Arizona republican., 1907-03-03
RALPH CAMERON'S FIGHT
 TOLL ROAD BILL PASSES
An Acrimonious Debate Prolonged the
 House Session
The Introduction of Governor Kibbey's Bill Amend ing the Revenue Laws--FOur Bills Received the Approval of the Executive.

The one thing which loomed up most
 cOnspicuOusly in the legislature yesteI-
 day was not of general importance and
 in fact affected only three parties. The
 interest in it rested largely in it's an
 tiquity for it has been before legisla-
 latures and courts for years. IL was
 the matter of the Bright Angel trail
 otherwise a bill Ostensibly amending
 the law with respect to toll roads
 The measure council bill No. v had
 passed the council and at first there
 was some doubt as tO whether il would
 prevail in the house but on Friday
 night it was predicted that there would
 be little opposition Co it.
 This bill and house bill %. alssD bear
 ing on the same matter We're mad, a special order for yesterday afternoon and they were taken up in the com
 mittse of the whole for the purpose of hearing District Attorney Ashurst and
 his assistant. Mr. Quinn. in opposition to the bill and Attorney General Clark
 in favor of it.
 Before the consideration was begun
 an understanding was eutrI ed into by which others interested in the measure might be heard. Mir. Ashurst spoke
 first and was quickly engaged in hit ting out straight from the shoulder. He began with a history of the Bright Angel trail running back to 1891, the transfer of the trail from one person or concern to another. the abandon ment of it by them and at last it came ' into the possession Of Ralph H. Cam eron in whose interest the present bill was being pressed.
 At last the santa Fe and Grand Can ! yon railway appeared on the scene and contested the right of NIT. Cameron to collect tolls on the trail. As district attorney Mir. Ashurst said that he had opposed quo warranto proceedings which the company wanted to begin against Mir. Cameron whose right was about to expire in February of last
 year. When the company applied 10 l the supreme court for mandate MT. Ashurst said that he had assisted E. ! M. Doe the attorney for MT. Cameron : in opposing the application and that in fact all of the expense of the oppOsi- : ton had been borne by CCconino cOun- tty. it being his understanding that the franchise was to be prevented from ex- tinguishment for the benefit of the county which should come in on the expiration of NIT. Cameron's claim. He said that last March while he was
 in the city of Washington he received a telegram from the board of which
 Mir. Cameron was a member informing him the board had entered into
 a contract with man named
 Ferrol. the employe of Mir Cam erOn, by which the lateer should col feet and retain all the tolls for a period of five years. Thereupon he said he
 had begun to oppose the designs of Mir. Cameron. not in the interest of the railroad company but in that of the county. He also said that Attorney General Clark before becoming attor- ney general had been the attorney of NIT. Cameron though he now appeared he said in the interest Of the county which had every thing to lose and
 nothing to gain by the bill which he said had been so ingeniously drawn as to exclude the county indefinitely if not forever from the profits of the trail Before the beginning of the address Of Mir Ashurst. Mir. Williams of Coco ninO had offered three amendments to fthe bill Two of them provided that l the county should receive at least thir- ! ty per cent of the receipts of the trail and the other took from the board of supervisors the right to enter into an indefinite contract with any one con- corning it.
 MT. Ashurst said that this was a compromise which was very distaste- ;ul to him but he had consented to it as the best thing that offered.
 Addresses were made by Messrs Nor ton for the railroad company and by : the attorney general for the bill in which each pursued the same lines as he had done at the hearing before the