N&W in 1910--Speculation

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 15, 1910

NORFOLK AND WESTERN HOLDS MASTER HAND
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May Eventually Have Line Giving the Shortest Route Between Great Lakes and Panama Canal

    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.
    With the narrow guage [sic] 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.
    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.
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[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.]

Gordon Hamilton
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