The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-08-07
VALUING THE
RAILROADS A
LARGE TASK
Work Will Take Years and Re-
quirs a Huge Sum

Omaha, Neb., Aug. CONGRESS gavu
the interstate commerce commits sioi
S2.0000O0 with which 10 make a phi 81
cal valuation Of the American ILil
roads. The government engineers ant
inspectors have just about compile &c
their preparations and have beg u
their actual labors on several OF tho
smaller Western railroads. and Il ;
now believe that instead OF costing d
country 100000, the work viii a1-
sorb the better part OF S1O0O0,0OO every
year and that years and years will DE
consumed In securing the Information
desired by the National leris'o ture.
incidentally. they now report tn. TO be
OF any real value and benefit, this in
formation must be kept right up to
date and that the bureau and organi-
cations must bc permanent, together
with the cost thereof.
Even the engineers employed in the
work are aEhast at the magnitude OF
the Job" 10 which they have been as
signed. When congress ordered the
commission 10 make this physical vail
uation, no instructions were issued. 1t
was left to the commission to evolve a
system and to secure the desired infor-
nation In any manner It could. But
the members OF the Interstate body
had no precedent by which To be guild
ed. They knew the end desired but
not the road by which that end was
reached. Now, after months and
u1ppfIe ,f ,r,Ifr,,i "a, So ,,-,rIs tI,. ,.,,,
mission is really making the physical
valuation, the start beins made on the
salt Lake line between salt Lake city
and Los Angeles, California.
tv government engineers are taking
ausD'H... s. nothing for granted and are
accepting practically none OF the rec
orIs in the headquarters Of the rail-
read. Nor is the clerical department
a. the investigators accepting any re-
pert issued by the railroad company.
The engineers are proving every foot Of
track, while the clericals are scrulin- !
izing every figure submitted To them |
The wonderful detail Of the work being |
done by the government engineers is /
shown In the manner i'm which is Sc
cured the value Of a railroad bridge. |
First they get the records Of the par
ticular bridge from the office Of the en-
gineer OF the railroad With this rec
ord they measure the len-th and width
OF the structure. Then they measure
the size ~ large number OF small
pieces OF steel In the framework. They
investigate the piers upon which the
iron rests. They take note OF the con-
dition Of the paint on the structure.
They note the year IN which IL was
erected and figure the cost II the ma
terial al tie time IL was built. After
figuring the cost OF the bridge al the
steel works, they add thereto the cost
Of transportation, Of labor. and II cv-
erything else which went into the
bridge, and the cost Of the bridge nj
the time IL was built is secured. After
wards, the present cost ~ reproduction
is hgured, and then the valuation is
completed. When 81 is considered that
many Of these Western railroads tray-
crse mountainous re-ions and that
hundreds and hundreds ~ bridges are
IN use, The expert work required to se-
cure the value is seen 90 Doe perfectly
Securing the cost of rails and ties is
"a comparatively easy "job"-the very
easiest Of the whole work. That is all
most 70 matter Of plain calculation. But
when % comes down 90 discovering Just
III What condition the rails are at
present and how badly the ties are