Arizona republican., 1903-12-20
What Is the Use. Indeedp


 printed elsewhere in today's Repub- lican. The situation is even more in- famous than he impliedly states 1t, for it is not case of mere toleration. The supervisors are guilty of operating this pesthouse.
 But MT. Bowler is a sound philoso- pher. It is obvious that mere per suasion IS lost on a board which seems to have no better or higher conception of public duty than the promotion of political graft. Accordingly. it is noy worth while. apparently. to talk to the supervisors about their duties in the matter of the pest house or concerning road improvement.
 MT. Bowler scarcely does The Re publican justice. however Time and again, at the risk of making the subject a stale one with our readers, we have pointed out that both the supervisors and the city government or Phoenix were neglecting a plain duty in their failure to improve the county roads and tlIe city streets. As we have suggested land as forcibly stated by our core spondent, the cost of applying disinte- grated granite to the streets and roads would be returned to the public treas ury in little while through the less ened expense for street sprinkling. Two railroads touch inexhaustiblc granite beds between Phoenix and Tempe. The granite is to be had free of cost. It's transportation to town would cost but a trifle, for both rail- ways would undoubtedly cooperate ir such needed public enterprise by charging merely a nominal freight rate.
 And the manual labor should be done by the prisoners in the city and county jails. The cells of both these institutions are filled most of the time with criminals who come here in win ter to enjoy the mild climate and prey upon the public. If they are landed in jail they regard it as no misfortune. They live high at the expense of the taxpayers, and do no work They should be made to earn their board by working on the roads.
 Suggestions along this line seem to be but half comprehended by the stupid supervisors. The moment they hear of some method of making them selves useful they begin to grope around for objections and excuses. Their objection to making the prison CTS work is that it would cost some thing extra for guards. More than one fered them, but they persist in stub bornly refusing to see that it would be real economy to make these improve ments with jail labor.
 The average supervisor-and the average city councilman as wells first of all a politician, which means that he is a moral coward. He may be utterly indifferent to the public wei fare. but he grovels before the ward heeler who controls a half dozen Mex ican votes. If he is disposed to utilize the labor of the loafers in the jails he changes his mind when threatened by the heeler with loss of political strength if the interests ot labor are not protected.
 Of course, the remedy for this state of afairs is so plain that it needs no elucidation. It merely requires that the citizens who are not politicians-the people who comprise ninety per cent of the populaticn-shall act together and assert their own powers and their own rights. If residents of the city and residents of the ranches would CO., operate, regardless of politics, they could elect live men to the board of su- pervisors-men whc have not only a capacity for business, but a real regard fer the public good and the public purse and, withal. sufficient independence of character to ignore the political heel CTS and their threats and gratis.
 But we see no probability that this remedy will be adopted. When men re- ally capable of satisfactorily filling the important office Of supervisor are ap-
  place they refuse. The nominations go tc petty politicians. And if, perchance. a. big man is nominated for supervisor by either party, he stands no better show of election than the inferior can didate. If he wears the republican Ia- bel the republicans support him, and if he has the democratic tag the demo- crats support him, but he gets no add ed support because of his unusual fit ness.
 But returning to MT. Rowlers ques- tion in reference to the pesthouse: IL is, of course, not worth while to talk further to the supervisors. But they are not beyond the reach of an injunc- tion. And indignant citizens should ap- ply for an injunction restraining the supervisors from operating and main tainig that outra geous nuisance
 
 Occasionally man is found with enough to repel the tempter. \ Missouri paper the other day published an iten, :,bo,It n man