The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-10
COL. MACHEN ON MERGERS.
DECLARES HE is NOT POSTED ON
THE SUBJECT.

But Owners of Great Properties
Have Their Eyes on the south At
Iantfc Coast and They Cannot Fail
to Hit Brunswick-The Beef Trust
Investing Largely in Georgia and
Florida Lands and Brunswick's
Situation Will Suit Them Exactly.
Brunswick, Ga, Aug. 9.-The Morn
ing News correspondent sought Col.
E. c. Machen of the Brunswick and
Birmingham Railroad to-day and ask
ed what he thought of the reported
deals and mergers of railroads in this
to discuss it, but that the owners of
great properties had a longing eye on
this South Atlantic Coast section.
He said: Suppose you take the
FriscoCentral merger that you began
asking me about. If you will look at
your map you will see the Frisco line
starting from Kansas City and running
through Memphis and to Birmingham,
and thence, if it absorbed the Central
on to Americas, there is short break
there, so that to continue it on to-
wards the coast it would have to
strike Brunswick, or get woefully off
of direct line. These things are open
to every man to see if he looks at the
map.
But there is something a little fur
Their than that. Whether the Frisco
Central merger becomes a fact or not.
there can be only one direct line from
the section that produces the needed
international products to the West
Indies, and to South Africa and the
water end of it will have to be at
Brunswick"
Why do you say will have to be'?"
We'll, l base my answer to that on
the known intelligence of American
financiers and railroad men.
Up to the present time there has
not been much done to supplement-
nature in building up Brunswick. This
place has survived in spite of indif-
ference to it's natural advantages She
is now laying off her swaddling Clothes
and with several large systems longing
for exactly the natural advantages
that she affords. you may be sure that
some one of them is going to pour it's
immense volume through this port be-
cause they know what is best and they
are going to have it.
Now you ask me why the tendency
of the times is to make roads head
this way? l answer you, in a general
way, because they know where their
interest lies. You have seen that the
great struggles and the great combi-
nations have been between trans-con-
tinental lines running East and West.
That is only following the law of ma
ture, just as the sun passes over from
East to West.
"TNho heaf tr1ycf ic oil hr1uiro
large areas of grazing land in Georgia
and Florida, because they find that
cattle can be raised here cheaper than
on the plains of the West. The beef
trust is another crowd that does not
need a guardian to tell it how to make
profits, and as for hogs, and sheep and
goats and Jersey COWS for dairy pur-
poses, there isn't a state in the Union
that can raise them cheaper than
Georgia, if they will give them the
same attention and the same care in
breeding.
DO you suppose a place situated as
is Brunswick. that has pouring through
1t nearly thirty million dollars of
products annually that come from the
immediate back country, and are paid
for by the outside world, could hide
its light under bushel even if it Sc
desired, long, or is going to trail along
COHIenIeuly as a small city!
There is perhaps, no place in the
world that requires, or receives, so
little aid from the government to sup
plement nature in keeping its harbor
open. In other words the town stands
on its own bottom and that fact is
getting abroad at last"
But colonel, you seem to have shift
ed off of the merger question:" my
dear friend, now you have asked me
something again that 1 am not well
enough informed about to discuss in
te1IieentlV