Arizona republican., 1903-03-02
THE REPRODUCTIVE DOG
Subject Now Being Warmly Discussed
 by Legislators.

Wherever two or three members of the legislature were gathered together yesterday they were found to be en- gagged in a discussion of the bill for the imposition of a license tax on the dogs of the territory. This bill was passed by the house last week and is now In a committee of the council-tne com- mittee on territorial affairs. Interest in il might have slumbered for some time. and many believe it would nol nave been revived at all; that the bill would not even have received q. report but fer the following article in the Saturday Review evidently plugging for it: "A prober into startling facts makes the astonishing statement that II costs as much yearly to keep a dog as it costs to keep sixty hens. Sixty nens will lay 5000 eggs annually, while dog will not lay any
 To many of the members of the legis- lature that presented an entirely new phase of the subject. Some or the members, especially those from the agricultural districts, had supposed that dogs were kept solely for their egglaying capabilities: that but TOT the dogs the price Of eggs would be much higher, entirely out of the reach of the poorer and the middle classes. But the tone of authority with which the Re view proclaimed the dog to be an idIer on his nest was so convincing that a few Of the members of the council wilo had intended to oppose the license bili announced a change of front in respec, of that measure. They asked: "If as We have been informed the dog does not contribute to our morning scram- ole; if he is not, as we hitherto thought him to be, the author of our omelette; if he does not, as we had been taught to believe from childhood, keep up his end in the construction of the nourish- ing and succulent ham and wherefore does he cumber the face of the eartn?''
 Others of the members said they had been aware all along that the dog as a layer of eggs was far inferior 70 the L.sghorn. white or brown. Even the more phlegmatic Barred Plymouth Rock or the unNieldy Shanghai could set hals the time and law more eggs than . Great Dane. a St. Bernard or a spaniel, either of which breeds is believed by fanciers to be the equal of any other when it comes to laying eggs for the market.
 They said they had not upheld the dog for his egg-laying propensity; that was 2 function only incidental to his general usefulness. He had been toier- ated chiefly for his companionship in which he far outshines the hen. The;s added that they would continue to op- pose the bill even if it could ba shown that the most energetic dog in the ter ritory did not lay more than a dozen eggs in a year.
 They took the ground also that the | newly advanced argument against the ! dog was not a good one. It might De applied with still greater force against the boy It costs. they said, more to keep a boy year than it does to keep sixty dogs. It is fact patent to those familiar with natural history that d boy cannot lay an egg. Anatomists say that he is so physically constructed that he can never hope to assist in the break ing of the cGG market
 There is also a time in the life of tho average boy when he is the inferior of the dog in the matter Of companions ship: when he is a positive nuisance i Said these proponents of the dog: .Ir gentlemen desire to tax the really use less things Of the earth let the boy pe licensed.' Another argument agains= the bill was that if as the Review had shown, the dog was wholly unproduc- tive, that was the more reason why his owner should not be compelled to pay tax on him.