The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1903-05-07
A MELANGE OF LIVE TOPICS
Penned tor Journal Readers
by a Local Scribe.
GET A MOVE.


it seems evident that Marietta
will miss both the main line and
the spur, for it Is very clear that
the Seaboard could have secured
by avoiding Dallas which is not q
direct line from here to Rockmart.
both a better and shorter route
than the one it has selected. The
same infuences-the opposition
of the L., Il n. and the w. & A.
which kept the main line out of
Marietta will also prevent the
spur from being built which would
very much injure the business of
the w. IL A. The latter road the
Seaboard cannot afford TO antago-
nlze since the Seaboard receives a
great amount of traffic from the
l.. d N and uses three miles of
the track of the w. & A. to enter
Atlanta.
We believe our town to be in a
critical period of it's existence.
Our prosperity must depend upon
our being manufacturing town,
for our nearness to Atlanta will
prevent our being a great mercan-
tile place like the other To be a
manufacturing town it is indis-
pensably necessary to have COM
petlng lines of railways so as to
have advantage of freight rates.
That town that has so many i'm
portant manufacturing plants as
has Marietta should be confined
for its shipping facilities to one
line of rallway-for it is now pro-
posed to run the A. X. & N.
through trains over the w. & A.
by way of Dalton-is ruinous to
Marietta as a manufacturing CEN
ter and to the profits of our man
utacturers. Under these condi-
tons intending investors in these
enterprises will be very slew to
locate here.
The writer therefore repeats
what was suggested in u previous
communication, that a strong eff
Tort be made to induce the South
ern railway to build line from
It's bridge on the river about elev-
en- miles long and it would also
be profitable investments for the
Southern to extend this line from
Marietta to Dallas via Lost Noun
tain over the Polk Quarry route,
a distance of about twenty miles.
About ten or fifteen years ago the
Southern intimated that if it was
given sufficient encouragement it
would come to Marietta, and Allen
at Lost Mountain said some time
ago that that road offered to build
a line to that place if the people
would plant designated number
of peach trees. The Southern is
a real and bona fide competitor of
the l.. & N. which the Seaboard
is not, and the first could help us
much more than the last would
have done in the way of rates.
The length of the road that the
Southern would have to build
would be about thirty-one miles
ut cost of about $775,OOO. If
all our manufacturers and mer-
chants will promise to give the
Southern all their business for a
period of five years it is quite
probable that the Southern will
build these two branches. Mari
eta could give this road between
$4,000 and $4,000 worth CT bus
lness pei month, Smyrna quite a
sum and Lost Mountain respect
able amount. At the end of five
years the branches will have been
paid for after paying operating
expenses and fair interest on the
Investment. AS the distance from
Atlanta to Chattanooga via Mari
eta would be about the same as
it is now the Southern might find
1T desirable to make this the main
line, Since the Seaboard is pre-
pairing to invade all the Southern
territory the SoutherAshould REL
taliate by invading th SeaboardA
and the l.. & N. territ ~.
By building from ome MOI
reached by the South h via DaE
las) to Huntsville, A via G -4
den, Ala, the Sou Id
have direct line froi 4nfa TO
&emphis, Tenn, thS ,er being
one or the largest cl and most
Important railroad tiers in the
south. Inc South9 wv reaches
memphis via VI .5oga and
the old Memph16 charleston
railway, nov FED by the
southern. ce here sug-
gested wouN the Southern
one hundre .e hundred and
fifty miles Z os between At