Resolutions American Association State Highway Officials

Resolutions Passed at the Annual Convention of the American Association of State Highway Officials, Held at Santa Fe, New Mexico

Resolution No. 1. WHEREAS, the American Association of State Highway Officials, convening for its Twentieth Annual Convention in the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, finds that the review of a year reveals a most satisfactory accomplishment in highway planning, betterments and construction, through the use of the federal grants of 1933 and 1934, in cooperation with the states, whereby there has resulted not only marked re-lief of unemployment, but also valuable additions to the highway transport of the whole country. Therefore be it RESOLVED: That this Association hereby records its appreciation of the funds which have been supplied by Na-tional enactment with Executive ap-proval, and which have been expended with all possible speed in accord with resolutions adopted at the Milwaukee Convention of this Association a year ago; and further, that this Association pledges its continued allegiance and its support and assistance in directing the expenditure of all road funds now available or that may be provided through legislative procedure; and further, that the States, through com-petent pre-construction engineering, will endeavor to quickly pass all such highway funds into active contracts.

Resolution No. 2. WHEREAS, predetermined revenues and preconstruction engineering are most important elements and provide insurance in the successful planning and construction of highways. Therefore be it RESOLVED: That the American As-sociation of State Highway Officials express its special approval of that fea-ture of the legislation of the Second Session of the Seventy-Third Congress, which assures a three year dependable road program, including the current and the two following governmental fis-cal years, for which plans are well ad-vanced.

It is a most desirable situation when the states are advised well in advance of what the Federal Government in-tends to do. The use of state and gov-ernment funds in cooperation is the firm foundation of a national system of roads.

Resolution No. 3. WHEREAS, the law enacted at the last session of the Congress now is that - any state after June 30, 1935, further diverts portions of its gasoline taxes and motor vehicle license fees in an amount larger than what had been diverted before the passage of the Act, shall lose one-third of the Federal Aid to which that state is entitled, and WHEREAS, this Association reaffirms its position heretofore taken, namely, that all motor highway vehicle fuel tax revenues and all motor license and registration license fees are essen-tially state revenue and, therefore, should be expended under the supervis-ion of the state, or in cooperation with the National government, upon some properly selected system of roads, and, WHEREAS, any other use of these funds may easily undermine an import-ant national enterprise, and become an unsound governmental policy. Therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the American Association of State Highway Officials thoroughly approves of this above cited restrictive legislation and commends the national policy so established; and be it further, RESOLVED: That in the opinion of this Association, it will be a wise federal policy to first give the states sufficient time to rectify existent diversion, and then to extend the penalty to include all diversion from road purposes of these motor revenues whatsoever. Resolution No. 4. WHEREAS, the U. S. Numbered System has proven to be a most satisfactory plan and guide to travel, meeting with great popular approval, and WHEREAS, the primary purpose of the system is to direct interstate highway traffic and therefore must be limited in mileage, Now, therefore, be it RESOLVED: That this Association approves the action of its executive committee in consolidating U. S. numbered routes wherever possible, thus simplifying the same, and only adding mileage to the system through unoccupied territory. The Executive Committee should continue its studies in consolidations and coordination of mileage on this system.

Resolution No. 5. WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States in 1930 provided funds for the survey of an Inter-American Highway and for a study of the econHighway and for a study of the economic-omic feasibility and advantages of such a highway; and WHEREAS, the survey provided for has been completed between the Canal Zone in the Republic of Panama and the United States border at Laredo, Texas, showing conditions to be favorable; and WHEREAS, the 73d Congress made further appropriations for continuing the reconnaissance and instrument surveys, and for undertaking construction in cooperation with the countries through which surveys have been made; Therefore be it RESOLVED: That this annual meeting of the Association of State Highway Officials express its support of the action this far taken by the Congress, as a forward looking provision for the development of extended highway communications in the Spanish-American countries, our neighbors and friends, and as a valuable and necessary means for improving our trade and amicable relations with these countries; and be it further RESOLVED: That this Association recommend that the present available funds be devoted to an extension of reconnaissance southward from the United States border and from Panama into South America and to the completion of instrument surveys; and to a limited program of essential construction on a cooperative basis with the countries between the Panama Canal and the United States in which reconnaissance has already been completed.

Resolution No. 6. WHEREAS, it is desirable to further mutual interests of the American Association of State Highway Officials and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Therefore, be it RESOLVED: That a committee of three members of the American Association of State Highway Officials be appointed to work continuously with a corresponding committee of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Ad-ministrators.

Resolution No. 7. WHEREAS, the joint committee on signs, created by this Association in 1931, to cooperate with the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety, to revise and enlarge the sign

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DECEMBER, 1934. ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

BEYOND THE SOUTHERN HORIZON (Continued from Page 5) Corral in a hurry as one bronco charged upon him with four Indian cowboys all trying to rope him at the same time; and Quijotoa, the mountain shaped like the Indian basket. Then there was the little Indian set tlement where the old woman wanted to sell the fine basket which she had made, using a twenty-pound lard pail as a model, and had even woven the word "LARD" in the sides, without knowing what it meant. And there was the big young buck who was going to get married soon and wanted the writer to take a kodak picture of his new adobe house where he was going to install his copper skinned bride. He was not go ing to have a house of ocotilla sticks and mud. His house was the best in the whole Indian country and it would keep the wind out. All these primitive and unspoiled Indian villages lie on the way to Ajo, with the peak of Babo quavari where Ee-etoy lives, the In dians' Elder Brother, looking down up on them, straight as any obelisk and with a small cloud wreath around its top as its eight thousand foot summit catches the moisture riding with the west wind from the Gulf. Then there is also Gunsight Peak, a small moun tain that is almost dead ahead as the traveller comes nearer Ajo and which remarkably resembles the rounded sight on a rifle, as its outline against the distant sky points the westward path.

Just before arriving at the copper mining town of Ajo and about fifteen miles eastward therefrom, a peculiarly shaped group of desert peaks about six miles to the south attracts the atten tion, and if the traveler is not bluffed out by the rugged character of the terrain he will take the apparently rough desert road to his left and will be surprised to find it smooth as satin for most of its way as it winds through the rocky hills. It is a slow road as numerable small washes cross it, but the smoothness makes up for the slow ness, and the scenery as one gets closer to the mountains, well repays the time consumed on the side trip. The moun tains are the Ajo range and the most prominent object in them is Monte zuma's Head, a rocky monolith, whose bottle shape rises high above all the other peaks and whose final attempt to pierce the sky ends in a vertical neck of such height that it seems to be a gigantic bottle standing upright and guarding the mysteries of the southern desert down below the border. There is a pass in these mountains, through which it is possible but not advisable to go, which eliminates Ajo from the itinerary. Water can be obtained at Wall's Well in the shadow of Monte zuma's Head at a small ranch, and if the traveler has good luck in breaking through to Bate's Well, twenty miles farther on, he may fill up for the last time at that point. He may also kiss goodbye to civilization. We hope he has no bad luck from here on, as he is on his own thenceforth, but if he obeyes the rules of the desert he will return in good shape. If he does not, he will just be mystery number so and so and his property taken with him will gradually come to light piece by piece, but his bones will be scattered to the winds as Mr. Coyote carefully hides them exactly like his civilized brother does his bones from the kitchen in the back yard. Behind the desert explorer lies his world and in front of him lies a vast dry desert, full of mystery and inviting the inquisitive. He will note at once the utter silence. And he will know from instinct that his future depends upon his own resourcefulness. The des ert ahead of him does not produce in an hour's time or a month's time a com panion explorer or wayfarer who can help him or bring assistance from the outside. Westward stretches the Arizona border, one hundred and twen ty odd miles of desert after desert, and granite ranges piled on top of one an other. South is the Sonora desert al ready visible through the pass between the Papago Mountain and the Agua Dulce range. Assuming that the explorer has load ed up his car until the springs lie flat and that he knows where he is going and how to get back, if he has to leave the car and everything in it in case of a break down, we may start to enjoy the unknown with him, and may Ee etoy, the Elder Brother of the Papago, watch over him from his old home in Pinacate and stop the wind from blow ing on him.

We have purposely left the regular trail to the gulf by way of Sonoita, the official port of entry, as we have per mission to do so by both governments, and twenty miles southwest of our last water at Bate's Well we have entered the pass at Papago Mountain. About four miles of trail over solid rock with a few feet occasionally of gravel in the arroyos brings us to the open coun try and into Mexico. Ahead lies in the dim blue haze to the south, a vast squatting shape that seems to gather its sides from all points of the com pass to culminate in two small conical points. We are looking at Pinacate, the mountain named for a bug.

If you had noticed when you were on foot in the sand or dirt around the cac tus plants, you certainly would have seen a large, very black beetle which was minding his own business, but if you had interfered with his job, he im mediately would have stood on his head and told you to go to the devil. He and all his brothers always do this sort of thing when monkeyed with, and the rounded shape of his caboose is ex actly like the shape of the twin peaks of Pinacate, in fact he is Pinacate, the beetle, or to the scientifically inclined, Eleodes Armata, the bug that stands on his head.

There is more to talk about in regard to Pinacate's namesake, the old vol cano, than the bug, so we will leave the original Pinacate standing on his head and proceed toward the southern hor izon.

Ahead is a plain covered with the usual kinds of cacti, with the exception that there are some new ones we may not have seen in Arizona outside of the University cactus gardens. There is the pipe organ cactus, or Pitahaya, not seen north of the Ajo range or east of Quijotoa. There is also the white brit tle bush, almost snow white, that pre fers the rocky sides of the hills or any bare volcanic foothold. Half a mile away, there is a campfire smoking no, it could not be, there has been no one here for months. A closer view dis closes a small tree whose fluffy grey foliage looks exactly like a small cloud of smoke hugging the desert. It is the Spiney Smoke tree, Parosela Spinosa, and fools the most able desert rat at a distance.

After chugging along on the soft sand and gravel a few miles farther, a shape arises immediately in front of us. All alone in its solitary vigil Cer ro Colorado rears above the desert floor as if to say it was not related at all to the other shapes farther south and west. It is the most easterly of the Pinacate volcanic outbursts, and its pinkish color well gives it its name.

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