The St. Johns herald., 1889-08-22
Why Arizona. Should Remain ;
 Territory.

nOidlng d collStlluLIOIldI COilNeHIlOi
 for Arizona as "a roaring farce" l:
 scarcely appropriate, inasmuch a:
 the proposed attempt at abortion
 by the premature delivery of Ari
 zona as State, will prove a costly
 experiment. Hoof and Horn esti
 mates the cost at $60,000, as fol
 lows: Expense ofholding the con
 vention,' 's10,000 expense ofelectior
 of delegates to the convention, S25,'
 GOO; expense of the second election
 to submit the constitution to the
 people for approval or rejection
 $25,000. These fngures are pro-
 bably less than the expenses would
 really be, and this heavy charge
 must be borne by the taxpayers ol
 the Territory, no matter how dis
 tasteful this ill-advised movement
 may be to them.
 The Phoenix Gazette has the inn
 pudence to assert the people of the Territory favor statehood and the politicians oppose.it. Such brazen falsehood is too ridiculous to merit more than passing attention. 1.-the politicians of the Territory, who are clamoring to suck the federal teat, could be choked off there would be intense silence on the statehood question.
 The reason advanced why Ari- zona should be clothed with sover- eighty form a himsy tissue of dis torted facts and figures, easily pune tured. The population of the Ter ritoy was estimated by Zulick at 100000, and the legislature adopted his figures, but State advocates re- cognizing theiabsurdity ofthls guess have receded to 80,000, which they assure us is q very moderate esti- timate of Arizona's population. No explanation is given how they ar rive at 1t, however Based upon the vote for delegate in the last general election the population of the Territory, reckoning five per sons to every voter, is about 57 ,000, but this is manifestly too great, as a majority of voters are single men, and a ratio of less than four to one would be nearer correct. The vote of Nevada in 1888 was 12,596| than 1000 larger than the vote of Arizona-and yet the pop ulation of Nevada is estimated at a little less than 50,000. The fact that the vote of Arizona increased only I'll (1O,827 to 1,53S) from 1886 to 1888, shows that her popu- lation is increasing at a snail's pace, and at that rate nearly 20 years will intervene before the number of her reaches 100000: but we sope for greater progress than that
 Again. the memorial adopted by the 10th Legislature says ''the tax able property of said Territory amounts to fully $75,000,000 cash value and is increasing at the rate of twenty five per cent per annum." How are we to reconcile that asser- ton with the statement of the Ter ritorial Auditor who places the cash value of the taxable property at a little above $25,OO0,00O? This is certainly a wide discrepancy.
 The Territorial indebtedness is almost $500,000, and taxation in every county of the Territory is one rous, and in several has almost | reached the limit of 4 per cent fixed i by law; yet statehood would great .y increase the burden resting on tax payers, as we would then have to pay the salaries of the Governor, Secretary and Judges as we'll as he legislative expenses, which are DOW defrayed by the federal govern ment.
 These are few of the most ob- 1ious reasons why Arizona should lot seek to embrace statehood, and Congress will undoubtedly take this