Editorials

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS MARCH, 1935 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

Published in the Interest of Good Roads by the

ARIZONA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT

JOHN C. MCPHEE, Editor

CIVILIZATION FOLLOWS THE IMPROVED HIGHWAY

Vol. XI.

MARCH, 1935 No. 3.

ARIZONA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION

SHELTON G. DOWELL,

Chairman, Douglas

J. W. ANGLE,

Vice-Chairman, Tucson

JACOB BARTH,

Commissioner, St. Johns

E. C. SEALE,

Commissioner, Prescott

C. E. ADDAMS,

Commissioner, Phoenix

C. C. JARRETT,

Secretary, Mesa

GENERAL OFFICE

T. S. O'CONNELL, State Highway Engineer

SID SMYTH,

Deputy State Engineer

E. M. WHITWORTH,

Vehicle Superintendent

R. A. HOFFMAN,

Bridge Engineer

E. V. MILLER,

Engineer of Plans

J. W. POWERS,

Engineer of Materials

W. L. CARPENTER,

Superintendent of Equipment

SWAN A. ERICKSON,

Engineer Certification Board

J. S. MILLS,

Engineer of Estimates

H. C. HATCHER,

Statistical Engineer

W. M. MURRAY,

Superintendent of Stores

M. L. WHEELER,

Chief Accountant

C. R. McDOWELL,

Patrol Superintendent

A. C. SIEBOTH,

Right-of-Way Agent

W. S. FRERICHS, Purchasing Agent

FIELD ENGINEERS

GEORGE B. SHAFFER, District Engineer

District No. 1

F. N. GRANT, District Engineer

District No. 2

R. C. PERKINS, District Engineer

District No. 3

W. R. HUTCHINS,

District Engineer

District No. 4

PERCY JONES

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ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

Arizona Highway Department Phoenix, Arizona

A LOOK BACK AND A LOOK AHEAD

Willard Chevalier, vice-president of the McGrawHill Publishing Company, does some virile thinking on taxation. Mr. Chevalier believes that the power to tax is the power to destroy and that unless we can have a recognition and an application of these principles, there is danger that our communities, through the reckless and unthinking use of the taxing power may set back by many years the progress of motor transport.

is the power to destroy and that unless we can have a recognition and an application of these principles, there is danger that our communities, through the reckless and unthinking use of the taxing power may set back by many years the progress of motor transport.

States and other political subdivisions, casting about desperately for revenues with which to balance their budgets, have looted the highway revenues in behalf of many activities that have no special relation to the highways or to the highway user. The gasoline tax has thereby been perverted from its original service charge into a special sales tax upon one selected commodity, amounting to as much as 20 per cent or more. Because of this practice the highway systems in many states now are being starved, and not only with respect to extension and reconstruction, but in many cases with respect to maintenance also. This means that while the highway user still pays as usual, in some states and cities a substantially increased charge, for the use of the highways, this money is taken from him and used for the general benefit. Later on, because of the increased depreciation of neglected highways, he will have to pay double to make up for the damage that will result from this neglect.

Today, then, the dominant problem that confronts every interest associated with motor transport from motor builder, fuel producer, tire manufacturer, garage operator and all the rest, on down to the individual motorist is that of re-establishing highway finance on the sound basis from which it has been dislodged by the impact of the depression. In some state the motorists are seeking to correct this misuse of highway revenues through constitutional provisions; in others they are trying to restore as large a portion as possible of the highway revenues to their intended purpose. On every hand we find an awakened understanding of the damage that the present course will inflict on the progress of motor transport and on the investment the public has already made in the highways.

It may be that during the next twenty-five years we shall see motor transportation stabilized on a sound basis, effectively coordinated with all the other agencies of transportation and established on a sound financial basis. Our governmental bodies will recognize the principle of charging motor transport the fair and reasonable cost of providing and maintaining the highways and will renounce the idea, now so widely prevalent, that motor transport is an easy mark for discriminatory taxes levied upon it for the general welfare.

OUR COVER PICTURE

Seldom has a picture done justice to the grandeur of Arizona's Grand Canyon, but the photograph reproduced on this month's cover of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS must be adjudged an exception to that rule. Photographed from a speeding airplane at an altitude of more than one mile from the bed of the river, the picture goes far toward revealing the handiwork of a mad world eons ago.

HIGHWAY HEADACHES

CURVE BULLET OR OTHER HARD OBECT STRIKING FACE OF SIGN "A" STARTS ROTARY MACHINE GUN"B" THAT SPRAYS SHEET OF BULLETS THUS WOUNDING PARTY OR PARTIES ATTEMPTING TO DESTROY SIGN