The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1916-01-14
FIFTY YEARS AHEAD.

We printed dream a few weeks
ago that has caused a great deal of
talk. We proposed selling the w. &
A. railroad and building permanent
road connecting every county seat
in the State
We did not go into details because
we wanted to get interest aroused
first.
NOW The legislature proposes to
lease the w. & A. for fifty years. At
the end OF that time the state will
still have the W. & A. and this is
what we know will happen. The
United States Courts will not allow
the State of Georgia a monopoly on a
railroad company, or the territory
through which such road runs any
more than it will allow a monoply
on oil, coal, wheat, cotton or anv
thing else. Therefore the w. & A.
will eventually be paralleIed. Fur
thermore the w. e. A. is not worth
cent for regulating freight rates
IL once waS-but now the Interstate
Commerce Commission fixes all that
Also, we say, if you or or the South
ern Pacific or the G.. S. and f. leased
the w. a. A, we would not spend one
cent to straighten it out or double
track IT, That, we said before, will
have to be done to keep up with pro-
gress and that means more bonds and
more money sunk into il.
A great many other paIx,r%s nouo
advocated selling the roa & ,'ss... 49, :
are still at it. lpnt ,uha+ n.,
going to do wjp,t
'.th the money.
src ls~@e get about $4,000 per
year rental We pay about sixty per
cent or more of that rental out for
interest on money that the Safe has
borrowed known as the bonded debt.
We fail to get any taxes out of the
property which we would get ii it
was privately owned. So add what
we fail to get in taxes and what we
pay out in interest and see if we
are not just about even. Take ii out
OF one pocket and put it in another
and il is not our pocket either. We
take it from the n. G. and ST. l.. and
pay it to Mr., Asa Gambler for interest
on State Bonds. We just collect and
pay and none of it sticks to our
fingers
Now here is a brief outline of our
propositions
Sell the road. 1t is valued at
$20,000,0OO. We can't get that
much but we can get enough to pay
the State Bonded Debt and have fully
ten million left.
Take that ten million, Lend it on
Georgia land at 20. We get $780,
coo per year interest and don't have
to pay out cent of it. 1t all sticks
to our fingers.
The schools now get half of the
rental from the road, about 5000 600.
Deduct that from the 100000 and
We have half a million left
Take that half million and be-
gin building this road system
At the end of fifty years when
they propose to lease the road for.
We have:
Sl0,O00000 still on hand.
100000 year for cur schools
same as now.
100000 year put into roads for
fifty years-$25. 10000 worth of
roads.
$10,O00,O00 loaned several TINES
over during the fifty years and put
directly into improvement of Geor-
gia land.
And all this to say nothing of the
vast benefit to be gained from max
ing Georgia the most attractive STATE
in the Union with this gerat road
system.
Look back fifty years and now the
road is worth no more than it was.
Look fifty years ahead and picture
the State as it would be. Without
debt: with cshool funds; with per-
feet permanent road system. with
$4,000, 900 available development
funds; and the blessings that your
children and mine will receive from
all this benefit.
We expect to drive this PROPOSE
ton home to every corner of GeOr-
gia before the election this summer
and run a candidate in every county
in the state on this platform. We
have the approval of the State and