The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-17
4 Discovery in Georgia.


In Georgia the State Railroad Com
mission has effected a saving of 81, OOO, 900
to shippers by reducing freight rates
during the last few years, but the con-
sumer is complaining loudly that he has
TO pay more than ever for the necessaries
Of life which are carried at the u rates.
The consumers" says the Atlanta Con-
sfitution, have in no single instance
profted one penny's worth The price
Of a stove which cost Sill in 1905 is now
listed at sl3.85. Blankets, shoes, leather
harnesses, furniture and -four have also
gone up sharply in price; in fact the
advance seems to be general on all goods
and articles carried by the railroads.
The Constitution says Indignantly:
" Tha, Is not dealing fairly with the people Where
is The Justice 10 the consumer In these condiuons'
The retailer is helpless; his price TO the consumer
Is dependent upon that which the manufacturer
cIac,s from him. Thus neither the retailer nor
the consumer has derived the advantage prom
Ised from these freight reductions, momentous
In The aggregate. which have been secured, not to
the people OF Georgia but to the manufacturer Of
ms ana DINER Sthtes!
As high prices used to be charged up
To the account of the railroad companies
q painful impression has been created
in Georgia by what is spoken of as the
perfdy and greed of the manufacturers
and jobbers. When a railroad COM
missioner produces and c~irculates a
pamphlet designed TO show that the
profits of the State railroads are meagre
compared with the gains of the stove
and blanket makers and others a reac-
ton in favor of the much abused rail-
roads seems to have come.
This pamphlet is the work of Mr..
JOSEPH NJ. Brown OF Atlanta. He pub
fishes a list of thirty railroad companies
and shows that the earnings of twenty
five Of them are Q per cent, the maximum
allowed by the law, or less, and that
FIVE OF them do not pay fixed charges.
As he points out, the stove manufac-
turer is not restricted. An Atlanta fac
tory assessed at SAC ,475 made a profit
of $47 900 last year on its sales. The
Railroad Commissioner is moved to say:
Therefore, whether he owns stock in a small
road or In a big road. the fact stands that under
the laws OF Georgia as now administered tho Gill.
zen who invests his money in railroad stocks Is
not allowed, and II is openly declared that he must
not be allowed, to earn more than q per cent. net.
whereas under the operation Of the laws OF the
same state the man who invests his money In a
stove factory is permitted. without let or blndrsnce
without criticism. to earn 100 per cent"
All the manufacturing interests about
Atlanta seem TO be prospecting hand
somely, If not as h~xuriantly as the
stove industry. The total value of
manufactured products in Fulton county
last year was $25, 745, $50, and the net
profits on sales was approximately
s., 200 900. In an interview Railroad
Commissioner BROWN says he has been
forced 10 recognize two patent facts:
that the condition Of the laboring people
is steadily growing worse because the
prices of necessaries are steadily going
UP, and that those who charge this
condition to the prevailing freight rates
are either ignorantly or m~aliciously
putting the spiked saddle on the wrong
horse"
II the Georgia Railroad Commissioner
has proved nothing else he has proved
that the railroad business is not a gold
mine An opinion that it was immensely
profitable was long held by the shippers
and their sympathizers and the army Of
consumers in whom the mob spirit OF
railroad lynching has been easily aroused
by leather lunged demagogues. Mr..
JOSEPH NJ. BROWN has probably con-
vinced his own people that the railroads
have been regulated enough, perhaps too
much. But his list Of earnings and def
cts is no argument for the regulation
or stove manufacturers and blanket
makers. They cannot be held to a 8
per cent. profit in their business. 1t is
not to be denied that they will make
all they can, that they will even gouge
the consumer by combining against him
where three or four Of them are gathered
together and control the local market.
The secret trade agreement We shall
probably always have with us.
The conditions that prevail in Georgia
obtain in all other parts of the country