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8 ager has been converted from the be lief that all passenger men arc a set of rascals, for, in our opinion, to argue that he th< ughi they were disreputable argues tlau well, never mind. “A Very Low Kate.” There is not probably a General • Freight Agent or General Passenger Agent in America who is not approach ed more than occasionally by parties who wish to ship something or tiavel somewhere, and apply for what is in dicated in the title of this article. We have known repeated instances of where there have been strong endeav ors used to induce railroad companies to reduce their rates to ruinously low figures for the purpose of helping some body along. We do not blame any one for doing the best he can for himself, but each one must allow the representatives of railroad companies the same freedom of action in matters nertainimr to the 1 protection f interests which are placed in their hands. It should be borne in mind by those who apply for “a very low rate,” and frequently either directly or indirectly resort to open or implied bull-dozing, that the responsibility which is upon the managers of the traffic of railroads is in the natureof what is known in law as “a trust” —in other words, a rad road Genera! Freight Age v t has p’aced in his hands the management, we may say, of “trust funds,” and there is no requirement in law which is more strict than that for the protection of trusts by trustees, and the laws in ref erence to these are construed strictly, and properly so, by the courts. Now, the carrying of freight by a railroad at “a wry low rate” docs not diminish the expense of its transporta tion; in other words, if, for instance, the rate on any cl iss of goods from At lanta to Chattanooga is 10 cents per 100 pounds ami the cost of handling it amounts to 7 cents per 100 pounds, if the railroad company should agree to transport it from Atlanta to Chatta nooga for 6 cents per 100 pounds this would not by any means imply that the expenses of hauling it were reduced to less than 6 cents per 100 pounds, or less than the 7 cents which, as we stated above, it would cost. Railroad companies have as much right to make a profit as merchants have, or cotton factors, or any other class of men doing business, who han dle property or money. It is a strange fact, (we use the word fact because that is the proper word to use,) that there are scores and hundreds of men in the community who recognize that mer chants have to live, that manufactur ers have to live, that day-laborers have to live —in other words, that every man is entitled to the fruit of his toil; and yet do not seem willing to apply this same rule to railroads, which are ; corporations which must make money ; enough to pay wages to their employes who have to eat and clothe themselves ■ just as other people do, and which furthermore are entitled to a fair profit on their investment just as other citi zens are. It is an acknowledged fact that rail roads develop the country, that rail roads enrich communities and States, and yet railroads are considered every body’s game, and the rule which is ap plied to merchants is not considered as applicable to railroads. We consider that the citizens of this country who put their money in rail road property are as much entitled to protection under the law, and are as much entitled to make a reasonable per cent on the money invested, as are citizens engaged in any other occupa tion throughout the nation, and we fail to see why railroads should be ex pected to transport passengers or freight at a less than reasonable per cent of interest on the money invested in their property. We also fail to see why the public should expect railroad compa nies to keep their road-beds safely ballasted and laid with steel rails, which cost money, and equip their lines with safe and splendid rolling stock, which also costs money, and keep in their employment safe and at- , tentive employes, who also must have wages from the companies, and in all other respects have everything on hand j which is necessary for protecting the lives and property which ari placed in their charge, and for adding not only to comfort, but also to luxury, and yet be unwilling for the railroad com panies to charge such tariffs as will en able them to come up to all of these requi remen ts. if anyone can inform railroad man agers how they can meet ail of the modern requirements of fast and safe schedules and luxurious service, etc., without having money to pay for pro viding them, and how their employes can live if the companies are not al lowed to make money enough to pay them respectable wages, he will receive ' a. big price from them for the recipe, j PLUCKY ATLANTA. Eminently a 'North Georgia City. : Atlanta has the pluckiest popula tion of any city approximately its size ' in America. They depend upon themselves, and have immense faith I in their city. We may state as an evidence of their characteristic self-reliance that when Chicago and Boston were ravaged by i fires which destroyed tens of millions | of dollars worth of property, collections were taken up all over America, and in fact to some extent in Europe, to relieve the suffering in those two cities. I These collections amounted to millions of dollars. When Charleston suffered the dread ful visitation of the earthquake a short time ago the great heart of the Amer- ; can people throbbed responsively to her calls for help, and did the country ■ honor in the answer which was given i to that call. On the contrary, when Atlanta was I laid absolutely in ashes by the Federal army on its evacuation in 1864, her citizens, on their return, found the most complete ruin which America | ever had exhibited to her gaze. THE KENNESAW GAZETTE. They did not, however, sit down and cry about it. They did not make appeals through the American press asking for subscriptions to be taken up to help them to rebuild their city. On the contrary, they put their shoulders to the wheel and went to work manfully to build it up by their own exertions. They did not depend upon any one but themselves, and the result is that Atlanta stands to-day the “Queen city” of the*southeast. The tact that some outside capital ists came to Atlanta and invested their money, is not fogotten in what we have said. They merely found that this was the best location in the south for the permanent security of capital and its ability to give permanent re turns and good interest on the invest ments. The proportion of outside population as well as outside capital which came to Georgia and located in Atlanta is so small that it cuts a very inconsiderable figure when it comes to being a factor in the rebuilding of At lanta ; and just here we will advance an idea which we have never before seen in print, although it may possibly have been put before the public with out our knowledge. Os the population of Atlanta nearly all who shape her destinies in the va rious professions and vocations are either former residents of the city or the State of Georgia or of States im mediately contiguous to her. Take the twelve leading lawyers, for instance, and this rule will hold good. We may say die same of the twelve leading merchants. The same can also be said of the twelve leading doctors. The twelve leading ministers of the gospel have mostly had the same citizenship and raising. Os nearly every banker in Atlanta the same can be said. Then take the railroad offi cials, and it will be shown that nearly every single one of them is either a na tive or a resident of the city since a long time before the war, or was a cit izen of the region within three hun dred miles of her. We do not say this in disparage ment of any capitalists or immigrants who desire to come to Atlanta and cast in their lot with her; but we write these words to correct the very general error that the prosperity of Atlanta is the result of outside capital and outside brains. Atlanta is in any sense in which you consider her a North Georgia city, and the hardy sons of toil who came down from the mountainous portion of North Georgia, Carolina and Tennessee have done more to make her a citv and to keep her prosperity on an elevated plane than all the other agencies com bined; in fact, all the other causes which may be adduced are merely in cidents to the above. We shall probably touch upon this subject again in some of our future is sues, because we consider that it is nothing but proper to the people of Atlanta to give them credit for the upbuilding of the most splendid city in the south instead of allowing the credit therefor to be persistently’ cab baged by outsiders. (Communicated.) ‘PLEADING THE BABY ACT,’ —OR— The Question of ‘Differentials.’ Editor Kennesaw Gazette: In my first article under the above sub ject I touched upon the claim of the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway Co. to differentials, in order to neutralize advantages which it con fesses the Western & Atlantic Rail road and other railroads centering at Atlanta have over it; and gave a I short resume of the procedure or course j of action adopted by that company to ward the other railroads in Georgia, after it was chartered by the Legisla ture of the State of Georgia, and com pleted its lines from Chattanooga to Brunswick by purchase or construc tion. In my second article, I gave a few out of the very*many examples which can be adduced to show that if the E. T , V. & G. claims for differentials are allowed, then differentials must necessarily be allowed to other lines at points where they are at a disadvan tage, and that these instances of rela tive disadvantage would apply to some of the lines at nearly all common points, and that the question would soon resolve itself into an absurdity, when it was carried out to its legiti mate end ; in other words, that there would be no certain basis for making rates, and, therefore, there would almost immediately be no rates if the principle of allowing differentials to neutralize disadvantages were put into effect. I showed that if the W. & A. con ceded to the E. T., V. & G. a differ ential on passenger traffic, from Atlan ta to Chattanooga, tho T}. T., V. & G., by the same course of reasoning, must concede the W. & A. a differential on passenger traffic from Atlanta to Mems phis and all Arkansas and Texas point, which passes through Chattanooga; that if the Central R. R. conceded to the E. T., V. & G. a differential on pas senger traffic from Atlanta to Macon the E. T., V. & G. would consequently be compelled, for consistency’s sake, to concede a differential to the Central R. R. on passenger traffic from At lanta to Florida points, which traffic would pass titrough Macon when from Atlanta. So I might recur to other instances referred to in my second article, as well as to multitudes more which could be brought forward. I now propose to demonstrate the fallacy of another idea which the E. 1., V. & G. Ry. Co. has, with con siderablepersistence, endeavored either directly or indirectly to impress upon the mind of the public, viz: that that company agreed to go into the South ern Passenger Association and become a full-fledged member of it, not so much for the benefits which it would receive as for the settled condition of affairs which would be brought about to the benefit of all the railroads and the stop pt ttg of the unsettled condition of affairs which had existed almost ever since it opened its line through Georgia. In other words, that “for the sake of harmony,’ it sacrificed some of its valuable interests, and conceded points v\ hich it could maintain if the fighting were to go on. Now this, they attempt to persuade the public, was practically a great piece of self-abnegation, in fact, almost benevolence on their part; but when it is analyzed it will be found that if it was benevolence, then it was of so straight-laced a character that it was benevolence run mad, and that this