Mohave County miner., 1906-10-06
Joint Statehood Meetings.


 Joint Statehood party, held meetings in Chloride, Goldroad and Kingman this week and tried with all the soph- istry of the orator to make converts to the cause. We are not informed as to the success of the meetings in the oth- CT towns, but at Kingman he had a good audience that listened to what he had to offer in most respectful manner. Here Mir. Ainsworth was joined by Col. Thomas Fitch, known to all old timers of the Pacific coast as the Silver Tongued orator. Col. Fitch has lost the silvery notes that made him distinctive in the years gone by. having to read his little piece from manuscript. But MT. Ainsworth had statistics galore at his command, and while the statistics were ancient his- tory they went for what they were worth. He is an interesting talker and in some other cause might be talk en seriously. AS it is we do not be- lieve he caused any one of the many that listened to his discourse to change their views one iOta. Everything that was said in favor of joint statehood could be boiled down to the one issue that the president, Beveridge and Cannon desired it, and that the presi- dent knew better what the people needed than they knew themselves. His charge that the Copper Queen mine, worth 5OO,OOO, ,OOOs, paid taxes on only about one million, had nothing to do with the subject. The govern OTIS report of New Mexico sets out that there are something over one million acres of coal lands in that territory, having in sight over g, 1000, ,OOO, 900 tons of merchantable coal, worth ten billions of dollars, while the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, the Clark interests and many independent mines, owning all these lands, pay but few paltry thousands of dollars in taxes. McKin- ley county, New Mexico, having near ly one million acres of coal lands, is assessed at about 900,000S on all its property. So it may be said that the tax matter is all bosh. The territory can handle it's corporations just as we'll as territory as can state. The only question at issue is, will Arizona and her people be benefited by merger with New Mexico? Not one point was put forward to convince the voter on this issue. Mir. Ainsworth told the people that he was corporation law yer, that he had advised the board of supervisors of Pima county to pay the fraudulent railroad bonds and that they were compelled to pay them. But he did not tell the people that his advice was given before these fraudu- lent bonds were validated by congress, at a time when our supreme court had declared them fraudulent. His con- parison of the debts of New Mexico and Arizona were also rather far fetched. He gave the Territorial debt of Arizona at 3,l0O,OOOS and that of New Mexico at 70O,G0O$. Does he be- lieve for one moment that he made any one believe this to be true? Our territory has a debt of about 7O0,OO0$, while all the counties and municipali- ties of the territory has debts that have been funded and behind the pay ment of which the territory stands, making the bonds the most desirable of all forms of investment. It was by reason of the funding of these debts in this manner that the counties were enabled to place the bonds at premi- um of from los to ll2, while the bonds of the territory of New Mexico went on the market at from SS to 90 cents. Now, while the territory of New Mex ico has debt, of nearly one million of dollars the counties of that territory have debts that are appalling. Every county through which railroad passes has been bonded to an extent that makes the general expense debts of the territorial subdivisions dwindle might fly. Take for instance Santa Fe coun- ty: The general debt of this county is shown to be over 6OO,OOO$. and the debt on account of railroad bonds is 500, ,OOO$, making total debt of 1,l65,- O00S. Does the report of this travel ing auditor, referred to by Mir. Aims