said we "made good money compared with the farm." Another white sharecropper said, "Mebbe we ain't got much, but we sure has got more." And at least one white ex-farmer remembered the move enthusiastically: "Yeah! Oh, we just thought we had almost come to heaven when we got up here. We didn't have to pick cotton, chop cotton, like that. Just go to work and come back, and nothing else to do. And we really had it made when we come here." Although a common practice at the time, the mills used child labor. See Avondale Mills. Railroad Commission Comer was a vocal advocate for railroad reform. Alabama business owners were at a disadvantage when competing for business with companies based in Georgia due to that state's lower freight rates. The Birmingham Commercial Club and the Birmingham Freight Bureau, organizations in which Comer had significant roles, found evidence of railroad rate discrimination. Comer believed giving more power to the state's Railroad Commission was the best way to end the discrimination and lower rates to a level allowing Alabama companies to compete with those in Georgia. But, the state legislature and delegates to the 1901 Constitutional Convention did not strengthen the commission's power. When the Railroad Commission did not change rates after two more years, Comer switched tactics to run for a seat on the commission, which had recently been converted to an electoral office. He campaigned to limit the power of the railroads in favor of shipping. In 1904, he was elected commission president but quickly realized he had little power due to the other two commissioners siding with the railroads. Three years into his term as president, Comer concluded that he could only enact railroad reform by becoming governor. Political Background Eufaula Massacre of 1874 and Political Intimidation Comer played a part in the 1870s white supremacist campaign of terrorism that led to the disenfranchisement of Blacks. He and his brother, Wallace, led a Spring Hill, Alabama, mob that carried out the Eufaula Massacre of 1874. On Election Day, Comer led the White League to disrupt the election and ambushed a group of around 1,000 Black men going to the polls. The mob massacred at least seven Blacks, shot at least seventy more, and prevented the rest of the crowd from voting. That evening some of Comer's mob stormed an office where ballots were being counted, burned the ballots