J. G. WHITE & COMPANY, INC.,
43 - 49 Exchange Place,
New York City.

April 5, 1906

Mr. T. A. Hatch,

363 West 123rd St.,

New York City.

Dear Sir:

We offer you the position as Assistant to Topographer in connection with the surveys of the Phillipine Railways. Upon the completion of surveys, you will assigned to a position on construction, either at the same remuneration or better, depending on yourself and the needs of the work, which will likely extend over a period of three or four years. The salary is $80.00 a month and subsistence in Camp.

Your acceptance of this offer requires that you report to Mr. L. E. Bennet at the Savoy Hotel, Kansas City, Mo., April 23rd, from where transportation in special Tourist sleeper has been engaged to the Pacific sailing port, from there by first-class cabin to Manila.

The Company will pay all your traveling expenses from place of engagement and your salary from the 23rd of April. You will please secure receipts for such Railroad fares and sleeper ticket as it is necessary for you to purchase by the most direct route to Kansas City, ONLY.

Page Two.

4/5/06

At Kansas City the Company will request that you sign a contract embodying the retention of 25% of your salary until $300.00 is retained, the cost of your passage out - that amount returnable if you remain in the Company's service for two years.

The Company furnishes medical attendance and after two years' service pays your return passage.

Please wire me, Care J. G. WHITE & COMPANY, your decision to accept or decline this offer.

Yours very truly,

J. G. WHITE AND COMPANY.

E. J. Brand

Chief Engineer

Phillipine Island Railway Construction

EJB/G.

Saturday, April 21st, 1906

Left New York for Kansas City over the Del. Loc. to Western, at 10:15. Went up through Scranton and Binghamton to Buffalo which we struck about 8:30. Went to bed at Buffalo.

Sunday, April 22nd

Woke up near Fort Wayne, Ind. Had breakfast and then sat in the observation car all the way across Indiana and Illinois. Level country and lots of long tangents, counted one 16 inches long. Got to St. Louis at 2:10 and changed there for Kansas City which we reached at 9:30. Met Kennard at the station and found Oliver at the hotel. Doyle backed out on account of his girl.

Monday 23rd

Spent the day hanging around the hotel watching the crowd blow in. Bought a few things and went around the city a little. Assigned to Mr. Robinson's party. Kennard and I went to the theatre in the evening. Bum show with a crop of last seasons jokes with whiskers on them.

Tues. 24th

Worked in the morning helping Howe with the baggage. Signed my contract in the afternoon. Left K.C. at 6:05 over the Burlington, in two special cars. My berth @-7. Hammond left behind for being drunk. Came down to the train drunk as a lord and the old man fired him on the spot. Turned in early but gang was rough-housing so didn't sleep much.

Wed. 25th

Woke up near Ravenna, Neb. and had a good long wait for breakfast before we picked up the diner at Broken Bow. Rode all day through rolling prairie. Reached Alliance some time during the PM and sent off a bunch of postal cards. Turned in early and had a good sleep.

Thurs. 26th

Rode through Montana. Got to Billings in P.M. and were hitched on to a U.P. train. More postals from Billings. Reached Livingston about supper-time. More postals. Rode through the Rockies during the evening. Scenery grand.

Fri. 27th

Woke up in the midst of the Bitter Root Mts. and talk about your swell scenery and good fresh air. This morning was the best part of the whole ride. Reached Spokane during the afternoon, more postals. After passing Spokane we rode all the afternoon through the desert, nothing but sand and sage-brush as far as we could see. And hot and dusty as blazes. Crossed the Columbia River at Pasco. Here we saw the good results of irrigation also a bit of genuine humor on the side of a building was painted
"Drink Ranier beer, the beer that makes Milwaukee jealous"

Sat. 28th

When we woke up our cars were sidetracked in the yards at Seattle and everybody was glad to get out and stretch. The chiefs were quartered at the Ranier-Grand and we were at the Washington. We had the best hotel in town. It is located away up on the top of a high hill and from it you get a view all over the city and around it for miles. To the west over Puget Sound is the Olympic Range, to the east is the Cascade Range, while off to the South old Mt. Rainier stands up all alone. It was grand. In the afternoon we all went aboard the steamer and were photographed. After supper a lot of the gang went out to see the Terderloins and I guess some of them saw it all right.

TO BUILD ENTIRE SYSTEM OF ROADS

E.J. Beard and Party of Engineers Now in Seattle Will Construct Rail Lines in Panay, Cebu and Negros
_____
Medical Corps to Be Organized in the Philippines Under the Leadership of Men Familiar With the Climate
_________
Fourteen Million Dollars to Be Expended in First Development and More Work May Be Undertaken Later on.

E.J.Beard and the party of railroad engineers who will lay out the 400 miles of railroad in the islands of Panay, Cebu and Negros, which J.G. White & Co. are to build, will sail for the Philippines tomorrow on the Hill liner Minnesota. The party reached Seattle this morning.
Fourteen million dollars are to be expended by the New York Construction Company that promoted the system of railroads. Mr. Beard is taking over the first party of engineers and will be in the entire charge of the construction work during the three or four years required to build the lines. He will send for another engineering corps later, but will rely as much as possible upon native labor for the common branches of the work.

Beard is Local Advisor
L.E.Bennett, right of way agent for the company and one of Mr. Beard's principal assistants has been in the Philippines for several years. He is thoroughly familiar with local conditions and has made a reconnaissance of the territory through which the roads will run. He went over the northern Luzon country with the engineers Governor Taft took to the Philippines to lay out the plans for the railroad development.
It was this trip through Luzon with the government's engineers that is the basis for an erroneous story sent out from New York to the effect that Mr. Bennett was one of Governor Taft's advisors in the formulation of plans for the constrution of the Philippine roads. He is regarded as one of the best posted men on Philippine physical and traffic conditions and will act during the construction period as right of way agent and local advisor in the semi-political affairs that affect the building.

Corps of Medical Men
A corps of medical assistants will be organized in the Philippines under Mr. Beard's direction. He intends to send a full railroad medical corps with each of the engineering outfits working in the three islands. Men familiar with the climatic conditions and local dangers to health will be in charge, but the engineering corps will have as complete a medical and surgeion staff as any railroad in this country.
J.G. White & Co., who promoted the Philippine liens under the government's concession, are completing the forty miles of Manila electric roads and Mr. Beard will probably be able to draw upon the staff of men employed on that system to fill out his own corps. The Manila work of the New York and London syndicate is the first railroad development enterprise fostered by the American government in the Philippines.

Big Sum Involved
"We expect to build the railroad system in the islands for $14,000.000 or less, and it may be that this will be but the beginning of railroad building in the Philippines." said Mr. Beard this morning at the Ranier-Grand. "The three systems which we are to build will require between 300 and 400 miles of construction and will be built as rapidly as possible. The reports on physical and traffic conditions show that there are no serious problems to overcome in construction work and that the liens ought to pay well. There is a rich country to be developed and the traffic to be handled will be heavy."
Mr. Beard left the Rock Island a month ago to go with J.G.White and Co. in the Philippines. His withdrawal from the Rock Island gave rise to a rumor that he was to be connected with the Western road, but that was an erroneous conjecture that followed his sudden resignation.

Will Ship Via Seattle
Mr. Beard underwent an operation in Kansas City just before he left for the West, and is now under the care of Dr. Kierneff, who will be one of the medical staff on the new railroads.
"Seattle ought to appreciate what the Hill systems have done for us and what it means to this city," said Mr. Beard of his trip. Ön the Burlington, the Northern Pacific, and now the Great Northern Steamship Company's boats we have been offered every convenience and every attention. I never saw better service. The Great Northern Steamship Company is the most satisfactory corporation to do business with.
"The result of this will be that we will handle all our business by way of Seattle. We ar to order all our railroad building materials from this country and the the attention that has been show us I think Seattle can expect to see all passenger and frieght business diverted to this city.
Speaking of the railroad plans, Mr Beard said:
"The force will be followed later, as construction progress requires, by such supervisory forces and skilled labor as cannot be supplied by Filipinos and that are ncecssary to supervise the Filipino labor, which will be the labor exclusively employed in the construction of these roads. The aggregate length of the railroads on the three islands will approximate 400 miles, and most of the material therefore will be obtained in the United States, except timber and cement, which can be obtained in the Orient.
"The cost of the work so far provided for approximates $14,000,000 and it is expected will require four years to complete, owing to the conditions incident to the country, the principal obstacle to rapid work being the rainy season, which much reduces the nuber of working days.
"The unusual conditions connected with an undertaking of this nature in the Orient create for an engineer extremely interesting work, and each member of the party is in high spirits and much delighted with the prospect of the problems before them."

Under Government Sanction
These railroads will be built under a United States government concessionary grant tothe Philippine Railway Company, composed of J.G.White & Company, Cornelius Vanderbilt of New York, C.M.Swift of Detroit nad William Salamon & Co. and Heidelback-Icklheimer & Co., prominent bankers of New York and others. This company let the contract for the construction and execution of this work to the well-known firm of J.G. White & Co., engineering contractors, New York. J.G.White & Co. have under way for the United States government harbor improvements at Iloilo and Cebu and a naval coaling station at Olongapo. It is this firm that is contributing the Yuma dam in Arizona for the United States government.
E.J.Beard, members ASCE of Kansas City, MO., chief engineer of the work has on his staff J.M.Robinson, late locating engineer of the Guayaquil & Quito Railway; H.F. Howe, late acting chief engineer of the Canton & Hankow Railroad; C.H. Farnham, member ASCE, late division engineer and superintendent of construction of Sam Shul Division of the Canton & Hankow Railroad; C.J. Hogue, member ASCE late engineer M. of W. of the Choctaw District of the Rock Island System; F.D. Nash, late engineer in charge of B&Q Railroad in Iowa, and L.E. Bennett, right-of-way agent and adviser in native matters.
Mr. Bennett has spent many years in the Orient and on the islands. He made the original reconnaissance and report on these railroads and first brought before the company the wonderful resources of these islands along the routes of the proposed railroads, and has established beyond doubt a conviction of the great future for all the territory they will serve.

Sun. 29th

Reported at the Rainier at 8:30 and went aboard the steamer about 10:00. We got away at 12:30 only half an hour late. We had a beautiful sail out of Puget Sound. Getting a little knowledge of shuffle-board, ring-toss, etc. Wrote three letters and sent them off by the pilot. Found three letters for me, one from Ma, and one from Jr. with another one from the inside and never saw letters look so good before. The ship is fine but will write more of that later. Weston and I have stateroom 132 which is forward on the promenade deck on the starboard side of the ship. Now that I have this thing caught up am registering a solemn vow not to get behind again.

Monday 30th

Got up early and had to wait about three hours for breakfast. No more early rising for mine until we strike dry land again. We are out of sight of land now. A little bit sea-sick. I felt a little dizzy at times but got in my three squares all right. They had about a dozen meals aboard this ship. First there is a lunch which the cabin boy brings to your state room; then there is a breakfast at 8:30; then "tiffin" or lunch at 1:00; then tea at four in the dining saloon; then dinner at 6:30; and then a lunch at 10:00 for those who happen to be up as late as that. It was a little bit rough to-day but the ship is so wide that you notice the motion very little. The wind blew hard all day and toward night it set in foggy. Some of the crowd saw a whale this morning or said they did. The crew had a fire and boat drill in the P.M. They are all chinks and it must be a devil of a job to get any service out of them. Stood watching the office to-day and had a talk with Mr. Beard. Tried my hand at ring toss, shuffle board and another game they play by throwing biscuits at a board with the numbered squares marked on it. For the time ending at noon to-day the ship made 302 knots.