The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
THE STATE FILES ANSWER ID ROADS Allegations to Railroads Are
 Denied CYST OF THE ANSWERS Weaver Complains Before Railroad Commission That L. G N. Railroad Dscrmlnates Against Boat
 Companies.

Montgomery, Ala, June 3.-(Special)- The state, through Attorney General A. M. Garber, for the state and the railroad commission, has answered in six of the twelve suits filed by the railroads in op- position to the enforcement of railroad rate and regulation laws recently passed by the legislature, denying the allegations that under such laws the common car rlers can not earn a reasonable return on the money invested The bills are signed by Attorney General Garber and the as sociate attorneys for the state, s. D. WealSley and Frank S. White of Birmlng- ham; R. w. Walker. of Huntsville, and Horace strngfelIow, of Montgomery.
 The bills attacked are the commodity statute, in which are fixed rates on 116 articles, the passenger fare bill and the revocation act.
 The answers were made in open session of the United States court today, Judge Thomas G. Jones sitting as a judge of the fifth circuit MT. Garber appeared in court and stated that he had made up his answers to six of the twelve roads and asked that he be given fifteen days
 
 compiled with and he will be ready before that time. The roads to which answer is made are the Louisville and Nashville, the South and North, the Atlantic Coast Line. the Central of Georgia, the Ala bama Great Southern and the Western of Alabama. Those yet to be answered are the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic, the Frisco, the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis and the Mobile and Ohio.
 Glst of the Answers.
 The glst of the answers is found largely in this quotation from one of the bills, that in answer to the Louisville and Nashville: But they (the state) deny that the said passenger and freight charges charged by complainant, or either of them, were fair or reasonable or just charges for such transportation and aver that they were and are unreasonably hgh they deny that such rates charged by complainants encouraged and promoted travel and transportation, or increased the production, commerce and population 1 of the country tributary to said railroad | In Alabama.
 | And further answering defendants say | that said rates fixed by said classifcations | and schedules (new laws complained of) | are just and reasonable to complainant | and that the adoption of the same by | complainant would so encourage and pro- mote transportation and increase the pro- duction, commerce and population of the country in Alabama tributary to said | railroad that the profits of complainant | from said transportation in the state of Alabama would be largely increased" Figures Are Denied.
 It is denied by the state that the figures duction of the roads are correct also the state holds that the statement that the cost of intrastate business is higher than other service is not at all established. It | is asserted that the estimates made of the cost of one as compared to the other are purely arbitrary and reached after no reasonable or correct method of reckon- ing. "The estimate of the value of said property devoted to said intrastate traf- fc has been hctitiously raised; and de- fendants further aver that said estimates of expenses contain many items that should properly have been charged to capital and not to expense"
 Demand Is made for proof that the properties of the railroads have been properly and economically managed and that officers and managers have tried to
 
 serted that much traffic originating In Alabama which ought to have been cred ited to intrastate business has been di- Verted to their credits. It Is also denied that the rates fixed by the acts would be less than enough for reasonable com pensation or would be in any sense con fiscatory of property. It is also asserted by the state that the bills do not fix the rates on more than no commodities when { p1S fn hA hnn1a1 them being mining materials and products of every kind, which the defendants think constitute the major portion of the intra- state traffic of some of the roads at least
 The state further ayers that the rates on fertilizers are the same as those fixed in Mississippi and Louisiana. where the roads are living under them, while the tonnage of such commodities in Alabama is greater than in either one of these states It is admitted that the railroads may not have as much equipment as Is needed, but it Is denied that high rates ought to be allowed to provide for this,