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. Mr. Ed. Baxter, who is Chief Counsel, as I understand, for all the Southern Railways served notice upon the Railroad Commission in the City of Atlanta before the Federal Court in the following language as near as I can remember: [Illustration: “Poor little rooster—crowed too quick.”] “The Railroad Commission may well understand that they have reached the length of their tether; henceforth we will put ourselves under the ægis of the Federal Courts.” In other words, whenever the Georgia Railroad Commission, or any other State Commission, or Inter-State Commission, undertakes to put in a rate that is not satisfactory to the railroads, then they would appeal to the Federal Courts. Again, and in its last analysis, the meaning is plain enough to any man who wants to understand it, that the railroads have taken this position, as is evidenced by their opposition to the bill now before Congress and advocated by President Roosevelt: