The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-16
Chas. A. Wickersham, President of The Western Railway of Ala,
 Makes Report to Patrons

lHT as 10 snow the cosI or DollS anu mus
 and if this company was mistaken in it
 valuation of any item, the state coul'
 have easily taken Issue. if 1t had seen fl
 to do SO
 The testimony taken one day wa
 typewritten that night and furnished
 10 the master and both counsel thu next morning, this testimony was ad
 duced from witnesses who had gon,
 over the railroad from beginning ts
 end. and valued everything enterinl
 into its construction. giving theil
 source of information. and their req sons for fixing the valuation that they did Each witness was required tt | testify particularly as to each item
 and was not permitted to give his
 opinion in a general way as to tn,
 value of anything entering into tho construction sof this railroad. The | one thod adopted of arriving at the cost 1 the classification prescribed by the in terstate commerce commission, and
 was prescribed by this commission long before the Alabama rate case was ever heard Of
 In addition. this company introduced It's books, but was required to prove by witnesses, and to show each and every dollar received by it from ev- cry movement of freight, and from every passenger, in domestic or in- trastate business The testimony was not general in this connection, but each item was proven over term of from five to ten years.
 The expenses of operating the com pany were not put in evidence in a lump, but We were required to use both in the proof of income and in the proof of expenses. the method of accounting prescribed by the inter- state commerce commission. which sep- arated and explained what became of the money, how 1t was used. and for what purposes.
 So. it will be seen that the valua- ton of the property, income, and ex- penses were proven in the minuetest detail
 The state did not offer single wit ness who had eyer valued the property. nor did 1t present a single witness who had eyer looked into the books or eX- penses of the company. Did the state avail itself of the offer of this company to put experts or anybody else to eX- anime it's books, and say whether the railroads presentation of the facts was correct It did not. and the record on file in the court. and in the hands of lhe counsel, speaks the truth of this statement The state did not attempt, nor offer to examine the books of this company. and there is not a word of testimony in behalf of the state In the record from any witness who did eH- anime the books or expense account of this company on behalf of the state, im- pugning the correctness of the books How could the special master. or the court arbitrarily reject testimony from competent witnesses when there was no testimony t6 the contrary?
 | If our valuation of the property was high. why did not the state put people on the line of road and get at the phys | teal Vaiues How can the people of Ala
 bama expect the special master to de-
 eide differently when he had no testi-
 mony, taking issue with the railroad g | te .timonY?
 | This statement is not intended as a criticism of the states method of hand ling the case, so much as it is intended 1 to show that the proof on the part of | this company was so clear and convinc- | ing that there could have been no proof | to the contrary It's eminent counsel did
 the best that could have been done with ] the case he had.
 l 1T 1t was proper to place this company 1 in the classification of railroads where 1 1t had to charge less rates than others, why did not the state put some witness l on the stand 10 show the reason for so classifying this road? All the witnesses on this proposition we're produced by the railroad and not one line of testimony came from single witness produced by the state to explain this classification. The criticisms that have been called to my attention of the decision rendered in this case were that the courT held that this company was entitled to earn per cent from it's intrastate business upon the value of it's property. The court did not hold any such thing, bur did hold that this company was entitled to earn upon that part of ils property devoted to intrastate business. (which in this case was less than 40 per cent of the total value), but the special master did find that this company was not earning 2 per cent upon that proportion of its property devoted to intrastate traffic. So, it is erroneous for the people to think that we were trying to show that we were en- titled to earn per cent from local busl- ness rpon the value of property, and dis regard the interstate business, but as stat ted above. if we took all the. ousi- ness. roth interstate and intrastate, and applied it to the value of the property, we were still getting far below per cent.
 It may be a surprise to the people or Alabama to know that we are. being as- sessed by the state, and paying taxes upon the basis of the valuation that we proved in the rate case.
 The next criticism IS that the railroad is paying dividends and at the same time proving that it is not earning as much on the property as the dividends amount to- Dividends are paid out of all earn ings and not simply intrastate earnings, and dividends are declared upon the capi-
 tai sock which in the case of this com- | pany is less than haf the proven value
 of the railroad so if the railroad proper 1 ties are worth S6090,00o, and ihe capital stock is only S3,0Oo.00o. per cent on the ! capital stock would he only 2i6 per cent
 on the value of the railroad
 The facts and figures covering the in-
 come and expenses ot this company, and
 the dividends paid by 1t, were published
 annually before the legislature of i997 was
 elected. and have been published annually | since. If it's income, expense and divi- 1 dend account was incorrect, the state had public notice of what the railroad woulC | claim more than two years in advance o | tLe hceinning of the taking of testimony. | The next criticism is to the effec
 that this company charges less pas I lsenger fare in Georgia than 1t doe lin Alabama. As a matter of fact, thi company does not operate in Georgia but its connecting line does. and it i
 notorious that the population along th | Atlanta and West Point railroad i
 much more dense than the population
 along the Western Railway of Alabama
 besides that company is preparing ( attack the resonableness of the rate
 fixed by the Georgia railroad commis sion. From Montgomery to West Poinl
 with the exception of opelika, and iron Montgomery to Selma. it is well knowi that there is not town that compare in population with West Point La Grange, Newman and others on the A & w. P.
 The question has arisen as to wh,