Arizona republican., 1902-06-08
THE JUDGMENT
 IN WILSON SUIT
Brought Against Former Ter
 TitoriaI AudlIGT 0r. ViCkerS
The Court Finds That in the Issuing of the Warrants of Which the "Taxpayer' Plaintiff Complained, the Law Was Fully Complied With.

Judge Kent yesterday handed down the decision of the court in the Ives l Wilson suits against Governor Murphy and former Auditor Vickers. In the exhaustive opinion which is printed he | low. every warrant in question is de- | clared to have been legally and prop erly issued. The suits were begun last | fall, and were reached and tried in the district court two weeks ago, and sub- mitted. Yesterday was the second law day since the trial, and the judg- ment was rendered as soon as the court | opened.
 There was a large attendance Of members of the Phoenix bar, and on account of the notoriety of the cases there was much interest in the decision, 1 but there was no surprise. Lawyers without exception had predicted a | judgment for the defendants.
 While Thomas F. Wilson, a resident of Tucson, ostensibly was the plaintiff. i it is assumed that the costs will be i paid by Ives.
 i Most readers of The Republican are l familiar with the cases. They had their | inception early in the session of the | Twenty-first legislature, year ago 1 last January. Governor Murphy had | taken strong grounds in his message in favor of a modern territorial prison
 Ives, who was the member of the coun- cil from Yuma, took it for granted ] that if a new prison were decided | upon it would be at some other point than Yuma, and he seemed to consider that the only way to defeat the gov ernor's recommendations was to array the legislature on partisan lines against ! the executive. Personally he was al ready bitter enemy. and had been since the governor had cancelled a con- tract between the territory and Ives whereby Ives was to have the benefit gating ditch at Yuma. In pursuance of the purpose to solidify the legislature against the territorial administration and thus defeat any legislation inimical | tc the Yuma prison. Ives cunningly and 1 unscrupously represented that the ad- 1 ministratlon of terri >orial affairs was l corrupt and that much capital could
 be made for the democratic party by an investigation of the auditors office
 He would not consent. however to :,
 joint committee of investigation from
 the two houses, but appointed a com mittee of three from the council with
 himself as chairman. An expert &C.,
 countant was employed at an expense
 of many hundreds of dollars to the ter
 ritory. and the investigation" dragged
 along for weeks. Long before re-
 port was rendered the self-respectine
 members of both houses had become
 convinced that the whole proceeding
 was for the personal ends of Ives. that
 it could disclose nothing discreditable
 to the administration, and that it could
 end in nothing but a farce. But as president Of the council Ives had thS
 members of each house largely at his
 mercy. in the matter of expeditirg ol
 defeating measures in which they ha(
 especial interest, and he vigorously used this power and the party whip tt keep the democrats lined up against the governor. There was d two-thirl.
 democratic majority in each house.
 Near the end of the session, when h,
 could offer no further excuses for de . laying his committee report, Ives tool
 the floor and made his great lex
 posure" By invitation the member.
 of the house had adjourned to tn, , council chamber to hear the harrow
 ing details. The business ended in
 farcical anti-climax, as everybody ha, 
 ing in the whole report to indicate tha
 there had been any wrong doing. T,
 the contrary. Ives was compelled to re
 ly on fiimsy technical subterfuges fo
 an attack on the governor and auditor
 He claimed that certain warrants is
 sued by the auditor OF the territoria i treasurer were illegal.
 . These warrants were in two groups
 The first comprised payments fo
 printing the various reports of terri
 torial officials which are required b.
 law. The biennial appropriation bil 5 had not provided funds for this print S ing, but the attorney general and audi I tor had held that the payments wer
 authorized by the general statutes S There was no complaint that the print q ing bills were unreasonable.
 = The second group covered warrant t issued for the expenses of the gover | nor's office. In the appropriation bI r of 1899 the Twentieth legisla tUre ha Y appropriated the sum of s6,230 to b
 paid by the governor during two year - and Q half as rewards for criminal: q the printing of proclamations. and tn Il other purposes mentioned in Judg r Rents decision. and for all necessar
 expenses This last ola use was adde 9 ny the legislature alter a conferenC n with the auditor and the attorney gen = cral, wherein it had been shown tha = the business and correspondence of th F. executive office had grown to Iars Il proportions. the volume of correspond IS ence being heavier than in most of tn II sta tes; that in all the states there wa {. provision fer an adequate office sta is costing several thousands yearly $ a private secretary. d stenograpne IS 9 pardon clerk, an office boy. and so or ,r whereas in Arizona the statutes, datin k, from civil war times, provided only fC
 q private secretary at $5o a month. I had been shown to that legislature tn; ,t the $50 q month would net pay ft "a extra typewriting, not to speak of con If uensation for competent secretary. an i that Governor Murphy was personal " paying largely for his office help ,d It was too late for a law changing tel
 ritorial salaries, and the legislatur