Arizona republican., 1893-05-12
c p North and South
 Road Rumor
Is Said on Good Authori-
 ty to Be Confirmed.
An Interesting Disclosure Con- corning Santa Fe Traffic.
r,rse Fourths of All Merchandise ,or Phoenix From the East Comes
 via Deming and Albuquerque.

The rum0r Wnlcn mas heen Tn clrcula- ,;or for the past two years that the sontbern Pacific would build to Pres- .,,t to neutralize the effect of the S. F. IIp's. enterprise is apparently near .on6rmation. A gentleman closely connected with the Southern Pacific rssterday told a REPUBLICAN reporter hat it was probable that operations would be begun on a parallel line with iramonth. He said that the Southern Pacific had all along fully realized the ;mportsnce of maintaining a supremacy y in inc Salt River valley. It could not sFord to surrender it even if there was m irrespective increase in the volume ot business. It has also shared the general belief that within five years tbe business will have grown ten fold. Said the gentleman further, "The southern Pacific has deluded itself into believing that the southern terminus of tbe Santa Fe, Prescott X Phoenix road would be Prescott; it apparently could pot comprehend that the Santa Fe would try to tap the Salt River valley. Now that the road has been completed ss far as Prescott and the work is com ina this way faster than ever, (they've sot a grading camp at Skull valley twenty miles this side of Prescott and the intervening distance is pretty nearly finished, and track has already been laid south of the riverl the blind- sst Southern Pacific official sees that something has got to be done and done with great suddenness.
 The importance of holding Phoenix has been impressed upon the Southern Pacific by an investigation of the char scter of the traffic between Phoenix and the east. Nobody seems to have thought of looking into the matter un- til within the last month and it has been discovered that three-fourths of the merchandise shipped to Phenix from the east has come by the way of D,ming over the Santa Fe. It doesn't take railroad man long to figure out that if the Santa Fe, Prescott X Phm- nix had been in operation, not a car load of this three-fourths of the busi- ness would have been brought over the Southern Pacific.
 It is estimated that the passenger traffic has been divided in the same ratio. Unless the Southern Pacific can arrange it so as to get some of the northern traffic it might as we'll give up the Salt River valley and abandon the Maricopa X Phoenix. Pm giving you pointer when tell you that the Southern Pacific doesn't intend to re. lease it's hold on the valley, which is equal in area to good sized eastern state, and in ten years will be the most densely populated area west of the Mississippi"
 What point on the Atlantic & Pacific beyond Prescott the Southern Pacific proposes to make, the gentleman was unable or unwilling to. say.
 A gentleman we'll on the inside of Santa Fe affairs was seen by the re- porter later in the day. He said he had heard of ( recent furry among Southern Pacific officials at San Fran cisco but he didn't believe that it would develop into the building of a parallel line. What good will it do ?" he inquired. "It can't interfere with the S. F. and P in the matter of Santa Fe business unless it makes @ lower rate, and it can't do that, so no body cares whether the Southern Pa clfc taps the Atlantic X Paci- fc or not. The only way 1t can expect to divide eastern traffic by means of a north and south line is to builn north until it strikes the Central Pacific, and don't think it is financi ally able to do 1t. The construction would be exceedingly expensive and the profits for some time to come must be considered very doubtful.'
 There is considerable conjecture here among business men concerning a late publication in the San Francisco Chron- itle 10 the effect that Huntington is considering proposition to sell several thousand acres in the Sslton desert for the purpose of turning it in.o an im- nense reservoir. It is taken here to be aslgn that that part of the Southern Pacific is to be abandoned and that a shorter line is to be built. It is known That the Southern Pacific has some sort N right on the Atlantic X Pacific to a polnt Tn the vicinity of Barstow. It is easy the continue the conjecture that Ine main line may be changed to cut across to the southeastern part of the territory taking in Phoenix and Flor