Dick Cowles Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Russo, I agree with you that economic development
> for the region was important, but the actual
> legislation by both states says:
> "CUMBRES AND TOLTEC SCENIC RAILROAD
> COMPACT The state of New Mexico and the
> state of Colorado, desiring to provide for the joint
> acquisition, ownership and control of an interstate
> narrow gauge scenic railroad, known as the Cum-
> bres and Toltec scenic railroad, within Rio Arriba
> county in New Mexico and Archuleta and Conejos
> counties in Colorado,
to promote the public wel-
>
fare by encouraging and facilitating recreation
> and by preserving, as a living museum for future
> generations, a mode of transportation that helped
> in the development and promotion of the territories
> and states
. . ."
I don't have a copy of the charter readily available, Dick, so thank you for quoting the relevant section -
Like I said, "promote the public welfare" –
the goal – precedes "by encouraging and facilitating recreation and by preserving as a living museum" –
the means to that end. The story I have heard is that when the group promoting preservation approached Clarence Quinlan for help in saving the railroad, he tossed their carefully prepared "historic preservation" argument into the fire and told them to approach the state legislatures with the "economic development" issue foremost and "historic preservation" (aka increasingly popular "history tourism") as a way to achieve it. As JBWX pointed out above, "promote the public welfare" is the language "our" government resorts to when it wants to accomplish (or get away with) spending money on something that not all of us may approve
. . .
- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2018 11:31PM by Russo Loco.
