The Nenana daily news., 1919-01-24
RAILROAD FORCE
 IS CUT ID MEET
 DEPLETED FUNDS

A further reduction of the labor and clerical forces of the Alaskan Engineering commission has been made, several of the changes taking place immediately, while the rest of them go into effect on Sat urday.
 The biggest slash in the fore. of course, affects the actual rail road workers out on the line, in the yards, shops and sections. With the reduction in force, the actual standing at the various work centers on the government railroad will be as follows: In the carpenter shop there will be only one man, who will attend to any repairs needed in that line. In the plumb ing department there will be only one man, and he will also act as fire chief The power plant force of seven men will remain the same. There will be only three men in the heating plant. In the black smith shop and machine shop there will be one blacksmith and helper and one machinist and helper re- spectively. The section crews along the line which were hitherto com posed of from eight to ten men each, will now be composed of a forman and three men each, just sufficient to lift a hand-car off the track and to effect the minor 1 necessary repairs along the line within the limits of each section.
 The tracklaying camp, which showed total of 80 men in the report of the week ending January IS, will in future be composed of foreman and sixteen men only. These men will continue the work of extending the road southwards until the gap in the line is reached, when the entire force and camp will be transferred to Nenana, to lay the steel across the river and on to the right of way on the Fairbanks line.
 The force engaged in salvage operations on the abandoned line, which includes the crew of the Brown hoist, making a total force of about 13 men and a foreman, has been discontinued and the men laid off.
 1 The corral and force, stock, etcs at the surfacing camp will be moved to town tomorrow, the camp equip mont, etc. is now being loaded onto flat cars. This camp will also cease to exist, the men will all be laid off and the stock and equip ment housed in the big corral and barn in town for the rest of the winter
 The surfacing forces will not be needed, and the little surfacing that has to be done will be attended to by the section gangs along the line.
 The American ditching machine, which has hitherto been engaged in working at the front in conjuc- tion with the men of the steel gang, has been brought into town, and it's place taken by the Brown hoist The crew of the ditcher has taken over the Brown hoist, which will assist the steel gang in future.
 The Brown hoist will also be used for the purpose of loading the nee. essary material for the use of the steel gang, this work being per. formed while the men are ahead of the steel levelling off the grade and putting it in shape to lay more steel.
 The ditcher will be housed in the engine house in Nenana until such time as she is again needed. Thi. will probably be when the work ot filling in the waterfront is taker in hand.
 In the clerical forces the axe vii fall rather heavily, but the actua extent of the cut will not be known for day or two. The heaviest cur will be in the store department In the timekeeping department thu