Seward seaport record., 1954-10-01

| Rehabilitation. A request for $16,- 311 900 for rehabilitation, dock con structioh and new rolling stock was whittled down to $2,715,000 for the purchase of six additional diesel locomotives and two hun dred coal cars. But there was no hope for Seward in that.
 Then some of the congressman appeared willing to appropriate money for the dock and the rail road work if true necessity could be proven, but time was running out and it was necessary to work fast.
 The New Interior Department had by then become acquainted with it's job and with Alaska s problems. Frank Heintzleman was appointed Governor in April and one of his first acts as Governor was to request Secretary Douglas Mckay to give his personal atten- tion to the problems of Seward. Secretary Mckay responded by sending to Alaska, as his personal representative Ralph Tudor, Under secretary of the Interior, who was l to get the facts on the two con troversial appropriations. MT. Tud- or, whom many of you met, has had a distinguished career as civil engineer. A graduate of West Point, he resigned from the Army and engaged in private practice, and among other large engineering projects, he was the designer of the San Francisco Bay Bridge.
 MT. Tudor came to Alaska in | May. 1853, and made careful study of both the Eklutna Project and the Seward end of the Alaska Railroad. am sure that every one who met and talked with him could not help but be impressed with his capabilities and his desire to help us with our problems. When Mr. Tudor returned to Washington on June 3rd he went before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee and recommended that the Seward-Portage section of the Railroad be rebuilt and that large terminal dock be built here at Seward. The Interior Depart ment had changed it's views as to the value of Seward as terminal for the Railroad and Seward had won a great battle.
 But. only the battle had been won, not the war itself, for still it was necessary to win an approp- riation from Congress and that was not easy. MT. Tudor and the In- terior Department requested that s6,592,000 be appropriated so that the work could start immediately on the Rehabilitation, with an ad- ditional appropriation for about the same amount to complete the work in the 1855 appropriations bill
 In the meantime, MT. Tudor was not alone in carving the ball. Three men from Seward went to Washing ton to support the request for funds. They were Mayor Russell Painter, Tommy Bic, then president of the Chamber of Commerce, and Kenny Baker, representing the Labor groups of Seward
 On Monday, May II, 1853, these men appeared before the Senate Appropriation Subcommittee. and each made strong statement in support of the appropriation. The Senators were impressed for the statements were made by sincere men who knew what they were talking about.
 As a result of these presenta- tions and because of MT. Tudor's standing as an engineer and the respect he enjoyed in the eyes of the members of Congress, neces- sary funds for the completion of the Eklutna Project were voted, as we'll as $1,5OO,O0O for the start on the new dock for Seward.
 It was but a small victory and the big battle lay ahead There was now assurance that the rail- road would be maintained to Sew ard, since the dock could be used for truck freight.
 The stumbling block seemed to be that a number of the Congressmen were dissatisfied with the opera tions of the railroad. They had poured millions of dollars into it and they felt that it should begin to become self-sustaining - that