The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-06
Building Railroad Over
 Florida Keys.
CHARGES WERE THROWN OUT
They Had Halted the Great Under
 taking.
Thi. Railroad Is The Most Expensive Ever BuIIt--It VIII Have An Iin- DOrtant Duty In Case of
 Foreign Complications.

New York. Decs 5-HunJreds of men are being rushed southward to work on the completion of the great Florida East Coast Railway. following the de- cision of Judge Hough of the United States Circuit Court, in dfsmissins. as without cause of action. the so-calIed peonage cases that had been brought by the United States government against the labor agents of the rail- l road.
 While these actions were pending in 1 the courts the men in charge of ths | construction work on this sea-going | railroad, which is to be Henry M. l Flagler's greatest achievement. were 1 loath to push forward with the same amount of energy that had been jis- l played prior to the action of the AL torney General in taking cognizance of the reckless charges of labor slav- cry that had been made. Every effort | to make up for lost time now will be l put forward by Vice President Joseph 1 R. Parrott. who has been in charge personally since the work began in June of 1905. Fully 1000 men now are employed south of Knights Key and more workmen are being sent to the field of operations each day. 1 Vice President Parrott, who now Is 1 in New York on business connected l with the great extension which is jumping over q stretch of thirty miles of open ocean and over thirty miles more of submerged keys and lagoons to connect Key West by direct line with Miami, now estimates that this. one of the most novel engineering enterprises l of modern times. will be completed and trains running for its full length within year.
 1 Beyond MIaml
 Already the line Is completed and trains arc running for eighty -four S miles south of Miami right down to Knights Key. Work also is being pushed forward from Key West up and oyer forty miles of roadBed has been constructed by the gangs that are working uorthward to meet the other d 'workrnen who rapidly are moving South. This means that q total of f9f miles has been completed out of the l56 miles of road surveyed from Miami to Key West. The greatest Of all the engineering feats on this wonderful line. however, is yet to be conpleted. This Is the eieven-mile gap from Knights Key to Bahia Honda where the line is being carried over the open ocean on concrete arches.
 The effect of the great extension on traffic to Havana, however. already
 
 CTS for Havana meet the trains at Knights Key and take passengers and | freight from that point to the Cuban capital instead of eighty-four miles north at Miami. When the line is com pleted to Key West huge railroad car floats will take entire trains across the Florida Straits to Havana. distance of ninety miles. without compelling passengers to leave their car seats or sleeping ear berth and without the necessity of breaking bulk on a sin- gle consignment of freight. This will | mean that the Cuban sugar planter will be enabled to load his product on 1 a freight car side-tracked at his plan tatlon. have the car hauled by rail 70 Havana. floated to Key West and then ail-hauled right to New YGrh or any other point without any of the ex- pense, trouble or damage dangers of a second handling.
 Most Expensive Railroad.
 This great project. which is being financed, from beginning to end. by Mir Flagler personally, generally is regarded by engineers as the most ex 1 pensive stretch of railroad ever butt, the average cost of construction. from end to end, exceeding 'S100,o0O e miIe while the additional capital re- auirements for docks. channeling. car i floats and equipment will bring the total cost approximately to $SOo0O.Oo0. Already MT. Flagler has expended up- wards of $15.OO0.00O on the work.
 It was more than year and a half ago when this great work was inter- rupted by the United States Attorney | General and charges were made that laborers on the railroad work were held in bondage, compelled to work practically without pay and were sub l jected to various sorts of oppression.
 
 Federal grand jury in New York and indictments, charging conspiracy. were found against Eduard J. TrIay, of Jack sonville, Fla, resident labor agent for the road against Francisco Sabbia, who has a private bank at 225 Bowery in this city; and against Frank A. Hough and David E. Harley. who were employed by the company to take South the gangs of workmen that were engaged in New York. At an expense that has been estimated to be as high as $5OO,0O0 the governments attorneys. after three years of preparation. had their cases literally thrown out of court. as being without foundation Judge Hough not even requiring the attorneys for the railroad to present their defense.
 II since has been shown that the whole so-calIed 'peonage'' agitation was started by irresponsible workmen who had been sent south by the com pany and then. after the usual man. ner of "hoboes," had run away from their work and sought, by their tales of slavery" to justify their leaving , Several of these men had themselves interviewed for newspaper purposes but later. when it came to making af- fidavits as to the truth of their state | ments, they were forced to reeant woe fully and to admit they were we'll treated while working on the keys.
 When the Florida East Coast Exten- sion was projected. the Florida state authorities offered to the railroad. which has done all it's own eonstruc- tion work without subletting a single contract the use of every convict , under sentence. Had this offer been , accepted the road would have had a