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madness had very much method in it,
and that method was the protection of
the local and through revenue of the
passenger department of the E. T., V.
& G. Ry.
To get at the point, let me ask what
did the E. T., V. & G. surrender
when it entered the Southern Passen
ger Association ? What did it concede
in its amiable and self-sacrificing wish
for harmony ? Was it the question of
its admission into the Union Depot at
Atlanta?
Well, hardly so, for it had never been
in there, and after the most energetic
passenger rate war ever known in the
South it had proven to railroad men
as well as the general public of Amer
ica that it was unable to force admit
tance into that depot.
Was it the abandonment of its prac
tice of capturing from its competitors
a portion of their local business and
the withdrawal of the policy of annoy
ing them in this respect ?
Well, hardly so, again ; and I will re
mark that this course had been pur
sued just a little too long for its
own interest; in other words, the man
agement of the Western & Atlantic
Railroad Co. and of the other railrmd
companies in this section, who had
submitted for months to this piracy by
the E. T., V. <fe G. on their business,
while they were vainly endeavoring to
secure the adoption by the E. T., V
& G, of just such a practice as main
tained among them of dealing in a
courteous and proper manner toward
each other, ami of protecting the trusts
which were placed in their hands, had
at last in self defense adopted toward
it the policy of reprisal, and had met
depredation upon local territory by
depredation upon local territory, and
had demonstrated that the E. T., V.
& G. could be, and would be worse
hurt by a continuance of this policy
than they.
The piracy of the E. T., V. & G.
on Marietta, Adairsville, etc. business
of the W. & A. R. R. had been met
by the establishment of a cut rate tick
et office at Knoxville, which, within
the space of about two nfonths, cap
tured about seven hundred tickets from
the E. T., V. & G. and forced that
company to accept cut rates on proba
bly twice as many more, to prevent
them going via the W. & A.; and had
brought such demoralization into East
Tennessee, the stronghold of the E. T.,
V. & G., as had never before been
known in its history.
These tickets the W. & A. had se
cured by paying the local rate of the
E. T., V. & G. to Chattanooga and
thence ticketing over its line, and
thus cutting the E. T., V., & G. out
of their long haul to Jesup or Bruns
wick; to Meridian and to Memphis, re
spectivelv ; whereas, the piracy of the
E. T., V. & G. on W. & A. stations
had been merely a source of annoyance
to the W. & A., and had brought the
latter company almost no loss of rev
enue; because, for instance, if a pas
senger from Marietta was going to
Florida, the W. & A. got just as
much revenue on that ticket from Ma
rietta to Atlanta if the passenger went
over the E. T., V. & G. from At
lanta as it got if he went over the Cen
tral R. R. from Atlanta, ami if a pas
senger went from Marietta to an Ar
kansas point, the W. & A got just as
much money from Marietta to Chatta
nooga for his ticket if he went from
Chattanooga over the Memphis &
Charleston Railroad, as it would have
gotten, if the passenger had gone by
way of the Nashville, Chattanooga &
St. Louis Railway to the Arkansas
point. .
There were some few instances, ot
course, where the E. T., V. & G. in
duced passengers to come from Mari-
etta to Atlanta instead of going from
Marietta to Chattanooga, or induced
them to go from Marietta to Dalton in
stead of to Chattanooga, and thus de
prived the W. & A. of its long haul;
but these instances were comparative
ly rare and the loss of revenue sustained
by the W. & A. cut a very inconsid
erable figure.
Therefore, the E. T., V. &G. scarce
ly hurt the W. & A. at all in its pira
cy upon the W. & A.’s local business;
but did hurt the friendly connections
of the W. & A.; whereas, the W. &
A. mwe than made those connections
whole on the business which it cap
tured from the E. T., V. & G.; be
cause, when it secured a passenger
from an E. T., V. & G. station south
of Atlanta it did not give the traffic
hack to the E. T., V. & G. at Chat
tanooga, but to a friendly connection
at that point; and so, on passengers
coming south, the W. & A. did not
ticket them over the E. T., V. & G.
from Atlanta, but over the Central
R. R. or other lines friendly to the W.
& A.
Therefore, the E. T., V. & G., by
securing this abandonment of piracy by
the W. & A. in consideration of giv
ing it up itself found a large balance
in its favor in the revenue department
of its traffic ; consequently, it is hard
to see where the E. T., V. & G.,
“for the sake of harmony,” conceded
anything to the other side in this con
troversy by which concession it did
not secure for itself very much more re
muneration than was secured by the
other lines for their concession.
Now what did the Western At
lantic concede ?
It gave up absolutely the right to
sell tickets at equal rates with the E.
T., V. <fe G. from Chattanooga to any
eastern points ; and of course, the busi
ness from Chattanooga, a city of thirty
odd thousand people, and all the pas
senger traffic basing thereon, amount
to a very large source of revenue. It
also gave up the right to sell tickets
from Dalton via Atlanta to the east,
which was in itself no mean concession.
It also surrendered the privilege, which
had formerly brought it considerable
revenue, of selling tickets from At
lanta to numerous points in the valley
ot the Mississippi; and, after the style
of the E. T., V. & G. of bringing for
ward the plea of its forbearance in se
curing business from local territory of
the W. & A., we might, as a further
instance of concession by the W. & A.,
merely repeat again the instance just
above referred to of its giving up the
privilege of securing passengers from
Knoxville and other East Tennessee
points to southern and southwestern
points.
The E. T., V. & G., therefore, se
cured for its passenger department
greater protection by several times
than the W. & A. possibly secured,
and its abandonment of its practice of
demoralizing passenger rates secured
the abandonment of the same policy
by the W. & A. and the other rail
road companies in the southeast, who
had been forced in retaliation to adopt
the same policy against the E. T., V.
& G., which retaliation had wrought
such disastrous results to the revenue
of that company.
If there is any “protection,” there
fore, which has been secured by the
organization of tins Association, the E.
T.° V. & G. becomes the greatest re
cipient of all. The Western & Atlantic
merely claims in regard to this Asso
ciation, as it has claimed in regard to
all other agreements respecting the
proper conduct of the passenger traffic,
whether within or without an Associa
tion, that if any measure is adopted
for the protection of any one member,
then, by very necessity, it must be
THE KENNESAW GAZETTE.
adopted for the protection of all the
members, and that no one member
should be humored like a spoilt child,
or deferred to like a highwayman with
a club.
The idea which the E. T., V. & G.
has endeavored to fasten upon the pub--
lie mind, that it was entitled to privi
leges at one point which other roads
would not be allowed at other points,
bears the stamp of absurdity upon its
face. The E. T., V. & G.’s claim
that it is not treated like the other
roads are —that it has bee# “boycot
ted” by all the rest, etc., has always
seemed to me to have quite a flavor of
the ludicrous in it.
If a Chiuese wall has been built
around it, as it asserts, by the other
lines, it was in reprisal for its policy of
first building such a wall and keeping
all the rest of the world out of its king
dom. If every man has raised h s
hand against it, as it asserts, it was be
cause it first, like Esau, raised its
hand against every other man.
Its taking off* sale all tickets reading
over the W. & A. has its parallel in
its policy of refusing to give bills of
lading for freight shipments to go
from its line over the W. & A. It
has called loudly for recognition in the
interchange of traffic, and yet, when
the business has been forwarded over
the W. & A. to junction with the E.
T., V. & G. and thence over the E.
T., V. & G., the latter, instead of
accepting the business and having a
fair divide, has from inspection of the
way-bills seen who were the shippers
and who the consignees, and immedi
ately set to wora vigorously to induce
these not to send their business over the
W. A A. at all, but to give it to the
E. T., V. & G. for their long haul.
Os course, with this state of affairs
in existence, and that it is has been prov
en by letters written by the E. T., V.
& G. officials which have been put in
to the hands of W. & A. officials, the
W. A A. has had but one course left
it, which was to deliver the business
only to its friendly connections where it
hmi the control of the routing, and in
cases where it did not control the rout
ing, to send its agents to the shippers
and for its own protection to ask their
permission to deliver the business, to
connections friendly to the W. A A.
so as not to be subject to the continual
possibility of having its business ex
posed to the E. T., V. A G., and giv
ing the latter daily opportunity of un
dermining it and endeavoring to break
it down.
I will not dwell further upon this
subject at present, inasmuch as I think
that the instances which I have brought
forward prove that it is manifest that
the W. A A. and its allies have not
only been justified in the manner in
which they have conducted their busi
ness, but have been absolutely forced by
the E. T., V. A Cr. for their own pro
tection to adopt that course and main
tain it.
I will only remark in conclusion, that
it seems that the W. A A. ami those
on its side in this controversy have po
sibly made a mistake in considering
that the claims of the E. T., V. A G.
were too nonsensical for them to take
time to make contrary argument
against, and that they should possibly
have adopted from the beginning the
policy of showing up their absurdity.
If it be the policy of the E. T._ V.
A G. to take ground in favor of sense
less claims and agitate in favor of them
until the mind of the public is educat
ed up to the belief that that company
was in the right by very reason of the
fact that no attempt was made to re
fute its claims, then it were better that
the W. A A. and its allies should take
it up and press matters as vigorously
with the public as has the E. T., V.
A G. pressed its side of the argument,
if I may dignify their claims by the
word, “arguni nt,” because there are
cases where the public mind has been
educated and lead into certain convic
tions by reason of the agitation in fa
vor of only one side of the question,
no matter whether that side had the -
intrinsic right in its favor or not.
Therefore, it is proper that as long
as the E. T., V. AG. persists in its
I course of attempting to educate the
mind of the public into the way of
; thinking that it has been badly treated,
the other side should be equally as per
sistent and energetic in showing the
public that the E. T., V. A G. lives
in a house which is made almost alto
gether of glass, and that the country
is very rocky in the immediate vicini
ty of that house.
Thanking you for the valuable space
allowed me in your columns, I am,
Yours very truly,
i
“The Happy Hunting’Grounds.”
These are located along the line of,
or near the Western A Atlantic Rail
road. We do not mean the tradition
al Indian sort; but those which are
eagerly sought for by Atlanta sports
men. The Western A Atlantic does
not send its patrons to the “happy
hunting grounds” of the Indians; but
carries them safely to those which are
pleasant to the folks who are now liv
ing.
The Atlanta Evening Capitol says:
Hunting is a favorite sport just now
with many Atlantians. Many of them
own fine dogs, and are keen sports
men, and there is nothing they enjoy
more than a day’s sport in the fields
ami woods. They have various and
varying degrees of success, but they do
not seem to lose their enjoyment of it.
The best hunting grounds that are
accessible to Atlanta gentlemen who
are fond of this sport lie along the line
iofthe Western A Atlantic Railroad
ami the Marietta A North Georgia
Railroad. The advantage is further
more in favor of the Western A At
lantic, from the fact that the hours of
its schedules are more suitable to At
lanta gentlemen than those of any oth
er road leading out of the city.
They can go out in the morning and
come back to dinner or to early sup
per, or they can go out after dinner
and come back to supper. They can,
if they desire, go up the Marietta A
North Georgia Railroad, leaving At
lanta in the morning, and are back at
night, spending a portion of the day
within the first fifty miles of the M.
A N. G. R. R., after leaving Marietta.
Or, if they are willing to take two
days then can spend them to fine ad
vantage on the upper end of the M. A
N. G. R. R.
The AV estern A Atlantic at present
is certainly the “hunter’s line.” To
local points on its line, the W. A A.
gives reduced rates which are called
“hunter’s rates.” These, of course,
vary to the different stations from At
lanta. They also apply from Chatta
nooga, and citizens of that place who
are fond of hunting have the same ad
vantages as are granted to those in At
lanta.
The Rome R. R., we are informed
also joins the Western A Atlantic in
its liberality to lovers of this sport, and
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