The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-21
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
CONSTRUCTION or EIECTRIC RAIL
 WAYS A FEATURE.
Inciuding New Lines and ExtensicnsI it is Also Estimated That 3,x09 Miles of aaiiread Are to be
 Built This Year.

Il ' it is Also Estimated That 3yxoe Miles of Railroad Are to be | Built This Year.
 Baltimore, Jan. co.--tspecial l--Inter- | est fin maintained in different parts 01
 the South in plans for the construc- tion of electirc railways. Among thes6 The Manufacturers' Record is one for
 which the right of way Is now being secured between Corsicana and Fair
 field. Tex. a distance of thirty-two miles through a territory now without
 railroad, but thickiy settled by fruit raisers and truck-growers. The coun- try along the proposed line is half tim- Der and the rest of 1t prairie land. It is proposed ultimately to extend the line either to Palestine of to BuRaio for connection. with the international
 and Great Northern Railroad. which would make the line more than sixty miles long.
 Surveys have been completed for an electric railway to run along the shore
 of Mississippi Sound from Biloxi to Gulfport, Mias., and it Is possible that constfuction win begin carly in the
 spring. Frank J. Gould Is interested in a project to give electric railway transportation to a number of rapidly developing counties In the Northern neck of Virginia and involving the ccn~
 struction of about 1S0 miles of track. Other plaps are for the building of street railway in Van Buren. Ark, and It's extension to Alma and Mulberry A line to connect Siloam Springs, Atk, with various towns in Benton County. a line at Mineral Wells. Tex. with ex- tension pcwsibly to Fort Worth and line between Lexington and Versailles. Ky ss
 About $500 miles of railroad con- struction in the South is planned for this year, including new lines and ex- tensions. Work has already begun on an extension of the Interstate Rail- road with the intention of opening up timber and coal lands near Kelly view, Va. A. H. Reeder, general man. ager of the road, states that this un- dertaking is an extension of the pres ept road from Appalachia to Kelly view through Rookwood and up Roar ing Fork, a distance of about fifteen
 miles. This road crosses the Louis vile and Nashville Railroad at Appal- achia. Va, and also connects with the Virginia and Southewestern Railway at the same point Mineral and timber properties will also be reached by tho
 extension of the Ta1lulah Falls Railway
 to billiards. Ga. which rich agricul-
 tural as well ns other resources are lo Do 0pouCu Dy tuG 8t. A<Oul4s CAup0t and Little Rock Railway planned to extend from Eaiem. Mo, to Little
 Rock, Ark. with branch line in Ar
 kansas. in all 436 miles. Oniciais of | the Atlantic and Birmingham Rail- road now within 250 miles of Blf-
 mingham, announce that their efforts
 will be completed upon finishing the
 road to it's terminal in that city. In special correspondence from Bir- mi fFs han AVNa
 on the unparalleled industrial oppot-
 tunlties of the Alabama mineral dis-
 trict, points out that until recently the | activities of the community of 100000
 persons at Birmingham. have been dl-
 rected largely toward producing semi
 raw materials for conversion Into fin-
 ished products in places quite remote.
 and that when business is booming
 there is much money In making pig
 iron. in mining coal and in selllng
 coke. He adds:
 Tn the Birmingham district there
 are large interests devoted to mining
 coal for the market, making coke to sell and manufacturing pig iron and
 steel hillets for sale. And there will
 always be large quantities of semf- raw material of the variety named
 shipped from this district. Neverthe-
 less, with the great increase in pro-
 duction of iron and steel in the Bir-
 mtngham district, 1t is declared there Il is not as much Alabama iron on the market as there was ten years ago. | the home and Southern consumption
 now amounting to fifty to sixty per
 cent. whereas 1t was only about twen- ty per cent of the production ten years ago. This trend of affairs is one of I the most important and significant features of the eAtire situation, and well informed Iron men declare they
 foresee the near approach of the
 time wnen, through the construction
 of steel mills and vsrious other ftnish-
 ing plants. the present supply of Ala-
 bama pig will be entirely taken out of the market.
 "As Northen mills require a certain
 amount of Southern pig. the inevitabIs
 result will be the development of new properties here: end thus there Is at
 hand at this moment the beginning of an endless chain of development.
 and ever widening circle of industrial
 activity, which it is easy to see must
 result in the growth of the district
 almost in the manner of arithmekical progression. Indeed, bearing In mind the unparalleled advantages Birmin6- ham possesses in having all materials side by side. while Pittsburg has to
 ship her Lake Superior ores 1000
 miles. and considering the tremendous
 development that Is under way and in
 sight. not only in the South. but in | the countries of the Carribean ana
 across the seas, 1t may be well regard
 ed as far from an enthusiasts dream
 to conceive that within the next twen- | ty-five years the BirminEAam district will make greater progress than Pitta-
 burg has shown in the past twenty five years"