The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-09
RAILROAD NEWS
Henry FIagler Will See HIS
Dream Come True.
Completion Soon Of Great Tide
water Road in South.
CROSS WATER TO CUBA
An Oversee Line That Brings
Havana to Front Door.
Other Items of General interest,"
i'm Traffic World.
CROSS WATER TO CUBA


New York. Jan. Both Henry y
FIagIer and the late Henry IL teos
ars who built I'D the Standard Oli
organization. were ambitious, allel
they had gained great Weallh' -
s,bia1-a greatness individually mat
Is to say both were inspired py an an
bition at about the same time 70 IN
dertake a work OF large pIOlPls1aI -
entailing great amounts OF cdPleal, -
highest engineering ability ana heen
commercial foresight. W nat t .s5
men accomplished with the otaHue az u
Oil company and other orsdLi1,eA 80 -
was achieved in association Win Hl0h
some of whom were as able as theln-
selves. The standard Oil corp
did, until the organization o. eil0
United States steel corporation mus
fraFe rhe perfection to which cooper
80 ~ brains and finance and of or
eanizinas capacity could attain II was
FREQUENTLY said that in the very mag
nitude and success OF the StahudIu -
CORPORATION there was proof that the
age of collectivism, as We commons
call il had at last come, ana thdl III
dividuaI ability could only be useu 10
the greatest advantage when 1t acted
in cooperation with the aDlllty o. oti-
er individuals.
Wanted to Show Ability
circles especially it has always been
surmised that when Henry H. rogers
conceived the plan for the conSIruc-
ton of a railway line extending from
the Atlantic coast at Norfolk 10 the
heart of one of the great coal districts
I of the Appalachian region he was real
" inspired by an ambition to snow
the world that he, alone, single hand-
ed, would be able to construct sreal
work and one with which ms name
yrp1116 he exclusively lQ6nInleQ.
a little earlier, Mr. Flagler had
planned those wonderful improve
ments in Florida, the most important
of which, as well as a world amazing
one. having been completed IN the
last days OF the year 1911.
What Mr.. Rogers submitted to when |
constructing what became known as
the Tidewater railroad, he never full |
II confessed. All of his friends real |
lied that he suffered keen humilia-
ton when at time, a few years ago, !
of great money embarrassment he was |
compelled to negotiate large loan /
not merely by the use of his own cred !
il which for many years had been all /
sufficient. but in addition by the col /
lateral security of Standard Oil GER
tificates. The money was presumab bly, !
needed for the purpose of completing |
or pushing further toward completion /
the Tfdewater railroad. And he also
fhad to agree to pay interest at the
rate of per cent to get the money.
In His Hour of Victory.
Mr.. Rogers instructed the engineers
to make surveys which would call for
air line, as nearly as that was prac-
ticable, from Norfolk, Va, to the /
heart of the great coal district in the /
Appalachian mountains. He further
more instructed the engineers to pro-
vide for as small grades as were prac-
ticable. Could he have had his way
the line would have been an absolute
tangent from its eastern terminal at
Norfolk to its western terminal. But
nature prevented that. In addition he
entered into contracts which called for
the best kind of railway construction.
This was not so much a matter of
pride with him as because, with his
far-seeing vision, he realized that
upon a railroad line with low grades
and slight curves, so built as to meet
the demands of the heaviest traffic
and SO equipped as to furnish that
traffic, he would be able to transport
coal to the seacOaSt at so small y cost
Mat the coal could be marketed in the
great manufacturing districts of the
Atlantic coast at price which would
bring It into successful competition
with other coal mines and with other
cOal-carrying railroads.
At the cost of exhaustive nervous
and physical strain. eXempiifying not |
merely the energy, but the will power.
which were characteristic of him, Mr.
Rogers was able to complete this line !
Shortly after the road was finished
Mr. Rogers was stricken by a mortal |
stroke. There was some doubt for
a while, whether the family tradition
and the earnest injunctions made by
Mr. Rogers to his son and son-in-law
would prevent the passing of this rail
road into other hands. The son-in-law
who was a civil engineer of great .abil-
1ty. did, for business reasons not con-
neCted with this road, retire from ac-
tive association with it. But it is the
common opinion that Mr.. Rogers son.
when the season of prosperity is re-
stored. is so to manage this road as
to make it fulfill the expectations of
his father.
1t Is Completed.
year ago word came from Florida
that Mr. Flagler was then confident
that the coast line or oversee rkfIroad
which he initiated and with which his
name is exclusively identified would
he completed in the month of Deeem-
Der, 1911.
Had it not been for the deposits Of
the sea animalculae whereby the lime