Newspaper Page Text
irresponsible potentates, w'ho bear, in
popular imagination, the generic name
of “Wall Street.” We read in maga¬
zines and newspapers of the romantic
lives attributed to a few individuals
who are supposed to ‘control’’ the
destinies of whole communities by pos¬
session and exploitation of tbe instru :
ir.ents upon which such communi¬
ties depend for their necessary, trans¬
portation, • who “fix” rates;and arbi¬
trarily determine condition', serv¬
ice, and so “tax" the people they ought
to serve, withdrawing money, earned'in
the sweat of the. brow from thee com¬
munities whore it Is earned, to be dissi¬
pated at a distance in extravagant fol¬
lies. Such a vision is not the result
of pure imagination—it has bed un¬
fortunately its foundation of justifica¬
tion in a few conspicuous instance:
which leap to the lip:, of everyone who
discusses our present-day : industrial
problems; but every intelligent man
knows that it is no longer, if it ever
was, the rule.
In considering such lamentable indi¬
vidual cases, the public, when form'cg
its potent judgment on the present , ;t
uation of the railway industry, must
recognize them as'tlie unhappy excep¬
tions they are. To him who tosisis
tint the railroads should be judged by
their black sheep, it is fair hi answer
to Invite attention to many exemplars
of high-minded integrity in the ad¬
ministration of railroad property. We
in the South can cite shining examples
of such rectitude, i may be forgiven
a proud reference to my late chi f.
William Wilson Finley, whose oppor¬
tunities were not less than those of
any of the flagrant individuals to
whom allusion has been made, but who
after years of devotion to a public duty
and the practice of a large private
charity, ’left an estate the amount of
which, as announced in the public
press, is at once a certificate of can¬
did character and an illustration of
just administration. One who knew
them can add to the same roll of honor
two more executives of railroads in
the South who have recently gone to
the grave—Tliomas M. Emerson and
John* W. Thomas, Jr.
Despite the holding of railroad stock
outside of the territories the railroads
serve, and despite the aberrations from
integrity in the administration of some
particular railroads, 1 believe that 1
am not claiming too much when 1 as¬
sert that such has been the develop¬
ment of the recognition in recent years
of the public nature and responsibility
of the administration of the railroads,
and such have been the practical con¬
sequences of that recognition, that to¬
day in every essential a railroad be¬
longs to the communities It serves.
In this aspect and in a very real
sense tlie Southern Railroad belongs
to the people of the South, it is n<?t
only their highway to market, but it
fiscal operations are part of the life of
the communities along its lines.
At some risk of trespass upon your
attention, I venture to support this
claim with a brief argument from sta¬
tistics. They record a condition which
is astonishing and l confess astonish¬
ed me when I saw how far they go
along the lines of a tendency which
I knew to obtain. Of tlie one hundred j
and three millions of anrfual -revenut
collected last year by the railways in¬
cluded in the Southern Railway Sys¬
tem. there was immediately paid out (
again along its lines at least seventy- 5
six millions, an amount not far short
of the total collections from tile p*H>;
pie of the South: for approvin',; b'y
.twenty-two millions of the total reve-:
nues were collected from people out- \
side of the Southeastern States—a
fact not often taken into coiod-joni
Uon, the explanation of which is that
an appreciable pan of the passenger
traffic of the system coiisiMs of the ;
transportation of residents of other
localities traveling in the South, and
furthermore, that to a large ex : .1
freight charges on Southern pro be
shipped to other localities are paid by 1
the consignees.
What then becomes of these great
revenues collected in the South? Are
they hurried away to some cavern in -
Wall street? No. The fact is that
all the moneys collected in the Sotuh
are deposited in Southern banks which
are drawn upon from time to time
only as funds are needed for proper
fiscal purposes. The funds of the sys¬
tem thus become an important factor
in strengthening the banks of the ter¬
ritory’ and so are at all times at the
service of the Southern people.
I have said that these funds are
withdrawn from Southern banks from
time to time only as needed for proper
fiscal purposes, but even in that opera- :
tion, to a large extent, the moneys col¬
lected for transportation service on
our lines are not withdrawn at all from
the Southern communities in which j
they are collected. This can be dem¬
onstrated by an analysis of Southern j
Railway expenditures for the last fis¬
cal year. Such analysis shows that,
of every dollar disbursed. 41.71 cents :
went to the payment of wages, sub- j
stantially all of which are paid along !
the line of the road, and so remain j
in Southern banks, a disbursement j
which, for the Southern Railway prop-1
lars er, averages month. about The two million dol- j
a purchase of ma- j
terials and, under and supplies policy used 23.30 cents, j
our of buying as far j
as practicable from Southern people, ;
SAYS PRESIDENT HARRISON OF
SOUTHERN IN FIRST,PUBLIC
ADDRESS.
MONEY REMAINS IN SOUTH
New President of Southern Analyzes
intimate Relation of Company
to People Served.
Chattanooga, Term,—Speaking at the
annual banquet, of the Chattanooga '
Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Fairfax |
Harrison, tbe now president of the j
Southern Railway company, made
what may be considered his first pub¬
lic declaration, since Ills election to
succeed the Jatc Mr. W, YV. Finley.
Mr. Harrison said:
The Southern Railway System in¬
cludes 10,000 miles of railroad on
which 59,000 officers and employees
Fairfax Harrison, President Southern
Railway
perforin public services, in return for
which more than one hundred millions
of annual revenue is collected. These
are big figures and, in a country in
which there has always been a pride
in big things, in which every commun¬
ity lias been wont to boast of that
which it lias which is the biggest, such
a big thing as the Southern Railway
System should be, and T believe Is. j
a source of pride to the South, bin :
exactly in proportion ns it is big nllb j
in its public service and faithful in j
its public trust. The administration ;
of such a vast machine, affecting, as i;
does, the comfort and well being of
tlie people of a large territory, is.
therefore, itself a large public service
Tbe time has passed when it might
be exploited for merely private and
selfish ends. The lawyers used to;
tell us that a railroad was a quasi
public institution, but today, happily,
it might better be described as a quasi
private institution. It is private still
in the opportunity it presents for the ;
exercise of individual initiative and
competitive service, but in practically
every other sense it is now recognized
that it is public.
H is a matter of sincere regret to
every railroad manager that railroad
securities are not more generally held,
directly and immediately, in the*Com
inunities which the railroads serve
The lack of such holding deprives him
of a powerful and sympathetic ally in |
the relation of public opinion to his
problems. The time was when the rail¬
road stocks were owned immediately
at home, and by the people who were
most influential in shaping public opin¬
ion, hut today, while railroad stocks
are generally held by the same kind of
people—by those who, through the ex¬
ercise of prudence, industry and cour¬
age have laid by a competence, and by
the women and children for whom
they worked—such investors now do
not as a class reside in the territories
in which they have made their invest¬
ments. The explanation of this phe¬
nomenon—so well known to us all, but
still a phenomenon—is part of the
financial history of the United States,
but the fact has given rise to a feel¬
ing among many of those who use the
railroads daily and come into immedi¬
ate contact with their managements,
that tlie railroads belong to some mys¬
terious, remote and foreign power, to
THE CLEVELAND COURIER, CLEVELAND, GEORGIA.
to advise you of the results of the
management of your property, for
today it belongs more to you than it
does to the stockholders. More than
this, its management is and always
has been devoted to the interests of
the South, Its officers are mostly
Southern-born men and those who
were not horn in the South have
been here long enough to become
identified with our interests, our pe¬
culiarities, our responsibilities, our
prejudices, and our aspirations as a
people; they talk the same language
as the'people of the South. I look
forward to the time when there may be
more Southern men sitting on our
Board of Directors, where I know
that they will be welcome.
As an organization then, the South¬
ern Railway, with full appreciation
of, and acquiescence in, the present
tendency of public sentiment as to
what a railway is and should be,
stands pledged to the Southern peo¬
ple, and is proud to declare itself one
of their own institutions. As such it
invites the Southern people to help
it to become more and more their
efficient servant and at the same
time tiie object of their pride and af¬
fection. They need have no fear of
its future if it has their confidence.
I trust you will permit me to take
this occasion to say finally a word
of a personal nature: i believe in the
South and our Southern people with
all my heart and soul. I have given
most of the years of my manhood
to an earnest, though subordinate,
part in an effort to realize a high pur¬
pose of promoting the regeneration,
through industry, of the prosperity
of this our beloved motherland. 1
have not known in my own experi¬
ence the horrors either of the military
conflict which left our people
prostrate, or of the dreary years of
political disability and atrophied am¬
bition which followed that great war
between the States, in one of the
chief theaters of which we are to¬
night, but I know the bitterness of
these things in the tradition of my
immediate family, and 1 have learned
from my parents that there can be
no higher aspiration than to be a
part in the realization of the ideals
of our Southern people. Facing the
future, I have then dedicated my life
to-that duty and to identification with
the Southern people. Many others
have done and are doing this and I
am proud to be of the company which
has accomplished, through co-opera¬
tion and sustained effort, so much in
the last quarter of a century.
I am humbly grateful for the wel¬
come the South has given me to my
new opportunity for its service, It
has been such a welcome as you
have given me tonight, cordial and
with every evidence of good will. My
hope is to justify this to those who
allow me their confidence, who are
willing to believe that if we some¬
times fail it will not be through lack
of good intention or desire to do our
duty as we conceive it. I have no
sense of personal elation in the reali¬
zation today of an ambition cherished
ever since I entered the service of the
Southern Railway Company 17 years
ago. 1 feel most a sobering sense of a
heavy responsibility, but I do not fear
the event. I have served under two
great men, Samuel Spencer, and Wil¬
liam Wilson Finley, both men of action,
eager to accomplish, conscious al¬
ways of the imperious summons of
today, and of the warning of Eccle¬
siastes: “Whatsoever thy hand find
eth to do, do it with thy might,” 1
have known that before al! they
were patriotic men, faithful to the
South, and with their example and
their ideals before me my hope now
is so to carry on their work as to gain
the kind of public esteem they earned
and to aid in building for the future,
as they built, not only tbe Southern
Railway, but the South itself. In
this high endeavor, I am one of you,
my fellow countrymen, who are simi¬
larly engaged, and I appeal to you
as co-workers for aid and co-opera¬
tion.
Hastings’ Prolific
Corn Yielded 214
Bushels on I Acre
If you are going to plant corn this
spring, either to fill your own crib or i
to enter the corn club contests, the I
corn to plant, is Hastings’ Prolific.
Official United States govern¬
ment records show this corn has
yielded more per acre than any other
corn planted in the South. Hastings
Prolific won the Georgia record with
214 bushels to one acre; the Missis¬
sippi record with 225 bushels; the Ar¬
kansas record with 172 2-3; the Flor¬
ida record, 129 1-4. Hastings' Prolific
has won five-sixths of the corn club
prizes in Georgia. It has won
high yield per acre records in every
Southern state, three years out of
four.
This corn produces a grain and for¬
age of the finest quality. It is the
com that it will pay you best to plant
year in and year out.
Prices: Packet, 10 cents; 1-2 pint.
20 cents; pint, 30 cents; quart, 50
cents, postpaid. Peck, not prepaid,
$1; bushel, $3.50. Order today. Write
at once for our big free catalogue.
It is full of valuable agricultural in¬
formation and is a good book to hav#
on the farm. H. G. HASTINGS &
CO., Atlanta, Ga.—Ad/t.
19.12 cents of this was expended in
the South and only 4.18 cents in other
localities. Miscellaneous operating ex¬
penses required 6.09 cents, all spent
in the South. Taxes, all paid in the
South, required 3.65 cents. Interest,
rentals and other miscellaneous pay¬
ments accounted for 20.83 cents, and
the holders of the company’s prefer¬
red stock received 4,42 cents, it ts un
surtimately impracticable to determine
the proportion of interest and divi
s« paid to Southern owners of
SoutUei’a railway securities, i wish
it wa» all -paid to Southern people;
but, leaving these entirely out of ac
■ ixt, it is seen “that at least 70.57
;• its out of every dollar expended by
the Southern Railway remains in or Is j I
it into the South. It may be add
that these figures do not take ae- I
moots of expenditures amounting; for additions last and j
year to
Hi roe millions and a half and in ten
years- tov twenty-seven millions of
widen the. major, part, expended on
roj iv and structures, was practical¬
ly ail i -il out along the line of the
r.r.-.:t v\ e may then take it as es
tuW..-hed that what the Southern poo
p ■ pay the Southern Railway lines for
transportation remains a part of the
v f. ' capital of the Southern peo
pic; I) .i it is interesting to pursue
the thought a step further to a reali¬
zation of what these disbursements by
the Southern Railway in the South
mean in tlie life and growth of the
Southern people. Of the total of sev¬
enty six millions paid out along the
Southern Railway lines last year ap¬
proximately forty-three million dollars
went to the army of 59,000 employees
and thus, on the conventional basis of
five to a family, directly supported
about 295,000 Southern people, or
about six and one-half times the pop¬
ulation of Chattanooga at the date of
the last census.
1 have spoken of our preferred
stockholders, but the real preferred
stockholders of the Southern Rail¬
way System, in the matter of priority
of claim, are the political govern¬
ments of the States, counties, and
cities along its lines. Their claim
upon railroad revenues comes ahead
even of that of employees, and they
took $3,743,79-1.39 in the last fiscal
year. It is hard to grasp the signifi
canoe of figures as large as this :
what our tax payments really mean
to the communities along our lines
can he better understood by an illus¬
trative analysis of our payments on
account of school taxes and road and
bridge taxes in the southern states,
in 1912, our school taxes in these
states amounted to something over
$800,000, or aft.juaaa&SL^of twenty
eight hundred dollars for each coun¬
ty traversed by our lines. At the av¬
erage annual compensation of school
teachers in the Southern States as
reported by the United States Bureau
of Education, this would more than
pay for ten teachers in each county.
It represents $2.64 out of every $100
of school taxes paid in these States
and amounts to fifteen dollars for
each school building in the States
traversed by our lines. Every dollar
paid to the Southern Railway for
transportation charges thus includes
a substantial contribution to the
maintenance of the system of public
education in the South.
Payments by the Southern Railway
System in the same year of taxes di¬
rectly assessed for public roads and
fridges amounted to $447,966.63, or
an average of $1,571.81 for each coun¬
ty along our lines. Every dollar paid
; > the Southern Railway for transpor
hm charges thus includes also a
• 1 1 antial contribution to the main¬
tenance of the public highways of the
nth and is an indirect but none the
i\ ; public support of the pro- •
ressivo movement lor good and bet¬
ter roads.
• v referred to the impractica-
1 of determining the amounts of
' and dividends paid to hold¬
's of see uritl.es living along the line
• f ihe road. YVe know, however, that
a large percentage of our population
i".\e a very real though indirect per-
1 interest in these securities even
k. :h they may never have seen a
raFroad bond or stock certificate.
,
; v arc few families in the South
w ; > do not hold an insurance policy
of some sort; either an assurance on
IP'e or attainst the risk of fire. The
invested funds ol the great insurance
companies are, therefore, matter of
vital concern to the Southern people,
and in large measure, are their own
assets held in trust for their benefit.
We find that the chief insurance com¬
panies report their holding of securi¬
ties of the Southern Railway System,
including terminal bonds on which the
Southern is a joint guarantor, aggre¬
gating more than eighty million dol¬
lars. In that great fund, the integri¬
ty of which depends upon the con¬
tinued solvency of the Southern Rail¬
way lines, the Southern people have
a vital proprietory interest, an inter¬
est which, as they realize it, should
be to them a constant spur to protect
themsives by maintaining, as they
can and will, the basis of Southern
Railway credit.
I assert with confidence that the
facts to which I have called your at¬
tention are full warrant for the claim
that in a very real sense the South¬
ern Railway belongs, to the people of
tlie South; so much so that its annual
reports might more properly be ad¬
dressed “To the People of the South”
SHOAL CREEK DOTS.
Mr. M. II. Gillstrap had the
misfortune to lose a nice horse,
which sickened and died last Satur
hay.
Mr. Sell rag Rodgers and Miss
Lizzie Abercromby were united
;n tlie holy bonds of matrimony
Sun day morning, and are now
spending their honeymoon at the
home of Mr. T, \\\ Tate.
Mr. Alfred Stover, of Mossy
Creek, visited his parents, Mr. and
Mrs.-J. L. Stover,Sunday.
Mr. J- J. Brown has just finished
painting his house which has add¬
ed greatly to its appearance.
Mr. Toung Stover spent Satur¬
day and Sunday with the Town
Creek folks.
Mrs. M. J. Prince who has re¬
cently returned from Atlanta to
her home here, has been seriously
ill for the past week.
Mr. John Turner has been very
sick for the past week but is im¬
proving.
One of our merchants on going
to Gainesville last week, came near
meeting death. Near the river
bridge he met an automobile, and
being raised away up here in the
mountains where these dont grow,
became frightened and jumped
from his wagon, leaving the team,
which went one way and him the
other, to take care of themselves.
He was a little, stiff over the race
for a few days but is now able to
be out at work again,
Mes-rs. Johnnie Martin, II. \V.
Lackey and X. E. Fergerson, ac¬
companied by your correspondent,
attended the singing ot Shoal
Creek Sunday.
There are seven wonders in
Shoal Creek. If anyone will guess
what they are we will give them
a year's subscription to the Cleve¬
land Courier. » i
The giver of all good is still giv¬
ing ns line and pleasant weather.
We should not get so busy with
mr affairs that we haven’t time to
count our blessings.
The friends of -Mrs. John Davis
will be glad will be glad to learn of
her recovery from a serious and
painful illness.
Mr. John Cain gave the young
people a cotton picking Saturday
night.
Miss Linda Brock is very feeble
at this writing.
Miss Neela Bowen shipped a
very fine hog (Chester While) to
Gainesville recently.
Mr. Homer Swaim attended the
sale at Clermont.
Mr. Tim Hunter lias returned
from New Holland and is busily
engaged in farm work.
Mrs. Bill McGee has a great cu¬
riosity in the poultry line. It is a
guinea-chicken.
Mrr Marlow Gillstrap is doing
repair work on Mr. Tom Bowen’s
bouse.
Mr. Roy Keith likes to go fish¬
ing on “dry land” in company
with Miss Dolly Cain.
BACKACHE-RHEUMATISM
VANISH A WAV
Men and women having back¬
ache, rheumatism, stiff and swollen
joints are honestly glad to know
that Folev Kidney Pills are success¬
ful everywhere in driving out these
ills. That is because Foley Kidney
Pills are a true medicine and quick¬
ly effective in all diseases that re¬
sult from weak inactive kidneys
and urnary irregularities.
Norton & Ash