Arizona republican., 1911-01-03

organizations in respect to the road
 improvement policy of the A. A. A.
 with which he has been connected
 for twelve years as secretary Of the
 contest board and as executive of
 ficial of eight Glidden tours. Last
 Wednesday night he addressed the
 Deming chamber of commerce whose
 highways committee has under con
 sideration a project to improve the main road connecting Fl Paso with
 Deming. Tucson and Phoenix At Fl
 Paso Mr. Ferguson completed his 17.-
 00Oth mile of touring in an automo- bile and he may he regarded as one who speaks with some authority on such things. Alr. Ferguson says q
 good route k easily practicable and
 during this tour he has been ap-
 preached by numerous tourists who
 have already travelled hundreds of miles over good roads. some of them , Hooking as neat as though they had inst left home. escaping both dust and mud. and all anxious tO continue
 their journeys west but deterred be- cause they are on pleasure and not on working trips and they do not care To waste their time. comfort ar money in pathfinding.
 Arizona has only seen the begin ming of the automobile. said Alr. Fin ney. notwithstanding there are many
 of them in all the western cities and they are no longer novelty. The reason is that with good roads they take the place of horses both riding
 and driving. to great extent even
 on the ranches and stock farms. He said he was surprised even on the plains of Texas to he approached by so many men who were evidently typ ! ical cowboys. who alrepiy know so , much abUuI automobiles. They can i talk with understanding of gas en- zines and all the mechanical details { of the machine in a way that ccr 1 tainly predicts a much greater use of machines for practical business purposes in all the great west.
 But there are yet some very bad roads to he attended to in one place and another and one cannot now cross the deserts without enjoying [ the dust. The worst road they had to contend with was in western Texas where the chuck holes were filled with a light alfali dust that con cealed them until the machine would begin taking the dust
 Speaking of the fear of the un known Mir Finney says it is not half as bad as people imagine il before ! they try it and it is this prejudice that has to be overcome. For in stance at Abilene Texas. they were told it would he necessary to make a I detour of sixty miles to San Angelo
 to avoid a certain impossible piece of road IL looked good at the Abilene end however and they started. de- i termined not to make detour until it was necessary They got as far as odessa and then made thirty
 mile detour getting along without | tany trouble They practically saved
 about thirty miles by not being afraid of what others had condemned with out trying. The road from Tucson | to Phoenix, said Mir Finney has few bad places. and can easily be made a l fine one for an automobile. They experienced no difficulty and crossed the Gila via the Florence bridge. which they speak of with satisfaction. The approaches are not yet smoOthed up but it can be crossed easily nev- ertheless. Some of the Phoenix road racers lndue a illlSlthf bS siNbhiiiF b'' bridge and trying to cross the river by shorter cut. with the result that , they lost time in the sandy bottom.
 Some distance the other side of Mesa City yesterday forenoon they met Hugh Daggs of Phoenix who was in sore straits He had broken an axle
 of his machine and was stuck for the
 time being. They stayed with him
 some time and gave him clamp with
 which he fixed his machine up and
 continued his journey meanwhiI
 having a very pleasant visit.
 The Ohio ear has made the journey
 from New York to Phoenix in fine
 shape and the members of the party
 are all in good spirits. The car
 weighs 340O pounds and carries lSoo
 pounds of baggage. together with the
 four men who weigh l95. 165, lGo and
 16O. respectively which makes total
 of we'll toward coco. Just what they
 win do with that kind of load when
 they reach the place on the California
 desert where some cars get stalled
 going down hill, remains to he seen.