What caused this unprecedented change? Men far abler than I have undertaken to explain, and many reasons have been given, all, I presume, more or less in harmony with the facts, but influenced no doubt by each man's point of view. I say, candidly, I do not know what caused it; that is, assuming that there _was any one cause_, but I think I can point out to you _some_ of the _contributing_ causes, at least so far as the Burlington Company is concerned. A railroad, as you all well know, is a living, growing thing. It is never finished, or if we think we have finished some certain part, as was probably thought when the original stone engine houses were built here some years ago, or when the first bridge was built across the Mississippi River at Burlington, it always happens that heavier, larger, and longer engines come along in course of time, forced upon us by the changed conditions, and our engine house which was built for all time becomes too short, and our bridge is too light, and both must be rebuilt. The same thing is going on in every department of railroad operations--ballast, ties, rails, coaches, station buildings, even grades and curvature, all come within the changing influence of time and progress. I referred to the engine house specifically simply to illustrate my point. Because of the constant change or evolution which is going on, it is necessary that Railroad Companies, if they expect to keep abreast of the times, should make annually large expenditures for such improvements as from time to time become desirable or necessary, if the standard of service is to be raised, or even maintained. These are called extraordinary expenditures, and it is customary on this Line to prepare each year, as of January 1st, what is called a Budget, being in effect a list of the more important improvements considered necessary by the officers of the Road. The Budget shows the separate items, with description of each, and also estimated cost. It may and does include such items as new cars or engines needed, additional sidetracks, new terminal yards, such as you have here, water treating plants, new coal chutes, etc. On January 1, 1907, the sum total of the Burlington Budget, as it stood approved by the President on that date, amounted to something over $16,000,000.00. It included some new equipment and also some quite large improvements, such as new yard at Lincoln, grade reductions between Galesburg and Savanna, etc.