City of Homes ... and Churches

must be kept a solid community of homes, churches, good schools, and a proper home environment. There are no facilities for and there is no welcome extended to that class of visitors distinguished by their hard drinking, their gambling and their loose morals. Not that Phoenix is prudish or puritanical. As one past president of the Chamber of Commerce puts it, “Those people wouldn't be happy here and we don't want them, so why not be frank about it.” This business, and for the people in the Valley of the River Salt, it is a real pleasure, of making visitors welcome requires considerable planning, and if it is to be properly conducted, it must be subjected to careful analysis.

In an attempt to determine the popularity of any winter resort area and the value of that area's tourist business, a great many intangibles must be considered. Winter visitors bring with them a wealth of experience and new ideas. This is frequently reflected in community life. To cite one specific example, it is only necessary to examine the quality of shops in Phoenix.

Winter visitors who in their travels have had an opportunity to make their purchases in practically any big eastern city, demand a quality of merchandise and a variety which would normally never be found in inland towns of relatively small populations. Because of the demands of the winter visitors, the people of Phoenix and the visitors alike can enjoy shopping opportunities here unequaled in towns with five times the permanent population.

Styles of many western clothes and fabrics featured in Vogue, Madamoiselle and Harper's Bazaar have actually originated in Phoenix. Again because of this winter visitor demand, Phoenicians are privileged during the course of a winter season to enjoy the finest artists of concert and opera. Outstanding legitimate plays taken on tour schedule Phoenix as the only stop between the west coast and the Mississippi valley cities.

This same inspiration for excellence is applicable to our schools and our churches, which both in size and physical facilities are far advanced of the average non-tourist center of the same size.

The tangible values are more easily catalogued. Arizona's state highway system, like all state highway systems, is a concrete demonstration of travel demands. In 1933 there were four hundred and fifty out-of-state vehicles per day on the state system immediately adjacent to Phoenix and the Salt River Valley. In 1941 this number had nearly doubled, and the increased travel was reflected in the improved highways, bridges, and feeder roads.

Typical of this travel increase is the steady growth of rail passenger traffic into Phoenix which has increased by approximately fifteen percent every year since 1935 In the season of 1940-41 the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific alone brought twenty-five thousand passengers to Arizona.

The railroads have done more than bring the visitor here. Their sound business policy of advertising the advantages of the area they serve has given Phoenix the benefit of a con-

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City of homes . . .

Here in this city that grew out of the boisterous frontier lives a group of people representative of their modern America and proud of their western heritage. Here there are homeslarge homes and small homes, as varied as the people who dwell in them. Here, too, homes are something to live in and be proud of and each person tries to have with his home a portion of the good earth for homes must breathe and have room, the same as men.