The Winslow mail., 1921-12-23
THE GREAT SOUTHWEST

In an article on The Great
Southwest" published in the Cent
ury Magazine, Raw Stannard Bakef
described a trip he made in Arizona
Following arc rev paragraphs
from the story having reference es.
pecially to the Salt River Valley:
This was the desert Who would
dream that men bold enough to
come here and fight for a home?
yet here men have come. Sud
denly at sundown, we emerged from
a thlcket Of cactu., and there,
stretching away for miles and miles
was the soft green Of fields, with
rows tsf rustling cottonwoods, the
roofs Of homes, and the sound Of
cattle in the meadows
"a wire fence was the dividing
line: on this side lay the fruitless
desert; on the other, green alfalfa
full of blossoms and bees, brimming
over the fences. At the roadside
ditch ran full of fresh. cool water
-red-wing black birds whistling i'll
the cottonwoods and wild pigeons
flew up from the fields. Fat cattle
stood knee-deep i'll the pastures,
the men came out whistling to milk
A little brick house stood back from
the road, almost hidden with palms
and umbrella trees; there were
chickens and bees and children
abound it, and the scent of roses
from the porch.
Everywhere the landscape was
serenely quiet and beautiful; here
were homes and happiness. 1t was
something to stir a mans heart,
this change from the hard, dry,
merciless desert to this sweet,
green paradise of irrigated land
In calling attention to the super
iority of electric railroad service as
compared with steam, the United
States Geological Survey in connec-
ton with it's superpower investiga-
tions points to an interesting exam
pie of present wasteful practice:
Under electric operation, it is stat
ed, the entire traffic between Phila-
delphia and Washington could read
lily be carried over the rails of the
Pennsylvania Syf en-, those 4 the
Baltimore and Ohio being left for
future growth Similarly, electric
operation in the vicinity of Boston
and New York would leave mas
gin of track capacity so great that
no money need be spent for many
years for further extensipnseaof
track. This release of tracaageA is
one of the very notable advantages
that would follow unified electric
operation of the railroads in the
superpower zone"-the region be-
tween Washington and Boston. The
great expense of any large increase
in trackage should of itself force
electricifcation, tor the total cost
20 years hence will be less if cleo
trification is begun now than the
cost of The added track and termin-
al facilities necessary under steam
operation to provide for the newt
able 100 per cent increase in traffic
within that time.
The reserves of men and machin-
cry required for joint operation will
be very much less than the aggre-
gate of the seperate reserves requir-
ed for individual operation. The
great waste involved in the mainte-
nance of seperate reserves of motive
power is exhibited by the operating
statistics of the roads. which show
that the average freight locomotive
in this territory is in productive
service only $3.50 hours out of $3.50
hours in year and the average
passenger locomotive only 1850
hours. With joint electric opera
ton and consequent unification of
types of motive power there would
be a striking improvement. The
steam locomotive can run s hours
a day; the electric locomotive 20
hours.