Arizona silver belt., 1889-08-10
Wny ARIZONA sHoJLD REMAIN A TER.
 Esr0Ry.

The characterization, by Hoof and Horn, oi the act to provide for hold ing constitutional convention fer ArizOna as "a roaring farce is scarce F appropriate, inasmuch as the pro posed attempt at abortion by the pre-. mature delivery of Arizona as State, will prove costly experiment. Hoof and Horn estimates the cost at S60 0Q0, as follows; Expense of holding the convention, Sl0,000; expense ot cleo ton of delegates to the convention, S25.000; expense of the second election 10 submit the constitution to the peo- pie for approval or rejection, s25, 900. These figures are probably less than the expense would really be, and this heavy charge mnst be borne by the tax payers of the Territory, no matter how distasteful thls ill-adyisad move ment may be to them.
 The Phoenix Gazette has tue impu- dence to assert that ;he people of the Territory favor statehood and the pol. itIcians oppose it. Such 8 brazsn falsehood is too ridiculous to merit more than passing attention. If the politicians of the Territory, who are clamoring to suck the federal tete, could be choked of there would be in. tense silence on the statehood. question.
 Tie reasons advanced why Arizopa should be clothed with sovereignty form q flimSy tissue of distorted facts and figures, easily punctured. The population ot the Territory was es- timated by Zulick at 100000, and the legislature adopted his figures, but State advocates recognizing the ab- surdity of this guess have receded to SO,O00, which they assure us is very moderate estimate of Arizona s popu- lation No explanation is gwen how they arrive at 1t, however. Based upon the vote for delegate Tn the last general election the population of the Territory, reckoning five persons to every voter, is about 57000, but this is manifestly too great, as majority of voters are single men, and ratio of less than 1 to l would be nearer correct The vote of Nevada Tn 1888 was 12,596-more than 1000 larger than the vote of Arizona--and yet tho population of Nevada is estimated at little less than 50,000. The fact that the vote of Arizona increased only I'll 10,S27 to II ,53S) from 1886 to 1888, shows that her population is increasing at snail's pace, and at that rate nearly 20 years will inter yene before the number of her inhabi- tants reaches 10000; but we hope for greater progress than that.
 Agaip, the memorial adopted by the 18th Legislature says the taxable property of said Territory amounts to fully S75,oO0000 cash yalue and is in- creasing at the rate of twenty-five per cent per annum." How are we to reconcile that assertion with the statement of the Territorial Auditor who places the cash value of the taxa ble property at little above S26,000,- 900? This is certainly wlde discrep- ancy.
 The Territorial indebtedness is al- most S600,00o, and taxation in every county of the Territory is onerous, and in several has almost reached the limit of 1 per cent fixed by law; yet statehood would greatly increase the burden resting on tax payers, as VIC would then have to pay the salaries of the Governor, Secretary and Judges, as well as the Legislative expenses, which are now defrayed by the federal government.
 These are few of the most obvious reasons why Arizona should not seek to embrace statehood, and Congress ieili uudoubtedly take thls view of the