Bisbee daily review., 1906-10-14
[. E. A|NSWORTH SPEAKS IN THE
 NORTH
Visits Chloride, Goldroad and Kingman in An Endeavor to Make Converts Assisted By Fitch.
(Mohave County Mner.)


 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 MT. 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 taken seriously. As 1t is we do not believe he caused any one of the many who 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, Beyeridge 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 $500, 900 900, paid taxes on only about one million, had nothing to do with the subect. The govern or's report of New Mexico sets out that there are something over one million acres Of coal lands in that territory, having in sight over S,000,0o0, ,00o tons of merchantable coal. worth ten bil- liens of dollars. while the Colorado Fuel and Iron company. the Clark in- terests ard many independent mines, owning all these lands, pay but few paltry thousands of dollars in taxes. Mckinley county, New Mexico. nav ing nearly one million acres of coal lands, is assessed at about sS00.000 on all it's property. So il may be said that the tax matter is all bosh. The territory can handle its corporations ust as well as a territory as can a state The only question at issue is will Arizona and her people be bene- flied by merger with New Mexico? !? Not one point was put forward to con vince the voter on this issue. MT. Ainsworth told the people that he was a corporation lawyer, that he had ad- vised the board of supervisors of Pima county to pay the fraudulent railroad bonds and that they were com pelled to pay them. But he did not tell the people that his advice was given before these fraudulent bonds were validated by congress, at a time when our supreme court had declared them fraudulent His comparison of the debts of New Mexico and Arizona were also rather far fetched. He gave the Territorial debt of Arizona at s. 110, ,0o0 and that of Ne Mexico at S100,- 600. Does he believe for one moment that he made any one believe this to be true? Our territory has a debt of about s700,000, while all the coun- ties and municipalities of the territory has debts that have been funded and behind the payment of which the ter ritory stands, making the bonds the most desirable Of all forms of invest rnent. IL was by reason of the fund ing of these debts in this manner that the counties were enabled to place the bonds at a premium of from 105 to 112. 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 Mexico has a debt
 
 counties of that territory have debts that are appalling. Every county through which a railroad passes has been bonded to an extent that makes the general expense debts of the ter ritoriai subdivisions dwindle nightly. Take for instance Santa Fe county: The general debt of this county is shown to be over s600,000, and the deh. on account of railroad bonds is s590. .000. making a total debt of Sl,- 1C5,0o0. Does the report of this trav- cling auditor, referred to by MT. Aims worth, show this railroad debt? Not much. It wouldn't do to show up the dark side of the New Mexico debt question. Then the militia warrantsi Well. Gov Hagerman's letter to the contrary, they are there and millions of them. Recently the Silver City En- terprise in discussing this question, said:
 Why should we deny the existence of these militia warrants. Everybody knows that a great many have been issued, some fTaudulently. but many have of them were honestly issued in payment for honest work aLd supplies and the territory must sooner or later take them up. When we become a state a commission will be appointed to weed out the fraudulent and fund the honest debts"
 Does this look as though there are no war-scss thrf the people of New Mexico are bound to pay?
 Then again. take the statement of Mr Ainswo-th that New Mexico was all agricultural country to be a fact, we disagree with him on the subject of Arizona being dissincsively min ing region. Take all the mines as sessment Of Arizona from eff the rolls and we then woula have nearly ter million dolla-s Of assessable property in excess of our sister territory. His legislative comparison also proves nothing. Take the conventions in our neighbor territory and the reader will readily see who runs tfem- Taos