Omaha daily bee., 1907-04-10
GOOD TINES DELAY WORK
Government Projects Crippled by Building
Operations in the West.
LA6OR AND MATERIAL ADVANCE IN PRICE
Contractors Abandon work or Lose
Money when they Attempt to
FuIhII Contracts Made for
Irrigation bitches.
LA8oR AND MATERIAL ADVANCE IN PRlC

ltrom a stan correspondent
WASHINGTON, April Especial Tho
development boom in the far west is giving
reclamation service a good deal of concern
at the present time.
with every part Of the intermountain
country enjoying a remarkable building
boom, the government finds itself seriously
Handicapped by its inability to secure
reasonable bids for constructing its big
irrigation works The large contractors
are all loaded up with railroad work, which
Will occupy their attention for many months
TO come, while smaller contractors have
all they can possibly do to take care Of
the local demands Of cities and towns.
Many Of the contracts 81 the government
have been advertised several times without
securing reasonable bids The government
is confronted with the proposition Of doing
the work by force account, or if postponing
It until there is an improvement in condi-
tiOns. The present time is most un-
proptious for the government TO under
take doing the work itself There is an
unusual scarcity OF labor. Wages are from
40 to 90 per cent higher than two years ago,
while efficiency has been decreased rather
than improved by the unlimited demand
for laborers. owing to the remoteness Of
much Of the government work from cities
I
and as a rule the government gets only
the leavings or the most undesirable class
| Of laborers. The steady and skillful workers
are all busy
| Cost of Railroad Increases.
! The costs Of all kinds Of material has
/ increased enormously. Take cement for
! instance which enters so largely in the
! construction of dams and headworks, and
: Tgv
/ hundreds OF thousands Of barrels. it has
been compelled to accept bids at prices
nearly double those paid two years ago.
Even at the present high price only few
manufacturers are competing, and today
the cement required for Idaho, Montana.
Wyoming and the Dakotas is shipped from
Chicago.
Lumber has nearly doubled in price, and
horses and mules now cost fully twice
| what they did three years ago.
As an Illustration OF the material increase
in the cost Of construction the following
examples are cited. In 1904 and 1905 the
average cost of earthwork excavation was
about 13 cents per cubic yard Today the
prevailing rates for similar work are from
"a to 30 cents. A large contract for grading
was let at 10 cents per ward and the con
tractor executed the contract and furnished
lne required DOnO. Nncn ne came TO Sc
cure the necessary machinery, animals and
labor, he found the cork would cost 81
much more than his bid that he threw vi
his bid and forfeited his bond on re-
advertisement the contract was again lei
at "a cents per yard, and the contractor Is
said TO be losing money at this price
Reinforced concrete In 1905 averaged $S.5l
per cubic yard, while the responsible bidl
this year are from SIG to S2l.
Transportation DihicuIt
The troubles of the contractor in tn,
matter OF shipping materials are shown boy
the experience OF one contractor who or
dered a shipment in November and loaded
it on cars detailing a man to follow tn,
, car and expedite early delivery in every
way possible Notwithstanding all thes,
precautions, more than three months
elapsed before the materials were received
at their destination, only a few hundred
miles away.
The notable increased cost of construc
tion has compelled a revision Of the orig
inal estimates on all of the large projects
and II there is not a material improvement
l in conditions II may be necessary to post
pone further construction work on SOM
! Of these projects for an indefinite period
Any further increase may render some o
the projects so expensive that dificult.
q will arise in getting settlers 20 take tn
lands