Williams news., 1904-01-23
RANGERS DESERVE PRAISE
The Organization Labors Under
 Many Disadvantages.

lne ATlLOild NdI'SeI lOICe IS d peace preserving body, now about three years old The law estab- fishing it was passed by the twen ty-frst legislature, and it probably would not have been passed at all but for the exercise of the personal influence of Governor Murphy, says the Douglas American. It was urged against by some of the legis- lators that the bill was intended only to find places for friends of the executive. But the bill was passed, providing for a small force, and the work it performed brought it into public favor. The first cap tain of the rangers was Burton c. Mossman, who showed the value of the body to the territory. The last legislature was by no means unan- imousin the opinion that the organ ization ought to be perpetuated. Still enough of the members not only voted for the maintainance of it but for an increase of the force, nearly doubling it. It is strange that the greatest opposition to the rangers came from all the big cat tie raising counties but two, Cochise and Pima.
 The legislature passed a new bill for the benefit of the live stock in terests and that gave the rangers under Captain Thomas Ryning, ap- pointed by Gov. Brodie as the suc- cessor of Captain Mossman, a great CT scope. The work the rangers performed has been described from time to time, but no eulogy could be more eloquent than that deliv- cred at the meeting of the associa tion of Arizona cattlemen last Mon day.
 The members of the live stock sanitary board said that the law would not have been enforced with out the agency of the rangers, whose influence had extended into quar- ters where there was an active sym pathy with cattle thieves. This sympathy was felt, not only by men who are classed as lawful but by many who believed in temporiz- ing the compromising. They said that the "rustlers" had been good boys but had ''gone wrong;;" if they logged just little bit they would be put on the right track and would become good citizens.
 That was not all; local authori- ties, deputy sheriffs, constables, justices of the peace, and in some cases, district attorneys, refused to assist in the prosecution of men and boys whom they had always known, for mistaking the brand on steer, for making slight altera- tions of the brand, or for actually lifting" the animal.
 The rangers entered the field no respectors of persons. They have practically broken up cattle steal ing in the south; they have dis couraged it in the north; they are running out of the country the men who illegally thrive upon the range and now and then varied the mo- notony of cattle stealing by holding up trains and stages.
 The Commonwealth mine at Pearce, Ariz., which owing to a general collapse, was compelled to cease operation a few days ago, will be reopened immediately and with that object in view several promi- nent stockholders of the company are now on the ground discussing the matter and devising methods as to the most expeditions manner of reopening the great mine. It is stated that a new shaft has been decided upon and will be hurried to the ore bodies as rapidly as pos sible.
 Henry Laub, the discoverer of Don Luis as a town site, is back again from Los Angeles. Mir. Laub went to the City of Angels to spend Christmas and the New Year holi-