The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-04-14
WICK'S CHARGES REFUTED.

In the news columns of The Citizen this morning there appears a letter written by Prof. F. D. Hayden, of the Engineering School of the University of Washington, which defends the Alaskan Engineering com mission and Secretary Lane from the charges recently made against them by James Wicker sham in lengthy article which appeared in the Seattle Post-Imtelligencer about the end of March. Prof. Hayden's letter appeared in the P.-I. last Monday and was wired in to The Citizen at cost of more than $50, proba- bly, being the longest single press despatch ever received by any Fairbanks newspaper, if not in entire Alaska.
 The letter is worth reading. It is the statement of man whose profession is rail way construction. He has special education acquired ill schools and supplemented by years of practical expei1u1.ce. His position in the University of Washington as one of the heads of the engineering department is suf- fcient evidence of his worth both as a tech- nical and practical civil engineer.
 It is entirely probable that we, who have been so close to the scene of the builders ac- tivities have not given them credit for the work they have done. Our perspective has been improper The conditions under which the work has been carried on are SO natural to us that most of us have in all probability not realized the difficulty of overcoming them
 As an engineer Prof. Hayden is convinc- ed that the very fact that the project is two- thirds completed, as admitted by Wickersham within the limits of the original appropriation is sufficient proof to disprove any charge of failure. And he backs up his contention with facts and figures.
 His contention that but for the method of making appropriations the commission would have completed the entire project by the end of 1917 is reasonable And there is no one who will suppose for minute that Mr. Lane or any of his subordinates had anything to do with how congress made its appropria tions. Estimates of how much work could be accomplished within specified fiscal year were submitted by the commission thru Mr. Lane to Congress and it allowed only as much money as would be necessary to do this work.
 The commission officials knew that this method of appropriation was holding them materials which they must use, but they couldn't alter the method. If there is any kick coming congress hasn't got it coming from it but rather against it. It is true that only certain amount of work could be done in given year, but if all the money had been available the material could have been pur- chased on low market such as existed in 1914, and it would have been on hand as needed instead of being forced to wait and pay higher prices, and maybe not get it at all. It would not have been necessary to lay off men for lack of funds during the working season, causing delay to construction and hardships to employees.
 MT. Hayden touches briefly on the al- legged combine formed by the Alaskan trans portation companies and then only to show that despite the alleged combine, if it did ex- ist, the commission secured the delivery of almost 25,OOO tons of materials. Wickersham charges that this combine was formed in 1914 shortly after the project was launched If Mir. Wickersham knew of this combine-if| he knew that deliberate attempt was to be made to cause the failure of the work-it was his duty as an Alaskan, as Alaska's dele