Arizona republican., 1906-04-09
Rockefeller, the Nonproducer

The San Francisco Examiners mea- sure of good American citizenship is a capacity for liouor and a habit of con- suming tobacco. This kind of citizen ship. believes the Examiner, contributes to the general coffers, greases the machinery of government and keeps things running.
 Only citizens who thus contribute are entitled to governmental consider ation and protection. These views are set forth in the rather hysterical Ex- amineresque style in a comment upon a recent incident in the China sea.
 A Chinese junk raided an oil craft belonging to John D. Rockefeller and others and the United States warship Callao was dispatched to the scene to punish. if possible, the desecrators of the Standards tank ship.
 The Examiner believes that is un- fair to the rest of the taxpayers of the United States to burn coal and wear and tear our navy in behalf of John D. Rockefeller. The Examiner holds up the personal habits of MT. Rockefeller, Or rather the want of habits to scorn and declares him to be without the pale.
 MT. Rockefeller does not drink. neither does he smoke nor chew and thus he withholds from the United States treasury his need of govern mental support Why then should the government bother itself to punish the pirates who worry this nOn-producing citizens tank shiEs?
 If believes the Examiner, that plundered vessel had been the property of say some Missouri farmer who burns Bull Durham in a corncob pipe, the government would be warranted in burning coal in an emergency of this kind The government also, thinks the Examiner, would be properly reciproca- tive if it should SCOUT the seas of pirates who plunder the ships of those who consume liquor on which an in ternal revenue tax has been paid
 There is another way of looking at it. Temperance experts inform us that the drinking of liquor is productive of the heaviest burden laid upon the tax
  have figured to a nicety the percent age of convicts in the penitentiaries and pris 0ners in the county jails who owe their incarceration to liquor drink ing. The result of their calculations includes the court, costs, mileage and all other items attending their conviction These experts say, and We are inclin-
 hot m liquor drinking -fifths of the jails might be converted into high schools and four-fifths of the penitentiaries in to universities.
 We may take the case of MT. Rocke- . feller. Suppose he was such pro- ducing citizen as the Examiner wishes he were It is quite generally accept ed that MT. Rockefeller is possessed If criminal tendencies. Stimulated by strong drink MT. Rockefel Ter would doubtless have cost the state much more as a common drunkard, a wife beater and perhaps a thief. than all the tax on all the liquor he might have consumed as a good Examiner American citizen.
 We have here in Phoenix for instance Diego April, Andy Garcia and a dozen others who are out of jail only long enough to get in again. They have been getting in and out for the last ten years. Each one of these men has cost the county of Maricopa much more than 1t cost to send the Callao from Manila to Chinese waters in search of the pirates who dispoiled MT. Rockefellers oil ship.