The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-24

Brown. state senator from this the Fifth
| senatorial district. and candidate for gov
ernor, has challenged John FL. Wallace,
also candidate for COY rnor, to a joint de-
bate on Monday. Z tember l. On this
day circuit court lonvenes for four
weeks term and a large crowd will be
present. As both speakers are word paint
ers and gifted in oratory. the occasion
promises to be one of unusual interest. AS
Mr.. Brown has thrown down the gauntlet
Mr.. Wallace will certainly pick it up
The long drouth was broken here today
| by good rain. The crops in this county
and throughout the Tennessee valley have
retrograded one-third in the past three
weeks.
| The fall term of the circuit court will
convene Monday, September l, Judge W.
W. Haralson presiding. The docket is
an unusually heavy one. Several murder
trials are on the docket.
| Mills and Floyd Matthews, two brothers,
whe were arrested in this county and
who were wanted by the authorities IN
east Tennessee on a charge of murder
committed ~ years ago, were taken TO
Stevenson by Deputy Sheriff Wilson and
turned over to Sheriff Winningham. The
prisoners refused to go with the Tennes-
see sheriff and he had to place them in
the county jail here until he could return
! and get requisition papers for them.
edhnMFWYCMFWfP II
~
ket quiet around the current level OF
| quotations. One is the well developed dls-
position on the part of the mass of late
buyers to sit tight and await the norman
development of events, calm in the falth
of ultimate Improvement Another fac
ton holds to the faith that substantial
reaction is due before the resumption OF
| bull movement That there should now
rule a period of quiet waiting Is natural
and occasions slight impatience on either
side.
Prices are about midway between June
| low and spring high and reasons for and
! against advances or declines art seeming
" evenly matched. The movements that
| have taken place thus far this year seem
| to have been legitimate, for the most part.
| Weghty arguments and theories now tend
to the bulish position. but nobody Is In
a hurry-that Is. none of the important
people who have a voice in the direction of
large affairs. Quite a number or Things
might happen to disturb the situation.
and why not hold off awhile longer, the
| conservatives ask themselves.
Only a few weeks will elapse before
| Congress adjourns, with a new tariff law
| on the books, and possibly new cur
| rency law in companonship; the size or
| the 1918 crops safely appraised; pending
wage questions settled; decision reached
| by the interstate commerce commission
with regard TO the per cent freight rate
petition. and possibly a peaceful settle
ment of Mexican troubles reached, Should
all or a majority of these factors be fa-
vorably decided, period of unprecedented
national prosperity might follow A
| mighty bull movement in industry and
| commerce and the stock market is al
ready held in jubilant anticipation. to
wider extent than even the most ardent
/ are willing at this writing to publicly
admit. The foundation buoyancy is am
existent fact, however, and the great
silent force is under the situation.
Work on Rate Adjustments
| Because the eastern railroad presidents
| do not go about beating drums and
uoisily demanding from the interstate COM
merce commission instantaneous action
| en- the freight rate issue, handful of i'll
advised gossIpers are conjuring that the
| commission las decided the case in adj
vance, and against the transportation
| companies. Distorted imagination and
malice never fathered greater nonsense.
| The railroads and the commissioners are
| proceeding in entire harmony in the car
|
understood programme. The commission
ers asked the railroad officials to prepare
and present all possible data bearing on
! the question, the information to be filed
or ready for filing at special meeting
| In October next
The task as a whole is Herculean and
is monopolizing the services of an army
of the best experts that money can hire.
The actual cost of compilation and ar
rangement of the facts that are earnestly
desired by both railroad companies and
commissioners Will approximate $00O,0O0
The first estimate was S250,000. When
the facts now being collected are all in
the public will have for the first time
railroad, its value from every standpoint,
its mission, its complex relations to stock
holders and the public, where the enormous
sums (aggregating nearly 100000, 900
a Year, come from with which to pay
| wages and other costs of operation and to
provide for vitally essential facilities in
| keeping up with the country's progress.
These are few of the facts that are
being compiled for the enlightenment of
the railroad commissioners, the public
| and the railroad officials themselves.
| Individually the railroad presidents can
do little toward the accumulation of the
| desired information and their principal
mission Will be to lay before the commits
sion the facts as collated by the experts,
many OF WnOm nave specialized a life
| time on the work. The broad campaigns
| on behalf of the railroads is under the
direction of President Willard of the Bal
| timore & Ohio. The 81 other eastern
railroad presidents, who are in the asso-
citation, are working in entire harmony
| with the leader, and the united results
| will be embodied in the most remarkable
report ever compiled in transportation his
tory.
Earnings of Railroads
There is slight midsummer falling off
| In the earnings of a few railroads, but
| In great majority of cases the returns
| from traffic are larger than during the
corresponding months of last year-which
| up to then was the record breaker. Prep
| arations are making on practically every
system for an unprecedently largo bust
ness during the fall and winter months,
| and although the percentage Of net earn
ings will not keep pace with gross (un-
less rates are raised) the showing will
| reflect degree of national prosperity be-
yond any previous measure. The reports
that Wall street receives from the lake
regions and middle west are especially
rose tinted. very large pc portion of
new business on the stock cotton and
grain exchanges come from west or the
Alleghenies and south of the Ohio.
The success of our foreign trade In sew
eral specialties, such as steel manufac-
lures. farm machinery, sewing machines
oil and tobacco Is proving a remarkable
stimulant to the development of activity
In the general International field. Activity
In the automobile speciality is one az
the sensations Of the period Predictions