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Show OGDEN MUST ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE. The Salt Lake papers are making ah endless campaign against j the Ogden-Lucin cut-off. Their object, no doubt, is not to convince . the Harriman people that the cut-off is in danger or csnnot be made impregnable to storms, but is for the purpose of persuading the Gould officials that, though the Western Parific is an almost useless adjunct of the Rio Grande, there is no safer outlet evtn were the Southern Pacific to allow the Gould road to operate west from here to Wells over the Ogden-Lucin cut-off. The Western Pacific is today in no condition to receive passenger passen-ger traffic and the stretch of road froin Salt Lake City, around the south end and across a point of the lake, and over the big salt marsh near the Nevada line, must be abandoned. To divert attention atten-tion from this deplorable condition of the Western Pacific, the Salt lake Jlerald-Republicau publishes this story: Alarmed by the recent damaging storms on Great Snlt lake, and the rise of the waters, officials of tho Southern Pacific are contemplating radical changes in the route west from Ogden, while the fate of the famed Lucm cut-off hangs in the balance. It is persistently rumored in railroad circles that the Southern Pacific will soon choose a route around the southern south-ern end of the lake, which means that all trains to and from the coast would run through Salt Lake. This will necessitate neces-sitate a complete abandonment of the Lucm cut-off. It will be some time, however, before this drastic action is taken, and, in the meantime, the elements will have to prove conclusively con-clusively that they are going to continue the a.sauits upon the embankments and the trestles of the great short-cut across the lake. Recent storms on the lake have damaged the cut-off to an alarming extent, and the loss to the Southern Pacific has been enormous. Thia expense is constant, for a work train and crew are kept busy on the cut-off all the time, making fills in the embankment where the waters have made inroads. The waters continue to rise, storms become more frequent and severe, and the result is that there is not only considerable damage to the cut-off, but traffic is often delayed de-layed as well. In addition to the current expense of keeping the line in repair, it was recently announced that an appropriation of $1,000,000 would be made by the Harriman system to radically revise the cut-off. This action, it is said in railroad rail-road circles, has been held up, owing to a more recent determination deter-mination to abandon the cut-off entirely, if it ca.j be shown that the southern route is more feasible, and 1h3t the cut-off will continue to be kept out of repair by the laoping waters of the lake. It is far more probable that the Southern Pacific will choose the route around the south er.d of the lake before even considering a return to the old route over Promontory, providing it is definitely decided to abandon the cut-off entirely. en-tirely. This new routing would consume no great ?r time than was consumed when the route was around the north end of the lake, and the additional advantage would bo thnt Salt Lake wrould be on the through line of the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific roads to the coast. The Herald-Republican strongly hints that railroad officials in Salt Lake are talking of abandoning the cut-off. We do not accept the insinuation as being based on faet for, if any railroad officials in the employ of the Oregon Short Line, had encouraged that view, prior to the custodians of the road having exerted themselves to the utmost to protect the cut-off from storms, those officials were guilty of scheming to destroy what other railroad men and masterful engineers en-gineers have placed as Harriman 's monumental achievement in railroad rail-road reconstruction. We do not like to have these reports emanate from Salt Lake, credited to "railroad circles," because, if true, they indicate betrayal be-trayal in the house of friends, and, if false, are outrageous in that Lhey are misinforming to those who do not know of the real conditions condi-tions on the cut-off. The storm of last week delayed traffic a few hours, but there would have been no delay had the work of raising the embankment been prosecuted with vigor last summer and the summer before. We do not know what the plans of the railroad people contemplate, contem-plate, but were we in control of the cut-off there would be no further delay on any pretext whatever, in the raising of the embankment embank-ment beyond the reach of the waves, though they be driven by the worst hurricane that might sweep over the intermountain country. This constant agitation by the Salt Lake papers is a challenge to the people of Ogden which should be accepted. Now is the time to start an investigation to determine the source of these reports as to abandonment or neglect of the cut-off. The reports, though false, are having a damaging effect and should be met in such a way that there will be no repetition of them. The Weber club might act in this matter. |