Arizona republican., 1908-04-01
SANTA FEE, PRESCOTT & PHOENIX RAILROAD COMPLETED TO
 PHOENIX IN 1895.

The Santa Fe. Prescott and Phoenix Railroad Co.,, was organized in 1891. Construction work was begun between Ash Fork and Prescott just as soon as possible after the organization of the company and in April. '93. trains were running between these points. In 1894 work was begun on the road south of Prescott and the first train arrived in Phoenix in March, 1895.
 The road leaves Prescott following Willow ' Creek, crosses the Prietta
 Range near Iron Springs, then follows down Skull Valley into and though Kirkland Valley and Bells Canyon,
 passing Hillside station, from which point a wagon road leads to the old Seven Stars Mine, in which Dr. Green ! Pasadena, Cal, was at one time in terested. The road then crosses the
 range through the Date Creek pass and follows this creek down to Con- gress Junction. three and a half miles from which is located the famous Congress mine. From Congress June
 ton the road runs south to Wicken-
 burg, one of the oldest settlements in Arizona. The road then follows the Hassayampa river for eight or ten miles. crossing the same just below Brills ranch. and skirting the foot ! hills on the south side of the Hassa- yampa. it comes out into the Salt River Valley and wends its way in a south easterly direction across this splendid valley to Phoenix With the exception of the thirty miles in this valley the Santa Fe Prescott and Phoenix is a mountain road. running through one of the greatest mineral belts in America. and this belt has been developed and made to produce its share of the worlds wealth by virtue of the building of this road.
 In these plpeing times of railroad prosecution. how many of us stop to think what this country would be without the railroad. "The American Business Man" one of the best and largest and most ably edited class publications in America, in a recent is sue says: Initiative and enterprise distinguish tine United States from all other nations on the globe not only as regards business, but as regards literature. art, invention, education, civilization, progress. Asia sleeps and Dlallhtt Ol iitl U tions. Africa wriggles' under the thumb of foreigners. and is poor in spite of her riches. South America stumbles in Spanish shackles.. Europe moves lcisurely and in circles. While In less than one hundred and fifty years the United States has been able to sur pass them all. It is not the wealth of our mines, nor the rishness of our soil that has enabled us to do this-it is the initiative, the enterprise that springs from and inspires our people.
 The railroad is the best example of our national initiative and enterprise. The railroad is no ordinary undertak ing. It differs strikingly in that. while ordinary business follows demand, the railroad precedes demand
 The manufacturer says. 'I will test this new invention by making up a few if it proves to be what the people want, will manufacture 1t on larg CT scale"
 The merchant says If there is a call for this new class of goods. I will lay in a big stock and push the sale
 But with the railroad !: is different. There are no pOpulous stretches of farms. no strings of cities full of fact ories and stores. waiting for the rail- road to come along and carry their passengers and haul their freights. The railroad must come first. It must wait for the farmers, it must wait for the merchants. it must wait for the towns that will crystalline into cities full of factories and mills and shops.
 It is initiative and enterprise that build railroads from the coast to the mountains and over the mountains. and over the~prairies, and over the desert, and over the mountains again to the coast. It is initiative and en- terprise. without which we would be no better off than Africa, or South America, with a future no better than Asia's"
 How true this is of the conditions in Arizona. Here valuable mining properties and fertile valleys lay dor mant waiting for what? Money to develop them? No, awaiting only a railroad to convey the ore to the shelter or bring the shelter to the ore. Awaiting the advent of the sett Ter in the valley who could only come and work, helping nature to produce the wealth of the world. after the rail- road was here to take his surplus to the miners in the mines, the workers in the mills, all of whom were here be-