Arizona republican., 1906-08-01
THE DEBTS OF TWO TERRI
 TORIES.

Much has been written and spoken in connection with the statehood de- bate of the comparative indebtedness of Arizona and New Mexico. The joint statehood papers of the latter territory have indefinitely pointed to the fact that their territorial indebt- edness is somewhat less than ours and they have declined to be drawn into a discussion of their county indebted ness at all Two .Ar.zona papers, per sistently set forth that our indebted ness is much greater than that of New Mexico.
 The Rel dblican has hitherto not re- garded this matter as of the most i'm mediate importance. there being so many more weighty reasons why there should be no jointure of the two ter r.tories. However. We will now pre- sent the indebtedness of the territories. The figures are not only from an au- thoritative source, but they are the latest obtainable. They are taken from "The Commercial and Financial Chronicle" of New York for May.
 The territorial indebtedness of Ari- zona is sS,115.s72 from which Is to be deducted $2,O75. 900. the funded indebt- edness of counties, municipalities and school districts. This separation of the debt of Arizona is made only for pur- poses of comparison with the debt of New Mexico, which is in a different shape. no part of the county indebt- edness having been funded.
 The debt of New Mexico by towns. school districts and counties Is as fol- lows: Albuquerque, $116.OOO; Las ve- gas. $67,O0O; Roswell $Ss,sOO; Santa Fe school district, s2s.OOO; Bernalillo county. S362,6OO; Chavez. s5s.O0O; Col fax. $7s,OOO; Grant, s22S, S,OOO Guade- lupe. $S5.OOO; Mora, $9O,OOO; Otero. $57.OOO; San Miguel, S46S. 900; Santa Fe. $1,151,OOO; Sierra, $55.OOO; Socorro. $1S1,7OO; Taos. $5O,OOO; Valencia ST. 300. Total sS.176,5OO.
 It Is noticeable that the indebtedness of many of the counties is a high per percent of the total valuation In most 5f-.he counties 1t Is not less than 10 per cent. In Santa Fe county it reaches the as'ounding height of 6s and two-thirds per cent. There the indebtedness is $1115.OOO the valua- ton &1.75O.OOO.
 To the county indebtedness of New Mexico is to be added the territorial indebtedness which has been kept so prominently before us, of sS53, ,0O0, leaving a grand total of $4.O29, 800. as against the ss,115.OOO of Arizona. From the indebtedness of New Mexico there is to be deducted a sinking fund of about $S0,00O and from the debt of Ari- zona there is to be deducted cash bal ance in the treasury of about the same amount. Thus the indebtedness of New Mexico by this showing exceeds that of Arizona by about $SOO,OOO
 But this is not nearly all. There are two other classes of New Mexico in debtedness of which "The Commercial and Financial Chronicle" could take no cognizance and to which the joint statehood papers have made the vag- uest possible allusion. One of these classes Is made up of the railroad bonds of several of the counties, said 10 aggregate about $sOO, ,OOO The other class consists of the so- called mil itia warrants" issued in an unknown amount. Conjectures have reached as high as s3,OOO.0O0 and recently a New Mexican paper admitted as a matter Of no consequence that militia war rants had been issued to the amount of something more than one million dollars.
 There seems to be no way of as- certaining even approximately the amount of this indebtedness. but if joint statehood should prevail the amount would be made known to a cent by the time of the sitting of the first legislature.
 The joint statehood papers have met reference to these railroad bonds and militia warrants with the assurance that they are invalid and dead and that the statehood bill could not breathe life into them. We know as a fact that men who are not ignorant