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Vol. 11.
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Too late I This train Ivill continue on the straight track until it reaches the terminal.
Mr. Bolrdre Phinizy's Petition to the 'Railroad Commission
All told some twenty-six pages of
closely printed matter in regard to
the condition of the Georgia railroad
has been furnished the Railroad Com
mission of the state by Mr. Bowdre
Phinizy. In the meantime, since this
agitation was started and since the
original petition was filed, we have
seen the directors of the Georgia
Railroad and Banking Company, the
company which owns the Georgia rail
road, but which does not operate the
road, having leased it to the Atlantic
Coast Line and the Louisville & Nash
ville, pass a resolution at their quar
terly meeting, practically joining in
with Mr. Phinizy's petition, asking for
an investigation of the conditions on
this road, and also asking for an ex
amination by an expert as to condi
tions and guaranteeing all expenses.
There has never been a more mo
mentous question up before the Rail
road Commission of the state than the
question that Mr. Phinizy has raised
in his petition. There has never been
a question up before the commission
A Debated to the Adbocacy of the Jeffersonian Theory of Gobernment.
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, February 28, 1907.
that demanded a more thorough,
searching, impartial and competent
expert investigation, an investi
gation that will not be hur
riedly made in a special train, but
an investigation that will be complete
and thorough and able and convinc
ing, even if it takes a month of two
months to make it. Nothing less than
this will satisfy the public; nothing
less than this ought to satisfy the
Railroad Commission on the one hau l
or the parties to this proceeding on
the order.
Mr. Phinizy has not been timid or
backward in making the allegations
in his petition, and he has not been
over modest in indicating at the re
quest of the Railroad Commission just
what relief he thinks the public is
entitled to at their hands. It isn’t a
little question that is up for discus
sion, it isn’t just a little repair and
patchwork in places, it really doesn’t
matter whether or not the depot at
James’ needs a new roof or not, but
it is a question of whether or not a
railroad enjoying special and excep
tional charter rights by the state,
which is capitalized at four million,
two hundred thousand dollars ($4,200,-
000), and whose last year’s net in
come is reputed to have been some
thing like nine hundred thou
sand dollars ($900,000), and
which income we may safe
ly assume is going to continue to grow
greater and greater, is going to be al
lowed to run up net earnings while it
neglects its track and road bed until
travel over it becomes notoriously un
safe and unexpeditious. The remedy
for the situation is undoubtedly more
tracks and better tracks, more cross
ties that are sound and less that are
rotton; heavier rail, more ballast, in
fact, anything and everything that
makes for safety, security and
promptness of the public service that
this railroad was chartered by the
state to do.
In Florida, where the attorney gen
eral of the state, in behalf of the peo
ple, has instituted against the Atlan
tic Coast Line practically the same
suit that Mr. Phinizy's petition has
brought up to the Railroad Commis
sion and to the people of tho state
already as a result the Atlan
tic Coast Line has begun to practical
ly rebuild many of its lines in that
state, so that travel and traffic over
them may become safe and expedi
tious. Where a railroad management
doesn’t believe in this sort of thing,
they ought to be convinced of it by
proper proceedings instituted either
by the citizens or the state officials.
No better test case could be made
than with the Georgia railroad, which
is largely owned by the people of
Georgia, but practically operated by
two of the big railway system of the
south —Atlantic Coast Line and the
Louisville and Nashville. It is an ob
ject lesson that cannot fail to impress
forcibly, publicly, and far-reachlngly
both the rights of the people and tho
duty of railroad managers in the hand
ling of these public carrier corpora
tions. Let’s begin to think a litt'le
bit less of bigger and bigger net earn
ings and to think a little bit more bf
the safety, security and convenience
of the public, whose dollars and
whose lives make possible these very
same net earnings.—Augusta Herald.
No. 6.