The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-02
Said That Work on Struc- ture Itself Will Begin Within the Next
 Thirty Days
MARKS THE CLOSE OF LONG NEGOTIATIONS
 FOR SAFE PASSAGE
Miller Says Work Shows Good Faith of Railroads in Keeping Agree ment Made With COmmis-
 si0ner Weatherly

A small force of men at work at First avenue and Twenty-seventh street yes terday created as much and probably more interest about the city and espe- cially in city hall circles than any group of labor that ever stuck a spade into Birmingham dirt.
 They were actually at work on the First avenue viaduct
 As had been expected for the past sev- eral weeks, work of a preliminary na- ture was begun by the railroads yester- day in accordance with the agreement reached with Commissioner James Weath- erly some two or three months ago. Actual work ,the viaduct may not be- gin for a couple of months, although railroad men say it will be started within 30 days. Nevertheless. the small body of laborers yesterday marked an epoch in controversy that has been going on in
 Birmingham for 15 or 20 years of viaduct negotiations because never before have the city and the railroads been able to agree sufficiently to have even prelimi- nary work started.
 Is an Old Fight
 The viaduct problem of Birmingham
 was taken up away back in aldermanic
 days and was the subject of many d lively aldermanic debate. At many times in by-gone years has the word been given out that a viaduct agreement had been reached and work would begin within such and such a time. But the time always came and the viaduct work did not. When the commission form of gov ernment took over the affairs of the city the same old controversy was kept up and always with the same result. Finally, three or four months ago, City Commissioner Weatherly, who has had the matter in charge since commission form of government went in, drafted and the commission passed what became known as the ''viaduct force ordinance" an ordinance to force the railroads to and Twenty street or be guilty of an offense against the laws of the city for every day they failed to do so. Miller Takes Up Matter
 At this juncture H. w. Miller of At lanta, assistant to the president of the Southern Railway company, came to Bir- mingham and after negotiations with Vice President Maypother of the Louis vile and Nashville, MT. Miller entered into a private agreement with Commits sioner Weatherly to the effect that work WOulQ DeSl0 OH the NldQucL June l, ana
 that all further negotiations regarding
 the work, apportionment of cost and
 similar particulars would be carried on
 between the various railroads and indus
 trial corporations involved. Trusting in
 the word of Mir. Miller, MT. Weatherly
 immediately dropped the matter, although
 he has been an interesting observer of
 the negotiations from the "side lines"
 Yesterday MT. Miller was in Birmingham a pa in, oo ,orI.- hot rlr
 on the viaduct proper would begin with in the next 30 days or so and stated that the structure then would be com- pleted as speedily as possible.
 The work was begun on the viaduct yes- terday when a force of laborers, under Engineer A. F. Frendberg of the Louis vile and Nashville railroad, began making necessary changes in the Louisville and Nashville tracks, thus carrying out the agreement with the city to have actual work start on June 1. The Birmingham Railway. Light and Power company had engineers on the ground yesterday receiv- ing instructions from the city engineer and will today begin the work of removing poles and other Instructions and con structing a temporary track along First avenue, which track will be used for it's cars while the viaduct is being built Shows Good Faith
 MT. Miller, assistant to the president of the Southern Railway company, expressed his belief that the beginning of actual work would be accepted by the people or Birmingham as tangible evidence of the good faith of all parties in this tre- mendous undertaking. When asked as to whether the plans had been delayed py the fact that the railroads have not yet completed all phases of the negotia- tions with the Sloss-Sheffield company in regard to the apportionment of the cost. MT. Miller said:
 AS matter of fact, there has been no delay, as shown by the fact that work was begun promptly at the time agreed upon. It has taken longer to prepare the finai detailed plans and estimates as to tne amount of material necessary for con tractors to use in making bids than we expected, despite the fact that a force of engineers has been engaged constantly on this work since the day of our agree nlent wltn the city. but this delay has Tn no way resulted from the fact that we have not yet completed negotiations with all parties at interest,"