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WATSON'S EDIT ORIALS
President Phinizy ’s Letter.
It gave The Jeffersonian pleasure to publish
last week the letter of the Hon. Jacob Phin
izy, president of the Georgia railroad.
That Mr. Phinizy is quite earnest in his de
fense of the present management of the great
property over which he holds a nominal con
trol, cannot be doubted. He believes that all
is well. Like the Italian road commissioners
in Onida’s “Village Commune,” who were al
most jostled and bumped and jolted to death
in traveling up to town, but who adopted with
alacrity and without debate the resolution of
the superintendent that the roads were in ex
cellent condition, President Phinizy stands
loyally by the mismanagement of Mister Colo
nel Scott, although it would seem, from news
paper accounts, that Mr. Phinizy and his
nephew, Mr. Bowdre Phinizy, were incom
moded and delayed by a Georgia railroad
wreck while on their way to the trial of the
case before the commission in Atlanta.
To agree with Mr. Phinizy in his contention
that the Georgia railroad is well managed and
is in good condition, would either compel us
to shut our eyes to the physical facts, or to en
dorse the doctrine that good management
is to be judged solely by the dividends earned.
If it be good management to run the Geor
gia railroad for no other purpose than to pile
up millions for a gang of greedy, unscrupu
lous, lawless rascals in New York, then the
Georgia railroad has been well managed. It
has done that. No one disputes the fact.
But if, on the other hand, good management
consists in conscientious recognition of the
DUTIES OF A COMMON CARRIER, and
the faithful discharge of those duties, then
The Jeffersonian stands ready to meet all com
ers in any forum, and to maintain that the
management of Mister Colonel Scott has been
a discredit to all who are responsible for it.
Air. Phinizy cannot want us to forget what
we ourselves have experienced. Pie does not
expect us to forget what we have seen and felt.
There is no need of any wrangle to prove
that the schedule contracts of the Georgia rail
road are constantly violated. Have not thou
sands of the patrons of the road been inconven
ienced, damaged, put to extra and unnecessary
expense in traveling, because of this contin
ual violation of schedule contracts?
Has not the freight business of the cor
poration been wretchedly handled? Have not
the merchants, from Augusta to Atlanta, been
seriously incommoded, aggravated and injured
by reason of the non-delivery of goods within
a reasonable time?
As to the matter of rotten cross ties, The
Jeffersonian KNOWS that it can make legal
proof of the statement which it has publish
ed. We have talked with the witnesses; we
are familiar with the facts; we can vouch for
the good character of our informants. The
rotten cross ties were there, just-as we said;
loose spikes were pulled out with the naked
fingers, just as we said; old ties, on being re
moved from their place in the road bed, did
fall to pieces from sheer rottenness; and at
least one rotten cross tie did catch fire, on the
main line, and was merrily burning itself away
when seen and put out by a drummer who
happened to be traveling along the dirt road.
That wrecks have been caused by these faulty
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN
A Newspaper Devoted to the Advocacy of the Jeffersonian ‘Theory of Government.
PUBLISHED BY
THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON,
Editors and Proprietors
Temple Court Building, Atlanta, Ga.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1907.
conditions in the road, The Jeffersonian firmly
believes. We have been so informed by re
sponsible persons who witnessed some of these
wrecks and who described the physical con
ditions attending them. As to the lack of de
cent accommodations for passengers at the
stations between Atlanta and Augusta, the.
facts speak for themselves. There is not an
up-to-date waiting room along the whole line
of the Georgia railroad.
There is not a single toilet room, so far as we
have ever heard. We know that, as a rule, the
passenger stations are not supplied with these
necessaries.
In Atlanta they are provided; in Augusta
they are provided; elsewhere they are not pro
vided.
Why?
The reason for their existence in the two
large cities applies as forcibly to the towns
along the line.
Why supply the necessaries at one place,
and not at another?
The waiting rooms are not kept open at
night. Passengers for the night trains are
given no accommodations at all. They must
stand or squat around in the dark. If the
weather is bad, it makes no difference. The
wind, the rain, the sleet, the snow—all these
the unsheltered patron of the Georgia railroad
must endure. The waiting room is there; the
lamp is there in its bracket; but the present
management of the Georgia railroad is so in
fernally mean that the door of the waiting
room is kept locked at night, for fear that ten
cents' worth of oil might be wasted.
So morbidly anxious are our local corporation
managers to please their New York Masters
with ever increasing net earnings that the
health and the comfort of the patrons of the
road go for nothing.
Maj. Cumming and Mr. Phinizy would feel
greatly outraged, no doubt, if their wives and
daughters were exposed to inclement weather
and were thus thrown upon beds of sickness by
road, which denied them the shelter of its wait
ing room at night. Having had just that to hap
the niggardly inhumanity of the Georgia rail
pen to my own daughter at Thomson, I have
some feeling in the matter —the more so as I
know that the same thing is liable to happen
to any patron of the road at any time.
Three or four years ago, I lectured at Madi
son. Wishing to take the midnight train
home, my host drove me down to the depot.
A rain storm was on. The waiting room of
the Georgia railroad was locked. No light
about the depot at all. There I stood in the
driving rain, with no shelter whatever. Fortu
nately, I caught a glint of the light from the
private office of the night telegraph operator,
and was given his courteous permission to
come in out of the storm.
My guests, leaving my home at night for At
lanta, have experienced the same luxurious
treatment. Only, at Thomson, they do not
even find a night operator’s private office to
which they can appeal.
Whether my guest be Senator Tillman. John
Temple Graves, or some other celebrity,
makes no difference. We roost around in the
dark, unsheltered, until the train comes. And
now that it requires a dozen prophets to fore
tell when the train will come, our enjoyment
of the situation is so keen that I could wish
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clan mail matter.
Maj. Cumming and Mr. Phinizy would honor
me with a similar visit, in order that they, like
wise, might be initiated into the subtle de
lights of taking the midnight train on their
blamed old road.
P. S.—lt seems that The Jeffersonian was
mistaken in saying that Mister Colonel Scott
is a man of northern birth, and it is equally
clear that Mr. Phinizy is somewhat hazy con
cerning Scott’s politics. Our information is
that Scott is a Republican. As to his being a
southern man, that only makes the case worse.
A southern man who bends all his energies
to the task of helping a gang of northern spec
ulators to plunder the south, does not stand
high in the good graces of The Jeffersonian.
* * n
Teaching the Parrot.
Watch the Man who is teaching the Bird.
The man is a Corporation Lawyer and the
bird is a Judicial Parrot. The parrot knows
many words that have already been taught
him by the man, and can say them so that all
can understand and admire; but his trainer
wants to teach him another word.
This word is “Confiscatory.” It is a newly
coined word, and a lengthy word, and it gags
the parrot a little, but don’t you be uneasy:
the parrot will learn the word. And when it
gets so that it can say “Confiscatory” as glib
ly as its trainer, the corporation kings who
own both the bird and trainer, will be ex
ceedingly pleased.
Why do the owners of the Trainer want him
to teach the Bird the new term “Confiscatory”?
Because the Government says the Public
Roads shall be open to the public at 2 cents
per mile. Those who are in possession of our
Public Roads claim that if the people are al
lowed to travel on their Public Roads at 2
cents per mile those who are in possession will
not make any net profit out of the carriage.
But how do they know? The carriages now
go back and forth half-full, and sometimes
less than half-full. Sometimes we see but a
dozen passengers in a car that might be full,
if the cost of travel were not so high.
On Excursion Days, when rates are cheap,
the whole train is rammed, jammed and
crammed. Sometimes the overflow hangs out
at the window, clings on to the railing of the
steps, crowds the rear end, and straddles the
cow-catcher.
Why is the crowd so great?
Because of Cheap Rates. So it is, also dur
ing the weeks when the railroads publish Spe
cial Rates.
Traveling becomes cheap; therefore, Mr.
Everybody and his wife and children and
house dog go traveling.
Now suppose the cheap rate was spread out
over the whole year, wouldn’t the increased
travel spread out over the whole year, also?
Os course, it would. But the corporation
lawyers are so fond of running to court that
they can’t abandon the habit, yet awhile.
These intellectual giants get big fees, you
know, and they must see to it that “some
thing’s doing” all the time, else the Corpora
tions might begin to fancy they need not pay
out so much money to the lawyers.
Consequently, the corporation lawyers are
now engaged in the congenial task of persuad
ing the judges to decide that legislation is
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