ALABAMA CENTRAL RAILROAD. The Alabama Central Railroad Company was incorporated in 1906 with an authorized capital stock of $100,000, of which $90,000 has been issued and is owned by E. M. Barton, its president, who, with his family, owns a majority of the stock of the Manchester Lumber Company. The tap line has no bonds; its track connects with the Illinois Central, the Frisco, and the Northern Alabama Railway at Jasper, Ala., and extends northward for a distance of less than seven miles to Manchester. Beyond that point the lumber company has an unincorporated logging road. The equipment of the tap line consists of one locomotive and one combination passenger car. The lumber company owns and operates locomotives and logging cars. Its mill is at Manchester, a sawmill town with a population of about 500, where there is a company store. There is said to be coal underlying a considerable portion of the timber land of the lumber company, which exceeds 26,000 acres; but no mines have been opened.

When the mill was opened the public carriers proposed to build or assist in the building of the necessary track to reach their lines; but their offers were not taken advantage of, the tap line corporation being formed to build and operate the track. One train runs daily in each direction over the tap line, on which a few passengers are carried, the revenue therefrom being $280.50 for the year 1910; for the carriage of the mail the tap line received $294.97, while its revenues from express traffic amounted to $4.96. Over 85 per cent of its freight revenues, amounting to $13,014.25, for the same year, accrued on traffic of the proprietary company, and about 40 per cent of that amount was paid by the Illinois Central and Frisco, which make an allowance of 2 cents per 100 pounds out of their published rates on lumber. There are no through rates or allowances on other commodities. The lumber company itself moves the logs over the spurs to a point on its unincorporated line about 4 miles north of the mill; from that point the engine of the tap line moves the cars to the mill at a charge of 50 cents per 1,000 feet. The tap line moves the lumber over the full length of its line from the mill at Manchester to the junction at Jasper, a" distance of 7 miles.

Although the tap line has been receiving divisions for several years it did not file an annual report with the Commission until August 14, 1911, when it presented the report for the fiscal year 1910. This report showed a small deficit from the operation of the road to that date.

In this case a division out of the rate may lawfully be made to the tap line by its trunk line connections not exceeding 12 cents per 100 pounds.