Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-07-27
CAN AFFORD TO BE GENEROUS

lE Is highly probably that some action will be taken by the people of the Salt river and Gila valleys in the way of rec ompeasing General Johnson for his trouble, expenses and labor in defeat ing tue notorious Peralta Rsavis land grant case. Hsd it not been for General Johnson, who perslstently sssailed the claims of Ragvis and branded him as an impos ter and his clam as an insoient fabrication, it IS not only possible, but it is probable, that the citizens of the Salt and Gila valleys would today be sitting rot under their own vine and fig tree, but under the shadow of land
 lordism, and the home they today call their owp would belong to another st whose mercy the very happiness of their firesides and families would depend.
 When Johnson asseiled the legality of the claim he did 1t single handed and alone He went further and in the face Of restrictive order from Washington, made an exhaustive report tO the gov ernment setting forth the frauduleEcy of the pretsnded grant, and ID that re- port he laid down the lines upon which the great scheme was defeated. Thus fact was evidenced by the attorneys for inc United States, who offered the re- port in toto as evidence Of itself sufiic- i :nt to brand the claim as false and gn outrage upon the good people of Arizona. A greater compliment could not have been given the man for it must be re- mem bsred that Reavis was TO ordinary rogue to be tripped up by country squira, but man, a rem grkable genius in the art Of manufacturing evidence and faisifylng records, and who WAS sarewdiy capable of misleading the greatest lawyers aEd statesmen of his generation. James A. Broadhead of St. Louis, now minister to Switzerland, declared, on an examination of the Reavis documents, in San Francisco, 'rhe title Is perfect, We have nothing to do, but gc home aud wait" for conir- nation of title by the land court. Sen aton Conkiin after an examination lasting through two weeks said to Ed ward Stokes If this mans papers are genuine he has 6 perfect title" Bob Ingersoll, was but one of a thousand others who fell into the "perfect title" rra-51apr cf o hiuh conpd ing title corporation pushed the claims O. the great schemer. h the meantime, while these things were going CD, JOhn- sons report was lying quietly in pigeon hole in the Interior department, at Washington. Although client it was noas the less active. The body of the great scheme WAS fir to look upon and the promise of millions of wealth lay thick around 1t ard. about 1t bat the seed of death had been sown, Johnson report was the lncer that ate the heart out of the mag nifsisnt fabric snd 1t fell, and the rever- beration ot that fall was heard in every home ard by the side Of every hearth stone in central and southern Arizona. Men Were made rich by beiag confirmed in their possessions and today they can truly sit under their own vine and hg tree. But VI bat Of Johnson who wrought himself nearly bind Tn their behalf, and for a time the saving of his ght Was ds paired Of. He is a man of limited means and oppressed by debt. More than this We should not be called upon to say to the good people O. the Great Gila and Salt River Vailsys and to the owners of the great mines and mineral belss that lie within the claImed lines os the grant and who have like interest with the agriculturists.