The Arizona sentinel., 1898-02-19
5EA MONTHS,
3 eSBmc ot Governor HcCoTd's Id,
 miulstrHti2R

-... ..-s.. F- .---" 4i+ .t-t~t-A N l''l . the discharge or duties.
 Hl- enemies both m aad out of his party predicted that his a5- m.a--aation would TIors failure and that six mu.as would not a.apse before even his friends would be compelled 10 acknowledge .t &ttHat time the financial standing ur-rne territory was at low cub and 1t was freely predicted it would soon be at a lower ebb. The public institutions were run down and were, if possible, on a lower plain than the credit of the territory. Scarcely had he assumed the duties of his office when demand was made upon him to enforce a con- tract made by his predecessor for the working of the convicts at the prison. This contract had been declared to be of binding force by the supreme court of the territory and the appeal to the supreme court of the United States had been made in so bungling manner that there was little doubt but that the case would be set aside as soon as reached by that trib.nal. Governor McCord at once set himself to try to secure certain notifications of the contract which he succeeded in doing and which made the contract, in the opinion of all unpreiudiced minds, fair one, the enforcement of which would redound to the credit of the territory.
 For the last three months the prisoners have been earning about $70 per day by working on the canal, payable in water rights. l. is believed these water rights will be worth par but whether they are or not they will be worth something, and as it costs the territory no more to work the prisoners than 1t does to maintain them in ldleness, and as the result of their labor will r . suit in building a large canal that
 will bring under cultivation many
 thousands of acres of the finest
 land in the territory the result will
 be beneficial to the territory wh -tL el
 the W ter rights aIe valuab (
 or not. As a result of this labor
 being performed by the prisoners 2
 million dollars worth of taxable
 property at least wlll be added tc
 the tax rolls
 When Governor McCord assumed
 control of affairs he found $20, ,39;
 of unpaid debts that had been con-
 tracted by his predecessor tha
 ought to have been paid. He foun(
 the public institutions run down t
 the lowest ebb and he found terri tofial warrants selling at S5 cent on the dollar and the market fo 9 them very poor.
 He found an issue of $30O,000 0 ] territorial bonds on the market an, r hawked about in every broker shop from St. Louis to Chicago an s New York and even in London wit ! no buyers. Governor Frankli made a trip to New York at tn e expense of the territory to sell th Q bonds but did not sell them Sec E retary Bruce made a trip to Ne Q York at the expense of the territor to sell the bonds but did not Sc I them. Treasurer Cole made tri t to New York at the expense of tf
 territory to sell the bonds but di
 not sell them. Finally the bono It were sent to London and returne e unsold at an expense of over S1 ,8C e to the territory. In this atteml
 to sell the bonds $5,463 was ez is pended.
 e Soon after Governor McCol of came in, an offer was made to u ,s loan com mission to take this vel d issue of bonds at par and accrue 10 interest by responsible parties al = the bonds would have been so ) had it not been for certain vexatior le law suits instituted by parties wi = desired to ruin the credit of tI Ie territory by repudiating part of it's d}bts or the debts of certa it counties which would have the san = result.
 ;- The supreme court of the territo n has now decided that this ve ,e issue of the bonds is valid and t