The Coconino sun., 1919-10-31
BANQUET AT WILLIAMS
(Contributed.)

of the town. Everything was present,
 soup, salad, nuts, and fried chicken,
 and the oriental officials of the White
 Grotto cafe played leading roles in the
 preparing of the feast.
 State and federal officials were the
 guests as well as George Harben and
 w. w. Herne from Flagstaff. Cover nor Campbell, accompanied by his sec
 retary, P. R. Mines and his adju- tant, Captain w. s. Ingalls,, were present and Superintendent Peters of the Grand Canyon National Park.
 After several young ladies had served the delightful repast, the chairman took the floor and stated the cause of the affair. It was to be gathered that before the banquet was finished the guests thereto were to build about 75 miles of highway between Williams and the Grand Can yon, provided, of course, that the gineer and the canyon government of
 ficials could agree on it's location. MT. Peters was called upon for an opinion relative to the attitude of the park officials on county highways. He said that officially he could make no statements, but that he had "been over" both the present roads and the proposed new road between Maine and the Canyon and from the drift of his talk one could gather that he didn't care particularly where the road came from as long as it reached the Grand Canyon.
 Then Larry Williams was called upon and expouhled his opinion with a completeness that would put Mis- souri judge to shame. He first told that MT. Peters had once called at his office and that he had advised the con struction of road between Williams and Grand Canyon, and had defined what the other roads would cost and the problems that would be encoun- tered in surveying them. Then he took a deep dive into Flagstaff and the county supervisors. He conceded that Flagstaff was a rather valuable suburb, but that they didn't have mo right nohow to have a road to the canyon"
 He described, almost inch by inch, the course of the Flagstaff Canyon road and laid emphatic stress upon the fact that the road went through the heavy timber of the state, and told why and how the road would be almost impossible certain times of the year. He then opened attack upon the Maine road and advanced with the argument that this road was also through timber. That trees "defect- ed the suns rays" was deplorably defeating fact, and one could picture the babbling brooks that ran around the foot of every pine in the state. Flanders mud and Kansas gumho had become as sand since the great for ests of Arizona were planted. He called attention to remark of MT Peters concerning the rapid growth of town at the gateway to the Gla- eier National Park. Larry saw Wilr Hams suddenly rise to become the very largest city in the state. He even started to draw the plans of twen- ty-story hotel building on his nap kin (paper), and had the foundations all laid. He yielded the floor as a last resort.
 The governor of the State of Ari- zona was the next to be picked on. He took the floor with the statement that he had enjoyed the feast greatly and was pleased to find that Williams had not found it necessary to bribe that popular institution known as the Harvey House to serve the meal. He went on to compliment the ladies of the town on their efforts which made the affair such brilliant success. He said that he had found that the ladies were, as a whole, very much interest ed in good roads-more interested, in fact, than the men, as he had found that they used them more. Then he proceeded to tell the audience of the proposed Park-to-Park system of highways which so far had reached as far as the Glacier National Park.
 The governor then told few facts concerning the road laws of the state. He defined the powers of the state en- gineer, and said that he regretted to find that after all these years the state engineer was nothing more than a mere fgurehead, and that some time in the future he had hoped that the state would have highway com that would be impartial and effective. But to date, he added, the only people in the state who really could locate roads were the county who were almost supreme in their authority. Then he added, the only other essential thing after the locations had been made was the necessity for great many good, hard real dollars. In fact, he led us to be- lieve, that great many such dol lars were quite necessary. Banquets, regardless of how attractive they were, would not build a mile of road way in any state that was acceptable in the Union.
 When the governor had finished l Larry again seized the floor and he 1 again and again mentioned the Coco nino county board of supervisors. In fact, one might gather by giving care full attention to his numerous re- marks, that he did not agree with the | majority of the people in their se- lection. He said that if Williams was | ever able to elect two of the three members of that venerable body ,sthey | would show Flagstaff thing or two. harmlessly agreed with |