Arizona republican., 1896-08-19

property in existence in said county. As the representatives of both the Re- publican and Democratic parties in the last legislature urged the passage by congress of this act, we challenge the leaders and press of those parties to state why it was done, or who in Ari- zona profted by it.
 eve advocate the government recla- nation and irrigation of the arid lands of the west, and the government con- trol of all water supplies valuable for the purposes of irrigation, and pend ing the adoption of such policy by the National government, we demand the passage of an irrigation law by the next territorial legislature, providing for the public control of all works of irrigation in Arizona. The basic prin- caples of such act to be: a
 1. That irrigation canals and all similar works are merely common car riers of water, having no title or con- troa whatever over the public waters diverted by them beyond that which may be necessary for the delivery of such waters to the consumers. o. "That the annual water charge to consumers shall be so much per inch, and shall be fixed by duly author ized public. officers. That the same shall be fair and equitable, and that no charge shall be collected except for water actually delivered.
 3. "That every canal company shall be responsible for any loss due to fail ure on it's part to furnish water which it may have contracted to deliver.
 "We denounce the methods of tax ation pursued in the past, under which banks. railroads and other corpora tions have been not only enabled to escape bearing their just share of tax ation, but in many cases have been ex- empted from the payment of any taxes whatever. Believing it to be contrary to American principles to create a privileged classes by exempting any set of men from taxation, we demand that all laws exempting any class of property owners from the payment of taxes in Maricopa county shall be tested by the proper officers in the courts to legally determine whether or not such exemption is legal
 eve demand the enactment of a | as far as possible, secure to the citi- zens of Arizona the same schedule of fares and freights enjoyed by the cit izens of California, New Mexico and Texas.
 We denounce as criminally eXtrava- gant and wasteful the manner in which the finances of Maricopa county have been mismanaged in the past. Under the guise of official fees, embezzle- ment has become so common as to compel the organization of a body of i private citizens to guard the interests of the taxpayers and to force the resti- tuition of illegally collected fees. Be lieving that the compensation paid public officials Is far in excess of the compensation received by any other class of labor, we urge the passage of a law by the next legislature reducing all official fees and salaries. and abso-
 lutely prohibiting the net fees and emoluments allowed any county officer to exceed the sum of twenty-five hund- red dollars per annum."
 In the afternoon Chairman Gardner called the convention to order and i'm mediately plunged into business, the platform was read by sections and
 adopted, and the following ticket was
 nominated,
 w. H. Winters, A. G. Austin. M. H
 Reno and s. $. Green were nominated
 for the legislature A. L. Henshaw fo1
 sheriff, F. A. Shaw for treasurer and
 Frank B. Lyman district attorney
 T. P. Banta for recorder and C. O.
 Case for probate judge Andrew Bar
 " was nominated for county sur
 veyor, but on it being made known
 that Barry was a goldbug, his name
 was withdrawn. The office was Jeff
 for the central committee to fill. Fol
 supervisors, M. B. Clanton and P. T
 Powers.
 !, The election of officers for the cnun. ty central committee finished the worh of the convention and was as follows
 Chairman, G. B. Norton; secretary, J A. Gardner; treasurer, M. H. Reno At 5 o'clock the convention ad- !, journed sine die, after transactins more business in the same length o1
 time and with less friction, perhaps ] than any similar body ever assembled in the city.
 The following delegates were elected
 to the territorial convention: Phoenix-Fernando Velarde. G. B Norton, M. H. Reno, J. A. Gardner Frank Elwell, s. s. Green. "A. Buck, J F. Hill, Van Doren, B. Gonzaulus, A
 Henshaw, F. Shaw, B. Doublas. l Tempe-A. G. Powers, J. T. Moore } G. ". Nicholas, F. A. Hugh. , Buckeye-W. H. Winters, M. P } Clanton, Thomas Clay.
 Gila Bend-J. S. Anderson. $ Mesa=B M Johnson. w D. Me