The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-01-27

in Atlanta, was in Birmingham yester- day.
 J. R. Davidson, commercial agent of the Cincinnati Northern with headquar- ters in Cincinnati, was in the city yester
 day. He went south last night Chicago, January 26-By reason of an unfair adjustment of rates, which has
 existed for the past twenty-six years, l Chicago, St. Louis and the west have practically been barred from the south eastern markets, and have annually lost many millions of dollars in trade Such is the burden of complaint which the
 business men of Chicago and St. Louis have made to the arrangements of the
 southern roads, and the latter have agreed to call a meeting of their executive of
 ficals within thirty days, with the view
 of seeing what can be done to help out the western manufacturers. It appears that for more than quarter of a century 1 the freight rates on merchandise from New York. Boston and other eastern jobbing centers to the markets of the southwest have been from to 16 per cent higher than they are from Chicago and St. Louis. whereas the distance from the middle west to these markets is only about 60 per cent of that from the east ern jobbing centers
 This has compelled the manufacturers l in the west, not only to meet the prices of the manufactured articles from the 1 east but also to equalze the freight
 rates, One Chicago firm alone last year
 paid s2O,o00 in the interest of capitalized
 rates. The Chicago and St. Louis mer-
 chants claim the right to enjoy lower
 rates into the territory named than en- 1 joyed by the east, and they insist that at l aacf4 hot. 1 from the east.
 Frank Saunders has been appointed
 travelling freight agent of the New Or 1 leans and Northwestern at Meridian. He
 was formerly with the Queen and Cres-
 cent at Chattanooga
 Work on the Mobile Jackson and Kan
 sas City road from Newton northward to
 Pontotoe is being pushed, and the contrac-
 tors are endeavoring to finish several
 weeks ahead of the time specified in their contracts.
 l The Chesapeake and Ohio railroad has
 just issued some interesting data relative
 to the operation of it's freight and pas
 senger trains for 1904. They show that i rail travel is not nearly as dangerous as
 is believed. With 12,O00 employees, of whom 1 oVvJ are lldluIletlt put TOUT were Killed III
 the operation of it's hundreds of trains. Of l the 35OO,000 passengers carried not one was seriously injured. The distance cov- i cred by trains was 10, 000. .000 miles, and the
 number of tons of freight hauled 1000, GOO.
 The Atlanta Constitution of yesterday | says:
 Another reduction in freight rates has ] been announced by the railroaus operating l in this territory. As did the others, it comes as a result of the agreement be-
 tween the railroads and the Atlanta 1 freight bureau.
 The reduction announced yesterday
 morning was contained in an order pro-
 mulgated by the Southeastern Freight i association It gives the manufacturers a reduction of 15 cents per ton on pig ] iron from all Tennessee and Alabama 1 districts
 | As thousands of tons of pig iron come from Alabama and Tennessee to the manufacturers of Atlanta the annual i saving to them will be considerable.
 To date three orders have been promul- i gated announcing reductions in the freight rates for Atlanta. and vicinity.
 The first announced reductions from the
 Ohio river crossings by rail and from
 the east by rail and water, the second
 announced reductions from the Misslss- l ippi river crossings, and the third, which Is the one received yesterday morning l at the Atlanta freight bureau. announces