EX-CHAIRMAN BROWN’S LETTER
Hawkinsville, Ga., Jan. 5, 1906.
Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.
Dear Tom—Yours of the 3rd inst., just received. I have been very busy of late winding up business of the old year and arranging for the new year. You know this is about the busiest time for the farmer. Therefore I have not read the papers closely and have not seen the denial of Mr. Howell concerning the improvements at Flovilla ordered some time ago by the Railroad Commission. I do not recall exactly what I said to you in regard to this matter, but I will give you the facts according to my best recollection:
While Judge Atkinson was Chairman, the Commission, on its own motion, seeing the necessity of improved facilities at Flovilla, ordered that a pavilion be built like the one at Warm Springs, if my memory serves me correctly; also that water-closets be put in, and other improvements be made in connection with the passenger station. It was a considerable length of time before any attention was paid to this order at all. After so long a time, and continual nagging on the part of the Commission, which no doubt the records will show, the railroad put up a little shed there, which is but a make-shift, and called it a pavilion. Upon one pretext and another they delayed putting in the closets, and if they have been put in at all I do not know it.
In speaking about this matter on one occasion to a representative of the Southern Railway, whom I happened to meet on the train, I suggested to him that these improvements ought to be made. His reply was, that the railroads did not feel disposed to do anything for Butts County for the reason that the juries were too ready to give verdicts against the railroads. My reply to him was, that if the railroads would do their duty by the people, the people would in turn be willing to do justice to the railroads.
Mr. Dozier, the Banker at Flovilla, and Mr. Duke, a lawyer representing the Southern Railway at Flovilla, and others there, will corroborate what I have said. In my report to the Railroad Commission about the condition of depots in the state I called attention to several instances where the railroads had refused to comply with the orders of the Railroad Commission, and there has never been any denial made by the railroad people.
At Pitts, Ga., there was a little pigeon house built and located, contrary to the orders of the Railroad Commission. The records of the Railroad Commission will show this to be a fact. Also it will be found by the records that while Judge Atkinson was Chairman an order was made requiring the roads to stop their passenger coaches at the station for the convenience of passengers, rather than to have them stop one hundred or two hundred feet away from the depots. This order has also been absolutely ignored by all the railroads that have come under my observation.
There has not been an order regulating freight rates issued by the Railroad Commission in some time, unless it was absolutely satisfactory to the railroads, where the railroads have complied with it.