Gorge Near Patagonia

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

Nation is a hundred million or more, the woman and children, and in generations this nation can surad come back, but if the younger tion is killed off as well as the oleople, a nation then loses all of ever coming back as a nation, is annihilated or absolutely destroyed may sound far fetched or visionary, but it should not if one will coldly consider the strides made in only the twenty years and the supposedly impossible things that are actually being done today. One may say that the high state of civilization as attained today by the majority of nations will not allow such a condition to come to pass. Those as have read of the fights our ancestors had against the Indians, who in many cases used poisoned arrows, some poisoned by the quick killing venom of rattlesnakes; some poisoned by the poison gathered from the partly decomposed flesh of some animal, causing as it did death by blood poisoning, or in some case slow poisoning far worse than a lingering worthless life. These Indians were held irresponsible because they were savages, ignorant and uncivilized. It has been said, however, that anything like that could or would ever be done by a civilized people. These Indians never killed or poisoned ten thousand people by these methods. The late war did, as it did at the height of our civilization, using fundamentally these Indian poison methods killed or crippled not ten thousand but ten million, and as I pointed out before one can see in the hospitals today by the thousands disabled American veterans who were lucky enough to get the slow poison rather than the quick dealing pois on, which under the circumstances would have been a blessing. And the last war was merely a sample What will the real thing be like? Civilization did not stop it, but made it worse, for we found that this so-called civilization is a very thin crust, and that man is still an ani mal at heart and more so when encour aged to kill.

FEDERAL AID FOR DEFENSE

What is the answer? It is this: Be prepared as well in the manner of de fense as the enemy is in the manner of offense. And Federal Aid as to state and national highways is a major factor of this defense as will be shown.

The most regretable feature of the enormous strides made in the evolution of the death dealing factors of war, which have spanned centuries in so few years, is that it is well nigh an impossibility for the human being to form a conception not only of the possibilities but the prob abilities of these fiendish methods of destruction that lurk just around the corner, ready to break loose upon the slightest provocation.

Federal Aid should have been from the start a military measure, looking forward or rather working toward a scheme of national defense. Sad to say it was not, for it was put through Congress as a post road measure In other words, any road that a community could show that a letter might be carried over some day would receive from the government fifty per cent of the money to build this road. This has happily been changed so that a well coordinated interstate system of highways are being gradually built, running entirely across the United States, both east and west as well as north and south, and working into a rather and en couraging network of some military val ue. The main trouble is that these inter state systems of roads, are not being built rapidly enough, up to a standard that would stand the test of military usage. And even this rather slow growth of a system that would be of some mili tary value to the whole of the United States in case of a war, is what some of our politicians are trying to stop completely by a withdrawal of all Fed eral Aid from the states.

I will take Arizona as an example be cause I am more familiar with this state than any other and try and show why I think this Federal Aid building of roads should be a military measure rather than a pleasure or commercial measure as it was first inaugurated and as it is con sidered now by the majority of people.

In 1918 during the world war I was building under contract a road connect ing Globe, a large copper mining town, with Hayden, another large copper min ing town. This road was uncompleted and no public traffic was using it, but we received a notice from the command ing officer of United States troops sta tioned at Globe, asking if it were possible to move troops over this uncompleted road to Hayden It was possible, and the troop movement was made, with a saving of what otherwise would have been a de lay of two or three days. Now, remem ber, this road was used for a United States troop movement before it was com pleted in 1918, and also remember that the seat of war was some 5,000 miles away. What would happen if it had been only 500 miles away? This is pos sible as I will show you later.

Another instance was a 6-inch conto Arizona to build roads through government property.

Now, I venture to say that if a survey of the seven per cent system of highways, or rather those highways which the government supposedly helps Arizona to build, were made, it would be found that between 90 and 95 per cent of these highways are bordered by land to which the government has titles. Then if this be true and I have no doubt that it is very nearly so, the United States Government is not helping Arizona to build he highways, but Arizona is actually helping the government to build its own highways through its own land, to develop its own lands and forests.

COOPERATIVE ROAD BUILDING

through this Association, the unimproved sections of these routes have been brought in strong relief. It is now possible to travel from Washington through St. Louis, Texarkana, and El Paso to San Diego, over a transcontinental route of which 97 per cent is improved, 93 per cent is surfaced and per cent is graded and drained. Or the surfaced portion more than half is improved with bituminous macadam or higher cost types and the remainder is gravel. From Washington to St. Louis there is no unimproved section and nearly 96 per cent is surfaced with bituminous macadam or one of the higher type roadways. From St. Louis to Texarkana, 2 per cent of the distance is unimproved and 63 per cent is improved with a gravel surface, the rest with superior types. From Texarkana to El Paso there are unimproved sections equaling 4 per cent of the distance, gravel surfaces 50 per cent and bituminous macadam or superior type the rest of the way. From El Paso to San Diego, with the exception of 6 per cent of the distance, the road is surfaced, 60 per cent with gravel and the remainder with pavements and surfaces of higher types. This is the possible transcontinental route, totaling 3,133 miles, most nearly surfaced; 2,907 miles are surfaced and 131 miles are graded and drained, leaving only 95 miles without improve-ment. This route does not coincide with any one of the U. S. routes but it does indicate the splendid progress that has been made by the States it traverses in the completion of importan: trans-state routes. Considered from the standpoint of improvement. the next ranking transcontinental route is that from Atlantic City to Astoria. Of its total length of 3,240 miles, 12 per cent is still unimproved, another 12 per cent is graded and drained, and the remaining 75 per cent is improved with some form of wearing surface. Of other east and west routes, that from Norfolk to Los Angeles is 68 per cent improved and that from Chicago to Los Angeles, partly by the same line, is 63 per cent improved. From Boston to Seattle, through the northern tier of states, the most direct through route, is 73 per cent improved and 69 per cent surfaced. These routes are taken to illustrate the working out of the principle, as defined in the Federal highway legislation, of the completion of interstate routes. There may be critics who hold that the ten-year period covered by this legislation should have produced more transcontinental routes fully improved.

to serve the happiness of ever increasing thousands lured by the joy of motoring into unknown hills, good highway engineering provides

For Mountain Grades and Curves the Safety of Concrete

PORTLAND CEMENT ASSOCIATION

548 South Spring Street LOS ANGELES

Concrete for P.manence

There are two answers: The actual operations of the Federal highway legislation did not get under way until well into the year 1919, and the tremendous development of motor vehicular traffic, particularly around every center of population, large and small, local rather than trans-state in character, has necessitated first attention to the immediate service demanded. It is my feeling that the progress in the completion of transcontinental roads is gratifying, but I do not lose sight of the fact that the lack of trans-state routes in the agricultural states of the Mississippi Valley is not in keeping with the development, east and west. In specific states this condition is brought about more largely by the feature referred to above, that is, the dependence upon county financing, than upon any lack of need of such roads or lack of response on the part of the State Highway departments.

IMPROVE MISSING LINKS

Now that there has been plainly pointed out and defined the through routes which are of major national importance, there should be an energetic effort made to improve the missing links, not because they are transcontinental routes but rather because in general these unimproved sections lie on the most important state routes, and the failure to improve these imposes a handicap upon the people of each state in the satisfactory use of their own road systems. But the national use must not be lost sight of, nor the requirement of the national legislation that these interstate routes shall be expedited. The Department has not attempted to dictate the routes which should be regarded as inajor state routes. Neither for that matter have the State highway departments. Through the careful work of the Joint Board of Interstate Highways, and the Executive Committee of the Association, each State highway department has expressed in a definite way the routes which are of the greatest importance within the State. In other words, this system of interstate routes has been built from the local viewpoint upward and not from the transcontinental viewpoint downward.

But having now settled upon these routes, which in the last analysis the public itself has defined by their use, it becomes our duty, the Federal and State highway departments working in cooperation, to expedite their completion. There are approximately 80,000 miles of highway included in these routes. To complete them to a state of improvement satisfactory for present use is a matter of closing gaps, 1 am convinced that this, the initial improvement, can be completed by 1930 without difficulty, and as a definite objective I can think of no expenditure of effort which would bring with it a greater return of public satisfaction or any more intelligent method of keeping faith with both the Federal and State governments which have entrusted to us the administration of these large funds.

The uniform signing and numbering of the U. S. highway routes in accordance with the reasonable plans now devised are essential in order to establish it in the public mind as an entity. They are needed also to develop the maximum degres of service and safety in their use by the ever increasing put lic traffic. From the Federal point of view the early improvement of these routes is of large importance, and 1 ask your full support in an effort, when these designated routes shall have been ratified by this Association, to complete the unimproved links at the earliest possible time and to bear with this Department in a reasonable but insistent demand that the Federal funds so far as possible be dedicated to this purpose with the full consent and belisf on the part of the highway departments that the end is desirable and worthy. I esteem it a privilege and it has been a pleasure to meet with this association, to know in more detail of its work, and to have the opportunity to express to you my high appreciation of the character of men who are engaged in this public service, and my sincere thanks for the unfailing cooperation of the highway departments.

Continued from page 16) way system. Type of construction is Bitulithic macadam. Contractors Downer and Mero. Total project 75 per cent completed. Work has been stopped until next spring due to cold weather.

Canon Padre-Canon Diablo, length 12.7 mile. Federal Aid No. 81, type of construction natural surfacing. Contractors Whiting Bros., Tanner and Turley of St. Johns. 82 per cent complete.

FEDERAL AID PROJECTS

Federal Aid No. 78-B, bridge over Little Colorado River at Holbrook and connecting road, now in the hands of the Bureau of Public Roads for their approval. Construction will begin just as soon as this approval is received by the State Highway Department.

Federal Aid No. 78-C, Highway running into St. Johns from the end of F. A. 78-A. is now in the hands of the Bureau of Public Roads for their approval.

Extra gang forces reflooring and making necessary repairs to all bridges between Winslow and Holbrook.

E. V. MILLER ENGINEER OF PLANS Federal Aid 80-D, Seligman West. Roadway quantities figured. Preliminary plans 80 per cent complete.

F. A. 80-B, Crookton-Seligman section, plans complete except for final approval of Bureau of Public Roads.

F. A. 80-E, Hackberry Section, preliminary plans have, been approved by the Bureau of Public Roads. Final plans 60 per cent complete.

F. A. 82-C. Yuma-Gila Bend Highway, grade separation at east end of Telegraph Pass section. Plans complete except for approval of U. S. Bureau Public Roads.

F. A. 55 reopened, Wellton overhead, plans complete.

Plans for paving F. A. 82 D and F. A. 26-B reopened. Completed.

The Cochise-Santa Cruz State Highways

Continued from page 8 Unless to this point we have been traveling State Highway No. 82, built and intained by the state highway department.

From this point to Tombstone it is ar miles plus and is standard graveled adbed and drainage structures.

About two miles out of Tombstone on left a monument is seen and it is of interest to know that underneath this metrical group of granite boulders is resting place of the body of Edward chieffelin, discover of the great silver mines that made Tombstone the most ked of mining camp in the past Subsequent events made it the most written about camp today and from indications some years to come it will be written about very greatly.

Besides being the state highway from gales to Tombstone that section of the state described is also the lower section THE CORONADO TRAIL and at Tombstone it diverges and goes to Pearce, Gleeson, and on north through Clifton, through the White Mountains into Springerville.

Following the state highway from Tombstone to the state line near Rodeo, New Mexico, you drive toward Bisbee for 16.3 miles of asphaltic concrete highway, thence up Tombstone Canyon over eight miles of well maintained grav-

Eled surfaced highway to the Conti-

nental Divide the lowest point of any scontinental route designated by the ited State Government running east west in America.

THE CITY "DIFFERENT"

Here you have a wonderful sight of Bisbee the city "DIFFERENT." Bisbee is very different from any other mining town up in the country. At the foot of the side on the Bisbee side you drive rough the great Bisbee district on wed highway to Douglas and as you r Douglas your thoughts revert to mee" for Douglas now uses a sticker Which reads, "Douglas, Arizona, Where He Walked." Douglas is a pretty town nd has the giant smelters that smelt the ores of copper from the Bisbee mines and silver from Tombstone. You can wet your "whistle" at Douglas by going over to Agua Prieta and I might say the same

nothing could happen at Bisbee by going to

From Douglas east to the New Mexico Le line a fine gravel surfaced highway

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

through the heart of the Sulphur Springs Valley now about to be developed by elec-tric power The road up this valley runs to Pearce and has just been finished, by the state highway forces and is being maintained by that department.

Electric power The road up this valley runs to Pearce and has just been finished, by the state highway forces and is being maintained by that department.

DRIVE THROUGH FARMING LANDS

Jumping back to the Nogales, Tomb stone Junction we start from that point, four miles plus north of Tombstone and over a gravelled surfaced road drive to Curtis Flat 12 miles out, and from here drive through an agricultural country to St. David where we cross the San Pedro again on a bridge just built by the state highway department. As you cross the bridge a sign directs you to the Apache Powder Plant, one of Arizona's greatest industrial plants, about three miles off from the state highway.

Next we are in Benson and Benson like Tombstone expects to reap full benefit of the construction of the Charleston Dam, nine miles below Tombstone. Ben-son expects the direct benefit and Tombstone expects the "back wash." Benson is now a thriving and growing little city.

From Benson to the Pima county line the state highway is well maintained and is decomposed granite and gravelled sur-faced highway.

Now returning to Nogales we complete our Santa Cruz-Cochise county drive on strictly state highways by first going over the line and quenching our thirst and then starting north out of Nogales and traveling to the Pima county line over a fine gravel highway three miles of which is paved. On our way see some fine country or bottom lands and pass the Tumacacori Mission and the old and historic town of Tubac, which town in-cludes "Rosy" the most famous corre-spondent and particular booster for the oldest town in America, that ever faded out of sight in one night.

We have now traveled approximately 46 miles of paved road and approximate ly 230 miles of dirt road in the two counties of Cochise and Santa Cruz and if any one would ask me what is needed the most now to improve the roads described, something that would earn money by such action, I would say pave the unpaved sections of Santa Cruz to the Pima county line and the unpaved sections of the state highway from New Mexico state line near Rodeo to the Pima-Cochise line west of Benson.

CONDITION OF ROADS ON ARIZONA STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM

(Continued from page 15) Ash Fork-Kingman, distance 116 miles; condition good to excellent. During wet weather the first ten miles east of Seligman, which is unsurfaced, gets rough and slippery; from Cheno Point west of Seligman to Pica, crossing wet weather the first ten miles east of Seligman, which is unsurfaced, gets rough and slippery; from Cheno Point west of Seligman to Pica, crossing Audley valley is unsurfaced, about ten miles of this gets slippery during wet weather; during extreme dry weather Hualpad valley, east of Kingman, gets chucky and rough where not surfaced.

Kingman-Topock, distance 54 miles; condition from Kingman to foot of mountain, about sixteen miles, good to excellent; from foot of mountain to Oatman, 12 miles of mountain road with steep grades and sharp curves; surface excellent but second gear should be used in going down hill; from Oatman to Topock, first three miles narrow, only partly graded, fair surface; next 22 miles gravel surface, fair condition with surface loose in places and some oversize and loose material. Driving time Ash Fork to Arizona-California State Line, 4½ hours. Total length U.S. Route 66, 391.27 miles.

STATE LINE-SPRINGERVILLEHOLBROOK U. S. Route No. 70

Entering Arizona at point 15 miles Cast of Springerville, via Springerville to St. Johns, distance 29.7 miles. St.

Johns to Concho a distance of 16 miles.

From Concho to Holbrook 51.4 miles, connecting with U. S. Route 66.

The portion of road from State Line to Springerville unimproved. Fair to good in dry weather. Muddy in wet weather, but never impassable. From Springerville to Holbrook road in ex-cellent condition.

Total length 112.08 miles.

FLORENCE JUNCTION-NEW MEXICO STATE LINE U. S. Route 180

Florence-Superior Junction, gravel surfaced, very good condition. Through Superior paved. An excellent gravel surfaced road from Superior to Miami, 20.15 miles. Subject to rock slides during rainy weather. Miami street paving under construction, Federal Aid Project No. 91. Part Federal Aid and part State Highway. Miami-Globe, paved, length 7.8 miles. Globe to Rice good, rough in places. Rice to Geronimo 40.05 miles fair. Geronimo through Central to Safford excellent, 13.6 miles of pavement on this section. Safford to Solomonville paved. Solomonville to Junction of Clifton Highway, 2 miles paved, 6 miles excellent surfaced road.

Duncan to New Mexico State line, length 7 miles, very good condition.Total length 176.51 miles.