The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-02-12
MISMANAGEMENT CHARGED
AGAINST CENTRAL OF GEORGIA
BY RAILROAD COMMISSION.
Fault Is Found With Number of
\ Things, Among Them the In
crease of Official Salaries.

crease OF OfhcIal salaries.
In a lengthy and carefully drawn
paper the state railroad commission
has replied to the suit brought by the
Central of Georgia Railroad Com
pany to prevent the enforcement OF
a 21a cent passenger rate on its
lines in Georgia The reply was
drawn by Judge J. X. Hines, special
counsel for the commission, and an
interminable mass of figures is dealt
out in the argument.
The commission charges the Cen
trail management with gross eXtrava-
gance and mismanagement, declaring
that if the affairs of the company
were more economically administered
| the returns would be greater, and
that there would be no doAbt of
the policy of inaugurating a lower
passenger rate over it's entire system.
The extravaganza charged is in the
matter of the salaries paid general
officers. 1t is cited that within two
years the president has been ad-
vanced from $4,000 to $4,000 a
year, and corresponding advances
made all along the line down to the
smallest assistant in the executive
force. They say that the salary in
| creases given to the general officers
since June, 1905, aggregate $4,000.
Other alleged eXtrayagant acts are
cited, such as raising the retainer
paid the general counsel and increas-
ing the salaries and the number of
his assistants; the cost ofg shifting
general offices at Macon, where prop
erty owned by director was moved
binto, and various other incidents that
called for the expenditure of many
thousands of dollars. The commits
sion charges that Col. A. r. LawtOn
of Savannah is drawing a salary of
81 500 a year from the Central road
for services as a director in the At
lantic Compress Company, a separate
corporation. This they characterize
as "a gross misapplication of funds.
The commission attacks the petit
ton of the road from many sources,
but mainly on the ground that the
statement relative to earning capaci-
ty are wrong. They hold that the
total earnings in Georgia during the
past year were $9,461, 532.55, instead
of a smaller sum named in the COM
pany's petition, and that the net
earnings of the properties in this
state were 5000, 346.01, instead of
$4,731 ,337.18, and that the ratio of
earnings to that of operating eX-
penses was 1916 per cent. instead
of 1892 as claimed.
The value of the Central properties
is fixed by the board as follows:
Taxable railway proper
ty ...........$20,S61,64 SAG
Exempt railway proper
ties ......... 4,747,472
Ocean Steamship Com
pany AUS ID
Total ....-.$ 26,01S,255
The commission claims that five
per cent. ON this valuation would be
a good return for the property, and
declares that this could be made
were the properties managed on an
economical basis, with passenger
fares 2 Y cents a mile over all OF
it's lines in this state.
Ihe commission denies the cl2lm
of the company that the greater part
of it's lines are branches extending
through uHpOpulous and rev terri
tory, and claims that most of them
being in south Georgia the company
has the mast populOus section of
Georgia to draw from.
They charse that the company has
spent energy and money in building
up its ocean shipping by means of
the Ocean Steamship Company at the
cost of the railway lines, in their own |
words using their income in adding
to their fleets"
Would Not Be Fit to Print.
Colonel LawtOn was asked by a
Savannah paper for a statement re-
garding the answer of the commits
sion so far as it related to himself,
and replied: IF | characterized it
properly my remarks would not be
fit for publication"
Further efforts to get Col Lawton
to say something printable were I'M
availing.