Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-05-04
To Stockholders of the
Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic
Railway Company:
Dear Sirs.

halfway company:
Dear Sirs.
Since meeting of Stockholders is
scheduled to be held in the Trans
portation Building, Atlanta, Ga, on
Monday the 9th day of May, 1921, at
l9 a. m, we, the undersigned Stock
holders of record since March 5th,
1921, and formerly employees of the
Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic
Railway, submit herewith a pamphlet
captioned, Facts about the A., B. &
A. Situation, which furnishes au-
thentic information as to why the
employees (including ourselves) with
drew from the service of the Railway
on March 5th, 1921.
The Transportation Act of 1920
was passed by Congress in order to
assure security holders upon their in
vestments, to afford sufficient reve-
nue. for the proper upkeep of the
railways and the payment of wages
to employees that would be just and
reasonable. While the Cummins-
Esch Bill (now the Transportation
Act) was pending in Congress, Col
onel Bugg, while President of t h e
Railway, was an ardent supporter of
the said bill and at places along the
I line of railway he interested citizens
! to the extent that they appealed to
their Congressman and United States
Senators to support the said bill. AT
the time, he gave assurance that he
as the representative, of the A., B.
& A. Railway, would be found COM
plying with every provision of the
said bill if it were enacted as law
Now, therefore, in order to show
Colonel Bugg's attitude towards the
Transportation Act, the following is
quoted from the Records of Con-
ference of the Employees and the
Management of the Atlanta, Bir-
mingham and Atlantic Railway com
pany, January II, 1921" Colonel
Bugg speaking:
81 think what you have just said is
repetition of the ground that was
gone over yesterday, and l am not
disposed to go over that ground
again, Mr.. Curtis. We have fully
covered that point; we know what
the issue is. Now as I said in our
conference yesterday, and l have
said tonight, I am not declining to
submit the controversy to the United
States Railroad Labor Board. l have
by my notice to the employees re-
lieved the Company of its obliga-
ton to those employees as the pres
ent scale of wages after the first of
February, 1921. propose to stand
on that legal right. l am willing for
the Labor Board to review this
whole case. offer. no objection
whatever to its doing so, but there
is legal right involved there, under
those contracts, that neither the
Transportation Act of 1920 nor any
order or rule of the Labor Board can
set aside"
If the law can be violated with re-
spect to the wages which shall be
paid employees, then certainly the law
can be violated in every other
respect
In this entire situation a single
stakeholder or a group of stockhold-
ers who were stockholders prior to
the appointment of a receiver, could
maintain position in the receiver
ship proceedings setting forth the
collusive nature of the proceedings
as to any violation of their property
rights as stockholders, They could
call for copies of the minutes of any
stockholders meeting bearing on the
subject, and directors meeting or
any other matter in the corporate
books of record having bearing on
the issues presented in their petition.
They could attack the good faith of
the President of the Company, not
only in these proceedings but in his
former administration of the Rail-
way, and could demand an account
ing on behalf of themselves and all
other stockholders similarly situated