The Wilmington morning star., 1946-03-06
Fair Enough
By wEsTBRoOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1916, by King Features Syndicate


Copyright, 1916, by King Features Syndicate)
An eyewitness to the booms in Florida, l
should be able to recognize one with the naked
eye and ear. On the basis of that experience,
should say that the present congestion and
enterprise in Arizona constitute development
rather than a boom. Like Florida, Arizona
does big business in the sale of warm
weather in winter and there are those who
believe that the time will come when the
people will be reduced to the job of taking
in one aaother's washing, which Is just what
many conservative souls were saying of Mi
ami in the early twenties.
At first sight, the desert country is for
bidding and ominous and service men who
travelled through on their way 70 and from
the Pacific duly cycling the wastes Of noun
tain and plain, the occasional weather-beat
little dobe houses and the trails leading back
into the cactus, have said they wouldn't get
off a train here.
Yet, in the last few years before the war
and this winter, the tourist or vacation popu-
lation grew rapidly and it is as certain as
anything can be that this increase will con-
tinue, accompanied by a growth in facilities
for somewhat less nerve-wra cking pleasures
than those of the Florida Gold Coast and
for the care Of invalids suffering from tuber-
culosis, arthritis, some heart troubles and
asthma. At present the accommoda tons for
such patients are far short of the minimum
requirements and here, I suggest, is an op-
portunlty for doctors, nurses and promoters
VINO are willing to invest money in quiet re-
treats or sanitaria. The hotels too. and tourist
camps for motorists, called motels, are over
crowded and most of the dude ranches, which
are generally speaking, an elaboration Of the
New England farm-aomes where summer
boarders are offered refuge from it all,
are booked up.
1t is not my business to sell Arizona to
anyone but, to my taste, which is not UNIQUE
or peculiar in such matters as the population
figures show the dry, warm summers and
the dazzling beauty of the sunsets are an
irresistible combination. / was one of those
who, seeing spectators buying and swapping
options and titles to land, swamp and sea bot
tom in Miami 20 years ago. believed that
when the craze was over most of the real
estate would 60 back to palmetto and rattle
snakes, alllgators and mosquitoes When last
saw Miami and the beach, they had grown
into a metropolis whose principal business
was the sale of climate and luxury at prices
beyond belief, but with a solid foundation of
air and sea commerce and some manufa ctur-
ing and background of agriculture few
boom communities actually did decay but only
a few and even some of those failures were
reclaimed after few years as restless Amer
leans shifted from old surroundings to new
which is still our way.
Arizona's basic business is mining and con-
trary to general impression among those
who think Of the desert as a waste fit for
no good USE the desert has been made to
bloom in some areas with an agriculture of
formidable importance
Who of those in the drifts and sleet of the
east today would imagine that in the out
skirts OF Tucson, there were trees heavy with
citrus and sweet peas, daisies and violets in
bloom on small tracts of utter desert some
OF them subdivisions Of claims pioneered by
veterans of the First World War? These are
the attractions, the Injuries, which draw the
winter vacation trade with money to spend
on their pleasure and this class of Americans
seems to be OF reliable perTnaaence, though
the individuals do change, for southern Cali
fornia and Florida both banked on their bust
ness and prospered as a result.
1t has seemed to me from the beginning of
my experience that Arizona and particularly
Tucson, the University city, are more intel
lectual, more interested in the arts than either
the ola residents or the boomsters and tourists
were in Florida. I remember inquirine about
Miami for days for history Of Dade county
and biography of Major Dade who explored
the Everglades without success until, one
night, young woman who was press-ageat
for big gambling house and floor show.
and stranger in town, at that loaned me
one.
In Tucson there are little theatre, lectures
and university classes, and the history Of the
state and city, which actually were frontier
20 short while ago, is an interest that con-
stantly occurs in books and reminiscent local
stories Men and women who lived the lives
OF pioneers here are still present today This
is not said in disparagement of Florida and
her taste in pleasures but in an ATTEMPT at
describing difference in interests, Locale and
social activities
I have previously told of the remarkable
growth OF small homes on the desert land
about Tucson. There are no mansions among
them but neither are they shacks and this
all indicates to me a development of new
region OF solid citizenship who will not have
10 take IN one another's washing, after all,
Out like other American communities, will
lind work and opportunities and make good
use OF an area hitherto neglected or unknown
which any European people would gladly pio-
neer as new Giving space