The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-15
FL PASQ LINE FINE . EXAMPLE OF BEST
 RAILWAY BUILDING Phelps, Dodge & Go. Road Opens Up Copper Prop
 critics in Arizona
GOOD CONSTRUCTION
 IS CHEAPEST IN END
Some Other Specimens of Railroads Which Were Built With an Eye on the Possibilities
 of the Future
By HOLLAND

New York, April 14.-(Special.)-A man of capital who is recognized as one of the leaders in the copper industry re- turned this morning from a visit to Ari- zona. He has large interests in Arizona copper properties. although not any in the properties which are identified by the name of Phelps, Dodge & Co. While he had a good deal to say about the cop per-producing states and Alaska, yet some comments which were based upon his eX- perience is travelling over the Phelps,
 Dodge and Co.'S system of railroads, known as the Fl Paso and Southwestern, were of especial interest.
 This railroad system is now of such considerable size that it's mileage is a little in excess of 1000. What especially impressed the visitor was the perfect equipment and the unsurpassed construc- tion work upon this railway system There is no railroad in the east, this man ventured to say, which surpasses the Fl Paso and Southwestern so far as road bed, bridges, construction and equipment are concerned.
 Even a superficial view of the railroad system such as a traveller might obtain from the platform of the last car makes it evident that the contractors and every one employed in building this railroad or furnishing equipment for it were told to spare no reasonable expense. The own CTS of the property accepted the pro- foundest philosophy of railroad construc- ton, which is that large expenditures, lo y;ea1 fo, economical than parsimony.
 In the east there are two railroad sys- tems of recent construction, neither of
 which has the mileage of the Phelps Dodge system, which, however, may be compared favorably, so far as construc- tion and equipment are concerned, with the Arizona railroad system.
 When Norman B. Ream, Thomas F. Ryan, T. Jefferson Coolidge and the Blair
 brothers, bankers, were planning the construction of the Clinchfield system they were of the unanimous opinion that it should be constructed with as low grades
 and as long tangents as the engineers
 found it possible to provide through that
 mountainous country, so that substantial
 ly their line from the Clinchfield district
 to Spartanburg, s. C., where traffic ar engagements were made for the operation of the line to Charleston, should be sub stantially an air line. The estimate wa: that this would cost a great deal nor, money than less careful construction would. But in the long run it would Iprove to be far more economical. H. H. ROGERS THEORY This, also, was the railroad philosoph, of the late H. H. Rogers, when he, a: an exclusively personal proposition, ven tured to construct a railroad from tn, Ion al s,,,in in "a Ia ror, ( Norfolk. The experience of those wht are now operating these two roads has fully justified the original heavy cost o1 construction.
 This was also the view taken by the Phelps, Dodge & Co people. In addition to the high standard of roadbed con struction and equipment, the company oro:;Ies as fine engines a S are to be founC anywhere in the United States. and ha. found that this has been followed by req economy so far as the cost of operating is concerned.
 There is an impressive object lessor even to those who are laymen so far a: railroad operation and construction ar, concerned, furnished by the difference il physical appearance of the Rock Island roadbed tracks and equipment compared with those of the El Paso and South western. It is easy to make an observa tion of this kind because the two systems at one point are brought into physica touch and are represented by certain traf tic agreements. The Rock Island line. give good evidence of the demoralizatior Of that system.
 At the time the copper capitalist was il Arizona. apprehension prevailed lest tn, Mexican guerrilla raids should cause los of life and property in Arizona. The E Paso and Southwestern railway, how ever, one part of which provides trans portation to the copper properties o
 Phelps, Dodge & Co. in Mexico, has no in any way suffered by reason of the bor
 der troubles.