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i t THE ATLANTIA N BERNARD SUTTLER “Who is fighting the Water Power Merger” The Water Power Trust The citizenship of Atlanta embraces a few very dangerous men. These men are prominent in financial circles, they control a great deal of money. They stand well in the community, in a business way, but they are more dangerous to the present and future wel fare of this community than an equal number of dynamiters would be. These men are not pre-eminent for culture, nor for ability, nor for learning, nor for sagacity, nor for patriotism; and their real pre-eminence lies in an abnormal degree of cunning. They would make Fagin take second place, for while they have no more con science than Fagin, their cunning is so much more shrewd that they will never fall into the hands of the law, as Fagin did. But, while Fagin, in his Thieves’ College, tought boys how to pick pockets of a few shillings, or to steal pocket-handkerchiefs, these gentlemen go out under the forms of law, and appropriate to themselves the hard- earned millions, of the common people, without giving in return equivalent service. The whole idea of these men is to get something for nothing—that is their code of life; and they have been so suc cessful in previous operations, that they are now striking for so many millions that it takes one’s breath to think of it. If our peo ple had as much courage as they have got sense, these men would not have the insolence to come before the public with their thinly disguised scheme of spoliation—but we seem to be losing our cour age. Atlanta and its tributary towns all seem to be terrorized by these few cunning men, because they can control some money. The sentiment was voiced by one man, when he said: “you cannot buck against money.” If this is true, the best thing that the American people can do is to turn all their affairs over to a syndicate of shrewd and wealthy gentlemen, with the humble petition that they will at least leave us bread and water. Now let us get down to particulars. The Georgia Railway and Power Company comes before the State Railroad Commission, ask ing it to validate a bond issue of thirty million dollars, and a stock issue of twenty-seven million dollars. The assets of the Georgia Railway and Power Company consist of the undeveloped water powers of North Georgia, upon which they have secured contracts and options, or agreements, by which the present owners will merge all their interests in this one corporation. The potential horse power of all these merged companies would be, say, three hundred and fifty thousand horse-power—the actual power delivered for use would be, say, two hundred and twenty-five thousand horse power. The probable outside cost of installation and building of dams will not be over fifty dollars per potential horse power, or say seventeen million, five hundred thousand dollars. We know that this concern has had its thirty millions of bonds underwritten at eighty-five, which would be twenty-five and a half millions; and we know that the shrewd fellows who have organized the scheme are too shrewd not to get some velvet out of that twenty-five mil lions. Thirty-one and a half millions, in excess of the twenty-five and a half millions, does not represent an investment of one nickel, but is merely the expression of their unlimited confidence in their ability to gull the people of Georgia into making them a present of a fabulous sum of money. As an example of the impudence of these people, it may be cited that they were so sure of their ability to handle the Georgia Rail road Commission, that they sold ten millions of their bonds before they made their application. They must have felt very certain of their ability to handle the Commission, or they would not have ventured to that length. It begins to look as if they had made their application to the Commission merely as a formality and intended to carry out their scheme without regard to the laws of the State of Georgia; for we all know that these gentlemen of “big business” regard themselves as superior to the laws made for “common folks.” Read the following argument, which, appeared in the Atlanta Georgian on December 9th, over the signature of Mrs. Helen D. Longstreet, and then see if, as a citizen of Georgia, you ought not to bestir yourself to prevent this wicked scheme from being foster ed on our people: Mrs. Longstreet Shows Danger of Big Merger—Writes Vigorous Card on the Proposed Water Power Corporation Now Planned. Gainesville, Ga., Dec. 9.—Mrs. Helen D. Longstreet, president of the Tallulah Falls Conservation Association, gave out the following statement this morning, pleading for the protection of the falls from the approaching destruction by the water power companies now seeking legal authority for a vast merger of interests: To the People of Georgia: The proposition now pending before the railroad commission in behalf of the Georgia Railway and Power Company, asking the com mission to validate $30,000,000 of bonds arid $27,000,000 of stock, is as iniquitous a scheme as has ever been proposed in any American state. It is a merger of a lot of water power companies in north Georgia with one in South Carolina. It has secured a charter from the state of Georgia which is to run 101 years. It has made a lease of the Georgia Railway and Electric Company’s properties, in return for which they guarantee interest on the bonds, 8 per cent, dividend on the stpck and to give to that company a large stock bonus. “Watered Stock” Charged. This makes the Georgia Railway and Electric Company in effect a part of the merger and raises the total capitalization to $77,000,000, $40,000,000 in bonds and $37,000,000 in stock. Twenty-seven mil lions of this stock has at the present moment no sort of value. The moment the railroad commission validates that stock it will have value, and in a few years the effect of that decision would carry that $27,000,000 of water above par, just as our folly in the past has