Rural Retreat times. [volume] (Rural Retreat, Va.) 1892-1918, 1903-05-22
A FIGHT FOR
SUPREMACY
CANT Railroad Enter the Race For
Coal Lands "A Warm Fight
Expected.
They Want COMPLETE CONTROL
The Walsh Gobbled Up Val
liable Acreage and is Now a
Factor in the Production of the
Black Diamond
THEY Want COMPLETE CONTROL

Bluefield, May 21.-Control of prac-
tically all of. the best coal in the Fair
mont district is now held between the
Wabash and the Baltimore and Ohio
railroads, and one of the liveliest and
most interesting periods of rivalry be-
tween the two great systems Is expect
ed to result soon. 1t has now devel-
oped that Colonel James M. Guffey
sold his great tract of 81 900 acres of
Fairmont coal for about $6,00000O to
the Wabash syndicate and that the
Baltimore and Ohio only gained control
of the big Fairmont coal combine in
time to prevent it's purchase by the
Goulds Both systems are still maneuv-
ering for coal of minor quality further
to the south
The struggle of each Of the roads was
to snap up complete control of the
best tracts to prevent the invasion and
deyel opment of the other. The Goulds
first reached after the Fairmont Coal
Company, but the officials of the Balti-
more and Ohio had been suspicious of
the aggressive work of the West Vfr-
ginia Central Syndicate in that section
and gobbled the control and practically
merged it with their Consolidated Coal
Company fields in the Cumberland dis
trict
This gives the Baltimore and Ohio
$4,000 acres and the Wabash nearly
1000 acres in rich coal fields reached
by each. The bold scheme of the
GouIds to secure possession of the
field was frustrated in part and the
equally daring game of the Cassatt
combination to completely shut the
Goulds out of the coal tonnage of that
section was prevented by the speedy
purchase of the Guffey tract.
The Guffey tract was one of the larg-
est and finest virgin fields of coal in
West Virginia. 1t lies about five OF
ten miles west of Fairmont on the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and was
logically the proper prey of the Loreei
| system. 1t has a vein eight feet in
depth and must be shafted from 20{
! to 500 feet below the surface. 1t Is Of
! the Pittsburg quality and is the las
tract of much size left in that region
| 1t is the intention of the Goulds to de.
velop the Guffey tract within the pres
ent year, SO that it will be tonnage
producer by the time the Greene coun
Ity and Buckhannon and Northern rail
roads are finished and in operation.
1t is said that only few days aftel
James w. Patterson and other repre-
lSentatives of the Gould syndicate Sc
cured the tract prominent Pittsburs
bank president offered $40 an acre more
for the Guffey coal land. The agents
of the Baltimore and Ohio made efforts
to secure it about the same time, and il
was when they were checked there that
they sought larger but poorer fields tC
the south
The orders of Cassatt are for the
Baltimore and Ohio to pick up practi-
cafly all of the remaining coal tracts
of Importance in the portions of West
/ Virginia reached by the system or It's
| logical extensions. Colonel Quincy
has 10000 acres of coal of little diff
Iferent character about twenty miles to
1.-The east of Fairmont, but it is said
that no overtures have yet been made
| for this. The idea of Cassatt is to tie
Up The tonange producing centres and
| Oh the Goulds, whose ambitions seem
| to be without limit, within proper
bounds.
| Coal operators have been watching
with keen interest the work of the two
| big syndicates in the south, and they
ny that if the maneuvering and riv-
Try goes on much longer overtures of
pea e and community of interest will
SURE y be made. Representatives of
each side are striving to make it ap-
pear that neither has tried to gobble
the coveted tracts of the other and that
all is serene between the rival systems.
The situation in West Virginia, how
ever, is regarded by those who know
as one of the most interesting in the
daring plan of the Goulds to invade
territory for years regarded as the sa-
cred domain of the Cassatt, Morgan
| and Vanderbilt roads.