The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-02-25
First Class 3 Cents, Sec
ond Class | 1-2 Cents.
AN EDUCATIONAL LAW
The Committee Substitute Bill Revis-
ing the Educational Laws, Passed
the Senate After a Long Dis
cussion With One Amend
ment.

The special order the bill re-
ported by the committee as a substi-
tute for the Laughinghouse bill was
taken up yesterday in the House. and
after an exhaustive debate passed its
readings by a vote of seventy for and
thirty-one against.
The committee substitute pro-
vided that first class passenger
rates should not exceed three cents
a mile and second class should not
exceed two and a half cents a mile.
except that branch line roads of less
than Seventy-five miles should remain
under the control in fixing fares Of the
corporation commission.
Mr.. Wood offered an amendment
excepting the Asheboro and Aberdeen
railroad.
Mr. Woodard offered an amendment
requiring the issuing of one thousand
mile tickets for $3.50 interchange
able on all roads.
Mr.. Laughinghouse opened the dis
cussion on the bill. He said in the
past 10 years the railroads of the
State had increased five hundred miles
in extent, while net earnings had al
most doubled. He read from statistics
showing that ten wears ago total gross
were po,ooOf,uUUs ana OptI~
ating expenses six million dollars.
Last year the gross earnings We're over
$40, 900, operating expenses twelve
million dollars, and the net earnings
and profits We're $S.00O,0ea or as
much as the entire opeiaflnE
penSes of ten years ago.
Speaking of the imme
the railroads We're MAXI 81 at
clared thatasafter paying ail enst
A0f taxes. interest or dee4f tfztsEt taHf8
declared a dividend on 81 stock
great deal Of which was 49,, teE
or impure water. He said the Coast
Line stock now was worth forty dol
lars for one and it cost them only
forty cents on the dollar. He said
had pursued by raising freight rates
to make up their increased taxes
would be balked this time. for a bill
would pass this legislature heading
them off in that respect. He stated
that in spite of the immense income
the railroads were getting by op-
pressive freight and passenger rates,
Mr.. Pou and Mr.. Miller came near
weeping when telling the committee
what hard time the railroads were
having now to keep out of the DOOR
house, and if this bill passed they
would almost be compelled TO go out
of business. He said he was so SYM
DdlIGIlC
tempted to propose a bill for the State
to order a bond issue to help these
nublic benefactors out OF their tribu-
lationS, but on second thought he was
more thoroughly convinced than ever
that the railroads needed the atten-
ton OF the legislature. He read ~"
following editorial from the IoHaa
Post:
1.-THE whole country is A
realizing that the cont 81
of our railways have,
most of them. wholly lost their pes
of view and have been regarding ns
ways as private property. Indc1 ~
natural has this attitude toward rail-
way property become that people
have to think twice before they see
that the act of the grantor Of n dis
eliminating freight rate is in no es-
sential different from the act of the
highwayman who robs the wayfarer
at the pistols point.
'Yet nothing could be clearer than
that railway is the public street or
the public highway. The private man
agement of railways is simply de-
vice adopted by the public for their
efficient maintenance. Any one who
has travelled on the state-managed
railways of Europe will regard this
device of private management as
vastly superior; and he will be eX-
and short-sighted railway men who
are doing everything in their power
to force the people seriously to con-
slider public management OF the still
public highways"
Murphy of Rowan, said he had
never taken a fee from the railroads
and was not a railroad attorney. but
he opposed the whole bill. because
the corporation commission was Gre
ated expressly for the purpose of fix
ing freight and passenger rates, and
this duty should be left TO them.
Murphy of Buncombe, IN advocat-
ing the bill declared that alTaost every
one of these roads had been built with
North Carolina money and almost
every one of these roads today were
owned by foreign capitalists. He paid
a tribute to A. b. Andrews. r. r.
Bridges, julius A. Gray and other
North CaroIinians whose money and
public spirit had developed these
roads, but said the control had passed
out of their hands. The State OF
North Carolina he declared had vested
rights in the control of these proper
ties because it was their money ami
their sons who had built them.
The increase in passenger rates
to only a quarter of a cent
: mile and yet they were declaring
that 1t would bankrupt them. If they
could sell thousand mile tickets now
for two and a half cents a mile IL
would not hurt them TO haul paSsen-
gers a mile at the rate of thirty dol
lars for a thousand miles.
r.. T~Ay tN.Nlks -, cox .<F