The Alaska daily empire., 1919-08-22

 mile 70 to Talkeetna the road is practically complete, as well as from Seward to mile 23, and l am sure do not overestimate when I say that the road bed is equally as good as that of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul at any point west of Min neapolis and St. Paul The bridges are the best I have ever seen for frame structure There is of course a great deal of work to be done be- tween the miles of 45 and 70 before this portion of the road will be in as good shaps as that already completed But at sthe present time there are over six hundred men working be tween these two points and although it will be year or more before this part of the road will be completed unless prevented by adverse weather conditions it appears now that they will have the track in shape to make it possible to keep the road open all winter. The main work to be done to make this possible is the building of three snow sheds where the road was blocked last winter by slides and this work is now under con struction; the widening and raising of the six tunnels between 52 and 54 and the raising of the track at the head of Turnagain Arm between miles of 54 and TO- The bridges or this stretch of the road have beer raised from four to eight feet above the old survey and the work of grad ing the track up to these levels has already been started
 / Heavy Grades Eliminated.
 There has been much doubt ex pressed as to the practicability oi hauling coal over the grades be tween Seward and Anchorage. T, anyone who considers their timo worth anything they will forget this feature entirely, as the grade at the steepest point is but 2.1 per cent which is less than the grade over any road crossing the Rocky and Seirra Nevada ranges. Switch-backs are being constructed between 4 and B to take care of the traffic dur in the filling of some of the higf trestlcs and the reconstruction o. others, which work in itself will re quire about a years time.
 Criticism Due to Lack of Knowledge The criticism heaped upon the Seward division of the road has un questionably been done withou, knowledge or thought as to true con ditions. When one stops to consider that there has been but three mil lion dollars available for reconstruc ton of this division, which comprises 1 the old Alaska Central road, the pres ent condition of the road is highl, in charge.
 Win Open Vast Resources.
 The public seems to have forgot ten the fact that during almost the entire periOd of construction of this road that the United States has beer through the greatest war that the world has ever known. When ono stops to consider difficulties were en countered by the railroads in the states that were not only constructed but we'll organized, during the wal period, the work of the Alaskan En gineering Commission is highly cred itable to those in charge and on whom the responsibility rested. What i the road does cost seventeen million more than was originally estimated
 has not the cost of everything use ii the construction and maintenance O
 it advanced from fifty to four hun dred per cent? If it costs double what they originally estimated, i
 will be a good investment, as no ont realizes until they have seen th' country which this road traverses and opens up to the settler what { vast wealth of mineral and agricul tural resources it possesses. Fur thermore when our government hai spent fifty or even seventy-five mil lion dollars on this project, It VII have spent only a small portion o
 what Alaska has given and is capable of returning to it. The resources are here and every true Alaskan 1: ready to do his share in helping tt develop them. Why should we hes itate in asking the Federal govern ment to spend few millions in as sisting us to open our coal mines ant develop our oil fields which are fal more important to the world today than any of the resources of the Philippines where many times more money has been spent by the gov ernment of the United States than has been spent on developing the re sources of Alaska2