The Cordova daily times., 1916-12-09
PREP AIRING FUR SPRING WORK
 GOVT, ROAD

Work on the Alaska railroad will be 1n progress in earnest next spring, un- less the present plans of Thomas Riggs, Jr., member of the Alaskan en- gineerfng commission, in charge of the work in the interior, fail, and g. ooO men will be in the employ of the government building the road This will mean much to the interior in the way of money that will be disbursed Tor construction purposes, but infinite ly more in that 1t will open up hun dreds of miles of resources that now lay dormant. The progress of the work will depend largely upon the money to be appropriated by congress, and the date upon which it will become available.
 MT Riggs hopes to have the work well under way for the summer during the early part of April, provided the next appropriation becomes available immediately upon the passage of the bill. Chairman Edes, of the commits sion, is now in Washington taking up the matter of the needs with the de- partment of the interior for the com ing year, and probably will be there until after the appropriation is passed. During the past summer the greatest number of men employed at any one time was 722, so that next summer there will be approximately three times that many. Up to the present time approximately $80O,0O0 has been spent on the Fairbanks division of the railroad for construction purposes, and next year this should be swelled to two and one-half millions or more.
 Frost Conditions sothersome.
 In the construction work, Mr. Riggs says that one of the most serious pro- blems to overcome will be the frost and frozen ground. During the past summer the commission made some extensive experiments with frozen ground along Goldstream and with fairly good success, and unless some thing worse is encountered next sum- mer, the work should ga along speed ily
 Plenty of Ties in Sight.
 At the present time the commission has let enough tie contracts to lay steel all the way from Fairbanks to the Nenana coal fields and these will be delivered between now and next spring.
 Money Question Is Important
 MT Riggs said that about the only two things that could positively pre- vent the complIion of laying rails to the coal fields by next fall would be late appropriation and the lack of men. The commission has not import ed any labor as yet and does not in- tend to, but hopes that in the spring there will be enough newcomers in the interior to fill the wants.
 Should the appropriation not be- come available immediately upon the passage of the act, the work would have to be held up during the months of April, May and June, which are considered three of the best months in the year.
 interior People Help.
 To the commission, one of the things that is helping greatly in the work is the hearty cooperation of the writing to a person in the states who is greatly interested in the progress of the work, said that the people of the interior recognize that the con struction of the railroad means the opening up of the latent resources, which under the difficulties and high cost heretofore existing, had been ly- ing dormant and out of reach. For this reason the people have been put ting their shoulders to the wheel and giving the government officials ma terial assistance, which has been ap- preCiated.
 Work Now In Progress.
 The steam shovel is working into a heavy face DOW, and with the mar row guage railroad and donkey engine is filling a big cut. over which tenn porary trestle had been built for the donkey.
 The telephone line has been com pleted for a distance of thirty miles