Bisbee daily review., 1905-12-12
SANTA FE COMPANY SPENDS SIO,OOO,OOO
In Strenuous Attempt to Cut
 Down Time to Coast

Few people who have not visited the scene of the building of the Belen cut off realize the magnitude of the work which the great corporation is doing there to save a few hours in the run against time and competition across the broad west from Chicago to Cali fornia.
 Ten million dollars has been appro- priated by the Santa Fe to build this air line across the territory, and be- fore the work is ended. it will take some vigorous stretching of that ten millions to cover it.
 Ten millions is a good deal of mon ey-more perhaps than the ordinary man who reads this newspaper can ap- preciate, and ten millions is sum that a railroad will not part with without good cause.
 The most modern methods of that marvellous wizard. the American CIVIL engineer. are being used in the build ing of this railway two hundred miles, almost as the bird flies. across the central part of New Mexico from Tex ico, on the Texas line, to Rio Puerco, on the present route of the coast lines of the Santa Fe system.
 Fifteen hundred sturdy laborers, some skilled and some less skilled, a small industrial army, are busy as bees along the line of the cutoff at present. Six hundred and fifty are at work on the Belen end of the line, as many more east of the mountains, and hundreds more in the rugged fast ' nesses of Abo canyon where the rail road pierces the Manzano range in a | dizzy whirl around the edges of preci pices, across lofty bridges and through 1 bottomless cuts, through anything and l everything to "get there first"
 Expense is nothing in the breaknecR race of the big railroads to the coast The first hundred miles of tbe cutoff from Belen east. practically complet ed, will likely average in cost fifty thousand dollars mile.
 The work on the Eastern Railway of New Mexico" the corporate name of the cutoff, has been going on inter mittently for the last four years. Ha( force of men as big as the presen one been working steadily the worl could have been done in two years With plenty of men and favorabl' weather conditions the cutoff shoult be completed in another year.
 Fifty miles from Texico west is fin ished. Fifteen miles from Epris wes is done, and seventeen miles from Vii lard west. The work is divided uI among a number of contractors anC sub-coDsractors, each working on hi! own ~vidual unit of the survey.
 Moro mon ara haipor oror, | day. Not a day passes but what { consignment of a dozen or two or per haps more men are sent south to go tC the east end of the work via the Sant; Fe Central to get employment in tho 1 grading and track-laying camps
 A battalion of steam shovels groaI and pull and puff, and regiments ot Missouri mules strain in the harnes. before the Fresno scrapers.
 The numerous bridges in the tortu ous Abo canyon are in themselves mar vels of mechanical construction. The tall and graceful piers are composed | of solid concrete. so that each piel forms one solid block when finished The long steel trusses are projected onto the piers with the incest mechani cal skill, and every modern device ot the engineer is brought into requisi tion. Once in while a man is crush ed under heavy girder, or falls to his death from the top of pier, but it is all in the great game the railroads arc playing, and the work goes on. The contractors, however, have been ven fortunate, and there have been few ia taliues, comparatively speaking, dur ing the course of the work.
 E. A. Johnson, gang foreman fo, the Langtry- Sharpe Construction com pany, on the Belen cutoff, is in Albu | querque for few days, and will talk, a short vacation in that city and La. vegas before returneing to Camp 2. or the line of the new work. Mir. John son says that the company has $50 meI at work on the Belen end of the line IWenty-Lhree miles of steel are laiC and the American Steel Bridge compa ny have just begun on the seconc bridge, having bridge completed. Tn, weather has been fine so far this sea son, and the men have lost but a da, and a half on account of bad weather I He reports work progressing niceI, on the other end of the line, but wa. unable to give any figures on the exac amount.
 They pay American laborers s2 day, natives $1.75, and rockmen s2.25. said MT. Johnson. Out of this come ) board, which is first-class at s5 De week and 75 cents a month for hospita fees, which is not such bad wages fo common labor"
 There are a great many floaters men who will work for ten days ant then draw their time and quit, an, then there are the young men from tn, east, who are away from home fo the first time, and think they are enti tied to some snap job. The men wh, stay with the company get the bes jobs. There are men who came il the camp as tramps, stayed with i and who no whave good jobs, and vii probably remain in the company's em ploy permanently.
 ~ "All four ca-pre are sanitary anS we have doc ITS and nurses to car, ' for the sick. The board is far bette