The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1910-08-05
Communicated.
Should Retain
The Farmer.
Hon. O. B. Stevens Shoule Be
Re- Elected Railroad Com
missioner.

From Cedartown Standard, July 21.)
The original idea of the statesmen
who planned and CAR ed to success
that great safeguard of the peoples
rights, the State Railroad Commission,
was that the Commission should be
composed of one lawyer, who should
! look after the legal aspects of all
/ questions submitted to the organiza-
/ ton; one farmer or business man and
one practical railroad man Some of
! the ablest and most patriotic states
men of Georgia framed this plan, and
under it's workings much good was
accomplished in equalizing justice be-
tween the people and the railroads
Recently, however, the Commission
has been enlarged to five, and they
have been given special legal adj
visor, despite the fact that three of the
present members are excellent law
yers. But this has little to do with
what we have started out to say in
this connection
What we want especially to bring
to the attention of our readers, and
/ to all the farmers of Georgia as far
as we can reach them, is the fact
that out of the five members of the
Railroad Commission, as at present
constituted, they have only one rep
resentatiVe-Hon. o. b. Stevens
and to the additional fact that of
the three members whose terms are
hrt1 To j
ing for reelection, only one has OPP
position-Hon. o. B. Stevens, the sole
representative of the farming inter
ests on the Commission that his
opponent is another lawyer!
Now, the Standard does not believe
in stirring up class feeling, but we
do believe in fair play.
We are convinced that the idea of
the statesmen who drew up the bill
creating the Railroad Commission
originally, and which provided that
one of it's members should be a farm
er, is a good one; and we do not want
to see the only farmer on the Com
mission ousted by an office-hunting
lawyer, however good a man he may
be.
The terms of the following mem
bers expire this year.
Hon. o. B. Stevens, a farmer of
Terrell county, who is just completing
full term.
Hon. C. M. Gambler, lawyer, of At
lanta, who was appointed by Gov.
Smith
Hon. James F. Gray, a business man
and former railroad employee of
Savannah, who was appointed by Gov.
Brown.
And of these three the only one to
have opposition is the farmer, Mr.
Stevens and his opponent a lawyer!
The other members of the Commits
sion are Hon. Warner Hill, lawyer
of Greenville, and Judge Hillyer,
lawyer of Atlanta.
With three lawyers already on the
Commission, besides their paid legal
adviser, it would certainly seem that
the legal fraternity is well enough
represented there and ought to allow
resentative on that important body.
The Railroad Commission means com
paratively little to a lawyer except to
give one of the fraternity a good job,
but to the farmers and merchants of
the State one of their number serving
on the Commission means a safe
guarding of their interests from any
possibility of imposition by the greed
of railroads.
The Standard favors the reelection
of all three of the Commissioners
standing for reelection. They are
capable gentlemen, we'll worthy of the
confidence of the people. OF the
three none surpasses in usefulness
the farmer member, Hon. o. B. Stew
ems. We would have been sorry to
see any of them have opposition for
reelection, and are especially sorry
that the new lawyer candidate has
singled out Mr.. Stevens for his OPP
! position. We believe, however, that
the farmers and business men OF
| Georgia will see to it that Mr.. Stew
ems is reelected as the representative
of the farming interests, and that the
lawyers of the State themselves gen.
orally recognize the justice of the
suggestion that there are already
enough members of the legal frater-
nifty on the Commission and that the
great farming interests of Georgia
are entitled to at least one repre-.
sentative there.
p. S.-SinCe the above writing, Mr.
Hornady, has announced against Mr..
Gray, OF Savannah-Standard