tion or private construction
done during the war will show a less percentage of increase over a cost
that was estimated more than four years ago.

The men have been well housed and well fed. Their wages have been good
and promptly paid; there has been but one strike, and that was four
years ago and was settled by Department of Labor experts fixing the
scale of wages. The men have had the benefit of a system of compensation
for damages like that in the Reclamation Service and Panama Canal. They
have had excellent hospital service, and our camps and towns have been
free of typhoid fever and malaria. That the men like the work is
testified by the fact that hundreds who "came out" the past two years,
attracted by the high wages of war industries, are now anxious to return
to Alaska.

There has been but one setback in the construction, and that was the
washing out of 12 miles of tracks along the Nenana River. This is a
glacial stream which, when the snows melt, comes down at times with
irresistible force. In this instance it abandoned its long accustomed
way and cut into a new bed and through trees that had been standing for
several generations, tearing out part of the track which had been laid.

The work of locating and constructing the road has been left in the
hands of the engineers appointed by yourself. The only instruction
which they received from me was that they should build the road as if
they were working for a private concern, selecting the best men for the
work irrespective of politics or pressure of any kind. As a result, we
have a force that has been gathered from the construction camps of the
western railroads, made up of men of experience and proved capacity.
That they have done their work efficiently, honestly, and at reasonable
cost is my belief.

It is not possible during the construction of a railroad to tell what it
costs per mile because all the foundation work, the construction of
bases from which to work, the equipment for construction, and much of
the material is a charge which must be spread over the entire completed
line. The best estimate that can be made to-day as to the newly
constructed road is that it has cost between $70,000 and $80,000 per
main-line mile, or between $60,000 and $70,000 per mile of track.

This cost per mile includes the building of the most difficult and
expensive stretch of line along the entire route from Seward to
Fairbanks--that running along Turnagain Arm, which is