The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-07

short distances has been made Now the question at Issue is not whether d reduction in the cost of fertilizers to the farmer increases production. As sume that this is true The question Is, have not the carriers already made the rates as low as they should be made? Are not the rates on fertilizers on the l.. and N. Railroad as low ais they should be, even taking into con sideration that 1t is necessary to make low rates to induce consumption, to increase production? It is all very well for you, Mir. President, to say that we can afford to carry it for notl- ing. in order to get the increased tra1nc. Perhaps we might be little more encouraged if you did not turn right around and say you are going to reduce the rates, not going to stop at reducing rates on fertilizers. but are going all over the list and reduce all rates. But that is not business The railways are entitled to something Tor the services rendered, and you might as well argue that the rates should be made nothing, or if you log ically pursue that argument. that the railroads should pay a bonus to the farmer to induce him to use fertilizers or buy the fertilizers and furnish it to him free in order to create increased production. but, that is not the way business Is done in this country, and 1t is not the correct way. If the rates for the trans portatlon of fertilizers in Ala bama are reasonably low, then I think they should be let alone I do not give any consideration to the fact that the rates may have been lowered in Georgia, or Mississippi, by the Commissions, ex- cept that 1t is a very bad example, and recognize the force, the influence and the effect that your repeated publica- ton of the fact that the rates are low CT in Georgia and Mississippi than in Alabama will have. It does tend to create HiQnnnfnnf h1If ho a 1ntnf is- this: If we are "sandbagged' in Geor- gia and Mississippi must we be sand bagged" in Alabama?
 You have embarrassed the represen- tatiVes here, operating railroads not only in Alabama, but in Georgia and Mississippi very much. They have to deal with the Commissions and condi- tions in those States and have to be prudent in their criticism of those Commissions and of those conditions. Undoubtedly, in my opinion, and I have been in this business long time. and not interested as owner. but merely as a servant of the servants of the people" the action of the Railroad Commission of Georgia. or the State of Georgia through it's Commission, in reducing the rates as it did, has done incalculable harm to the State Now, of course you can bring up people who will say differently. The l.. & N, Rail- road Company, unfortunately, and I think, mistakenly became a joint les '" gia of the Georgia Railroad at about the timJ the Georgia Commission was created. The lessees protested as strong as they could against the tariff put in effect by the Commission. The Georgia Railroad and Banking Com
 pany had an old charter that antedat- ed the constitution under which the Commission was created, and q contest was made in the courts. After six or eight years, the rates In the meantime having been put in effect, the Supreme Court practically decided: Well, these rates having been in effect q that helped to put one of the last nails in the coffin in the Dartmouth College decision, that the State could make a revocable contract. Now, that was ways, and has had a disastrous effect.
 The Louisville X Nashville kailruad does not operate railroads directly to any extent in Georgia. It Is interested as lessee in the Georgia Railroad; in fact owing to the bankruptcy of the Central Railroad for a time it was the sole lessee and 1t had to take from its earnings elsewhere sufficient to pay the losses under that lease. The road could not. or did not, earn sufficient to pay the rental; and yet, it had a con- tract with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company and a bond, and it our contract, and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, am glad to say. under all it's difficulties and troubles has never defaulted on any
 Now the L. & N. Railroad Company has gotten into a lot more trouble in Georgia It had built a railroad from Louisville to Jcllico, the State line be- tween Kentucky and Tennessee, and built and acquired one from Cincinnati to the same point, and had built road to Cumberland Gap, where it connect cd with q road running to Knoxville, rinfD Uyh nected with the Norfolk & Western Railroad When 1t built to Jellico it did so under a contract with the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Rail-
 road Company. tc meet 1t at that point. and in that way formed a through line between Cincinnati and Knoxville, etc. This was done. Afterwards the peo- Pie who were controlling g,s the Ia;S East road became interested in the Cincin- natl Southern or lessee company of that road. They built a cutoff from point on the Knoxville-Jellico line to connection with the Cincinnati Southern and formed about as short line between Knoxville and Cincinnati as via Jellico and the l.. & N. This left the l.. & N. with its terminus in the air. Well, in an indirect way we formed a connection via Cumberland Gap, but our friends of the Southern Railway came into control of this road along with all of the other roads in
 
 The Norfolk X Western Railroad, for while was a good connection, inter changed a good deal of traffic with the L. & N. at Norton. Va. It built railroad down the Big Sandy to Gin cinnati and Columbus, O.. after which il had no further use for this G. & NJ line. Its interests would not be pro noted by interchanging traffic with the l.. & N It wanted the longer haul, Selhshness. you see; perfectly proper; and the l.. & N. was left with another terminus up in the air. one at Jellico, another at Cumberland Gap and another a Norton, with a system of roads running to Louisville ana Cin- cinuati. In it's desperation, it bought what is known as the Atlanta, Knox vile & Northern Railroad. and entered upon the construction of road be- tween State Line and Knoxville. This last line is about completed, and will cost somewhere between sixty and seventy thousand dollars per mile, without equipment--a very expensive road. The A. K & N. Railway, which was purchased by the l.. & N. Railroad Company, had a line extending from Knoxville to Marietta, Ga, with a short branch to Murphy, N. c, was a consolidation of two roads. The orig inal road was built, I think, largely to provide certain facilities for the peo- pie in North Georgia, a narrow gauge road extending from Marietta, Ga, to Murphy. N c. Some promoter built q standard gauge road from Biue Ridge; Ga. to Knoxville. and acquired. and changed the gauge of, this Marietta x Northern Georgia Railfoad. This was the road that the Louisville x Nash Ville Railroad Company bought with a view to making a through line from