Arizona republican., 1920-07-07

the attorney general at the time of the Cobb controversy:
 Writes to Secretary Of War
 Department of Attorney General
 State of Arizona, Phoenix Wiley F. Jones,
 Attorney General.
 Hon. Newton D. Baker,
 Secretary of War,
 Washington, D. C.
 Dear Sir:
 On account of the difficulties now confronting the state of Arizona in the proper legal distribution throughout the state of the army trucks allotted to the state of Arizona for highway de partment work, I am compelled to write you this letter of explanation on the Arizona law, and I enclose here with an exact copy of paragraph 5IZ4 of the Revised Statutes of Arizona, touching state highway construction.
 The state engineer who has been communicating with your department regarding the allotment of army trucks to Arizona, is not the highway depart ment, nor the legally authorized fiscal or financial agent, of the state in its state highway construction.
 Twenty-Five per cent of the State Road Tax Fund" of Arizona is expended under contracts let by the state board of directors, (formerly the board of controD or by days labor under the wage system at the option of said board, and 75 per cent of said state Road Tax Fund" is expended in the various counties by the board of su- pervisors of the county in the same manner as directed by such board, in accordance with said paragraph 5124. Two excellent bills, creating state highway department, and enume-attng and fixing in detail the powers and duties of such department, passed both houses of our state legislature but each received the veto of the governor, at the last session.
 Therefore, our state highway depart ment of Arizona may be said to consist \ of a state board of directors of three members who direct the expenditure or ! 25 per cent of the moneys for state | highway construction and the boards | of supervisors consisting of three members for each of the 14 counties of the state in the expenditure of 75 per cent of said moneys in state highway construction under contract or by the wage system as directed by each board in it's sphere of operation. | The state engineer exercises the functions of civil engineer in prepar- ! ing the plans and aiding in the work carried out by the boards above named I The Federal Good Roads Act of July | II, 1916, gro provide that the United States shall aid the states in consuuc- ton of rural post road and for the other purposes provides in Section thereof, as follows:
 The term state highway department shall be construed to include any de- partment of another name or comnis- l sion, or official or officials, of state empowered under its law, to exercise the functions ordinarily exercised by a state highway department"
 and by such language fits in with the peculiar provisions of the Arizona law
 The sending of the war trucks to the
 state engineer, subject to his absolute control, is a denial of said trucks to the state highway department as created
 by our law though we have no depart
 ment designated in law by such name The state engineer in getting posses sion of said trucks from the war de- partment has declared and asserted his absolute control over said trucks ans
 is denying the lawful and proper use and allotment of them to the boards ot supervisors as constituting our state l highway department.
 1 I am laying this serious condition 1 before you with the hope and request 1 that you maintain control over said trucks after they reach Arizona until a