The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-08-26
Increasing Number of Clerks
Necessitates Addition.
|FILES BUILDING NEAR SHOPS
Fireproof Housing of Roads
Important Records.
New Force of Clerks to Take
Care of This Department.

Because of the roads tremendous
growth, demanding greater office ia
cilities, in the last few years. build
ing program, one of the largest
mapped out here by a corporation in
several years, will be included for To-
peka in the Santa Fe railroads ap-
preparation budget for 1917, it became
known today. The program will call
for the expenditure of from 100000
of 1925. 900. and includes an addition of
office building between Ninth and
Tenth on Jackson street, and the erec-
ton of a concrete. fireproof files and
storage building in the shops district.
The addition to the general office
building. as planned, will cost ap-
proximateIy $4,000. The present
building, which was started in 1909
and completed in 1911, cost more than
$25O,000. With the new two-story
addition the Santa Fe's building will
be one of the largest in the west and
by far the largest in Kansas.
Create New Department.
The erection of a files building in
the shops district means the creation
of a new department here employing a
large force of office men. That build
ing will be used as a storehouse for
preservation of which is demanded by
rulings Of the interstate commerce
commission The majority of the rec
ords are now kept in the old general
office building and the old freight de-
pot, the latter building being located
in the shops district.
The addition of two stories to the
general office building will make il
twelve stories high, excluding base
ments and endorsements as was pro-
vided for in the original plans and
Specifications which were drawn prior
to 1909.
In the last eight years the office
force of the Santa Fe has increased SO
per cent. Prior to 1911, when the
new building was completed, the ma
jority Of the two departments now
housed in the two buildings were To-
Gated in the old office building.
Buildings Congested.
When the new building was COM
pleted officials of the road believed it
would afford office space adequate for
years. The passing of a few years,
however, found the big building and
the little one just as congested as was
the latter in 1911. Not only can that
growth be regarded as an example of
the roads growing business and pros
perity. but it is regarded as a barome-
ter Of the prosperity of the west as
it has been pointed out that railroad
Is the pulse OF the territory thru
which it operates. The Santa Fe led
all other western roads in gross and
net revenues In the fiscal year of 1915
1 6, ending last June 80.
Its office building program here
surpasses the programs of all other
western roads, excluding the Southern
Pacific. so far as has been announced
! The Southern Pacific has announced
plans to build a twenty-story general
office building on the Pacific coast.
| 1t is probable that a large number
of the departments in the old general
office building will be m. we'd to the
new building when the additional
stories are completed
Tear Down Old Building.
In fact, the addition will undoubt-
| edIy pave the way for tearing down
| the old office building and the erec-
tion of a new modern one in its place
But little doubt is expressed hcre
that the program as will be included
| in the budget for the next fiscal year
| will be approved by the executives OF
| the road. When it is approved the
building of the 2-story addition and
the files building will probably begin
at the earliest date possible