The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-03
n1r. Harriman In GeorEIa.

New York Times.
 1n his aftsr-dlnner remarks at at Au. Ay State will cease to be antagonisttic to the railroads interests will spend S10,000.o00 on the Georgia Central.
 The railway baiters in and out of mans insinuation that Georgia has been "antagonizing' the railways six. nifled nothing more than the railway magnate's restlessness under whole betrays lack of acduaihtance with what Georgia has done. The railways were turned over to the tender mercies of a railway commission appointed by q on a promise to reduce railways rates until their earnings did not exceed per cent, which Governor Smith de- clared was handsome return.
 To carry out this policy he appoint. ed as one Commissioner a man whose factory. taxed at $46.475, earned in single year SAT, 900, and whom the Leg islature had disqualified because of his membership in the Stove Trust. which had raised prices after railways had | reduced freights. Another Commis- Sioner on an investment in factory property of $251. 900 in four years made S37O.Q00. These gentlemen exercised dtctatorial powers, and the railways were forbidden to appeal to the courts as to the justice of their edicts. Ten years before Georgia had been willing to make any concession the railways asked to get them to build Into the State, but che times had changed. so that the politicians thought 1t highly should be conceded. Justified Mir. liar riman's use of the word antaGonism to describe 1t
 Singular as it may seem. the candi- date on this issue carried 143 out of 14T counties, Complying with his mandate he dismissed from the office of Railway Commissioner the man whom the f1ckle electorate chose to succeed him in the Governorship before his term was half over. Almost never had a candidate been elected with such an approach to unanlmity. In Georgia 1t was thought that the incident was not so much incredible as impossible. Yet | the actual occurrence followed upon the declaration of dividends of disaster 1 which claimed the hottest antagonists ! cars were sidetracked, and the unions | besieged the Railway Commission in ! protest against rulings which made
 the petitioners idle.
 | ancient history of events almost a 1 twelvemonth past. Already these
 events and the mQfal drawn from them
 have been so completely forgotten that l The Governor of Texas sent to the
 Legislature just assembled a message ' which might have been written by the
 rejected Hoke Smith. Two-cent fare bills are appearing in South Dakota
 and elsewhere. At Albany the scent
 fare bill has been introduced again, al-
 though Ii has been rejected by the courts, and by experience. The hope | that Georgia's experience had put an
 end to State limitations of Federal ex- ! amples seems to have been based upon somewhat slender foundations. Yet il is possible that MT. Hartman may suc-
 ceed where logic failed. He Offers a | splendid bribe. The South has yet Co
 experience what real railway facilities are like. Mir. Hartman Is a bogie ! man, but Georgia can hardly fear to
 suffer from him what 1t has suffered from the railway, bAIters, The South
 has noble future If it will but invite instead of repelling capital