The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-13
(nx Wia T. sheehan.l

(By Will T. sheehaa.) Magnolia Springs, Dec. 12.--(Staff Cor.
 respondence )-The Panama Canal its certainty. Is vitally affecting the policy
 of the Southern railroads.
 An immense freight business Is ex-
 pected to flow southward when the big | ditch is cut. The Panama Canal spells 1 opportunity for Southern roads. l This freight business will go South l ward to the eastern end of the canal
 by the quickest and surest route. The
 railroads are now casting about and
 looking ahead in preparation for their business. Those roads which have no
 sea water terminals are in restless and
 eager search for an open way to the
 Gulf
 | There has been some pretty jockey
 ing and neat manouvering between the big Southern lines in the search for
 deep water terminals. Some of it has I been al New Orleans, some at Mobile
 and some at Pensacola. The jockey- | Ing, the playing at cross purposes, has
 usually been between the line which
 was already in at the Gulf seaport and
 the ambitious line which wanted to push in.
 | Baldwin County is said to be the
 board on which a great big game of
 this sort is being played and the Bay
 Minette and Fort Morgan Road, now
 under construction, is the crucial move in the game. The Bay Minette and
 Fort Morgan Road is to give the Louis- vile and Nashville another connecting link with the Gulf. The road now has | terminals in Pensacola, Mobile and Now
 Orleans but big dock, freight depot, | with breakwater surrounding it, would be distinct additional advant- | age to the Louisville and Nashville in
 its competition with its Southern rivals when the volume of business flowing
 southward is so guaranteed by the
 building of the Panama Canal The Louisville and Nashville's enter prise in Baldwin County Is characteris- l tic of that corporation. AsweIl remem-
 bered incident of year ago likewise illustrates this enterprise. With a Gadsden attorney, I was looking over | the ground where the Shutters were constructing their steel plant a mile and half from Gadsden. The immense steel frame of the big plant was then | rising out of an old cotton field. but 1t was only the skeleton of the building. A force of hands was completing a rail- l railroad track which led from the very doors of the new building out into the woods.
 Do you see that track?" said the attorney, pointing to the new pine ties,
 the untouched steel rails and the fresh | ly turned clay of the embankment. That is the track of the Louisville aDd Nashville. The line has been brought over there three miles to con- | meet with this plant to get the first ! chance at its business. The L. and \. always shoves in ahead of It's rivals when there is a prospect for business. It inviriably pushes in first in any new territory that is close to their lines. l vri ha can get into this plant"
 With the same enterprise, the Louis vile and Nashville is pushing through | the pine woods of Baldwin County. through the rich orchard, fruit and veg | etable country. that Is being built up | by the several colonization companies
 through the importation of Northern CTS. Germans and swedes on the old ! Fort Morgan. Under the shadow of the
 fort and facing Mobile Bay. it Is pro- | posed to build docks and terminal fa-
 cilities to cost $1.000.000.
 The Bay Minette and Fort Morgan Railroad Company Is. of course, sep arate organization and apparently it
 has no direct connection with the Lou
 isville and Nashville. But the Louis- vile and Nashville Is now building
 union depot at Bay Minette to be used jointly by the Louisville and Nashville l
 The depot is being built at a cost of $6,000. right where the tracks of the | two lines join at Bay Minette.
 Moreover. the officials of the Louis- vile and Nashville. the officials of the
 Montgomery and Mobile division of
 that road, have been instructed to be- gin track-laying on the graded portion ] of the road in the month Of January. This circumstance shows the close con- kl,. nd hn n
 ests of the Louisville and Nashville in l the construction of the new line. | You are told that another important | railroad movement is developing in
 Baldwin County. The information Is | given you in a confidential way. with 1 the statement that the scope and pur- l poses of the new movement will be
 made public in the next few weeks l Birminaham and Gulf Railroad. The development is no more nor less than the construction of the Birming-
 ham and Gulf from Selma to deep wa
 ter at Fort Morgan. The work on this
 road has not begun; the preliminaries
 connected with the securing of the
 right of way. and of accomplishing
 other necessary things in advance have
 not been accomplished. But consider
 ations of some sort have passed from | one party to another, and papers of
 some sort have been signed and filed
 away.
 This movement contemplates. it is
 said, the building of line from Bir-
 mingham through Selma and Bay Mi- nette to the Gulf at Fort Morgan. The promoters of this road in Baldwin
 County are said to have come into the
 possession of a charter granted sew
 eral years ago by the Alabama Legis- lature for the building of a road along
 the eastern shores of Mobile Bay sim liar to the Bay Shore road on the west | ern side of the bay. The Bay Minette and Fort Morgan Road runs along a ridge which is from twelve to twenty miles east of the bay. The proposed
 road would run along the coast touch | ing the towns of Daphne. Fairhope
 and Magnolia Springs. none of which Is near the graded line of the Bay Mi- nette and Fort Morgan grading | But this is a paper road at present.
 The Bay Minette and Fort Morgan
 Road is not a paper road, but an ac- ] tuality. For SIT miles south of Bay
 Minette this road has been surveyed. and the right of way secured and cleared.
 Moreover about 70 per cent. of this
 part of the road has been completely graded. Several connections in the grading will have to be made. the largest connection requiring about
 three miles of construction work. This
 will be accomplished in the next two or three months.
 In the meanwhile they will begin To. aIy fs tHn -Na