The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-23
WAR TIME FREIGHT RATES SHOULD BE REDUCED, STATES GOVERNOR CON [ R
Former Governor Makes Comprehensive Statement About Present Freight RateS-RaiIroad Tax Most Hurtful Ever
 Levied

AAolSHI tax rates, declares former Gov. E. B. Conner in an open letter tt Governor Kilby, the public serv- ice commission and the people of Alabama.
 Governor Conner asserts that the present railroad tax is a tax more far-reaehing, more ingathering. more hurtful than any state tax commls- sion ever levied or ever could levy"
 He specifically calls attention to the flat rate increases that have been made on such items as the grains brick, lime, live stock. cotton mill products, cotton and the like In many instances the increase of rate on short hanls of these prod ucts has been more than lGo per cent
 Carriers Cited The Conner statement was induced by the action of the public service eommission in citing the carrlsrs to | appear before that body October 8 and show cause why freight rates should not be lowered. Since the statement was made the commission has suspended hearing of the rates in general to November 1, but will hear petition for lower rates on some of the commodities which Mir. Conner declares to have been raised 100 per cent
 The Conner statement follows:
 The Conner Statement
 ITO the Governor:
 1 'To the Public Service Commission: ITO the People of Alabama:i On Monday, october 3. before the public service commission is to be heard cause most vital to every in- 1 terest of the state, the freight tax rates.
 As war necessity. the intra- state freight taxes of Alabama were srst increased 25 per cent. Later and as further war demand the freight taxes were again increased 25 per cent. At the time of the first in- crease instead of making the ad- vance apply at the % per cent rate to all commodities alike, the follow Ing items were made exceptions and given flat increases: Coal, Iron ore, coke, slag,-sand, gravel stone, ce- ment. plaster, brick, lime, corn and other grains. flour meal and mill products, live stock, cotton linters and cotton. This increase on short hauls increased many of the above commodities, among them brick, lime, corn and cotton. over 100 per cent or more than double. "If war necessity justified
 that these prime necessities
 should hnve been made to carry
 more than their share of this ex-
 traordiDary war tax, certainly 1t
 k now high time that these
 prime necessities, these vital
 products of the people, should be
 divested of mt least large part
 of the increase i'm not carried
 back to the pre-war rates.
 The last 25 per cent increase in the freight taxes was given by the commission for a stated time; that time expires on October 1, and the question before the commission now is whether this 25 per cent increase shall be again continued. This. to- gether with the hearing on the first 15c per hundred increase on cotton and other prime commodities. are the vital questions before the commits sion on October 3.
 MuAI HaNc DeIinttOn
 Every interest agrees that the most important question before the American people is the deflation of freight and passenger rates; every body knows that this deflation should come, has got to come. AS is well known. the agricultural interest has been deflated in the most rad ical way. The farmers hogs are one-quarter the value; their cattle. one-quarter the value; their corn, peas beans, peanuts, one-quarter the value, and cotton before a tre-f mendous crop failure, oneQuarter the value--I mean the war time value. Deflation has struck them to the extent of 75 per cent, so there is every reason on the farmers part, on the freight taxpayers part, to de- mand that this last freight tax in- CT ease of 25 per cent, made tempo rary because of the evident intent that 1t was a wartime measure, and would be withdrawn, should not be renewed
 s"rhc railroad companies will
 assert and will prove that this
 increase is necessary for their
 very living. The above statement
 is based on the fact that they
 have always so cOntended and so
 proven. and that 1t Is the history
 of man's dealing with man thnt
 the fellow getting the price, no
 matter what, can always prove
 he has got to have it. but Is tbis
 radical wnr measure increase
 right to go into the prOperty-I
 mean the property of the farm- Ing Interests of Alabama. and
 make this n continuous burden hek Ind and theIF
 propertys
 History of Conner Rates
 There is or was an Alabama legis- lative made rate on 1l0 commodities of common production, consumption and use. As these rates were enacted into law during the first year of my administration as governor they have always been named the Conner rates. Now. addressing directly the nsterstate commerce commission ana 1.-the courts. both state and federal, to whom these rates will probably go, and in the most emphatic man ner. I state that these were never Conner rates: they were not rates born in my mind or born in the rail road Legislation of Alabama. Rates Formulated
 These rates were formulated in the beginning by MT. Campbell Wal lace of Georgia. the most brilliant railroad rate expert in the south or for that matter, in America; re- viewed by Mir. L. N. Trammell or Georgia; through their influence were embodied in the very vitals Of Georgia business: both railroads and people tried for many years; adopted by North Carolina; put Into the con stitution of Virginia; carried In these states for many years.
 -Thc concreteness of these rates adopted in Iowa. Wisconsin. Illinois, Missouri, Texas. I say tried by rail- reads and people in the annealing and refining fire of long use. The railroads ot Georgia. Carolina, Vir-