The Arizona sentinel., 1895-03-09

ulCu dLuS oI tue walls; INefG IS
 enough in the same hill and ad- Joining hills to complete the struct-
 ure according to adopted plans;
 and with the exception of the first three or four cells, all the buildings
 on the prison site at Yuma, were
 constructed by prison labor. Pres
 colt has no agricultural resources.
 They depend there upon rains or wells entirely, and there are four years of drouth to one wet year,
 and the capacity of wells for irri-
 gation purposes is too limited to
 be practicable. Prescott offers 80
 acres of ground. The present site includes ten acres, and, immed-
 lately adjoining, is the prison farm
 containing 2000 acres, all of which
 can be placed under cultivation.
 The idea that the prison could be
 made more self-sustaining if the
 bill now before the legislature
 should pass is absurd, and some of
 the reasons advanced in favor of
 that idea are outrageous in their
 aim against the welfare of the pee- pie of the Territory. What re- munerative work could the prison
 CTS be put at there and not here?
 The principal resources of Yav- apai county lie-in it's lumber and
 minerals. We of Yuma county, it
 is true, must import our lumber,
 but we are so close to the California
 market that we can get it nearly as cheap as they can make it, and there is but little lumber used in the building of a penitentiary. The material used is iron and stone. Iron must be imported to Prescott, at largely increased cost over i'm portation here, and, as this article shows, stone can be had cheaper at this point. Prescott can make no saving by means of Agricultural products, while Yuma can furnish the prison with every kind of vegetable, all the year round, and utilize convict labor on the farm. Owing to climatic conditions, what few vegetables are raised in Yav- apai county, only grow during a small portion of the year. Do the people of the northern town pro- pose to use convict labor in dress ing lumber and manufacturing ar ticles from it, for orinstance furniture, wagons, etc., and thus seize their bread from out the mouths of free laborers? If such is to be the policy of the territory in managing it's penal institution, we want none of it, and yet, even in that line, the prison here could do better than at Prescott. We can make better. furniture, wagons, etc, than can be made there, for wood seasons to perfection in this climate, and we are nearer to market for such products.
 Yuma county.is as rich in min erals as Yavapai, but it cannot be seriously proposed that convict labor is to be employed in our mines, as in some of the states. Surely the Journal Miner and Courier must be rattled to advance such proposition as that. Those papers advance the proposition that California has largely supplied the prison. The contracts have been open to bidders all over the world, and bids have been uni formly from parties within the territory and both from California and the east, and the lowest bidder, of course, prevailed. It can not be otherwise unless the legislature should pass an Act requiring that products raised in ArIzana should take precedence over similar pro- ducts raised elsewhere. and the supply be given to the lowest Arizona bidder.
 From whence has Prescott got her supplies during all the past years? Why, from California and the East and she will continue to do so as long as she can get them cheaper. Phoenix can supply the prison at Yuma as cheaply as at Prescott and she does so, in all in which she can meet competition, through the contrac- tors. No one can be fooled by any statement that contractors will buy through motives of sentiment, Or ap1, ,,7otivo o~copf tbot Ioolyinr +o