The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-07-07

New York, July S.--With the begin
ming of the actual work on the new
subways next fall the greatest munic-
ipal undertaking in the history of the
country, and costing as much as the
digging Of the Panama Canal, New
York will be confronted with the
greatest labor famine it has ever
known. When the dirt begins to fly
there will be a demand for labor
greater than that which has been
caused by the digging OF the Panama
canal and although there is always a
large floating army Of unemployed
here 1t will come nowhere near to
make UP the total of $4,000 laborers
who will be needed, and as a result
Father Knickerbocker viii have to
seek labor outside, and during the
next four years there will be small ex
cuse for any able bodied man in this
city being without a job. How trem-
endous the task OF providing these
new transportation facilities is, is
shown by the fact that they will cost
more than four times as much at the
Suez canal, which was heraided
throughout the world as marvellous
undertaking. 1t is estimated that
more than 100000 cubic yards Of
earth will have to be excavated. OF
iron and steel $4,000 tons will be need
ed or enough to construct IS buildings
equal in size to the Metropolitan Tow
er or to lay railroad tracks from New
York to New Mexico, while the 2.000.-
600 cubic yards of concrete which will
be used would build good sized CITY.
Altogether the building of these new
subways will set a record never be-
fore approached.
The recent holdup of mail train In
which the robbers escaped with the
registered mail is cited by postal
authorities here as emphasizing the
rarity of losses of this kind While
hundreds Of millions Of dollars are
transported by mail. the total indem-
nifty paid by the postoffice during the
past year on account of train robberies
was only 1888 Much of the disjn-
clination on the part Of the profess
sional highwaymen to interfere with
Uncle Sans property In transit un-
doubtedly is due to the reputation
which the old gentleman has gained |
or never letting up on the trail of a |
peculator and of eventually landing
every man who tries to prey upon the /
mails. Another reason for the COM |
parative infrequency of train robber- |
les undoubtedly is that by far the |
greater part of the mail is now trans |
ported by the railroads and it is a |
much more difficult matter to hold up /
a fast train than a stage coach or star
route carrier. BY the increase I'm the |
use of the railways as mali carriers
the government gains in two ways, for |
not only is railway transportation far
safer, but 1t is also cheaper. In fact I
the railways claim that the rates paid |
to them by the government for carry |
ing the mails are so low that they |
lose some millions of dollars year on |
this end Of their business, and as the |
postmaster general after inyestigat- |
ing nearly 400 lines has just reported |
that more than a quarter Of them are
underpaid, the loss which they suffer |
in this connection is vastly greater
than that which arises from the dep
relations of would-be immitators of /
Jesse James. That this occupation
offers small chance of profit is shown
by the fact that in the past two years.
according to postoffice records, there
have been in the entire country only
nine train robberies involving the
mails and it Is said that even in this
latest holdup the mail train was at
tackled through mistake by bandits
who were really after a heavy gold
shipment travelling by express on an
other train
Failing more than mile without in
Jury Is the record which has just been
set here by man known to his fellow
workers as Mine Lives Tim" and ''the
human cat" who is neither an aero
pianist nor balloonist, but a painter
who has done his falling without the
aid of any artificial means of support.
He rounded out his two hundreth fan
Of twenty five feet or over this week
by tumbling 100 feet from the eighth
story of a building in which he was
at work. landing on his feet and es-