The Coconino sun., 1920-07-30
AN ARIZONA
 BIBLENEEDED

That the tourist traffic through Ari- zona is greatly intereferd with by transformation in the east and middle west is a fact that Arizona should wake up to. While Arizonans are dis cussing the public land question and the various other things that politic- ians always have to chew the rag about, this wonderful business opportunity, the profits in which would be shared by every person in the state, is en- tirely neglected.
 Deane Eldridge, tailor for A. A. Johnston, hit the nail on the head the other day, when he put into a couple of sentences>an entire summing up of what practically every tourist from Kansas and east will verify:
 "It is a wonder that you get any tourists here at al" said MT. Eldridge, and you would get none if they all needed the advice given them in Pe- oria, H., Davenport, Des Moines, Ce- dar Rapids or Waterloo, Ia., or in any one of scores of other eastern cities, where even the chambers of commerce advise tourists to take the northern route and by all means to keep away from Arizona, where there are no roads or water, where you cannot get supplies, where your life is in constant danger from rattlesnakes, tarantulas, Gila monsters and scorpions, which crawl into bed with you every night. These stories scare the people away from Arizona, though they are not told maliciously, but because the ga- rage men and others who tell them actually believe they are true. My own father tried to keep me from coming here in the same way, and I am going to bring him out here and show him where he is wrong if have to bring him by force"
 A systematic campaign of advertis- ing by the state, including a general circulation in the east of good descrip- tive literature crammed with facts, figures, descriptions of our richness in scenery, and telling the truth about our roads and facilities for supplies, both of which, as a matter of fact, are superior to those of the northern route, would in year or two counter act the harmful effect of the lies told about, Arizona and show even the liars themselves they are all wrong. The effect of such campaign of ad- vertising would be more immediately productive of quick and permanent profits, more stimulating to trade, inn migration and general prosperity than a hundred or thousand times amount spent on mines, stock, timber or irri- gation. We have enough magnificent scenery in this state to keep a hun dred thousand people permanently em- ployed in catering to the needs and whims of the tourists coming to view it if it were properly advertised. American capital has for many years supported big areas of Europe fre- quented by American sightseers, de- spite the fact that you could put ev- cry real wonder in Europe into the Grand Canyon without either, disturb ing or improving the appearance of the latter.
 arA paradise for the invalid, para disc for the sightseer, paradise for the curiosity seeker, paradise for the sportsman, is Arizona. An Ari- zona bible, with every book from Gen. esis to Revelations complete and re- plcIe WllH utSSflptsOHs VI tflc tflliiSS that here exemplify the craftsman ship, the mercy and the bounty of God could \be and should be published by the state and sent broadcast through out the land for the information and guidance of people starved for what we have as daily food.
 Such books have already been writ ten. George Wharton James, "Ari- zona, the Wonderland" a copy of which may be seen at the Flagstaff public library, is a work of that kind. Revised to make it little more help ful as a guide book, with road maps and better illustrations, and circulated by the hundreds of thousands, it would add millions to the revenues of the state. Novelists like Zane Grey give the state much advertising, but the reader of novels does not take the novelist seriously. They don't know where he leaves off fiction and takes