The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-05
BY OIL INTERESTS
The Norfolk and South :
ern is Purchased.
Practical Confirmation of a Report
from Washington, N. c., Previously
Published in These Columns,
Comes from Norfolk.
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.)


BY seemingly reliable sources of in
formation the Virginian-Pilot was in
formed yesterday that the purchasers
of the Norfolk and Southern railroad,
which was sold recently, are Standard
| Oil people.
When this road was sold a great
deal of secrecy as to the identity of
the purchasers prevailed and until
now no one has known or had any
idea who the real buyers were 1t
mas been generally admitted for some
time that Henry Fl. Rogers and his
colleagues in the great oil trust are
the real owners of the Tidewater rail-
road and are the men who gave the
proposition the standing it has had in
financial circles throughout the coun-
try.
Mr. Rogers and his friends have for
some time looked with a longing eye
upon the vast lumber interests of
ca tern Virginia and North Carolina.
Their energies have not been confined
to looking, either. They have been
quietly buying wherever they could
find sellers, and this is the reason large
lumber deals in this section have been
backed up by Standard Oil capital
lists.
There is one great natural outlet for
Z
portion of it, and that is the Norfolk
and Southern railroad. 1t is regarded
as but natural that if Mr.. Rogers and
his friends purchased all this lumber
land they would want to own the
carrier of the great amount of timber
they would produce.
Coal. Lumber and Oil.
At the first glance one would not
! see the connection between the pur-
| chasers of this road and the owner
ship of the TideWater railroad, but it
! is intmated, that, according to the
plans of the great John d. Rockefeller
and his associates, a great terminus
viii be established here, and Norfolk
will be in fair way to become one of
the leading shipping ports of the coun-
| try.
! 1t is now said that in the same man.
ner the Standard Oil Company has
made Montauk Point it's great distrib-
utng center and the location of large
| oil rehueries, SO it is proposed to
make Cape Henry another Montauk
! Point. The great oil fields of western
Pennsylvania Ohio and West Virginia
would furnish enough oil to establish
| large refineries and distributing CEN
| tiers here. AS the Standard Oil peo-
pie own the Tidewater railroad they
I would naturally use it to carry this
| OIL The Norfolk and Southern has
terminal facilities at the cape, and
the ridewater would thus be saved
the troGbie of getting ,-Ie lis.lts of
way end construction.
The terminus at Sewalfs Point could
be used by the Norfolk and Southern
to handle the vast quantities of lum-
! Der and coal and the terminus of the
Norfolk and Southern at the cape
could be used for oil as we'll as coal.
This would be. it is pointed out, a
convenient arrangement for both
sides, and a very natural one.
IL the Wabash i'm 1t?
There is another point that is sell
dom thought of by the public. but to
the knowing ones it is very perth
ncnt That is the fact that the Stand
ard Oil capitalists are associated with
George Gould in the control of the
Wabash 1t mas been stated time and
time again that the real object of the
Wabash people in buying the Western
Maryland railroad was not to get into
Baltimore but to keep the Cassatt peo-
pie from having q monopoly of the
coal traffic
The Western Maryland was the only
competitor of the Baltimore and Ohio
for this business and with the control
of that road in their hands they can
get hand in the pie which is SO full
of piums for railroad investors. Nor
folk is regarded as the logical place
to bring coal for the export trade. 1t
is closer to the sea and is therefore
a time saver for ships in that trade.
They can come here and load up ana
get away again in the same time that
it takes them to go up the bay to Bal
timorc. As the same people are in
terested in the Tidewater that control
tho Wabash they could naturally d.
vert the coal trade from the Western
Maryland and from Baltimore, and
bring it to Norfolk on account of the
great advantages of this city as q
shipping port.
The above, so far as the buying of
the Norfolk and Southern by the oil
Interests, is merely confrmatoiy
OF q report recently sent in by the
News and ObserveP'S correspondent at
Wa chinptOO this State