Show I CARGITY OF LABOR 1 Railroads Find It Hard to Secure I I Woriingmen II I I PROBLEM FOR SHORT LINE I + H CiOFT VICE PRESIDENT BANCROFT SAYS WORK t MUST WAITe 1 WAIT-e Has Been Unable to Get Needed Ballasting Done On the Hain line The Completion of the St Anthony An-thony Branch Also Delayed Men Prefer Farm Work k 4 W H Bancroft vice president and Short general manager of the Oregon LIne and General Suacrlntendent E E Calvin of the same road are back from their tour of inspection When eeen yesterday Mr Bancroft said Our tIp wa one purely of inspection l pt We went over our main line throush Idaho accompanied by President Cornish to Portland nish He has now gone attend the annual election of officers of the Oregon Railway Navigation com Riway pany which will bclield there tomorrow wI TOW From Portland President Cornish Cor-nish will to San Francisco and then 1 g Fracsco anC ten to New York Sunday we Inspected the Pacific te Idaho Northern This road is building I from Wciscr to Seven Devils and about twenty miles have been completed com-pleted VVe were the guests of resident resi-dent P P SheJby The track is well laid and ballasted the grade is line balasted te and he ties good The road will probably prob-ably be finished to Seven Devils on timeThe greatest difficulty that confronts con-fronts me at present Is that of securing labor It certainly looks as if i nobody Jaal It wanted work and ie problem is bej coming a serious one I wanted to ballast about sixtyfive miles on our main line but have beenTJnable to set the mn lne to do the Work Unless the labor can be secured this work will have to go over xrntil next season lore lor-e cannot work after the first of November No-vember in the high altitudes Recently ve started twenty lght men from Ogden Og-den to aiontpelier When Montpelier 1 was reached there were only four left of the number that started We cant get masons to work although we are paying from 2to25O a day I cant understand it unless the country is so prosperous that everybody has plenty of money and yet there are lots of loungers to be seen on the street corner cor-ner Possibly the trophic may be that so p1 many men arc engaged in haying at i present We may be able to get some of this labor when the farming season is over but that will be too late I am afraid to permit of the completion of the work that I have on hand This scarcity of labor is causing me some trouble with the St Anthony branch Fifteen miles of the line is l nov ready for the laying of the steel and the whole branch is practically graded There is really nothing to prevent pre-vent the laying of the steel the entire length except that two of the bridges have not been completed but they will Wii have been finished by the time the steel is gotten there This is the situation but again the question of labor is the confronting problem that must be solved for unless laoor can be secured the work on the voad cannot be done I hope that the rood will be completed by Oct 15 but if itis notI feel confi dent that we will getthe line to St Anthony in time toihindje the fall produce pro-duce fo that section I |