Weekly journal-miner., 1912-02-14
rRANscoNrNENrAL HIGHWAY

The time Is not far distane when man may set out from San Francisco for New York in his automobile with no further preparation than a good set of tires and money enough for expenses cn route. And months pleasant touring will land him in the Eastern metropolis with the whole route across the continent in his memory.
 Tho-. W. wilby, special agent of the office of public roads of the De. partment of Agriculture, has been touring ths United States with the idea of helping on the transcontin. entnl idea. He has made the circle west by the northern route and east by the southern trails and arrived at Washington full of enthusiasm for the circular route. Accompanied by his wife he made the trip in lo5 days and found road conditions far better than he had expected.
 The greatest activity in the good roads proposition is found along the southern tier of states, Arizona is now building macadam road from Phoenix to Flagstaff, and within two years motorists may make the run to the Grand Canyon in a weeks good driving. According to this Arizona program, the great natural and his. torical features of the Southwest will all be made accessible to the tourist. The ruins of the Cliff Dwellers. Painted Rock, Petrified Forests, Lava Beds and Indian Villages will be on the map. The Enchanted Rock of Aeoma and the Spanish Inscription Rock will be connected with civiliza ton with good roads. and the whole country will be provided with supply stations at suitable intervals.
 This somewhat ideal program is not SO far distant as may be supposed by people who do not realize the great enthusiasm for good roads that has developed during the past two years New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado are all organizing boosting commit tees. voting local bonds and collecting road funds for the improvement of road strips varying from ten to n hundred miles in length. Not all of this money Is we'll spent but all of this growing interest in roads helps the cause, and the connecting of these separate links into national high. way scheme will come sooner than conservative people dare hope.
 A national system of good roads will bring results that are little dreamed of now. What the coming of the old Central Pacific railroad back in the '60s did for tho West, the completion of transcontinental boulevard will do in the second de. cade of the twentieth century for the whole country. Currents of travel will begin to flow and remote cor. ners of the country will become pop ulous and trade and industry will take on new life. Land values will rise and out'ofthe-way sections of choice country that are now practi. eally unknown will come out on the highway and find settlers who will be better off than in eopgested dis tricts of the East.
 The gregarious instinct is strong in the human heart, and isolation will always have its terrors. When good roads and cheap and reliable auto. mobiles reduce the potential distance of the settler from the centers of civilization, the radius of rising land values will greatly lengthen. Land at twenty-five miles from n railroad or town, five years ago was worth very little, no matter what its quaI- ity or climate. But twenty-five miles of boulevard between the farm and town means a very different propo. sition and the road and the car are going to make vast change in real estate values on the country removed from populous centers. The trans continental road cannot come too aoau