Show RAILROADS WILL EXPEND IN THE WEST SHORT LINE LOS ANGELES EXTENSION TO BE COMPLETED IN 1902 IF POSSIBLE branched Branc heg in competition with 1 inter eang aul wul be extended and improved southern west 0 ogden to be improved at great expense in order to retain oriental trade the plan of ra broad campaign ng to be carried out by the roads during 1903 was given out ally at omaha batu iday and will result in the expenditure of from to 30 in improvements and exten biens it is a cont nuance of the gen era plan of putting the road in the best possible physical condition be tween omaha and san franc but efforts this year will bed almost wholly to that part of the road west of salt lake and ogden and the oregon bhart line twenty millions alone will be used in improvements of these lines and the rema ader in pushing the axtens on of the salt lake los angeles branch of the oregon short line which will be nearly or quite completed before january 1st next particular on however will be given to the axtens ons and im prove ments on the part of the short L ne which competes with the system the prime object it is said is to put the road in a posit on to con arol the immense trade with the orient that is expected to be opened by the new condit ons in the east and in hawaii this trade is already beginning to reach form dable proportions and the union alc it is stated is pre paring to meet the competition of the northern lines lahty art of he road way between omaha and ogden has been put in pr me condition by the ex pend iture of in improvements in the past five years the greater part of th s money has been used in stra gl bening curves and cutting immense hills and tunnels thu reducing grades to a degree that can be overcome by the large engines without ass stance the union fie has long since dec ded that it must have a fast line to tl e coast gateway in order to retain its hold on the oriental trade said the official who explained the proposed plan ahat traffic is becom ner greater every pear an 1 it was some years go that this scheme for a complete overhauling of the system v as adopted the plan has been steadfastly adhered to so that now there is the finest kind of railroad from council bluffs to ogden for tl at much of the way we now make fast time but as soon as we get past ogden we are compelled to slow up and maintain the reduced speed all the rest of the 30 irney improve ments on tl is 1 ne will be in the nature of reducing grades taking out certain curved and lessening others and re ballast ng the entire line tl ese improvements will fix us for the oriental trade which is something enormous especially to and from the philippines and tapan they will also cover central california satisfactorily the other arm of tl e work meanwhile will be looking toward the improvement of facilities of getting into the southern california business thu southern pacific improvements are far the most important since they have a bear ng directly on the gateway busi ness but th s extension of the oregon short line to los angeles is also a big proposition it will require between and miles more 40 reach los angeles and it is hardly probable that this can ba completed 1909 although the effort will be made |