Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1899-07-19
MALICIOUS AND vENoMous.

WN|iSiOSS FtNO NG'NS" V
 Our contemporary in an item re- ferring to investments made by tax exemption railroads, makes the fol- lowing remarkable statement:
 "As those investments are all tax less and contribute not one dime to local governmental support, they are not such a great blessing as they would have us believe. $ The whole gang is a curse to the country"
 The building of the Jerome road under the tax exemption law has been the means already of quAdTup- ling the size of that town, and of iu creasing the amount of taxable property of that place in the same proportion, as we'll as having stim- ulated mining generally in that To- cality. The development work now in progress on the scores of claims in the vicinity of Jerome, may be at tributed very largely to the direct result of the investment made by the ''tsxless gang" who built that road.
 The rapid growth of Jerome has resulted in securing a market right at home for the products of the fertile Verde valley, and has thereby stimulated the farming industry of that section. Yet this IS what is de signated as a curse of the 'TaXless gang" and is only 6 part of the ben eiits derived from the investment of the "taxless gang" in one short ''tax- less" railroad.
 Now what has been the result to Arizona of the construction of the s. F., P. x P. railroad under the tax exemption law1 It would be im- possible to estimate the indirect benefits derived to the Salt river val ley. A few ot the results that can be directly attributed to it in this county can be briefly enumerated as follows: The building Of a con siderable village at Ash Fork where prior to it's construction was a bar ren waste with the exception of three or four buildidgs. The develop ment of the lime industry and wood industry along its line. The build l ing of the towns of Jerome Junction, ! Kirkland and Martinez. The build ing up of Congress mining camp to about four times the size 1t wa, pre- yious to the construction of the,tad road. The development Of the Fools gulch property and the builc- ing up there of prosperous mining camp. The Sc are few of the direct benefits to this county in the imme- diate vicinity of the road. Since the railroad was built thousands of dol lars have been spent in Prescott Tn the erection ofbusiness buildings And private residences, although for years previous to the so-called "tax- less" era the town was at a stand still SO far as progress was con csrned,
 ! Indirectly every mining section oi the county has felt the magic in. huence of the investments ma le hy the gentlemen whom our contemp orary Is pleased to refer to as the gang" and of being "a curse to the country" and mining interests never were in so healthy a coudition al exists today, and without the facil' ities afforded by railroad communi cation never would have been in { century to come. The men who have accomplished this are sheer ingly referred to as "the gang" anC as "a curse to inc country" Fol men who have invested their monel in the development of the eountrl to be stigmatized in this way Is O incidentally more harm to the ter ritorv than anything which c'ulc happen to it.