The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-07


 that I made the first sliding scale rate
 TOT that furnace. which, so far as 1 knew, had ever been made in the South; that IS. when pig iron was worth so
 hauling 1t to the Ohio River. and when H prices increased rates were increased
 It having been demonstrated that iron
 could be made. the L. and N contribu- ted to some of the other companies, the
 Sloss Company contributed. and its
 friends contributed, to the capital or
 the rolling. mill; aided in opening some
 of the coal mines. It's last investment or the kind was to furnish part or
 the capital to construct the present
 steel plant of the Tennessee Coal, Iron
 Railway investing the same amount of
 Company did. T The @ company a and it's
 haye g sa
 leaning capital or credit to numerous | small operators or manufacturers, such
 as saw-mill companies. coal mines, etc;
 etc. In 1884, the L. and N. Raliroad
 Company entered upon the construc-
 tion of branch roads to develop min
 eral resources. It was evident that tn 5
 coal or ore veins, did not furnish the
 facilities. I recall very well that when
 I put before the directors an agree,
 ment to build branch about three ana | a quarter miles long under contract
 with the Alice Furnace Company. rep, resented by by H. F. deBardeiepen ana
 Mir. T. T. Hnlman. MT. Jay Gould was
 on our board at that time, and altnouRn
 the panic of 1884 was on. and he felt II;
 he said. that Is all right. we Will nuiIm
 that branch" It did not cost very
 mountain a few miles, used old rails | 1t was not very extensive operation. At the same time, when we wanted 70
 sell our bonds to finish the prlage
 where we used a twelve-mile boat transfer, and had the bridge under way.
 he said, .'This Is no time to spend mon | ey unless you have got it--must not do | that" but he recognized that this ex- penditure for transporting this ore, uh | der the circumstances, was desirapte, IT, 3ha z
 Now. the l.. and N., commencing Tn .ne lire in the State of Alabama | between seven and eight hundred miies. 1 think nearly eight hundred miles II | has showed it's roads around into lhe mineral district in great many piaces and ways, probably much more thah even you appreciate or have knowi- l edge of. Constructing these spur tracns and short roads in a difficult country, | Is expensive and especially expensive as the side-track mileage is very large. probably nearly one-half as much as | the main-line. and perhaps costs as
 much, or more Nevertheless. we have persisted. We have developed. or course, much agricultural country. The | last venture which has been completed | but a short time, was the construction
 of what we call the Cain Creek Branch, solely to develop coal mines. When the | coal is exhausted from those mines, | the road will be worthless, and the track will have to be taken up IL I has cost to date. $1,164,O53.4o. The The length of the side tracks Is 14.24 | miles The cost per mile of main line is, therefore $4O,44S.2s, without | equipment and right of way. The right of way l think was mainly tur- nished without cost to the company. The character of the trafic Is such that | a very limited expenditure was neces- l sary for stations, there being nothing
 on the line except coal. some Of the roads alluded to have developed some agricultural territory. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company has acquired and constructed road rom | Calera to Attalla, about 119 miles In l length, which, while 1t runs from one brown ore bank to another brown ore bank, from a brown ore bank at Shelby | to an ore bank at Ironaton. to an ore bank at Jenifer, and then to Annis- | ton, Attalla. etc, it does develop very good agricultural country for Alabama. | I say, for Alabama, because the agri- cultural lands of Alabama, almost the l best of them, are not equal to the agri- | cultural lands in the prairie country, or some part of the prairie country. Still | it is a pretty fair agricultural country. We are therefore developing agricul- | ture
 We are also building line from
 Birminghamr~up the Murphree,s val | ley, and across to Atalla, which Is | nearly completed. which is being con | structed to develop some ores and some l coal, but mainly to reduce the distance l for moving traffic between the mineral | district in Alabama and the mineral | and furnace district along the line be- | tween Calera and Attalla. There Is some agricultural country in there. | The Louisville and Nashville has con structed line between Selma, Ala, and | FIomaton, Ala, about >112 miles. The northern portion was constructed many | years ago, and the company became | bankrupt. The track was laid upon | the surface of the ground. and we | have had to reconstruct 1t. It Is now | fairly good road for local one. It Is an agricultural road altogether. | There are some forest products yet, but being so near the Alabama River, agricultural line. We have construct l ed a line from Georgiana, Ala to l GraceviIle Fla, 100 miles in length | through an agricultural country. with
 some forest products on part or It. but when you get down towards Geneva and Graceville there Is very lit tie except agriculture. This part of
 the road was built to provide facilities for the people engaged in agriculture. A branch of that line has been con
 structed from Opp to Florala, dis
 tance of twenty-four miles. Our last
 venture in the agricultural country, is nearly forty miles in length which we are constructing in Baldwin County, leaving the main line at Bay Minette, giong south on the ridge in that county We are rapidly laying the track, and
 track laying ought to be completed in
 ten or fifteen days. We are pressing
 the work as rapidly as we can to pro-
 vide facilities for bringing out some
 early vetegetables which it Is repre- sented will be ready for us if we get
 the road there in time. Our reason
 for entering upon the construction of
 that line was this: Some promoters had gone into that country and bought
 lands from those who had taken off the
 forest products, at low price $1, or
 $1.50 per acre, buying large bodies, and
 then went to the northwest and in
 duced, by their methods, immigrants.
 To these immigrants they sell land in
 small bodies for from $lO to $50 per
 acre, and, 1 am advised, that tmmigra-
 tion has been quite large. These pro
 motors had no interest in the matter
 except to sell the lands. When the
 lands are sold, they will go somewhere
 else. and perhaps buy more and repeat
 the venture. Under these circum-
 stances the Louisville and Nashville
 Railroad Company decided that it
 would do what 1t could to take care
 of the immigrants; that If there was anything in that country, if any agri-
 culture, produce. fruits, etc. could be
 successfully produced by these people,
 1t would try to furnish facilities for
 marketing them, and 1t is making the
 effort. One other recent venture has
 been the construction of twenty miles of road for the Eastern Railway of