Arizona republican., 1902-11-02
LEGERDEMAIN
 OF MIR. SMITH
An Earnest DisquiSitiOn on the
 Wilderness of Black
Proof Not by Any Mathem atical Pro- cess That Minority Is Bigger than a Majority - Unreasonable Ending of the Demo cratic Cam paign.

Hon. Marcus A. Smith mus. have
 been gratificd last night at the size of
 the audience which met him on the oc-
 casion of the close of the democratic
 territorial campaign. MT. Smith is all
 ways a pleasing speaker. He has all
 ways been the most popular democrat
 in Arizona and he has always com
 manded attention when he has appear
 cd in this place. His latest audience
 was attracted by all these things anS
 more. It has been rumored here for
 some time that he was going through
 the country promulgatIng the strange doctrine that an eXigency has arisen in
 which 1t has happened for the first f time under a republican form Of gov
 ernment that a minority is bigger and
 more powerful than a majority. A
 good many people believed that MT.
 Smith had been misrepresented; others
 believed that he was in fun. Any way
 they went last night to see how he
 would look in the act of promulgation.
 He never cracked a smile. He appeared
 with all the seriousness of a man who
 was in earnest. His manner was that
 of the sleight-of-h hand performer who
 is about to prove to his audience that
 he is going to turn water into wine He disclaimed at the outset any in-
 tention of making q political speech;
 he intended only to explain the atti- tude of the statehood bill He was the only man in the territory that knew with any degree of precision the con-
 dition of the bill and he inferred that only he and one or two others in the United States, could go and put their
 hands on it in the dark. He went over the history of the bill with which most
 of the readers of the Republican were made familiar last summer by the As sociated Press dispatches, for con- trary to an inference which might have been drawn from the observation of
 MT. Smith, there is telegraphic com | munication between Washington and
 many other parts of the country.
 MT Smith reached the conclusion
 that democratic victory in Arizona next Tuesday would assure the admis- sion of the territory and that a demo- cratic defeat would mean the certain | defeat of the omnibus bill. MT. Smith was fe lrful Cf many things; one nf the | objects of his apprehension was his in- ability to hold the democratic senators
 in line if they should become stamped ed by republican. victory in Arizona. He was not sure that he would lose his grip on the senate of the United States ! but he feared that he might do so and
 the result upon the future of the terri | tory would be fearful to contemplate | He heard in imagination the footsteps | of the desert approaching the habita- | tiOns of the people and he thought once that he could hear the barking of ! the coyote in the event of the election 1 Of MT. Morrison.
 |, The general purpose of the speech Of | MT. Smith was to show that the status | of the territories should not be disturb | ed, for as they now stand there is | reasonable prospect of the passage Of | the bill by a solid democratic vote | aided by thirteen republican senators. | r. the political situation in Arizona i should be reversed MT Smith feared
 that the solidity Of the. democrats
 in the senate could not be maintained All the time though MT. Smith was l speaking only of the democratic sena- | tors. The weak place in his argument was the overlooking of the contingency | of the reversing of the situation in Ok | lahOma. and the effect of it upon the republican members of the senate The | possibility of such a thing was not all | luded to by MT. Smith at, any time | though it is almost conceded by the re- | publicans of the territory, that Okla | homa will go democratic. MT. Smiths 1 fear of the fate of the statehood bill in | that event would give way to despair. | Mir. Smiths discussion of the subject
 was marked by much bitter criticism | If the newspapers which have from l time to time pointed out the absurdity of the theory which he has been ad- | vancing, and the utter improbability Of l a republican senate admitting to state | hood three territories of which two arc | democratic. It was that feature of the l situation which MT. Smith all through
 his address sought to cloud.
 The first speaker of the evening was | Col. Wilson himself, who briefly ad- l dressed the audience on what he called | the errors of the republican speakers | committed since his last visit to Phoe-
 nix. They involved only national ques- tions. He stated that he had thrown I down the gauntlet on his former visit when he had invited his political enc
 mics to assault him upon the territor- | ial platform. He had not been so as
 saulted, and he might have added. that 1 he ceased standing -ostentatiously on what he considered the platform soon | after his Phoenix visit. He compli-
 mented the Arizona Republican upon | the fairness with which it had treated
 him during the campaign.
 Col. Wilson used one significant word
 in a reference he made to Mir Smith as
 'the gallant leader of the democracy of
 Arizona. After the word Arizona he
 hesitated and added heretofore.
 Hon. John c. Herndon of Prescott, filled in the time between the speech of Col Wilson and the address of MT. | Smith.