The Nenana daily news. (Nenana, Alaska) 1918-1921, 1919-03-07

of the men under his direction,
who are Alaskans, and many of
them old prospectors and miners,
Mr.. Packer stated that never in
all his railroad experience had he
come in contact with a better or
harder working lot of men than
/ those who served the several gangs
employed in the construction work.
on any other road in any country
he had railroa ded in. He further
stated that all of the foremen under
his direction had had considerable
railroad experience in various parts
of the States, both in construction
of roads and in their maintenance
! after construction, and these fore
men said the same thing about the
men. Even by the most careful
| system of elimination it was i'm
| possible to have any one gang of
men perfect in every possible way.
and there would be, perhaps, one
or two a trifle slower than the
average. This condition, he said.
obtained, but taken as a whole, no
1 better body OF railroad workers
than the Alaskan existed anywhere
/ in the United States. The average
Alaskan prospector and miner. Mr..
Packer said, was more self reliant
and self confident than any other
prospector or miner met with else
; where; this characteristic these men
carried TO a fault Mr.. Packer ex-
plains this by saying that at fire.
| quent intervals he needed skilled
workmen Of experience, such as
carpenters, machinists and black
smiths, and the sourdoughs who had
a little experience and no training
unhesitatinly tackled such jobs, some
Of them making good, while others
failed. The inefficiency charged
by Chairman Edes, perhaps may be
traced to these isolated cases.
Several people who had made
trips to the end of steel and
watched the men at work, among
them being ". \. Ryan, G. ".
, Gamble, James Wickersham and
/ R. F. Roth, had seen work on rail-
roads in other lands, and Mr..
Packer said that every one of them
was unstinted in his praise of the
way the work was being done and
the rapid progress made by the
Alaskan railroad builders.
Interference Bad
Mr.. Packer stated, that, in his
opinion, if the plans for the work
on this division Of the road had not
been interfered with, the work now
being done would have been com
pleted long ago, and the men now
employed would be engaged in
other important work; the road
south of town would have reached
the end of the completed grade and
shipments of coal from the Burns
mine would have been landed at
the yards some time ago. He says
that much valuable time has been
frittered away, between the lay-off
following the receipt of the wire
from the Chairman requesting
reduction in forces, and the re-
sumption of work about ten DAYS
ago.
Mr.. Packer stated, in concluding
the interview, that everything was
ready on this division of the A. E.
c. for taking in hand and continu-
ing the work without a hitch, ex-
peditiously, economically and eff
GENTLY throughout the winter. The
preliminary work, such as putting
up the necessary buildings TO house
the crews had all been completed
and there would have been no loss
of time in this way, as in previous
winters when much time was taken
up with preparatory work.
The fact that the A. E. c. had
ample supplies was a big considera-
ito and made possible the pushing
forward of active construction work
undeterred by lack of supplies.
Material also was on hand in suffi-
cient quantity TO permit of the