The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-08
GOVERNOR B. B. COMER
 DELIVERS HIS MESSAGE

l NO TdllTOduS dIOle, the central or l1eor- gia and the Louisville and Nashville and allied lines have refused to cooperate with the other roads, and have refused to recognize in any way the authority of your statutes limiting their charges Che of them particularly, the Louisville and Nashville, l am informed, has used every effort to prevent a settlement between the state and the other roads, has ear- nestly sought to prevent the Southern road from adopting your statutes and dis. missing it's injunction suits: and has gone so far as to publish an open letter de- nouncing your legislation as populistie and declaring the chief executive of your state to be a sand-bagger and a highway man; having declared in a public speech in neighboring city that your executive is populistie, the executive of your neigh boring state, Georgia, populistic, and the conduct of the President of the United States populistic and dastardly All of this Is charged because the public off cials, thus denounced, recognize the de- mands of the people for protection against corporate greed and mismanage- ment These officials, in connection with those of other states, have advised and urged legislation protective of the people 1 am informed that had 1t not been for the opposition of this one road, fair trial of your laws would have been given by all of the roads, and a great deal of friction would either not have occurred or been stopped.
 All Efforts Exhausted.
 1 have used every effort with this road to secure settlement and the adoption of your laws; going so far as to pro- pose the removal of anything in those statutes that could be pointed out as dangerous, hurtful or destructive to the railroads. The authority to change the rates you gave the commission, and was acting In accord with them. l was met by the statement from the railroad that any legislation limiting its charges or management would be regarded as confiscatory, and by the demand that the call for an extra session should be revoked, and the railroads left unhin- dered, free from interference in making their rules governing their relations to the shippers of the state. To use their own words, the states authority over the public service corporations should be limited to preventing rebates, discrimi- nations and publicity of rates, leaving charges on the transportation of the country and the rules governing the bus mess relations, otherwise free from state control and the railroads absolutely free to make such rates as they saw proper, and such rules governing their ship ments in the state as they saw proper. In other words, there was an absolute refusal to recognize your rates and ob- serve your statutes.
 This conception of the relation of the public service corporations to the ship pers is obsolete and dangerous. Every advanced state has already taken or Is taking measures to prevent just such contentious. Texas. Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, New York North Carolina, Vir- ginia and Georgia and other states have mir 1aeic ell fffr, haft and the shipping public. Their legisla- tors have placed the power of the state between the public service corporations and the shipper, limiting their charges and rules, which limitations, instead of being hurtful, have developed property and have been upbuilding both to rail roads and to every interest of the people So, in following the lead of these states, we occupy no dogmatic or individual position, but one clearly defined, already worked out aud proven advantageous to every species of business and property, and our state would be derelict in it's duty and obsolete in it's laws if we did not seek to maintain the position that the paramount interest to be preserved Is the interest of the producer and con sumer.
 Laws Accepted.
 The taxpayers of the state have ac- cepted your laws establishing state equal ization of taxes in the attempt to have every one pay on the same general value. The taxpayers of the slate nave accept ed your laws giving largely increased appropriations to your courts, the old soldiers and the schools. The liquor in- terests of the state have accepted the laws which practically debar them from business and turn them out of a large part of the state The express companies accepted our laws simplifying their charges and greatly reducing same. The Southern railroad and It's allied lines have accepted your laws and dismissed their suits The Frisco, the Atlantic and Bir- mingham Air Line have accepted your laws, pending final decision of the courts. The Louisville and Nashville and Cen tral of Georgia have refused to rec ognize your laws. They have enjoined the state in the federal courts, and while protesting legality in their course are actually ignoring your state laws, plac- ing their property different from every other property in the state as to legal responsibility and thwarting the will of the people and defying the principle of states right to regulate and have prac- tically bound up the civil and criminal powers of the state. All this has been done in the face of the fact that the proper authorities of the state have ex- tended to them every courtesy looking Xt and have pledged that if after trial, the rates should prove harmful, then a rem edy would at once be given. And 1t must be ever remembered that these law-made rates and regulations, which they have refused, and about which they are creating a disturbance all over the state, are exactly the same which they have tried for years and are now using in neighboring states, and which have not proven destructive. so that there was but little risk in the trial.
 Question at Issue.
 It is evident that the question at is sue Is not so much freight rates or passenger rates. but whether or not the state shall domiD and control its own affairs by limit jules and charges of the public operations. or, whether the ne at liberty to deny yo te within the state ys and regulation on the part of or limit their z Hft on l con slider a tt following the the attorney ger iployed by the st ney general in cause, l recom- II. passage of certain
 els attorneys have
 ose of strengthening to aid in settling DIE he people of Alabama
 co dominate their intra- nd make laws regulating