Evening star., 1922-11-05

| SAID, your negotiations with the
state Of Utah, through Gov. BAN
accomplished an apparent entire
unanimity of opinion in Utah as to
the location of a route west of Salt
Lake City to be built as link in the
important Interstate and transconti-
mental Lincoln highway.
| "The Utah state highway commits
| sion and Gov. Bamberger. as chair
man, emphatically indorsed the Lin
coin highway in their resolution
unanimously adopted March 21. 1918.
and you. knowing that the state could
not finance without outside aid that
road across the Great Salt Lake
desert, entered into an agreemen,
with the state to contribute. and did
pay. 100000. as aid toward this con-
siruction. while Carl g.. Fisher pro-
vided $25,000 to construct a mountain
pass essential to the opening of this
/ route.
"The state undertook the work ac-
| cording to agreement and did spend
so 1t claimed, approximately $1S0,0O0
on the bridge across the desert and
! completed the Fisher Pass road. The
desert cutoff was about rs or so pei
! cent completed when the state ran out
| of road funds. The work was stopped
and left In its unfinished condition In
| September. 1919. But Gov. BAN
| berger promised that IL WoulQ De
| taken up and completed the very mo-
ment that Utah had the funds to do
SO. You and the association, knowing
the difficulties confronting the state
in it's endeavor to provide adequate
road funds. awaited with patience the
! passage by Congress Of Federal aid
/ legislation extending adequate assis-
! tance to the western states.
| ''In November. 1921. Congress passed
! the federal highway act. providing
that each state should lay out basic
system of roads of interstate i'm
portance, comprising per cent
| of the total road mileage Of each
state and correlating with the system
of the surrounding states. upon which
| all federal aid must be concentrated
until the completion of the system.
| This act extended much needed and
deserved special assistance to the
| western states OF large public land
area, and put Utah at last in a posi-
tion to complete, together with other
| important roads In the state, the
! nationally important east and west
! road leading to the Pacific coast.
Between September. 1919. when the
! state stopped work on the desert cut
off due to lack of road funds, and
| November. 1921. when more funds
We're made available by the govern
ment, a new governor and political
| regime was elected in Utah. To our
surprise. Notwithstanding the com
plete prior Endorsement of the Lin
coin highway and the expensive work
already accomplished at its crossing
| Of the Salt Lake desert. the new ad-
ministra ton evidenced its intention
of completely abandoning the con-
struction accomplished in Fisher pass
and on the desert by naming as a
| portion of its proposed federal highway
| system another and much longer and
| more difficult crossing OF the same
desert. while emitting totally from
| its federal aid system the Lincoln
action. IL approved by the govern
| ment, precluded any possibility OF
! completing that road, upon which the
state had already expended SO much
, with our aid. Moreover, this action
| by the state was taken despite the
| fact that the association, appreciat-
| ing how vitality necessary was the
completion of that desert crossing
| had offered to the new administration
$4,000 additional to assist the county
and state in providing the amount
| necessary to meet the federal aid.
Says Contract Is Disregarded.
THE meaning and legality of our
contract with the state of Utah has
| been questioned by the present ad-
disregarding the existence of such a
| contract, there can be no question as
| to what was the intent and desire OF
| the state when it undertook, with its
| own forces and much of its own
| money. to construct the Lincoln high
| way across the desert. 1t cannot be
| said that it did that work with the
intention of later abandoning it
There has been a complete reversal
of opinion and desire on the part OF
| the state of Utah which has pre-
vented the completion Of any road
west of Salt Lake City. All Of this
you already know.
! However. 1 am writing this to re-
fresh your memory. because Vice
President Bement has recounted to
| me the results of his recent inspec-
tion trip across Utah and Nevada and
the status OF the effort to re-unite and
| produce cooperative effort toward the
completion of this desert section,
! which lacks so little of providing
the final link needed in a through
| route to the Pacific coast. Field Sec
retary Hoag has been for months
bending every effort toward this end.
Our association has exhausted every
means to procure the resumption of
construction, so far in vain.
The present Utah administration
has persisted in demanding, as its
western federal aid highway, that
other route which we all Of us investi-
gated long ago, and which crosses
the Great Salt Lake desert to Wend-
over, at it's widest point and through
| a section of Tooele county. where
there Is no population and where the
county refuses to aid in highway i'm
provement.
The governor and state road COM
mission of Nevada as well as many
influential Nevada organizations. have
had the support of the press of Ne
vada as well as that of northern Cali
fornfa In urging upon the state of
Utah the designation Of the Lincoln
highway as a portion of the states
federal aid system, to the end that it
may be Immediately completed with
federal aid and provide that imlIr-
tant connecting link to the trans-Ne-
vada highway, so vitality needed to
connect the east with northern cali
fornia. These appeals. like those of
our association, based on the facts and
the records of the case, have been of
no avail. The state has not wavered
in its policy of abandonment Of the
Lincoln highway and of the work ac-
complished, and of undertaking a
new and more expensive western road
which cannot be completed for many
years and which, in the interim, leaves
northern California cut of totally
from westbound traffic reaching Salt
Lake City.
has painstakingly gathered the facts
and data in the case and presented
them to the Secretary Of Agriculture,
Henry q Wallace. in the hope that he
may not approve Of the route desig-
mated for federal aid by the present
Utah regime. at least without requir-
ing the completion of the Lincoln way
as of prior or equal Importance.
II am confident that if the Secre-
tary of Agriculture could personally
see the whole picture of the i'm
portance and value Of the completion
of the Lincoln highway desert sec
ton, because 1t Is the most practical
route and serves the greatest popula-
ton locally, is already so per cent
comnleted and can most nuicklv nrn.