Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1891-05-13
a ser,ou. Proplem.

prOOtcinS SIcSiiuR tuS uuahsaa' ing t, Arizona. but that it enacted many laws that will disastiously affect | tbe credit as we'll as the monetary stand ing of the territory and it's several coun- ties This is. to some extent, exempli- fed by the so-called CountY Expense bill.
 What CT why such bill was ever en- acted by men SO familiar with the none tsry systems of the different counues il
 is hard to conceive. Simply and solely it provides for the repudia,ion of the ob- lisation of indebtedness issued on the county without single advantage to bs
 realized. To the holders of cousty war-
 rants. who have taken such securities iu
 good faith, the law in question calmly
 tells them that they must wat, and does
 no, even attempt, to say when or how they
 may expect to get the money justly due
 them. It inay be two or it may be ten
 years hence, but no matter how long or
 short the time may be the warrant is
 bearing 10 per cent interest. which the taxpayers will .some day have to mee,
 and settle. While the bill is unjust to
 the warrant holder, It is even more so 10
 the men who are called on to transact
 business with the county, for to them
 net even an evidence of indebtedness
 can be granted. They must wait until cash IS in the treasury to pay them, and, in the meantime, they have not even the privilege of receiving negotiable security. Men knowing this govern themselves accordingly. and the county IS made to suffer by paying more for its labor and material than anyone else.
 Ia this way while the county gains ab- solu,ely nothing, Its indebtedness is be- ing constantly increased by the interest that is accumulating On ist warrants and the additional charges made by those do- ing business with it to cover tbe ut certainty of their business relations. while the public at home and abroad be- coms alarmed at such open prostitution of legislative powers to repudiase the set clement of just and legal claims. Finau- cially, the condition of each county is thus rendered more piecariols than be- fore, and men proceed to regard with distrust everything in ,te nature o; a public security bearing an Arizona i'm press. How such a measure tould have ever received the support Of mt so familiar with the finances of our counties and territory, as must hay been Me SITS. Zuhck, H radon, B i'd sin, Dennis and others, 1t is hard 10 COL ceive.
 Even more inexplicsble than the en- ac,ment of the County Expense law, was the total failure of the legislature to do aught in the way of providing for the sn- nual deficit os nearly $45 900 by the en- actment of laws amending and changing our present revenue system. During 1889 I and 1890 the territory expended $SS.- 4I66z more than its total revenus | amounted 10 That is to say thas for ] each of the years mentioned our out ! standing indebtedness was increase1 by $44 POS. sr. Yet the legislature did not l even attempt to make such changes as would meet this immense deficit, and for the next two years this amount will. on ! account of such non-action, be placed
 on the wrong side of the ledger On the | first of January, 1891, the entire indeb;- l edness of Arizona was $7sI,ooo which as i, is shown during the next two years ! vii. be increased by territorial warrants | to the amount of about $SS, 900, besrir 2 10 per cent per annum, so that on tte convening oi the Seventeenth h legislative ! assembly the territorial indebtedness vii be in round numbers over $500, ,ooe. Had the last legislature insterd of hag- gling over such questions as to whether the attorney general shonld receive ST, 200 instead of $s. 900 per annum. or the,uperintendent of public instruction $7so instead of $2,ooo, or whether the the Texas caie should be sold at S2.5 ins'ead of $Ie per volume, turned its at tention to meeting this enormous deficit, the financial condition would have been be,tered instead of as it now is, glowing
 steadily worse.
 Had tbe legislature been so disposed l it could have, by an imposition of an an- nual tax on foreign corporations. such as express, insurance, railroad, stage and similar companies, which are imposed on every other territory and state, met this deficit without putting any additional burden on the shoulders of the taxpay- CTS. An attempt was made to some ex- tent to reduce the expenditureof the ter ritorial government by the abolition of the offices of territorial geolosist and commissioner of immigration and the reduction of the salaries of the attorney general and superintendent of pubic
 
 instruction recommended in the gover-
 nor's message, but the total amount thus
 saved annually is less than $6.ooo. while
 by the enactment of the expensive and
 cumbersome Australian ballot system
 and the expense of holding the const'tu-
 tional convention, additional expenses
 will he imposed that will far overbalarce
 the saving made by the changes in the
 territorial salaries. By tbe failure oi the