The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-25

Despite the magnitude of the work suddenly imposed upon the commission during the past summer, it has managed to meet all demands. No extra clerical help was asked for.
 So far during the summer hearings have been held at Chicago, New York, Kansas City and Cincinnati. Other hear ings are scheduled for places in the southern states, in New England and along the entire Pacific coast
 The commission, while never having gone on record as to just when these questions will be finally settled, have made It's position clear by stating inoffi- cially that in the coming spring de- cison in most of the cases would be reached.
 According to gossip among railway of- ficials in the city as well as among the legal practitioners, the real fight will just about begin at that time. The plan of fighting which the railroads have mapped out contemplate taking the cases to the supreme court of the United States for final decision, should the Interstate Com merce Commission decide against the general advance in freight rates. Should this be true there is absolutely no telling when the whole question will be settled as the delays incident to legal procedure would string the cases out before the courts for years.
 However. the preliminaries have been won for the people by the diplomatic stroke of the President Through execu- tive action, million of dollars already have been saved to the shippers of the country and hundreds of thousands of dollars have remained in the pockets of the people by the postponement of the contemplated increase in freight rates on commodities and in communication fares.
 Uncle Sam has put one over the ce- ment manufacturers of the country, espe- cially on the western reclamation pro- jects Recent advertisements asking for prices on cement to be used on the Roose- welt dam, on the Salt river, Arizona, and other waterway works. resulted In a | flood of bids. The lowest obtainable by the interior depa rtment was a bid of $4S3 | a barrel After consultation with en-
 gneers at work on the projects, depart
 ment officials came to the conclusion that | this price was abnormally excessive, not
 withstanding the inaccessibility of the
 sites upon which most of the dams are
 constructed After repeated efforts to se-
 cure satisfactory proposals for furnish-
 Ii ing cement in large quantities the recla-
 nation service on authority of the sec
 retary of the interior, erected cement
 making plant
 | Up until the present time, the mill has
 manufactured 337,OO0 barrels. of cement at
 uniform cost of approximately 2.9O a
 barrel. In this figure is included the cost
 of construction and maintenance of the
 plant and all expenditures incident to the
 manufacturing of cement.
 By making it's own cement the govern
 ment was able to realize a large profit,
 the benefit of which will accrue to the
 land owners within the limits of the va
 rious projects, by reducing the cost of
 obtaining a water supply in irrigating
 their farms.
 | During the past year, according to es-
 inmates of the reclamation service, the
 government has effected saving in the
 field of from $5OO0 to $20,0O0 in labor time,
 and machinery through the introduction
 of new methods of conducting business.
 of the methods of conducting business. l From recent reports received at the in- terior department, work on the various
 reclamation projects have been progress ing favorably | 0~,,%I~ ~~.-. D D~sI~rxnx1