Arizona republican., 1895-03-10
The WelcOme.


 When the train arrived the visitors appeared on the rear platform of the Chicago & Northwestern car, and Dr. L. H. Goodrich introduced Col. Fitch, who said:
 Mr. Fairbanks and Gentlemen:
 If I were to make this opportunity an excuse for lengthy speech I should be unmindful of the proprieties of the occasion. It is expected of me only that i'll behalf of the people of this city and county, and indeed of this en- tire territory, l express to you the warmth with which they greet you, and the heartiness with which they bid you enter our gates. You come 10 us not as heraldE with mouths filled with grardl ose promises of what you intend to int1u- ence other men to do, and not as ora tors seeking to gain fame by telling of 1 what other men have done, but you come to us fresh from arduous accomp- 1 lishment to view in is swa1dling clothes of purple the infant common i wealth which you-more than any | other men-will have helped to its coming career of growth and greatness. You come crowned with the laurels of a conquest over the brute forces of nature, of triumph over desolation and dis i tances, of victory over panic in the east and steep mountain grades in the west. Whatever the critics of the future may have in store for you today you are very welcome. There is not a door in Phoenix that will not spring back upon it's hinges at the sight of you, and all that we have in the way of hospitality is at your disposal, for we entirely appreciate all that your capital and courage have done for us, and all the benefits that your enterprise will bring to us both in the near and the re- mote future.
 seek to make no odious com parisons and 70 give voice to no churlIsh con- plaints. I dare say that we may have been afforded all the accommodations to which we were, in commercial sense, entitled, but the fact is that Phoenix has been side tracked for long time. Her people have worn grooves with their weary feet upon the railroad platform at Maricopa as they ram bled up and down at midnight and ''clothed themselves with cursing, as with gar ment," waiting for overdue overlands. Her merchants have bewailed the freight rates that crippled their trade and they were not philosophical enoue h to console themselves with the rehec- tion that such must be the fate of those who do business at non competing points. 4 g for the farmers, they ex- press themselves as disgusted with be- ing forced to divide with a railroad partner who takes not only all the profits but actually carries off all the assets and leaves the hardhanded agriculturist to bear all the losses and owe all the debts.
 Our welcome to you, gentlemen, is all the heartier becauee we believe that your enterprise will bring us relief from these unfortunate and harassing conditions. We do not pretend to think that in investing your capital in this railr oad you were moved by purely eleemosynarv impulses. You doubtless expect the profits that you will fairly earn and that you will surely receive. Yet it will, I think, be a source of sat isfaction to you as it is to us to know that your gain will be no mans loss to know that the people with whom you will do business will profit with you; to know that the dollars that the Santa Fe, Prescott X Phoenix Railroad company will earn will be clean and honest dollars, gathered from Natures bounty and not filched from the pockets of those who would suffer by the exac tion. When your trains go north lader with the products of this valley you will know that the farmer will receive for his alfalfa and grain and cattle and fruits and honey more than he has received of late years, while the north ern consumer will pay less than he ha: |, been accustomed to pay. When youl trains come south laden with lumber and coa! you will know that the Phe nix householder will pay less fol building material and fuel than ht pays now, while the lumbermen anC '