Mexico weekly ledger., 1909-08-12
Work on Local Proposition Moving
steadily Toward eOaI-severaI r.
nancial Institutions Interested in
Line.


ment:
q was present al the meeting OF
the Mexico Business Mems Associa-
ton Thursday afternoon at the South
ern Bank with o. F. Spaete, Judge
Roberts and others of the North Mis-
souri, Central proposed railroad and
heard all they had to say. These gen
tlemen are certainly past masters in
the art of dispening hot air. They
say their railroad is financed but
that how" and by whom is their
business.
my Information on this subject
comes straight and is this; They
have a paper signed by The Frank
lin Construction Co." agreeing that
it will build the road from Jeffer-
son City to Mexico by way of Co
lumbia for 81 500, 900 in bonds, $780,,
600 in bonus and sl2O.0 600 cash to-
be raised from stock sales.
The important question arises In
this connection, who is and what is
"The Franklin Construction Co.T"l
How big a concern is it? Has it the
financial ability to build the road
without selling those bonds? If not.
the road is not financed.
These gentlemen stated that they
o have 60 per cent of the right
Of way between Mexico and Column
bia, when as a mater Of fact they
have not ten percn ct of it, and Mr..
Estes, the man who made the state.
ment. admitted to Judge Thos. f.
Murray and Mr.. Glenn, Of Boone
county, that he had merely been
told so and i'd not know anything
abou' It.
They stated that their plans did
not contemplate building to Full
ton for the reason that their engineer
pronounced Il impracticable from an
engineering standpoint = too expen-
sive. When ! heard that statement,
l thought ! could Judge how much
their other statements ought to be
discounted. or rs a matter of fact.
the line from a point anywhere near
Hereford on their proposed line to
Fulton, is the easiest and best grade
on the entire line. 1t is a level
country and not a bridge to be
built except the bridge over the c..
e. A. Railroad at Fulton.
In this connection, l would like to
inquire. who is their engineer a nd
what character of a man is he as re-
CARDS his engineering ability? l have
never heard of his having located any
lines; sought out any terminals and,
in fact, / have heard that htey are
paying their engineer $3.50 per day.
Their proposition to the people of
Mexico and the farmers along the
line from Mexico to the corporate lin
its of Columbia raise as a bonus $s5,
600. They said that they thought
Mexico fought to raise $4,000 or
$50, 900 Of this amount" but what
they wanted mostly was that the
business men, bankers and profess
sional men. help them 'to talk the
farmers into giving big donations'and
intimated that maybe the farmers, If
rightly handled, " could be induced to-
do practically the whole thing"
They did not put It this way exact
ly, but that is what it meant. II
don't think, however, our business
men, bankers and professional men
are ready, just yet, to Join in the
game of Fleeing the farmers.
Our experience with the farmers
both north and south of town shows
that they stand ready to do their part
and don't need to be told by the
bankers and business men what they
ought to do.
They stated that il Mexico would
not heartily and promptly Join in
their scheme and help raise this bo-
nus, they would change their
route and build to Moberly. That Isl
exactly what our company prof.
posed to them that they should do
last fall. We stated to them that
We were ahead of them in the line
from Mexico to Columbia and showed
them that Mexico had direct com
munication with Jefferson City by
way Of c. & A. railroad and that
Moberly had not; that they could get
through business from Moberly to
jefferson Cy. without successful conf
petition and that their line from JEFF.
ferson City to Moberly would make a
good feeder" for our line and our
'AhP nbuAu AhtNibp mdhS d BOOu
feeder" for theirs and each would
strengthen the other and neither be
In the way of the other.
Instead of doing that, however,
they have nine months thrown In our
way every obstacle that they could
and have not TO this day obtained a
franchise from a city or county on
heir proposed line. They have not,
apparently located their line any
where unless It should be between
Columbia and Ashland. They have
had in their employ an engineer
II any note and in fact seem to me
0 he playing at railroad building. /,
"on the other hand, our company f,
Ias carefully surveyed its lines from
hannibal through to Columbia and
had the entire line checked
p, corrected and relocated and re- /
on by a high-class engineer, 7
is known to the financial world.