Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-08-18
An Outrage Upon Georgia.


We print elsewhere a communication in which
the executive heads of six of the railroads now
seeking revision of intrastate freight rates in
Georgia assert that The Journals criticism of the
proposed rate increases is unwarranted. because
the figures upon which il is predicated are wholly
erroneous"
II is not our purpose to enter into a controversy
with these gentlemen concerning matters of record.
The best evidence in the is their own petition
on file with the State Railroad Commission ii
was from that petition, originally presented, that
the figures on which our comments have been based
were derived. When for example, we said that
the roads proposed 10 charge more for hauling
carload of fresh meat from Moultrie to Atlanta
than is charged for hauling carload of fresh meat
from Ohio river crossings to Atlanta, we referred
to rates which the roads, on March the seventh
last submitted to the State Commission for its APP
prevail II they have modified their first proposal,
as regards this and other rates, they have done so
simply because the beating light of publicity drove
them from their indefensible stand.
They now declare that they want only forty
three cents hundred pounds on shipments of fresh
meat from Moultrie to Atlanta Ian increase of ten
cents per hundred the present rate), but this
represents a retreat from their original position,
for in a statement to The Journal on April the
eleventh last the roads said:
THE highest possible rate that could be
found would be fifty-One cents per hundred
pounds, equal to S1O2 per car of 10000
pounds, on fresh meat-which is the proposed
rate of the Atlanta Birmingham and Atlantic
railroad for the distance from Moultrie to
Atlanta"
We dwell on these rather tedious details because
they show that the attitude of the roads is to go
as far as they dare and in taxing Georgia indus
tries regardless of what is reasonable and just In
their original petition they conended that the rate
increases then asked for we're the result Of pains
taking and scientific thought and, moreover, were
necessary in order harmonic intrastate with in
terstate rates Those proposals, the carriers
serted represented the minimum basis which
they could earn fair profit and comply with in
terstate revisions. Yet, they abandon, in part
at least their first extortionate claims. and recede
to claims bit less extOrtionate. That is to say, if
they cannot full pound of flesh from the heart
of Georgia industries, they will magnanimously
agree to accept fifteen ounces.
The esteemed and distinguished gentlemen,
whose communication we publish elsewhere, tell us
that the rate now proposed on shipments of fresh
meat from Moultrie to Atlanta is only forty-three
cents per hundred pounds as compared with forty
eight cents per hundred pounds from Ohio river
crossings to Atlanta. Well, let agree Off the
roads. for once will stand pat their figures and
not change them overnight) that forty-three cents
is the rate proposed. What will that mean to
Georgia interests if the State Commission allows
IL? II will mean that Georgia packing industry
will have pay eighty-six dollars for shipping a
car of meat two hundred and sixty miles within
the State while its powerful competitors in the
West can ship the same amount of meat four hum
dred and seventy-fOur miles into Georgia for only
ninety-six dollars. II will mean that the Georgia
industry will have to pay ninety per cent of the
Cincinnati-to-Atlanta rate although its shipment
goes only ffty-fve per cent of the Cincinnati-to-
Atlanta distance
The audacity of such proposal is hardly par
aIleled outside the legends of Captain Kidd. Think
of the railroads charging Georgia industry-an
infant industry in whose growth the States eco
nomic welfare is fundamentally involved-forty-
three cents per hundred pounds for shipping meat
from Moultrie to Atlanta when the great packing
concerns of the West can ship their products all
the way from the Ohio river to Atlanta for only
forty-eight cents per hundred pOundsl Such a
hoId-up would be not only injurious, IL would be
insulting.
This proposed rate appears the more exorbitant
and discriminatory when it is noted that Illinois
the combined cost of shipping a of meat prod
ueis from farms to packing houses and from pack
ing houses back to points of origin for average
distance of one hundred and ffty-nine miles is
s524O while in Georgia the combined cost under
the proposed rates. would be s1O6. Thus the rail-
roads operating in Georgia would charge for the
same service $500 more than do the railroads
in Illinois. II will be said of course, by of
joinder, that the volume of such traffic in Georgia
is not sufficient to justify the western rate and
within reasonable limits that is true. But the rail-
roads do mot pause at reasonable limit. They
propose 10 advance the present rate shipments
of food animals from Georgia farms to Georgia
packing plants thirty-eght per cent and top of
that to advance the present rate shipments of
finished products from packing plants to local
kets upwards Of one hundred per cent. Does any