The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-31

pass through a virgin timber country in Mississippi and Louisiana, the report re- gently made by F. c. Dunlap, the well known Chicago consulting engineer, shows that the through business would alone pay handsome profit on the road.
 Only within the past six months has the subject of constructing such line been agitated, but now there are three great corporations fighting for the terri tory. The project was first taken up by Will A. Aaron, representing the Birming- ham and South Mississippi corporation, which is believed to have the backing of the big Pennsylvania system; and he was soon followed by the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlanta, and now the Frisco Is about to get into the game.
 All three of these roads contemplate a direct line from Birmingham to Baton Rouge, by way of Waynesboro and Hat. tiesburg The Birmingham and Mlssis- sippi Southern has had it's preliminary survey made, including a branch line to Scranton.
 The Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic now has two corps of engineers in the field one working eastward from Baton Rouge and the other working westward from Waynesboro, with the probability that they will converge at or near Hat tiesburg.
 Construction Work.
 This company is now doing a great deal of construction work east of Birmingham, and has made public announcement that it proposes to push construction west of Birmingham to Baton Rouge as fast as possible. The Frisco has not yet taken f,,x ttso fnt. h ant yet taken over the management of the Mobile, Jackson and Kansas City line, which will form one of the important links In its chain of roads in this section. By building through Hattiesburg it will have immediate connection with Mobile and Scranton without further construction in that direction.
 A special dispatch from Waynesboro, Miss, says: "The arrival of a party of twenty-two surveyors in the employ of the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic railroad here has developed the fact that that road has under way a project to build line either from the western terminus of it's main line at Birmingham, or from point on it's main line near Talladega to New Orleans by the way of Selma, Waynesboro and Hattiesburg. The surveyors who have reached here have covered the route from Selma to this place and are now headed toward Hattiesburg, and it is understood that another party of surveyors have finished the survey from Selma to Birmingham. Such line would make the shortest route from Atlanta to New Orleans. In addi- tion it would open up a rich new region. Work on the main line of the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic between the Georgia state line and Birmingham is be- ing rapidly pushed"
 New Route Surveyed.
 A special dispatch from Baton Rouge says: "The party of engineers who are running the line for the Atlanta, Birming- ham and Atlantic eastward from this city is pushing back into the interior, having reached mile from this city. Consider able interest attaches to the new route being surveyed, it being conceded that such line from Baton Rouge to Birming- ham means the immediate development of this section by placing Batou Rouge in direct communication with the coal and iron mines of Birmingham. It also means the immediate utilization of deep water facilities. to which considerable at- tention has been given of late"
 President Davidson of the Frisco com pany has given out several interviews of late, the purport of which was that his system intended at once to construct a, line from Baton Rouge or New Orleans to connect with it's new acquisition, the Mobile, Jackson and Kansas City road at point south of Mobile, doubtless at Hattiesburg, the most important point on the road.