342 



GEORGIA. 



The general condition of the farmers through- 

 out the State is said to be prosperous. The 

 abandonment of the " all-cotton" policy, and 

 greater attention to grain-crops and home sup- 

 plies, make them hear more complacently the 

 low price of cotton. 



The Commissioner of Agriculture estimates 

 the corn-crop of the State at 36,963,940 bush- 

 els, the wheat-crop at 3,284,960, and the oat- 

 crop at 11,643,482. 



The estimated indebtedness of farmers in 

 the whole State is 76 per cent of that of last 

 year. According to this estimate the farmers 

 of the State have reduced their indebtedness 

 since last year 24 per cent. 



A majority of the correspondents in every 

 section report an advance in farm-lands since 

 December, 1881, as follows : In North Georgia, 

 13 per cent; in Middle Georgia, 11 - 5 per cent ; 

 in Southwest Georgia, 20 per cent; in East 

 Georgia, 15 per cent ; and in Southeast Geor- 

 gia, 40 per cent. The average advance in the 

 whole State is 14 per cent. 



THE EAILROAD COMMISSION AND THE RAIL- 

 KOADS. When the Constitution of 1877 con- 

 ferred the power on the General Assembly "to 

 regulate railroad freight and passenger tariffs, 

 preventing unjust discriminations and requir- 

 ing reasonable and just rates," etc., and when 

 subsequently, in the exercise of this authority, 

 the General Assembly created a Board of Rail- 

 road Commissioners, compelling the various 

 railroad companies in Georgia, under heavy 

 penalties, to accept and obay its orders as to 

 charges for freight and passengers, it was 

 thought that the opposition to the commission 

 would be violent and uncompromising, espe- 

 cially on the part of those roads with whose 

 chartered or u vested " rights the commission 

 might seem to interfere. Public opinion has 

 so decidedly approved the legislation as a pro- 

 tection against monopolies, and experience has 

 so fully demonstrated its utility as well as its 

 impartiality, that the railroad companies have 

 generally acquiesced and conformed to its regu- 

 lations, while protesting feebly in order, as they 

 allege, not to surrender their chartered privi- 

 leges. The Georgia Railroad, from Atlanta to 

 Augusta, 171 miles, nominally leased in May, 

 1881, to the late William M. Wadley, President 

 of the Central Railroad, from Savannah ma 

 Macon to Atlanta, but really, as is universally 

 understood and believed, to the Central Rail- 

 road Company, has taken exception to some 

 freight regulations of the commissioners issued 

 in February, 1882, and applied to the Superior 

 Court of Fulton County for an injunction re- 

 straining the commissioners from prescribing 

 rates of freight over the Georgia Railroad, al- 

 leging that the act creating the commission is 

 unconstitutional, and that consequently all its 

 acts are null and void, and praying the court 

 to so declare. The Superior Court having re- 

 fused the injunction, though suspending the 

 enforcement of the commission's order until 

 the case shall be finally adjudicated, appeal 



has been taken to the Supreme Court of the 

 State, where it is now pending. It will be 

 heard in the spring of 1883, and deep interest 

 is felt in the decision. The commission's cir- 

 cular, No. 20, to which the Georgia Railroad 

 so strenuously objected, and which caused the 

 present controversy, is thus fully and clearly 

 explained and justified by the commissioners in 

 their answer to the complainant's bill : 



A Cincinnati or Louisville miller can ship a barrel 

 of 200 pounds of flour from his place to Charleston. S. 

 C., directly through Atlanta a distance of 783 miles 

 for 30 cents per barrel. If an Atlanta miller shipped 

 300 pounds of wheat from Cincinnati or Louisville he 

 paid therefor 93 cents freight to Atlanta a distance of 

 474 miles. After grinding it into flour he then paid 60 

 cents per 100 pounds or $1.20 per ban-el of 200 pounds 

 of flour freight from Atlanta to Charleston a distance 

 of 309 miles making $2.13 per barrel freight that 

 the Georgia miller really paid on a barrel of flour 

 ground in this State as against 30 cents that the Cin- 

 cinnati and Louisville miller paid freight on a barrel 

 of flour ground there and transported over identically 

 the same roads and the same distance, being a dis- 

 crimination of $1.83 per barrel against the Georgia 

 miller in favor of the Western miller, and against the 

 farmer of our State in favor of the Western fanner. 

 . . . Out of a rate from Cincinnati or Louisville to 

 Charleston, S. C., the Georgia Eailroad for hauling 

 1V1 miles voluntarily accepted six and one fifth cents 

 as tolls on a barrel of flour ; but the proportion of the 

 rate on a barrel of flour shipped by a Georgia miller 

 from Atlanta to Charleston, which that road trans- 

 ported 171 miles, was about thirty-two cents. That 

 is, over five times as great a rate was collected by the 

 Georgia Eailroad on a Georgia miller's barrel of flour 

 shipped to Charleston, S. C., as was voluntarily ac- 

 cepted by that road on a barrel of flour shipped by a 

 Cincinnati or Louisville miller the same distance over 

 its road. And in addition the Georgia miller was re- 

 quired to ship as much as a car-load of flour to get the 

 benefit of even this rate, while the Cincinnati miller 

 was permitted to ship any quantity, from one barrel 

 up, at the greatly discriminating rates mentioned, 

 granted him by the railroads. 



The question involved is of deep interest, not 

 only to citizens of Georgia, but to the people 

 of every State. 



The aggregate value of the taxable property 

 of .railroads in Georgia, as returned by their 

 authorized agents for the year 1882, is $18,- 

 729,429. Their business during the year, not- 

 withstanding the reduction of their rates of 

 freight and passenger fares by the Railroad 

 Commission, and the increased and increasing 

 competition, has been satisfactory. The roads 

 generally are in good order; steel rails are 

 being rapidly substituted for iron ; their equip- 

 ment has . been much improved, and faster 

 schedules as to running time between termini 

 are being adopted ; 325 miles of new railroad 

 have been constructed during the year, and a 

 number of new roads, of both broad and narrow 

 gauge, are projected, but it is by no means 

 certain that they will be completed within a 

 short time. 



An important decision as to the rights of 

 railroad corporations was pronounced by the 

 Supreme Court of Georgia in December, in the 

 case of Chambers vs. the Cincinnati and Geor- 

 gia Railroad Company. The road had been run 

 through the land of Mr. Chambers, without 



