The Alaska daily empire., 1917-11-22

The railway and Marine News, edited and pub lished Seattle by Kenneth c. Kerr of the best informed transportation matters the Pa cfc Coast. good friend of Alaska, has attacked the management of the government rail road. which the Secretary of the Interior is cost ing 22 per above the original estimates ac- of "the high cost of labor, rails and other sup plies" The Seattle journal the road is costing 6s per above the estimates that it is not wholly due advancing prices and that much of the extra cost account of advancing prices could hve been obviated if contracts for material had been made be fore the advances came.
 The Railway and Marine News contends that this has been due incompetence, and particu- arizng alleges that the rails for the road should have been ordered in April 1914 just after the passage of the railway bill, that too much money paid for the Alaska Northern and the Tanana Valley railroads, that wages have been high, that hours of work have been too short that the work should have been done by contract that mistake in attempt. ing to build the Nenana coal fields from the Tan ana river that too much money has been expended upon townsites and building the city Anchorage It also finds fault with the of the Crook for transportation purposes.
 The Empire holds no brief for the government railway builders, and professes to the possession of inside information their work plans. How in few important particulars at the criti csms of the Seattle publication wholly ranted In the first place the allegation that tracts for rails and equipment should have been let in April 1914. is hypercritial That something which Congress could determine at that time and the railway commission not organized until after then. It was afterward before the loca ton or the railway had been determined upon It is rediculous crtcise anyone not anticipating the war. Government officials human. It would be sensible to criticise the management the if nances of every who had finances to manage for not purchasing ships, steel rails farm lands or anything else that has caused to advance price as to criticize Congress for not arranging things that contracts for supplies could let before the and before the location of the And the principle applies failure to take advant age of subsequent price changes.
 In allowing eght-hour day the railway build CTS simply recognized condition is fast becom ing universal in America. The principle of the eight hour day has been firmly established throughout the United States. and of all employers the government should be the last to disregard it.
 In deciding to build the railway from the Tanana to the Nenana coal fields the builders acted to meet in the interest of Alaskan development large sec ton Of Alaska was being depopulated of the lack Of cheaper fuel and it and is important that the people who here, who have lived here long, who know the country and like 1t. should be kept here and kept work They are our best de velopers. 1t was for the purpose of preventing an exodus from the great Tanana Valley to give the people there cheaper fuel with which work their low grade properties. to encourage them stay and develop the country, that the Nenana road building was begun when 1t There is no thinking man who understands the situation but that must admit that the action of the Engineering Commission in this respect broadly line with the whole rairoad proposition. The wisdom the course will be testi fled to by all informed Alaskans who are vitay in. terested in the growth and development of the Ter. ritory
 In principle. the construction railroad or any. thing else by the builder is sound and sasfac- tory than the contract system As to the comparative prscticability of the two methods they apply to