Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1900-10-24

Our contemporary III SlVlnS an al-
 legged history of the Yavapai county
 railroad bonds this morning deals
 with the question on entirely different
 lines from anything which has ap-
 peared before in that paper, as it
 weaves a few truthful statements into
 its article, but as a rule only one side
 is given, and truth only half told is
 misleading. As the writer of that article admits that it Is written only
 from his memory of the case, of course any errors in it can onl y be attributed to a defective memory and not to will ful misrepresentation.
 The article in question says:
 ''The history starts out with cer- tain petition to the legislature to au- thorize this county to issue such bonds. The people never voted on the proposition. Had they done SO, the measure would have been defeat ed. At that time Coconino county was part of Yavapai. This railroad bond craze was local craze and was confined wholly to Prescott, then quite a small village, having the same relation to the balance of the county that wart on a mules back has to the mule. Petitions against the is suance of these bonds also went from the outside districts; they were thrown in the waste basket"
 That petition represented the names of people who paid a large majority of the taxes of Yavapai county even including as it did what in now Coconino county. The asser- tion that the people would have de- feated it if permitted to vote on it is merely the expression of an opinion, as no vote was taken and there was nor is not now any way of determin- ing how it would have gone.
 The assertion as to the railroad bond craze being a local one shows how defective the memory of the writer was. The mining interests of the county were unit in wanting this railroad built, as the wagon freighting of sixty miles to the railroad of the products of the mines. and of ob- taining supplies was practically pro- hibitive and every miner and every owner of mining claim was bene- fitted by the building of the road and consequently favored the bond propo- sition. Even in Flagstaff and Will Hams, where opposition might have been expected, there was but little and that only of a passive nature, as it was the means of afford ing them more easy access to their county seat.
 No formal protest against the is suing of the bonds was presented to the legislature in the shape of pc tition or otherwise and the only active to the passage of the law, as we remember it, came from one stock man, who was trying to get the legislature to pass a law which vir- tually turned over all the government lands in the territory to the cattle men. He failed in getting this law passed and also failed in compassing the defeat of the subsidy bill.
 As further evidence that this was not local craze confined to Prescott it may be stated that l.. P. Nash, resident of Tonto Basin, one of the most remote sections of the county, and c. Douglass Brown, at that time time engaged in the cattle busi- ness in the Agua Fria coun- try, were members of the house of representatives and W. G. Stewart, of Flagstaff, was a member of the coun- cil, and the bill was supported by all of them, as well as by another mem Der in the house from outside of Pres colt, if our memory serves us right. In fact, it was awell known fact that at that time that there was practically a unanimity of sentiment in favor of the bill, and the Prescott wart on that mule was bigger than the mule it. self.
 The aforesaid article says the le- gality of those bonds was questioned at that time in private talks. If such was the case the private talks must have been conducted in whispers, as no one has been found who reInem- bers of hearing any such converse ton.
 Continuing, our contemporary very frankly admits that while the road was in operation the matter of testing the legality of these bonds was not even dreamed of. This is one of the most frank as well as one of the most truthful assertions which has been noticed in that paper in connection with these bonds.
 Our contemporary then wanders off on a side issue-the building of the &. F.. P. X P. railroad, the troubles of