Arizona weekly miner., 1874-02-06
tFrom Wednesday Daily.l To Contractors.

The grand scramble for government con tracts will come a month from to-day, and, as men who intend to "propoSe" are now figuring, now i, the time for the MINER and hundreds of readers who are interested in the lrosrerlty vf the Territory, 10 do every thing tuir aud honorable 10 put down rivalry among business men and, il possible, secure to iatmgrs and others, fair, living prlc,s for their products and labor. This can only be dVuc by earnest, open, intelligent talking and working; never by bullying or windy resolves m secret conclaye, for the reason that, at present, there IS but one big buyer in the market--goyernmcut- and it buys m such way IS not to bring it's agents face to face with the producers. It will employ mlddle-men 10 do this work for 1t, and, as some of these have vast quantities oi last years grain, etc, still on their hands, Tor which they have paid either cash or goods, the contest between such men promises to be as bitter as ever, and, 1t is to such men the MINER wishes to address itself, as follows;
 Las. years crop was, we all nnow, an un- common large oIr, which, owing to the withdrawal 0f several companies Of cavalry | from the Territory, to the stoppage of work | by the Vulture and other mining companies
 
 1 will be quite different, as, owing to the dam | age done grain, etc, in the fields of Salt Riy- CT and the Gila, by the recent destructive floods, scarcely one half the quantity of bar ley ra sed and harvested last year, in those great granaries, will this year be raised, so that barley is not likely to be the "drug in the market" it last year was. Nor, Is 1t probable that any great amount of corn will be raised in this upper country, since the in- ducements for raising it are not great. Here, then Is a basis to work upon. No surplus grain can this year be looked for; not one pound of grain which will not be needed by government ard citizens, so that no matter who gets the contracts for turning it in, he or they will have to have it all to till the bill
 This being the case, why cannot those whC design proposing, exchange views with one
 another, fix upon prices at which grain, etc
 cannot be brought here at profit, from New
 Mexico, and bid for contracts upon this basis This price will have to be low, owing to th' fact that labor, etc., in New Mexico, cost scarcely anything and prices of store good l are much lower than those which rule among } us. But, even these advantages which New Mexico possesses, are overbalanced by tn,
 length, roughness and perils Of the roads he { teams would have to traverse in reaching al the posts and settlements in this Territory
 save Apache, Bowie and, perhaps, San Carlos
 Of course, we do not favor anything like tn F forming of a combination to force from gov - ernment anything like extortionate prices No Arizonan wants this nor does govern :, ment care to cramp the producer by getting n his grain at less price than he can afford 1, . . raise and sell it.
 f To conclude, prices of everything, say o farm products have been, are yet, very hig ' all over the Territory; the partial suspension
 of mining the drouth in this upper country
 the great floods in the lower country, an U many other depressing causes make it actu
 ally necessary that this should be a year
 prosperity. and 1t can only be made so i
 the way above indicated.