Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-10-19
MALICE OR STUPIDITY

In a recent number of the Phoenix Republican we are informed editorially that this suave chronicler of current events confesses to some surprise in finding in an editorial of the Silver Belt this paragraph:
 of then. it is true that Arizona is so decided ly republican today that the national republican leaders are willing to place their confidence m that fact. and admit Arizona into the Union, IS it not high time for the territorial democracy to- bestir itself toward changing this conditionf'
 In justice to every one concerned we must hasten to announce that our own surprise would be great on finding such a statement in the edi- torial columns of the Silver Bent. But we may also add with all possible expedition that we are spared any confusion that might result from such a discovery by the fact that the paragraph as quoted by the complacently brigandlsh Re- publican writer never did occur in any Silver Belt editorial.
 The crux of this pleasant variation of opin- ion and incidentally gross altering of statement in favor of what the esteemed Republican scrib- bier might like to have it be is that puerile idiot running amuck somewhere within the re cesses of this journals editorial sanctum has apparently experienced some difficulty in find ing point he was capable of carrying in per fectly fair argument and so, after first weaving a premise to suit his own warped fancy, has builded upon that substantial foundation a framework of thought and logic that has the consistency of a mayOnnaise dressing and the same general outlines as a serpentne entourage.
 As the first prerequisite for an issue about which to make verbal warfare, the Republican scribe or Pharisee- whatever his species may be-in manner at the same time cute and lordly, has inserted into the paragraph which he made a pretense of quoting few words of his own devising. The parenthesis, which this wiel- der of the editorial pen so jovially inserted in the interests of his own attempted logic, reads, "And admit Arizona into the union. The tri- fling fact that this consideration of words never appeared in the Silver Belt editorial to which he refers apparently gave few qualms to the armorplate conscience of this journalistic guer- fila who performed the amateurish surgical work upon the Silver Belts printed contentious At any rate, this astounding disciple of some ed itorial ass guilelessly interjects this group of words into the space which he has bounded by quotation marks and generously allotted to the Silver Belt.
 Having performed this genuinely asinine ho GUS pocus he begins blithey caroling about how the Silver Belt is opposed to statehood for Ari zona, for, behold, is it not already damned by the words which he himself put into its mouth!
 What convincing logic What unassailablt reasoning! o tempora! o mores that such al intellectual debauchee should be allowed to in scribe such bemauded thoughts and yet not bt confined to the padded cell or at least to one oi the homes which society provides for the blame lessly imbecile.
 As matter of fact, after all credit is given tC the Republican for placing within quotation marks that which never appeared in the original it must still be affirmed that the Republican, il the writing which calls forts this editorial, wal guilty of kind of juggling and misplacing O. construction that has ever been the instrumen of people arguing without cause in the desir to deceive and to misinterpret for the further ance of their own selfish interests. This editor ial of the Republican is glaring example O how ''the devil may quote Scripture to his pur pose" If the Silver Belt, in this instance, ha, been writing on the subject of statehood, instead of merely pointing out the defects of the terri torial democratic organization, the Republican outburst might have some manner of leg t stand on but as it is, the leg is of the Republi cans own fashioning and is almost as wobb,