. To-
day the Southern would haul a ton of
fertilizers entirely across the State
for $I.44.
Flour, grain, hay, beans live stock.
cotton peace goods and one hundred
, other articles were taken up and their
rate history was given by Mr.. Green.
The Commission has very seldom
made general sweeping reductions, but
1t has been trimming the rates little
here and little there, year after year.
/ All freight shippers understand, of
course, that for purposes of rate making,
freight is divided into classes and com
modlties. There are first, second, third.
fourth, NTH and sixth classes and then
there are lettered classes, A, BIC. ID.
etc. The Commission often takes an
article from high& class and puts if
into a lower one. This reduces the
rate on that article. All Commissions
do this, but Georgia's has worked the
trick great deal more than hef neigh
bors. This State has 26I articles with a
lower classification than South Carolina
and 3I5 that are lower than Alabama's.
The Railroad men firmly believe that
Georgla's rates are unreasonable low.
They show that all of the States around
her allow them to charge more than the
Georgia Commissions tariff, and thev
+ insist that rates in Georgia really ought
/ to be raised. Mr.. Green reminded the
Commission that last February rates
were reduced from the North, East and
West to Georgia points Then in Nav.
the Commission reduced all class rates
from Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, Buns
wick, Columbus, Dalton, Macon, Rome
! and Savannah to IS of the leading ties
IN Georgia. Commissioner J. NJ. Brown
has estimated that the reductions of last
February will amount to So12, 900 per
year. Mr.. Green declared that all of the
reductions made this year in Georgia
will cost the Southern Railroad alone at
least one million of dollars. He stated
that very much a greater part of the
money earned by his road in this State
comes from Interstate traffic and cited
hgures to show that the net earnings
from business from within Georgia, or
interstate traffic, are not enough to pay
the cost of operating, Improvements and
to meet the taxes in Georgia. In con-
clusion. he said that if the Southern was
put IN class A AS proposed the Company
VIII have deficit of nearly $3.50, 900 a
year on Georgia business.