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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Tunga>Bluefield Daily Telegraph<BR>February 15,
1910</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=4>NORFOLK AND WESTERN HOLDS MASTER
HAND</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG>May Eventually Have Line Giving the Shortest Route
Between Great Lakes and Panama Canal</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left> What will the Norfolk and Western do when the
leases which the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company and the Louisville and
Nashville have with the Norfolk and Western expire next year? Will the
Norfolk and Western secure the Virginia and Southwestern and ship Clinch Valley
coal from the lower Clinch field over the Bristol division, via the Virginia and
Southwestern? If this is done it will mean that the Norfolk and Western
will switch some of its Clinch Valley coal over the Bristol division, thus
taking it away from Bluefield. Or, will the Norfolk and Western eventually
own the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway, and have a line from Sandusky,
Ohio, on the Great Lakes to Charleston, S. C., on the Atlantic seaboard, thus
giving the shortest distance between the lakes and the Panama canal? Or
will the road continue to give trackage rights to the Louisville and Nashville
and the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company? It may be possible that the
Norfolk and Western has out-Harrimaned Harriman and out-Hawleyed Hawley and made
plans for a road which would embrace the best coal fields in the Virginias and
Tennessee as well as having taken over the cream of the Ohio business.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> With the narrow guage [<EM>sic</EM>] road
between Devon and a possible outlet near Kiser, on the Clinch Valley, it would
be possible for the Norfolk and Western to have a route from Sandusky to
Charleston but it would necessitate the acquisition of the Columbus, Sandusky
and Hocking and the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio railway.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The Norfolk and Western holds a strategic
position. Situated in the coal fields of the Virginias and Tennessee, it
holds a master hand and it will be in the running when all the other hands are
forced to sit back and watch the game played out for the big pot as well as all
the side pots. It is understood that the Norfolk and Western will not
renew its traffic arrangements with the Louisville and Nashville and the
Virginia and Southwestern but will, as has been rumored many times, run its own
trains over its own track to Big Stone Gap, where it can connect with the
Virginia and Southwestern. The Virginia and Southwestern runs to Bristol
and the Norfolk and Western has a line from Bristol to Radford. This line
also reaches Pulaski, where there is a furnace which needs coke and coal.
Years ago a mighty sized empire was planned for the southwest and its apparent
chances for realization never appeared brighter than they do right now.
This may be where the cry of "go south, young man," comes from, as the time may
have come and the fairy hand which makes all these things possible may be the
Norfolk and Western and its allies, the financiers.</DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=left>[<EM>The reporter does not how the N&W could go from Norton
"...over its own track...." to Big Stone Gap where it would connect with the
Virginia and Southwestern.</EM>]</DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=6 face=Script>Gordon
Hamilton</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>