The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-12
TO HEAR CASES
 IN ATLANTA Interstate Commission Will Meet There. ALABAMA CASES ADVANCED The State Has Employed Expert
 Assistance. Railroad Cemmissioncrs, Attorney Gem ersI nnd Judge weskIey VIII Go to Atlanta to Appear Be-
 pear Before Commission
 ts Resist Western
 
ALABAMA CASES ADVANCED

The Alabama Railroad Commission received official notice yesterday that the hearing of the Alabama complaint against the recent advance of inter- state freight rates on grain and food products from the Ohio and Mississippi River crossings will be held in Atlanta September q. or ten days hence. The Alabama shippers interested are pleas ed to hear that the case has been so quickly advanced on the docket of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
 It is said that the decision of the Commission to sit in Atlanta was made to suit the convenience of all parties concerned. Certain members of that tribunal are scheduled to be at the Georgia capital on the date named or thereabosts and the hearing was nov. ed to that point from Washington. And besides. the traffic officials of the sev- eral railrossi lines affected are said to be more satisfied with sitting in At- lanta than in Washington. Certainly 1t has pleased the shippers and State officials.
 It is believed that the hearing for Alabama and Georgia as well as all the States in the Southeastern terri tory will be consolidated and proceed as if but one complainant was before the body. The filing of the complaint of the Georgia shippers was followed
 
 filed by the Railroad Commission of Alabama. The allegations are very similar and 1t is understood that the defense of the railroads to each com plaint will be practically the same. The other States affected by the advances of rates were Florida and the Caro- 1inas.
 Chairman Charles Henderson, of the Alabama Commission, was in Montgom- cry Friday and spent the greater part of the morning in consultation with the Attorney General. It is believed the subject of their conference was the Atlanta hearing. Associate Com city the day previous pouring over tar- if sheets with what is believed to be the same purpose.
 The Alabama Commission will not be without expert aid in presenting their case to the Commission. They are said to have employed help for the occasion not only In, the preparation of the com plaint but in the conduct of the case before the Interstate Commerce Con- mission.
 Attorney General Garber will be as- sisted in the legal end of the fight by Judge Samuel D. Weakley, Of Birm- ingham. Judge Weakley has been as- sociated with the protest against the rates since the first of It.
 Hekmade a personal trip to Mt. Airy. ca. where Judge Speer. of the United States Circuit Court, sat in the in. function proceedings brought by Geor- xia shippers against the railroads. aiIn- ing to hold up the rates pending the daYarrnfnation of their reasonableness on the return of Judge Weakley to AIabama and at the next meeting of the Alabama Railroad Commission 1t was decided by the latter tribunal to make formal complaint with the na- tiqnal body.
 T-bairman Henderson, of the Alabama -Eomnnission, said yesterday that he ana Associate Commissioners Nesbitt will attend the Atlanta hearing.