Gunnison news-champion., 1920-10-29

Measure - Adopted
Last week the Scws-C Champion
took ! whirl out Of the Anti Tunnel
League Of Pueblo, which is the ggUrst
instance ever known Of a whole com
munlty gong crazy At the bchcst Of
certain railroad .n'rTeeis, and trying
10 block a great state development
plan that would aid Pueblo moro
than any other portion Of Colorado.
Her lz w hat Arthur Craig Of the
f-au.au think u the matter.
This morning mail brings to the
EHE an AN order for advertising from
Pho ANT, funnel League" Because We
ns...'se both rd.e In such an argument
l.r 'GL,'d .p Iysp sp-ctfgI hearing. wc
an npEodIrHE H. The purchase Of
a4'rI-ls.ns spaca IN ih- paper how
".cr doe not imply the purchase OF
editorial favor, and the statements
contained In the advertisement will Dy
no means cause Us 10 wavcr in our
original purpose 10 work FOR the pas
sage Of the Tunnel Bill.
neither from blind prejudice or
deliberately with intent 10 mIslcai the
public We do not pretend TO guess. bu,
any one who BE- a. all familiar with the
prupU Il measure viii have no diff
cl.l. discovering many misstate-
mcnls N the Leaguc's complaint. 4
full discussion Of the points involved
Is impossible at this late hour.
Briefly, the opening statement that
you will be saddlcd with high taxes
as long Is you live II false. The
measure Is 20 framed is 20 make this
not only highly improbable but i'm
possible. The States bonds would be
worthless on the market without such
a clause, but careful reading Of the
bill IN its entirety Will show that no
taxation Is contemplated at any time
which viii not be returned quickly il
II IS ever levied. Even though only
one tunnel Is built and it costs $780,
100000 and the entire interest and
sinking fund have to be met by taxa
tion, that one tunnel will be worth
many times its cost TO the people of
the entire state; but that assumption
Is 50 FAR afield in its realm of improb-
ability as to be utterly absurd.
Inc 'stupenduous sum of slS,550,-
600 Is mere bagatelle in comparison
with what we are all paying for the
lack OF adequate transportation, yet
transportation is but one of the many
benefits TO be derived from the tunnel
construction as proposed. The very
TACT that the MOifat road is unable to
pay expenses from its rch territory is
evidence that that territory needs and
must have better transportation. The
idea that road in bankruptcy and
about to be sold cannot take advntge
of the tunnel scheme does not come
from any profound student of business
pnncp!ea. 4 sale to satisfy a judg-
mcnt, ai in the case of the Denver e.
Rio Gfande simply means that the
days Of exploitation are over and that
IN new hands starting with clean
slate, substantial development is the
logical result.
The advertisement lodges the fact
that two surveys have been made for
the southcmmost tunnel, one at Wolf
Creek pass and the other at c umbres
Pass. The data on which the surveys
were begun and have progressed was
furnished by the engineers office of
the d. & 4. G.-and that road has not
been maintaining Is engineering corps
for the purpose of locating impractic-
able routes. II is merely d-blood-
ed business proposition all the way
thru. II it proves in theory to be less
expensive to build the 100 miles of
road than to adopt the Cumbrcs route.
that is the logical plan. An assump-
tlon that the tunnels are solely for the
purpose of avoiding slides of snow,
earth and rocks is misleading, to be /
charitable in refuting il. Moreover,
one of the prime detectives when the
ID. & Il. G. began to scout for a tunnel
location on Monarch pass was TO elm
nate the narrow gauge line between |
Salida and Montrose.
Now for the motive behind the |
Anti-Tunnel League plea, it is only |
necessary to say that Pueblo is but /
one, though the larges. of a number |
of Colorado cites which foresee more |
or less harm than of good to their self
centered localities in the event the tun-
nels are constructed. That view is |
short-sighted but apparently popular
with ambitious towns and cites of the |
West. The Western Slope in Colorado |
has long felt the need to eliminate the |
roundabout route thru Pueblo, but the |
loss of this business would be more |
than compensated by the increased
traffic the tunnels will bring to Pueblo
as well as other large cities joining the |
protest.
Inc same attitude appears TO obtain /
at Grand Junction, for Instance: it may
be prompted there by the apprehen-
sion that if the Moffat Tunnel is built
it will eventually brng about through |
line to Salt Lake City which will Divert !
some of the traffic now passing thru
the metropolis of the Slope. It will
even more surely bring also the con-
Meeting link between Grand Valley line
of the D. & r. G. and the Moffat road,
placing Grand Junction within half
day of Denver, and it will create new
business for the Junction by the elm |
ination of the narrow gauge territory
since the western half of the state has
had this imitation of railroad service.
''The League headquarters are at