Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1906-01-05

hood In Arizona. But In an indis,
criminate inquiry among all classes
OF peop.e ! could O find one,
Neither territory Is the Wild waste
OF cactus-growth desert and bare
mountain range, dotted here and there
with lawless mining camps and peo-
pied by bad men," cowboys, and
Jack Hamlin gamblers. hat fiction
has painted. Life In them IL no more
like that In the Arizona Kicker" and
In current cheap tales Of western life
than the California mining camps Of
today are like those that Bret Harte
pictured. In the populated districts.
II Is safer without u gun" than with
one. There Ii probably less violence
In any one day In the territories than
on the same day In New York or Chi
cago. The towns have broad. clean
streets and sidewalks. electric lights,
good water systems, trolley lines, ex-
cellent schools. ! would rather send
my children to the public schools
Of Prescott. Arix, than to most of
those In New Y0rk--the teaching and
the association would be as good,
the sanitation better.
Churches are plentiful and each
territory has a fast-growing universe
~ and many other educational insti.
tutions.
Nor does either territory prove on
wider travel TO be the sweep OF arid.
ness that q through traveller sees
much Of when crossing the continent
by the Santa Fe railroad on the north
or the Southern Pacific on the south.
| There are indeed miles and aching
miles Of desert. and the whole lower
end OF the Rockies filings Its huge
bulk across the territories. But so
vast Is their area. mat besides the
deserts and the mountains each con.
tains a greater belt of white pine for
est than any state now possesses
a broad band Of which Is perpetual
forest reserve. There are hundreds
Of miles Of broad river valleys now
irrigated, Or to be irrigated as soon
as the government dams now building
are completed. 90, zoo, 900 acres in all,
that r thrice or four times Is fer
tile under irrigation as the rich val.
leys Of Connecticut or the Susque
hanna. There are mining regions AMI
communities as permanently produc
tive al those of Michigan and Penn
sylvania. There r thriving cities
like Las Vegas, Albuquerque. Pres
colt, Phoenix, and Tucson. The ter
ritories are more fruitful than the,
seem.
New Mexico-and Arizona, too, fol
that matter-believes It ought lonj
ago to have become q state, Of itsell
As long ago az 1874 a bill granting
statehood passed both house and sen
ate and failed only In conference
Term after term since then, one ter
J rit0rial delegate after another ha.
hammered away for admission.
Two-thirds OF the states had q
smaller population that New Mexico
when admitted. The territory has
an are about equal to New England
New York and New Jersey combined,
and Its people are spread all yer It
Census enumerators have but thirty
days to G u their data and receive
but two and one-half cents a name,
They simply cannot hunt up all the
miners and sheep herders. Many are
thus left out. The population is proba.
bly, somewhat short Of 100000.
The territory Is now largely Deepen.
dent on mining. ranching and lumber
Ing. The Colorado Fuel 4 Iron com
pany and other interests own iron
mines in the north from which 1000
tons OF iron ore a day are shipped
to the smelter at Pueblo, Col. 1t has
anthracite coal and vast beds of btu
minons, Of which 1t produces about a
million and q half tons a year. There
are 2,30e miles Of railroad, 1000 miles
Of which were built In the last Awe
years. Grant county Is said to mine
more Turquoises than all the rest OF
Of the world. New Mexico ships about
200, 900 head of cattle a year to be
fattened In the Mississippi valley
states. The great Boston wool market
Is maintained largely through its
share Of New Mexico's annual out
put OF 5000, 900 pounds. The wool
Is shipped by way OF Galveston, partly
to secure cheaper rates, partly be-
cause a bag Of wool weighs three
pounds more when It reaches damp
Boston than when 1t left dry New
Mexico. Its gold and silver mines
produce about $4,000, 5000 a year.
j saw at Albuquerque great train
loads of logs brought down from the
Zuni mountains TO be made into
sashes aud doors at the mills OF the
American Lumber company there,
whose thousand employees turn out
81 100000 worth OF manufactured lum-
Der q Some Of 1t Is shipped by
the carload to Galveston for export.
Recently several carloads were sent
to Glasgow. The waste from the mill
runs the electric light plant for Al
buquerque, whose owners are talking
Of selling electric power o run pumps
for irrigation throughout the valley
In which Albuquerque hes. Down IN