Director Harral Ayres Will Retire from the Work
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, May 8 —Old Spanish Trail officials plan a national convention this summer to elect new officers and formulate future policies. A convention session was held at St. Augustine during the monument celebration and this adjourned to meet at'a time and place to be selected so there might be ample time for the OST communities to arrange for a representative group to come together.
Harral Ayres, the managing director, explains that the work undertaken by him and the San Antonio group ten years ago to establish an open highway across the continent is now completed; the motorcade from San Diego and the celebration at St. Augustine estab-1 lished the progress achieved and dedicated the highway to . the American people. The improve-j ments still needed will cost many millions more, he says, but this I work and that of developing travel belong to a new group of officers. The old officers have the reward | of a work well done.
At the St. Augustine meeting Harral Ayres asked that someone else be elected in his place. His resignation was not accepted; resolutions were passed commending his work and a fund was submitted and a special emblem was ordered made for him as a recognition from the Old Spanish Trail people. Mr. Ayres, however, asks to be relieved. His ten years of service have been costly to him and he finds it necessary to return to some private business. Auditors are completing the financial statement of this ten-year period to be mailed as a report to the people. Incidentally, the report shows that Mr. Ayres drew as salary, for the ten years $10,598.73. The automobiles used by him in his Old Spanish Trail work were his individual property.
OST officials also state a new] travelog has been printed and is being distributed to tourist routing j clubs over the United States and Canada. Also that the historical marking and signing plans have been printed in colors and are being distributed. Other reports are being printed. The San Antonio executive board and the managing director arc seeking to distribute complete reports of all the service and they ask that well qualified cpresentalives come together hen the convention is announced so that the travel movement and this Old Spanish Trail country may now be intelligently developed. Tho
past winter, they state, shows a rapidly growing travel movement in this newly opened OST territory. Data respecting this is now being gathered and will be made the subject of a special bulletin of infor-mation to the OST people.
Plan Old Spanish Trail o Convention 'This Summer