Arizona republican., 1909-05-09
\ CITIZEN OF TEMPE
 0N CAUSES0F SOCIALISM
James C. Goodwin's Criticism of Cap
 italists in a Single Instance.

To the Editor of The Republican:
 Sir:-I sometimes think when l
 see the means and schemes used by | capitalists and corporations to fur
 ther their ends and to swell their i'm
 mense fortunes, l cannot blame the toiling classes for listening to and | believing in the teaching of social ism. A few nights ago a banquet
 was given in the Adams Hotel by what is known as the Center street l bridge business men. Most of these gentlemen were directly or indirectly
 interested in lands to be benefited by
 the building of this bridge. The rep
 resentative of the largest interests. | perhaps, was MT. A. C. Bartlett, of Chicago, said to be the largest stock holder in the Bartlett Heard Land
 and Cattle company. This gentleman is reported to have said, quoting from
 the Arizona Republican, 'I advise the people of Phoenix to build that bridge
 where it will be of the greatest ben eft to the greatest number, without
 referring to the corporation whose in | terests lie on the south side of Salt
 River" The corporation MT. Bartlett |
 x Cattle Co.
 This corporation owns a strip of
 land five miles long and two miles wide, practically all the land that
 can be brought under cultivation by
 the gravity flow of water. For Phoe-
 nix to get a direct benefit from these
 lands, they must be subdivided. Does
 he intend to subdivide them? I will |
 says: We are willing to pay our | full share and more than our share ! toward building the bridge, and we
 will pay it whether we decide later
 to subdivide or not l want to i'm press upon your minds that the
 building of the bridge will not decide whether we subdivide or not"
 think that Mir. Bartlett makes it plain | that their intention is not to sub divide their lands immediately.
 i The other day a representative of
 this corporation, as I am advised.
 asked the Water Users association to | give them five years time to sub divide their lands, as they said they did not think it was policy to divide 1 their lands at the present time, or until lands already offered for sale are disposed of We believe that it
 is not only to the interests of Phoe-
 nix, but to the interest of Tempe and | all Maricopa county to have this | bridge built at the foot of Center street if the corporations and other | gentlemen, holding land in private
 ownership, would subdivide their lands immediately, but why should the people of MaricOpa county vote a tax upon themselves, take money from their pockets that it has cost them sweat and blood to earn, to en- | nance the value of lands to be later | wrenched from the poor immigrant that we are trying to induce to make ] home among us. Few, if any, of these gentlemen live upon their lands | across the river from Phoenix. Few could be counted as horny handed sons of toil: few could earn one dol lar a day toiling as a rancher, and yet thousands of real farmers who
 might be induced 'to come among us
 to make home are deprived of the opportunity because the lands are held from the market until these same corporations and stockholders can wrench more money from the home seeker.
 In making these statements, I am not censuring the agents Of the stockholders of corporations or pri-
 vate individuals. With them as fl
 always is with capitalists, it is a
 business proposition. The scheme they
 are trying to press upon the public is
 q scheme as old as civilization itself
 Take the railroads of Arizona, for
 instance The Phoenix and Mari
 copa was given a bonus of over
 S200,000; the North and South road exempted from taxation for twenty years; the r. X F. came into Nrr little town of Tempe and solicited rights of way, depot sites, telling the people that when their road was built. there would be no competition. rates would be lowered and the whole country would prosper. What has been the result? A combination of railroad interests and the last legisla- ture created a railroad commission that will cost this territory some thing like S20,000 a year. and it is the duty of this commission to try to make the railroads be good.
 About the benefit Mir. Bartlett says they might receive, he says that it is a difficult matter for a man to draw the line between personal in terest and public welfare, and adds that he thought the Bartlett t-Heard company would make some money out of the sale of the land in case the bridge is built at Center street, but he had no definite idea how much. I will only say to the tax payers that if their land is worth $100 today, after the bridge is built in five years it will be worth s2OO or more. Six thousand acres will make something over S6O0,000, and yet they boast that they will give s2OOOO after he bridge is built A good business proposi- tioni
 There has been some criticism about the bridge committee being call ed the Heard bridge committee. I wish to call the attention of the tax payers to a letter published in ho q lot