The Arizona champion., 1890-10-11
AN OPEN LETTER.

Prescott, Arizona, October ,, 1890.
 To James R Lowry, Candidate for
 Sheriff of Yavapai County, Arizona:
 Sir:-Your selection as one of the
 two candidates for the office of sheriff
 of Yavapai county, has induced me as
 citizen and we'll wisher of that coun-
 ty to recall to your attention certain of your official acts while member of
 the territorial board of equalization
 and ask for an explanation of the same.
 In doing this, I d2 so regardless of the
 political affiliations of either of us. 1
 do it merely as an individual, and do it now before the campaign has opened in order that you Rlay have ample time to make whatever defence you, may deem most neat and proper. You
 will remember that early in 1889 you received and accepted from 0. Meyer Zulick, then governor, an n'appointment as a membei of the territorial board of equalization, to represent the northern district of Misunderstanding of the counties of Mohave, Yavapai and Apdche In doing so you became, as it were, the representative of the tax. payers of those counties. You were the man selected to see that even handed justice was done to all classes; that no man. or set of men should be foDorad In fbo ,,,a 31a, ,,, 1,,.H than another. To the miner, the nierf chant, the stockman, the rancher, as well as to the corporations of northern Arizona; and especially to those of Yavapai county, you were to act justly -unmoved by fear or favor. Did ycg do this? No. From the outset you constituted yourself the champion of the railroad corporations of northern Arizona-and especially those of Yav apai county by doing everything in in your power to favor them at the ex-- pense of the men who you now ask to elect you to the highest office in your county. You were a railroad hench- men, man to do their bidding, no matter 70 matter at what cost to fellow citizens, Let the records of your county show how well you do this. In June 1889 wien you entered on the duties of your office the assessments against the three railroads of Yavapai county -the ASlai.ttt FE PaciGc,' the Prescott x Arizona Central, and the Central Arizona railway-amounted to S1, 989, ,S5480- or over, one-third the taxable property of the county. In August 1889, less than three months after, the assessments against these railroads were reduced hy your action you were the only man on the board from northcrn AIizona--to Sl, ,519, GA. Against this reduction you never protested. On the contrary you favored it by voting aye. Yet you you must have known by doing so you reducel the tax roll of Yavapai cou9ty S470, g40.80 on which tLe taxe1g fer 1889 would have arlountgl to sl4,- l07 20. You saved that amount to the millionaire owners of these rail roads, by making the laboring men Of
 Yavapai county pay it One road alone. tl9 Prescott and Arizona Cen tral, you assessed for less u ali the subsidy that Yatapai county had sis en to build it. In the face o. this rec, r you now ask yonr fellow citizens O.
 Yavapai county to elect you to the office of sheriff and assessor; to a posit- ion where yoL can persue the same favoritism t6 corporations that has already saved them thousand- of dol lars, position for which your own party in convention for this aery fav- ortism to corporations 6aSs ofssn re pudiated you. What have you to sayl Let us hear fom you if pod have any explanations to offer in regards to your action in'the past hi Yavapai county today there are monopoli tic corporat- i ions who control hundreds of thousands of acres of land, "who monOpolize the timber, the water and the fanges of our county yet who by such''m men as you, shirk and throw on the i6divid- ual taxptper the burden of taxes which they, themselves, should in justice bear, AS ilmh the past you have favored them can you offer any req son why you will not do so in the futurel If it were worth 'while'a yEar ago to betray the men who ocu now ask to support you for office for the benefit of eastern mil lionaireS, is there any reason why you will not do it year hence? Hoping to