Williams news., 1903-05-30
AN INJURY TO THE TERRITORY
The Sending East to Friends of Freak
 Reptiles of the Desert.

The Phoenix Democrat contains the following timely editorial, which we heartily commend:
 Arizona receives more adverse criticism through advertising by means of sending to the east Indian photos and relics, Gila monsters, tarantulas and other venemous products, together with "wild west" shows and frontier novels, than has been enumerated by all the adver- Using done through any other source except through Senator Beveridge. Our own people contribute the large share of this deceptive information by gathering things rarely found here and sending them to astonish their friends in the east. Our Ari- zona Indians are not warriors; they are peaceable, lazy, ragged or naked natives, confined without trouble to reservations. They have long since ceased to be a menace, and while they are confined to certain locali- ties, the only annoyance they af- ford is from begging. Usually the squaws who have been married wear the famous paint. Gila mon- sters are nearly as much a curios- ity here as they are in the east, the only ones seen being those brought in from the desert by Indians, who sell them for a few bits each. It is the same with the centipede and the tarantula. They yield to irri- gation and civilization. A bale of hay, a basket of fruit, or a chunk of rich ore, would be better evi- dence of civilization, and would also come nearer telling the truth about the country in which we live. Tour l ists, while here for the winter, col lect as much of the queer as possi- ble, and they add their mite to- ward advertising Arizona as she is not. Our people are unconsciously committing commercial suicide by misrepresenting the conditions that exist by sending away the unusual rather than the choice products of the country.
 The board of worlds fair com missioners who will have charge of the Arizona exhibit at St. Louis should see that nothing is shown there but what will be illustrative of the valuable resources which ex- ist in Arizona; that tells of the won derful progress that has been made in the development of these re- sources; that tells of the excellent schools and creditable church or ganizat tions, buildings and mem berships; that tells of the great fu- ture which is assured for our agri- cultural industry by exhibiting our soil products (grain, hay, fruits, vegetables, etc.), labeled with the story of the enormous yields per acre and by pointing to the vast area of fertile land which the na- tional irrigation will reclaim.
 Keep the lizards, tarantulas, cen tipedes, horned toads, Gila mon- sters, lazy Indians and other desert growths in the background. They are not representative of the pres ent energy and civilization in Ari- zona, but are typical of what Ari- zona was when the pioneers in- vaded the country, and which is pictured in the Kicker" stories and by those who delight to tell their eastern friends of the hair-raising experiences of the wild and woolly west which never occurred.
 At the worlds fair in Chicago the Arizona and New Mexico build ing was almost hid from view by all manner of cactus growth. There were Sahuaras, the tallest to be found in the territories; soap-weed, carajos, ochollas, and almost every thing that would advertise Arizona as a desert. At St. Louis the exhi- bition should be one to impress vis- itors with the fact that Arizona is a land of prosperous homes, land the most fertile to be found in the world; land of copper, gold, sill yer, lead and other precious metals; a land of intelligence and civiliza-