Arizona republican., 1907-10-05
ARIZONA FINANCES
 AN INVITING THEME
A Statement of the Territory's Finan- cial Condition Is a Good Imn,isra- tion Document.

The attention of a great many pros pective settlers in this valley has been called to numerous reasons why this will soon be an ideal spot for homes and investments. These reasons have pertained to land values. land pro- ductivcness. water conditions. mar kets. etc. There is another reason and very important one. though little has been said about it since a year ago when the statehood campaign was on. for it is when properly applied an anti-joint statehood argument as well as an argument for stimulating immi- grafton. Reference is made to the county and territorial finances. which after many years of honest endeavor under varying administrations. are in a most enviable condition. It is doubt full if any state or territory is in any better financial condition, and it is certain that most of them are in much worse shape.
 In what follows, only round numbers are given. for they are easier to com prehend and are approximately cor rect. The assessed valuation of the territory is $77.372. .156.11. The bonded indebtedness of the territory is ap- Iproximately s3.OO0. 0.0OO, of which two thirds is due the territory from the respective counties whose debts have been funded. That leaves about one million dollars. territorial indebtedness. Against this, the territory owns in real property, a fine capitol building. two fine normal schools, territorial uni versiey. penitentiary. industrial school and similar public institutions the value of which is surely more than a million dollars. The cash balance therefore indicates that the territory ! is practically out of debt That is. any business man would take her debts for her real property and jump at the bargain.
 But that is only part of it. The ter ritory has for a long time 6lid cash on presentation for all general fund warrants. and there is always plenty of money left in the treasury. So re- plete is the treasury balance that this year the territory will be paid ap- proximately s6OOO by the banks. for interest on monthly balances. This is good clean money. The territory is not only out of debt but has a nice lit
 tie balance drawing interest all the time. These conditions have been
 brought about by a gradual change
 during many years. for the time was. when Arizona's debts were rather bur densome. Even so recently as six years ago the territory was borrow
 ing money to pay the general fund warrants and paying from sSO00 to ! S1O.00O a year interest where now she
 is collecting the interest herself.
 1 of the s2,000.G00 county and munic- I ipal indebtedness funded by the terri
 tory. the same idea could be carried i out by going into sufficient details | The figures are not available in de- ! tail but any AriZOnian will agree that , the court houses, city halls. scllool houses. parks and all other public in
 stitutions in the towns and counties
 will far exceed in cash value the two
 million dollars of indebtedness to the
 territory and the floating debts of the
 respective counties and towns. It is
 not unlikely that the school houses of
 the territory alone would be suffic
 tent to pay the debt, though that is mere guess. without any careful es-
 timate. but there are a lot of school
 houses in Arizona. and a great many
 of them are fine brick or stone build ings.