The Highway That Keeps Moving

Years ago, interested solons from Grays Harbor and Pacific counties induced the legislature to set aside the usable portions of the Pacific Ocean beach in Southwestern Washington as a permanent public highway. Old Father Neptune never has been in a good humor about that deal and both Land Commissioner C. V. Savidge and Highway Engineer James Allen are trying to dodge responsibility for fighting with the ocean for possession of the two automobile speedways. When the Pacific Ocean is in a good humor the waters recede, leaving big tracts of newly-made ground and apparently moving the speedways farther out toward the sea. Then comes a period of bitterness with property owners at the summer resorts who claim this newly-made land. Later ensues a period when the ocean furiously beats against the shore and carries away great tracts of old shore lands. Then comes a season of controversy with summer resort people over title to the place where the land used to be but isn’t any more. The ribbon of sand, hard packed and ideal for automobile speeding, moves in and out with recurring seasons like an Adam’s apple in a nervous man’s neck. Both Mr. Savidge and Mr. Allen are tired of searching annually for the famous speedways and then quarreling with the natives over the ownership of the site. They will ask the lawmakers to do something that will end the bickering.