The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-25
RAILWAY SITUATION
IN THE SOUTHEAST.
Dominated by Southern Interests
in Control of Morgan.

Morgan practically controls the whole
railway situation in the Southeast, is
the statement made by a New York
! authority, which says:
NO securities company or no COM
munity Of interest ever controlled
situation so completely, judging by
present appearances. as the Southern
Railway Company now dominates the
territory of the Southeast. Louisville
and Nashville is absolutely in control
of the Atlantic Coast Line which in
turn is friendly to the Southern Rail-
way. interests closely connected with
the latter are upon the new Seaboard
directorate in company with represent
tatives OF the Rock Island system.
The Illinois Central management Is
friendly with all And the manage
ment Of the Southern Railway, which
is the leading spirit of the whole, is
vested in a voting trust, with Mr.. Nor
gan and his policy in control. Even
our dormant securities markets could
not stand unmoved in the light of such
intelligence.
"Seaboard Air Line has always been
in the past a threatener of rate dis
turbance and trouble to larger railroad
interests in the South. The relative
prosperity Of Southern railroads has
been a matter largely of location,
Louisville and Nashville being the most
prosperous as well as the most west
erly of the four principal lines. Next
in rank comes the Southern Railway
while the Sea board Air Line and the
Atlantic Coast Line, although doing
well, have not felt the rush of business
of the further West"
The same authority. after showing the
traffic density of the Seaboard Air
Line, and the roads earnings per mile
quotes from a recent report of Pres
ident Williams, saying:
He explained that the company has
the shortest route from the Southern
iron fields to the various Atlantic
ports, an especially important point at
this time of expected growth in export
trade. and dwelt upon the fact that in
connection with the St. Louis and San
Francisco at Birmingham the shortest
of all routes from the great grain
country, as centered at Kansas City,
to the coast is secured, a route reach
ing Savannah from 30 to 200 miles
shorter than the present routes to Bal
timore and to New York.
Referring to the Louisville Deal,
by which the Louisville and Nashville
was secured by the Atlantic Coast
Line, the sta tement is made:
In this case it will be remembered,
the load was placed on the Atlantic
Coast Lines shoulders because
stockjcbber who was not safe had
bought up the Louisville on a margin.
At the present distance of time it is
entirely safe to say that the Louis
willie raid of Gates and his cronies
resembled more nearly a Matchmaking
exploit than serious investment.
There is not the slightest reason to
imagine that but for the readiness
with which the banking interests
identified with the Atlantic Coast
Line fell into the trap the unsafe
owners of Louisville could have re-
manned in possession half dozen
months.
1T will prove more profitable to re-
view the results of the Atlantic Coast
Line after another year has given the
company a chance to develop its eX-
banded system. For the present it is
enough to note that the balance sheet
shows no floating debt and current
assets in excess of current liabilities.
Naturally, the surplus earned upon
the increased common stock was not
nearly as great in percentage as was
earned a year ago, but the. earnings
of the roads in the system all in
creased in proportion to the growth of
general business"