Arizona republican., 1911-11-22
fled in the European countries.

A'A'S t''cH"oN poHSNo W iNOpoN
welt dam. the birthplace of national
reclamation work, where one of the
largest masonry dams in the world
now forms the beautiful Roosevelt
lake. a project which has cost our peo-
pie more than ten million dollars. and
which will reclaim quarter of mil
lion acres of land: and where the giant
Cacti were the lonely watchmen on
vast desert, today magnificent orange
groves and fields of alfalfa and grain
now stand. a bounteous testimony to
the wisdom of men at the head of our
government. like the beloved president
who addressed you yesterday And So
| il is a link of the trans continental
| highway. which will lie within the
state of Arizona. and will furnish you
with varying scenes as each mile is
reeled off. Our East and West high
way will be about 500 miles i'm length,
therefore you can see that we have
iactually begun the construction of a
thousand miles of highway.
Now as To what has been done 1t
was optional with the board as to the
amount of taxes levied. and they did
anount, and the years 1910 and 1911
yielded only $3O2,O 900. not a sum COM
mensurate with the amount of work
to be done. but sum with which a
beginning could be made, and the good
roads germ established. and this has
flee pledge themselves for a good roads
We are making our candidates for Of
| flee pledge themselves for a good Grads
plank in their platform, and | do not
know but that we will use the words
ION our new seal when we come into the
| Union. We have now completed 100
miles of good roads in different parts
of the territory. trying to bridge over
the impossible sections, and also in
sections where it would act as an OBJ
iect lesson for the people.
| In addition to the roads. We have
built several bridges. one Il reinforced
concrete bridge. 200 feet long. across
the ella river. and we have in course
of erection. beautiful concrete steel
bridge. 1900 feet long of arch ribs Of
LIS span and open Spandrel construc-
ton If this seems like too much work
for the money. just remember that
mature has been most kind to us. and
that we have at hand an excellent road
building material. and rare is the in
lstanCe where We cannot finish with the
material adjacent. The great expense
ATTACHED is grading. which is a mini
mum with you. In some of our heavy
mountain work our road grading has
run up to as high as five to seven
Thousand dollars per mile. but the av-
Ion 70 Ia Of roads IL a pfgt
81 900 per mile Also the construction
lof our bridges with convict labor has
Ilessened the cost We built the 700
foot concrete bridge across the ella
river largely with convict labor. and
we are building the 1900 foot Tempe
bridge exclusively with convict labor.
lsave for three engineers and one gene
raj foreman. | find it most excellent
labor. We give them one day off for
leach day worked and we have taken
the stripes off of them. and while "a
yet. we have not reached the same hui
lmanitarium standpoint that Colorado
has. we are striving in that direction.
The convict appreciates it. and not
Hong since | met one who had become
a skilled carpenter on concrete form
work. who had learned the trade under
our department and was getting his
$500 per dav. a good faithful man and
worker This will be the solution Of
the road problem in our state. We can
take 500 of these men and build on an
leverage of one mile of road per day,
(which in ten years would mean nearly
5000 miles of road. which would mean
more to the territory than the present
income of our wealth Of mines.
A great deal Of the labor. and il is
Of the best character. is the Indian.
we have hundreds of them working
on our roads today. on one Of my re-
cent inspection tours. the engineering
party had in its makeup. two Indians.
| Passing over the grades and having
Occasion to speak to the foreman of the
gar 2 I found him to be an Indian.
Carlisle boy. on inquiry ! found he
was proud painstaKing worker and
with ambition to do good work. And it
q. is ALEC the Indian who will help us
with our road building
Proper drainage is our most neces-
lsdrv requirement on account of the
ltorreatial character of our rains, the
waterways must necessarily be large
land numerous. Our roads when prop
erly constructed will last indefinitely
with but small outlay for upkeep.
Now. after having told you what has
been done in our actual construction.
perhaps. it would not be amiss to eX-
plain why we are building highways in
| Arizona
When De NarvreZ in 1920 with his
little band Of followers made that
| memorable march through what is now