The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1912-11-23
OF SAN
DIEGO EXPOSITION
Especial to the Silver State.)


try, and Washington in particular. is
interested in more than another at
the present time, it is good roads,
Congress showed at the last session
thta 1T is keenly alive to the import
ance of the subject. The number of
bills introduced calling for national
highways was surprising. Many con
gressmen are staunch advocates of
the idea of building great systems of
national roads, and the most power
full man in congress, Speaker Champ
! Clark, (who missed becoming presi-
/ dent by very narrow margin), is
one of them.
There is no further need, it would
seem, of preaching the advantage
even the necessity--of good interstate
highways. A system of good roads
was one of the things which made
Rome great and aided in continuing
! its greatness. Even in what was then
a remote province, and now is Great
Britain, one may walk on roads the
Romans built, treading on the very
stones laid by the legionaries of the
Caesars. In this country we are but
beginning to profit by the example of
such ancient nations as Rome, but our
department of agriculture has been
preparing for years, through its good
roads bureau, for the campaign that
now has the country in its grasp
Many millions of dollars are being
appropriated by the states, from New
York to California and Oregon, for
extensive systems of highways, and it
will not be many years before one
will be able to travel from the At
lantic to the Pacific over perfect
roads by bicycle, motor, or horse
drawn vehicle.
The city of San Diego, Cal, is very
much interested in this question. Only
two or three weeks ago a motor car
race was held between that city and
Phoenix, Ariz., to demonstrate the SUI
! periority of that route for the west
ern division of national highway.
Mayor Wadham of San Diego was SO
enthusiastic over the matter that he
arranged for an "outlaw' race with
Percy j. Benbough, and won it. 1t is
said that the superiority of the San
Diego route was fully demonstrated.
And now it is planned to have a Good
Roads department at the San Diego
] exposition in 1915. The government
experts are counted on to make an ex-
hibit and every motorist and other
roads enthusiast in the entire country
will take very keen interest in the
exhibit, which should be the most
complete ever made anywhere.
4 Ancient American Churches.
Many Americans are not aware
that they have in their own country
some old churches which are as inter
esting on account of the quaint beauty
of their architecture as for their an
tiquity. The word antiquity is, to be
sure, more or less relative, but it does
not mean, in this connection, some-
thing dating back merely century.
The United States has churches, and
cathedrals too for that matter, which
We're built in the eighteenth, the sew
enteenth, and even in the sixteenth
centuries, and still earlier. Not to
mention the very oldest, there is the
beautiful church in the mission style
at Pecos Pueblo, New Mexico, erect
ed by the Spanish padres in 1929; old
est of all the missions, it is said, in
this country. This church has been
chosen by the state of New Mexico as
the model for its exhibition building
to be erected at the San Diego expo
sition, which is to be held in honor of
the completion of the Panama canal
anu WHltH VIII cOHtiuue tHTOuguUuJ
the year 1915. The body of the build
ing will be used as an assembly room
in which will be shown moving pie
lures illustrating resources of the state
of New Mexico, in many respects the
most remarkable and interesting state
in the Union. There will also be an
archaeological display to give an idea
of the treasures awaiting the scient-
.e&c
Mexico and wrest from them the
secrets of the wonderful people who
lived there when Roman armies were
penetrating the wilds of northern
Europe.
Ancient Civilizations.
There is no field of research today
which offers greater fascination for
the layman as well as the scientist
than archaeology The forthcoming
comprehensive display in this line at
the great San Diego exposition has
given a stimulus to archaeological re-
search. Not merely in the United
States, but all over the world scientific
men are busy delving into the secrets
of the past, wrestling from long buried
and forgotten cities and monuments
the secrets of the now unknown peo-
Piles who built them. 1t is even be-
lieved that science has practically
solved the secret of the lost Atlantis,
the great island that was the home of
the wonderful civilization of the past
and which a cataclysm of nature sunk
in the Atlantic ocean, perhaps fifteen
thousand years ago. The Egyptians
and other ancient nations had clearly
defined traditions of Atlantis, and
Egypt was, indeed perhaps the earli-
est and greatest of the colonies of At
lantis, that in Central America being
next in point of age and Importance.
The wonderful temples and monu-
ments in Guatemala, recently explor-
ed by United States scientists and Off
cials of the San Diego exposition, are
among the most interesting yet found
anywhere and these, with many other
strange monuments of vanished eivi-
lized races, will form an intensely in