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Show EDITORIAL: Highway Hullabaloo NOT so long ago squabbles over water characterized the West, but now comes the question ques-tion of interstate or interregional interregion-al highways, and indications are that the road fights will equal maybe even surpass the fame of the old western feuds. The early water skirmishes were real knock-down, drag-out affair's, with no holds barred. They seldom extended beyond state lines, for the economic well-being of the frontier homestead home-stead was in the land he could survey from his front porch, and that economic status was assur-red assur-red by the homesteaders claim to water for his land. But time has wrought changes. Courts have replaced the six-shooter six-shooter in the settlement of water wa-ter controversies, and the economy econo-my of a commonwealth is bound firmly to that of its sister states by a twisting rope of national highways. And fights between states, reminiscent .of the water fights between individuals, are shaping up along the highways of the West.' T THE establishment of a series of interregional super travel routes, to provide fast automobile automo-bile travel across the country, is inevitable; and some states and some sections are bound to be hurt whenever a particular highway high-way is assigned "first violin" in the great national highway symphony. sym-phony. Today Colorado is hurt because be-cause Ray Leavitt, Utah State Road Commission chairman, designated des-ignated U. S. Highway 30 as Utah's choice in the East-West super highway program. Frankly, Frank-ly, Colorado cannot be blamed, and that state's contention that it has been given "the old run-around" run-around" seems to be. backed. by some pretty sound conclusions with which a number of Utahns will agree. It is generally agreed that Mr. Leavitt had the interest of Salt Lake City atheart when he made his designation; that he by-passed sections of Utah, potentially valuable to the economy of the state, and that he forgot the tra-diional tra-diional friendship between Utah and Colorado in agreeing to the U. S. Public Roads Administration's Administra-tion's recommendation that '30' be the interregional highway. - Mr. Leavitt didn't have to agree to -this recommendation,- but he did. It should be remembered that the interregional highway system sys-tem is an East-West proposition, and that U. S. Highway 30, the famed Lincoln Highway, winds only about 75 miles across easl ern Utah "soil before it connects with U. S. 91, the state's North-South North-South "artery." In contrast Highway 40 completes a run of. about 200 miles through Utah before Colorado takes over, while '50' does about a 250 mile stretch within the state. But both of these routes were thrown aside, and Mr. Leavitt says: "The mileage was limited and Utah's most impotant highway is U. S. 91, which serves the majority of the people in the state. We would have preferred to have U. S. 40 east to Denver designated, desig-nated, but high mountainous regions made that virtually impossible." It's strange, but the writer seems to recall that both 40 and 50 connect with Highway 91, in fact 40 tics into the North-South route right in the heart of Salt Lake. So there's little logic in Chairman Leavitt's theory regarding re-garding the importance of Highway High-way 91 and its relation to Highway High-way 30. And there's less logic in his contention that mountainous moun-tainous regions made selection of Highway 40. ''.'virtually impps-sible." r ALONG Highway 30, snow drifts are a common occurance, and on Serman Hill, between Laramie, Wyoming and Cheyenne, Chey-enne, also on Highway 30, winter win-ter travel is worse than anything any-thing that Highway 40 could possibly offer. (The writer knows he's been stuck on both roads). So Mr. Leavitt won't you reconsider? re-consider? A mistake isn't so bad if a person will admit it. Mr. Leavitt, won't you try to retain the traditional friendship between be-tween Utah and Colorado, and at the same time reconsider Highway 40 as a part of an interregional in-terregional highway? After all northeastern Utah -might surprise sur-prise the folks one of these days ! or didn't you read about the oil strike in yesterday's paper? That strike was about 150 feet off Highway 40, and '40' follows fol-lows a 200 mile course across Utah. And Mr. Leavitt, it ties into in-to '91' at Salt Lake, and the snow isn't nearly as bad on Highway 40 as it is on the road you designated desig-nated last week to become a part of the interregional highway system. Mr. Leavitt, could you possibly possi-bly reach a compromise with Colorado on this highway deal? You want Highway 30, Colorado wants Highway 50, why don't the two of you meet half way and settle on Highway 40? After all there might be an opportunity or two along the Victory. Highway High-way that both of you are over-tlooking. |