Williams news., 1904-06-04
FISH AND POLITICS
Hon. M. A. Smith Dividing His
 Attention Between Them.

Hon. Marcus A. Smith arrived in the city yesterday morning on his way to the northern part of the territory. This is his first visit to Phoenix since his return from Washington, where he went not long ago to assist in blocking the further progress of the joint state hood bill.
 Mr. Smith was asked regarding his rumored candidacy for delegate to congress next fall. He was told that that rumor was given an inn petus at the time of the Tucson con vention, but that there had been no definite statement by him or any one else authorized to speak for him. He replied that he would ac- cept the office only for any good he might do for the territory in the capacity of delegate. The office, he said, had never been profitable one to him, while his private law practice had been remunerative, and consulting his own private af- fairs he would choose to continue his practice without interruption.
 He said though that the territory was menaced by the joint statehood bill and he did not know that it would be possible to avert calam- ity, but he believed that he could do more to defeat the bill than any new or unskilled man could do. It was not presumed that he could take part in the deliberations upon the measure as delegate if the bill should be disposed of at the next session, which would come to an enc before he or any other delegate elect could take his seat. It was possible, though, that the opposi- tion among the democrats of the senate could prevent favorable ac- ton in the coming short session, in which case the fight would be inn mediately renewed in the next con- gress.
 In the course of his late visit to Washington Mir. Smith said he had seen nearly every republican sena- tor and all of them but one ex- pressed his purpose to vote for the bill. That one was Senator Alger of Michigan, the business partner of Mir. F. M. Murphy and MT. E.. B. Gage. But the fight, Mir. Smith said, was not a political contest, and while the democratic members of the senate are now solidly ar rayed against the bill, it was doubt full if this solidity could be main- tained in the face of a prolonged fight. The danger to the territory lies in the fact that there is strong eastern opposition to any stronger western representation in the sen ate. The eastern democratic mem- bers could no doubt be counted on to continue the fight against the bill for a time, but eventually a pressure would be brought to bear and the interests of their own states or some of their own constituents would be threatened. In that case their views of the purposed injus- tice to Arizona might undergo a change. A filibuster, however de- termined, could not be kept up forever.
 Only a consideration of his pos sible ability to prevent or obstruct the passage of the bill could induce him to accept the democratic nom ination for delegate. MT. Smith said that he had received kind let ters from democrats from all parts of the territory. In this connec- tion Prescott paper the other day printed an interview with Delegate Wilson, in which he denied the truth of a dispatch published some time ago in the St. Louis Globe Democrat, in which he was made to say that he would not again be a candidate for delegate.
 MT. Smiths reception by the democratic leaders of Phoenix must have been very gratifying to him,