, 1890-10-23

UNDER AMUSEMENT.
President Charles Francis Adams
and the viaduct.
A Satisfactory Agreement Will Be
Made Soon.
The Chief of the System Talks
Freely of Business.
He Makes the Admission That
There Was Error.

arrived in the morning on the fast mail,
his private secretary and Construction
Chief Cameron accompanying. For a
considerable time. during his stay Mr..
Adams was the guest of Governor War
rem
Mayor Riner called on Mr.. Adams and
they talked viaduct for half an hour.
After the interview the mayor expressed
the belief that a satisfactory agreement
could be made with the company at an
early day. A contract was outlined and
Mr.. Adams will accept or reject it by
wire probably before the week is out.
The conditions are that the viaduct is to
be built at once, the company to assume
a big share of the expense in excess of
the cost mentioned in the shop contract,
which was AS, 900.
Nj. Adams was pleased to learn that
the subway was to go in at once. He
said some pretty things about the town
and seemed very proud of the shop
plant. During the viaduct talk some
mention was made of lessening the cost
by making the northern approach wood
instead Of stone. In response to this the
president remarked with good natured
emphasis that the Union Pacific had
built here a depot of which il was proud
and the citizens should be and that il had
some other rather fine looking structures
under way aud that a cheap viaduct would
quite spoil the setting.
At Salt Lake Mr.. Adams talked yerv
freely to a Tribune reporter. That paper
has lately passed some severe structures
on the company management and
it is evident that the president
wanted to place his people in
the right light. He said that
the Union Pacific used to do a good
business at paying rates, years ago., in
handling teas, silks and other costly rams.
continental freight, but the multiplicityof
roads had scattered that class OF goods so
that no individual line could really make
much out of them. The principal freights
carried by the Union Pacific now were
the various minerals, including stone,
lumber and kindred raw material. There
was not much in this, and the constant
tendency in rates was to reduction. But
to refer more particularly to anticipating
the increase of business. The Union
Pacific ordered, months ago, ITO locomo-
tives and several thousand freight cars,
among which were 100 to 1000 coal cars.
Few of these had been delivered, although
strenuous exertions had been made to ex-
pedite delivery. In the meantime, Man
aver R~esseguie and other officials had
been straining every nerve to make the
equipment at hand carry the volume of
traffic that developed with an almost
startling rapiditY. 1t was lust like
working a l00-hcrse power boiler up
to double its strength or capacity.
Every locomotive did more than should
have been required Of it. Many in
need of repairs were kept at work until
they could not possibly be run longer, and
then the few absolutely necessary repairs
were hurriedly done and machines better
fitted for the scrap heap than for active
service had to be sent out again to help
move things. Cars kept getting scarcer
and scarcer as business piled up. Still the
anxious, hard working officials did their
level best to keep up their lick, and their
earnest requests for more material aid
were not complied with because the al
most interminable delays OF manufacturers
made it impossible to do so. In fact,
manufacturers were so flooded with work
that they hardly knew where to turn or
what to do next. OF course, the track
got out OF repair. Ties could not be had
for love or money. The road had thou.
sands and thousands of ties cut along with
logs for a large additional quantity. But
the spring freshets burst SO unexpectedly
as to break the booms aud wash the tim
Der away. Thus the winters labor was
lost. The blow was heavily felt; 1t par
tally crippled the road, and had made
it hard, if not positively difficult,
to maintain the track. l am willing to
acknowledge that we made one mistake.
Instead of our people killing themselves
to answer to the demands of the public,
they should have shut right down early in
the day, reduced the operations of the
road to a standardiof perfect safety, and
told the public lust how things stood;
that the condition OF the road and its
equipment did not warrant any attempt to
do the business demanded, and while the
railroad company deeply regretted it, the
public must wait until the Eastern manu-
facturers could supply them with new
rolling stock, motive power and track
equipment. The shipping interests would
have been greatly inconvenience, but
then this long series of accidents and loss
of life among train hands would have been
avoided. Work on extensions had been
stopped and the rolling stock and unused
ties would be put where they could do
the most good on the main line.
When asked about the coal blockade,
he said that every car possible was being
sent to the mines to haul coal. and the
1000 new coal cars referred to would be
hurried on as fast as they could be pro-
cured. In fact. all the division master
mechanics had been notified to hurry on
repairs, beginning with the cars that
could be repaired the quickest. that they
might be pressed into the coal service.
Idaho people were all out Of coal. They
conld get mona for love or rnopav ba