The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-02

large a crowd attsstds . hearing be- fore the commissieli, Fhe crowd of spectators and intsrestsd, parties was cd from its of1ces ton the third floor of the Capitol and dfheld It's all +day session in the Supreme Court Chamber.
 President Henderson and associate members Nesbit and Harris. the full membership of the Commission, were present throughout the hearing. ~The attorneys who attended the hearing were: Captain Frank S. Waite. form CT Congresspan Syd Bowie. John P. Tillman, Walter Grubbs, Walker Percy, James Wcathsrly. A. D. Smith. George w. Jones. R. E. Steiner. Among the railroad men who. attended the meet ing were: Traffic Manager u. Green of the Southern. T. s. 5. Thompson. General Manager of the Southern; C..
 B. Northrup, Assistant General Coun- gel of the South: Vice President L.. Sec
 yier of the ~6eaboard Air Line; D. Lighner, General Agent of the Frisco;
 R. R. simpson. Assistant General Freight Agent. R. R. Moore, Traffic Manager of the Tennessee Republic Coal and Iron Company.
 E The Decatur case first came before the Commission. This was an effort made by Mayor E. H. Skeggs and other citizens to compel the railroads to use the new passenger station at Decatur.
 A peculiar situation, was developed in reference to this case The city of Decatur by ordinance authorized the railroads to close one street entirely and to close part of another to ve- hicle trafic in order that they might use the new depot. Injunction pro- =. t<1 q ttx- citizens of Decatur on account of the action of the Council These injunc- 'tion proceedings have been appealed to the Supreme Court
 The railroads yesterday took the po- sition that they were quite ready to use the new depot. but they did not want to go into law suit when they moved into the new depot. They were waiting, they said to go into the new depot until the legal skies had clear ed. but they protested against being put in. position where they would necessarily. inherit a law suit.
 They submitted that the Railroad Commission ought not to take a hand in the affair until the Supreme Court had cleared up the vexed question, They contended that the Commission should wait until the mater was set tied by the courts and then there V ould not be any need for action.
 The Commission. however, intimated that it had the authority to inyesti- gate the petition, but the matter was permitted to go over until the August meeting of the Commission. ! { The switching case came up under the head of the Wood -Dickerson Com- pany vs the Birmingham Southern. A number of other shippers made com plaint with the plaintiffs and agreed to stand or fall with them.
 The issue involved in the case was whether the shippers or the railroads should pay the switching charges of 8 a car over the Birmingham Southern in the city of Birmingham. There was a double barrel appeal in the pe- tition. It was first asked to compel the railroads to pay all the switching charges and then 1t was asked that car.
 But the railroads protested. They denied the right of the Commission to make the railroads pay to an independ- ent corporation charges that should of a right be paid by the shipper. The was advanced that If the Commission granted the petition of the shippers it would in effect be a re- duction of the rates of the road. And if a reduction of rates was effected it meant that the injunctions granted by the Federal Courts would be violated.
 The hearing was marked by some sharp and witty passages between Captain Frank s. White, representing the shippers and John P. Tillman. ap- bearing for the defendant company MT. Tillman claimed that MT. White was going out of the record to bring in extraneous matter to influence the Commission. and that he, was making assertions in his argument that he would not make in his petition. Cap tain White spoke sarcastically of the inch thick innocence of the company and its legal representatives, and the crowd had more than one laugh over the interchange.
 The Commission decided that 1t had the Jurisdiction to investigate the pe- tition. But action on the case was postponed until the August meeting of the Commission, when its merits will be Investigated.
 The Commission will meet again to- day when the petition of citizens of Mobile, to compel the Louisville and Nashville to use the new union passen- ger station in that city will be con- sidered. The Louisville and Nashville claims that hardship would be work ed on 1t to compel it to build long trdck tnrOuSH intricate ydEOs ohu W Wttn necessary side tracks to connect with the new depot. It would also be hardship, 1t is asserted, to make ,the Louisville and Nashville back its through trains up the long distance to the passenger station from its pres ent track, while it already has depot large enough to accommodate all its passenger traffic.
 The following delegation of we'll Irr offf of last night to appear before the Commission at its meeting today:
 From the Commercial Club. John Craft and Erwin Craighead; from the Cotton Exchange, !. P. Quina, J. B. Waterman; from the Chamber of Com merce, A. P Bush and Horace Turner, and T. M. Nichols.