The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-10
JUDGE JONES SOUNDS, ,EsO7E OF
 WARNING ONPUBL.lzPASSION.
Statenent Issued by
 Southern Official.

J. & B, Thompson of Atlanta, assist ant to President Finley of the South ern Railway. yesterday gave out q formal statement of the reason actu- ating the representatives of that line in yielding to the demands of Governor Conner, in settlement of the controversy between the State and the railroad.
 This statement is in full as follows:
 ITO the People of Alabama: It is al- together proper that the Southern Railway Company should make a pub lie statement concerning its recent matters of controversy with the State of Alabama.
 Tt is well-known that at the last session of the Legislature an Act was passed fixing the rate for passenger travel between points in Alabama at 2 Ia cents per mile; that another Act was passed fixing certain freight rates on 110 commodities. The laws of Ala bama provide that it is competent for Q railroad company, when it believes that rates fixed by the Legislature or the Railroad Commission are unrea- sonable and unjust, to file a suit set ting up It's grounds for this belief, and having a judicial determination of the disputed matter. The laws of Alabama further provide that pending this de-
 
 suspension of the contested rates.
 ''The Southern Railway Company. pe- ing entirely convinced that these rates were not only unreasonable and unjust. but would result in so diminishing It's revenue as to amount to q deprivation of its property, saw proper, in March last, to file suit in the Federal Court contesting the rates fixed bN these TWO Acts and obtained from the court an injunction suspending these rates dur- ing the pendency of the suit. or until the matter could be fully inquired into and judicially determined.
 'The Legislature passed another Act, which is known as Senate Bill No. S6. This Act required all foreign corpora tions, on or before July 1st, 1907, to take out a license from the Secretary of State, authorizing such foreign cor-J porations to do business in Alabama.
 This law provided that if. after talk ing out such license, any foreign cor poration on being sued should remove a case from State court to g. Federal court, its license should be cancelled, and thereafter if it should transact any business in the State of Alabama, 1t should be subject to a fine and it's agents and employees subject 10 me and imprisonment.
 Tn October, 1908, a suit was brought against the Southern Railway Company in the Talladega Circuit Court. This suit, it will be observed. was brought five months prior to the passage of Senate Bill No. 86. that Act being passed in March of 1907. and nine months prior to the time when a license was required to be taken nut namely, July 1st, 1907.
 sThe Southern Railway Company, on July 2Ath, 1907. filed g petition to remove this case from the State court to tho Federal court, and in conse- auence of its doing so, its license to do business in the State of Alabama was cancelled. This step on the part of the Southern Railway Company -'as not taken with any purpose of defy ing the laws of Alabama, and 1t IS be- lfsved by its counsel that 1t was not forbidden by Senate Bill No. s6, inas- much as the case removed was one which was removable under the Fed eral statutes and had been brought, as above stated, long after the passage of Senate Bill No. s6.
 "The State authorities, however, did not take this view of the matter. The Southern Railway Company was ln- dfcted in Perry County, and it was Tar ther stated that many other indict- ments were to be found against 1t ana it's agents and employees.
 seTbe claim that the Southern Rail way Company had forfeited its right to do an intra-state passenger and freight business along its line by the cancellation of it's license presented a condition of affairs which was most serious On one hand it was practical lv imnossible for the Southern Rail way Company to cease doing this char acter of business. The persons living along its lines and doing business