Financial History Issue 112 (Winter 2015) | Page 14

EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE leadership had won a decisive victory, and grain began to flow into the South. By the 1990s, Southern Railway alone was, according to Morgret, “moving nearly eight million tons of grain a year into the Southeast, 10 times the amount handled in 1960.” While southern cattle ranchers were slow to embrace the reality of lower grain prices, the poultry industry in the South grew rapidly after the introduction of lower rail rates for grain. Saunders contends that lower grain prices led to a significant change in America’s diet because chicken, which had been relatively expensive, became much more affordable with the increase in poultry production. In 1980, Brosnan was inducted into the Georgia Transportation Hall of Fame. At the induction ceremony, it was noted that poultry production was Georgia’s largest agribusiness in 1978. A representative of one of Georgia’s leading poultry producers claimed, “Had it not been for Mr. Brosnan’s Big John capacity and greatly reduced freight rates, the massive southeastern broiler industry of today would still be a relatively small industry.” Brosnan’s battle with the ICC had much broader implications for railroads. Saunders wrote: Many believe it was the sheer stupidity of the ICC’s vendetta against Big John that set in motion the bipartisan move to d \