The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-18
Escaping Railroad Power.

Escaping Hallrodd FoWer.
 The people from 1882 to the recent ses- sion of the legislature made many at tempts to break loose from the railroad power and to establish equitable rules of business and capitalized freight charges, but never succeeded The first success of the people in making a law-made rate and establishing laws governing their re- lation to the railroads was accomplished at the recent session of the legislature. There has been so much misstatement of these laws that l shall briefly restate them and discuss them. The legislature passed an act making the present rate of freight in the state the one that had been established by the railroads and used by the railroads for years, the max imum rate, than which no higher rate could be charged except by order of the courts or special statute.
 Second, an act forbidding in future the contributing by the railroads of any funds to political campaign purposes in the state, forbidding the issuing of passes and limiting their passenger charges to 215 cents per mile. It Is a well known fact that the railroads fo Alabama were ac- customed to issue large numbers of po- litical passes and contribute large sums of money to campaign funds. The new act required that each passenger should pay his fare; that campaign money should be estopped. The legislature thought and I agreed with them in this conclusion, that 1t would not be a loss of revenue to the railroads to reduce their passenger tariff from 3 to 2h cents per mile, and taken with the further fact that the re- duction in fare would increase travel the two would enable them to derive more revenue from this source than they did before.
 The third law selected 110 articles of freight of common production, consump- ton and use and established on them the Georgia classification and the Georgia rate In other words, placed the same freight rate on them that the railroads had charged in Georgia for years, and made the transportation of these articles in Alabama the same as in Georgia. Not withstanding the railroads are loosely as- serting that these 110 articles comprise S7 per cent of their freight service, It IS Tar from a fact, and this law did not touch the price that they had previously charged and are charging on the vast ma jority of their business. While the re- duction would give great relief to the local shipper, 1t would not seriously inn pair the revenue of the railroads.
 But aside from this, it was simply placing Alabama shippers. whether pro- ducer or consumer, on the same general line of state protection that was given Georgia shippers years ago, and which has proven beneficial to every interest of the state, including the railroads. The fourth law required them in the event that they commenced legal action against the state, that it should be in the state courts and not in the federal courts. This did not debar them from final appeal to the supreme court of the United States, but simply secured quicker action and a more expeditions ending of the case. These are the laws that they have en- joined before the United States court at Montgomery on the general claims that their execution would confiseate their property.
 Increased Earnings.
 The Central railroad within the last few years has increased their net earl- ings about 55 per cent.
 It is hardly necessary to call attention to the fact that 70 per cent of their road is in Georgia and 30 per cent in Alabama, and they always contended that the Georgia rate was so low that they could not make money with the rates author ized by the Georgia commission. The At lantic Coast Line increased their earnings so much that they made preesnt to the stockholders of s7,OO0O00 worth of stock on the statement that their earnings jus tified the gift and they could pay interest on the same. The Louisville and Nash ville railroad has increased their earnings within the past few years so much that they are paying interest on s6O,00O0o0 worth of additional securities more than they were a few years ago, and their stock at a capitalization of $53,000 per mile in the recent Gates-Morgan transac- tion was sold to the Atlantic Coast Line for about $15S per share. The Southern railroad has increased their earnings so l much in the past six years that they are | now paying interest on large blocks or stock that were lying dormant. l simply | mention these facts to show that no mat ! ter what the railroad earnings may be, nor how fast or how much earnings may | increase they will never get to the point l where the1. are nauinc Interest on their