The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-09-29


Pennsylvania Lines.
New York. Sept. 22.-The so-called
Hawley interests. the moving spirits of
which are Edwin Hawley, Theodore
p. Shonts. Frank Trumbull and Presi-
dent Frank A. Vanderlip. of the City
(standard OiD Bank. have practical
ly secured control Of the Hooking
Valley Railway and coal properties
and are negotiating for the purchase
OF railroad which will AFFORD the
Chesapeake and Ohio, an outlet at
Charleston or at Savannah, possibly at
both points. Since Hawley entered
the Southern railroad field by pur-
chasing the Chesapeake and Ohio
Railway. and especially since his
plans to broadly develop that road
were made public, intense rivalry has
sprung up between his railroads and
the Norfolk and Western-Pennsyl-
vania lines. The Chesapeake and
Ohio has shorter line to Cincinnati
than the Norfolk and Westerns, and
by purchasing the Chicago, Cincinnati
and Louisville 1t has also secured a
lower grade from Chicago to the sea-
board than the Pennsylvania has be-
tween that city and Philadelphia or
New York. Hence tn struggle for
supremacy
A few months ago the Norfolk and
Western and the Atlantic Coast Line
acquired control Of the Winston-S Salem
South Bound Railway and made a
contract to advance the funds requir-
ed to complete that road from Wins
ton-Salem on the Norfolk and Wes-
tern to Wadesboro on the Atlantic
Coast Line. and in this way open a
shor, line from Charleston through
the Pocahontas coal fields to Cincin-
nsti and thence by lines of the Pen
sylvania system to Toledo, Chicago.
st. Louis and other points North and
West. This was a direct challenge to
Hawley: his answer to it is as
stated.
The Hooking Valley Railway Com
pany controls the Toledo and Ohio
Central, the Kanawha and Michigan
and the GAINESVILLE and Ohio, which.
with Its own lines. form system al
most 1000 miles in length, extending
In two lines from Toledo to the Ohio
River at Point Pleasant and from
there by single line to q connection
with the Chesapeake and Ohio at a
point near Ganley, w. Va, numerous
branches extends to the coal fields
through which the lines extend. When
this system is taken over by the Ches-
apeake and Ohio the latter will have
line from tidewater to the Ohio coal
heids seventy-five miles shorter than
The Norfolk and Westerns line to the
same region. and lower grade from
Toledo to the Atlantic seaboard than
the pennsylvania has. This extension
TO tidewater through Virginia and the
Carolinas for which Hawley is nego-
tiating will also, it is said, give him
line from Cincinnati and from Cen
tral Ohio many miles shorter than
that to be formed by the Norfolk and
western, the Winston-Salem South
Bound and the Atlantic Coast Line.
From this 1t would seem that when
Hawley's plans are worked out the
move Of the Norfolk and Western
pennsylvania. interests to checkmate
him will be neatly blocked.
The tonnage of the Hooking Valley
Ohio Central system now amounts to
about 2O.OOO,000 tons per annum, con-
sisting in great part Of coal from the
mines of the Buckeye Coal and Ra,l-
way Company, the Ohio Land and
Railway Company. the Sunday Creek
Coal Company and the Kanawha and
Hooking Valley Railway Company.
ihe coal companies own more than
100000 acres of coal land in Ohio
and West Virginia. The Chesapeake
and Ohio's yearly tonnage exceeds
lS,OOO,OOO tons, more than two-thirds
OF which is coal and coke. It is
planned to throw much of this coal
tonnage upon the new extension to
tldewater. so as to relieve the ter
minals at Hampton Roads, and there