Arizona republican., 1899-06-22
Prisoners LabOred and the Pay
 Never Came.
ARIZONA FELL INTO A TRAP
The Contract Entered Into With inc Sfafe of Arizona Improve ment Company Has Proved an Expensive Doe 10 inc peopIe Of Hrizooa-IO,OOo Days of Lsbor and No Pay.

Yuma, June 20.-(Special corre- spondence of The Republican.-Urder a contract entered into by and between 1 the territory of Arizona and the State of Arizona Improvement company, the
 territory was obligated to furnish 100 or more men from the territorial pris-
 on on demand of said company, the compensating rate to be 70 cents per day per man, not in cash, but in water shares to be issued by said company under a canal they had in view of con Structing at the time. This canal, quoting from the Tucson Star editor ial of May 20, would, when completed provide water from the Colorado to reclaim the lands of the valley of that river. which will add more than S5OO,- 900 taxable values to the county and territory"
 So far as can be learned 1t was the original intention Of the company to construct a mammoth canal that would convey the water of the Colo rado on the rich alluvial lands adja- cent thereto. With this end in view, on demand of said company, a prison camp was established near Castle Dome, between thirty-f1ve and forty miles east of Yuma. This camp was maintained for period of three months or whereabouts, and some work done at the head of said proposed ca nal. Under instructions of the com pany management all work on said canal was then discontinued, and the men were returned to the prison. Lat CT they were again taken out and placed at work on the c0mpanys farm a few miles below the town of Yuma, and here they worked till called in by the prison authorities The records of the prison, show that .10,720 days of work were performed by the prisoners for the company, and for which not one cent of compensation has ever been received.
 By the terms of the contract the territory was to receive 70 cents per day in water rights per man as above quoted. For this the territory bound itself to clothe, guard, and feed the prisoners. The said water rights were to be made to cover the 1000 acres of land owned by the territory, much of which. as has alredy been shown, is subject to overflow by every high water. The life of the contract Is ten years, and during all that time the company were to continue issuing wa ter rights as earned by the prison la bor. Had the company continued using the prisoners for the ten years, enough water nights would have been earned to cover at least 25,000 acres, but under the terms of the contract the right to dispose of these shares was vested in the company and not in the territory. Or in other words, the ter ritory could not dispose of them with out permission Of the company, which of course would never be given be- cause of the hmitless amount they would themselves have for sale. The poor old territory had caught hold, and couldn't let go.
 When the second demand for men was made the original scheme of d
  truck farm of the company below town, and it was on this truck farm prison labor was largely used.
 This talk of adding $5,O00, 900 to the assessable property of the county and territory has not and probably never had any foundation in fact. This the editor of the Star needs no telling, as he was governor at the time he bound the taxpayers to the company in a game of ''I win, and you lose" There Is now due from the company to the people of the territory the sum of ST. 500, and it is not probable that one cent of it will ever be paid. In addi- ion to the amount due must be added he additional expense to which the erritory was subject for guarding, clothing and feeding the men while employed in the service of the com 1any.
 Eleven men escaped from the sev- ,ral camps of whom four were recap ured and seven are still at liberty There were from two to five more guards employed than would have ,een necessary had the prisoners been confined to the penitentiary, and this xpense as near as can be gotten at vas 2,0S6. to which is to be added the diary of field superintendent for six months and twenty-two days which mounted to S723.33, and of time ,eeper for nine months and fifteen
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