The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-28
| JUST JUDGE HOLDS THE SCALES
 EVENLY.


 eIr. Conner is the president of the .t.dbama Railroad Commission and as such ought to be more or less judi cial in his actions and his utterances relating to railroad matters. What he says along that line has more effect upon an uninformed person than would the same words coming from almost any other source. He ought not, there fore. to ascend the bench. as it were, and deal out death and condemnation without giving both sides fair and tm- partial treatment.
 | Does MT. Conner pursue the policy of an unprejudiced judge? Does he deal fairly, either with the public or the railroads in what he says in his speeches? In his speech at Centreviiie he repeated what he has said at other places in declaring that:
 The tax on the freight payers of Ala that they get from the pocket of the consumer and producer of Alabama, and the only thing between you and that $2s,000,00o Is Tom Sanders and wylie TunstalI Think of t. trying 8 mans case with his wife and daugh- tor on the jury.
 Do you know this s2S, ,0o0,0go Is prac~ ticaiiy nine times the amount of your State taxes. Twenty-eight million for the railroads, and three million for the State.
 Now do the people get anything for the money they pay out? MT. Conner puts this large amount as a mere grat- uity on the part of the people of Ala hama to the railroads. when he knows from his position on the railroad com-' mission that millions of tons of coal and iron. bales of cotton. agricultural products and general merchandise are |narried bv the railroads.
 He is judge. too. and just as much sworn to do justice between the people and railroads as Mir. TunstaIl and Mir. Sanders. He cent see his duty In the premises because of criticizing his asso- eiates for failing to do everything he wants them to do.
 Perhaps If the railroads had carried Mir. Comer's cotton, cotton goods. and mill stuff at rates that would appear more like gratuity than they are, he would not have been nursing his wrath against them so icag.
 Now Mir. Conner, if he is as well in- formed as the President of the Rail- road Commission should be, knows ex- actly what the earnings and expendi- ture of the railroads in Alabama are. The reports of the Railroad Commis- sIon for tho year 1904 show that the total gross earnings of the year were s2s,e22.s2e operating expenses 21,s7s.- s12: net earnings from all sources s6.- S43.417.
 That same report shows. and MT. Co., fner knows it. that of the s2s,222,s29. only one-th&d was local business. viz: 50, xo7, ,s0s. over which the Railroad Commission has Jurisdiction. On over two-thirds of the receipts of railroads 1 in the State the rates are so much lower than rates to Georgia, that an issue was made fin that State for the Alabama rates, while here on one-third of the total we hear much about the Georgia rate.
 Mir. Conner knows that the railroads had in Alabama in 1904, total of a, ,4O7 em- pleyes who are paid an average daily compensation of $i.75, and which amounts daily to s40,s62,25, per month sI.22s.675, per annum $14.s45,1O0. It will. therefore be seen that the rail- roads pay to their employees alone in Alabama, $5,2S7, ,491 more than they re- ceive from their entire local business. On the tax proposition we venture that every railroad in this State comes nearer paying taxes on actual value than does MT. Conner on any property he owns. They were taxed for the tax year 1s04-O5 on over $54,000,000 or one sixth of the entire tax valuations of the State, and paid thereon full State rate and to the counties and towns almost an equal amount. The amount of their taxes to the school fund was over $780, eO0 and about $55,o00 to the old sol- dier fund. They also pay franchise tax of about $ts.0o0 to support the Railroad Commission, s3,500 of which goes to pay Mir. Comer's salary. In ad- dition to all this, they pay many hun dreds of thousands Of dollars annually for steel rails, ties, bolts and other sup plies the money for which remains ln Alabama. In fact instead of the rail- roads taking money out of Alabama, they annually pay out more money in taxes, wages and supplies than their entire gross earnings will aggregate. Mir. Conner, however, from his place as judge, condemns them as robbers of the people, and as taking millions of dol lars away from them unlawfully and sending 1t to New York and other dis tant points.