The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-13
MOVES OF SEABOARD|
SAID TO BIB REACHING FOR A GULF PORT.


 Huncr Has 1t That the Road VIII Complete the Hayneville and Morgansville %
 . Line.
 ~
 One of the most interesting bits of speculative gossip afioat in the rail- road world just now Is the policy and future intentions of the people who are
 guiding the future of the Seaboard Air Line. Locally, great interest is felt. an interest that has continued ever since
 the day many years ago when Presi- dent Hawkins first succeeded in launch
 ing the old Savannah. Americus and Montgomery. The Seaboard gets into Montgomery now from Savannah, but once in Montgomery it is completely
 bottled up. It seems to be the general
 belief in Eastern financial circles that Blair & Go, and Thomas F. Ryan, who dominate the Seaboard. are shaping
 their plans to get the Seaboard over its own@ rails from the lakes to the coast.
 Part Sof that has already. been started
 when the branch of the Seaboard from Atlanta to Birmingham was completed at an outlay of $12.000,0o0.
 Sometime before the East and West
 Railroad of Alabama, now the Atlanta Birmingham branch, was bought by the Seaboard people a little railroad running from Union Springs to Fort Davis, a station on the seaboards s Montgomery-Savann line, was built. This was the Union Springs and North
 ern, and while 1t was ostenslbly an in- dependent road, with Presidest Blount controlling 1t, still 1t was known that the Seaboard had furnished the sinews of war. It's trains run regularly into Montgomery over the Seaboard tracks. and its office is in the uptown office or the Seaboard on Commerce Street. When
 the Union Springs and Northern was
 being built plans were being crystal
 ized for extending the road from Fort Davis to Birmingham. Whether the
 building of the Atlanta Birmingham
 branch has killed the Fort Davis -Bir-
 mingham project or not is a matter
 that will be watched with great inter-
 est. The Seaboard, Rock Island and
 Frisco are pretty close together, the Atlanta branch of the Seaboard get
 ting out of Birmingham over Frisco connections.
 Some years ago a railroad was pro- jected from Hayneville in Lowndes County to Morgansville, station on the main line of the Mobile and Mont gomery division of the Louisville and
 Nashville. The grading of the road Is
 as far as the construction has gone, the Louisville and Nashville having re- fused to have anything to do with 1t.
 The Haynevilie people, however, have stated that they intend to build the road not only to Morgansville, but on
 through to Montgomery. President | Blount of the Union Springs and North ern has made several trips to Hayne- vile in the last few months, and a Hayneville man who was In Montgom- zoiA "a rd l ly any doubt but that the Seaboard Air Line would finish the road from Hayne- vile to Montgomery. President Rus sell of the Hayneville Road will have a consultation in the next few days with
 one of the local attorneys of the Sea- board. who is now in New York.
 By building the road from Montgom- | cry to Hayneville, the Seaboard will
 be free from the bottled up" process I it is in now, and be rival of the Lou
 isville and Nashville. To get to the
 Coast, however, they would have to build from Hayneville to Montgomery, Pensacola or somewhere on the coast.
 A great many mysterious movements | have been made in Escambia County, 1 Alabama, and on over the Florida line heading towards Pensacola. Some old | log roads which have been virtually | abandoned for years have been reju- venated steel bridges replacing the old | structures, etc. It was thought that
 either the Illinois Central or Georgia
 Central was making these moves, both
 roads being desirous of getting into
 Pensacola The Seaboard already has
 its own rails from Jacksonville to River Junction, the gap between Pensacola
 and River Junction being open. With the building of the Hayneville- Road and into Pensacola, the Seaboard would have the key to the situation, the filling in of the gap from Birmingham
 to Fort Davis giving them their own rails from the lakes to the coast The
 following from The Stockman, a finan-
 cial paper, shows that there is a great
 deal of activity in Seaboard circles: | The belief Is prevalent in Baltimore
 that the financial plans for the Sea- board Air Line Railway contemplated l by Blair & Co. and Thomas F. Ryan of | New York. who dominate the manage ment of the property will encounter 1 formidable opposition. It is intimated
 that Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co., of New York, will head this opposition. l Both parties are believed to be work
 Ing for powerful railroad interests
 who want to control the future of the 1 Seaboard. l Back of the Blair-Ryan crowd is
 reported to be J. P. Morgan & Co.,. l with plan to place the Seaboard in g. 1 community of interests scheme Witb
 the Southern Railway and the Atlantic l Coast Line. On the .other hand, the | Rock Island system Is reported to be
 back of Ladenburg. Thalmann & Co, with desire to reach the South Att | lantic and Florida Gulf Seaboard by i acquiring control of this property. The
 Rock Island, through the St. Louis and
 San Francisco, gets to Birmingham.
 Ala, to which city the Seaboard has | just opened new extension. inter | ests identified with the Rock Island | and Frisco lines entered the Sea | board management about two years ago, and this arrangement was made | by L4adenburg, Thalmann & Co.
 1 The days of blind pool are num- | bered, Such Is the declaration made by one of the greatest capitalists in | this country. The utterance Is pro- | phetic The people will no longer per-
 init the business of the country to be done in corner. or in secret manip-
 ulation. The principle of publicity has
 come to stay. No scheming, no cor | ruption, no opposition can drive it out. Tt is one of the notable signs of
 the time that some of the corporation
 managers and corporation attorneys 1 have already seen the light of public | ity and recognize its value. It is prob | able, indeed, that without much fur 1 ther legislation in that direction, the l cnrnOrationS vxy01ild of FhanlalVns bxr