Evening star., 1941-10-12

connects the capital cities Of II Latin
American republics and penetrates the
last frontiers of the Western Hemisphere
To settle a mistaken idea, let's get 1t
straight that the name American
highway" designates only the route in
Latin America. No road in the United
States is so named. International high
way is the name of the complete two
continent longitudinal route from Fair
banks Alaska, to BuenoS Aires.
The longest continuous link now open
to the United States motorist covers a
distance of $50 miles 1t runs froa
Nuevo Laredo, at the border, to a point
80 miles beyond Mexico City. Approx
mately three-fifths or 1850 miles of the
road to the Panama Canal is paved or in
allweather condition, but in discontin-
uous stretches. The road is surfaced
beyond the Canal for 40 miles to Chepo,
Panama. Then begins the Darien Jungle,
which had not been penetrated by white
man until the summer of 1910 when
Richard Tewkesbury, a North Carolina
school teacher, travelled overland from
the Canal to the Colombian border.
The meeting point of the highway at
the Panama Colombian border is the
only one in doubt along the entire route.
A gap of approximately so miles to the
Panamanian border has been left by
Colombia to make possible the necessary
juncture. From Pavarandocito through
Medellin, to Bogota, all in Colombia, the
road Is now passable or under construc-
ton. At Bogota, branch of the route
runs northeast for 100 miles to Caracas,
Venezuela. The tradition of the Pam
American highway system calls for its
inclusion. South again, the road runs
through Ecuador and Peru to Vitor.
where the road branches One spur
proceeds to the Peru-Chile border, down
the west coast of Chile to Santiago and
from there across the Andes to Buenos
Aires. The other runs to La Paz, Bolivia,
then to the Bolivia Argentina border and
on through the Argentine pampas to
Rosario and Buenos Aires. From Buenos
Aires branch projects north to Asun-
cion, Paraguay, and ferry connects with
Montevideo, Uruguay. All the 1900 miles
from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro may
be travelled and more than half the
distance is paved or in all-weather con-
dition. Nearly two-thirds of the highway
in South America may be travelled the
year round and 2,O15 miles are paved
If the South and Central American
nations are to trade with the United
States, safe land transportation routes
are essential. The longer the war lasts,
the greater the danger to overseas trade
routes and the less reliable and the more
expensive water transportation will be-
come. Vulnerability of the Panama
Car'l is a principal worry Of United
Sta -- military experts. The Pam -
lean highway occupies an important
position in strategy devised to protect
this vital water artery. The highways
tremendous defense value led President
Roosevelt to recommend appropriation
of $20000,000 for its completion, at least
as far south as the Canal. Legislation
incorporating this recommendation is
now pending in Congress Outstanding
example of the significance of the Pan
American highway to hemisphere de-
fense is the trans-Isthmian section,
which crosses the Isthmus OF Panama.
This road could replace the Canal as
transport artery, if the Canal should be
bombed. It's 100000 cost is only
fraction of the cost of the Canal.