Arizona republican., 1902-05-01

every cent of the sums in question was expended for the benefit of the terri tory. and that the territory got full val ue in every instance.
 For the benefit of our Los Angeles contemporary and for other respectable papers outside the territory. let it be added that these court proceedings initiated against Governor Murphy and former Auditor Vickers represent merely the vicious purposes of two men, Thomas Wilson and Eugene Ives the first a chronic and disappointed office seeker, and the other a vain and unprincipled politician of the lowest type. The fellow Ives, a political law yer, has been drifting around the ter ritory for a number of years. He purported to practice law in Phoenix for a while, and then went to Yuma. There he became engaged in some kind of a canal enterprise, project said not to be without merit With a prede cessor of Governor Murphy he entered into a contract for the use of the ter
 
 the canal. Whether the contract was beneficial to the territory is neither here nor there, but in the judgment of Governor Murphy it was not a good contract for the territory, and he caused it to be cancelled. Since then, Ives has been possessed of spirit Of revenge against the governor little short of insanity in it's nature. He managed to be elected to the territorial council from Yuma. He convinced the Southern Pacific railroad that he could be useful, and maneged to be elected president of the council. From this vantage point he began his attack on the governor. He noised it around that there was something wrong with the books of the territorial auditor, and had an investigation committee ap- pointed, with himself as chairman. At lavish expense to the territory 'investi- gatfion" was had. Ives and one other member of the committee, previously chosen by himself for his plasticity rendered a report that the auditor had issued certain warrants without legal authority. A minority report was made exonerating the auditor. The council was two-thirds democratic and altogether hostile to the territorial ad- ministration, in a political sense. Af- ter hearing a tirade by Ives in support of his report, the council calmly ignored it-not even placing the report on file. A more crushing rebuke was never ad- ministered by a legislative body to a would-be leader. To emphasize the re- buke, the council voted unanimously to confirm the nomination of Auditor Vickers to another term, and Ives voted for the confirmatio
 Disgraced and discredited. Ives re- turned to Yuma, and then drifted to | Tucson, there opening law office. l Meanwhile, President Mckinley was murdered, and a new president took | office. Ives thought he saw another opportunity for revenge against the governor. The stuff which a partisan legislature had rejected as worthlesss for any purpose against the territorial administration, was made to do duty to influence President Roosevelt against l the governor. With a blare of trum- pets a suit, based on the rejected re- port, was begun against the governor and auditor. Hired jackals of the press howled that the governor and the 1 auditor were "accused'' of misappro- l priating funds, and that the governor
 must be removed. President Roosevelt 1 investigated the whole subject thor oughly, and decided that there was not
 stain on the territorial administra-
 tion. The assistant attorney genera
 of the United States for the department
 of the interior decided that the war.
 rants in question were legally issued
 and the secretary of the interior ad
 vised the president that the litigation
 instituted by Ives and Wilson was no 1 in good faith.
 The case has not yet been reached fol 1 trial. When it is tried the facts vii
 completely exonerate the territoria
 officials. A suit of less merit. or a cast based so wholly on the lowest motives
 never disgraced the dockets of the
 Arizona courts.