The age-herald., 1899-08-02
Unless All Signs Fail They VIII Be Un-
 der One Head. OPTION HELD ON PROPERTY It Is Thought by Concern That Whitaker Represents.
MAY BE THE FRACTION COMPANY
Which is Seeking to Gain Control oi All City yLines-Negotiation Pend- ing Some Time Ago With
 Baltimore Syndicate.

| DnAiiu6ndlu WdS UuSy yeSlcTudy Wllu | street railroad negotiations Unless all | signs fail, all of the street railway systems
 in and about Birmingham will be in one | company within thirty days. Every fran- | chse in the city will be owned by con- | solidated company of the street railroad | trust.
 | Just who this company will be composed | of is not known. It was, however, said yes- l terday that the option issued some time ago l on the properties of the Birmingham Rail- | way and Electric company, had been got | ten control By the syndicate E. E. Whit | taker represents. MT. Whitaker purchased | the Highland Avenue and Belt railroad at | auction on Monday. He represents MT. | Halls of New York, who in turn is a part | and parcel of the Hanover National bank I of which James H. Woodward, vitally in- 1 terested in Birmingham properties, is pres l ident MT. Woodward, Mir. Halls and their associates are connected with the Hanover bank and number of other persons inter- ested with Alex. T. London. of this city, in the ownership of the Birmingham Traction company. So really the Highland Avenue road was bought by the Birmingham Trac- tion company.
 If it is true that those who own and con- trol the Traction Company now have pos
 session of the option on the Birmingham
 Railway and Electric Company, then they will own the entire railroad system of Bir- mingham within the near future. Just what the price of the option offered on the Bir- mingham Railway and Electric Company is, was not definitely ascertained yester- day, it is said to be at a lower rate than that at which the same property was offer ed to the Hambleton syndicate of Balt-
 more several months ago.
 Begun Three Month Ago It will be remembered that about three months ago negotiations were pending be- tween the officers of the Birmingham Railway and Electric Company and the Hambeton syndicate. The properties were
 offered to them at a fixed sum, with the statement by the owners of the street railroad that the property was earning 6 per cent on that amount. The Baltimore investors agreed to make the purchase, provided the properties were thoroughly as represented. They sent an expert to Bir- mingham who examined the properties carefully and then went back and reported. The trade was then and there declared off. It Is however, known that since that time that the same persons in Baltimore have expressed a desire to purchase the entire street railroad system in Birming- ham. They want them yet but one of
 their representatives said recently, We have refused to purchase until the proper
 ties are offered to us on an investment basis.''
 In Hands If New Workers
 The outstanding option of the proposi-
 ton to sell, which has been given by the leading spirits in the Birmingham Rail- way and Electric Company, is undoubt- edly in the hands of the New Workers mentioned above. Whether other options have also been given to the Baltimore syn
 dicate, which controls the street railroad
 systems in Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta, has not been given out. It may
 be some speculative movement on their
 part, or it may be for the purchase of u permanent investment. To the small stockholder and interested public nothing more was definitely known yesterday than
 that negotiations were in progress for 2 sale of street railroad properties in Blr- mingham which would lead to a consoli- dation of all the systems into one.
 The deal may be consummated in few days, or it may fall through. Colonel A. M. Shook, president of the Birmingham Railway and Electric company, was in the city nearly all day yesterday on the mat ter, and Robert Jemison. the vice president and active man of the company. is in New York. Just what the outcome of the nego- tiations will be no one can tell. Colonel Shook refused to be interviewed. when ask ed in regard to the option believed to be outstanding. courteousiy replied:
 .'It is none of your business"
 Alex. T. London and MT. Whitaker were together yesterday, but neither one of them would make any statement in regard to the matter.
 There are in the city at the present sev- eral representatives of the John Skelton Williams syndicate of Baltimore, the h. ternational Trust company of Baltimore, and one prominent New York concern.