The age-herald., 1901-11-20
Jere Baxter, One of Leaders in
 Cumberland Coal and Coke Company
NEW ROAD TO NASHVILLE
ThIs Is Said to Be One of the Projects of the Company--Don H. Bacon Is In New
 York.

Speculation regarding the successor or Nat Baxter, Jr., who resigned the pres- idency of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and sions of surprise at the announcement of his resignation were the topics of con- versation in industrial and business cir cles yesterday. Mir. Baxter is held in high esteem in Birmingham, and much regret was expressed at his decision to leave the district.
 Don H. Bacon. chairman of the board of directors of the Tennessee Company, is now in New York, and it Is impossible to secure any information regarding the probable time of the election of the new president. MT. Baxter will leave the city December 1, going to Nashville, where his headquarters will be in the future.
 Interesting information is given with respect to the Cumberland Company and the causes which led to the action taken by MT. Baxter in the edition of the Nash vile News published Monday afternoon. This paper is closely allied with the in- terests of Jere Baxter. and it's state ments may be said practically to eminate from him. It says:
 MT. Baxter believes the mineral lands of the Cumberland plateau the greatest in the world, and that within period of eighteen months coal and iron from that section will be going to all the great markets of this country. It is his pur- pose to personally take charge of the af- nd n1xa Company, and see that the work of de- veloping the lands which it owns is pushed forward rapidly.
 "Their coal, iron and timber lands are all on the Cumberland plateau, and they have between half a million and seven hundred thousand acres. While coal IS now being mined from the Crawford prop critics, which are to be consolidated with the undeveloped lands higher, and also at several points on the Tennessee Gen. tral Railroad proper, there comparatively has been little done.
 Have All Money Necessary. "rhe Tennessee Central and the Cum berland Coal and Coke Company will work closely together, and indeed the | owners of the properties are almost iden- tical,l as Colonel Jere Baxter and the St. Louis syndicate are associated With MT Nat Baxter. They have all the cash capital necessary to carry out the elab- crate plans which have been evolved by the new president of the Cumberland company, and it will be at his disposal the minute he takes charge of affairs
 Tt is his intention to proceed at once
 nj q undeyeloped coal fields, and he Is certain that within the period already stated eighteen months--the output of coal and iron will be something enormous. Many thousand coke ovens are to be built right away, and in time will come the ques- tion of the blast furnaces.
 "of course 1t will be necessary, in measure, to reorganize the Cumberland company in order to carry out all these plans, and this will be the work which will first occupy Mir. Baxter. though no time will be wasted. It Is the calculation that by the first of next year everything will be running smoothly. and that the work of opening new mines will have commenced. Those already in operation will not be interfered with, but will be worked for all they are worth. Two of these are very large ones and the daily output of them is about fifty cars a day.
 Through Brothers Influence.
 "It was through the influence and in- sistence of Col Jere Baxter that his brother Nat was induced to leave the head of the great Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company to take charge of the Cumberland Company. and the whole consolidation scheme, not only of the railroad properties in which he is now interested, but these coal, iron and timber properties was evolved by the l colonel.
 "He has been battling for the consum- nation of these plans for long while, but citizens of Nashville need not be told what he has been doing during the | past few years of his life.
 Speculation about the Tennessee Gen. tral now gives way to a realization-a great railroad through the State from l east to west-and as railroads are never dismantled after put in operation, the public for time may speculate on the probable benefits to be derived from such a system of new roads,"