Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-05-05
A TALK WITH COLONEL COLE.
What the Great Railroad Builder
and Developer Says of the Southern
system,
Lo,lisviIle Courier Journal.

Colonel Cole is as busily engaged in
building up railroads as ever he was. He
is now in New York looking after the in
terest of some of his lines. 1t is surmised
that he is anxious to secure control of
the Cincinnati Southern. Colonel Cole
is very reticent man, difficult to inter
view, but when he is comfortably seated
in a Pullman sleeper he talks more freely
than elsewhere. On his way to New
York Tuesday Colonel Cole talked freely
concerning railroads in the South, and
he spoke hopefully of their future "Af-
ter the war" said Colonel Cole, Through
no fault of the managers, most of the
Southern roads were ruined. They had
no rolling stock, no credit-nOthing
much except their charters. The work
of reconstruction was necessarily slow,
and the difficulties great, but they have
been overcome. The Louisville and
Nashville suffered less than others by
the war, but more by the panic; yet to-
day it is one of the best pieces of rail
road property in the country. When
took hold of the Nashville and Chat
tanoOga the stock was selling al
Is. stock dividends having several
times been declared, and the stock
is now in neighbOrhOod of 50. The East
Tennessee and Virginia Road has had a
similar experience during the past year.
We are steadily improving its road bed,
replacing iron with steel rails, increasing
its rolling stock and paying good divi
deuds all the while. So with the Mem
phis and Charleston; that property is
steadily improving, and the stock is ad
vancing. We are using gravel ballast
found in Mississippi. absolutely free
from dust, and it makes the best ballast
in the world"
Referring to the recent combinations
in Georgia, Colonel Cole said it had
long been favorite idea with hlr. Wad-
ley, and steps looking toward such
combination were taken before the pur-
chase of the Nashville and Chattanooga
by the Louisville and Nashville. He
thought it would result satisfactorily to
all parties concerned.
At Knoxville, said Col. Cole, we are
actively at work building road to the
Kentucky line to meet the Louisville
and Nashville. We also expect to reach
Asheville, via Morristown, by Septem
Der, and so open short route to that
section of the coast country. This is of
interest to Louisville, but your city is In
terested more in Texas connection than
in anything else. There in the South
west lies an empire from which ST. Louis
excludes both Memphis and Louisville.
Your citizens must give their earnest at
tention to this matter. They should
secure Texas connection, and secure
it now.
Concerning the future of railroads,
Colonel Cole said their prosperity de-
pended on the prosperity of the country.
Railroad companies should concern
themselves less about the price of stock
in Wall street and more about improv-
ing their physical condition. increasing
their earnings and decreasing their ex-
penses. The danger is, the boom has
made money easy, and managers are apt
to give less attention to expenses than
they did when times were hard. tx
penses should be watched at all points.
When asked if he wished 70 secure
the Cincinnati Southern, Colonel Cole was
non-committal. He said he was not very
hopeful concerning its earning capaci-
ties-at any rate, he would rather I'M
derstand something more about the size
of the elephent before he purchased.