The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-07

test of the tariffs application. The chairman added that the roads are now operating successfully In Georgia under the existing tariff. He also told of a letter he had received from Judge Reagan, of the Texas Commission who wrote that there were no bankruptcies in that State as the result of the re- cent reductions, contrary to the claims 0 fthe railroad men when the question was being considered by the Commits sion. He also alluded to the payment of some of the income bonds by the Central road as an evidence of pros perity.
 Mir. COmer's ''PersOnNl" Explanation.
 MT. Conner criticised recent state
 ments of President Smith of the Louis
 vile and Nashville road, before that
 part of the Interstate Commerce Com
 mission committee which favored reg
 ulation of railroads, or interstate rates
 Mir. Smith had said. according to the
 Chairman, he believed there should
 be no restrictions on interstate rate
 making in order to allow the reads to
 "recoup any intrastate discrepancies"
 Visions of the last campaign for the
 Presidency of the Railroad Commission
 and for an elective Commission were brought up here by the Chairman who
 arose and said he wanted to speak on
 "personal privilege" He regretted
 
 Nashville Railroad, had left tho city as
 he wished to make some statements
 which he would not make Tn his ab-
 sence. He desired to be fair, he satd.
 The Chairman defended his campaign in the speech which ensued. He re-
 peated that he was exceedingly unwell
 and asked the railroad men to attrib-
 ute those of his past statements in the hearing that were basty to earrestnCss and not to wrath. He said he was en-
 ergetic in all the investigations, but ne
 never had intended to hurt apyoody's
 feelings.
 The Chairman said he had never been
 guilty of purposely circulating wrong story. He had never gotten up any literature for campaign purposes, but that such literature was compiled by his campaign committee In whose in- tegrity he believed This was said ill reply to the offer Friday If c. B Compton, General Traffic Manager of the Louisville and Nashville road, to dissect a campaign circular 5f the | Chairman comparing Alabama and Georgia rates and alleged to have beea used a few years back when the issue of an elective Commission was on. The literature that was used by tso l Chairman. he said, in the elective com | mission campaign, was prepared not by | himself but by a committee of honor dDlt CltlEtuS DtLOEt NilG AlttllAb OA bhC Legislature. He did not see the com parative rates until after the circulars | had been completed by the Committee which met in Birmingham and organ ized. After the law was passed malS- | ing the Commission elective. the Chair man said he appeared before the Com | mission as 1t was then composed, and read the figures used in the campaign. He repeated that MT. Culp. of the Southern Railway, was present at the time and, to the best of his memory, he | did not protest against the incorrect ness or the inaccuraCy of the circular. | In fact, added the Chairman. the cor rectness was never disputed at any | time during the campaign and no rail- road had challenged them until the present Commission.
 Anyhow" said Mir. Conner. this | does not belong In this investigation.
 Let us get further beyond that and | get down to the affairs as they now | exist"
 He said he was now making cnmpar- | isons on more recent history or rate | reductions in Georgia. The Chairman | said he had never made any, campaign comparisons on Louisville and Nash vile rates.
 Continuing, he defended his consist | ency in the comparisons of rates, say | ing he had always chosen the essen tials of life and was still insisting on | such comparisons, never varying rom
 that idea, He disputed the point or
 making average comparisons which, he | said. were unsteady.
 The chairman read from pamphlet which showed that. when 8 few years | ago an intrastate rate to Eastern job l bers on carload lots was put in to Ala | bama points and there was 4-eent 1 advance on intrastate tariffs, he (Mr. 1 Comer) raised cane" before the Ala