The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-05-23
ARE THE PEOPLE BExnFranps

What is the great victory of the State in the recent decision dissoiving the injunctions against ths railroads. and what has 1t cost the consumer in Alabama? To understand this. 1t will be more satisfactory to give concrete example on one item alone.
 Before the Legislative rates were made the rates on a barrel of flour from Louisville. Ky. to Birmingham. Montgomery and Selma was forty cents per barrel, and the rate to any 1 point forty miles distant from either of these distributing centres was twenty two cents per barrel: adding the | through rate of forty cents to the io- cal twenty-five cents made total of sixty-two cents to the points forty miles out.
 | On March l, 1908. the rate from Louisville to Montgomery. Birmingham and Selma was increased to forty-four cents per barrel, the local rate remain- | ing twenty-two cents to forty mile points. making the totals forty-four and sixty six cents under the new, as against forty and sixty-two under the old regime. The interstate rate, in fact, to all points in Alabama wa5 in- creased four cents per barrel in March, 1908. The dissolution of the injunction, which has no bearing on interstate rates. leaves the rate as follows: For ty-four cents per barrel from Louisville to Montgomery. Birmingham and Self ma. and sixteen and one-balf cents to any point forty miles distant from the distributing centre, making total Of sixty and one-half We have. there fore. a through rate of forty-four cents now as against forty cents heretofore, and total through and local rate of sixty and one-haif cents as agaipst sixty-two cents. before any laws fixing rates.
 To anaiyze. under the old regime. seventy-five per cent. of the people Of Alabama who live in and around the distributing centres of Montgomery. Mobile. Birmingham, Selma. opelika, Huntsville. Gadsden. Tuscaloosa. De- mopoiis and other points who pay no local freight. have to pay now four cents more per barrel on -four. to save the other twenty-five per cent. one and one-half to two cents per barrel. on their -four. The interstate rates on classes ."B." .fc." ID" and "F." the have all been correspondingly increased, and from all Ohio River points since March, 1908. and these classes cover what is commonly called the 'necessi- ties. of life" When 1t is understood that the local rates cover only about one third of the business in Alabama 1t requires no mathematician to figure that the increase on numerous classes constituting a large per cent of the two-third interstate business will pro- I vide the railroads with probably thrice ifhsgamount of fpnds necessary to meet ]. any loss of revenue on focal business. all of which the consumers pay. Of course. 1t is also well understood hat i under the Supreme Court decision, the local rate, without regard to interstate rates. must yield fair return. and as the best railroads in the State only earn about four per cent. net on local business, while others operate at an actual loss 1t involves an experiipr nta; trial of only c few months to furnish the railroads the necessary data Ipon which to secure a perpetual injunction against the legislative rates leaving us then, as now, in the attitude of pay ing the highest freight rates we have had for twenty years. The discussion of the effect of all this attack on rail- roads past. present and to come. is useless. for It's baleful influence upon business and politics Is fully under stood now by every conservative and right thinking citizen os A'abama. What the consumers need is our 1orm- ar cheap interstate rates, while the State needs a rest from agitation. and demaeoEism.