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1AILR0AD MONOPOLY LEGISLATIVE DEAL 'he Danger that Menaces the Western and Atlantic Rail road is Graphically Pictured. cessive freight- and passenger tolls; by failing to render proper trans portation service, and by refusing to connect with or exchange bus iness with competitive lines of rail roads or steambo.it means of trans portation. In short, it is a tre- j mendously important thing for the people to lease their railioad prop erty, even for a few years, issue It is known to all men that a gi- ticed injury to Atlanta has hurt the entire State of Georgia. At lanta is the capital city of G eor ' gia and is destined to remain so for all time to come. It is an in land city, entirely dependent upon the railroads for ingress and egress and for all public transportation purposes, Therefore, the people of this City and State are hopelessly at to- gantic railroad trust and tnonopo- the mercy of the railroad monop- f The greatest commercial before the people of Georgia day is the Senate bill providing for !y already exists in the United I oly. There is only one saving a 6o-year lease of the State’s prop- States. There are only a few in- grace from this greedy octopus '“rty, the Western & Atlantic i dependent and individual lines of that is spriading its fangs about Railroad. ’ railroads left. Practically all the i the ihroats of the South and es- This question is transcendent in great systems have been consoli- pecially the people of Georgia, in its importance. dated into two or three gigantic The one weapon and means of It involves the welfare of the syndicates. It may be said, in I protection to Georgia is its own people of Georgia for three quar-j truth, today, that there are, as a railroad, the Western and Atlan- ters of a century to come. matter of fact, only two or three tic system. The proposition to lease the important railroad systems operat- When the railroad trust begins road after the expiration of the ing in the Southern States at this to tighten its grip, as it is already present lease is mouumental in its time. .doing, on the necks of the people, effrontery. They are the Southern Railway and when the conditions of the It is the boldest attempt to rav- system and its innumerable allied railroad trust management become age the rights of the people since roads, embracing lines from Wash intolerable, then will the real val the Civil War. The idea of turn ington and Richmond on the east ue of the Western and Atlantic ing the State’s railroad over to the to Atlanta, Birmingham, Shreve- Railroad be realized by the people transportation monopoly for 73 port, Memphis and New Orleans of this State. years trom this date is so prepos- on the west; and the Louisville When the railioad monopoly terous its conception is almost be- and Nashville system, embracing runs riot in its domination of the yond comprehension. lines from Cincinnati and St. commercial, political and legisla- Nothing short of brazen disre- Louis to Nashville, Memphis, tive rights of the people, the State gard of the rig its and intelligence Chattanooga, Birmingham, Knox- of Georgia will not only use the of the people could have prompted ville, Mobile and other Southern Western and Atlantic as an outlet such a scheme as that presented points. There is, of course, the to the West, but this road will be Atlantic Coast Line system, but it is generally believed that it is in close harmony with, it not actual- to the Georgia Legislature. The Western and Atlantic Rail road was built by the people of Georgia for the purpose of open ing up a public highway and trans portation line to the Tennessee River at Chattanooga, Tenn., a distance of 138 miles from Atlan ta. This road was constructed prior to the Civil War. It has, therefore, been pronii- extended to the Atlantic seacoast traversing the great country lying between Atlanta and Bruuswick ly dominated, by the Louisville | and Savannah, and reaching out and Nashville syndicate. from right to left with tributary The Seaboard Air Line is prac tically the only large important system outside of the two or three railroad syndicates which already dominate the Southern States. It is only a question of time nent in Southern history, covering until all these great systems will the past forty years or more, merge into one and the railroad which will be a means of battling Aside from the enormous financial monopoly in the South will be with the railroad syndicates. lines covering almost f the entire Stale of Georgia, and thus giving the people of the Empire State of the South their only free and in dependent railroad system—the only one that will be operated in the interest of the people, and and commercial value of the State complete, and then the transpor- road road, it is closely ana patriot- tation system of all the States ically associated with the greatest south of the Potomac, Ohio and period in the history of Georgia. Mississippi rivers will be controll It has been a source of large rev- j ed from Wall street, New York, enue to the State for more than a When this day comes, if indeed tnird of a century. j it is not already here, the people At the present time it is being lot Georgia will find imperative operated by the Nashville. Chat- need and necessity for the West- tanooga and St. Louis Railroad ern and Atlantic Railroad, reach Co., which is a part of the great ing as it does from Atlanta to Louisville and Nashville system of I Chattanooga, the latter city lo railroads. The present rental cated on the banks of the great paid to the Sta^e is $35,000 per Tennessee River, which river is month, or $420,000 per year. The destined to become a great trans- existing lease runs for thirteen portation highway from Chatta- more years at that rental. During j nooga to the Mississippi River, this long lease the State has abso- thus connecting Atlanta, via Chat- lutely no influence in the manage ment, operation and control of the property. Under the lease con tract, the voice of the State in the Western cities and policy and management of its road ; ping points, is entirely silenced. 1 The railroad trust is already ar No matter how monopolistic the rogant and dominating in its pol tanooga, with St. Louis, Kansas City, Cairo, Cincinnati, Memphis, New Orleans and other great Western ship- road may become under the man agement ot the lessees; or how an tagonistic its public policy mav be under the corporate control of the lessees, the people of Georgia are helpless; even though the lessees should determine to charge exces sive and extortionate freight and passenger rates; and even though the conditions of management last penny that should become intolerable in oth- j pockets, er ways, there is no recourse left to the people—-the real owners of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. Therefore, the railroad monop oly has it in its power to rob and plunder the people by levying ex- icy toward the Southern States. The railroad monopolies know full well that they have the people of this country in their grasp and there is no question but that the railroad trust is prepar ing to turn the people’s heels to This proposition of extending the State road to the sea is not ap proved by the railroads and their allies. With the completion of the Panama canal, which is expected to be about the time the present lease of the Western and Atlantic Railroad expires, Id years hence, the advantages of and the neces sity for an extension of the State road to the Atlantic coast will be come obvious to the people. The State road was a strategic transportation line during the Civil War, and was of inestimable value to both the Confederate and the Federal armies. As it was important to the arm ies and to the South in the days of the great war, it is equally im portant to the commercial and business interests of Georgia and the South at the present day, and will become more important than ever in the immediate future. The value of this road to the commercial and business interests of tliis State ten, twenty or thirty years from this time, positively can not be calculated. It is beyond human endeavor to Wood’s Seeds roa FALL SOWING. Every farmer should have a copy of our New Fall Catalogue It gives best methods of seed- mgiandifull information about Crimson Clover Vetches, Alfalfa Seed Oats, Rye Barley, Seed Wheat Grasses and Clovers Descriptive Fall Catalogue mailed free, and prices quoted on request. T. W. Wood & Sons, Seedsmen, -• Richmond, Va. Our Trade Mark Brand Seeda’are the best aud cleanest qualities obtainable. the sky and their heads to the figure out now theenormous worth ground, and shake them for the | of the State road upon the comple- jingles in their tion and opening of the Panama canal, with all of its attendant ad commerce of the etc., of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which show conclusively the unwisdom of making a long lease on the property now. but this is not a time for figures in discuss ing tli is problem. It is a larger question than that ot earnings, mileage and rental value. The News submits that it is en tirely a question of protecting the future welfare of the people of Georgia and maintaining the one means of forcing fair and reason able freight and passenger rates at the haudsofthe railroad monopoly. The Western and Atlantic rail road should not be leased at this time, even at $1(10,000 or $150,000- per month. The time is not propitious for re leasing thi> great property. The demand of the railroads for the passage of a lease bill by the present general assembly is the strongest possible argument against such a proposition. The shrewd railroad managers! and manipulators know full well that as the work on the Puuainti canal advances, and ns their grasp upon the southern people tightens, it will become more and more evi-, dent to the people of Georgia that they should not only retain control of the Western and Atlantic rail-1 road, but that it, will be a public calamity if the road is not extend ed to the seacoast. Therefore, the railroad trust is j seeking to grab this property no\y, before the people wake up to pro tect their rights and realize the en- ! urinous advantages of public own- j ership and control of a railroad system reaching from Chattanooga and tile west to Atlanta, and to the great steamship lines which will touch at .Savannah and Bruns-' wick, and opening the ports of the world to our commerce long before! the completion of the Panama' canal. It is a shrewd trick to attempt to grab this property for three- quarters of a century from 11)011, The scheme does credit to the j master minds which control the transportation lines of this country. It is far seeing and far reaching in its purpose. It is a stealthy move to rob the people of their own great public highway. It is a bold faced attempt to con-, fiscatc a public property. Wake up, people of Georgia,and thwart this outrageous conspiracy to plunder your rights and welfare! The railroad magnates are grab bing at your throat! Arouse yourselves and defeat this public highway robbery! The greatest crime that has ever been committed upon an unsus pecting and innocent public is be ing attempted in tin* State of Geor gia! Shame upon tin* railroad allies in the Georgia Senate who have voted this infamous lull to passage through that body; shame upon their ignorance of the enormous value of tli is property or their criminal disregard of the rights and welfare of a sovereign State and its people!—Atlanta News. $15-PRIZE-$15| not mtide they can write they can, but but t hose who •<1 wo rk is the • nine years to Flegy in Tradition says (hat “Poets are horn, There tire lots of people who believe poetry, and ninny who don’t know could if they tried. Some poetry comes by inspiration, have achieved success know that Inn basis o! the best verse. It took Gray write liis masterpiece of elegance, the Country Churchyard.” It may be hard work for von to write a poem, but surely it is worth vonr while to try. Yon may think little of your effort-, but it may win you the* prize. Somebody will get it. Why not you? We know that a poem-writing contest, is rather odd and extraordinary, and that is just, the reason we have chosen it as a means to advertise our magazine, “The Mocking Hird.” This is our olfer: For the best poem written about or to that prince of Southern songsters for whom our magazine is named, we will pay the writer a prize of $10; for the second best., $5. Write today for conditions of contest to THE MOCKING BIRD, P. O. Box 16 NEWNAN, CA. A Thought for Each Day of the Week. What France needs is mothers.— Napoleon. First Day—For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Mini. I Sam. 1:27. “Marks't thou the strange, sweet radiance in her eye? She has been near to heaven’s shining portal: And there, while Death and Life stood watching by, Gathered with trembling hand, a flower immortal.” Are weary now; And time has set the seal of care Upon her brow. But, 'mid Mis gems, who show ers gifts As shining sands, I count her days as pearls that fall From His kind hands.” Seventh Day.—Ye devour wid ows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the greater damna tion. Matt. 23:14. The water which had been re fused to the cry of the aged and dying, is unholy, though it had Second Day—A joyful mother of been blessed by every saint in children, l’sa. 11319- | heaven, and the water which is "She gave the best years of her j found in the vessel of mercy is l'f e holy, though it had been defiled With joy for me, with corpses.—Buskin. And robbed herself with loving "Stars may burn out, nor moun- heurt, j tain walls endure, Unstintingly. But God is true, His promises are For me, with willing hands she! sure. Amen." N. L. C. toiled j Newnan, Ga. From day to day, - For me she prayed, when head strong youth Would have its way." Third Day.—Despise not thy mother when she is old. Prov. 23:22. "I sit in the chimney corner and hear the young folks say: The world is weary of her—she is old and in the way; And a vacant chair were better—a solitary place— Than the palsied, wrinkled hands of her and the tear-wet, fur rowed face!’ ” Shrine Holds Session Philippine Jurist. for Fourth Day—He that wasteth his father and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame and bringeth reproach. Prov. 19:26. “I nursed ’em at my bosom ere Life’s sun went down in the I M!C ^ t° return to the Philippines A special session of Varnal) Tem ple, Mystic .Shrine, was held Wed nesday night in the Masonic Tem ple, at South Forsyth and Mitchell streets, in order that Judge John Stephen Powell, of Newnan, a Federal jurist in the Philippine Islands, might, be enabled to cross the hot sands of the desert. Judge Powell is at present on a visit to bis old borne in Newnan, and desired to enter the Shrine before be returns to the Orient. Although regular sessions of the Shrine are abandoned during the summer months, the special cere monial was held in order to accom modate Judge Powell. Judge Powell and his family ex- Wiih brazen indifference to the vantages to the rights of the people, they boldly ' South. refuse to remove unfair and unjust And when the day comes for the discrimination in freight rates and railroad monopoly to grind down passenger tolls. With high hand- upon the people, as this trust is ed nerve they demand and grab; surely preparing to do, it is pre public franchises and invaluable posterousjit is ridiculously absurd; rights of way. They escape just it is inconceivably beyond com pre taxation wherever possible. hension; it is arithmetically impos- They ignore the laws wherever sible to say at this time what the and whenever it suits their conven- rental value, or the control and That Negro Circular. west, I sang love’s sweetest song ience or makes to their profit. They have no regard for the pub lic wish and public convenience. Their policy is for revenue only and they grab and grasp to earn excessive interest on oceans of wa tered stock, held, of course, in Wall street, New York. The rail roads dominate and control legis latures, and encroach upon the manipulation of the Western and Atlantic Railroad will be worth, even as early as thirteen years from the good year of I»0(>, when the present lease expires on this road. To propose leasing this invalu able property for sixty years be yond the present lease, thus turn ing it over, lock, stock and barrel to the railroad trust for seventy- rights of the people from the Po ' three years—more than the aver- tomac to the Mississippi. age life of the ordinary citizen—is The city of Atlanta has been the nothing more nor less than high especial target and victim of the I handed plunder, robbery and con- radroad monopoly. The growth ot i fiscation of the public rights and this city has been retarded by the of the public property, discrimination practiced against The editor of The News has be- Atlanta by the levying of exces-1 fore him an array of facts and fig- sive and discrimnatory freight j ures relating to the earnings, ren- rates. This wilful and long prac-1 tal, expenses, mileage,worth,value, The dirty and disgraceful negro circular gotten out by Clark 11 iw- ell to try and deceive honest men, who may not know that it is ut terly false and has been pr -ven so by the records and by the most reputable men in G orgia and oth er Southern states, is being secret ly circulated by Russell men as treely as by Clark Howell men. This is one of the dirtiest things out, and how any self-respecting man can handle them is beyond the comprehension of decency. They try to distribute them quiet ly and on the sly, but the people are to intelligent to read such stuff and have a contempt for men little enough to scatter them.— Winder Economist. , within a short time, to! A large number ofHhrinerH were them and rocked their hearts present Wednesday night and a to rest; splendid session was had. A num- And now, that the sad time !her business matters were given hastens—the closing of Life’s attention, alter which the cere- sad day inonial session was held. I am only a useless woman—I am I" addition to Judge Powell, old and in the way!” lourteen other candidates joined — the caravan aud crossed the desert. Fifth Day.—The rod and re-1 The ceremonial was greatly enjoy- proof give wisdom; but a child left led.—Saturday’s Atlanta Georgian, to himself bringeth his mother to —- ■ Have your mules and horses in sured in the Mutual Life Stock In surance Company of Georgia. Full j face value of all policies will be paid. For information and terms, call on or write to J. W. Will coxon, agent for Coweta and Car- roll counties, Newnan, Ga. tf shame. Rrov. 29:15. "A picture memory brings to me; I look across the years and see Myself beside niy mother’s knee. I feel her gentle hand restrain My selfish moods and know again A child’s blind sense of wrong and pain. But, wiser now— a man gray > grown My childhood’s deeds are better known; My mother’s chastening love I own.” Hot Weather Trips via Central of Georgia Railway. Summer excursion tickets to the Seashore, Mountain arid Lake Re sorts in the North, South, East and West, A trip by rail and sail to New York, Boston, Baltimore, Phila delphia and points in the East via Savannah and steamship lines, is to he considered at this season. Tickets are on sale at all coupon ticket offices. For rates, schedules, etc., apply to any Agent or rep resentative of the Central of Geor- a | gia Railroad Sixth Day—As one whom mother comforteth, so will i com — ■—.. 1 ■■■— fort you. Isa. 66:13. We carry the latest magazines “Her gentle arms, my cradle once, and periodicals.—Peniston & Lee.