The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-04
PLANS OF FRISCO SYSTEM RECEIVED Wonderful Growth Has Been Made in Past Year BENEFITS FOR BIRMINGHAM
 -. District WILT Be Developed FuIIy-con- nection Will Be Made With Sea board Air Llne-Yoakum
 to Retain Control.
BENEFITS FOR BIRMINGHAM

Considerable interest has been mani-
 fested throughout the entire country in
 the result of the purchase of the Eastern
 Illinois by the Frisco system. Regarding
 the roads plans the Wall Street Journal
 has this to say:
 Recent developments have shown very
 clearly that the owners of St. Louis and
 San Francisco have more ambitious plans for the future of that property than
 the plans with which the railroad world had credited them. A year or so ago Frisco was regarded as one of the small granger roads of the southwest, a line left out in the cold by Atchison at the time of the reorganization and not likely ever to become any more than a fairly good local line.
 Within that short period of time Kan sas City, Fort Scott and Memphis, Mem phs and Birmingham, Arkansas and Choctaw, Louisiana and ArKansas ana Chicago and Eastern Illinois have been added to the system by purchase. while many extensions have been built in the extreme southwest. The road is now in the form of the letter K, with northwest extremities at Ellsworth and Kansas City, southeast at Birmingham, northeast at Chicago and southwest at Paris and San Antonio.
 125 Miles Nearer.
 The purchase of Louisiana and Arkan- sas brings the road about 125 miles nearer to the gulf and is practically certain. sooner or later, to become a part of a l gulf division. The management recognizes | frs. sttal T dIxrfe in xf4o
 of the trend of grain traffic in that direc- l ton during late years. If the ambition | of the management is ever fully realized 1 Frisco will certainly have a gulf outlet | for the grain from Oklahoma and Indian l Territory. The activity of the road in
 the two new states shows that the inten- 1 ton is to cover them as thoroughly as
 possible with a network of lines. Just as
 the territory around the borderland of
 Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkan-
 sas is now covered. This will be the pro-
 ducing territory upon which the roads
 future will depend.
 l For a granger road a Chicago connec- | ton is at present absolutely necessary. | By the purchase of Eastern Illinois | Frisco has obtained both a direct route | to Chicago for grain traffic and coal
 supply for the system. We learn on un- | questioned authority that Frisco has a | WlIl AHlCdBO. anu EdSltfH | nos via St. Louis, Memphis and South eastern, the road constructed by New | man Erb. The connection will be made across the new bridge at Thebes. Of | course such a roundabout route will not | serve the branch of Frisco lying between l Springfield and St. Louis. It Is inevitable | that a link, 90 miles long. will be built between St. Louis and Shelbyville. We l learn that this link is under considera- | tion at the present time. The value of l the St. Louis, Memphis and Southeastern | consists in its possibilities as connec- ton between the Birmingham division and Eastern Illinois and between the central division of Frisco and Eastern ITIi- nois. During the next grain season the traffic of Frisco from the grain belt to Chicago will go via this central division rather than the St. Louis branch.
 An important Step.
 An important step in the development of a Chicago route was announced a few days ago. It was that Frisco had plans to cut down the grade on the main line west of Springfield to such an ex
 tent as to actually double the train-load in crossing the Ozark mountains. It means that Frisco is to be made prac- tically a low grade freight line for through grain traffic from the southwest lO 0nlCdkO duu tut bOutncdSl.
 The recent purchase of Birmingham Belt line and the intention declared by
 President Yoakum of developing fully the resources of that district are also significant. It Is worth noting also that Frisco has not opposed the entrance of Seaboard into Birmingham, but shows every sign of very friendly feeling to-
 ward that road. A traffic agreement will be of the utmost advantage to Frisco, and such an agreement Is certain, we are told, to be made.
 The control of Frisco. according to the best authority is in the hands of Presi- dent Yoakum and a small number of his immediate associates The Pierce syndicate, quite generally credited with the control of the property has never been within 10000 shares of such control. The present management, moreover has every intention of retaining control and working out the destiny of the road on the lines proposed and without losing the identity of thu system.