Arizona republican., 1894-06-16
FIRST KNOCK DOWN.
The City Lands Hard on the
 Sign-Post Franchise.
Mir. Baker Who Discovered a Hole and Put Post Into It Is Given
 Nominal Fine.

If the city can keep up the gait it struck yesterday and maintained to the first quarter pole, when it comes under the wire MT. E. H. Winters and his sign post and street designating franchise will have been shut out. It is intended to convey that in the action against MT. Baker who WAS charged with ob- structing the streets the defendant was found guilty and fined $l. One dollar isn't much of financial gain in itself but if it can be made to stick Tn this instance it will be eqcal to hundreds of dollars to Phoenix.
 Tn suit is the beginning of the con test b etween MT. Winters and the city council to test the validity and durabil lty of his franchise for disfguring the streets of the city.
 MT. Baker, the plaintiff, Is sub-con- tractor detected and arrested in the act of sowing summer crop Of sign posts.
 The determination of his guilt or in- nocence of the charge against him was matter of no impoTta1 ce except in so far as 1t indicated the plan of campaign.
 He was defended by Messre. Arm strong and Campbell. The prosecution was managed by City Attorney Israel.
 The testimony for the city consisted of the marshaPs story of the arrest of the defendant after the passage of resolution by the council declaring the sign post contract off. It was learned too that the posts had been located by
 
 the franchise had prescribed that they must be exactly on the street corner, the holder of the franchise seemed to be as closely circumscrIbed as the mer- chant of Venice had been by the bond which allowed him pound of bloodless flesh, not more and no less.
 This particular post, of which com plaint was made, was set out with refer ence to two rows of shade trees which do not seem to have been set out with reference to anything else than the we'll known mathematical principles that the shortest distance between two points is straight line and that two objects may be easily placed on a straight line. Anyway the city engi neer discovered that the objectiona ble post had been located in the street four feet and some inches in one direction and two feet and odd inches in another nom the exact corner. The reader will not understand that this post was in two directions from the corner but that 1t was so far south and so far west from it's legal location.
 The witnesses for the defence were the defendant himself and Mr. Winters. P PnI nrt1 o1., to the discovery of the hole in which he placed the post. He disavowed all resDonsi bility for the hole, but he stated where it was with reference to the shade trees.
 Mir. Winters described the ordinance under which he was operating and the expense 80 far of carrying out it's pro- visions, which, including lum Der, labor and paint, was not far from $2,000.
 Then the arguments were begun. The city attorney briefly stated that he intended only to consider Mir. Baker as an obstructionist and a violator of ordinance No. 100, but if the other gen. tlemen deslred to drag MT. Winters in- to this row he would assist The other gentlemen replied that this was the sort of complication they were after.
 MT. Armstrong offered an array of authorities to show that the city could not crawl out of bad bargain and that a nuisance officially authorized was go.
 Judge Campbell offered some more authorities of the same tenor and in- dulged in light and airy remarks about the city council.
 Judge Israel closed by introducing counteracting precedents showing that the authorities offered by his brethren on the other side related to foreign af- fairs. He stuck rigidly to the theory that when Mir. Baker was arrested he was infracting ordinance No. 100. The court took the same view of it and the other side appealed.