Williams news., 1903-05-23
A COMMUNICATION.


 editorial of last week under the head of "Let Some Action Be Taken" we desire to make a few statements of fact.
 More persons get their impress sions of Arizona from Williams than from any other town in the territory.
 Having personally met and talked with a large number of the best class of tourists who attend church or visit the parsonage while wait ing to go to the Grand Canyon, we are able to state that the degrading sights upon our streets are appalling to them; and, as far as they are con- cerned, knock the idea of statehood "higher than kite"
 A number of prominent men, edu- cators, government officials and per sonal friends of statesmen, visited us some months ago, when statehood agitation was at its height, for the express purpose of inquiring con- cerning the rights of Arizona. In variably they said: "We expected to find saloons in these western towns, but we scarcely expected to find women allowed in such places. I guess Senator Beveridge did not make it any too strong" It is not pleasant for lovers of the west to hear such statements, especially when we realize it is in our power to take away this reproach.
 Probably some saloon man will jump to the conclusion that this is an effort to destroy his business. If he does, he is short-sighted and must be dominated by the idea of "rule or ruin" The life of the writer has been helped as much by honest criticism as by definite teaching. And while our teaching is directly opposed to the liquor traffic in any shape or form, we know there is nothing that degrades and breeds hatred for the business like the de- bauchery of women. A prominent saloonkeeper of this territory Ga friend of the writer) said women in the saloon were a curse, and de- graded his idea of the business; and the same man made a proposition to put the female singers out of his place, and thus save a bill of ex- pense, providing the other men in same business would do likewise.
 One of these mountain towns, with its splendid summer climate m d life-giving atmosphere, is going to be large summer resort in the fu- ture-but it will be the town that has power to govern itself and of fers the glad-hand of invitation and clean entertainment to the general public; the town that has "get-up" which does not expect to turn the world upside-down in a day, but the "get-up" that works to plan that means success for this and fu- ture generations.
 When we consider the fact that about 10000 people leave the ter ritory every summer to enjoy the cool ocean breezes of Cali fornia and note the morals of the towns where they rusticate, and then realize that half of them, at least, would rather spend their summers in the mountains, isn't it time we cleaned up and invited them to be our guests
 One thing sure, the tourist who will finger to enjoy our climate and take interesting side trips will not grow in proportion to the Grand Canyon trade until some action along these lines is taken.
 We believe that our council de- sires to act for the good of the whole community, and they must certainly realize such action would be a benefit to every legitimate busi- ness of Williams.
 Yours for the social, economic and moral advancement of Will 1iams, REV. JOHN OLIVER.