The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-16

| the railroads objected as they had a
 frtighf 10 on1ect to greater powers in servative business men throughout the State who fought it because it was be-
 heved dangerous to give such powers.
 and ss Of hs, Conner
 ture was referred to by the speaker,
 their work being effective in behalf or
 further powers in the Commission Up out that the railroads had not in a sim gle instance failed to comply with the
 recommendations of the Commission op- eratfng under the original law.
 Says Conner fs Biased.
 The act conferring the existing pow
 forwards, Mir. Tillman said, at the in
 stance of President Conner and others
 rates was taken up. He yon graduated
 the President on the able discussion of
 railroad rates which was made when
 1908. put ehapacterizad @ him fGmsi,Gn ns biascS aI
 The discussion of the President, he
 search: The speaker told the President
 not compatible with the best interests
 either of the people of Alabama or os
 the railroads.
 l At the session of 1903 the general re
 vision was investigated carefully and | material reductions were made in the | classes and commodities which affee
 the farmers. The Commission at that
 time declined, however, to adopt the | Georgia classification and rates whief | were so hotly contended for by the
 President (Mr. Comer). Mir. Tillmac | the suggestions of Mir Conner then was that the Commission had not the power That Is. the Commission after extend | sive inquiry, found that to adopt the Georgia classification and rates, you'd | be to deprive the carriers of a just and reasonable return on their investments The conditions that led to this conclu-
 sion, MT. Tillman argued. have not ma- terially changed since then, and he
 held that to make the redu ,tions want-
 ed by the President even now would be disastrous to the roads.
 Mir. Tillman repeated forcibly that
 the people of Alabama have never in- tended to instruct President Conner to
 violate the iaws of the eis state h which n
 the event of adopting the Georgia rates
 because the statute guarantees to the
 roads fair and reasonable return un
 their properties. appurtenances and
 Mr. TiIlman read from the statutes limiting the powers of the Commission. to regard only the intra- state business of the lines In Alabama in fixing local rates. Reference was made to the Nebraska Decision" which was hand Court in 1898. II. held that 1t is not of any considerable aid to a. commission in revising tariffs to make compari- they adjoin when the conditions are different. The conditions were differ ent in Nebraska and Iowa and the former tried to put in lower rates be- tariff. This gave rise to the litigation.
 MT. Tillman called attention in par ticular to the fact that the Louisville AlabamDa fair and just return on Its investments, but tlat the management has been as judiciously managed as any other road in the United States.
 Intra-State versus Interstate.
 Argument was next made that it costs by careful estimate 10 per cent more to operate intra-State business the speaker, he said, that President Conner, in his frequent mention of the Georgia Commissioners of old and tute their judgments for what ought to be his own judgment formed from the facts and figures as presented.
 MT. Ti1lman said that under the law the Commission had no right to consid- CT interstate business in the formation of local rates but even If this State was assigned its proportion of the in- terstate traffic there would still not be fair return on the property of the Louisville and Nashville system Att tention was called to the fact also that in the State. The speaker has all con fldence~i in the people of this State and he said he would not for one moment believe that they would vote for some the violation of the Fundamental law of the State and nation.
 The Commission was also reminded that 1t must consideG in the pending Investigation, the nature of service to be performed by all of the lines indi- vidually. This was regarded as an im- the fairness of the members Of the Commission and the belief was ex- pressed that despite the deep convic- question before him he coyld daS Sot 4n hee but have a regard for the law in the case.
 Mr. Tnlman filed editorials of The lanta Journal, the former making a few days ago a resume of testimony given by the railroad men In the in- vestigation and the latter remonstrat- ing with the Georgia Commission for that State
 The enormous sums that are spent vile road in betterments were refer red to and the prediction made that the Gh9lg%an you'd live to see "0n'So%msryHSn %TsS%ent 'HsF of sEs0i Mr. Smith.
 Counsel A. G. Smith. of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad. followed with very much the same argument as MT. Tillman. He assumed that the Presi- dent was not going to decide the ques- tion on the judgment of Colonel Tram mell and Campbell Wallace, of Georgia The decision must be made, he said under the law and testimony offered in the case. The evidence before a Geor- gia Commission is not the evidence be- fore the Alabama Commission He ask ed why, if the people had wanted the | Georgia classiflcations. the Legislature | did not say 'let us have the classifica- tiohs."
 Mir Smith said the calculation fur nished by the management of his road l and backed up by the head engineer | showed that it's lines in thls State l could not be reproduced for less than | Az, 900 per mile. President Conner had | said at a former hearing that this was too high an estimate and the speaker | cut the figures In two and then said | the road had not earned last year more | than 3.4 per cent. Even on a per mileage | basis Of $16.000, which he said would | be ridiculous, the earnings would not The number of men employed in Ala | bama is 1,116 and $920,000 is annually | 
 C. B. Northrop, Solicitor of the South | ern Railway, was the last speaker He | dwelt upon the definition of just com pensation as made by different Supreme | Court decisions and appealed to the | Commission to make this q fair hearing l and let the people know all the law and the facts. The hearings are really l invited by railroads. he said. as they open the minds of the people to | which they would never be were quoted who as disinterested wit | nassaS had said that the rates of this |