The Cordova daily times., 1919-07-25
RAILROAD IS WAITING
 MORE FUNDS

SEATTLE, July 25 (by Associated Press) Pioneering government con- structiOn crews, laying the 471-mile railroad from Seward, on the coast, north across the continental divide to connect with Alaska's great interior river highway systeme, made no at tempt early this summer to close the 150-mile gap across Broad pass be- tween the ends of steel lying north and south of the terminals of the road.
 Recent failure of congress to ap- prOpriate $10,000,000 requested to com plete the road made it impossible for the Alaskan engineering commission, which is directing the work, to plan on laying any new line. Hope has not yet been abandoned, however, that the necessary money will be voted, as on July Representative Curry of Cali fornia introduced a measure provid- U,- 900 for the road.
 One of Alaska's big war sacrifices was the delay in the work on the gov ernment railroad. During the war men were hard to get, as they were needed in France; ships were wanted to carry troops overseas instead of railroad supplies to Alaska, and railroad ma- terials were sent from the States to the battlefelds instead of to the North.
 But now that the war is over Alaska pushed. The road would have been completed in 1921 if congress had ap- prOpriated $1O0O0,000, Manager J. L. McPherson of the Alaska bureau of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce re- gently told the senate appropriations committee. McPhersOn, a railroad en- gineer himself, is in Washington as- sisting in the fight for the funds.
 Construction crews started this sum- mer to connect the links between Ne mana and Fairbanks, on the interior end of the road, and to build snow sheds and repair the trestles, bridges and rOadbed of the line between Sew ard and Anchorage, on the southern end. Last year the road was opened between Seward and Anchorage, and trains were operated regularly until snoUslides stopped travel. By next winter, it is hoped, snowsheds will per init trains to operate at all times.
 Coal already is being moved over the coast end of the railroad from the Matanuska fields to Seward and Anchorage and nearby points, and it is believed the Nenana-Fairbanks road will be completed this fall, so coal can be carried from the Nenana fields into Fairbanks. The Matanuska coal is moved over thirty ty-eight-mile branch running into the coal fields from the SeWard-Anchorag end of the line.
 Main line track has been laid on the road north from Seward PA miles to Talkeetna. On the northern end the line has been built thirty-four miles south from Nenana, and seven miles south from Fairbanks. All of the road is not being built by the government On the Seward end the commission, when it started work, took over the old Alaska Northern railway, running north from Seward. On the Interior end the Panama Valley railway, which ran out of Fairbanks, was purchased Government engineeres have put both these lines in first-class shape.
 Some of the work on the Interior end is being held up until the road from the coast is finished, so that materials can be brought over it from the seaports of Seward and Anchor age. At present prohibiting costs make it impossible to transport a large amount of material to Fairbanks and Nenana, as supplies must be sent thousands of miles around by St. Michaels and up the Yukon river. or to Skagway and over the mountains, 1 and then down the Yukon. One big piece of work being delayed until the line reaches the Interior is the con- structiOn of bridge across the Tan ana river at Nenana. Last winter a track was laid ou tho ica Of tho fro1on