Arizona republican., 1905-04-29
KICKED BACKWARD
Fatal ReCOiI Upon the
 Reform Movement
Telegram or hissive Sent tO the Pres ident Blew Off the BreeCh Block With Disastrous Results.

kiChtQ IdIu anu NlClOuSlH II was ifldl 1 communication to President Roosevelt | purported to have been sent by the | citizens committee calling the attcn- | tion of the chief executive of the na- tion to the circumstance that there is | a municipal campaign on in Phoenix l
 The language employed in it as well ! as the attack on Governor Kibbey ! astounded the town. When it was read ! in The Republican yesterday morning many of the democrats of the city re- fused to believe that it was genuine l preferring to suppose that it was mere ly an unworthy incident of the cam paign. But later when the genuine ness of it was established there was a great revuIsion of feeling and it was denounced on all sides It was recog- nized that the last forlorn hope of the citizens democrat party had been ut terly wiped out; the reform" move ment had come to a permanent stand still.
 Popular indignation was so great that many democrats avowed their in- tention of voting the republican ticket. Scores of republicans who had been "on the fence" got down on the re- publican side. They said that whatever might have been the issue before. there was now an entirely new one and that
 was decency in political methods. There was an early meeting of the
 citizens committee at which inquiry was made into the matter for a deter imitation of the authenticity of the communication and the authorship of | it. It was pretty well understood that Dr. Hughes stood sponsor for the docu-
 ment and he so informed the commit tee. He said that it had been ljrepar- [ ed in the afternoon before the republi- ! can mass meeting of Wednesday night and was intended to be sent in the { event Of the appearance of Governor Kibbey at the meeting. Later he said
 it was determined not to send it as a ! telegram but it was resolved to mail ! it inasmuch as a telegram would not | immediately reach the president in the 1 fastnesses of the mountains of Colo
 rado. It had therefore been mailed along with other matter on the subject 1 Of the campaign.
 l It was resolved that it would be wise to disapprove of the communication
 and there was a somewhat warm time i in the committee 40 of the members be ling present The following resolutions
 were adopted on the subject: i At a called meeting of the citizens committee of Phoenix, Ariz.. held at | headquarters this 2Sth day Of April, | 1905, the following resolutioTR were un-
 animously adopted:
 Whereas, An article appeared in the i editorial columns of the Arizona Re publican. under date of April 2S. 1905, purporting to be a telegram directed to 1 the president of the United States, and signed by the citizens committed and Whereas, The citizens committee Of Phoenix had nothing to do with and
 -1safF
 other communication to the president
 of the United States. and
 Whereas. It has come to our knowl- edge that such communication though not telegraphed, was mailed. There l fore, be it
 Resolved, That We demand that such
 communication be recalled.
 | That we greatly deplore the action of
 our governor in using the weight and ! influence of his high office against the good citizens of Phoenix. who are earn l estly endeavoring to wipe out a glar-
 ing evil from this, our capital city. That VIC do not assert that the re-
 publican party is a party of gamblers but we do charge that the gamblers are | using the republican party of Phoenix ! to perpetuate an evil.
 That such action brings disgrace up on that party, and is entirely contrary
 to the thought and wish of the presi- | dent of the United States who once re- i called the commission of an Arizona | appointee because he was a gambler. Be is further
 Resolved, That a copy of these re
 solutions be spread upon our minutes;
 that copy be furnished each pews- paper of our city, and that they be | published in the next issue of our paper
 No public incident in Phoenix was so
 widely and consistently discussed and
 it was everywhere agreed that it set
 tied the contest as effectually the
 election may be expectd to do it next
 Tuesday.
 It is said that late in the afternoon
 Dr. Hughes admitted that tactical error" had been made.
 In other democratic and citizens II quarters the "error" was called the
 most egregious bIunder on record. It
 was even charged that unprincipled re- II publicans had subsidized the author of II the communication and others said it
 was merely J. c. Adams luck. It was
 not forgotten that on one occasion MT. II Adams happened to be passing an in-
 surance office and for the first time
 remembered that he had no lightning
 insurance on his hotel He took out a
 policy though there was nothing at the
 moment in atmospheric conditions sug- gesting it. That night the lightning struck the corner of his hotel knocked
 of a lot of bricks and next day the agent paid him $25.
 The disgust among some of the de- | mocrats was overpowering. One of
 them said, There's more damned fools scattered around in the democratic | party than anywhere else on earth"