La Junta tribune., 1909-03-27

Certain officials and influentia, men
Of the Santa Fe road were interest
among whom were White. general
passenger agent; Frost. chief clerk
OF the land department: Cast. 1ttor-
ney, and others. Some OF these Of
ficials were In Denver aiding Rocky
Ford, and gave 1t out that the san
Ia Fee Company was in favor Of the
county seat being located at Rocky
Ford. Upon learning this. sent a
long wire TO A. A. Robinson. second
vice-president. followed by letter.
I The officials made themselves scarce
all OF a sudden. and the reply we
received was used with telling ef-
/ feet.
There was marked difference in
the methods employed by La Junta
and Rocky Ford. Rocky Ford enter
tanned her friends. was always In evi-
dence and took good care OF the re-
porters. La Junta made no noise.
kept her counsel and sawed wood"
Rocky Ford" 1t was announced In
heavy headlines in the daily press.
Twins hands down" Rocky Ford
has SO many votes for the county
seat" Rocky Ford is the coming
metropolis of the Arkansas Valley"
etc. and this last Is almost true.
! We always knew what Rocky Ford
was doing, and this Is always half
I the battle-to know what your foe
IA doing
| Gill Woodwork, formerly senator
from Bent county. was La Junta's
| political manager. He was assist
ed by ex-senator Freeman, Of Weld
county Freeman was of little value
but Woodwork was an experienced
legislator, was well acquainted with
the politicians and had stand In.
| The only defeat La Junta experience
ed In the fight was upon the report
of the committee on counties and
county lines. in the house. After
we found we were safe in the SEN
ate, urged Woodwork that we
should organize our forces in the
2
He simply said. Il never cross
bridge until get to it," l replied.
1--WE better build our bridge first. so
that when we come to the river we
! can cross" The report in favor Of
La Junta was voted down. by a small
majority. Rocky Ford was organiz7
ed In the house. Their leaders were
Ballinger, who has since been SEN
ator; Wooten, Harris and others
They came to the front at once.
with their heavy artillery. and bonn.
barded us heavy and hard. We had
no champion; no one prepared to de-
fend US. They overdid it. however.
Representative Libby. from 'Buena
the question-in fact. knew nothing
about it, was stung by the savage
ness OF this attack. arose. asked a
few questions, and made short.
moderate speech. when they jumped
upon him all spraddled out" Lib
by resented 1t and promised he would
look into the question. went to
him after adjournment and sho we'd
him our side Of the question. giving
the data we had. and showing him
the plats. maps and literature. 1t
took not more than fifteen minuteG
He said, you bring these figures
to me q couple Of hours before this
In to come up which I did. He
1 . 1vtD 81 nd
out Of their sails. and, by the assist
ance of others. reversed the pre-
vious action Of the house and Won
the victory for La Junta. On third
reading and final passage we had
no opposition. but two Mexicans yot-
Ing against us.
On returning ON the train from
Denver. after the Otero county bill
had become a law. we were accused
by some Of our Rocky Ford friends.
who were on the same train, Of buy
ing our way through the legislature.
l simply replied. THE only men who
voted against US all the way through
were two Mexicans. Valdez and
Vigil. and knew they were for sale
and their price. How did it come
that they voted for Rocky Ford."
| l omitted to mention one or two
Incidents. in their proper place. We
had the original agreement. signed
by Arbuckle. the democratic county
chairman: Swift. the democratic can
didate for representative, prominent
partfes from Lamar. and from q GER