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'**’ "* • "y' Jafc •" ** • • ' * * *■* ; '* *'• a ** * * '-<?*“* '«■ * - • ,j* * • A *Weekly Jeffersonian. Vol. 11. JUbf/CE TO THE fiH EMANCIFATION FROM ®L II I ffljwr OSS TALLIN (j CMbiTIONS V ' -S- WmjJ . <}<i|l>arv y 'W\ ►-a.- . ' ww \\ ..Mi r■ >jTf •;< ■?■ ■■ ‘ W«tefI3MBB/ /s/ I&Ab&k '"*“ — 1 ~~“~~.ilt< >?F ■. »E jFiltF'/ s&££ x r ~-^ A*^■ z z '■ ■ ; z a ' - Acms ° ° ‘ •" w/bmp* s MaaMR - ~>'-F JWEx u^n ' ’wQißliiP' ’. TffAl» . ■ ■ IBWfflr /z"' - /Z * > ° I fir w JkisSuPitiiTk 'OsS>» > w Mi j, 1 f /-- «*- .jf FT .z.z ' ,RF f / it x -■ > Fz' .' jV: '£__ E^u.'rF‘r^SfK'rv!^tiS-j.'''}^^rF( F. - L./Sz ■ .... „ ■■ ; 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.