Til C, R. I. & P. R. R. By January 1st the Rock Island expects ex-pects to be able to open for business its southwestern extension to El Paso, Tex. This line, in connection with the Southern Pacific and the Mexican Central Cen-tral railroads, will give the Rock ,Island the shortest line both to Southern South-ern California and the City of Mexico, and make it a dangerous competitor of .the Santa Fe. It took just one year to construct the 546 miles of the new extension ex-tension from Liberal, Kan., to El Paso, Tex. For the purpose of complying with the Texas law that every railroad within that state shall have state operating oper-ating headquarters and also for general construction facilities and convenience, the new road was placed under the charters of five different railroad corporations, cor-porations, viz.: The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific proper, the Chicago, Rock Island & Mexico, the Chicago Rock Island & El Paso, the Rock Island I & El Paso, and the El Paso & Northeastern. North-eastern. The road from Liberal to Santa Rosa, N. M., a distance of 72 miles, was placed under direct Rock Island construction, with J. H. Conlen, vice president of the Chicago, Rock Island & Mexico, as Chief Engineer and General Manager, while from Santa San-ta Rosa to Carrizozo, a distance of 130 miles, the construction work was given to the El Paso & Northeastern, which already had a constructed line from El Paso to Carrizozo. The road from Liberal Lib-eral to Carrizozo will be equipped with eighty-pound steel -rails, oak or pitch pine ties, and modern ballasting. Depot, De-pot, side tracks, switches, station iiouses, yardings, water tanks, and Western Union telegraph lines have all ikept pace with actual road building, and when the road is opened by the first of next year It will be in as perfect condition aa any of the lines of the Rock Island system that have been in service for years. In connection with the Rock Island-El Paso line Is the new thirty-mile railroad which Is to develop the immense Dawson coal fields, owned by the Rock Island, on the Beaubien and Miranda grant, in the northern part of Colfax county,. N. M. This road will leave the main' Rock ' Island rails at or near Liberal station, . twenty miles southwest of the Canadian Cana-dian river crossing, and run through the New Mexican counties of San Miguel, Mi-guel, Mora and Colfax. This branch will be completed by May 15, 1902. The ioal is"td feed the southeastern portion por-tion of the Rock Island-El Paso line, and probably will largely supply the Southern Pacific railroad, in addition to a heavy Ubmestic custom in that section of the country, The completion comple-tion of the El Paso line will give the Rock Island a route of 222 miles shorter short-er between Kansas City and El Paso than that of the Santa Fe between the same points, together with a saving of fifteen hours of time, the latter fact being largely due to the favorable alignment and maximum 1 per cent grade of the new Rock Island line. In connection with the Southern Pacific, the Rock Island will have a shorter line from Chicago to Los Angeles than will the Santa Fe. The construction cost of the Rock Island-El Paso line will approximate $7,000,000, an average of about ?15,000 per mile. Chicago Tribune.