Imperial Valley press., 1915-01-14

Always depend on the Los Angeles
Times to oppose every enterprise
where it has no private graftl That
paper has now devoted itself to
knocking the projected highway by
the only sensible roure-through the
sandhills to Yuma. instead it calls
for the Mammoth Wash route, but,
l,, it outlines an entirely new scheme.
Rrawley has been working for this
route, which was expected to lead
through that town. The Times now
substitutes Calpatria for Brawley.
Of course it would. The Times crowd
axe the chief members of the syndi-
cate controlling the land about Cali
ratria, and what is the Times for if
not to promote the Times graft?
1t would be wise proposition for
the Yuma road to fork, but the place
for the fork is in this valley, one
line to load via Brawley, Calipatria
and inland through the Coachella val
ley, the second through Warmers
ranch and Riverside, while the third
line is on the projected state highway
C San Diego, but that is not the
Times plan, which is set forth as
follows:
ASLEEP at the SWITCH is an ac-
curate description of the position of
Los Angeles business men in relation
to the transcontinental highway.
"This project, which has been talked
of since the days of Abraham incoln,
is actually approaching reallzation.
The business men of San Diego have
seen the wonderful opportunities in
volved and have grabbed the chance.
Los Angeles, after crsating the idea
gracefully sank into slumber along
side the job. The result is that Los
Angeles has a fine chance of seeing
the Ocean to Ocean highway sweep
gracefully down to San Diego. leav-
ing this city out in the cold. If the
present highway plans are allowed
to reach maturity it will be necessary
for every traveller on the transcon-
tinental turnpike to go to San Diego
before coming to Los Angeles.
The much mooted direct road
from New York to Los Angeles up
on which so much effort has been
spent, will become good joke. The
direct road to Los Angeles will come
here by wide circuit through San
Diego.
"The Hiram Johnson administration
has helped out San Diego to the ex-
tent of appropriating funds for a
state highway over the San Diego
route.
without working any injury up
on San Diego, there remains a plan
by which Los Angeles can crawl back
onto the Oceant to Ocean Highway
map. If the state legislature can be
induced to build road through
Mammoth Wash the transcontinen-
tai highway may still be switched
back to Los Angeles. Petitions are
now in circulation looking to this end.
Here is the whole situation:
The Ocean to- Ocean highway en-
ters California by way of Yuma.
From Yuma there are two desert
roads, either of which the traffic
might follow. One cuts across In
perial Valley through the sandhils
to Holtville and Ell Centro and so on
to San Diego. The other road goes
north through the Mammoth Wash
to Brawley and Calipatria and thence
to Los Angeles.
The route agreed upon by the
Ocean-to Ocean Highway Association
followed the Mammoth Wash to-Los
Angeles route, and bill is now in
the legislature, introduced by AS
Alvey of Riverside, to make
it the road
"All routes involved have just been
traversed for the Times by Harris
Hanshue and Harvey Herrick, the
former Phoenix race drivers, who are
probably the best authorities in the
West on desert roads.
I'VE started from San Diego over
fhe Campo road, to replace or rein
force which the state highway is to
be built. The trip is sufficient to con-
vince any one that the state highway
gave Los Angeles "the
worst of it" in routing state boule-
ward over this route. 1t is not a poor
road; it is an excellent road all the
way from San Diego to Ell Centre. The
Apperson Six in which we rode never
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