The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-12-17
ghe aahia Daily eagle Sunday ornrng neeen1ber II sss
THAT NORTH AND SOUTH ROAD.
wichi,a's Interest and Connection With the
Enterprise.

! wichra's Interest and Connection With the
Enterprise.
| ~ OF late there have been mentioned by
the press two movements looking to the
| construction Of another railway to the
Gulf, connecting the trans-Missouri re-
| gion aud the northwest. One OF these is
| the Populist scheme whose promoters
| held meeting last week at Topeka; the
other was announced as Missouri Pacific
| enterprise by the extension to the Gulf of
the Wichita line now terminating at
| Kiowa on the border of Oklahoma. But
back of and antedating both OF these, by
years, is the Bismarck, Wichita & Gulf
road taken up by the Wichita board OF
trade in connection with \ number of Da-
| kota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas towns,
and in the interest of which q large PAM
! phlet containing maps. estimates and
! much information was issued two or three
| years since. The successor to the above
enterprise is the road that we are talkin g
| about now.
| Last year Major Roemer, civil engineer
| of New York, who had made some of the
| estimates for deepening the waters at Gal
| weston. and which were based on his own
, surveys OF that harbor, and who is thor
oughly familiar with the Transmissouri
states; in connection with c. NJ Rawlins
| and others, had large part of the line
surveyed, and profiles made of the grade,
| ETC., OF the same. In fact, the greater part
of the line from North Dakota to the north
line Of Texas has been reduced to working
plans. Within the present year Engineer
Roemer, Rawlins aud their associates con-
cluded that the line should not only run
through Wichita, but that Wichita was
the best, the most accessible point on the
| entire line for the general headquarters OF
the system. To this end these gentlemen
visited this city during the summer,
spending several days h.re in confer
ence with the officers and directors
Of the board of trade. at which
time the company was reorganized and
Wichita made largely representative in the
directory. A charter was then taken out,
designating Wichita as the point for the
general Offices, shops. ETC., under the name
of the Dakota, Wichita and Gulf rail
way"
For the past two years Major Roemer
has been seeking to interest foreign capital.
syndicate of the superiority for the future
of great north and south road, down
through the wheat and the corn aud lastly
the cotton belts of the country west of and
contiguous to the Missouri valley, to a
Gulf port; that the day when the COM
merce of the states must be east and west
had gone by, for the simple reason that
vast west, with its productions, is tired of
paying for a fifteen hundred mile hanl
when :ports can be reached liz
less than half the distance, with
no intervening mountain range,
to pull over. Ard more than this the
products of the south and north are
naturally interchangeable, more univers-
ally so than those of the east and west.
Mr.. Richard George of New York, a
promoter, who is an English gentleman
representing syndicate of Scottish and
foreign capital, with headquarters in
London, was in Wichita a few days since
in company with Mr.. Roemer, iookin
the matter of headquarters for the road
over. They had been weeks along
the line gathering facts and statistics as
20 the productiveness of the country. the
general character of the route etc., in the
interest and in pursuance of instructions
from the syndicate. The two spent nearly
two weeks in this city Mr.. George, SO far
as he expressed himself at all, was entire
ly satisfied with all that he
found. He unhesitatingly declared
that in his opinion the enterprise
would pay and prove otherwise vastly
valuable. During the time he was here
he exhibited to the local directors Of
Wichita portion of his correspondence
with the London parties, which promised
the necessary capital to float the bonds
rs soon as the terms OF their proposition
should be complied with. The directors
thereIpon entered into a contract with
Mr.. George to sell the securities. to nego-
tiate with tine construction parties to
build and equip one hundred miles Of the
road south from Wichita into the Usage
coal country. He was otherwise empow
cred to execute the necessary safeguards
for all parties concerned. Mr.. George
further stated that the syndicate would
not permit the road to be burthened with
bonds or obligations beyond its actual
cost, which they estimate will be not to
exceed $4,000 per mile, fully equipped.
He assured the local directors here
that there was no doubt OF his
ability to dispose of the bonds
under such an agreement in the amount
stated and that they might expect actual
operations and construction to follow |
within a reasonable time.
The road is to be new and independent |
line from start to finish. SO built and SO |
operated. While its capital stock and OBJ |
will be small in comparison to |
those carried by the existing lines built /
and operated under the old plan the vol |
ume of its traffic cannot bs less than that |
of the old roundab bout lines reaching the |
gulf, its bonds and dividends being rem |
dered sure and secure.
AMONG TIE BOOKS.