Imperial Valley press., 1936-11-24
PAN-AMERICAN
HIGHWAY WILL
GET SUPPORT

WASHINGTON, (UP)-The Pan
American highway, to link New
York with Buenos Aires and eventu-
ally to connect all continental
American capitals, will obtain new
diplomatic support at the inter-
American peace conference to meet
in the Argentine capital Dec. l,
highway experts here confidently
anticipate.
The highway was included in the
agenda under the topic improve
ment of communication facilities
at the instance of the United States,
and preliminary diplomatic conver-
sations prior to the conference are
believed to have assured the active
interest of many delegations.
The peace conference at Buenos
Aires probably could do little more
than adopt some general resolution
endorsing the idea of the basis for
future technical highway confer
ence. Previous conferences on high
ways Improvement were held at
Buenos Aires in 1925 and Rio de
Janeiro in 1929. Such a technical
conference could develop a precise
program regarding the international
route, it is pointed out.
One Link Being Built
At present, active construction of
the Pan American highway as a
through motor route is only under
way in the northern section be-
tween Laredo, Tex, and Panama
City. That part of the continental
route was surveyed several years ago
and the respective national pro-
grams are designed to fit in with
the international route. The United
States has given technical assistance
to several Central American coun-
tries.
The highway south of Panama has
never been surveyed, and the first
technical step toward construction
necessarily would be a "reconnais-
sance survey" No diplomatic pro-
posal to this object has been ad-
vanced, but it may become practic-
able before many years, in view of
the rapidly mounting South Ameri-
can interest in motor touring.
| oll Ollt f1lllCl lCdll IOuJc DC-
tween Laredo and Panama City, a
distance of $3.50 miles, there already
exist 1855 miles from Laredo to
Mexico City, and 300 between Pana-.
ma City and David.
Some Roads impossible
There also are 1,425 miles of
roads suited to travel in the dry but
not the rainy season. Between $50
and $50 miles are not traversible by
automobile either in dry or wet
weather.
No official estimate is available
as to what part of the 5,000-mile
southern half of the highway may
have been completed.
In the southern part of the con-
tinent, highway communication eX-
lists between Argentina and Chile,
and between Argentina and Uru-
quay by use of a ferry, and also
from the latter country to Brazil.
Peru Building Roads
In northern South America the
Bolivar highway connects the capi-
tails of Venezuela, Colombia and
Ecuador, while in Peru extensive
road building has been carried on
both toward the north and south, as
well as into the interior.
One fact encouraging to the flu
ture completion of Pan Ameri-
can highway to Buenos Aires is the
intense interest shown by Argentina
during recent years in modern high
way construction.
Argentina now has mile of road
to every 82 square miles of area, a
total mileage of 140,008. Citizens
own 225,O31 automobiles, according
to recent figures, the largest num-
ber in any American republic ex-
cept the United States. Experts
therefore believe that discussion of
the Pan American project would be
of special interest in a conference
held at Buenos Aires.