Tombstone epitaph., 1920-03-07

Silver Belt of Man the truth is told. for the first time about the npracticabity of the Apache Trail that much advertised route for which interests in central Arizona worked so hard III an endeavor to the routing of the Bankhead highway
 The lengthy admission by the Silver Belt of the complete failure of the Apache highway as route for economic accommodation the result of another tllt between the cities of Miami and Globe in which southern Arizona is not interested but very pointed facts are brought out in the article which proves that the southern route is the best highway of the The. The Silver Belt comments. in part. as follows:
 The Daily Silver Belt has Intentionally refrained from calling attention the fact that clingng the Apache Trail would inevitably cost the people of Gia county the Oceanto Ocean highway in the long and n the end for the reason that did not to be ac cused of knocking Globe" And yet. if We had told the truth about these things advance of the findings of the so-caed Bankhead commission. that is precisely what would have happened More than one of our good friends at the county seat would have started up shot gun i'll hand saying If you had only kept your mouth shut this district would have got that transcontnena route You to blame for losing it. You don't automobilSts travelling the continent to go to Roosevelt dam for the that while they do visit Globe they do pass through the town of Mlami they only pass through the outskirts of the town. And yet year ago informed by of the best posted upon this subject of occaIto-ocean travel that the Bankhead commission would never really report in favor of the Apache Trail for the that the grades too heavy We also informed that the federal government could be induced to apprOpri any considerable amount of money for the Apache Trail for the that the United States authorities would approve propositions where grades exist like those existing at Fish Creek Hill.
 
 is always difficult for conscientious newspapean tOl determine what Is the best thing to do However wei elected policy of silence. hoping against hope, that Ill some way the unexpected might happen, and that Globe might get the Ocean Ocean highway with the Apache Trail part of the system. Time has proved that ourl silence did win for the people of Gia county theI transcontnenal highway One the contrary has lost for the people of Ga county of valuable time There deceived those who sefdeceiv ed And there is of the people of this section try ing to jolly themselves longer to the possbili ties of the Apache Trail being made constituent nart of any real highway The powerful influences of the big automobile associations and atomo bile manufacturers; the big appropriations: the blgl money of all kinds. national we'll state, to be- massed the Borderland route through Tucson. It IS true that the Bankhead commission people have given thc people of Gla county the right to and place on the automobile maps: but of what is and al p}ace on blue print if the United States engineers and the automobile unaterably opposed and in the future to grades like those at Fish Creek Hill!
 What the people of Cila county have afterI wears of ndecisiOn and waiting is the right to what n railroad teminology. might be called branch ne But the trunk line has gone to the competing cities and towns a hundred miles to the south of us.
 In the face of the cold, hard, stern, facts what is the use of joying ourselves any longer and dreaming that the Apache Trail will ever be more than show 1lace for tourists ec We have already lost years f time through an adoption of this kind of policy Is it worth while lose any time along these lines