The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-01
ALABAMA WAITS ON
 SPEER'S DECISION
JUDGE WEAKLEY REPORTS TO GOVERNOR ON STATUS OF lN- JUNCTION SOUGHT IN GEORGIA AGAINST RATE ADVANCES.

Governor Conner has been sent the following letter by Judge Samuel D. Weakley in regard to the recent hear ing of the Macon Grocery company and others versus the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad company, before United States District Judge Emory Speer at Mount Airy, Ga:
 Hon. B. B. Conner, Governor, Montgom-
 cry.
 Dear Sir-By your direction. I ac companied Hon. w. D. Nesbitt, rail road commissioner, to Mount Airy, Ga, to attend the hearing before United States District Judge Emory Speer o1 the case of Macon Grocery company and others vs. Atlantic Coast Line railroad and others, in which various Georgia wholesale grocery merchants and grain dealers had applied for. an injunction to restrain the railroads from putting into effect certain advances in freight rates on food products from Ohio and Mississippi river crossings, upon ship ments made into the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, such advances to take effect on August l, 1908
 On the first day of the hearing (July
 
 pleas to the Jurisdiction, claiming that the court did not have Jurisdiction over the defendants. These pleas were over ruled by the court, in an oral opinion, in which the district judge announced that he would take jurisdiction and that, as then advised, if the averments of the bill were sustained,s would grant an injunction to restrain the collection of the advance in rates until the inter .
 
 upon an application of the complainants to determine whether or not the ad- vance was reasonable or unreasonable.
 On the following day the railroads interposed a demurrer to the bill and stood upon the same, offering no evil dence to controvert the affidavits sub mitted on behalf of the complainants.
 After argument of the application for an injunction, Judge Speer took the matter under advisement; but, inas- much as he had granted temporary restraining order, upon the filing of the bill, the advance in rates Is now restrained and will continue to be re- strained, unless Judge Speer refuses all injunction and dissolves the temporary restraining order.
 From the oral opinion delivered in reference to the pleas to the jurisdic- tion, and from intima tions made upon the argument of the application for an injunction, I think it probable that Judge Speer will grant the injunction, which will continue in force, unless reversed on appeal, until the interstat :, commerce commission determines the question as to the validity or invalidity of the advance in rates.
 After the hearing we were in con ference with representatives of the Southern railway, the Louisville and Nashville railroad, the Atlantic Coast Line and the Alabama Great South ern railroad, with a view to ascertaining whether or not the railroads would in- sist upon collecting the advances from Alabama receivers and consumers while restrained from collecting ad- vances from the citizens of Georgia in like situation These representatives after conference and after our insist ance that the people of Ala bama sh ould receive the same treatment as those in Georgia, assured us that their policy was not to collect the advances from the people of Alabama during the time that the railroads were restrained from making collections of such advances from the people of Georgia.
 It was not known, and it is not now known, just when Judge Speer will an nounce his decision upon the applca tion for the injunction pending the suit but we were assured that as soon as he announced such decision, if it was in favor of the complainants and if it ordered an injunction, the rail roads would apply to the interstate commerce commission for leave to sus- pend the rates in the states outside of Georgia, in which the rates had been made applicable by the tariffs filed with the interstate commerce : commission and that if Judge Speer did not an nounce his decision within the next fe Y days, the railroads would, not late than next Wednesday, make applica- tion to the interstate commerce com mission for leave to suspend the ad- vance In rates as aforesaid.
 Since, under the act regulating in- terstate commerce, the railroads are required, on and after August l. 1908, to collect the advanced rates published and filed with the interstate commerce commission, we were further assured that if for a short time Alabama re- ceivers and consumers should pay the advanced rates, and should make ap- plication to the interstate commerce commission to require the same to be refunded, the railroads would not resist the applications; the idea being to place the people of Alabama upon a footIur with those of Georefa and not