Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1887 — REGULATING THE RAILROADS [ARTICLE]

REGULATING THE RAILROADS

A numerously signed petition from citizens of California was received in Washington requesting the commission not to suspend the operation of section 4 so far as the Pacific coast is concerned, until an opportunity be afforded all persons interested to be heard. Before the Interstate Commerce Comm ss on at Mobile, on the 29th ult, Col. W. Butler Duncan, President; U. 8. Depew, Traffic Manager, and Col. Talcott, Vice President of the Mobile & Ohio Road, testified as to the necess.ty of a suspension of the fourth section of the law in the case of that road. Mr. Depew explained that the rates to some intermediate points between East St Louis and Mobile were greater than the full distance because the competition of the Mississippi River boats

to New Orleans compelled it The Commissioners were informed that Memphis controlled the rates at competitive points by her low all-rail rate to New York. Petitions for a suspension of the fourth section were presented from the coal and lumber* interests from Mobile, Huntsville, and other towns. Louisiana planters, in convention at New Orleans, declared in favor of the strict enforcement of the law. The Union Pacific Railroad has asked for the suspension of Section 4. James Bauron, Secretary and Treasurer of the Tennessee-Alabama Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company, testified before the Interstate Commerce Commission at Mobile that his company had $16,000,000 invested in lands and property. The business of the company had grown and expanded under the effect of low rates so that before the interstate law went into effect the pig-iron products of Alabama were 630 tons per day. All this output bad to seek distant markets. Since the law went into effect the daily sales had fallen to 100 tons, mostly for shipment by water Petitions for a suspension of section 4 were received from Birmingham iron men and from representatives of the Southern Yellow-Pine Lumber Manufacturers' Association. A protest against the suspension of the law was presented from the Mobile Cotton Exchange The Commission then proceeded to New Orleans.