Arizona weekly citizen., 1896-05-09

free-cOlDage State, anu AItZono "o almost certainly be one, there Is sons doubt es to the motive prompting anti
 silver leaders to urge lis policy. II
 seems possible, however, mat some ! apreemt nt has been reached as to the WAY in which the Representatives or the proposed States shall vote In case the
 choice of the next President IS thrown into the House of Representatives. For a piece of downright, villlanous ly,pp we commend the first half Of the
 foregoing to our readers. ltis an editor
 ial from The Outlook, monthly pub lished at 13 Aetor Place, New York, and evidences about as much knowledge ol the people of Arizona as Yequi Indian does of sound money argument. It IS true that our population is not so great
 as that of New York or Of the state of
 Penneylvgnis, but 1t is also true tbat It
 is larger than those of many other
 states. that are now among the most
 populous and powerful, when they were
 first admitted to the union. We agree
 further that there will be no question
 of Arizona being a free coinage state.
 The pride and boast of every Arzonan
 ls his loyalty to the white metal.
 We do however deny the charge Of
 illiteracy as one of the meHnest and most
 groupdless that can be made against
 us.
 The statement that "more than one adult out of five can neither read nor
 write, ard large part of those possess ing the specified degree Of education are Mexican in speech, thought ano sentiment" is outrageous.
 To begin with Arizona, so far as Spanish settlements are concerned, IS among the oldest political divisions in the United States, but its American, or rather we should say caucasian. popu- lation is the result of recent years, and it is a safe proposition to say that the population of Arizona represents every state in the American Union. As most of them have come within the last b or 20 years it is barely possible. but not probable, that only the ignorant leave the old states and pioneer the unknown for new homes. The men who seek the frontier and rough hew new states from the desert are largely men of more than ordinary intelligence and certainly men of more than average nerve, In twenty years over 400 men, women and chil- dren are known to have fallen victims to the Apache IRdians- It is of these Indians that General Crook, the noted Indian fighter and froDtiersman, said to the writer "I have fought and beaten every Indian III the United States but the Apaches are the concentrated deviltry of them all." This was said at Fort Bowie when Crook acknowledged himself beaten and was about to leave the territory a chsgrined aud broken hearted man. If the pioneers who came to this country, and made tha:r bomss, built their school houses aud erected their churchs were ignorant or educa.. ticn then education is at fault, and if the statement is true that more than one out Of every five can neither read nor write then the schoolmaster had be tier be abroad in the eastern statee as we'll es In Arizona.
 No more is it true "that large part of those possessing the specified degree of education are Mexicans in speech and thought and sentiment" Such declaration is offensive!y unjust to tbe American people, for as such we must maintain are the Mexican people who are American citizens. For more than a generation the American flag alone hes floated over Arizona and Mexi can manhood today is American in speech and thought and sentiment" At the commencement of the late un- pleasantnese in the United States when Confederate forces occupied Southern only portion of the terri tory that then had a civilized inhabit- Mexican people were found loyal. Estaban Ochoa, one of the lead- Ing Mexicans of thls city, was arrested and efforts were made to compel him to take the oath of allegiance to the coufed- ercy. but tine answer was characteristic of the man and of hls people. He said "No, 1 will never swear to that thing. What ever I am and whatever l have was made under the American flag and will never forsweer it." He was given the choice of imprisonment or expulsion from his home and loss of his property. He chose the latter and started on the back of mule 300 miles across the desert, with every water hole guarded by murderous Apaches, to New Mexico. That he got through in safety was miraculous, but he lived to come back ard die under the old flag. If our eastern traducers can find "speech or thought CT sentiment" in such action that is not wholly and truly American they are welcome to it.
 But, again, the Outlook has it watch in the wrong direction when it sees the specified degree of education" largely Mexican. We challenge euch showing on facts and figures, and offer in evidence the late census of the school children ia the Tucson district, com pieted less than week ego. The statu- tory school age is between SIX to eigh- teen years, and between these ages there are 1SlS and of this entire number but v over the age of eight years could be found who could not either read or write, and these were found wholly among the foreign born Mexican chil- dren who advantages for education in their own county he'd been limited.