NATCHEZ, COLUMBIA & MOBILE RAILROAD. The capital stock of the Natchez, Columbia & Mobile Railroad Company, of which $900,000 has been issued, is held by the same per-sons and in the same proportions as the stock of the Butterfield Lumber Company, which has a mill at Norfield, Miss. The track of the tap line joins the Illinois Central at Norfield and extends eastward for 14 miles to a point known as Main Line Junction, where it divides into two branches, one extending northeastward for about 9 miles to Old Camp, and the other track running southward about 7-1/2 miles to Furlough switch. In addition to these tracks, aggregating about 30 miles in length, the tap line builds and operates for the lumber company logging tracks of a temporary character joining the main line at various points and extending into the timber that is being cut. There are three towns or settlements where the tap line has station buildings, and at the junction point, Norfield, it employs jointly the agent of the Illinois Central. There are track scales at Norfield on which the employees of the tap line weigh the shipments of the lumber company. The equipment consists of 7 locomotives, 1 baggage car, 2 passenger cars, 2 box cars, 10 flat cars, and 75 logging cars, with a few work cars and a pile driver.

The tap line was incorporated in 1892, and the first construction of the track was coincident with the building of the mill of the lumber company. It is stated that the latter had previously endeavored to get the Illinois Central to build a track for the purpose of bringing logs from the timber to the mill, and being unsuccessful in this effort it undertook the construction of the tap line.

The logs are loaded on the cars by employees of the lumber company, but the locomotives of the tap line not only move the cars to the mill but perform all necessary service on the logging spurs in the woods, including the movement of the log loader from place to place. The train employees unload the logs into the pond at the mill. For these services a charge of 2 cents per 100 pounds is set. up against the lumber company, together with a special switching charge of $1 per car for the services on the logging spurs. The tap line switches the empty and loaded cars for the lumber shipments between the mill and the interchange track with the Illinois Central, a distance of one-quarter of a mile, the mill being adjacent however to the Illinois Central right of way. The rates published by the Illinois Central in which the tap line participates are 2 cents per 100 pounds higher than the junction-point rates. In the case of shipments by the proprietary lumber company this arbitrary represents the charge of 2 cents already referred to for moving the logs to the mill. The Illinois Central gives a division of 4 cents per 100 pounds or a net payment out of its earnings of 2 cents. It is interesting to observe the way in which the payments are made: The charges on the lumber are assessed by the Illinois Central at the regular rate from the junction point; and at the end of each month, upon presentation by the tap line of a statement of the inbound movements of logs to the mill, the claim department of the Illinois Central refunds 2 cents per 100 pounds. There are several small independent mills along the tap line, including one, known as the Busbee mill, which has a sidetrack connecting with the tap line. These mills pay on their lumber 2 cents per 100 pounds more than the rates in effect from the junction point; and those mills have to bear the entire cost of moving their logs in.

The tap line runs two logging trains daily, to one of which a passenger coach is attached. It also runs one other train, referred to on the record as a " mixed train," on which passengers and mail are carried. Its revenues during the year 1910 from the carriage of passengers and mails aggregated $3,735. During the same year it earned on freight traffic $101,213.05. There was an accumulated deficit on June 30, 1910, of $556,890.70. This has been taken care of in some way by the lumber company. The record clearly indicates that the entire revenues are paid over to the lumber company and placed to the credit of the tap line on its books. The lumber company makes all disbursements, purchases the material and supplies, and pays the employees of the tap line. It owns the shops where the locomotives and cars of the tap line are kept in repair.

The record does not indicate the exact proportion of the freight traffic in which the proprietary company was interested, but during the year 1910 there were 16,611 tons of lumber and about 168,000 tons of logs. During the same year 1,692 tons of agricultural products and merchandise moved outbound, and 3,063 tons of merchandise and supplies, together with 3,773 tons of coal, moved in. A large pro-portion of this traffic was apparently handled for the account of the lumber company or its employees. There are several stores and commissaries along the line, some of which are owned by outside interests, and operated by the lumber company under some special arrangement.

We find no justification here for any allowance on the products of the mill of the proprietary lumber company.