The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-15
HOP"

, gers travel for cents per mile and on
other lines for 21s cents per mile, while
| IN Alabama the Louisville and Nashville
charges cents per mile, although it con-
trols the lines in Georgia which charge
cents.
Anyone at all acquainted with prosper
Gus conditions IN Georgia knows perfect
| ly, well that this state is not hurt by Its
rates for transportation. The obstacle
which Mr.. Conner is up against is this:
| In Georgia the state developed the rail
roads. This is shown by the history of
Georgia. A convention was held at Eaton
ton to discuss the subject of transpor-
| tation, and the people were directly and
vitality interested and behind the rail
road enterprises. Public opinion favored
a RAILROAD system for the state. and the
| Western and Atlantic was really built at
| the expense of the state, and is in fact
still owned by the state, though leased TO
! the Nashville. Chattanooga and St Louis,
which Is controlled by the Louisville and
| Nashville. In Alabama the railroads
themselves largely led In development
The Louisville and Nashville was one of
the strongest factors in the making of the
| Birmingham district, and however repre-
hensible the behavior OF the Louisville
4. and Nashville may be in the matter OF
rates in Alabama, 1t is perfectly natural,
for in Alabama the Louisville and Nash
family, while in Georgia, although-i il con-
trolls the lease of the Western and Al
lantic, the Atlanta and West Point and
the Georgia railroad, the Louisville and
| Nashville management knows very well
that the people of Georgia are "the head
of the family and mean to continue TO
be
1t seems fatefui conclusion that Mr..
Conner is to be governor of Alabama
again.
You may travel over the state and
man may tell you what else he pleases
but he will also add in conclusion that
Mr.. Conner will be governor, and without
regard to other candidates or whatever
Mr.. Corners ambitions may or may not
have been originally, he is undoubtedly
for the people now, and the people know
1t, and that is why they know he is GO
ing TO be governor. They do not tell you
they are for him, or perhaps they will
"cuss' him a little, but just the same
they know he is going to be, and most
of them win tell you so frankly.
1t may be borne in mind that Georgia
gets along somewhat peacefully. COM
pared with Alabama and Tennessee who
have eft and ft and fit spent a good
deal of money and lost some besides, but
as to rates and tariffs are yet in a state
of status quo, and further that in spite
of the rates and tariffs which exist iii
for a long time the service upon the
Western and Atlantic, the Atlanta and
West Point and the Georgia railroad,
both as to passengers and freights, at the
low rates quoted is not at all surpassed,
in any respect, by the service upon the
Louisville and. Nashville in Alabama, and
even If the people (not Mr.. Comer) should
actually control the railroads in Ala
bama, they do In Georgia, there would
be no likelihood at all of the service de-
teriorating In Alabama
About the only fight the Louisville and
Nashville has put UP in Georgia was
against the Georgia railroad employees.
and with Mrs. FELTON, about a siding; and
they were defeated each time. 1t is not
at all probable that in Alabama Mrs.
FELTON, would have been successful in
maintaining her rights, because In Ala
bama the Louisville and Nashville has
done a good many things which the peo-
pie regarded as 'favors,' and for which
they have really felt an obligation, when
really they would have been done any
way. Nearly all railroad employees in
they may misunderstood him, for there is
nothing wrong about his principle of rail-
road government by the people, nor is
there anything antagonistic to employees
IN the triumph of the people; and while
Mr.. Conner has used Georgia tariffs and
lustration as to what Alabama should
actually have. the real control of rail-
roads was established when Georgia led
the whole world IN railroad construction,
and this was done in the early thirties.
The thoughtful reader will at once per-
ceiye that however painful to Alabama
may appear the higher charges, and how
ever unjust they seem. the vital truth is
that the rates and tariffs We're the nat
ural outcome of construction, in Georgia,
and that their adjustment may be con-
sdered altogether fair and equitable be-
cause they have emerged from the very
foundation of steam transportation, and
have therefore been fixed in general, by
a method as exactly natural and conse-
duential as the growth of a boy through
the period of youth into manhood, with
out the presence of arbitrary or artifi-
ciaI means, but with real cognizance of
service performed and condition of the
times, from year to year, during the past
| so years. FRANK. M. PITTMAN.
Rising Fawn, Ca, November II, 1913.
NhTVCL,