The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-23

and impartial service, without rebates, discriminations or exactions, and an eff ficient and courteous performance of their duties.
 Such corporations, on the other
 hand, are entitled to just and fair treatment, and to the equal protection of the law; and capital invested in such enterprises should not be denied the opportunity of earning just and req sonable compensation.
 We favor legislation which will safeguard the rights of the public as
 against such corporations, but con- demn any legislative attempts to crip- pie such corporations by enactments which are harsh, retaliatory or inspired
 by spirit of hostility
 That same sypirit of hostility was manifested in Alabama when under the Influence of the appeals of demagogues and time serving politicians a law was enacted which denied railroad corpor- ations under the threat of forfeiture of their charters the right to appeal from the state to the federal courts. I denounced such a law then as uncon- stitutional because it denied to foreign railroad corporations engaged In busi- ness in Alabama the equal protection of the laws--a position which was sub sequent1y confirmed by the United States court of last resort, and which law during my administration was stricken from our statute books
 And that statement of the posi- tion of my state toward the railroads adopt as my view of the only atti- tude a sovereign power can take with wisdom and with justice. We will not yield our sovereign right to make laws operative within our borders on all who come within them, but I indulge the hope and the firm belief that we shall act with wisdom justice and mod eration, which will herald an era of better feeling between the railroads and the people, an era of equal rights under just and impartial laws
 Need More Railroads
 Notwithstanding the marvellous indus trial progress of the south we are yet in the infancy of our development. New mines are to be opened; new mills and factories are to be constructed and new farms reclaimed from primeval forests.
 We possess a soil capable of producing in the greatest abundance every variety of product known to the temperate zone. The application of scientific methods to agriculture has shown that there is no limit to the productive capacity of our soil. Our lands in proportion to their productive capacity and the salub-
 rious climate which we enjoy are today the cheapest in the union. Yet without additional modes of cheap and easy tran sit between the different sections of our states and to the markets of the world
 our industrial development must neces- sarily be retarded. Hence, the people of my state and the south generally recog- niZe not only the importance of utilizing our great waterways but of securing the construction of more railroads in every part of the south. Our production has grown more rapidly than our methods of transportation, and with the question of transportation solved under the influence of an enterprlslng, intelligent and indus trial citizenship, which we possess, the states of the south like waking giants will move forward to greater and more last ing triumphs in all the fields of progress and industrial development I am grati- '5fied to know that rebates have almost entirely ceased to exist and that the dis crimination, which has heretofore largely been responsible for the hostile feeling that may once have existed, has been to great extent eliminated There is no hostility on the part of the people of my section to railroad corporations. We be- leve that they should not only be en- titled to Just but even liberal returns on their investments. We recognize that in an undertaking so hazardous as the con- struction and operation of railroad in- vestments in these enterprises will cease | if these corporations are restricted in | their earnings to the limit of legal in- terest, and that policy which would discourage railroad building would noi l only be unwise but detrimental to thu best interests of our section. We fully