Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 247, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1916 — COST WOULD BE ENORMOUS [ARTICLE]

COST WOULD BE ENORMOUS

Only Obstacle That Stands in the Way of the General Electrification of Railroads. It has been said that almost no public work lasts more than a generation without requiring in some fashion to be reconstructed; practically, to be replaced. The Erie canal has been rebuilt once a generation, bigger. There is already talk of making the Panama canal a sea-level ditch, even before it is really completed as a lock canal. The railroads are everlastingly in process of rebuilding. Rails of 120 pounds to the yard have replaced those of 60; the big freight car of today would wellnigh carry a trainload of freight of the first decades of railroading. Now comes promise of the greatest revolution -of al 1 The - eohventfon of Master Mechanics of American Railways expresses the serious view that universal electrification will take place soon. It would be In the end cheaper, safer, more rapid and efficient. Then why not? If there is a real obstacle, it is, today, the difficulty of financing such a gigantic operation. It must be raised from private Investors; it can only be raised if there is such confidence in the earning power of the roads, and in the governmefital attitude toward (them, as will guarantee stable conditions. One way to produce this confidence would be to unify and centralize, under the national government, all the instrumentalities’ of governmental control. —Washington Times.