The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-07

6a6So III ttdH6PoAtdllOh really forty-hve years--I. perhaps. ma, say that you and President Roosevelt agree with me. MT. Chairman, recognize and all here, representing the railways. recognize, that you al President of this Bureau, created b, the State of Alabama through it's rep resentatives, are entitled to the great est consideration, certainly as a judge Complaints against the railways ar, made, may be made, to your Commis sion, and we are called upon to answer and If we cannot show good reason why judgment should not be awarded against us. you award judgment agains us, from which, believe there Is prec ticafly no appeal. I will say that have not read the act. am not familiar with it, and perhaps 1t is not necessary that I should be. as If there are an, contentious as to the meaning of thu law, or your powers. 1t would be con. sidered by the. attorneys of the com pany instead of myself. But during the past three days I have been unable to decide whether you. as Chairman oi this Commission, were acting as { judge, or whether you were the com. painant, or whether you were tho prosecuting attorney, or whether yo, were the chief witness. I think, dur. ing the past three days, you have given more evidence than all of tho witnesses before you. As to your at. titude as Judge, I would like to read an extract which I find published ir the papers from your address on the convening of this hearing, and which you caused to be written out and pre- sented to the press for publication:
 That from these conditions the State should have in measure, been Cuban ized, Russianized" I do not know what that means. I do not know that anybody in Alabama feels that they have been Cubanized or Russianized. suppose it is something uncomplimen- tary to the railroads, possibly some- thing very oakland you, to an ex- tent, become autocrats.'
 I have not seen any one represent ing the railroads that looks anything like an autocrat. or that has assumed the attitude of an autocrat. An auto- crat, as I understand, is one that acts arbitrarily regardless of the wishes or perhaps the rights. of others. II seems to me the only autocrat that ] have come in contact with in connec- tio nwith these proceedings is yourself If l have been correctly informed, a complaint was filed before, this honora ble Commission that the rates from Montgomery to Hurtsboro on fertilizers were too high, that upon hearing, you arbitrarily decided. or undertook to de- eide, that all rates in the State on fer tilizers were too high, and you in sisted, so far as you had the authority to so do, that they be reduced, without
 
 have an interest in the matter d hear ing. Such action was autocratic In this country all interests are supposed to be given a hearing.
 Mir. Conner: T do not wish to in- terfere with your line of remarks. but let me correct you right here, to this extent, that l moved that we take up the fertilizer rates of the State on the 22nd of the month, not that day, but on the 22nd. The reason l named the nd II hnd L. who said that would suit him better than any other day, and on the mo- tion of my associates. deferred until the third of the Succeeding month was the motion not to take 1t up and de- eide 1t then and there, but on the 22nd. which. by the Southern Railway of ficials was said was a most convenient day to him. and l named tht date with out prior knowledge. Now get it just exactly right"
 that we plead guilty. as l will explain more fully hereafter. We are all bureaucrats.
 Arbitrary and excessive do not know-l suppose you meant that rail- ways arbitrarily fix excessive rates for the transportation of property and per sons within the State of Alabama. If that was meant. you have already heard evidence to the contrary, which from my standpoint, I consider conclu- stve that existing rates are reasona- ble.
 Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Commission. 1t may not be inopportune, or 1t may be apropos. to briefly re- view the conditions under which the railways of the South, or at least the railways of Alabama. were created and also to refer, at considerable length, to the part the Louisville and Nash ville Railroad Company has taken in the creation of the existing railway system in Alabama. Unfortunately for me, l probably. personally, know construction and operation in Alabama than any other person present, because of my greater age. You being an Ala believe by birth. should know and doubtless do know. much of the early conditions. l think efforts were made to inaugurate construction of railways late in the SO's. Not much was done until the sos When we see what was done in the decade ending with 50 or 61. with the means then available, we must recognize that the promoters of working and sanguine people--we must revcrc the Pcllards, the Gllmers the Lapsleys, and others who promoted the construction of roads in Alabama
 The Alabama & Florida Railroad was constructed from Montgomery to Pollard. Ala, in the fifties; supple mented by the construction of the road from Pensacola to Pollard, which in the early eos was supplemented by the construction of the Mobile & Great Northern from Pollard to Tensas; the railway from Montgomery to West Point was also completed in the sos, and I believe the construction from Montgomery to Eufaula was entered upon prior to the war. The construc- tion of the Mobile & Girard from Co., lumbus to Troy was also completed during the same period. What is now the South & North Alabama Railroad was extended, for a few miles north and south of Calera. l do not think the bridge across the Alabama river was completed until after the war. think some work was done from De- catur south, but of that l am not cer- tain-it may have been after the war. At Selma there was the Alabama .& Tennessee River Railroad extending from Selma to Blue Mountain, about 135 miles, or about where l think the town of Oxford now is. The work of constructing the road from opposite Selma south was started. The con- struction of the road from Selma to- wards Meridian, which connected at York with the Alabama Great South ern. was completed about '62 or '63 Of what Is now the Alabama Great Southern, a few miles were construct ed from Meridian northwardly, I do not now recall under what charter name. A few miles were constructed on the north end. known as the Wills Valley Railway, I think that includes about all the railway construction that had been completed, or entered upon until after the war. I did not become actively connected with the operation of railways in Alabama un- til 1868. when I was for a short time superintendent of a part of the Ala bama & Tennessee River Railroad. had been, for some years, more or less familiar with the operations of rail- ways, especially in Mississippi, and to