Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1900-01-10
A MISLEADING STATEMENT.

A MISLEADING STATEMENT.
 The morning contemporary ap- parently takes pleasure in reproduc- ing an article from the Florence Tribune calculated to create the i'm presslon that Governor Murphy is opposed to government construction of reservoirs for the reclamation of certain arid lands in Gila county, and then proceeds to comment with its customary malice. It is unfor tunate that newspapers will give the use of their columns for the pur- poses of creating wrong impressions. It was only within day or two that Bro. ReppY, proprietor of the Flor enee Tribune. addressed letter to a friend in Prescott asking Governor Murphy's assistance iu bringing about the construction of the re- servoir referred to; saying, in sub stance, that the governors influence in Washington would be more help ful than that of all the other friends of the movement combined; that he understood Governor Murphy was unfriendly to him, personally, con sequently he could not well ask his assistance; that he was at loss to know why the governor should feel unkindly towards him, etc, etc Such articles as the one referred to are not calculated to make the gov ernor, or any one else, feel very friendly to the author; and any one less public spirited, and having the interests of the territory in general at heart to less extent than the governor, would be disinclined to render assistance, under the cireum- stances, if it happened to be in his power.
 The governor at no time has an tagonized the construction by the government of the reservoir men, tioned, ana has probably done as much, or more than any other man, or combination of men in the ter ritory to interest government offic- ials in this particular work.
 Governor Murphy does not, how ever, believe with certain individ- uals that all water storage and irri- gation enterprises, under considera- tion by private capital, should be laid on the shelf, and that weshould depend entirely, hereafter, upon government appropriation and con- struction, Nor does the governor agree with these persons when they assail the integrity and ability oi the citizens of the territory, as they do when they charge that the terri torial legislature would be a party to robbing the territory of it's just dues and rights, if it was thought best by the general government tc cede the arid lands to the territories It should be perfectly apparent tc every one that if it is unsafe to trusi the interestsof the territory to its citizens, it would be equally unsafe to grant us statehood. Again, if il was thought necessary, the general government, in ceding the lands tc the territories, could impose such restrictions and conditions as would in every way prevent the wholesale robbery that some people think would follow if the territories were to come into possession of the arid lands under consideration.
 There is absolutely no ground: whatever for the charge of corrup- tion that the friends of the move ment looking towards government appropriation for irrigation pur- poses, make. There is no one il this, or any other territory, who would not like to see the govern ment spend millions of dollars or water storage, and if there was any likelihood of its belng:done within 3 reasonable time, private capita could afford to suspend operations There is no reason why the govern meat should not help to reclaim the ]. lands after they belong to the ter ritories, as we'll as before, as the strongest arguments put forth by the advocates of government ap p-epriation is based upon that ot charity They have not as yet beer able to show that it would prove profitable to the general government as an investment. other than on the lines ot a philanthropic movement