The Arizona sentinel., 1901-10-16
THE YUMA RAILROAD.  What George E. Mason Says of It's - Possibilities.
Editor San Diego Unlcn:

very fine and to the point, espe-
 cialIy the editorial in Mondays $
 issue, which treats of the "devel-
 opment of the back country" Ii
 is all very we'll to develop the
 commerce of San Diego by en-
 courag ging the building of the Oregon Short Line to this city,
 but it is more important that we
 should secure a railroad connect ing us with Yuma and all this
 vast country intervening and di- rect it's trade to this port. The development of the desert coun- try and all that vast territory lying along the Colorado river from the Gulf of California to Phoenix, Arizona, and making it tributary to San Diego is one of the most important events for the future and present welfare of the city that could happen it.. This vast territory, when once opened up and brought under cultivation, is capable of sustain ing a large population who will pour the wealth of that country into the lap of San Diego. In this connection 1 wish to call at- tention to an article in the Au- gust number of the Cosmopolitan from the pen of MT. Frederick A. Talbot, which gives a descrip- ton of the dam being built at Assouan, Egypt, which will add ?, 800 miles to it's cultivatable area and will increase the value of it's products ss4OO,O0O,O0O annually. Now the Colorado river is very much like the Nile, as once a year it overfoWs, sending it's waters highly charged with mud all along the valley of the Colo rado, giving life to the soil and causing it to produce immense crops. And when. it is known that every foot of that great country can be made tributary to San Diego, who can doubt but what the Yuma railroad will be not only paying line, but will be one of the most profitable roads on the Pacific coast. If the bringing of this country along the Nile into cultivation, which MT. Talbot speaks about, will add four hundred million dollars to the value of it's prod  ucts every year, what will the vast country along the Colorado river do when itfs brought under cultivation? Why, it's produc- tions will tax the power of more than one railroad to bring it to this market. Then the para mount importance of the Yuma railroad must be obvious to ev- cry thoughtful man. It is so much more important than the Oregon Short Line that even a blind man should see it. When this great country east and south of this city is brought into culti- vation with it's vast plantations of sugar beets, with its millions of acres of alfalfa, with it's vast corn and wheat fields, with it's great herds of cattle, sheep, horses and hogs, with its thous- ands of happy and prosperous homes. all tributary to San Diego, what a city we will build up here! There will be no Coronado then, there will be no National City then, but San Diego will gather them in under her ample folds and our population will be second to none on this coast; and when the Yuma road is a fact, when it is pouring it's gold en harvests into the lap of San Diego, the people will wonder why they did not move in the matter sooner, and utilize the vast resources that had for so many years laid right at our door. Then the Yuma road is the more important to the vel fare of San Diego than all the other roads that could be built to the city. Let the Oregon Short Line come, but don't give up the Yuma road, as it is the road that will be of the greatest importance to us.
 GEORGE E. MASON