Arizona silver belt., 1897-06-03
HOW SHALL WE RECOUP OUR
 FINANCES?

credit. We admit that tho discussion of the family finances when there is D deficit is disagreesble, but nevershe- less necessary, and instead of decrying what it is pleased to call the popocratic tendencies of some Arizona newspa- pers, the Republican should apply it. self to discovering some remedy for
 She evils which it does not deny exist
 in the territorial government.
 The Republican must have been in
 structed in a peculiar school of finance
 to think that the optimistic theories
 which it advocates will ever restore our depleted treasury. Nor can the Re- publican claim even originality for the ideas it advances, which are as old as human folly. and Arizona is now reap ing the penalty for having followed them SO long.
 Years ago when our silver mines were turning out wealth of metal We did enjoy real prosperity, until the Republican party, in league with the money changers of Lombard and Wall streets, knocked the props from under us by demonstizing silver. Unfortu-
 nately, we as territory acquired ex-
 pensive habits during that plethoric period, and which we now find very difficult to discard. We have tried to slave off the evil day ss long as possi- ble, and like the impoverished aris- tocracy of Europe, have made des- perate effort to keep up appearances.
 Newspapers, imbued with the same false ideas as the Republican, have lent themselves heroically to this seemingly lsudAbls but forlofn endesvor. They have expatiated upon Arizons's incem. parable climate. the inexhsussible richness of her mines, her cattle on a thousand hills. her desert transformed into osses and ''blossoming as the rose" They have harped upon the rapid advance of civilization in Ari
 zona, referred frequently and with
 pardonable pride to the extension of
 education and the spread of religion in
 our favored territory. For the past
 fifteen years they have iteratsd and re- iterated that Arizona was on the eve of a boom of vast proportions, an era of prosperity such acShas never been wit messed in the west.
 The result has been to breed race of Col. Sellers and another of political acmagogues, the one class to speculate upon the territory's prospective for tune and vote away the substance of the taxpayers. the other to hold the offices and live luxuriously upon q credulous public.
 There are those who affect to see iu statehood remedy for all our Ills, yet tAe individuals ard eiques who insist that we are capable of self government are the same who are chiefly respon- sible for plunging Arizona into the financial quagmire from which only the most thorough reforms aud rigid economies will avail to succor her. If as territory, under the restrictions by congress, and large saars'of our current expenses defrayed by the federal government, we still have been guilty of piling up an enor- moas debt, what assurance is there that VIC will be more provident as state, when there will be no check npoa Snr extravagans propensities7 What hocus pocus of stssecrafs could then save us from the horde of i'm. portunate office seekers who would ssss.il the public credit? Statehood is sn ignis fatuus to lure us to certain destruction.
 The last legislature added over S133, 900 to the territory's obligations snd authorized besides the issue of st00, eco bonds to build . capitol. It was g sDesaoerstie legislature, and the party will have to shoulder the responsibility for its acts. But the will not be able to extract much comfort from a study of Ari- zona's political history, as the Repub- lican and Democratic parties are both equally eulpAble for the maladministra- tioiar of saie territorial government.
 It is not she SEVER BEIy, bat the and those that advocate like measures who are encouraging re. pudiation and wildcat finance, by eountenancing the lavish and dishonest of the public funds, chiefly for the benefit of @ few coun. hes. and which policy, if continued, sill forever dsbsr Arizona from re- rieving her financial standing.
 Desperate cases require heroic treat. nent. and the only way to stop the reasury raiders is to repudiats illegal obligations which they have saddled 'pon the territories and counties.
 sis true, as the Republican says, hat Eastern capitalists have their eyes D Arizona. but not altorether in tha