Bisbee daily review., 1911-05-25

nating such highways and bridses
 as are 70 he built. The reasc1 for this is quite apparent The purpose of building Territorial Highways is to connect the various sections of the territory .by a system of roads
 which vii. make travel and trans
 portation easy from one section to
 another and also Oren up ana maKe i easy of access t3 the people of the l iterritory our various points of in
 forest, such as tho Grand Canyon
 and other scenic attractions me ! legislature undoubtedly had in mind
 also the fact that system of Ter
 ritorial Highways Nouid bring yearly
 thousands of tourists and others to
 tae terTitory resulting not only ir 1 aa Increase in population bur also in bringing the advantages which re- suit from the visit of large uumpcrs lof tourists and pleasure seekers. All Fsections Of the territory are TO Do benefited by every bit of road build ! ing. Mere loca, convenience could
 and should not control in the laying iout of such a system.
 Il is not the purpose Of the law | that the construction Of Territorial | Highways shall supersede the work | oI building county roads and only such highways as are needed and ! proper for opening up to travel inc ! various sections of the territory should be included .n any Territorial : scheme. leaving to the Boards Of Supervisors the matter of construct ing and maintaining all roacs wnica are purely of local convenience or importance.
 The Board of Control In foTmulat- ing a scheme of Territorial High ways considered carefully the situa- ton in Cochise county and resolved
 upon two routes. one beginning a
 Douglas and running thence to Bis.
 lee and thence to Tucson, and the
 other beginning at Douglas and run
 hing North through the Sulphur
 Springs Valley and thence on to
 connect with the East and West
 Highway at some point on the Gila
 river. This scheme when completed
 will give Cochise county nearly one
 hundred and fifty miles of roads,
 more mileage in fact than any other
 county in the territory. Then, too,
 these as laid cut will be of great
 local convenience, and possibly Tn
 this respect more so than elsewhere
 in the territory. It would be unfair
 manifestly 70 the rest Of the territory
 if we were to depart from the prin-
 ciDle of regarding the Territorial
 Highways from the Territorial stand
 point in the case of your county,
 for it must be remembered that
 every section of the territory IS in
 terested in any bit of highway con
 structed anywhere in the territory, and the fast that Cochise county
 nav or may not contribute largely does nor change the principle.
 The Territorial Board has thus
 far husbanded its resources as best
 it could and has endeavored 10 util-
 izc them to the best advantage. At
 the outset the board needed data
 in the shape of surveys before it
 could inteihgenfiy lay out system
 of highways. These surveys cost a
 large sum of money and required
 several months of lime. There was
 an immediate. necessity for the con
 struetion of a bridge at Florence
 inasmuch as the prison lay on the
 south of the Giia river, while the
 only railroad approaching the place
 was on the north side. There also
 seemed to be an immediate necessity
 for the construction of bridge :, across the Verde at Camp Verde. | These bridges are built and the cost of the same has taken up consid- erable portion of the funds.
 | Thus far the money in actual road building has been spent in Gila, fav- | apai and Cochise cocSties- The 1 county of Maricopa mas had J0 date expended within her borders not to \ exceed three thousand dollars. h | Pima. Yuma. COconino and Graham ] counties no money has been eN- ! pended thus far except in survey work. In your county we are now \ constructing a road between Douglas | and Bisbee. Tn this connection per |. rait me to call attention to state N ment in your resolutions which, q Y seems 10 me. is boTh a misapprehen' Y sion of fact and a misconception | the law. You complain that the hign- way now being built does not pass lthrough Bisbee. Under the road la" Territorial Highways cannot be con
 str4icted within any incorporated lejfv. We can only build 10 the clIg boundaries. The road from Douglas to Bisbee stops at Lowell We can mot extend it up the canyon through lBisbee inasmuch as we cannot as lsume controI~of the streets of a city. We are right, therefore. in suildine to Lowell and inasmuch as 1t reaches the corporate limits of the town, in designating the road under construe- | ton as one from Douglas to Bisnee; Now with reference to a change in the route from Bisbee to Tucson. To build over the present location would give the most direct route | from. Bisbee to Tucson and, as our II engineers report, the cost of con
 struction and of maintenance wou'1
 De comparatively small compared ! with that of any other route that ln,iqht be selected. Our engineers also report. and his report IS confirmed bv such information as we can oit lrain from all sources, that it IS in- practicable to build a highway to
 Tucson by way of Benson. The char
 acter Of the country in the vicinity
 of Benson practically forbids any
 hope that such road could be built TO