Evening star., 1896-10-28
HE. WILL RESIG N
President Hoffman of the Seaboard to
Retire.
RESULT OF fHE RECENT DEAL
No Consolidation Between Sea-
board and Southern.
w II A T I S S A I D
w 81 A T I s S A D

President r. Curzon Hoffman of the
Seaboard Air Line Railway Company will
tender his resignation soon as the Ryan
Thomas syndicate takes control of the
property. There will also be. it has been
definitely determined. no consolidation Of
the Seaboard with the Southern.
Both these items of great public interest
come to The Star from sources that cannot
be doubted. The first was authorized to
be made late last evening by President
Hoffman himself, who, continuing, said:
Il would not care to remain as president
under the New York syndicate, nor do
believe that the syndicate would want me-
Until the transfer does take place
shall continue president of the system
and look after it's interests the same as
have always done When i retire from the
presidency of this system / am done with
the railroad business and shall give my
attention to my iron business.
Il have accomplished my purpose in try
ing to protect the interests of Baltimore.
l insisted on Baltimore being given lower
rates to the south than New York, and de-
manded a differential. AS a result of the
reduction, Baltimore has been getting more
or the Southern trade recently than il ever
has done before. If the deal goes through
1t shows that l have forced New York to
buy the road, believing il to be cheaper
than giving the differential.
IF the transfer is made Gen. Gill cannot
claim any of the credit for working the
deal He was never in it. A large major
1ty of the stock was pooled with a commit
tee, of which Mr.. Louis McLane is the
chairman, and if the deal is closed it will
be through this committee. In this pool
none OF the stock optioned by Gen. Gill was
included He is not in the deal at all He
failed absolutely when he went to Ports
mouth to attend the annual meeting for
the purpose Of throwing me out of the
presidency.
"As to further changes in the manage
ment l know nothing. Whether Mr.. St
John, the vice president and general man
ager Will be retained or not l am not in a
position to say. If l was at the head of
the new syndicate / certainly would retain
Mr. St. John. He is thoroughly practical
ana hard worker, and the best railroad
man in the south today"
Resarding the conclusion reached by
tnoSe haVlng authority in the matter IN IS
SAFE to say that the Seaboard will be main
tanned as an independent system, and that
while other lines not parts of the Southern
system may be merged into the former and
another great system formed out of the va
rious roads, the nearest approach of the
union OF the Seaboard and Southern into
one great company will be that there Will
be no further conflict of interests and that
each VIII be managed with the view of pro-
duclrg the largest amount of revenue con-
sistent with all the surrounding circum-
stances.
Investigation by competent parties has
shown that there can be no consolidation
OF the southern and Seaboard in the states
OF North Carolina and Georgia at least
because there is an act of the legislature
of each which prohibits under severe penal
ties the consolida ton of parallel lines, and
in those states the two systems have that
relation
Nor is it believed that there will be any
disposition on the part of the owners of
either line tc raise rates either in freight
trafhc or passenger travel to a point be-
yond that the public would willingly bear
for aside from the fact that such a course
on their part would be a bad business
proposition, 1t would almost certainly pro-
woke adverse legislation which neither
wants at this or any other time put in force
or to defeat which will require big fight
on their part, and in addition to this there
is a railroad commission in both states,
whose powers are SO vast as to amount to
by any railroad company within the bor
ders of their state, accompanied with au-
thority to reduce rates to such figure as
is deemed best by the commission.
Recent developments have shown that
there is a desire on the part of both the
Southern and the Seaboard to concede rath-
er than demand from the public: one evil
dence of which is to he found in the fact
that before leaving Atlanta for New York
the occasion of his recent visit there
for the purpose of explaining to the Georgia
railroad commission the relations between
the Southern and some other roads i'll
Georgia, President Samuel Spencer called
upon Governor Atkinson and rendered him
for the military of the state free trans
portation to Atlanta to enable them TO
participate without eXperse for travelling in
the inaugural parade in that city Saturday
next, upon the occasion of Governor At
kinsons entering upon his second term of
office.