The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-01
Au Urfortunate Condition.


 The wan Street Journal which. though bearing such a name. is fear less and sometimes severe in its crit- icisms of some Wall Street operators and methods, makes this comment on the railroad situation in the South:.
 "Railroadtng in the South Is now Tn . state of extreme Characterization: is that capital Is unwilling to be em- ditions, and for want Of 1t the rail- roads are compelled =, ab9ndon and 9Ionan all to go on with if they would. The At iantic Coast Line, the Southern Rail- way. the Georgia Central and the Lou isville and Nashville, to namc but the principal systems which had large provements not already in hand. and have curtailed. so far as possible, all work under way. They will confins themselves to expenditures for main provements that are not absolutely es- sentiai.
 Probably $5O,ooo.ooo of work, con- templated or about to be undertaken. has been deferred.
 '"rhe South in the last two years has disclosed a greater need for Increased railroad facilities than any other rart of the country. and, owing to the ab- normal congssting of freight on the existing lines, wastefu, operation has been incumbent upon all the systems. The situation was trying enough, and the dificulties of raising the enormous amounts of new capital needed to cre- ate additional railroad facilities were already formidable. hefore the politi- cal agitation beganto assume forbid ding proportions The situation now is simply chaotic. Until a better un- derstanding. exists between the South vaA fa vat Aa ,rytl1 ynl nr H impossible to raise new capital for railroad building"
 The Baltimore Manufacturers Re- cord adds this comment: Fifty mill ought to set the South. to thinking But more than this. the South needs and needs badly the double tracking of many of its lines, and It needs 25 would take $5oO.oOO.o0o or more to adequately develop the South's railroad system, and then many millions every year for further extensions and i'm provements. But led by wild politi- clans who are pandering to their own on the passions which they arouse, for they could never secure political ad- vancement on merit. the South is mak- ing 1t impossible for this mTch-needed is no mere apelogist or blind defender of railroads It has often criticised the methods of some 0f them. It says: Nobody recognizes the shortcomings of the railroads more thsu The Man. ufaeturers' Record. They are respon- sible for having given cause for much criticism. and even hostility. on the part of'the people. Half of their clerks and employees generally never know how to be ordinarily polite to the public and could not hold posi- tion in a good business ofiice twenty four hours. Unnecessary delays in the adjustment of freight claims has been as the withholding of information about delayed trains. But we believe that the managers of the great railroad sys- tems of the country have been strug- gling to overcome these shortcomings and these sins, and now when they are striving to do this, instead of receiv- ing credit therefor they are being commenced to improve. This is due not to the real business public, but to the agitation foynented by politi- clans for their own good and net fol the good of the people.
 For many years The Record has la bored in the interest of the industria! growth of the South--in the opening factories, agricultural improvement the growth of towns and cities and oi knows what the S6dth Is doing. what it needs. and what helps or inJures 1t It represents the thoughtful South, thu doers of those things which tend tC make it rich Id prosperous. It knows jured. money is driven away or Kept out of 1t. and that many industries er' beginning to suffer as the result of 6 policy both radical and lndiscriminats