Arizona republican., 1908-08-13

been none before the morning of the
 primaries. That was apathetic and easily yielded to the seductive in Ifluences of a baseball game. This lis the Prescott contest of which Ways has since been bowling. Mir Clark alone we believe was vigorous
 ly and loudly engaged in a contest
 for a restoration of prestige.
 Wags yelps of "Kibbey's Conven-
 tion," meaning thereby the coming
 territorial convention. We are sure
 that we know of no one else that
 wants it or feels any interest in it beyond the selection of the strongest candidate for delegate to congress
 from list of three or four excellent
 but more or less reluctant gentle
 men. Most republicans, too, have another interest in the convention
 While they do not care who runs it they trust that whoever runs it will run it with a purpose of not wreck
 ing republican prospects in the ter ritory or the counties next fall.
 The Republican is further attacked for having recently counselled a cam paign of common sense against Mark
 Smith; an effort to show that the election of a republican would in crease the already promising pros pect of statehood rather than by in- dulging in Bryanic howls against corporations which have not the slightest interest as corporations in the result of the territorial election; which cannot be in the slightest de- gree affected by it.
 The administration writer favors the prolonged corporation howl rather than an intelligent presentment of the situation to the voters He says that statehood is not an issue now; that everybody, democrats and republicans are in favor of it. In that sense it is not an issue and in that sense it never has been one between demo- crats and republicans, but the man ner of securing it has for years been an issue and is now a more important one than ever. For the first time, we believe, the election of a republi- can delegate would improve our chances In looking back over other however they may have seemed to us then, we do not now think that the result of a territorial election could have influenced the cause of statehood
 The administration writer charges The Republican with steady Opposi- tion to Governor Kibbey though now and then masking it's opposition by damning him with faint praise. The has often proclaimed the excellence of Governor Kibbey's ad- It has now and then differed from him though only twice in essential matters. It once ques- toned his policy of mine taxation and once his right to overthrow the will of the people by sending an in structed delegation to the national nvention-instructed for Taft, but not so iron bound by the instruc- tions as not to be made available for Roosevelt.
 There then followed a brief state ment by the administration writer of the accomplishments of the territor- al administration, of the growth of the value of property. for taxable purposes and the reader is inherent ally informed that in this latter work The Republican has opposed the governor especially with refer ence to mine taxation. It is shown hat the valuation of the mines has grown from $4,50O 900 in 1905 to S14, ,5OO,0OO in 1906 to s22,OOO,OOO in 1908. This latter figure has been made possible by the Doran act. The lies of The Republican will show hat this paper at all times enthusi- championed that bill and the same files will show in the reports of he legislative proceedings of 1907 hat the governor vigorously opposed md denounced it and threatened to yeto it.
 The administration writer's article s disconnected and deals with so arge a variety of subjects entirely separate that it is difficult to con- iider them in a single replication. We lave briefly given attention to what We regard as the more important, ut we are still in a state of con- ecture as to why it was launched at III unless it was intended as a ve- Iicle for prolonging the corporation ny. We have sometimes thought hat it was intended as a preventive f harmony, a precautiOn against a epubican victory which would in ure statehood and hence. the work | f an anti-statehood parsonage
 No man can be fool enough to | imagine that he can see a point at |