Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1880-01-10

railroad magnates. Then he wheeled
to his northern extreme and OBJ,
tanned control of the New Albany
Indianapolis & Chicago Railroad
thus making his line complete from
| the Lakes to the Gulf.
And, now we have the announce
ment that Mr.. Cole has leased thu
Georgia Central, its branches anc
its steamship lines. What move il
next in this game of the rails, none
can tell. 1t is, at least, not apt t.
hurt the general public.
| The sum Of it all is simply this
Mr.. Cole has secured a through
line under one control, from St
Louis to Savannah, with branch
to the Ohio river at Greensboro,
DIR. Standiford has secured a line
under one control from Chicago,
via Nashville, Decatur and Mont
gomery to the Gulf, at Mobile, and by
a branch, which can be quickly built
from Decatur, a short line connec-
ton to Atlanta, and via the yet I'M
trammeled Georgia Road, to the
sea at Port Royal and Charleston.
Why all this sudden activity ?
One only has to look little east of
the battlefield and find there,
just approaching completion, the
Cincinnati Southern Railroad. In
this road is the key to all this rails
road buying and leasing. When a
frstsclass road is built that will
shorten freight distances 10 miles,
and on account of the excellence Of
construction, travelling proportions
atel y a great deal more, then lines
with which it has to compete must
obtain some set off to those advant-
ages. Mr.. Cole has a road from
Chattanooga to ST. Louis. He will
soon have one from Chattanooga to
Greensboro, where he can easily
connect with the Ohio and Missis>
sippi. He buys the Western and
Atlantic, that he may control its
freights for his lines, and he gets a
line to and from the sea. The South
ern trade which the coming Gin
cinnati Southern promises to catch
must be held for Nashville, Louis
vile and St. Louis. 1t can only be
held by controlling those roads,
over which it would reach the
Southern road, and so managing them
that it will be forced to the cities
named rather than to Cincinnati.
This is easily done by system of
rates which, on its face, shows no
apparent injustice. For instance,
suppose the Cincinnati road, for its
336 miles, makes a rate of 1882
per ton by the car load. 1t is evil
dent that at the same rate it would
have an advantage over roads hav>
ing to run ITO or more miles
farther. Hence, the Nashville and
Chattanooga, deriving an equal
profit on all alike, lowers its rate
on its lines north and west Of Chat
tanooga, and makes up the differs
ence in higher charges on the W. &
A. Road. Mr.. Cole very honestly
states that all roads shall be treated
alike on the w. & A. Road. He
can easily say so, for his charge on
the w. & A. comes out of him ap-
parently as much as out of other
roads.
The only true ally to which the
Cincinnati Southern can turn when
it reaches Chattanooga, is the Ala
bamam Great Southern (ate Alao
bama and Chattanooga But, by
Mr.. Coles late lease Of the Geor-
gia Central and its branches,
the Southern terminus of this road
is at his mercy, as it runs for ten or
more miles on the Selma and Me-
ridian, which is owned by the
Georgia Central. The English
owners Of this road must either
continue the line, as originally
projected, direct to New Orleans, or
to another point on the Mobile and
Ohio, or content themselves to be
at Mr.. Coles dictation. Continued
to New Orleans, it would become
one of the great thoroughfares of
the country. 1t has been said that
the Cincinnati Southern was about