Arizona republican., 1905-12-23
PHOENIX, ARIZONA, DEC. 23, 1905.
That "LObby"

CT day printed a dispatch from it's Washington correspondent, the some what excitable Walter Wellman, de- scriptive of the strong railroad and mine owners lobby in Washington working for the defeat of the joint statehood bill. Wellman's dispatch was a reflection merely of an article previously printed by an administra- tion paper in Washington. In none of these stories of the lobby has it's personnel been given. The RepubIi- can, however, some time ago, printed special dispatch from Washington making public the names of the mem bers of this lobby" They were Dele gate Marcus A. Smith, former Govern or N. O. Murpny, and Hon. B. A. Fow- Ter.
 The weakness in numbers of this lobby has been pityingly compared with the 200 members of the Oklahoma lob by now in Washington urging the pas sage of a bill to admit that territory and the Indian Territory in some shape
 
 working for the passage of the Hamil- ton bill. MT. Smiths mining and railroad interests in Ari- zona would hardly subject him to sus- picion, even if he were not the dele gate sent from this territory to carry out the will of the people, ninety-five out of every hundren of whom are inn portuning him to strive for the defeat of the joint statehood bill. The long residence of Governor Murphy in Ari- zona and his untiring labors for it's upbUilding should easily place him be- yOnd suspicion. MT. Fowler is well connections, but is known to be in tensely interested in the development of the agricultural possibilities of the Salt River valley. These gentlemen constitute Arizona's lobby" and they they are all there is of it.
 The cry of corporations-min and railroad-in this case is the howl of the demagogue, first uttered by the Beveridge coterie and then taken up and rehOwled throughout tne country by other demagogues, who for one reason or another are openly or secret ly aiding the jointure movement.
 This accusation of corporate influ- ence was made in the beginning by Harpers Weekly, and at that time The Republican said that no doubt the mine-Owners and railroad managers of Arzona were opposed to joint state hood, just as every farmer, every prop erty owner and every man whose fu- ture is dependent upon the continued prosperity of this region is opposed to jOinture. If the mine-OwneTs and rail- road owners entertained any other view of the situation they might be presumed to be crazy.
 But the accusation that they have a special interest in defeating joint statehOod-an interest different from that of the people at large, and that they are seeking to accomplish it's de- feat by a powerful lobby and corrupt means-is in keeping with the false hoods which have been employed by the friends of jointure from the be- ginning of the fight.
 Fortunately, this cry of the lobby is having little weight in the influenc- ing of public opinion, and it will cer- tainly nave, if possible, less weight in congress, where it will be definitely known whether there is a lobby or not The Republican yesterday quoted the Hartford Courant in which it declared that the story of the lobby was as ri- diculous as the Mormon scare, and that it has been set afloat to excuse the tyrannous methods which were be- ing employed to force statehood on this unwilling territory.
 The Kansas City Journal takes a similar view in the following:
 "The story sent out from Washing ton that the railroads and mining cor porations are back of the opposition to joint statehood for Arizona and New Mexico has all the earmarks of an in spired press agent'-probably of the same school of journalism as Secretary Bishop, of the Panama canal commits sion, who confessed the other day that a surmise on his part was the only foundation for the press stuff which he had been giving out for a year or more to the effect that the railroads were engaged in some dark and mys- teriOus plot to prevent the building of the Panama canal If the railroads and mining corporations were half as powerful as this cock and bull story implies they would be much better off under a state government than under federal control. It would certainly be easier for them to control a state leg islature in Arizona, where they are said by this press agent to be all-pow- erfuL than to influence the action of congress.
 This statement regarding the rail- roads and mine owners is on a par with the wild assertion that there is