The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-21
Mr.. HartweIl's Reply

In rebuttaI of the charge of Col. E. l.
Russell, in your Sunday paper, viz: That
In the event the Interstate commerce com,
mission should compel the Mobile and
Ohio and Southern railroads to maintain
their present export shipside delivery
tariff, the Hartwell towboat trust would
CONTROL by offering the masters OF the
different vessels loading at this port the
advantage of half towage provided they
would dock at the Turner Hartwell DOCKS
l desire to offer the following:
Colonel Russell knows better; he has too
much intelligence. and is too familiar
with the knowledge Of who controls cargo
going export through this port, to fear
the so-called "towboat trust" The ship
ping interests are aware that the very
railroad OF which Colonel Russell is vice
president controls, through its specially
favored steamship connections, about 80
per cent or more of the export business
out Of this port, and what they do not
control is controlled by the shippers of the
cargo and not by the masters of the
vessels; therefore 1t Is absurd for such
an argument to be advanced. Any man
of business intelligence knows that the
stockholders of the Mobile Towing and
Wrecking company (Which is the corpora
ton Colonel Russell calls the Hartwell
towboat trusD would not allow me to
SQudnQOT IT'S earnings III any butll iudh-
ner. I am only the vice president of the
company and one of its stockholders, and
1t is in no way connected with the Turner
Hartwell Dock company l do not even
own the controlling stock In the Mobile
Towing and Wrecking company. so were
[ to resort to such tactics as charged by
Colonel Russell / would not be an office
holder in the company very long. Mr..
J. M. Walsh Is president and Mr.. Arthur
Kimball is the manager of the company
(neither of whom is interested in the
Turner-Hartwell Docks company. What
would these two gentlemen be doing while
was rebating the company's money
to serve other interests, as Is charged.
am willing to enter into a contract today.
In fact will give bond to the Mobile and
Ohio and Southern railroads. that the
Mobile Towing and Wrecking company
will tow vessels to their docks, or any
other docks, at the same rate that they
are towed to the TurnerHartwell docks.
VIII Colonel Russell enter into a similar
contract with me to deliver freight to
other docks on the same basis as he does
to those controlled by the Mobile and
Ohio and Southern railroads? I deny the
allegation that the Mobile Towing and
Wrecking company Is trust 1t Is cor
poration doing business under the laws
of the state of Alabama, and has a tariff
for doing business just as the railroads
have. Our tariff will more than favor
ably compare with the towing tariff of
any of the gulf or south Atlantic ports.
In fact, for the amount Of service we per-
form, 1t is less than many ports. We
will not permit our tariff to be greater
than that OF competing ports. By so do
ing our competitors have no advantage
from towing standpoint. VIII the Mo-
bile and Ohio and Southern railroads do
likewiseX Will they pay the same ter
minal charges at Mobile that they pay at
New Orleans working with the New Or
leans and Northeastern road? If they
will we will say nothing more. The vital
point at issue In this entire controversy
is that Mobile is being Disseminated
against by the Mobile and Ohio and
Southern railroads In changing their ship
side delivery tariff Now, II Colonel Rus
sell will come out and say to the peo-
pie that his road will absorb the terminal
charges at Mobile. the same as they are
doing at New Orleans then this entire
controversy will be settled. Why does
not Colonel Russell come out and say that
he WILL or he will not, and stop muddying
the waters and flirting with the people?
you can fool all Of the people some
times, some of the people all of the time.
but you cannot fool all of the people ale