Arizona republican., 1908-09-30
STATEHOOD DISCUSSED
 FROM DEMOCRATIC STAND
A Rally of Phoenix Democarts in Hon.
 or of Mark Smith.

Hon. Marcus A. Smith the demo- cratic candidate for delegate to con-
 gress had cause for qualification in the large and good looking audience which assembled at the city hall plaza last night to meet him on his first appear ance here in the course of the present campaign. He had further cause for qualification in the attention which
 was given him throughout his address | of more than half an hour.
 The meeting was preceded by the usual red fire and brass band and
 when the candidate and the other ora tors of the evening arrived on the ground they were given a mild, gentle i manly and ladylike ovation.
 The disturbance was started by Paul
 Kruger who confidentially told the audience some of the things which
 were likely to happen in the course of the evening. For instance, Judge A. c. Baker was to be the chairman of
 the meeting and closely following upon this intelligence Judge Baker assumed
 the robes of offoce.
 In the course of an address of some length, in which the judge declared that he was not one of the speakers and would confine himself exclusively to the business of keeping order. for which a chairman is always appointed. he managed to cover pretty fully all the ground to be traversed later by the
 other speakers, especially with refer ence to the statehood question upon which now for the first time he said the two parties in Arizona stand to-
 gether. In this the judge. uninten- tionally conveyed to the audience, the impression that the republicans of the territory had at some time or other been opposed to statehood.
 MT. Smith began his address with a
 rather heated allusion to those speak CTS and newspapers of the territory i who had assailed his personal char
 acter. Against such assaults. he placed
 his record among those who had
 known him for twenty eight years and
 had known him as a public official for
 twenty years.
 Naturally the greater part of the, ad
 dress related to the statehood question, the history of the statehood movement
 in the past and the prospect of the early success of it now.
 There was one slight inconsistency in his argument in favor of further democratic representation from this territory. The speaker ridiculed the theories of the republicans that a re- publican victory this fall would en- courage favorable action upon the statehood plank of the republican na- tional convention. It was preposter- ous. said MT. Smith to suppose that, however Arizona might go, the repub- licans in congress would know that there was a normal democratic ma jOrity in the territory; they knew that he said when the statehood plank was adopted Beside, ascribing to the re- publicans of congress a superhuman political honesty, he asked if any re- publican would so islander his party as to declare that the republican congress would disregard the plank because the territory might happen to go demo- cratic.
 In the next breath, MT. Smith warn ed his audience that this thing of talk ing political revenge on Arizona was a game that two could play at, and he intimated that he would not be sur prised, if the democratic minority in congress would defeat a statehood bill, if Arizona should go republican, in spite of the still less equivocal declara- tion of the Denver convention on the subject of statehood.
 The more important national issues were touched upon incidentally and the address was concluded with pleasing flight of eloquence in which the cleo ton of Bryan was confidently pre- dicted
 Judge Frank Cox followed Mir Smith and took another fall out of the per sonal detractors of the latter after which he discussed the statehood ques- ton in much the same vein as his predecessor, adding though, anathema upon those who should fail Mir. Smith now after his twenty years fight for admission.
 The speaking was concluded by Eu- gene Brady O'Neill who threw as much enthusiasm into his remarks as he could have done, if he, instead of MT. Smith had been nominated at the Prescott convention. MT O'Neill also branded in advance as traitors. all democrats who on the eve of admission should vote to retire Mir. Smith in or der that the credit for the triumph should go to another. Mir O'Nein as Mir, Smith had done, advanced the