Arizona republican., 1906-07-17
APACHE GO.
 Is ALL RIGHT JOintiStS are Good Takers But They Lack Votes District Attorney Crosby Confident His County Will Be Right.

visitor yesterday, having come 10 the valley Saturday night and spent Sun day with friends in Mesa City. He will leave here probably some time today and has two or three stops to make . on business, expecting to reach home | again the latter part of the week.
 The statement has been frequently | made by the friends of joint statehood | that Apache county, when given an | opportunity to vote. would be in favor 1 of that measure and the opportunity i was seized upon to interrogate MT. ! 1 Crosby, who is in a position to know l ! as much about the sentiment in that 1 county as any man. He spoke freely | and said that he had no desire to con | ceal the truth for if the facts are known he believes that the people of ' the entire territory will better under stand the people of his county and 1 there will be less sectional feeling in consequence.
 MT. Crosby said it is true that the jointure advocates claim Apache coun- | ty but the claim is not conceded by | any manner of means, by those op- posed to the marriage of the territories and in which class MT. Crosby is proud to be numbered. MT. Crosby says it is true also fhat in the immediate vicinity of St. Johns there is d strong jointuTe feeling but he believes when all the vot
 CTS of the county have expressed them selves Apache will be found with a big
 majority against jointure. In the south
 eTn part of the county, including the , towns of Springerville, Edgar, Greer, Nutrioso and Alpine hardly a jointist , can be found and it is the common peo- } pie that do the voting, even if they do ! not do great deal of talking. He says that probably a majority of the office
 holding element of the county, which is located mainly around St. Johns, favors jointure. Tn fact so far as they } have made public expression to his knowledge, N. Gonzales, member of the s board of supervisors and a former 9 member of the legislature. and MT. Crosby himself. the district attorney,
 are the only two county officers op-
 posing jointure. Nevertheless the of I i flee holders do not represent the peo- I pie on this issue. This carries with it @ no unkind reference as to the person. Q ality of the office holders and MT. ?. Crosby says he cannot figure out g where they can serve any selfish mo-
 tive by such views.
 But in spite of the influence of the , office holders says MT. Crosby, ''I feel
 confident that we will carry the county + by a good majority. Gustav Becker of V l Springerville is the most influential . man in the county. and he is opposing :. the movement with all his strength, ., 1 together with a great many of the solid
 lay citizens of the town. MT. Becker is = a man who never takes a very active o ! part in political matters. That is he - I is not reckoned as a politician, though [, he naturally has his favorites in every " campaign, but he wastes little time in 70 politics. On this question, however, he
 is thoroughly aroused ana doing all he can for he feels it is matter of patri-
 Otism and a subject of vital import
 ance. MT. Becker is particularly well
 fitted to know the best interests of the
 people of his county. For years he has z. been engaged in merchandising, having
 two stores in Arizona and two in New Mexico. He knows the conditions on = both sides of the line and the general
 conditions in New Mexico he says are
 such that he feels jointure would be e nothing less than a calamity for Ari- e zona. MT. Becker says that if the pro- IT posal were to unite Arizona with either
 Utah, southern California or any state e where Arizona had something to gain, IT he would not specially concern him. ie self, but in this instance he believes n Arizona has everything to lose and 2, nothing to gain
 Continuing, MT. Crosby said: We IT of Apache county have more to fear st from jointure than any other county V
 county is a long strip from the center
 of Arizona to the northern line, bor-
 dering the New Mexico boundary. Our
 grass country is our greatest resource = and has been the lust of the big New
 Mexico sheep owners for many years.
 Destroy the boundary line and we are
 gone. Both our sheepmen and cattle
 men will suffer.
 Another feature of vital importance ! I, ,,-fa L. will undoubtedly be redistricted. Our
 county has always been a hard one 6 to district. With jointure it would Un-
 doubtedly be attached to a New Mexico
 district where all the rest of the dis
 trict would have opposing or at least
 different interests, the people generally
 would have slight Knowledge of our
 needs and conditions and the admins
 tration of the law would, even with
 the best of officers prove unsatisfac- tory to us.
 n "Our Mexican citizens are all right U and we find no fault with them. In
 fact are proud of them. If the New " Mexico people were all their equal we r, should have much less to fear
 Again, the motive that prompts some of our people to favor jointure is s- a bad one. Some of them have had diff
 ferences with the people of the Salt i' River valley and I have no hesitancy st in saying that we have not always been m treated right by the people and inter- st ests of the Salt River valley. However
 revenge is the worst possible motive 'r for any step and is not a sufficient " cause for us to try to destroy our capi- S. tai city and disorGanize our territory
 I am loyal to the territory in any event ]. Continued on Page 5