Arizona republican., 1904-06-15
PHoENN. ARIZONA. JULY IS. 1904.
The Los Angeles Experiment.


 derstood. is first cousin to the refer endum" of which We at one time heard sO much here in Arizona. The beauti- ful doctrine of the referendum. which was to cure all civic and political ills, provided for an elaborate system of re- ferring legislative acts to the people for ratification. and so strongly did the idea appeal to the store-box statesmen that there was a noisy demand Ter it's adoption. The politicians. always ready 70 follow any craze promising of Cffice, also howled for the refere1cUm, and both parties in the territory went cn record for it. That was several years aEo. when sixteen to One was a battle cry to swear by, and the Great Red Dragon of the Money Power interrupt cd the dreams of the pOpulists and threatened to invade the back yard of every dCmicile. Arizona recovered from the referendum fever, ut it is evident that not few of our once be- loved populists have taken up their pssidence in Los Angeles. for the ''le- call" has been made part of the fund amenta law of that city.
 Being still so new to the world as to require the adornment of quotation marks. the "recall' will be better un- derstood bV our readers when we ex- plain that it is a provision of the city charter of Los Angeles whereby any ha +n nd trial at the polls for his acts. This is how the recall" is set in motion. 4 petition is circulated among the vot- CTS. demanding of the city council that an election be called to elect a success sor to the official in. question. If 25 per cent of the electorate sign the petition, the council must call special election, and candidates are voted for. The can didate receiving the highest number of votes at the special election succeeds the official against whom the petition Is directed. There is nothing to bar the incumbent from standing fer re- election.
 The recall" now in motion in Los Angeles is aimed at one o9 the mem bers of the city council, Davenport by name. Councilman DavenpOrt's of fense consists in having voted to award the city printing to the Los Angeles Times, at a figure nominally higher than competing bids by some s11,0oe. The theory upon which Davenport and his colleagues proceeded was that the only object in spending the public funds for public printing is to advise the peo- pie of what is being done by their ser wants in office. They found that the circulation of the Times was greatly in excess of the circulation of any oth- CT paper, and reached the somewhat logical conclusion that, circulation con- sidered, the figures submitted by the Times were the lowest.
 Certainly, that was a conclusion war ranted by common sense, and it is one which guides the action of all business men who advertise. For example, the advertisers in The Republican cheer fully pay for space in this paper at rates many times higher than the 'eatch-as-catch-can prices of local Phoenix papers, for advertisers know that through The Republican they reach the people and the advertisements bring immediate results. It is gener- ally the official theory, however, that the public is not interested in reading official proceedings, and accordingly the public printing is awarded as Eraft-as in the case of the territorial printing, for example, which goes to publications some of which have abso- lutely no legitimate circulation.
 But it seems that the business men in the city council of Los Angeles viewed the question from a business stand point. The law requires us to get this printing done somewhere" they ar gued, and it is common sense to sup pose that the law contemplates a full equivalent for the money expended. Space in some publications would be worth practically nothing to the city. and the money would be wasted. Why not pay a little more, nominally, and get full value?"
 This procedure, however, was not ap- proved by everybody, and it seems that 25 per cent of Councilman Davenport's constituents have petitioned for an election whereat he may be displaced by somebody else. It is understood that he will be a candidate fer re-elec- tion, aud it will be interesting 10 note the degree of business sense which is possessed by the people of Los Angeles It Is understood, also, that If the Ire call" shall be effective in the case of Councilman Davenport, the same pro- cess will be tried against all of his of- lending colleagues.