The Winslow mail., 1925-07-31

one public official and give the
control to another.
"You know there has been a lot
of talk ever since statehood about
taking various departments out Of
politics. They talk about it ma
tionally, in various states, counties
and municipalities. municipalities
create city commissions and city
managers to take city affairs out of
politics, but they have never sue
ceeded. You can not divorce gov
ernment from politics, because one
is the complement of the other.
The federal government and some
of the states have tried civil serv-
ice on the theory of divorcing gov
ernment and politics. 1t has never
succeeded.
There seems to be a theory in
certain peoples minds that be-
cause an administrative officer
may be vested by law with au-
thority to dispense certain patron
age and make certain appoint
ments, he is able thereby to build
a political machine and to domi-
nate and control politics.
Il think l can speak with some
degree, of authority in that mat
ter. l think l have had some ex-
perience as an executive officer,
and / think that l can say to you
candidly and truthfully, out of my
experience, that the fact that
have had some little patronage to
dispense has not been a political
asset. For every job I have had to
give | have had from dozen to a
hundred applicants. Some of the
men who got the jobs appreciated
them and supported me in later
campaigns. Others opposed me,
and some of them have become my
most bitter opponents, while many
others who failed to get jobs also
become opponents.
II think the same experience
holds true with every other execu-
tive.
II want those critics and the
general public to reflect for a mo-
ment upon the conditions prevail
ing in the territory of Arizona, so
far as highways were concerned.
| want them to reflect upon the
small valuation of the state of Ari-
Zona in 1913 when the first apprO-
priation for state roads was made.
want them to reflect upon all
that has transpired since Arizona
obtained statehood and the diff
cultieS we have had to SurmOunt.
want them to reflect upon the
fact that we have fought a world
war, we have seen our copper in
dustry shut down, our cattle and
sheep industries on the verge OF
bankruptcy, our cotton farmers los
ing the proceeds Of their crops, a
long series of bank failures and
business men forced into bank
ruptcy.
Il want them to reflect upon the
long, unprecedented drouth we
have had and the tremendous ex-
pense and cost and the difficulty
of maintaining modern roads under
drouth conditions. l want them to
consider, for a moment. the teSti-
mOny of Mr. Vanderbilt, the pub
Usher, who made survey of the
roads throughout the various states
of the United States in which he
paid tribute to Arizona as having
paved roads equalato the best and
gravel surfaced roads the peer of
any in the United States And l
want them to remember that this
has been accomplished in spite of
the difficulties and also in spite of
the fact that only approximately
one-third of the area of the state
of Arizona is subject to taxation.
1T might be interesting for those
critics of the Arizona highway de-
partment whose main object in life
seems to be to try and find some
thing to criticise, whether they do
for few months on some facts in
connection with the work accom-
plished by this branch of our state
government.
when Arizona was granted
statehood, there was not a mile of
modern highway in existence in the
state. Today, the state highway
system comprises nearly 1000
miles of highways, classified as
! follows:
| Glass Miles
Paved roads s-.......-..............-.... 1906
Graveled and surfaced .154.02