El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-08-23
Southern National Highway Assured
)El Paso On This Great Auto Road
By 5. NJ. johnson, Roswell, n. NJ.

BY >. IOnn8Ons ROSWELL Ne Ne
it boasts of over 400 auto owners In
addition to opening and logging a fine
auto highway TO Santa Fe and securing
z daily auto mail service from Roswell
to CarriZOZO and the Borderland
Route" from Dodge City, Kansas, to
FL Paso and Phoenix, it struck out, Is
months ago to secure a highway TO the
Atlantic coast In May, 1913, it sent
eight cars through TO Dallas to the
National Ad League convention, and
carried home the trophy. The trip
was made in comfort and the route to
Dallas logged both ways Roswell then
opened correspondence along the line
to the Atlantic coast, gathered detailed
road information and was preparing TO
send a pathfinder car eastward to Sa-
vannah when the tidings come that
Potter and Cameron had agreed to
blaze the southern trail from coast
to coast.
Roswell was at the Asheville conven-
ton last February, which grew out
Of that meeting Of Cameron and Pot
ter Roswell was there with her &C
curate road data, her maps, her pic
lures of the beautiful White noun
tains and her story Of her struggles
for the "All Southern Ltoute." How
decisive was her vOiEe is evidenced by
the fact that the route selected at
Asheviue from Memphis to FL Paso is
precisely the route which RoswelPS
investigation had led her to adopt
Considerations That Weighed
Among the considerations that
weighed in the decision was the avail
ability of the route. The route must
be a practical one. It must be measur-
ably direct; it must present no unsur-
mOuntable engineering problems and
be as free from such as possible The
latter considerations compelled all to
agree that, owing to widely extended
flood areas farther south, the only
practical crossing place of the MisSls-
BiDpl was at Memphis. No route would
q
panse Of desert land, without water,
population. hotels, garages and auto
mobile accessories All things con-
sidered, the route selected was the
most available and practical
Central Location
To unite the entire south, the road
had to be measurably near the middle
line from east to west. Speaking broad
" the south is the region lying north
of the Gulf of Mexico and south Of the
Old Trails highway, which runs from
Washington by Columbus. Ohio, and
St Louis, No, to the Pacific. In seek
ing the middle line Of this region,
point was selected midway between
Columbus, Ohio, and Jacksonville. Fla,
and another point midway between St
Louis and New Orleans. From the
New Mexico line eastward. the route
selected follows closely a line through
these two middle points. That part of
the south which lies north of the route
is building roads southwark to the
main highway in Virginia, West Vir-
ginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Okla
bona, while highways are being built,
coming in from the south from South
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana and south Texas.
Thus the route selected Is the only
one upon which the whole south could
possibly have united; a route more
southerly, or more nOrtherly, could
never have served as the backbone of
the entire road system Of the south.
Attractions to Tourists.
An Indispensable requisite Of the
route to be selected was that it muat
be attractive to tourists. It was real
ized that tourists, chiefly American,
spent S150,000,000 a year touring Eu-
rope; that New England realized $751;