Arizona weekly citizen., 1886-10-30
TO THE VOTERS orPuMA COUNTY.


 preIldice against any class or party, and
 unInfiuenced by tue smallest spirit oi
 partisanship, we would earnestly request
 the impartial attention of the voters o
 Pima county, both republican and dem
 ocratic, to the matters for grsve reflection
 which m this article we respectfully sub
 init to their careful consideration
 Never, since the close of the war. hss
 there been tune jn our DatioI's history
 when the careful. patriotic and serious | consideration of its atfairs-local as vel
 as national-was more imperatively re-
 quired from every worthy citizen and true lover of his country. Prominently and omiaously preseliing itself as C grim spectre. to tie thoughtful retiec- ton Of citizeos of every class in life to the working nun. the mechanic, the miner, the farmer. the manufacturer and the capitalists the universal paraly- SIS of almost every national industry. causing stegnation Tn every class of manufacture. trade and business-s par alysIs which (it Is not too mu1h to sny) IS unparalleled In the history of the country. Among the classes of industry with which we. in Pima county, are most closely idehiifisd, it is almost needless to point to the c-@atest industry of the ves silver minipg-ss having SD fIered com. plete prostrBtion, under the general par slysis, from the uncalled for deprecia- ton of this valuable metal. To enumer- ate all the branches of industry affected almost to extInguishment by this uni versal paralysis, would occupy too much space. Pages and pages could be filled in merely recording the sad wrecks of vast business enterprises that have oc cured within the past two years-en- terprlses which before that time had en- Ioyed an uninterrupted. with seemingly the prospect of lasting, prosperity. Whole pages could Ue covered with the names of old and honored commercial and manufacturing establishments which through no fault of their enterprising and respected owners, have fallen in the general ruin.
 Deny II as we may. i. is not the less s sad truth that with almost inexhaustible resources for the creation of wealth, the masses Of our people are neither Increas- ing m wealth, nor are ths means of se- curing q liying-much less & compet- ency-so essliy sttainable by them. The hundreds of thousands of unemployed men and women crying out for work 10 get bread for themselves and their fam lilies. is a sad but convincing proof ih,t this is 30. The thousands of abandoned silver mines on the now lonely and de- serted slopes and summits of our great western mountains present themselves bs mourniul relics of a past prosperi- ty which should never have fallen into decay. The absence of the hardy and fearless prospector-the great architect of the prosperity Of the west-from our canyons and rugged mountains, is the strongest and most telling evidence of the crushing calamity that has almost ef- flced this once proud product of the most valuable of our national resources. A. universal want of confidence on the part of capital tO invest in even the most legitimate enterprises, is one of the most convincing proofs of the feeling of inss- curity, and of the disturbed uncertainty ot affairs, which has caused this weaken ing of faith, ID the future prosperity of the nation.
 Let us seriously reflect upon the causes of the evils that now affect our prosperity, and still mors gravely men ace our future progress; and let ms ask ourselves to what causes are those evils to be attributed? Has there been a uni versal cstsclysm overwhelming and de- troying the products of the land! Has there been a destructive plague devsst- gting the great cattle industry of the country? Or has any other phenomenal affiiction come upon us, to place the ous mess and industries of the land In .he condition into which they have been gradually sinking for the past three yesrs? Has if been owing to the diminution or exhaustion of sll or any of the nations past resources, that this apparently unaccouniable stagna- ton and depression have occurred? Unhesitatingly we snswer-No! To not one cf these csuses can be attributed the universal prostrstion from which we suffer What then IS the cause Of the evils which effect both states and terri tories alike. To the thoughtful and re- fiective mind. il is not difficult to trace those evils to their source. A negligent, minimizing, indifferent, and too often corrupt exercise of the right of franchise the greatest privilege with which free man IS endowel-is the very grava- men of our ills. The unfaithful and | dishonest discharge of this sacred duty ! to us by those who shed l their blood that 1t might be our ipviolable right, has placed our couu- try and its desiinies, too frequently l upder the control and government of men, in every way unworthy of SO great A trust. Forgetting in their desire for selt-aggrandizement every obligation that this trust with which they were honored. imposed upon tbem-have we not seen them, in too many instance, baseIy betrsy the confidence reposed m them, and unscrupulously sacrifice the interests of the millions for the benefit If A few; as witness the action Of the present administration in its damaging and aggressive policy against silver mining. Do these evils admit of a cure' or are they without remedy?
 Both the cure and the remedy rest msasurably with you, voters of Pims countv, in the honest exercise of your mffrages, as they do with the voters or .ba nation at large, the proper exercise