Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Transportation Building Dedication Addresses [PAGE 52]

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five years we were able to add to our equipment the two test cars which you will see on exhibition later, and auch other railway apparatus as a brake-shoe testing machine, and a drop testing machine. Of course in the meantime we

have had available the facilities of the other university laboratories. Two years ago it seemed to the University'administration that the growth of the work had warranted some comprehensive extension of our facilities and as a first step toward getting an increase in our organization, our staff, and our equipment, the University invited here in the fall of 1910, about two and a half years ago, the railway officials of Chicago and St. Louis. We had upon that occasion a company of some forty railway men, representing fifteen of. the big railways centering in Chicago, who came to the University to look over what we had beenaoing, to acquaint themselves with our facilities, and our plans for development. They came to us, and after looking over

the ground, we had in this very room a conference in which finally this resolution was passed, on motion of Mr. Clark, of the Illinois Central: "Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that the railways of the state of Illinois co-operate with the President and Trustees of the University of Illinois in their efforts to secure from the State Legislature at its next session an appropriation for suitable transportation