The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-07

was that trade depression had come and the earnings of the roads were falling of very heavily.
 The Southern legislator, when en- acting the new laws. had insisted that he was not actuated by a desire to cripple the carriers. True to their declarations, the Southern people mod ified their laws the moment it became evident that the roads were experience ing reverses. This was the reverse of the course pursued by the Federal au- thorities at Washington. The South ern people did not have to be told that the roads were falling behind, The evidence was before their eyes. striking indication of the change in the attitude of the States was given by Chairman McLendon of the Geor- gia Railroad Commission in speech made before the Carrollton (Ga.) Board of Trade on March 16 MT. McLendon, after referring to the difiiculties under which the roads are laboring, with the increase in. operating cost and de- crease in income, said: The condi- lions that surround us call for dis. plav of the highest patriotism ana in- teIliKence of which our people arefca- pable. It is a time when foolish men should be asked to remain silent It Ia a time when from the multitude of sane counsel there should come wise suggestion in the place of wild as- sertion."
 With this injunction that it is time when foolish men should be asked to remain silent, consider by contrast the attitude of the Central Government far removed from the effects of shrink age in revenues Since the 1st of Jan- uary gross earnings of United States railroads have been declining at the rate of S25.OOo,0OO a month, and yet Commissioner Lane of the Interstate Board has been arguing lately that the roads had no reason to complain that their losses were, on the whole, connparatively light The Commission CTS. not amenable to any home con stituency. are not easily touched by the pressure of diversity, and more- over lose all idea of proportion. Sim ilarly President Roosevelt even the present week has again been asking for an extension of Federal authority so as to include all interstate corpor- ations-his third message on the sub | feet in 19OS-and for further repress- i've legislation at a moment when the States have already begun to modify | their policy adverse to the roads. In- | cidentaIly. it may be recalled tbat 1t was really the Federal Government that urged the States on in their as- sauits on the roads. They were told | that unless the SIdtG OASiSASSu US authority, the National Government
 would step in and undertake the work. In the light of what has happened. are
 we going too far when We assert that
 there was design in all this? Does it not look as if the purpose had been | to provoke the States in their zeal to
 commit excesses in order to furnish
 the basis for a claim that the States
 could not safely be trusted in such matters. but that the whole subject
 must be relegated to the Federal Gov
 ernment-that only the strong arm oi
 a Central Government could protect inter State concerns against oppression
 by the States.
 We accordingly appeal not only tc the self-interest of the South. but tc her patriotism. to her love of liberty and political freedom and to her de- votfon to the fundamental principlel
 on which popular institutions rest. IT the early days of the Republic she laid the whole country under great obIiga. tions. Up to the time of the Civil Wal
 in 1882. a period of just three-quarterG nR A century. she contributed ona-hAli