The Arizona sentinel., 1907-04-10
DEVELOPMENT BOOM IN THE
 WEST.

AoL "OoO To iNloS 1AN ton service a good deal of con- cern at the present time.
 With every part of the inter- mountain country enjoying a re- markable building boom, the government finds itself seriously handicapped by it's inability to secure reasonable bids for con- structing it's big irrigation works. The large contractors are all loaded up with railroad work which will occupy their atten- tion for many months to come, while smaller contractors have all they can possibly do to take care of the local demands of cit ies and towns.
 Many of the contracts of the government have been advertised several times without securing reasonable bids. The govern ment is confronted with the proposition of doing the work by force account or of postpon ing it until there is an improve ment in conditions. The pres ent time is most unpropitious for the government to undertake do ing the work itself. There IS an unusual scarcity of labor. Wa ges are from 40 to 60 per cent higher than two years ago, while efficiency has been decreased rather than improved by the un- limited demand for laborers. Owing to the remote ness of much of the government work from cities and towns, labor is not at tracted thereto, and as a rule the government gets only the leav- ingS or the most undesirable class of laborerS. The steady and skillful workers are all busy.
 The costs of all kinds of mate rial have increased enormously. Take cement, for instance, which enters so largely into the con- struction of dams and headworks and for which the government is asking for hundreds of thous- ands of barrels, it has been com pelled to accept bids at prices nearly double those paid two years ago. Even at the present high price only few manufac- turers are competing, and today the cement required for Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and the Da- kotas 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 mate rial increase in the cost of con- struction, the following exam ples are cited: In 1904 and 1905 the average cost of earGhwork excavation was about 13 cents per cubic yard. Today the pre- vailing rates for similar work are from 24 to 30 cents. A large contract for grading was letat 13 cents per yard, and the con- tractor executed the contract and furnished the required bond. When he came to secure the ne- cessary machinery, animals and labor, he found the work would cost so much more than his bid that he threw up his bid and for feited his bond. On readvertise- ment the contract was again let at 24 cents per yard, and the contractor is said to be losing money at this price. Reinforced concrete in 1905 averaged $8.50 per cubic yard, while the respon- sible bids this year are from SIG 50 S21-
 The troubles of the contractor Tn the matter of shipping mate rials are shown by the expert ence of one contractor who or dered shipment in November and loaded it on cars, detailing @ man to follow the car and expe- dite early delivery in every way possible Notwithstanding all these precautions more shan three months elapsed before the materials were received at their destination, only few hundred miles away.
 The notable interested cost of