Arizona republican., 1909-06-07

most feasible route.
 l find by careful examination and
 measurements on the reclamation
 service map of the valley, the most
 authentic work of the kind, that
 the distance from the crossing of
 Washington and Center streets. of
 Phoenix, to the crossing of Mill
 street and Fifth street of Tempe by
 way of the present Tempe road. is
 eight and three-fourths miles. and
 to the center of Mesa City fifteen
 miles, and that the distance between
 the same points by way of the
 Center street crossing and Broadway
 road is twelve and one-eighth miles
 and seventeen and three-fourths
 miles, respectively, making a saving
 of three and three -eighths miles to
 Tempe and two and one-fourth miles l to Mesa by building a bridge at | Tempe.
 If only one bridge is to be built,
 the fact of this difference in distance
 should settle the question at once, for it affects every one who lives on the north side of Salt river, in-
 cluding all of the Grand avenue
 district. St. Johns, Buckeye and
 Arlington. Even the residents of Sec | ton Seventeen, adjoining Phoenix on
 the south, will find it nearer to drive
 to Tempe by the north side road than
 by the south side.
 As to the residents of the south
 side of Salt river it is found by
 further examination of the map
 that all of the Tempe. Mesa, Lehi
 and Chandler districts are better
 served by the bridge at Tempe than
 at Center street, including all of the
 section south of Tempe and eas, of
 the M. & P. railroad track. Re-
 ducing these areas tC figures we
 find that they co2er, in round num-
 bers 330 square miles, or 330 sec
 tions of land lying under the present
 canal systems, of which the residents
 will be better accommodated by shorter travel between the opposite sides of the river, exclusive of the sections west of the Agua Fria, which contain areas. some of which is yet undevelOped. On the south side of the river I find but 26,000 acres un- der the canal system, of which about 10000 are under cultivation, eX- elusive of homesteads and Indian lands, not subject to taxation, and taking the figures of the Center street bridge committee there appear to be about 14,000 acres claimed under the homestead law, of which find about one-half are above. the canal system, but the occupants of these lands are entirely worthy of our careful consideration, and we should not hesitate to tax ourselves | for the benefit of these lands when | they may become settled and culti- vated, though they should remember | that we old settlers have been fairly | grooming under our burden of taxes | for many years and have rot yet | realized much of our expectations in | good roads and bridges.
 The matter of cost and maintain ance Of roads has not been fairly | shown. Our present road to Tempe | and Mesa has cost to grade and | gravel s25,00O and considerable should be added for maintainance. To build the road from Phoenix to Mesa, upon the most economical plans, would cost not less than s30,00O, while 70 go into the more expensive plan of an oiled boulevard would cost from s60, ,0G0 up, though the Center street committee seem to have planned for but six miles of good road to cost 1S,O00. Should the Center street bridge be built first and the road graded and macadamized on the south side to Mesa City, the county would II then have two main highways, side by side, paralleling each other and over thirty-three miles 10 be maintained at great expense, in- stead of fifteen and one-half miles Now l would strongly recommend the taxpayers to put the road money into a road to Buckeye by adding to the Yuma road already graded for a of miles, if they think they can stand the added taxation, for the Buckeye people are H. ore in need of a road, one road, then we of are in need of two roads.
 Much has been said in this bat tie royal about the great benefit 10 accrue to Phoenix by the develop ment of the lands south of Salt River and within a radius of ten miles of the city. and throughout the entire campaign that seems to me to be about the main argument used by the Center street commit tee, but their arguments have been based upon the erroneous amount of 37,31S acres. First, cut out the 5000 acres of Indian lands that will not be further developed to any great extent for many years. Second, sub tract about 1000 acres of the home stead area that lies above the canal system and I fear that the other half of the homestead lands not having water rights may require some years yet to become highly developed, but there still remain in their list over 1000 acres of school lands, which ad- led to the previous deductions, laps off more than half of the taxable lrea that would be annexed to Phoe- nix and that makes it look decidedly I different from the taxpayers stand point, for it is safe to say that this half of the area will not pay any 1f the tax that goes into the bridge md road, with the accent on the 'oad, if we start to tax ourselves now. Another fact is that this said lalf of the south sled lands have nto made any perceptible development turing the past twenty years, during which time the channel of Salt River las been passable for at least 300 lays of the year. What that section leeds is water, and water alone will levelOD if and with abundance of {