Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-09
BOND ISSUE FOR
ROADS IS URGED
BYCALIFORNlANS
PROMOTION COMMITTEE SEEKS
BETTER HIGHWAYS
CONVENTION AT DEL MONTE Is
ENTHUSIASTIC
Federal Government Also Asked to
Open Yosemite Valley to Auto
ists-PIan to Advertise
States Resources
IRx Associated Press.l

MEL MONTE, Cal, May 8.-Unani-
nous Endorsement was given to-
~ day at the eleventh semi-annual
meeting of the counties committee of
the California Promotion committee to
the proposed bond issue of $1S,0o0,000
for the improvement of the highways
of California, for which the way was
paved at the recent session of the state
legislature.
Governor Gillett was notified by tele-
graph that the highway project would
be given the enthusiastic support OF
every organization affiliated with the
Promotion committee.
One of the most representative gath
erings of California public men ever
brought together to plan for the state, s
development was present when Presi-
dent Andrea Sbarbaro called the coun-
ties committee to order.
The forenoon session was given over
to the reports of subcommittee on
tourists, good roads, highway tree
planting and the United Pacific states.
The recommendation of the tourist
committee that the California Promo
ton committee act as clearing house
for the distribution of literature adver-
tisine the state, such literature to be
provided to all affiliated bodies, was
adopted
President Sbarbaro in his address
opening the convention predicted that
the next generation would see Cal1for-
MIA supporting population of 70, ,0OO.
Addresses were delivered on "Euca-
lyptus Growing in California" by F. ID.
Cornell of Los Angeles county, repre-
,senting the State Forestry society;
'"Californla's River Problem" by Q. H.
Miller, secretary of the Sacramento De-
velopment association; Forest Tree
Growing in California, by G. B. Lull,
state forester, and THE Economic
Value of Improving the Rivers and
Harbors,' by John A. Fox of Washing
ton, D. c., special director OF fhe
national rivers and harbors congress:
VisaIia was selected as the next place
of meeting, the date being fixed at
November 13 of this year.
Some of the Work Done
Besides the unanimous Endorsement
of the proposed $18000,000 bond sissue
for the Improvement of the states hlgh-
ways, the convention voted Tor the
signing of a petition to the national
government for the opening of Yosen1-
ite park to automobiles: the adoption
of a comprehensive scheme of the dis
tribution of literature advertising Cali
fornia's resources with the promotion
committee as a clearing house to sup
ply the subsidiary bodies; Endorsement
of suggestions for highway tree plant
ing and the conservation or forest
areas, and the selection of Visalia as
the meeting place of the counties COM
nittee next November, were among the
results of the deliberations.
Chairman Andrea Sbarboro, who pre-
sided, reviewing in his opening address
the work already accomplished by the
counties committee, and pointing out
the vast field of endeavor still open to
the organization it represents, asserted
the mining, horticultural and viticul-
tural development of California was
not in its infancy and voiced the proyh
ecy that the grandsons of those pres
yet In It's infancy and voiced the proph
lation of 20, 900, 900 persons thriving upon
the resources of the empire state of the
Pacific.
He expressed qualification that every
one of the fifty-eight counties in Cali
fornia had sent representative men to
attend the semi-annual gathering.
Came Far to Talk
w. ]. MCGEE, secretary of the inland
waterways commission, who repre-
sented the national government at the
meeting, announced at the outset of his
address on water conservation that he
had come 5000 miles to expires the fed
eral administrations interest in the
work being accomplished in California.
Had John Smith entered the Gulf of
California instead of Chesapeake bay"
he said. "how different would have been
the course of American empirel For
had settlement begun on the Pacific
coast the settlers would have learned
at the outset the lesson not yet mas
tered along the Atlantic, that real re-
source, the one which gives value to
all the rest. is not land, but water"
John Fox special director of the
National Rivers and Harbors congress,
(ContiDusd on Page Threel