miles of black dirt are impassable in wet weather. The Highway Department is improving this section and promises safe traveling across all East Texas henceforth. From the Louisiana line (Sabine River) to San Antonio over $2,000,000 in contracts and improvements have been put in force this year. The paving program will go forwaid rapidly for the basic and difficult parts arc completed and extensive paving is already authorized.
22.	—WEST TEXAS:	597	miles.	Federal standard gravel
roads, some improved natural soil of good quality, with over 100 miles of asphalt and concrete in the San Antonio and the El Paso districts.
23. —NEW MEXICO:	196 miles. Some concrete, mostly
Federal standard gravel. Mcsilla Park westward 37 miles desert soil; new road to replace this section and complete all the New Mexico mileage is now authorized. New Mexico must transport most of her gravel and other material a long distance.
24.	—ARIZONA:	508 miles. Federal standard well graded
highway—125 miles are concrete and asphalt paving, balance good gravel.
25.	—CALIFORNIA:	179	miles.	Mostly	paved.	Some re-
markable mountain construction. Asphaltic concrete under construction over the sand dunes west of Yuma.
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INVESTMENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS
26.	—In my recent long eastern trip I was continually impressed with the remarkable developments that have started as the result of the confidence the Old Spanish Trail is now to be completed. Through the western section last summer I was equally impressed with the miracles being performed by great irrigation reservoirs in this OST territory and the industry of the newcomers in those areas we have always thought of as desert or waste lands. The Old Spanish Trail is destined to develop this whole South countrv because over this trunkline the home seeker in his car will find his opportunity.
27.	The northwest Florida coast is a wooded, rolling, well-
drained section set with numerous bays and inlets. Roads are building from the OST down to the beaches and a beach highway to connect Pensacola and Tampa is now well started. Beach resorts, syndicate farm development, power development, hotels and other big investment in West Florida are already aggregating many millions.	'	66
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28.	The same is true along the Mobile Bay shores and the gulf beach of Alabama. $10,000,000 in new developments are the stated figures.
29.	T he Mississippi Coast Club recently announced $55,--000,000 of investments, public and private, already financed and more new developments involving more millions being announced continually.
30.	—Around New Orleans the same great awakening is observed. Developments and investments show an unprecedented activity with New Orleans promising to become the center for numerous resort, fishing and hunting attractions.
31.	—Another move of importance is in East Texas where the projected highway is now financed from Orange and from Beaumont through Port Arthur and along the beach to Galveston, then back to the Old Spanish Trail at Houston. This will expand the Galveston beach into an East Texas resort area and make East Texas a mecca for the pleasure-seeking. With the Texas gulf shores developing as a playground and with the vast agricultural, commercial and industrial opportunities that East and South Texas offer. Orange and Beaumont will become a gateway from the East in the development of a new empire for the home seekers, investors and developers now heading southward in large volume.
32.	—Around San Antonio it is the same story. So much money is now going into farm development, great irrigation enterprises, hydro-electric power and other development no one any longer doubts the great movement of money and men to South Texas. San Antonio and Houston, reflecting these conditions, are adding new hotel accommodations involving over $20,000,000. In 1925 their total building operations were $44,480,000 with building permits this year exceeding last year’s record.
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ESTABLISHING AND BUILDING THIS HIGHWAY HAS NOT BEEN EASY
33.	—Years ago I stated that San Antonio was geographically so situated that with proper foresight in trunkline highway development and traffic promotion San Antonio could be made the automobile crossroads of the continent. An undeveloped empire lies southward in Texas and beyond is Mexico. Westward is California. Eastward is Florida. North lies the whole continent. For ten years the United States have been moving fast toward a few official national routes to be built and maintained for heavy overland travel. Some cities have, with shrewd foresight, worked to establish one or more such routes in their
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