Arizona silver belt., 1903-03-26
0|IiCi1| PQDe[ Of GI|0 County.
Importance of the Cowan Enactment

importance of the Cowan Enactment
 In well-considered editorial, an ex- change Quoted in the Bisbee Review without credit) says: If nothing else but the passage of the Cowan bill was effected by the Arizona legislature, the people of Arizona would have cause to be thankful, and to award fair meas ure of respect for the lawmaking body"
 That, we think, is true estimate of the importance of the Cowan bill in comparison with other subjects of legislation upon which the Twenty sec ond legislature was called to act, and that the consensus of opinion through out the territory sustains this view. The reasons why the enormous fees which have for the past several years been flowing into the secretarys office should be diverted into the territorial treasury have been 90 often stated and are so obvious as to hardly require rep etition and, furthermore, it is not reasonable to suppose that the framers of the law under which Secretary Stod- dard has been rapidly growing rich, for a moment imagined that they were creating a mine of almost limitless pos abilities for the enrichment of feder al official already amply provided for in the way of remuneration for his ser vices.
 Therefore, it is, to us, inexplicable how any member of the legislature who had the interest of the people at heart, who favors wise economy in the administration of government, and who is opposed to the granting of spe- cial favors, should for moment hesi- tate to give his earnest support to measure that is so manifestly in the in- terest of the moral as well as financial welfare of Arizona.
 There is nothing more demoralizing in governmental affairs than a liberal fee system, and its polluting influence is not confined to the official class, but usually extends to an army of political grafters, basking in the favor of the officeholders. The democratic territo- rial platform contained no declaration more explicit than that in opposition to the fee system, which was as fol- lows:
 "Seventh-We favor the amendment of all laws placing large perquisites in the hands of government officials in this territory, and demand that all of such perquisites shall be covered into the treasury, and fixed salaries created for all territorial appointees and cleric al forces, ss uay be necessarily required for the effective administration of the government affairs pertaining to each department of the same"
 That is democratic doctrine of the original Jeffersonian brand, and it would be we'll were it crystalized into law and made to apply to every office in the territory. This plank of the Tucson platform effectively disposes of the plea put forward in behalf of those democrats in the legislature who failed to vote for the Cowan bill, that it was a republican measure-recomme by Governor Brodie, drafted by Bob Morrison, and actively supported by Charlie Akers. That is the weakest kind of subserfuge.
 The Cowan bill was not political measure. It was wholly in the interest of the people and it is to Arizona's everlasting credit that SO large a ma jority of the members of the Twenty second legislature recognized their duty as public servants.