GRENVILLE  M.   DODGE.                             3809
report, and to the Davis contract, which embraces the part of the road now under examination, at page 768 of the report, the price fixed by the Davis contract being referred back to the stipulation of the Oakes Ames contract.
Mr. John F. Dillon. Those prices mentioned in the Oakes Ames contract are cash, and the actual cost to the company as expressed in mortgages and stock would necessarily vary from that.
HOW THE ESTIMATES COMPARE WITH COST IN NORMAL TIMES.
Q. In the estimate you have given of about $35,000 per mile as the cost from Omaha to the one hundredth meridian, and $50,000 per mile from the one hundredth meridian to Ogden, are those your estimates of the actual cost of the work as actually done, or would that have been the ordinary cost in normal times and under ordinary conditions? —A. The $35,000 estimate was a matter of judgment, which you asked for yesterday. I then had no figures with me. I found among my papers a rough estimate, which was made by myself, of the cost from the one hundredth meridian to Ogden, made some time before completion of road, and that is based upon prices being paid for work at the time, and was evidently made for the purpose of ascertaining about what the actual cost iu cash would be under the then circumstances. But from Piedmont beyond, that part was built under extraordinary circumstances, and that estimate would not apply from Piedmont to Ogden; but from there east it would.
Q. From there east it contains sufficient margin to cover any special circumstances of weather or distance ? or is it the labor actually required in the building of the road during that period of construction that makes the difference?—A. In making my estimate, I just took the quantity and the price paid and ascertained what amount that would make.   I have the actual quantities before me in this paper.
COST FROM PIEDMONT TO OGDEN.
Q. Now, taking the work from Piedmont to Ogden, 110 miles, what, in your judgment, should be added to the estimate you have just made, in order to cover the peculiar difficulties which attended the construction as it really occurred ?—A. When I was out there they were doing the work, and I thought that the actual cost under favorable circumstances for work done in seasonable time would have to be added three or four times; but I find that the act ual cost for this work done in winter was only about double. Men who went out in the morning with overcoats on, and would have to work with overcoats on all day, were not able to do very large days' works.
Q. Is it your judgment that on the estimate made by you for that 110 miles, if doubled, this Commission can safely assume that the actual cost of construction did not exceed the estimate so doubled?—A. That would be my judgment, but you can ascertain the actual cost. I think my estimate is made with a view of covering the cost under the same circumstances as we had been doing the work.
PROBABLE COST OF. UNION PACIFIC.
Q. Accepting, of course, your explanation that this is simply a basis of approximation, can you give that as your estimate of the probable actual cost of this road: the rate of $35,000 per mile for 247 miles from Omaha to the one hundredth meridian, which makes $8,645,000.