with Lake Tahoe? The lakes of Switzerland are in no manner is dazzlingly alluring. Nestling in a vast gargantuan bowl bounded by the two-mile-high summits of the Sierra Nevada Mountains upon which the snow is eternal, Lake Tahoe is a beautiful emerald gem.

And where else is there a Yosemite Valley? Majesty combined with almost ethereal beauty is the keynote of the Garden of Eden. Living things which were old when the Pharaohs were building the pyramids stand sentinel at the base of cliffs whose abrupt eminence towers a mile above sea level. The beauty of Bridal Veil Falls, Vernal

Falls and Yosemite Falls is almost overpowering on a summer's evening when the twilight is filtering through the branches of the hoary old redwoods.

The Californian knows all this, and during the Winter months, when Yosemite and Lake Tahoe are snow-bound, he is content to rest and entertain the flitting tourist, sure in the knowledge that his summer months will bring the reopening of the roads to the great resorts.

It is not for the scenery alone that the Californian cherishes the thoughts of Tahoe and Yosemite during the Winter months. He has seen all of this many times but while it is always new to him he knows of other attractions just as alluring as those that Yosemite and Tahoe furnish. The Californian is naturally a nomad. He travels either short distances or long distances continually. His climate makes this possible and he has acquired the habit of motoring to a degree. possessed by but few other people in this world of ours. The trip of a few hundred miles either from San Francisco or Los Angeles to Tahoe or Yosemite is a mere recreation. His roads are wonderful. His knowledge of motor cars is uncanny and his faith in his

NARROW ROAD 2,000 FEET ABOVE BED OF MERCED CANYON.

ability to get anywhere that he starts for, and have a good time doing it, is founded on experience.

In his run to Lake Tahoe he traverses a country rich in romance and gorgeous in scenery. He has boulevard all of the way from San Francisco through Sacramento to Placerville, with the exception of 10 miles of what would be called outside of California, excellent road. From here on he takes the famous American River Canyon road and traverses a country where romance of the old roaring gold days of '49 flourished. It was here that John Marshall first discovered the yellow lure that was to cause a world-wide stampede for California and write a page in the financial history of the world that is not yet completed. This is the same road over which gold was transported by pony stage from Virginia City to Sacramento. It winds through a beautiful canyon heavily wooded and with a fine rushing river always at your side. There are numerous beautiful spots where stops of from a day to a week could be made and where the fishing is second only to that of Tahoe itself. The preliminary stages of the approach to Tahoe are alluring and well worthy honorable mention, but the beauty of the lake itself is surpassing. Get your first glimpse of it. if possible, on an evening when the snow-capped peaks of the Sierras are glowing crimson in the setting sun. Twentythree miles from end to end and 13 miles across, it is over

2000 feet deep in places and is simply a great sheet of melted snow water that smiles at you in the half-light.

There is fishing without end at Tahoe. You can take your choice of lake fishing or stream fishing. Here will be found rainbow, Eastern brook, Lockleven, and Mackinaw trout a-plenty. The streams lead away back into the wilderness that surrounds the slopes of the high Sierras and you can "go as far as you like" in venturing into outof-the-way spots. There is boating, yachting, motor boating, and bathing without end. Here Californians go every summer as faithfully as the pilgrims head toward Mecca.

Reams and books have been written on the wonders of Yosemite and they have not done the subject justice yet. El Capitan, the Three Brothers, Cathedral Spires. Half Dome, Vernal Falls and Bridal Falls have all been told of in verse, story and song, but they remain to be seen before they can be appreciated.

It is here that the Californian goes either en route to Lake Tahoe or returning. The two are inseparably connected. One is a part of the other in the Californian's mind when he a-touring goes.

This year with the automobile roads thrown wide open to the motorist by the Secretary of the Interior, the beautiful playground is sure to be the lodestone of even greater numbers than heretofore. The roads have been improved wonderfully and all of them have been thrown open to automobiles. This is a concession when it is realized that heretofore but one road could be used and the motorist was almost a pariah in the park and the lowly donkey or burro had the right of way over the most costly eightcylinder car that ever snorted its distain.

Yosemite is the great melting pot of California society. Here comes the wealthy family in their twelve-cylinder car and also here comes the lowly fliver laden to the guards with camping outfit for use en route to the park. The school teacher and the clerk of the department store hop right merrily into Yosemite Park either via railroad, automobile bus or friendly neighbor's motor, and are able to remain cheaply during the period of their vacation.

One does not care for artificial entertainment in Yosemite Valley. There is such an atmosphere of majesty. of grandeur and of stateliness there that one instinctively believes that the modern entertainment offered at some summer resorts would be actually sacrilegious. One comes to the Park to regain his viewpoint on life. The solemnity of Yosemite is restful and inspiring. It is somewhat like the Grand Canyon in this respect, with the exception that the presence of such almost eternally living organisms as the giant Sequoias gives one a feeling of a surer grip on life. while the Grand Canyon awes and shrivels one's pride with its majesty and mystery without the promise of almost eternal life that the Redwoods give.

But to attempt to describe, however superficially, the wonders of the Yosemite, Tahoe or any appreciable portion of California's wonderlands would be to fill volumes and still the task would remain undone.

Suffice it to say that the Californian knows his own state and rather welcomes the time when the Eastern tourist and his fleet of trunks has started eastward and he can get out his trusty car and begin to contemplate Lake Tahoe and the Yosemite, not to mention the wonderful seashore resorts which dot the nine hundred miles of coast and beach which the Golden State possesses.

L.A.-Yosemite Economy Run

Novel Contest Promoted by Camp Curry Is
Scheduled for June 22-23-Many
Cars Entered

MR

ORE than a score of Los Angeles automobile dealers have entered cars in the Los Angeles-Camp Curry Economy Run to the Yosemite which is scheduled to be run June 22-23, and arrangements already perfected indicate that it will be the most popular as well as the greatest event of its kind that has ever taken place in Southern California. The economy is on fuel and the result will be decided on a basis of piston displacement and weight, which under A. A. A. rules should make the contest equal for all entries. The entries are divided into three classes and the winner in each class will receive a silver loving cup. The classes are: First, cars under and including $1,000; second, cars $1,001 up to $2,000; third, cars over $2,000. The factory price obtains.

119 50

CROCKERS (SEQUOIA P.O) Hotel-Garage-Store

The cars will leave Los Angeles at 8 a. m. Friday, June 22, checking out at one-minute intervals in the order in which they start. The noon control will be Bakersfield and the night control at Fresno. On the second day's run to Camp Curry the cars will check out of Fresno at 8 a. m. All must reach Camp Curry not later than 9 o'clock Saturday night or be disqualified. The total distance for the two-day run is 389 miles. Harry Mason, manager of the Los Angeles branch of Chanslor & Lyon, will be referee, and G. S. Stephenson, A. A. A. technical representative in Los Angeles, will be the technical official. Not a few dealers will go in separate cars, while expert drivers will handle the cars they enter. Many will take their wives and friends. Private cars and owners will accompany the run to see if they can do as well or even better than the dealer on the economy test. A three-quarter-ton Republic truck, donated by the Southern California distributors, the D. F. Poyer Truck Co., will carry the baggage.

The roads between Los Angeles and the Yosemite, with grades varying from minimum to 14 per cent, will present a test in economy that will be equal to any ever run in California. The route will be by way of Fresno, Merced and Mari

posa.

Each stock car shall be a regular model and shall carry a top, raised or lowered, and at least one extra tire. While cars are in control, gas tanks may not be opened under penalty of instant disqualification, except by authorized officials. Each contestant shall come to the starting point in Los Angeles one hour before

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the first car starts, where an inspector will drain his gasoline tank and refill it to capacity with gasoline furnished by the promoter and bought at the present market price. The container on each car will have a capacity of five gallons. The observer shall have the duty of placing gasoline in the car whenever requested by the driver, at all times using the certified container, and to keep an accurate account of all gas so supplied. Each car must carry two persons, and not more than one car of the same make may be entered in the same class. The cars must weigh in without occupants, but with luggage, fuel tank full, necessary amount of lubricant in all parts of the car requiring it, radiator full of water, stock equipment and two spare tires and tubes, or one spare wire wheel, two cases and two tubes.

Entries will be made to Mack Erwin, Los Angeles manager for Camp Curry, 604 S. Spring St., not later than June 17. Those in the run will be the guests of Camp Curry until the following Monday morning, which will enable them to see many of the wonders of the national park. Entertainment has also been arranged by the management. The Big Oak Flat road on June 6th was still blocked by snow and by the washing out of the bridge at Tamarack. The previous day two machines came in over the Coulterville route, one using the Davis cut-off, the other coming the whole way over the Coulterville road. Dozens of cars now come in daily over the Wawona route.

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A

BANKER of Van Wert, Ohio, said in part recently, "When the farmer, auto dealer and banker realize that money expended in tile and other permanent improvements on the farm will do more for the community than pleasure-seeking vehicles, then the production of the farm will be increased."

We fully agree with this gentleman, if, as he says, all of the automobiles purchased are being used as "pleasureseeking vehicles;" but, fortunately, such is not the case by any means.

Fully 50 per cent of the travel that is being done by automobiles today is being done for business reasons. And it is safe to say that today this is closer to 80 per cent among farmers.

It seems evident that this banker does not realize that the automobile has been the very instrument in effecting the improvements on the farm which he suggests should be made.

The reason is simple. The automobile offers the farmer a means of communication which he has never had before. He has been enabled thereby to not only gain his equipment quickly for such improvements, through intercourse with the towns, but he has also been enabled to see what his neighbor is doing without losing any time from actual work on the farm.

As a means of transportation the automobile is as necessary to the farm as a plow is to the field. Our good friend probably does not realize also that right now every available horse is needed on the farm for actual work, and that it is the automobile which logically supplants the horse for transportation work.

We are sorry to see a banker take such a narrow view of the value of the automobile to the farmer. As far as the good of the community is concerned, what really does a community more good than an exchange of ideas, and what

is more conducive to an exchange of ideas than the automobile?

It wasn't very long ago that the average farmer came to town once a week to buy fresh meat. Now, because of the automobile he comes as often as he pleases.

Can it be said that buying of this nature is detrimental to a community? No. Decidedly to the contrary, because if the farmer is buying one thing he is surely going to buy other things.

It used to be the case that the farmer could hitch up a horse and spend a day in town, but it can well be seen what would happen if that same farmer did business that way today.

The fact remains that the automobile is an absolute necessity to the modern farmer today.

A

Are Prices High?

T prices of a year ago, it would have taken 50 bushels

of wheat to buy a Liberty bond; today, one can be bought for 25 bushels.

Last year, a farmer could build a silo for the price of 800 bushels of corn; today, he can build the same one for the price of 400 bushels.

Last year, it cost a community the price of 16,000 bushels of wheat to build a mile of permanent highway; today a mile can be built for 8,000 bushels.

Last year a farmer had to raise a thousand bushels of wheat to buy the tractor with which to till his field; this year he can buy two tractors for the same amount.

Measured by the cereals he produces, the farmer can now buy a motor car for half the quantity it would have required last year.

Everybody should buy a Liberty bond.

Was there ever a more favorable time to build a silo. to buy a tractor, to build permanent highways?

Now is the time to exchange your farm produce for these necessities.

By doing this, capital will be created and placed in circulation. Prosperity will be stimulated, labor kept employed at good wages. The dollar will be kept rolling and more of our citizens enabled to perform their patriotic duty to buy Liberty bonds.

3. Always fly the flag higher than your head.

4. See that your flag has 48 stars in even rows, and with seven red and six white stripes. The length of the flag should be 19-10 times the width, and the union as wide as seven stripes.

5. When other flags are displayed put the stars and stripes up first and highest. In a parade it should have the place of honor.

6. When hung as a banner the stars should be in the upper left hand corner.

7.-When flown at half mast the flag should first be raised to the top of the pole and then lowered the width of the flag.

8. Do not pile merchandise of any kind on our flag. Even when the flag is used as an altar cloth nothing more than the Bible may be laid upon it.

9.-If hung with the stripes perpendicular, the stars should be at the upper right hand corner.

10. It is disrespectful to leave the flag out over night.

A. C. of S. C. to Help the Old Spanish Trail

The Automobile Club of Southern California has announced its desire to co-operate in every possible way with the Old Spanish Trail Association. The club during the past two years has erected over 15,000 road signs covering the thirteen southern counties of California, and extending as far east over the National Old Trails as Kansas City, Mo., and Big Springs, Neb.; and from Los Angeles to Ely, Nev., over the Midland Trail, connecting with the Lincoln Highway.

Director Eddy of Yuma, Ariz., announces that special appropriations of $122,000 were made for three bridges on the line of the Spanish Trail in Arizona. This to bridge rivers that are generally dry. The State Highway Department has just completed the survey of about 50 miles of road in Yuma County that will be improved this coming Fall and Winter, thus improving the worst pieces of road between Yuma and El Paso. The California engineers are finishing the survey of the concrete road into Yuma from the California side and it is only a matter of months no until the Old Spanish Trail will have the best roadbed of any route between the Mississippi valley and the Pacific Ocean with fewer mountains and no snow.

In the weekly bulletin of the Old Spanish Trail Association. Director Fletcher, of San Diego reports as follows: "With a paved highway over one-half the distance from San Diego to Yuma-186 miles in length-the State Highway Commission of California is proceeding, energetically, in completing the rest of the paving. The bonds for the entire work have already been voted and $250,000 will be spent immediately. An arrangement has just been made whereby the State Highway Commission puts up a portion of the money and the four cities-Oceanside, East San Diego, La Mesa and El Cajon—the rest. This means an additional eleven miles of paved highway completed at an carly date.”

Appeal for Highways for Defense of Pacific Coast

At the request of the Pacific Coast Defense League, with headquarters at Seattle and a slogan-"Better Defense on the Pacific Coast"-many of the leading commercial organizations on the Coast, on May 31st, sent to President Wilson a telegram setting forth the need of better facilities for defense along the Pacific.

The California National Defense Highway Association, in response to this appeal, sent the following telegram: San Francisco, Cal., May 31, 1917.

To his Excellency

WOODROW WILSON,

President of the United States,
Washington, D. C.

In co-operation with the Pacific Coast Defense League, we respectfully urge attention to the necessity of a suitable Military Defense Highway System in the States bordering the Pacific, and on behalf of California We emphasize the vital need of a Military Road along the Coast and a Military Road along the Eastern Base of the Sierra Nevadas to utilize the Great, Natural Strategic Advantages of the Mountain Passes and thereby create near the border of the Republic, an inner line of defense invulnerable for approximately one thousand miles.

Both the routes mentioned are traversed by important highways now in use that only call for adaptation to military requirements, for which purpose we ask examination and survey by the War Department. Examination and survey of the mountain route is specified in H. R. 260 already introduced in Congress, and we earnestly appeal for your active support thereof.

The United States are now a conspicuous participant in the most ter rifie war known to history, of which the inevitable result is to be either general welfare or national woe.

Events constantly occurring show that the unexpected is liable to happen and no one can foretell what the morrow may bring.

Experience proves that to concentrate upon efficient offensive and neglect efficient defensive invites disaster.

California beseeches improvement of its astounding, undeveloped, natural facilities for resistance against invasion, not for itself but as an unprotected threshold of the Nation.

CALIFORNIA NATIONAL DEFENSE HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION,

To Signpost Routes Between Salt Lake and San Francisco In the belief that Northern California is not receiving the expected benefits from the naming of San Francisco as the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the California State Highway Association has started a campaign to raise funds for the proper marking of that great transcontinental road with the official signs of the association from Salt Lake City to the terminus in Lincoln Park, San Francisco.

The California State A. A. officials claim that the routing of the Lincoln Highway via Ely, has enabled the energetic Automobile Club of Southern California to reap a large portion of the benefits accruing from west-bound travel, due to the fact that the tourist is diverted by A. C. of S. C. signs and personal solicitation to leave the main highway at Ely, and tour Pacific-ward via the Midland Trail, finally reaching the Coast at Los Angeles.

At its last session the Legislature of Nevada adopted an act establishing two main trunk lines through the Stateone following the route of the Lincoln Highway through Fallon Sink, Austin and Ely to Salt Lake City, and the more northern route following the railroad through Winnemucca and Elko to the Utah capital. It is understood that the latter route will be the first to receive attention, and the California State A. A. proposes to signpost both routes in order that San Francisco and Northern California shall receive the benefits to which it believes they are entitled.

The highway between San Francisco and Reno will be properly marked this summer, and the campaign for funds is to raise the necessary money to continue the work into Nevada.

National Automobile Body Elects Officers

At a record gathering of automobile manufacturers with more than ninety companies represented, the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce members recently elected Charles Clifton, head of the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Co., to the presidency. Other officers elected were: Vice-president. Wilfred C. Leland (Cadillac); division vice-presidents, Hugh Chalmers (Chalmers), Windsor T. White (White), and Herbert H. Rice (Oakland); secretary, R. D. Chapin (Hudson); treasurer, George Pope, and general manager, Alfred Reeves. The new directorate includes John F. Dodge (Dodge), Hugh Chalmers, C. W. Churchill (Winton), Charles Clifton, J. Walter Drake (Hupp), C. C. Hatch (Studebaker), Wilfred C. Leland, Alvan Macauley (Packard), William E. Metzger (Columbia). R. E. Olds (Reo), Carl H. Pelton (Maxwell), H. H. Rice, Windsor T. White and John N. Willys (Overland).

Big Cotton Crop Promised for Imperial Valley Prospects for big crops of all kinds in the Imperial Valley this season are reported as very good. The cotton acreage on the American side shows a remarkable increase of 31,000 acres over last year. Below the boundary approximately 85,000 acres are under cultivation, most of which is in cotton. An estimate of cotton in the valley places the figure for both sides at 140,000 acres.

Volume I. No. 1, of "Duplex Doings," further styled "The Heavy Haulers' Magazine," has appeared. As the house pamphlet of the Duplex Truck Co., Lansing, Mich., it will be published monthly in the interests of motor truck