60-CENTIMETER GAUGE V-SHAPED DUMP CARS.
Capacity, 27 cubic feet. Length over couplers, 6 feet 9 inches. Width of body, 48⅝ inches.
RAILROAD LOCOMOTIVES PACKED WITH BALED HAY IN THE HOLD OF A SHIP.
On our first purchase of rails, amounting to 102,000 tons, the price paid was $38 a ton for Bessemer steel and $40 a ton for open-hearth steel, as against a price of $59 a ton that the Russians were paying and prices between $54.36 and $61.87 that were being paid by the French. There was a saving in this item of approximately $2,040,000 as compared with the prices paid by the Russians and of $1,938,000 compared with the prices paid by the French.
In connection with our first purchase of this steel rail, it should be stated that the Lackawanna Steel Co. and the United States Steel Products Co. agreed to sell us rail on this basis. Orders were placed with these companies, but not with two other companies—the Cambria Steel Co. and the Bethlehem Steel Co.—who declined to accept the price offered.
All subsequent orders for steel rail were on the basis of $55 and $57 a ton for Bessemer and open hearth, respectively, which figure was established by the War Industries Board pursuant to the Government policy to stabilize industry by establishing fixed prices alike for all purchasers—the Government itself, the allies, and the public.
A total of 937 miles of standard-gauge railway track was laid in France with material shipped from this country.