The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-06-03

The Age-Herald is the logical vehicle
and l have considered that some recital
of conditions of quarter of a century
ago, out of which grew the additional
function of state government the rail-
road commission. may cultivate that use
OF prudence and restraint Of prejudice for
which history is supposed 70 be effective
In the active concerns of men.
The meeting of the legislature of 1880
81 is made memorable by the act creating
the commission and by the exciting con-
troversy over the movement General
wheeler, Governor Watts, James l.. Pugh,
Charles c. Langdon were active competi-
tors before that body for the honor Of
filling the vacant seat in the federal SEN
ate left by thereyered Houston, deceased,
but the question of legal control of the
railroad corporations overstepped the
campaign Of all these great men of the
people for so exalted an office. They
were all on the ground and two of the
number were members of the House of
Representatives. Those two stood fore
most among their colleagues for positive
regulation of the roads.
For weeks prior to the meeting of the
legislature, Col. d. S. Troy recently
elected state SENATOR had discussed elab-
orately in the Advertiser the power
and duty of the state from legal stand
point. Affirming both the claim of power
and the presence of duty. Mr. j. s. Win
ter took the same position. Mr.. John w.
Lapsley of Shelby county, pioneer pro-
moter and investor in railroads in the
state, replied to these writer's, urging the
revolutionary nature of the onslaught
upon the chartered rights of private prop
erty in the roads. There could be no
such thing as monopoly of railroads, he
said. All the world knew, for example,
that as soon as the Louisville and Nash
WILLIE acquired the South and North, the
CITY of Cincinnati built a new line to
connect that place with Chattanooga,
thus to compete with the Louisville and
Nashville for the Alabama carrying bust
ness.
The complaints against the railroads
were in the main:
Exorbitant charges and rebates ruinous
to places and persons.
Delays in delivery Of freights and de-
NAL of justice in the settlement of claims.
Refusal or neglect to transfer loaded
cars from one line to another. by fall
ure to provide connecting tracks on
switches.
Refusal to give duplicate receipts to
shippers
4 insufficient depot room for handling of
freights and insufficient stations for the
accommodations Of passengers.
; The palpable illiberality of the roads
In these and other matters was naturally
30 ha
special reasons rp to 1865 the railroads
of Alabama were a domestic institution
built by the people who owned the stock
and used the roads in their business. In
1880 this condition was reversed The
roads had gone into the hands Of Wall
street. Interest. commissions and profits
on the property were enjoyed exclusively
by foreigners. The builders and original
owners OF the roads that were here in
1865. had little or nothing to show for
their vast property practically conflscated
in their hands. Besides, the cotton farm
ers, who in 1880, paid the bulk of the
taxes. found themselves saddled with an
enormous debtor state aid to railroads.
y In the very heat of the protracted con-
troversy in the legislature over the dues-
zion of lawful control of the railroads,
the representative from the Third dis
delivered a speech in Congress which ex-
cited universal comment and which was
used by railroad reformers with decided
affect. Mr.. Fernando Wood, speaking for
Wall street in Congress, offered q bill
to refund certain bonds of the United
States. Mr.. Sanford, speaking for the
Farmers OF Alabama said the surplus in
the treasury should be used to pay the
bonds and retire them. He went on to eX
plain how the bonded debt of the United
States usurped the progress OF legitimate
business. The Vanderbilt monopoly OF
railroads was sustained by the debt of
all the people represented in the bonds
The Vanderbilt family owned one-thir-
tieth of all this vast debt and now was
the time to begin to extingush the trusts
by paying the bonds.
1t may be well to say that when the
legislature convened in 1880, every railroad
IN Alabama charged five cents mile pas
senger fare. John Wilson, the largest
general merchant at Pike Road, Mont
Eomery county, kept wagon and team Of
six mules to haul to and from Mont
gomery his freights fifteen miles. al
though the railroad station was within
two hundred feet OF his store.
8 A young man of education and energy,
sTillotson by name, arrived in Montgom-
cry from western New YORK with a rev
hundred dollars to invest in poultry breed
ing. butter making, fruit growing. etc,
IF he could buy the land I took him
out to nearby plantation. He was as
tonished to find lands so fertile. that
sold for a mere song. His hopes ran
high, until he talked with the Pike Road
railroad agent. Then he said: "If we
had your freight charges in my country
we would have neither farms or roads"
He returned whence he came.
In the second week of the session. Mr..
Iangdon from Mobile introduced in the
House a bill to establish State Railroad
commission. The bill was referred by
Speaker ~ IT. r. Rawson to the COM
n,ittee on commerce and common car
riers. Meantime number of bills work
( ing to the better legal regulation of
railroads, came into the Senate To
show the crude ideas of the times, one
of the Senate bills proposed that every
complaint against a railroad seeking re-
dress by law should go before a chan
scellor; the chancellor must appoint a