The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-29
NOT MUCH TRAVEL
LIGHT RAILROAD BUSINESS DUR-
 ING COLD WEATHER.
People are Plugging Their Own Fire sides When Thermometer is LOw-Other News of
 the Railroads.

One effect of the cold snap has been to injure local passenger business, this branch of travel at the Union Railway Station in Montgomery having been al- most at a standstill for the past week.
 It's an i'll wind, however, and while the cold weather has made the subur- banites hug their own firesides and shun Montgomery, yet it has greatly increased the Florida business. The Atlantic Coast Line trains leave Mont gomery crowded every trip, and re- ports are that all of the Florida spe- cials from Chicago and other places can hardly handle the business, it is so heavy.
 There is another class of business through Montgomery which has lately been very heavy-the Colonists and Homeseekers going to Texas. Rates for these people are put on the first and third Tuesday of every month. hun dreds of people from all over Alabama a great many from the territory con- tiguous to Montgomery and in several cases some from Montgomery itself having been induced by reason of these rates to go West.
 At the meeting of the Southeastern Passenger Association in Miami, Fla during the coming week there will be a fight made by the Southwestern roads to abolish these homeseekers rates the Western and Southwestern roads fight ing to keep them in effect
 Speaking of this. an exchange says:
 The activity of Western roads in working up emigration excursions from the territory contiguous to Atlanta is getting on the nerves of the railway and commercial people of that town, and drastic measures are being planned to prevent the operation of emigration agents in that section.
 ''The first week in February there will be a meeting of the members of the Southeastern Passenger Association in Miami, and it Is expected that the matter of homeseekers' rates to the West for two days in each month will be brought up for settlement, and if necessary, some very drastic measures taken. All of the railroad men believe that this Is one of the most important questions in the development of the South.
 All of the Southeastern roads are said to have been bitterly opposed to the movement of Southerners to the West, away from their own territory They claim, however, that the trouble Is due to certain of the big Western systems putting in excessively low rates to Western points on two days Tn each month, and the Southeastern lines have been compelled to meet com petition to basic points.
 This matter is declared to have be- come so serious as to demand immedi- ate action, and during the past week there have been several conferences on the matter between the highest off cials of all the roads running into At lanta. All are said to Have agreed that the tide of emigration must be stopped. and ways and means are now being devised by these officials which will be exploited at the meeting of the conference committee at Miami
 Tt is stated that most of this trou- ble is made by agents of Western land companies going up and down the roads of Southern States, mixing with the farmers and pointing out the wealth to be gained in the Western Eldorado In this way they persuade them to sell their farms and their belongings and emigrate to the West, to the end that the Western territory is being rapidly developed and the territory to which Atlanta furnished supplies is being de- populated in measure that has arous- ed the anXieties and active opposition of the commercial interests of that city
 Tt is undoubtedly true. however.