The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-02
COMMERCIAL VERSUS
 GOVERNMENT RATE MAKING
An Address Delivered by Samuel Spencer Be- fore Annual Convention of Southern Hard
 ware Jobbers Association, at Hot #*=. Springs, Virginia. ."

Their mileage in 1895 was. .2l.o0O Their mileage in 1905 approx
 imately is ................. 3l.0Oo The number of locomotives in
 1895 was ...:.:........ 3,2oo The number of locomotives in
 1905 approximately is...... 5000 The number of freight cars in
 1895 was .. ....... 95,000 The number of freight cars in
 1905 approximately is. 190, 900
 A large proportion of the mileage of 1895 had just emerged from a con dition of bankruptcy during which not only were incomes reduced. but large amounts of invested capital were permanently lost. With few excep tions, the railways of those days. together with the manufacturers and jobbers, were expending their efforts in the struggles that marked the be- ginning of a new era of business. Those awakened energies have caused the merchant, the manufacturer and the jobber to prosper to larger de gree than ever before. An analysis of the figures will show that the ifs creased returns to the owners of trans portation lines, however, have been relatively less than to the manufac- turer, the merchant and the jobcer.. The greater demand for cotton. for
 iron, for coal, for the manufactured articles in which the hardware jobber deals, has materially increased the price of those commodities. The aver age price of transportation in the South today is less than 1t was In 1895. and such increase in prosperity the transportation interests have been en- abled to obtain has been made possible only through increased economies due either to larger investment or to -the securing of q greater increased vol ume of traffic. .~:s....
 It needs not the Knowledge of the expert, 1t Is patent iii the daily life of all of you, that there remains further necessity for increased investments, in order to produce still greater efficiency for substantially every railway sys- tenn over which your business is trans ported. There is not an important railway company in the Soutn today that is not earnestly. sometimes anx- iously, considering the question of ways and means for making improve ments which are absolutely necessary for better service to the public, and therefore for its own success. While moderate sums may be obtained in some instances, from earnings. the on ly substantial resources for such pur- poses must necessarily be increased capital secured by loans, or by sale of stock. The fundamental requisite for such increased capital, of course, is net earning power of the properties, and. unless that net earning power can be shown to be such that the new invest ment will be secure, the means for the enlargement and improvement of the properties to meet the public re quirments cannot be obtained.
 This necessity for the growht of the transportation business to keep pace with the development of the country has not been, and is not today fully recognized. That spirit of cO-opera- ton which marks your deliberations hag net extended as fully as 1t should have done to the relations between the public and the carriers It has become a sort of fad to regard the public carrier as a public enemy, in-